Seven Quick Takes

Go visit Jen for more Quick Takes.

 

~1~

I finished the Thorpe hat Wednesday night and finished the first of my 36 stitch mittens. It's my first real Elizabeth Zimmerman knit- thought I'd start small. I've been reading looking through Knitting Without Tears and the Knitter's Almanac again and I keep coming back to the seamless raglan sweater, but I'm a little nervous to try something so big. I'm also really interested in the classic February baby sweater, and that might be a better (smaller!) place to start.

~2~

I finished the second Percy Jackson novel last night and started the third. I suppose sometimes it takes a good YA book to get me reading again. Ender and I started The Wizard of Oz too. Ezra wanders in and out of our reading together and Superman joins in when he can. I can't wait until the boys are a little older and I can share some of my very favorite books with him. The Wizard of Oz is just the beginning.

~3~

The tornado fascination is beginning to wane here. After checking with all of his aunts, uncles and grandparents to make sure they had a safe place to go in their house in case of a tornado, Ender decided that he knows enough to move on. He pulled a bunch of space books at the library this week and moved on to planets.

~4~

I've been looking through sewing books planning ahead a little for spring and summer sewing. I think I'm going to be working mostly from Cal Patch's book Design-It-Yourself Clothes and Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross on clothes for myself, and Ender really needs shorts for summer. Sometimes I swear he has visibly grown in just one day.

~5~

I pulled out garden books and seed catalogues a few weeks back, and Ender just saw the stack the other day. He went through and marked everything he'd like to plant. With his plan I think we'd need a full acre. Seeing as how we container garden, I don't think he'll get everything he wants. I'm still sorting out and getting a plan in place, but one thing is sure- Ender has his own container this year.

~6~

Ezra has gotten into the habit of adding "really really" to many of his sentences as "weally weally". As in "I weally weally don't want to go to bed!" and "I weally weally don't want green beans!"

It's hard not to laugh at this kid ALL. THE. TIME.

~7~

Next week is a short work week for me and next weekend Superman and I get a little bit of free time to celebrate our anniversary. It is hard to believe we have had nine years together. We've been going back and forth for the last few weeks trying to decide what to do since we will have a whole day together without kids for the first time in a long time- maybe a movie?

Making a New Way

Ender was conceived after nearly 5 years of trying, including a few runs with Clomid. When we finally found out that I was pregnant, I spent the months of my pregnancy filled with joy, even on my most nauseous day. FINALLY the baby we had prayed so long for!

I worried that maybe I wouldn't bond right away, that maybe he wouldn't love me, but when he was born, I was overcome with a love and sense of fulfillment that I can't aptly describe.

 

He was beautiful; he was mine.

 

I was so afraid to be home alone with him at first. I watched him sleep when I should have been sleeping myself for fear something would happen to him if I looked away for half a second. I cried as I tried to find time for a shower, for a moment of quiet, for a moment free from the stress of taking care of someone else's life. I loved him so much, and at the same time I was filled with fear that I would mess up somehow, that the tiniest thing would lead to disaster.

 

It took a few months to really feel secure, but motherhood has felt more and more certain to me since Ender's birth and has completely changed me in countless ways. I wish someone had walked alongside me through those first months to let me know that I was doing fine, that I was learning and growing with my son, that the beginning is hard because it is a monumental change. I suppose I had this expectation that motherhood would feel a little easier to settle into. I knew it would be hard to adjust at first- it's a big change! Everywhere I looked people painted idyllic images of motherhood and I suppose I expected that to be true.

 

I really identified with Angela in her post about reading The gift of the Ordinary Day. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one who has non-peaceful days with my boys, and Angela's (who has 5 boys, 1 girl and another coming) words about women who do not acknowledge the messes of life stayed with me after the first read. Do we do other women, specifically soon-to-be and new mothers a disservice by talking only about the good parts of life?

 

In this space I choose to write about and document certain parts of our life- crafting, education, books, and other fun things, because those are the things we want to carry forward with us. I suppose it's where I choose to set my focus. Keeping the focus on the nights awake with sick toddlers, arguing between brothers, pouting in a hiding place, or the messy corners would keep me mired in the problems of this moment instead of setting my sights on the ways my boys are growing and changing, the places they are going, the grace in which we live. So I try to acknowledge the "messes of life" (to which the answer seems to be GET OUTSIDE right now!) and move us on to the next place.

 

I focus here on the things we want to remember,  mostly the cool things, occasionally the stuff of the moment, because it informs who we are and where we are going.

 

The messes too.

Olympic Knitting

 

I've been diligently spending my evening knitting time on my Olympic knitting project, 1 row at a time. I think I have a good handle on the stranding now. I got down to the earflaps last night- another half hour or so and I think I will be done!

 

 

My apologies for not so great lighting in these pics- we haven't seen the sun in weeks.

In retrospect I probably should have picked something a little more difficult, but I really didn't expect to finish this quickly with it. I have had such a mental block about attempting stranding that I was SURE I would be struggling to finish by the end of the Olympics. I can tell you without a doubt that I wouldn't have tackled stranding or chart reading without the push of a time limit because I've been "going to try" both for several months now and have been too afraid of the techniques.

So after I finish up the hat tonight, I'll be finishing my EZ 36 stitch mittens, and knitting a bit on the second of the red toe-up socks. I'm at the gusset and we'll see how much length I can add tonight.

Next cast-on?

The Candy Cane hat from Handknit Holidays for Ender since he picked it out after seeing the Pixie hat I made for his cousin.

Weekend Wrap Up

For Valentine's Day weekend we:

:: Made sugar cookies and fettucine alfredo. Not together, but both yummy.

:: Painted a LOT.

:: Packed a lunch and had a picnic in the living room.

:: Ender and I made silly sentences together. It was kind of meant to encourage him to use the sightwords he knows, but it was too funny to be considered any kind of work.

:: I started on the Thorpe hat for olympic knitting. I'm 13 rows in and keep whispering to myself to keep the stranding loose. My husband thinks I'm losing my mind.

:: Baby Lucas was released from the hospital and the boys met him for the first time. It was quite the lesson in patience and calm for Ezra, but he did great.

:: Mama resisted the urge to cast on something else. There are already 3 things on the needles, and if I keep casting on I'll *never* finish anything!

:: Finished all the laundry from the week by Saturday night so there was NOTHING to finish up or put away on Sunday. That felt great!

:: We started reading Pippi Longstockings together a few pages at a time. Ender would listen as long as I could read, but Ezra is not so patient yet.

:: Little boys had grandparent time so Mama and Daddy could have a little Valentine's dinner. I don't think they even knew we were gone.