Thursday, April 22, 2010

Seven Quick Takes


If you'd like to see more quick takes, go visit Jen. She has lots of cool stuff.


 


~1~


I know I haven't done one of these in a little while, but I thought I might jump back in this week. It's been a strange week for us. No work for me, spring cleaning, me being sick, the boys sick (to a much lesser degree than me, thank goodness!), trying to get my head around the next studio session, and working on summer plans. While it has been a good break minus the illness, everything is back to normal on Monday.

~2~


We have arranged to have a bit of a science club starting this summer with another family. The other mom and I are making a list of things the kids might be interested in doing, places they might want to go, etc. While looking for ideas I stumbled across this experiment and that brought back many fond memories for me! I think I made at least 50 volcanoes over one school year- maybe 6th grade? I thought it was the very coolest thing I'd ever done or seen.

~3~


It's been a frustrating few days of knitting, and I don't often say that! For whatever reason when I went to work on the second sleeve of my niece's February sweater I could not pick up stitches correctly and proceeded to mess it up on try after try after try. So I'm taking a tiny break from February sweater knitting and I cast on Amanda [ravelry link] from A Fine Fleece by Lisa Lloyd. I should sooooo be knitting for a new little nephew coming toward the end of the summer, but I selfishly cast on the cardigan.

Bad, bad auntie, I know.

~4~


A few days ago I cut my index finger. It wasn't too serious, but because of how I cut it it bled a fair amount. Ender was in shock seeing the blood and as I wrapped it up with a paper towel I told him that I was fine, I just needed a bandaid. The truth is that I don't do well with blood, gore, guts, anything like that, but when I'm the only person around to take care of that sort of thing some special power comes over me and I'm able to muscle through to the end of the situation and then collapse in a pile of shaky nerves afterwards.

So Ender got a bandaid for me and was practically crying. As I washed the cut and evaluated what I need to do, I was talking to him in my best "Mama's cool, this isn't a big deal" kind of voice to help him calm down. I got the bandaid in place, showed it to him to prove the fact that this really wasn't a big deal and gave him a hug. I told him I was glad he was there to help me when I needed it, and all those other good mama things to say.

Then he told me what he was actually worried about- "how are you going to scratch things now? Your scratching finger has no blood in it!"

Boys worry about really weird things.

~5~


I've been working on our learning space over the week as part of my spring cleaning, and I keep coming back to Sarah's simple plan. I know I mentioned her post earlier this week but it's a good one. Simplicity is really the key for us.

~6~


Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is awesome to read, I like her books, I like to see what she's knitting, and occasionally she makes me feel inferior. I have to remember I've only been knitting a little less than 2 years and she's been knitting a *little* bit longer. But then she goes and posts stuff like this and it makes me feel WAY better about my little February sweater problem. Because if someone who has been knitting for that long can still mess something up, surely I'm okay. . . and due for WAY more screw-ups in the future. 

~7~


While I was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday I was extremely fortunate to have help around to take the boys out and keep them out of trouble. They planted flowers and other green things with my in-laws on Tuesday afternoon/evening while Superman was at school, and Wednesday they helped my mom with the same task.

Do you think I can convince them to get outside with me this weekend and plant some things of our own?

Boys + Dirt + gardening tools= YES!


 

Just whisper the word "outside" in their direction and stay out of the way of the stampede. :)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Mama's Sick Daybook



Outside my window…

Another bright day so far. We are expecting rain this afternoon though, so we're trying to get outside for as long as we can this morning.



I am thinking…

about an organized house. Hopefully mine. I'm trying to tackle some definite problem areas this week and see if I can squeeze a little more space out of our small house.

I am thankful for…

My husband who spent his day off yesterday wrangling kids, keeping up on laundry and dishes and taking care of my sick self.

Always Learning…

We've had several little conversations about healthy food this week and made some healthy snack cards to help us to remember which kinds of snacks are good snacks to ask for and which ones are not. We always seem to need a post-holiday reminder.

From the kitchen…

A lot of homemade since I am not teaching in the studio this week! I made and froze some soup on Monday, but I was done yesterday with this evil cold. I'm hoping to get back into the kitchen today with some tacos and maybe a lasagna to freeze for another day.



I am wearing…

my lazy "I'm sick" clothes: hoody, terry cloth pants and fuzzy socks.

I am creating…

A new spring cleaning plan since the ones I made up last week aren't actually starting until today since I was unexpectedly sick yesterday (and still today a little. Bleh!) . So I'm revising this morning and trying to figure out what I can actually get done with the time left.

 

I am going

to stay home this week. Between the inside spring cleaning to be done and the outside yard work there is more than enough to do!

I am reading…

A first novel by a friend of mine, more Elizabeth Zimmerman (have to decide what to knit next!), and still working on The Queen’s Governess by Karen Harper. The last title isn't as well written as some of the other Tudor fiction I've read in the last year, and it's actually a little dry for fiction reading.

I am hoping…

for a great burst of energy in the next few days while I have the time to get a few extras done around here.



I am hearing…

K-Love. Ever since our t.v. broke we've been in the habit of having K-love on most mornings. This station is such a blessing to our family!



Around the house…

Big plans, but nothing accomplished yet. Hopefully I'll have exciting things to share by the end of the weekend. I'm planning a total revamp of our learning area after seeing the awesome simplicity of Sarah's system. It is where my heart was heading anyway, but seeing Sarah's orderly shelves in place renewed my resolve for simplicity in our schooling and in our organization.

One of my favorite things…

Hot tea,which has been my dearest friend these last 36 hours.



A few plans for the rest of the week . . .

A trip to the library by the end of the weekend and a transformed house. That's enough for one week, I think!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A Little Bit of Craftiness

Crafting has been a little slow for me these past few weeks, but I'm steadily making progress on two pieces I thought I might share today: My February sweaters!



I am having the hardest time getting the proper color to register on my camera! The yarn is Ella Rae's Classic Marls in blue and it is actually a very dark blue-black. Ezra actually calls it "the black sweater".
Up close to the gull pattern I love (apologies again for funky color!):





And the actual baby version of the February Sweater:







These are both the famous February Baby Sweater (rav link) by Elizabeth Zimmermann. The dark blue is sized up for me using the February Lady Sweater (rav link) pattern re-mathed by Pamela Wynne, and the pink is knitted as written in Knitter's almanac, except that I left the sleeves on live stitches to go back and do them in the round. Just a few sleeves left to finish, and I'll be sad when they're done. I've really enjoyed this pattern!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Seeing Stars

Oh, my- I'm so glad the recital is over! Today I'm totally relaxing. We have plans to hit the library this afternoon and I suppose I'll have to make dinner at some point, but otherwise I'm just hanging out with my boys and knitting! The past few weeks have been full of work so I'm really excited to have a week of *whatever we want to do*

Today I thought I'd share a gift we recently received. My mother is a quilter- a far better quilter than I am! I mentioned to her a few years ago that I really loved the Mariner's Compass and how I found myself coming back to that pattern again and again. She offered to make a Mariner's Compass quilt for me if I really thought I'd never make one on my own, and I totally took her up on it! I do okay with triangles, but matching up all those little points? I truly don't have the patience at this point in my life!

Our new quilt:



 

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