Looking Back on 2014

This is the time of year when most people, including me, look back on the year...and think about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Well, at least I do. I like to do a highlights post at the end of each year, and I will be doing that again-it's fun! But 2014 was a big year for me, and I decided to do two different posts about it. You know, in addition to the eighty-three other posts I wrote in 2014.

I learned to drive this year. It was a big thing for me for many reasons. I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone going to a high school every day for driver's ed, and learning in a different environment. It was a good experience to have to be somewhere every day. Driving itself isn't exactly a picnic either, but it gets a lot easier with practice. And to think, how many 17 year-olds can say they drive a huge 15 passenger van? Please don't bring up all the homeschoolers...let me have my moment.

Shortly after I started driver's ed, I lost two dear friends, Mrs. Genau and Mr. Schexnayder. It was hard, but not as hard as I expected. I know they are in heaven. I know they are not in pain. They are unbelievably happy, joyful, content, and peaceful. I am sad they are not around, but memories of them surround me. It makes me happy and puts a smile on my face whenever I think of them. Someday I shall see them again.

The best week of my life happened in 2014-Worldview!!!!!! I had a wonderful experience surviving thriving without my family, getting to know some awesome kids a lot like me (I'm not trying to imply that I'm awesome), and a whole lot of other great schtuff!

A little before Worldview, but mostly after, I started on a crazy reading binge that lasted pretty much until the end of the year. I probably read a hundred books in 2014-mostly juvenile fiction. I must admit, I read a few of them twice... It was great, because I think I starved myself a bit the last few years.

I started a no-carbohydrate diet in late July. It's definitely been a growing experience. It takes a lot of self-control, and trying not to feel like a martyr or high and mighty. It is not fun, but anything that causes you to lose 30+ pounds can't be all bad...especially when you can still have bacon. Everything's better with bacon.

I self-published four patterns in 2014, three of which were in collaboration with indie dyers. Woot! Woot! It is a slow process, but at least I feel like I'm going somewhere. Four is twice as many as my previous record. I'm hoping for a lot more in 2015, but maybe 13 is a bit too much...

Merry, Merry, Merry...

...Merry Christmas to All!!!!!!

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Luke 2:8-14 (ESV)

A Present from the Past

I was looking through some old e-mails the other day. (I guess I had nothing better to do.) I found one from May 7, 2011 that was a survey of sorts, and had fun reading through my answers to the questions. Some of them were the same as I would answer now but some were different. So I thought it would be fun to go through and "take" the survey again. There were more than fifty questions on the original quiz so I picked some of the more interesting or fun questions to include here. And I still ended up with this many-hopefully you enjoy most of it. :)

May 7, 2011 / December 19, 2014

What time did you get up this morning?
9:00 / 11:00...I know it's embarrassing...

What is the last movie you saw at the cinema?

Voyage of the Dawn Treader / Guardians of the Galaxy!

What is your favorite TV show?
19 Kids and Counting / Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Downton Abbey :)

What food do you dislike?
mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower / that, and green beans

What kind of car do you drive?
I don't drive, but I ride in a ford dark blue 15 passenger van / Now I drive it!

Favorite item of clothing?
new dark blue-blackish Arizona jeans / denim leggings-skinny jeans

If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
paris / Paris

Favorite sport to watch?
Baseball / Same, unless it's Olympic Figure Skating :)

What is your favorite candy?
reese's peanut butter cups / Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
may 11 when finals are over / Christmas Eve (!) and the days following.

What are you listening to now?
my little brother talking, no music on now / WBGL; We are the Reason by Avalon

Do you wish on stars?
no way jose / No, but they're pretty to look at!

If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
an elegant purple / A vibrant turquoise!

The first person you spoke to on the phone today?
nobody, I hate talking on the phone / Haven't talked to anyone yet, but I don't hate it anymore.

Fav soft drink?
lemon-lime, root beer gives me stomachaches :( / Dr. Pepper. duh And root beer doesn't give me stomachaches, that's just drinking too much pop at once. :)

What is under your bed? 

waaaaaay tooo much junk / Some things never change...

What did you do last night?
went shopping with my family for shower presents / Caroled to neighbors and watched Alias with Mom and others

How many years at your current job?
I don't have a job, I'm 13 going on 14 / As a (self-employed) knitting designer, almost 3. :)

Favorite day of the week?
sunday or wednesday / Tuesday, if S.H.I.E.L.D. is on.

