Mondday Musings

New for this segment next week I will cover how well I met my expectations.

This weekend... Friday night was school movie night, Jim took the girls to watch. Mouse stayed home with me and did homework. He is a brilliant boy but has poor time management skills and is often in some imaginary realm when he should be buckling down and getting the work done. That in combination with advanced topics and the expectations of a self-directed school program lead to many nights of me asking if his homework is done. If one of us sits next to him and re-collects his attention when he drifts off he can get the work done quite quickly, and sometimes we do that, but we want him to learn himself too and notice when he needs to refocus. This makes the lesson less of Geometry and more about self regulation and knowledge.
Saturday was kind of a Jonas day for me, I was woken suddenly and believed it to be in anger. I couldn't shake the idea that those around me were upset with me and mostly for for things I couldn't reasonably be expected to have done. This is on me. I am frustrated with my body and healing - yes it is coming along but it has been so long and so much has been left undone because of it. I ended the day having made everyone around me upset.
Sunday we were all easy with each other, I have a cold and dosed off and on throughout the day, Jim and the kids played many board games and it was nice hearing them play.

Right Now... The bread is cooling. The sauerkraut or rather what hopefully will be sauerkraut is macerating on the counter. My parents bought me some fermentation lids for Christmas. The kids are doing homework, Bunny while signing. I have a cup of honey lemon tea for my cold and I don't intend to leave the house again. Jim is taking the girls to violin. Soon, I will be re-taking all of these duties but not just yet.

Plans... I want to work on my socks and my spilt back tank top. I would like to cut out fabric for a new skirt. I need to darn a pair of Bunny's socks. I want to encourage more music practicing. I need to read another book for my COE - This week Handspinning Art & Techniques by Allen Fannin. I have been refreshing my German on Duolingo and want to continue on with that. I need to get some organization brough back into my business which I mostly have not done much with, in specific to take inventory and make new listings to launch a shop update.I also want to have Nate help with filming a tutorial while he is home. There is also some clean up work I need to do for our 4h club. I am slowly cleaning the house and plan to also slowly de-clutter everything. I want to set a small amount of time aside every week to write a novel that is rolling around in my head. I don't know if it will go beyond getting it out of my head but I want that.

Prayerful Intentions... I pray for understanding and healing. I pray for friends who are struggling with family members terrible health.

Where I am now.

 My cast came off a week ago and this picture is what my foot looked like underneath it. All the steri-strips are gone now and so is a bunch of dried skin - though not all. I am getting used to walking again first with a set of crutches and holding most of the weight off the foot, now with a cane for balance. I am walking around the house and resuming picking the kids up from school. It feels good to slowly get my life back. My husband, the kids, friends and family really helped out and pulled together. Two ladies whose daughters are friends with mine and an old friend of the family did all the kid pick ups for six weeks. They are amazing! It is very cold right now and when it warms up a bit I will be walking outside. I have an old walker and will be taking that on outside walks to help balance especially with ice and snow on the sidewalks rather than count on a cane. Each step still hurts but not as badly as they did the first day.

I am slowly taking back household duties and very glad of it. I have often struggled with the idea of self-worth as a homemaker in today's career focus world. I have had woman angry with me for being a traitor to the women's movement, not realizing that the whole point was choice. This is my choice and I accord you the privilege to make your own choice regardless of your gender, identity, or upbringing to make it. I mourn for those whose circumstances do not allow for any choice, most especially those who feel trapped by those circumstances. Still it is hard to feel your self worth tied to very repetitive and often very unappreciated tasks. Seeing the impact of my labor, effort, and care being removed from our lives has focused my understanding of the value of my labor. So hobbling along in my boot, I am reclaiming my role, blessing my family with my labor. I am also working (or planning to work) toward simplifying, streamlining, and setting systems in place to ease and safeguard against future problems. A lot of that means more work but that is okay.

I want to value my work more and value myself more. One of the ways I am doing that it to focus on my health and to make clothing and things for myself that make me feel good. I will be making for my family too. 

The first cast on of the year is for me, this split back tank top. The photo is of my computer screen and is the designers image. I am making this in a white recycled cotton yarn for the edging and a cotton and seacell - rayon made from kelp - yarn in blues and mauve. I am really loving it.

