Counting down...two days to turkey!

The boys are eagerly awaiting the Thanksgiving feast. Stuffing is on everyone's brain (apparently, I make some decent sausage stuffing, thanks to helping Mom make it yearly), and turkey seems to work its way into many a conversation. Nearly equal to that in the boys' minds is the prospect of Mario Cart, though. While I'm looking forward to giving thanks for all our blessings, today, I was thinking chillier thoughts with the upcoming holiday season.

Monday is the Advent Circle at Liam's school, which means that they will be changing over their nature tables to the Advent season. Liam will be participating in the lighting of the candle in the circle this year, and I wanted our nature table to reflect what is going on at school. So this year, I'm thinking we may actually follow the Advent season by doing some crafty type things. I know, big surprise, right? It's important to me, though, that if we're going to celebrate Christmas, I want the children to understand the season's true meaning. And it's not the Almighty Dollar and Santa.

So as I get the crafts put together for the table, I'll post pictures so everyone can see what we've been up to. The blue silk has been purchased, as have a few other things for Advent decorations. There will likely be some dollmaking...because, as we all know, that seems to be my obsession lately.

He's hot...and he cooks too!

When I met my hubby, he was a pretty typical bachelor type. He was a frat boy (though not the prototypical PCU type...the type that frat boys are supposed to be...cute, ambitious, intelligent and generous to a fault), and the extent of his interest in cooking included macaroni and cheese and the occasional fried egg.

When we moved in together, we assumed somewhat typical domestic roles. I did the cooking. He watched the football. Neither of us cleaned, but when we did, I did the detail work and he did the spot cleaning and putting things away.

Then came marriage...and not too much changed. Then came kids. Somehow the man I love got all mushy and went domestic on me. Somewhere in his psyche there was a switch that flipped, and he has turned, over the course of time since we've had children, into a domestic god. He changes diapers. He puts children to bed. Somewhere in there, we decided that I should go to medical school, and he decided that he needed to cook more so they could subsist on something other than boiled pasta and veggies with butter and parmesan cheese while I was in school.

He became quite adventurous, first starting with breakfast. There were homemade waffles, buttermilk pancakes, french toast, scrambled eggs (and not the kind that you could bounce off the floor and have hit the ceiling, either, but good the good cheesy kind) and other breakfast treats. He mastered these with ease and moved on to dinner fare. I think he realized that cooking really is nothing more than a little chemistry and math...something that an engineer might not have too much trouble getting a grip on. He cooks more than I do these days, which really is pretty sad considering I'm the one who's home more than he is.

So tomorrow is his Turkey Day feast at work, where they will deep fry a turkey (I'm so jealous!) and gorge on potluck goodies. He needed to bring a dessert, so he decided he would bring chocolate chip cookies. Now dear hubby could easily have gone down to the Acme and grabbed a box of cookies from their bakery, put them in a Tupperware from home, and pretended like he made them, but not now that he's Mr. Domestic. He came home from work, asked me if we had the goods to make them (which we actually did), and he and the boys put together a batch of HOMEMADE FROM SCRATCH chocolate chip cookies this evening. Wish that I'd been home to get the pictures, but I wasn't. I came home from our birthNETWORK meeting to the scent of fresh baked, still warm cookies cooling on the counter. I, being the Queen of Roundness, could not resist, and they were wonderful (not that I had any doubts about his possible cookie-making prowess). Hats off to the man. Yeah, I know...this one's a keeper.

Rite of passage

I've officially crossed the 100 post mark thanks to NaBloPoMo! At this point, there should be some kind of ticker tape or balloons or strippers or something. Hell, I haven't even got any pictures from today to show at all. Sad, ain't it?

Here I thought I left my camera at home....but I actually had it with me all afternoon at the Children's Festival. So, no pictures.

