I’m trying not to complain about this, but seriously.  I’ve been getting up early to read my Bible and pray and stuff (1 - 1.5 hours earlier than before) for about four weeks now.  Since the beginning of September.  I’m getting about 8 hours of sleep at night, enough, but not the 9 to 10 hours I was getting before.  I don’t know why, but I am exhausted, all the time. 

I was hoping that if I got up early to meet with God, that he’d help a sister out by not letting her feel quite so wiped out.  I suppose that I’m disappointed that I’m so tired all the time.  I went from feeling fabulous in early September to feeling like absolute poop this past week.  Ugh.

So that’s the other reason why you haven’t heard from me.  I’d like to tell you all something, but I would also like it to be something other than “I’m tired”.  Bear with me, I hope to be a little more verbose in the next few weeks.

I have been quiet on this here blog lately because I have been thinking some fairly deep (if that’s not bragging) and personal things that I don’t necessarily think that everyone needs to hear.  Mostly religious stuff, and I am not sure that I’m ready (willing?) to share all of my internal struggles with the Internet At Large.  But so as to give you a glance at where I have been, here is something I wrote down this morning while reading Reaching For The Invisible God by Philip Yancey (he was talking about Mother Theresa and the nuns in Calcutta, and their devotion to God):

I should try to dedicate each day, each task, to God.  Maybe I would get something done each day!  I fell swallowed alternately by busy-ness and boredom, leaving very little energy or desire to meet with God.  The only time I’m able to dedicate some time to Bible reading and praying is when I get up before Kitten.  I have no drive to do that, any other time of the day.

Also, here is a quick quote from Mark Buchanan, the author of Your God is Too Safe:

Sometimes doubting is not a lack of faith, but an expression of it. Sometimes to doubt is to merely insist that God be taken seriously not frivolously, to insist that our faith is placed in and upheld by something other than seeming conjuring tricks.

It’s tour time again, and instead of touring a specific book, the group of us who participate in the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog tour are looking at a new speculative Christian publishing company.  I’ve read a fair number of times that it can be rather hard to get speculative Christian literature (speculative Christian literature:  Fantasy, science fiction, time travel, thrillers, alternate realities… any of these “types” of books that come from a Christian world view) through a publishing house and into the hands of fans.  So, Marcher Lord Press grew out of that frustration, and a dream that these genre books would become available to the readers who wanted them.  Their desire is to tell stories told from a Christian worldview, but without falling into the “mom-lit” category (ie. prairie romance, female led mysteries, or general Christian chic-lit) that seems so prevelent when we think of “Christian literature” (at least that’s what I think of!). 

Marcher Lord Press officially opens it’s doors (er… cart?) on October 1, 2008.  They will be releasing three books, Hero, Second Class by Mitchell Bonds, The Personifid Invasion by R. E. Bartlett, and Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy by Theodore Beale.  If you make a purchase on October 1st, in addition to getting a great book, you’ll also be rewarded with free books!  If you purchase one book, you’ll get a single book for free.  If you order two books, you get a beautiful coffee table E-book for free (which Hanna is in!  Yay!).  Also, they’re having a prize giveaway, so be sure to register for that as well!

Be sure to visit Marcher Lord Press to see if any of their soon-to-be-released books interest you.  The three are all fairly different in storylines, so I am sure that you will find one to suit your speculative Christian tastes!  You can also visit Jeff Gerke at Where The Map Ends, a website resource for speculative Christian authors and fans alike.  Also be sure to visit the rest of the tour participants, to see what else others are saying on the tour! 

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Courtney
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Mirtika or Mir’s Here
Greg Slade
James Somers
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise
Jason Waguespac

I updated my layout, although I’m having problems with the footer.  Originally, I couldn’t even figure out how to change the words in my footer - it was all mumbo-jumbo.  Now, I’m able to get the words changed, but the actual image that’s supposed to show up (which is just pink, by the way) doesn’t.  Frustration!  If any of my super CSS savvy friends want to have a look at it, please let me know.  In my basic understanding of CSS, I think I have it all coded correctly… but apparently not, if it doesn’t work.

In other news, things have been quiet around her.  I’ve been doing a lot of sitting on my bum, getting vegetables ready to go into the freezer, and reading.  Kitten has been mostly healthy, but last night her nose started to run again.

Speaking of Kitten, she goes for her 1 year immunizations later today.  Yes, she is 14 months old (nearly), but I didn’t call enough in advance to get her shots done closer to her birthday.  She was actually supposed to go last week, but she was quite a bit more ill, so we put it off.  I’m hoping that she doesn’t have any adverse reactions to the shots, but we’ll see how it goes.  She’s going to be tired, as the shots are during her nap time.  Bummer.

I pulled out the old Wii Fit yesterday, just to see how much I weighed.  It looks like I’ve lost 8 pounds since early June!  I’m quite surprised.  I know that I’ve been slowly and steadily lowering my weight, but I didn’t think it was quite that much!  I was pleased at the results.  I was so happy that I even tried to take a picture, but we have a CRT tv, and those tend to not photograph well.  Anyway, according to Wii Fit, I am now “normal” and no longer “overweight”.  Yay!  It thinks that I should still lose another 15 pounds to be at a BMI of 22, but the machine has clearly not looked very closely at my body.  I’m not sure I can lose 15 pounds without starving myself silly! 

I’m sorry that this is all I have for you right now.  Later today, I will be sure to stop by with a CSFF Blog Tour post, so keep your eyes peeled!

I’ve had a lot of sewing projects on the go lately, and most of them were unfinished.  Today, I went fabric shopping for my latest quilt, and decided that I couldn’t start on it until I got a couple of my projects completed.  This proved to be excellent incentive (nothing more fun than starting a new quilt!), and I knocked two projects off my list. 

Behold!  I finished my friend’s gDiaper inserts.  They’re made of 5 layers of microfiber, inside a flannel bag type thing.  I topstitched all the packets 2″ from the end to help prevent the microfiber from moving around.  I wasn’t terribly particular with the top stitching, but I might be next time.  These measure 10″ x 4″ (give or take) to fit inside the small gDiaper liners.  I considered topping these with fleece, but fleece tends to build up with soap/detergent residue if the person washing them isn’t particular.  Flannel is a lot more forgiving, so my friend chose that.  I hope that she likes them!

Did I tell you about how I was going to make a dress out of a man’s dress shirt? Well, it’s done. Finally.  This was certainly the most difficult project I’ve taken on in some time.  I followed the tutorial here for the shirt, and modified a soaker pattern for the diaper cover.  I even did a knife pleated ruffle in between the straps to make sure that we would have the maximum chest coverage.  The shirt started out as a medium shirt, and I’m hoping that the dress will fit Kitten next summer, when I figure she’ll be wearing a 3T.  I’m not sure if the diaper cover will fit or not, it was really hard to guess the size on it.  I used the zig-zag on all the seams that didn’t get fully turned inside, to help prevent fraying.  This is the easiest way to finish a seam, just remember to let the needle go over the edge of the fabric on one side!

Side note: It looks like there is a problem with the strap in the picture above. It’s just that the flap that isn’t sewn down is caught on the top of the dress. It is actually perfect.

So, left in my “to be done” pile are a few projects.  I would like to finish all the hankies I have cut out so we have more “nose cloth” around the house.  There are a few other alternative to paper products that I would like to make.  But I am happy with finishing these two projects.  Piece by piece, I’ll finish the other stuff, but I’m not sweating it at this point! 

Tonight, I’ll start cutting the fat quarters for my next quilt.  I really love the fabrics I got, and wish that this was one that I got to keep.