Fingers crossed that I have enough yarn as both are discontinued and have been for years. This is also a stash busting project! I bought these yarns years and years ago from Beading Heart Studio which is also long gone! Miss it and the community of ladies who supported it. It will be the first project I make for the year of the garment kal with Kristen at Yarngasm podcast.

~Julia

Camping with Mom

 Every year Mom and I camp out at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool. Sometimes we have classes to attend, sometimes others join us. We camp in the same spot each year for a few years now and have friends we have met there as neighbors each year. There is a pavilion right where we camp and the bathrooms - with hot showers - are just across the way. We are far from the action at this spot but that has its charm too. After we got out site set up out came the spinning for me and knitting for Mom.

Mom took these pictures to show the family how we were doing. The van was parked there to try to block the wind, it was fairly cold for September.

This is my Mom, Robin.

I got a few shots in myself. We bring a hot plate, a toaster oven and this year a electric kettle and make our meals. We both love cooking and tend to fix ridiculously complicated things for camping. This year's highlights are Mussel stew, crepes, Yorkshire pudding with three mushroom hash, and a steamed lemon pudding, and scones for tea time. The kettle was a great addition helping not just in tea and coffee making but also in clean up time. 

This little guy was also camping out at the festival. These are Shetland sheep. The darker sheep is full grown, the brown and white spotted sheep is a Jacobs and that breed in average sized for sheep. Shetland are tiny.

Crafting on Pink Avenue

Linking up with the ladies of Crafting On hosted at Frontier Dreams.

It has been a while since I took the time to blog, I always forget how much time everything takes. There was going to be more to that sentence, but I thing it is actually perfectly accurate right like that. The kids are starting to settle back into a routine, it is a new one but it is a routine, and so will I.

I have two knitting projects going right now, both are Christmas presents. I set a goal of at least one handmade gift for everyone this year. I wrote my list in January, I wish I had started crafting them then too! I have four done so far, but lots of big time intensive things on the list yet and I want to build time into the schedule for helping the kids make their gifts too.

The Avenue socks by Expat Knitter Designs:

I just am getting started but the bonus to this new routine is two hours knitting time at the girls violin group lessons on Monday nights and an hour at private lessons on Thursday.

The Dragon Mittens which I am using but heavily modifying a pattern for (by Tanis Lavallee) , my husband is checking my math so I only have the swatch to show.

The cream is 100% wool and will be the dragon on the backs of the mittens, the green 50/50 Wool/alpaca.

Thought I would add my just finished socks, too.

These are Expat knitter's Grand Central socks, modified with no pattern on the top of the foot and adding a 2by2 rib at the ankle.

All of these yarns are stash yarns, the plan with some of the presents is to work from what I have, so far so good, I have had to buy matching yarn to finish things but so far no new unrelated yarn purchases for present making. I have in the past bought more intending to make things that did not get made for presents.

Crafting on - dress, socks, and control

 I am working on two projects related to this card. The first is I want to improve the consistency of my spinning for the purposes of earning my COE, and I want to keep a record of my spinning. I read that other spinners keep track by using cards or tags and keep small samples of their yarns both as singles and after the ply. If you can think of anything else I could add let me know. The second project here is a joint effort sweater for my children's godfather. I will do the spinning and another friend will be knitting him a cabled sweater. We got to talking about spinning and knitting and what kind of yarn is best for Aran style sweaters and now I a spinning samples. Then she will knit samples and we will decide which to work with. The samples will be:
2-ply, oiled, spun z plyed s
3-ply, oiled, spun z plyed s
2-ply, oiled, spun s plyed z
3-ply, oiled, spun s plyed z
and her favorite of above un-oiled.   I am researching old methods of spinning, hence the oiled wool, I have spun the first sample and am undecided about my opinion of the oiling of the fleece before carding.

This photo is a twofer as well, in the foreground is my knitting - socks as a Christmas present. The pattern is Grand Central for the NY collection by the Knitting Expat. I hate the colorway and am thinking of overdyeing it, however, someone said she liked it. So there is that.

The fabric is for the dress I am making for my interpretation work down at Garfield Farm Museum. I am hoping to get it done by May 21st, but am toying with the idea of hand stitching it, mostly. I have it cut and basted, which I did by machine. I think I will try to hand stitch it but do the gathers by machine.

