Three On Thursday, The Birthday Edition

September 3, 2020 By Carole

My girlie is 28 years old today. Even as I’m typing that I’m finding it hard to believe. Honestly, a few weeks ago I thought she was turning 27 and then Jess pointed out that nope, she was already 27. I lost a year somewhere, friends.

Indulge me, please, as I share 3 photos I took in the last couple of weeks of her 27th year.

On vacation, floating in Jackie’s tube. We were all pretty envious that she could get into that thing, I’ll tell you. What I want you to know about this photo: she’s fun and active and still a kid at heart. She’s also a terrific auntie and Jackie adores her.

Wedding dress shopping last Thursday. Due to COVID there were restrictions on how many people she could bring with her so it was just Hannah, Doreen (her godmother) and I. What I want you to know about this photo: she’s beautiful and in love and oh-so-grown-up. She is very ready for this next step in her life.

The end result of wedding dress shopping . . . she found a dress. Well. Sort of. Her dress will actually be a custom design that will combine the neckline of one dress with the skirt and fabric of another. 4,000 dresses and she narrowed it down to two . . . I guess that’s not bad. What I want you to know about this photo: she is beyond excited about her wedding and she quite literally glows with happiness.

Happy Birthday, Hannah. I’m amazed and astounded at the young woman you have become. You make me proud and happy every day and I love the time we spend together.

If you wrote a post for today please include your link below and thanks for playing along!

Looking Back: August 2020

September 2, 2020 By Carole

I feel rather proud of myself for pulling this look back at August together on September 2nd. You’ve got to take the wins where you can find them, friends.

Here are the daily photos from last month:

And the video:

And my thoughts on the month:

What did I learn?
To focus on the good every single day. There’s so much heaviness in our world and, while I can’t ignore it and I recognize that I have a responsibility to alleviate it where I can, I’m working actively to not let it drag me down. I’ve been keeping a gratitude journal of 5 things every day for over a year and it helps a lot with this, as does my daily meditation practice, I’ve meditated every single day for over a year, too. I reached both of those milestones in August.

What was my greatest accomplishment?
It’s a tie between two things: picking our first home grown tomato of the season and getting a cover all on my bingo card!

Where did I go?
Cape Cod – twice! We had a weekend at Doreen and Mark’s and also our annual family vacation. It was so good to be at the beach and relax with those I hold dear. I went out to eat twice, too. Once outside with Kim and Ken on vacation and once inside (which is still sort of weird) with Doreen and Hannah. And I got a hair cut – finally!

Who did I spend time with? And what did we do?
As always lately, Dale and my family. We went to the beach pretty much every day of vacation. It’s small and we can walk and we make every attempt to grab this little spit of the beach where it’s only us – social distancing at it’s best! There was also a major shopping event. Did you notice?

What brought me joy?
Jackie. Zinnias. The beach. Butterflies. Good food and drink.

What do I want to remember?
That the simple things in life are so often the best. Watching Jackie sing and dance, seeing my family play together in the ocean, sharing laughs over games, bearing witness to Dale’s continued healing.

September has a tough act to follow.

One Little Word: August 2020 Update

September 1, 2020 By Carole

I was away last week and missed the opportunity to talk about my One Little Word on the last Tuesday of the month. I’m doing it today because 1) my blog, my rules and 2) I really didn’t want to skip a month of recapping my journey with Open.

Up until now this word has challenged me in some pretty major ways. Grief. Pandemic. Trauma. I was getting to the point where I felt like being Open meant pain.

Now, though, I think I have perhaps turned the corner with this word. I don’t want to jinx myself but I think that Open is finally starting to work for me in a way that feels exciting and full of opportunity. It’s kind of amazing, frankly. I don’t cringe when I consider the word now. I don’t roll my eyes and wonder what awfulness is coming my way by being Open.

This change in my attitude towards Open was brought about by a very simple thing: the latest field guide from Modern Daily Knitting. It’s called Open and I laughed right out loud when I read the announcement. It’s rather perfect, honestly, that a word that has been so challenging for me could be completely reversed by considering it in terms of knitting lace.

Yesterday, when I sat down to write this post, I looked back on my monthly posts about Open, just as I do every month. And I was struck by a sentence I wrote way back in January.

I . . . feel strongly that being open means watching and waiting for things to come to me in their own time.

So that’s my plan for the next few months with this word. I’m watching and waiting. And trusting that the things that are going to come to me are to teach me lessons. To help me grow. To show me new ways of living and loving.

And I’ll be knitting some lace, too.

It’s Monday. And I’m Ready.

August 31, 2020 By Carole

I had a great two weeks off from responsibility. I eschewed work. Routines. Habits. Even blogging! Now, though, it’s time (as Kym would say) to start my engines and embrace the good things about daily life around here.

First, though, how about a quick look back at our time on Cape Cod.

It was pretty great! And fast, although not as fast as that video makes it seem.

So. Monday. Time for re-entry. Let’s do this!

Read With Us: Wild Game Wrap Up

August 18, 2020 By Carole

I’ve been given the responsibility for wrapping up the time we spend reading and discussing Wild Game. It’s my first time handling this portion of our online book club and I’m technically on vacation so . . . be kind. Ha!

We each offered up questions on our blog last Tuesday and the discussions were interesting. Bonny talked about whether we are all destined to become our parents. Kym’s discussion question centered around the use of Mary Oliver’s poem The Uses of Sorrow. And here on Carole Knits we talked about how the book impacted you as a reader. I followed all the discussions and I think it’s safe to say that those 3 topics covered most everything y’all wanted to talk about regarding this book.

I was a little surprised that the book wasn’t more universally liked . . . quite a few of you didn’t enjoy it or couldn’t relate to it because the author’s relationship with her mother was so dysfunctional. For me, that’s the great thing about reading a memoir. You either relate (as I did and some of you also did) or you don’t. But I would argue that not relating to someone’s experiences doesn’t make it less valuable. I would say that reading about a life that’s vastly different than yours can help you find compassion and empathy for those that are different. And isn’t that one of the main reasons for reading? To understand the world around us? It is for me and I’m guessing it is for many of you, too.

And now for the part you’ve all been waiting for . . . our prize winner! It’s Vicki! Congratulations Vicki and thanks for joining in on the discussion on all 3 of our blogs. We just need your address and then we will get that prize right in the mail to you.

Thanks again to everyone who Read With Us. We will be announcing our fall book very soon!