Do you make friends easily?
I'd say yes / Tolerably so.

Made My Day

Mom didn't want Joseph around while she and the kids were making cookies. Of course, he said that he wouldn't touch the hot pan, but he's three. He could be wrong.

So he was in the living room with me while I was doing geometry. I decided to distract him.

"Hey, Joseph! Wanna see something?" I asked, pulling out his unfinished sweater, "It's your sweater."

He looks at it, and says, "Can I try it on?"

My heart just melted. My little three-year old brother actually asked to try on something I made for him. I didn't have to mention it. I was thinking he would probably just shrug it off. This time, I was wrong. And I was very glad to be wrong.

It was easy to get on, and looked really nice. I did have trouble getting it off with the needles still attached to the collar/hood-in-progress. Poor kid may have gotten poked. Not bad, of course, but still not fun. He probably won't want to try it on again until the needles are gone...

Five Good Things About My Life...

...since my last post was sort of a downer. I didn't start out with five things, but I thought it would be a good exercise to think of that many. Oh, and I didn't realize how late it was until I had already started writing. Oh well. It's no secret that I'm a night owl, and stay up late a lot, often talking with...Josiah, mostly. And Katherine.

Here they are:

1. I did a whole chapter-a week's worth-of math yesterday (as in Monday). I only have two chapters left, and ohmygosh, I'll be finished with Geometry!!!! (...it is beside the point that I did not do any today...)
2. I got yarn in the mail yesterday (!!!!!!) from the lovely Elena of Colour Adventures for a designing project. The yarn is gorgeous, but since most of you aren't knitters, I won't go into details. :)
3. Here's where it gets to the points I hadn't thought of yet...Anna did laundry for me today!
4. I was just looking back at my earlier blog posts, specifically New Year's Resolutions. I accomplished most of my knitting and non-knitting goals for this year. Even though I had to lose thirty pounds instead of ten to get back to where I was in March 2013. (Thank you awful, painful, cruel, unfair diet! I couldn't be here without you.) I sort of broke the no-buying-yarn one. There was one skein, a couple weeks ago. I didn't buy it, but I did pick it out. Since I lasted all the way until November, I'm going to count it as a fulfilled resolution. I mean, it was only five dollars. 
5. I went back to knitting Joseph's sweater after a silence of three weeks. Let's just say that joining sleeves to a body is not fun, but I have triumphed past that point. Knitting always makes me feel better, unless I hate the project. Or I'm depressed and won't let myself enjoy anything.

Kind of Funny

I'm pretty sure God has a sense of humor. For one thing, where do you think we got it from? And I have plenty of examples in my own life. Like the time I tripped and fell on my face while singing "I Have Confidence!"...

In a way, the last few weeks have been kind of funny.

My diet was going pretty well. I wrote a whole post about being an independent individual. I mentioned that the Gift-A-Long was good for my knitting mojo. I told a friend that I liked Geometry better than Algebra.

And then it all comes crashing down around me.

Being on a no-carb diet during Thanksgiving and Christmas is no-fun. I sometimes feel like an independent individual, but when I don't, I just want to curl up under my covers and pretend that the world outside doesn't exist. I haven't knit in a few weeks. And I am really behind on Geometry. I wanted to finish it before Christmas, but I still have three weeks of lessons left. It is possible, I guess, and today I finally finished the chapter I started in the last week of November. Good news is, I finished the Odyssey, which means I am finished with all the history I need to graduate. WOO-HOO!!!!

So it was kind of funny. But I think the real reason it all went downhill was because I was all concerned about me. "I'm so great and self-controlled about my diet! I can do things myself! I can accomplish all my goals!" I needed to be reminded that it isn't about me, and that I can't do it on my own. Honestly, I don't want to do it all by myself.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

I'm an Independent Individual

(See, the alliteration there? I'm also a terrifically talented thinker.)

There was a time when I would not tell the waitress that my chicken was burnt or ask the cashier to please add the whipped cream that I requested. And I would make one of my siblings go up to the front to get a spoon for my custard.

But now I am an independent individual.