After having to get up at 5 am, today didn't start out so red hot, as there were some issues at the test I was proctoring, but once I got to the festival, it all ironed itself out. It seems that the festival was a pretty big success, but since I was manning the handwork table, I didn't get to see any of it. A few of the dolls sold (and someone I know bought the one with the braids, which makes me really happy) as did some of the wool angels I made. The gal who coordinates the school store bought the rest of my wool angels and the other small terry doll, and asked if I could make more. She was also interested in the doll that had sold and wanted to chat about it next week. So I might be able to make some things to sell in the school store. Yippee! I get to help the school (and us) while doing something I enjoy. What's not to like?

The boys arrived with hubby's parents about the same time we did, and they did get to do a few things before heading out to get Jonah a nap. They enjoyed a puppet show, the enchanted wishing boat, and the balloon elf. I didn't get to hear everything they did, as it was busy at our table. One of my friends from school even came with her friend, so they had the opportunity to see our "hippy" school. It was a pleasant surprise to see them, and I think they were impressed.

It feels good to be home now, and I'm planning on taking tomorrow to catch up on things. I'm so behind in everything else at the moment. I think sleep is the first place I'm going to start.

Counting down the hours

By this time tomorrow, the Children's Festival will be all but a memory. Bad girl me, I didn't post yesterday, as I was knee deep in dollmaking (again and still...). Tonight I dropped off what I did get finished for the table tomorrow.

Here's what I got finished:

Two large terrycloth teething dolls (the large white ones on top left...one has a bell sewn inside the cap so it jingles...so cute!), two small terrycloth teething dolls (the blue and mint on the bottom left), Three pouch dolls (two pink, one blue), one doll with arms (the yellow one with the brown hair) and one with arms and legs (the one with the blonde braids). I still have a blue pouch doll that just needs the head sewn on and a large white terry teether that needs a head made and sewn in (I might keep that one for our baby), so we'll see if I can get that finished tomorrow. I'm thinking I may just make some more wool angels instead, as I know those will definitely sell.

All the dolls in the picture were made following Waldorf doll-making instructions found in Kinder Dolls. None of the dolls have faces, as they will likely appeal to the preschool and younger set, who need to be able to use their imagination to decide what emotions the doll is displaying. The dolls without limbs will appeal most to toddlers and babies. There's a whole philosophy on the features that should be present in dolls for particular age groups, but at the moment, I'm too darn tired to 'splain it, Lucy. The dolls are all small (I've made larger ones before, and I didn't have time to make anything larger than these), about 5 1/2 inches for the dolls with hair.

I'm hoping they all sell tomorrow, but even if they don't, the gal who runs the school store told me that she would love to sell my dolls in the school store, which surprised and pleased me no end. Even if they did come back home, I do have some other new homes in mind for them.

Drive-by posting

This is what happens when you wait until nearly midnight and you really want to be in bed, but you know that you made a commitment to post every day.

Hi! Bye!

Not much exciting to write about today, anyway. I'm still up to my neck in dollmaking and crafting for the Children's Festival. I hope to have photos, though I can almost promise they will be of ill quality, since I haven't seen the sun in days, and apparently, it's not scheduled to make an appearance for a while. Did I mention how much I need the sun to function? I'm really thinking of getting one of those visor thingies like what Joel wore in Northern Exposure during the time when the sun doesn't come up. Seriously.

Feeling the time crunch

Only a few more days until the Children's Festival at the school, and I'm nowhere near ready. Ugh. I finished a couple more things today, but I still have so much more in progress and other things that I have yet to start. To top it off, it looks like I'll be teaching tomorrow night, so that eats up my evening completely. Everything really needs to be done by Friday night, as setup is first thing Saturday morning. I have to be in Warren early, so I won't have time to get too much done. So Thursday is crunch day. Might have to employ some babysitting help...oh, and the house has gone to the dogs....and the cats....and the kids....and the dishes! Yipe!

Maybe I'll have time to grab some pictures tomorrow of more of the things that I have managed to complete. We'll see!

FO sure!

