I hope you had a nice Christmas.  We had (and still have) no oven, but some friends lent us a counter-top oven, which I used for the turkey (crown) and I also used the crockpots.  It all worked out.    I'm even more pleased that we managed to have devotions on Christmas morning, Bible reading (with a flannelgraph set of the Nativity, sent by my mom), prayer, and even singing a couple of carols.   Last year our devotions were cut short by the breakage of a radiator and the subsequent panic of getting the water caught and soaked up from the carpet!   On Christmas evening David read the final installment of Jotham's Journey, the book we had been reading all Advent. 

May 2007 bring many blessings to all of us.  I'm hoping and praying that David's eye issue will be resolved.  He had an ultrasound on his neck done today, which showed normal blood flow.  He goes back to the eye hospital later this month. 

We're still on vacation from home education.    My plan is to start back up on Monday.  We will have an interruption on Wednesday as I take the older ones to the orthodontist and David takes Stephen to the plastic surgery clinic in Stoke Mandeville for a follow-up appt (he had burns from hot water back in September).  I think it all looks pretty good now.  The appt. is just for the consultant to see that everything has healed OK.

I may duck into the yarn shop in Oxford after the orthodontist visit on Wednesday.  David bought me a book from there last time he took the children for their appt. but I have not yet visited the shop. 

We got our 11 year old son the chameleon he wanted.  We all like Yoshi who is a Yemen or Veiled chameleon.  I'll try to get some photos up another time.  I hope we can do a good job taking care of this creature - they have a lot of needs.

I've got a number of finished projects I might show pictures of, and I've got a number of things I'm working on.  I've got two hats for charity going, and I've started my first pair of socks!  Of course I have a number of UFOs about (unfinished objects) -  I did work on one of them this afternoon, which feels good.

I've recently started listening to podcasts.  My favorite knitting one so far is Sticks and String - you can find it on David Reidy's website, www.sticksandstring.com.au . 

I've got a few things I need to grade from the "big kids" schoolwork from before we started our Christmas break.  I was going to do some this afternoon but had a migraine this morning and early afternoon, so I didn't get to it.  Maybe tomorrow.  I'm finally ready to tackle it - I thought about getting it done the first week of break, but I just did not want to.  A bit of laziness or perhaps burnout. 

I do need to do some praying - I'm still not 100% revved up for the winter/spring term - but I know God gives us the strength we need.  I need to spend some time with Him.

Have you already started back if you had a break?  If not, how are you feeling about starting?  Am I the only one not feeling ready?

Happy New Year!