Josiah, Katherine, Anna and I went to a Thanksgiving service at a local church. Grandma B directed a bell choir that played. (Interesting story happened there that should be asked of one of us in person, if you care to ask about it.) Afterwards, we went to McDonald's to get an iced coffee for me. I drink a lot of iced coffee since other guilty pleasures are banned from my diet. So Josiah pulled up to the drive-thru and asked for a dollar iced coffee with no sugar.

I payed my $1.80. (They apparently don't have iced coffee for a dollar anymore, but you don't want to get me started on that. I do realize it's late at night, and this post will probably be funnier because of it-even though 'funnier' isn't a word.) When we got to the last window, they handed Josiah the coffee, and he handed it to me. I opened the straw quickly so I could check to make sure the drink wasn't sweet. Up to this point, it never had been, but there's always the first time.

That first time was tonight.

We're pulling out onto the road, and I say, "It's sweet! I payed $1.80 for this and I can't even drink it!"

"I'll turn back if you say so," says Josiah.

"OK, turn back."

"I'll turn back and you can go into the building yourself and tell them."

"Let's do it."

You should have heard the great cries that erupted from the back. Katherine and Anna couldn't believe that I just agreed to march into a scary building full of scary people to fix a little, bitty coffee by my own lonesome self.

Alone.

Josiah drives around the block, and I barely get out of the car without spilling the coffee. I walk into the building like I'm on a mission, because I am. A guy holds the door open for me, and when I say, "Thank you," he replies, "No problem."

I walk across the restaurant to the front, and state my problem to the cashier. (I think she was a woman, but I'm not really sure. Of course, that's irrelevant.) I get my coffee, and triumphantly return to the van.

"A guy held the door open for you!" Katherine says.

"Oh, you noticed that?"

"Did you say 'thank you'?"

"Duh..." I answer, "and he said, [mustering my 'guy' voice] 'No problem.' "

I'm pretty sure they all replied with some variation of, "Ohhhh..." or "Wowww!"



Because that's what siblings do...whether they're independent individuals or not.

A Matter of Interest

As part of the Gift-A-Long that I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was interviewed by a fellow designer on her blog. I thought my readers might find it interesting even if they're not interested in knitting. You know, because you're interested in me-I think. :)

As for being content with my sales, I only sold one pattern during the sale portion, which made me sad. Mostly because I have four more patterns this year, and I sold more patterns last year. But I am content with it; at one point, I thought I wasn't going to sell any, and I was content with that.

It has been very good for my knitting mojo though. I've finished all my Christmas presents (not really that many for this year), and I've made very good progress on a sweater for Joseph. I've been planning on knitting it for two years. He seems fairly excited about it and I'm having fun knitting it. It's quite relaxing, and most of my knitting this year wasn't. So that's good.

Pictures of Joseph's Birthday Cake

It says Joseph, in case you can't tell.

I just adore Julia's face in this picture. Her face is shining as bright as the candles!

For the Little Boy Who Loves Orange

Happy 3rd Birthday Joseph!!!

Guess What...

...it's somebody's birthday.

Happy Birthday Stephen!!!

Now you're legal. ;)

The Itch

Everyone once in a while (maybe not as often as I would like), I get the itch to blog more than a few sentences. You know, like this, though I'm pretty sure I am not going to have that much to say today.

November is here, and with November comes lovely cold weather (in my mind; I'm a knitter), and the advance of my favorite time of the year, Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Fall is my favorite season, but the holidays are my favorite time. Some people wouldn't make such a distinction; I don't care, it's hard enough for me to pick favorites anyway. (I suppose that's probably a good thing...)

I've spent the past few days (OK, more like yesterday and today) knitting Christmas presents and listening to Christmas music (and you aren't going to stop me-HA!). And school of course, though mostly Geometry. I can't seem to be able to tell the difference between an ASA postulate and an AAS postulate...

Tonight Mom, Katherine, and I are going to Bible Study. I'm pretty excited about it; we have a pretty small group, and I think it's going to be nice and cozy.

Tonight is also the start of the Indie Design Gift-A-Long (at 7pm). I participated in it last year as well, but I see I failed to mention it on this blog. It's an event put on by 293 knitting and/or crocheting designers (including me!), where we have a big sale on a selection of our patterns for about a week. And from then on until the end of the year, tons of crafters get together and work on their Christmas presents, with the chance of winning some cool prizes. I'm participating as a designer and a knitter so I'm hoping to win a prize (or two would be great! :) Of course, what I really want is to sell a lot of patterns and have people knit them, but I've been praying that I will be content with whatever happens-that goes for the prizes too!

