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. :)