This is the pattern packet front.


Joining in with the Crafting On today, I am looking forward to seeing what everyone is working on.

Some highlights

 Many - though not enough - days at the beach with friends. Including seeing Giraffe (dear friend's daughter, here nicknamed as they are her favorite toys) experience the surf - dislike - and the sand  - loved it. Mouse built her a little pool to splash in and then we spent a long time building retaining walls and moving water. Even though this is Lake Michigan, the waves where very strong that day.

 Lots of fiber-y fun, this is a camel and sheep's wool blend.

 Homemade tasty treats, my granola shown here.

 Dehydrating food for our backpacking trip. I loved the trip and am attempting to lose some weight and get in better shape to hike more.

 Hiking trip breakfasts, my granola plus dehydrated banana chips, pineapple, blueberries, and cranberries. mostly it took me hours to finish eating a bag. Very tasty but a bit crumbly/messy.

 Gear and packing required a lot of thought I used everything I brought at least once, but in a fit of trying to lighten the pack the night before I left some things behind - long sleeve shirt, pj pants, drawing pad and pencil, flashlight (this was accidental,) hand sanitizer, and honey sticks - that I really could have used. A learning experience and due to friends not a horrific to endure one.

 Tiny little dishcloth I made to bring on the trip the day before!

First day back to school. A new schedule since Mouse is in middle school and has to be there by 7:12, the girls and I get to their school now well before supervision begins, so we play on the playground or in the van depending on the weather. Beaver has a new schedule for his last year in high school and doesn't have to be in until 9. Which makes morning bathroom fights all but disappear. I really think this new schedule is a boon to our family.

~ Julia

Garden Valentines

 My garden has started!!! I am trying to winter sow this year. Basically, you take milk bottles cut them out and turn them into mini green houses and plant your seeds inside. You put the whole mess outside in a sunny sheltered spot and ignore it. In theory come spring I should have plants ready and waiting. The post I read for this is here. I am trying some dye plants that I want to play with and as I collect more bottles I will start a few more things.

 Badger's Valentine box. The boxes had to be less the a foot square, have at least a 5 by 2 inch slit for cards and have at least one moving piece. This is what Badger with the help from mom, dad, and auntie made. The tail moves.

This is Butterfly's the slit is in the back and the jeans move so you can put the cards in. They also had to write out a meaningful appreciation on the card for each child in the class. Handwritten. The cards could be store bought or homemade but the child had to write something specific and caring to each classmate. They girls had quite a bit of help assembling the boxes. The did the painting and the paper mache, but we did the hot glue and structural work. What I really liked about this approach was that instead of a candy party sign it quick, the teachers made it be a design challenge and a change to think and express something nice about each classmate. 

I hope they brighten their classmates day and yours.
~ Julia

Surgery around here

What does a mom do when her children are upset? When a stuffie is in need of rescue and emergency surgery? Why this of course...

The patient, belongs to Butterfly, it's name is Flewbie. She needs a eye transplant as the colored on eye is no longer allowing her to see properly.

Her family observes the entire procedure to make certain Dr. Mom does her job correctly.

The surgery prep table with all tools and the replacement eye at the ready. Butterfly's favorite color is pink, so naturally, Flewbie has selected a pink replacement eye. The little pocket knife belonged to my Grandma and came to me after her death in an old Altoids tin with some pins, needles, and stitch markers.

Flewbie in the recovery room with her family standing by. Butterfly was very pleased that the surgery was a success and Flewbie was back to her cuddling duties by evening-time.


Hope you take the time to really enjoy all the little and big things you get to do as a parent!
~Julia

Yarn along - what I can't show you

Joining Ginny and the ladies of the yarn along...

 

 

I am working on a present or two for a dear friend's first baby, so until next week I can't show the knitting that has taken up most of my time lately, and boy do I want to show it. When I have not been knitting on that I have been crocheting this throw, as a Christmas present. I am looking to clean out my stash and spend as little as I can for presents this year, so this simple but soft blanket will be switching it's pattern soon. I have been doing 5 rows black then 2 rows silver, I am nearly out of black so I am going to do 5 rows silver then a row of black and 5 more rows of silver, then flip the blanket do 5 rows of silver a row of black and 5 more of silver. Hopefully, both colors will hold out and I can get a nice throw out of it. I found a tiny bit more of the black this morning so fingers crossed.