Birthday Greetings

Happy (Very) Belated Birthday to Anna!!!

I had a bad headache on her birthday; that's my excuse.

And today is one of our cousin's birthdays.

Happy Birthday Justice!!!

Aqua Mitts and Youth Group

I love the way my hair is blowing in this picture!

"How would it look to have the mitt in my pocket?" I think this is my unsure, but hopeful face. :)

I'm not exactly sure what I'm laughing about. Katherine probably knows, she took the pictures. I have this feeling that I don't want the general public to know...

Earrings: Claire's
Necklace: Local Boutique 
Shirt: Unionbay (thrifted)
Jacket: It's Katherine's; I don't know what brand it is :)
Mitts: Knit and designed by me!
Jeans: Liz Claiborne (hand-me-down)
Shoes: Predictions (thrifted; these were shoes I bought for Schoolhouse Rock!)

This was the photo shoot for my newest pattern. Katherine took quite a few pictures that were good of me (or just plain fun), but not so good of the mitts. So I didn't want to use them for the pattern, but I thought it would be fun to post them on my blog.

We took these pictures before youth group, and this was the outfit I wore there, minus the jacket and the mitts (I didn't want to get them-the mitts-dirty). You wouldn't want to see those jeans now; they're covered in dried mud; had burrs on them at one point too. That's from playing Sardines and hiding under pine trees, lying on the ground by pine trees, behind a wheelbarrow that might have been near poison ivy and definitely was near burrs, and in a window-well. Yeah, that was fun to get out of...only took three people besides myself...

All in all, we had an awesome time at youth group:

• Eating hot dogs and mustard (at least, that's what I ate)
• Reading the Bible around a campfire
• Playing Capture the Flag (I managed to run around the outskirts of the opposite team's land without getting caught, but my team lost :( )
• Playing Mafia
• Playing Sardines
• We played one game of hide-and-seek too. Well, the leaders and their siblings did. This was after all the other kids left. 
• Then we played "Fortunately, Unfortunately", which I started out by saying, "I went to get groceries, but unfortunately, I forgot my purse." So when it got to Ethan's turn, he says, "Fortunately, I had my car so I could drive back and get my purse." Which sent us all laughing...

That Joseph...

...is so cute...

Earlier tonight, I spent some time talking with Joseph while he was on my lap.


First, I felt something in his sleeper (it turned out to be the end of his zipper), and I said, "What's stuck in your sleeper? Should we find out?"

"It's my leg."


After he had been sitting on my lap for five or ten minutes, he touches my pumpkin-colored cardigan and says in a thoughtful tone, "Rebekah, I like orange sweaters."

Mulan (And A Whole Lot More)

Stephen, Josiah, Katherine, and I went to see Spotlight's Mulan Jr. last night. The show was really good, and I enjoyed watching it, but I was ten times more excited to see all my friends. About half the kids in the show were in Schoolhouse Rock with Josiah and I. It was soo good to see them all. And they all did great. Some had funny roles, some had touching ones, but all did their parts well! And we got to hang out with a few of them for a while at Buona Beef afterwards.

We've had a fairly busy week, and it's not over yet. Tuesday is one of my favorite days of the week (maybe the favorite), because that's when one of my favorite TV shows airs. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or as we usually call it, S.H.I.E.L.D. It's in its second season now, and we've been fans since the beginning. I wasn't sure how I'd like this season after watching the season premiere, but now that we're a few weeks in, it's getting good. I love it just as much as before, maybe more.

Wednesday was Family Night, and we (finally) got to watch Million Dollar Arm. We've been waiting for it to come out in Redbox for a while. It was a good movie, I would love to see it again. (It's about baseball, if you're wondering.)

Last night, we went to Mulan, of course. Tonight is the first meeting of our church's new youth group. It's high school and junior high kids. Josiah is helping lead it, so five of us are going tonight. (Yeah, Anna's in junior high; she's going to be twelve in a few weeks. One more year and she's a teenager. I'll have two younger sisters who are teenagers (Ahhh!), and Mom and Dad will have three teenage daughters. That's kind of scary. Or is having three teenage boys scarier? Of course, right now they only have two.) Well, that was a long parenthetical statement paragraph. Back to the original topic, I'm pretty excited about tonight!