Yesterday I posted about a project I was working on but had yet to show pictures for. Now that it's done, I'm ready to reveal the results. There is one more part of this 3-piece ensemble that I have yet to do (a pair of longies in the natural color, I think), but I'm not really into waiting until that's done to show you all the photos.

Without further ado, here they are:

Ruby (left) models the hat, while Magnus (right) models the Raglan Sweater

Okay...so the top pic is a little, well....creepy. Considering that I have no true life models to wear these items, I thought the dolls made the next best choice. None of the dolls in this house wear clothes, normally, so this photo shoot was something different for them. All the dolls in this house also look like they need their mommies (well, daddies in this case) to give them a firm scrubbing, but they seemed do the trick for tonight. The hat is adapted from a free pattern available at Little Turtle Knits. I have made the tie-top hat, and it was totally cute, but I like the plain snug-fitted hat better on newborns. Both hat and sweater were knit with Mission Falls 1824 Wool (lurve, lurve, lurve it!), which is a 100% merino superwash (a must for baby knits that will get lots of wear, I hope) and is so soft and plush when knit up. The hat used just under half a skein of natural, and the sweater took 2 1/3 skeins of basil color. The color is closest in hue to the top picture. At almost $7.00 a 85-yard skein, it's not inexpensive yarn, though, so I reserve it for special knits or for knits that will be close to sensitive skin. I used size 8 needles (dpns for the hat and circulars for the sweater, though it was knit flat and seamed...but I bet I could modify the pattern easily to totally knit it in the round) for both projects.

The sweater pattern is the Raglan Sweater from Debbie Bliss's the baby knits book, which I also love. I'm sorta in love with Debbie Bliss in general (all except that most of her books are lacking in the schematic drawing department which occasionally makes construction a challenge), as her patterns are very classic, simple, and fun. Most of the patterns from this book call for "aran" weight yarn (gauge of 18 st and 24 rows), which is what most of my stash is, so it makes for an easy choice when I get a bug to make a gift for someone's baby.

I did not alter the pattern in any way, and I made the smallest size for this sweater (0-3 mos). I think it is actually pretty spot on for size when comparing it to some of the other newborn gear that I have laying around. Debbie's patterns also tend to be a bit on the roomy size, and I was afraid this might be the same, but not so.

I would definitely make this one again, and there's another sweater from the same book that I'd like to do for baby girl if I get the chance before she arrives. Both hat and sweater were cast on yesterday, and I finished seaming the sweater just a little while ago, so they are super fast projects. Oh, how I love instant gratification!

These two items are for a friend's baby who is due the same day mine is, and I hope she likes them. I think they turned out pretty well.

It's too early yet

Today was a cold, gray and dreary day. I soooo dislike these kind of days. I used to call them big fuzzy sock days, because all I want to do when it's like this is put on a pair of warm socks, crawl under the covers and veg in front of the tube all day. I'm solar powered. I need to see sunshine to function.

After running all day yesterday and not getting much sleep the night before (our little girl is a middle of the night gymnast), I was bad today and didn't get anything done. I had a shower that I should have gone to, but I couldn't get up the energy to even shower and get out of the house. (But look at me...up into the wee hours again when I should be in bed. But it's quiet. And this won't last long.)

Instead, I spent much needed time with the family, stoking up the stove and doing what I really love...knitting.

I've got progress on a project to show, but not until it's finished, which won't be long since I started today and am already halfway there. I have startitis so bad. Too many things I want to start...too many other projects in various stages of incomplete. I know I'm not the only one out there who does this, so that is at least a small comfort.

This week promises to be a busy one, so let's see if I can manage the daily posts throughout!