What I can show you...

This is a closeup of the black, I don't really like crocheting with it but the material is soft and warm in the blanket. As for reading I have not gotten much done, I am reading through the Backpacking reference I showed last time, it is very dry but interesting if sometimes way overly detailed. I am sure that the section on boot construction would be great if I were looking to buy boots but as a read through it is deadly dull. Which may explain the sleep I am getting as I only get a few pages done each night before turning off the light. It is good though. I have this knitting book too, which I love, I want to make lots of the things shown but more I want to have the author over for a cup of tea and knit. 

Badger has been working with her daddy on cooking her favorite breakfast food. She made me this waffle all by herself, I was in the kitchen if she needed help but the only things she asked was for me to fill up the smaller bottle with oil - she can't lift the big one - so she could measure that and if I wanted maple syrup or corn syrup. Maple, of course, although I will pour that next time.

looking forward to seeing what everyone is working on,
~Julia

Bits and bobs from this month

This is Badger, we hit a great park to play in while waiting between husband's cousin's wedding and reception. We spent almost two hours playing at North Beach Park in Racine. This is an amazing park.

Mom knows everything. I hope they always think so. They found this feather in the yard. Who lost it? I don't know. Guess who I asked, my Mom.

This is the star jasmine plant I bought myself as a remembrance of my trip to LA with Beaver. He wants to go there for college (not yet!) and had the opportunity to meet some people who might be able to help and have his work reviewed. He wants to do set design/monster creation type work.

Every year I help a friend harvest her grapes and she helps me harvest my apples. I took home a big bag of green unripe ones she was not planning on using. I found a recipe for sour grape pickles. We shall see.

I made jam out of the rest of the unripe grapes, it is tarter that the ripe ones but these grapes are seriously candy sweet so that is not a terrible thing.

Mouse surprised us all with wanting to go out for Cross Country this year. We asked if he knew it involved exercise and being outside... then agreed quickly. He loves computers, and unless we force him would be on them all the time, so this was a surprise. He loved it and worked hard. He came in at the middle of the pack and his school took 3rd over-all. He is the one with the curly hair.

Triangle loom weaving project. I enjoyed it but will need a much bigger loom to make anything not for my girls.

Butterfly reading her birthday card from my sister. I have a beautiful new nephew.

He is moving so he is blurry but that is Beaver. He loves his team.

hi world it's me Julia

I took a bit of a break from blogging. At least from actually sitting down and writing out a post, I written hundreds in my head. What the quiet has taught me is I take more pictures and had something to look back at a remember exactly what I was thinking at the moment rather than what I think I was feeling from the point of view of where I am at now. So I will be fitting in more time to record my thoughts.

Finally finished the hairpin lace throw I made for my Grandpa from yarn I inherited from my Grandmother's Stash. He loves it and has shown it off to all the ladies at the senior center. They are impressed with me and with my Grandma for teaching me.

I washed a lot of wool.

Did a lot of craft fairs selling my work and my Dad's these are his work - bowls, pens, crochet hooks, wine stoppers... He is amazing.

Canned a bunch of stuff - only balanced like that for the photo, I am not completely crazy - these are tomato sauce and grape jelly.

We bought property to vacation on, Grow with and eventually move too. It is on a river flowage. I love the idea of my kids running all over this land, finding nature's hidden joys and secret places. Just being in the woods, calms and brings out the kid in my husband. It has been worth the budgeting and the frustration of the search just to see the stress and care fall from his shoulders as we explored the woods. Even if I didn't love it in it's own right - which I do - I would love it for that alone.

I took up weaving and gave some of the family handwoven placemats for Christmas. I really enjoy doing this.

I started writing a novel. I hide in a local coffee shop read while I eat their yummy breakfasts and write for a while. I have about 70 pages, hand written, so I have only just begun, but it is a bit like a date with myself as I intended to be in high school.

Lots of baking, brewing - beer, wine, and cider, I tried making sausage and cheese and plan to explore that a bit more. I've also worked more on the garden this year. We'll see, I like gardening but more in the planning and harvesting and processes aspects that in the tending it aspect.