Tomorrow we're not doing anything because we're singing in a tea (and getting paid!) on Sunday, and Mom is going to make us practice a-l-l  d-a-y  l-o-n-g. Just kidding...maybe. At least we're singing songs we like, such as, For the First Time in Forever, Do You Hear the People Sing (from Les Mis), Elbow Room (Schoolhouse Rock), and Katherine and I are singing Danny Boy. Oh, and Edelweiss and Love is An Open Door. It'll be fun. (At least, that's what I'm telling myself. I'm seriously kidding this time.)

I've been keeping (rather) busy doing Geometry (only 9 more units and I'm done with math!!!), reading the Odyssey (not very regularly; don't tell my teacher-oh wait, she'll read this and so will the principal. Ack!), learning the basics of physics in Physical Science, and knitting and designing and wasting time on the internet in between. Oh, and I read The Help this week too. Along with a bunch of juvenile mysteries and such.

Well, I didn't intend to write such a long post, but I've been a little delinquent in my blogging "duties" lately, so there you go.

Apple Butter Day

Apple Butter Day was over the weekend, and I had a great time, even though I couldn't have any apple butter. I have some waiting until I can eat it. :)

This year, my friend Seairra from Worldview was able to come, and I was soo glad to see and talk to her! We had some of our other friends there as well, who stayed overnight in their motor home and went to our grandparents' church with us the next morning. That was a lot of fun!

Riding the 'train'. Here I am driving it, with a riding lawn mower.

...and Katherine driving it.

Adding a picture of me seems a little arrogant and vain, but it was one of the pictures I took and it's not too terrible of me anyway.

Some gratuitous pictures of the scenery. 

It was a beautiful, beautiful day.

I had to get a picture of Seairra stirring the apple butter.

...or two...

Cousin Bill riding in the 'train' he built.

Hello October!!!!!!

I love fall! Too bad I can't enjoy any of its marvelous morsels (yet). Hopefully only 2.5 more weeks and I can have watermelon (hmm, might be too late for that), ice cream, donuts, sandwiches (with bread), crunchy chips, yummy breakfasts... I know it's not just my imagination that everyone is making better breakfasts now that I can't have carbs. It's because the younger people are making them. They're not burnt out on cooking hard, delicious things yet. I get to smell cinnamon rolls, pancakes, crepes, pear crumble, etc. every week.

I thought I'd post some pictures from Sharyssa's, Katherine's, and my photo shoot from Saturday. I don't have many good ones, but the fuzzy ones almost fit in a way.

This was a groovy photo shoot.

Spotlight's on...

"Oh, HI!"

I'm trying to conceal my identity in this picture. (My face is so blurry)

I thought I'd add a picture of a new design I'm working on:

It's reversible. Cool, huh?

Under the Wire

I thought I'd get one more post in before September ends and October begins. Can you believe we only have three months left of 2014? Yikes! Every year flies by faster than the one before.

I had one thing (besides school :) that I wanted to get done in September; to release my shawl pattern Caerulea, and it has been accomplished! I haven't sold any yet, but I am super glad to have it published-I've been working on it (on and off) since July. (Plus, I had to knit the whole thing twice to get it right). Besides, it has good company in the no-sales category, no one's bought my Strawberry Patch Handwarmers either. Of course, if I look on the bright side, every other one of my patterns has sold at least twice (on average 6 times)!

I had a busy weekend.

Friday, we went to the Log Home Festival, and Nick and Lydia came. I didn't get to bed until a little before one. The next day, the girls were at a baby shower for Aunt Ramona. When that was done, Katherine and I spent the night at Sharyssa's house. We signed on Sunday, and after all that, I was really tired. So I didn't go to the Corn Fest parade. Instead, Grandma B and I got free coffee at McDonald's and watched The Help together. That was fun!

Outfit of the Day

I thought it would be fun to do another one of these. This was an outfit I actually planned out beforehand (down to the hairstyle!), though originally, I was going to wear my seafoam skinny jeans instead of the skirt.
But I don't think it would've worked with the scarf.

It wasn't much of a photo shoot because it was raining, but here are a few pictures:

Top: Eddie Bauer (Thrifted, more or less)
Scarf: Gift (from Sharyssa)
Skirt: Land's End
Sandals: St. John's Bay
Earrings: Minicci (Payless)