It's getting hot in here

There is nothing like a rip-roarin' fire when the weather is damp and cold. Hubby and FIL went up to the grandparent's farm in PA yesterday and brought back a truckload of wood from a dead, fallen tree today. I could hardly contain my enthusiasm to start burning it! After the boys were in bed, I got a fire going in the wood-burning stove downstairs, and we lounged around for the rest of the evening. Bliss. I have the tendency to want to micro-manage the fire, though. We have a thermometer on the flue that lets you know what the optimal burning temperature is, and I tend to get a little obsessive about keeping the temperature in a certain range. So every once in a while, when I noticed that the temp on the thermometer was starting to fluctuate, I'd get in there and stoke things up a bit. Hubby finds it all quite amusing. Big, round woman squatted in front of the stove poking at it. Very primeval. And that's just how I like it.

Further evidence that I'm a crazy cat lady with too much time on my hands...

These two actually were napping quite nicely snuggled next to each other in the sun coming through the screen door. Which prompted me to want to get the camera and catch it in the memory. Not two seconds after I pick up the camera, this is what I witness:

Another quote

Building on last night's Quote of the day...Jonah says to me in BJ's when I tell him to get in the cart, "You're not the boss of us." Apparently, he wasn't listening to his brother last night. "Ok," I say. "Who is the boss, then?" Jonah replies, "Liam is."

I'm official!

My name actually got listed on the NaBloPoMo page! How 'bout that? I really need to pay attention to my sidebar and update stuff there. So...official button forthcoming!

Quote of the Day

Liam to Jonah when Jonah asks him if he can eat a granola bar (30 seconds after I told him no, as dinner was on the stove cooking), "I'm not the boss of you. Your mother is." Oh, really?

Blowing up not far from the gate

We're only a week into Nablopomo, and already, I've been a bad girl and missed posting a day. Good thing I'm not an official participant. It would be disappointing to miss out on goodies just because I couldn't think up anything to post yesterday.

Actually, I probably could have come up with something, but after everything I had going on during the day yesterday, by the time it came time to blog...I was spent and elected to crawl into bed and watch election returns. Ain't I just thrilling?

So, while today was busy too, and I just got home from teaching and am again fairly spent, I am biting the proverbial bullet and putting up a post for your reading pleasure (ha!).

Apparently I must be a fair teacher, as some of my students on learning that tonight would be my last class with them (some of the class will be staying with me, and some will split off in preparation for a later test date) asked me nicely to teach the rest of their series. Awww....this despite the fact that I ran over tonight by 30 minutes. Patient bunch they are...

Oh...the hat I was wearing the other day? Not a hat. She's gonna be a felted bowl...if I can get around to making some mates and putting them through the wash. Really.

So today the little guy and I worked on some wet-in-wet watercolor painting. Now, this is the first time I have ever done this particular technique, and I have to say that we definitely need to work on our technique (and I on my mixing). After completing the painting process, I realized that I'd been painting on the wrong side of the watercolor paper. Oops. My boy, however, had it correct.

Jonah had the most fun wiping off the watercolors with paper towels and then putting more watercolor on. His first picture actually was pretty great, but I didn't get a chance to get a picture before he sprayed it with the water bottle and wiped it off.

They do this technique in the Waldorf school, and the result is very soft, flowing colors. The younger children work with one, then two, finally graduating to the three primary colors in an effort to get used to filling the page with color and then learning how the colors dance together. We worked with red and blue today (Jonah's choice), and the results were fun.

Here's a sample:

This was actually one of the ones that I did...on the wrong side of the paper. I'm curious to know what it might have looked like had I done it on the proper side of the paper. I also think that I needed to have more paint and less water in my mix. One of these days, I'll get around to taking a wet-in-wet class at Liam's school which they offer from time to time in their Adult Education series. Whatever the result, it was a good time.

Thoughts for JT

My husband's first cousin's son JT has a genetic disease known as NEMO. He is getting ready to undergo chemotherapy in preparation for a bone marrow transplant at the end of next month. I've been thinking a lot about this little guy lately, partly because of what he's about to go through, but also because he is only a month older than my own little guy, and mine seems to be growing so much lately, both physically and socially. Really puts things into perspective and makes me grateful every day that I have healthy children. I can't imagine how difficult it is for this family to endure what they have had to on a daily basis, yet they keep plugging on, and they have such a great attitude about the whole situation.

