The Real Meaning of Thanksgiving

Most Americans know the story of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. They know all about how the Indians and Pilgrims shared food that day and thanked God for all He had done for them. Some people know that Lincoln was the person who proclaimed a day for giving God thanks and that Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a day that is for most people just a day to get together with family, stuff themselves with turkey, and watch football. For me it is much more than that. It is a chance to remember Jesus' ultimate sacrifice for me. It is a chance to remember God's authority and sovereignty even when I can't understand why He does what He does. It is a chance to thank Him for everything He does for me. "O, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good..." But like most religious holidays, Thanksgiving has been transformed into just another holiday when the family gets together and celebrates. What are they celebrating? They don't even think about it-- or want to think about it. The only purpose for Thanksgiving, according to them, is to eat turkey and be merry with friends and family. Some other people may actually give God thanks for what He has done, but it is the only day of the whole year that they actually take the time to do so.

Hopefully for you Thanksgiving is more than all this. Hopefully you, too, understand what a great opportunity it is to be able to give thanks for everything. But hopefully it's not the only day you give thanks to God. Many times we get so caught up in our lives that we forget to thank God for what He does in our lives. We forget to tell the Giver of All Good Gifts that we are thankful for what He has bestowed upon us. May we never forget what Thanksgiving is really for--and may we never forget to thank God every day, and not just on this special holiday set aside for thanksgiving.

The Way Out

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13, NASB

I read this in my devotions today, and what a wonderful reminder. So often I fall so short of what God asks of me. So often I fail Him, and fall into temptation. I allow my desires to overcome me. But there is always a way out. No matter what temptation I face, God will always be watching me, and He gives me the strength to get out of it. Even when I do fail Him, I can come to Him and ask forgiveness. He is so faithful to forgive me when I have sinned against Him, and how amazing it is that He completely FORGETS our sin! If we take time to think about this, it's very odd. How could God forget something? He knows ALL. He never forgets anything. He knows every little detail about us, even how many hairs we have on our head! He knows our deepest, darkest secrets. And yet He FORGETS our sins! He knows and remembers so much, and yet he CHOOSES to forget. What a mighty, wonderful God I serve! What amazing love He shows me every day!

Other Things I've Made

As well as animals, I've also made a hat for my sister (check it out, it's one of the first posts) and ballet slippers. My sister Elise is REALLY into ballet, so she asked me to PLEASE make her some ballet slippers. If she only knew the time and effort it took me to find a good pattern and translate it into her size...! Oh, well, I was extremely happy with the way they turned out, and decided to post pics for you all. I made these a while back, and she actually wore them so much and all over the place that they are history now. Oh well, I still know how to make them. ;)

The ballet slippers.

Side view

Elise enjoying her slippers! :)

Animals I Have Made (not for school)

So, sorry it's been so long since my last post. School is really keeping me busy this year, as I'm taking some classes through a school online, plus I have my regular at-home classes.

I will now post pictures of more animals I have made.

A bird I made for my little sister. I'm not sure what she ended up naming it.

The side view of the very colorful bird.

A chihuahua dog I made for a little girl. :)

Side view of the chihuahua. I actually brushed the yarn to give it fuzzy "hair."

A cat I made quite a while back now, but I am still glad with the way it turned out.

A monkey I made, also a while back. :)

A little puppy I made. 

Hope you enjoyed these!

Animals I Have Made

First of all, the animals from my school project:
The beaver.

The owl.

And the lion!

 

These three are best friends, and live quite happily together. 

The ends. :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures of the animals I made for school. 

Now for the ones I did not make for school... ;)

What Has Been Happening

First of all, I finished my project for school-- and I've done other animals since then (pictures to follow). My project went beautifully, and I got the books I ordered. :)
My family moved recently, but before we moved, I got the chance to show a dear lady how to do amigurumi. She saw some books I had on it, and wanted to learn. I spent two entire days helping her translate the books from English to Spanish and showing her the ropes of amigurumi. I gave her a few of my amigurumi books, so hopefully she will keep going on it, and make some wonderful things!
In exchange for teaching her how to make amigurumi animals, she taught me how to make a kind of purse. I'm really excited about it, and as soon as I finish it you will all get to see pictures!!
School is starting soon, but before that I will be going to camp. So.... needless to say, perhaps not much crochet will be done for a while. :( But I will show you all what I have created since I last wrote on here!

Not Much Lately...

It has been BUSY lately. . . Finishing school and getting ready to move has been taking up much of my time, which means, unfortunately, that I have not had too much time to crochet.

However, for a last school project, we had to choose something creative to do, so guess what I chose? Amigurumi (for those of you who don't know, it's the Japanese craft of crocheting little crochet animals)!! I just love amigurumi (It's so fun to see how your animals come along!), so I decided to choose to crochet animals for my project. So far I have made a beaver from this pattern . . .

. . .and I am working on an owl from this pattern.

*Note: The above pictures of the animals are from the original sites, not pictures of the ones I made.

Then all I will have left is a lion, which I will make from Ana Paula Rimoli's book Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet which I ordered (along with her Amigurumi Two book) that I hope should get here soon!!

I can't wait to get my books, and make animals other than the ones for my project ;)

I'll try to post pictures soon of animals I have already made (one of our computers crashed, so I lost a few photos).

Hat For My Little Sister

Here is the hat I made for my sister. I made this maybe about a month or two ago, but I think it turned out really well!

I used this pattern to make it, and did a few more decrease rows to make it a little smaller. I love the openwork.

First Post!

Hello, welcome to The Coupe!

I am so glad to be able to start this BLOG. I hope I can keep up with it better than my last one (I think I wrote about once every 6 months).

So I hope to show you all what I have crocheted, and hopefully, when I get a little more experienced, I can share some patterns with you (but I have to make them first!!).

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check back soon!