I'm thinking of doing something special for the little JT as the holidays approach, but I'm not sure what yet. Got a few ideas rolling around the old noggin, but I might ask my kiddos about what they think we could do together for him.

Go read. Don't tell me that you don't feel like hugging your healthy ones a little tighter afterward.

It's a bird, it's a plane...no, it's an FO! Well...almost...

When last we left our heroine, she was debating the perils of to knit or not to knit. What end did she meet? Was there knitting that was frogged? Well...I went to bed, that's what I did. Smart thing, I'm sure, though I could have done without the night full of nightmares.

Not to disappoint, however, I did knit some today (though not nearly as much as I might have liked). I whipped out a quick little thing this afternoon after diving headlong into a mess of laundry that had been piling up. Once the laundry was well in hand, I picked up the size 15's and some bulky Reynolds Lopi and put this together (sorry for the blurry photo, but it is night here):


Nice hat, you say? I say wrong, Bucko! Well, if it that isn't a lid on my head...then what is it, you ask? Again, my faithful followers...you will have to wait and see...further transformation shall ensue, though this is the style hat I think hubby is looking for. Might have to duplicate it for his head, perhaps with further styling, like maybe a cable or rib or two thrown in. Oh, and in gray, of course. Can't have too much color, you know.

Is there such a thing as too tired to knit?

My husband has asked me this question on more than one occasion...and when I'm sick he will ask if there's such a thing as too sick to knit. The latter, I am certain of. The former, not so sure. I will say that I'm pretty tired considering the 9 hours of sleep in two days I've got going on (which might seem like not too bad to some folks for but someone like me...in two days I'd much rather be working on at least 16-20 hours total sleep). I'm stressed out at the moment and feeling the need to knit...but at the same time, I'm afraid if I cast on it will be a recipe for disaster. Maybe what I should do is go down and work on the bag of frog pond stuff that needs ripping, as that's probably what I'd end up doing anyway if I tried to cast on for anything.

What will our heroine do? Stay tuned...

A boy and his grandpa

Oooh...look...two posts in one day. How productive am I?

I actually meant to post this yesterday, but I'm mid purge (aren't I always lately?) in the bedroom (last room to really give the old heave-ho to), so I never got around to it yesterday.

When I married my husband, I also gained a second family. His parents and siblings (and now their spouses!) are such warm, wonderful, loving people, and they embraced me right away. I am so blessed to have been so welcomed and that they are such good people (no scary MIL stories here!). When my oldest was born, hubby and I had all of our parents (except my dad, who was present in spirit) there for the birth. My sweet FIL stayed in the family waiting room that was attached to the birthing room for as long as he could, until I started to get vocal, and then he headed down the hall, where it was a little less stressful (and likely much quieter). He was right back in there, though, after Liam was born and was one of the first folks to hold the little guy.

By the time my second was born, my FIL had taken a consulting job in another state, and wasn't in town much. He was greatly missed by everyone, and when the job finally ended, we were glad to have him home. Not long after he came home, I started a semester of full time classes, and hubby and I couldn't work our schedules out so that one of us could be home when the other was working/in school some of the time. My FIL stepped up to the plate and offered to help keep an eye on the kids.

I will admit, at first I was a bit nervous about the whole proposition. Not so much for the sake of my children, because I knew they loved their grandpa and would be happy to spend time with him, but for my poor FIL, because I wasn't sure he understood the depth of what he was about to get into. Particularly since my youngest was not yet potty trained. Which meant diaper changes. This also meant he would have to put the youngest down for a nap in the afternoon, which was not always the easiest, along with the added responsibility of picking up the oldest from school a couple of days. I figured it would all end up being a lot more of a hassle and stress than he might be willing to put up with. I should have known better, considering what a kind-hearted and generous person he is and what a great dad his son (my hubby) has turned out to be.

Of course, things went swimmingly. The boys loved spending time with grandpa, particularly the youngest. They would play trains and cars. They would snuggle and nap together. They would work in the yard. They would take walks. My oldest was mostly content to watch his favorite afternoon TV and play a little computer, and while he did play with Grandpa, he never seemed to get into it as much as the little guy.

Once I found out I was pregnant at the end of last semester, I knew I probably wouldn't go back this semester (particularly since I'm done with all the coursework I need to apply to med school), which meant that we no longer needed Grandpa to watch the boys, as I would be home. Now that fall has circled back around again and school is back in session, I've noticed that my FIL is missing his time with the boys. I've also definitely noticed that he and Jonah share a special bond.

So yesterday, my FIL called up and asked if Jonah could come out and play. He'd planned a day for the two of them to spend together, with lunch at one of Jonah's favorite spots and a trip to buy birdseed to feed the birds, all topped off with an overnighter. When I asked Jonah if he would like to go play with Grandpa, he couldn't get dressed fast enough. He kept going to the door and opening it to see if Grandpa was here yet. When Grandpa arrived, Jonah hopped out the door and down the steps excited as could be. My FIL always greeted him as per usual with "Hey, my man!" and he scooped Jonah up for a big bear hug. I can't help but smile just thinking about it. They just lit up in each other's presence.

It's the kind of thing I had hoped that the boys would have with my dad, were he still here, but I'm so glad that they have an opportunity to get to know my FIL in this way.

Socks of Doom!!

Just in time for Halloween (yes, I'm late in posting about it!), here lies Dear Bunnie, who met a death by lovely multicolor socks in wool.

They are warm, fit perfectly, and have flecks of yellow, green, orange, blue, and purple among the primary red. I love them. Death came all the way from the UK along with a square of organic chocolate laced with orange and herbs. Can I just say YUM! Jonah and I shared it and enjoyed.

The pair of socks that I finally completed are on their way to Columbus (by snail mail) to kill my target.

I knit them using a superwash wool/nylon blend, so hopefully they will wear well. I tried them on just to make sure I got the size right, and they seemed to fit pretty well. Hopefully my target likes them. They turned out to be pretty much identical without my having to snip out any additional yarn, which is nice. The skein I bought was big enough that I have enough left for another pair of socks. I'm thinking a pair of toe-ups in a similar pattern maybe for Liam, since he has yet to get his pair of socks. So now I am officially done with Sock Wars. It was a lot of fun, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I really need to get in on more of these swap type knit-a-longs, as they motivate me to finish my projects.

More knitting and crafty type things to be posted about imminently...what with the Children's Festival coming and all!

NaBloPoMo

As autumn seems to be a time of reflection as the days grow shorter and the nights longer, I've been thinking a lot about why I keep this blog. I've been reading blogs for longer than I've been keeping my own, and part of what motivated me to start one is the cathartic feeling that writing can provide. I have never considered myself much of a writer, particularly after comparing my abilities with others out in blogland that I read regularly. Many of these fine ladies are published and stuff. I'm not sure that necessarily makes anyone more of a writer than someone who is not, but it sure helps. Writing here has given me a chance to clear my head on more than one occasion, and even if no one else reads it, the process of putting things out into space sometimes helps to make it more concrete.

I started this blog partly to keep the family informed on the goings on of myself and the kidlets and as a creative outlet for the handwork that I so enjoy. My hubby can only stand me showing him something I've made and "isn't it great how I did these short rows?" so many times before he loses his mind. Through reading other mama's blogs, I've gotten inspired to do things that I might not otherwise do, and let me tell ya...peer pressure sometimes rocks. There are many talented, creative mamas who really do it all well and right.

So, to jump on the bandwagon, (since I'm such a lemming!) I've decided to join NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), in which I resolve to post every day this month. I might have to post twice today to make up for not posting yesterday (when I was actually finding out about this little adventure). So Blog ON!!