More Socks

Why yes. They are homemade socks. What? Oh yes, I made them. That's right, my third pair this Fall.

I am SO excited. This pair I made both socks at the same time, and I think I may be just downright addicted.

The book that I used for this pair is Knitting Circles around Socks. It was a great help to me and I highly recommend it. I spent too much money on it because it was a spontaneous purchase, but especially now that I've finished my first pair, I feel certain I will use it as a guide for many sock pairs to come.

A new family member

Our new family member, Captain

Art Student of the Week

Anna has thoroughly enjoyed her art class at school. Yesterday, she came home with a special certificate for being the Art Student of the Week for her school. The art project they worked on last week was pictures of pumpkins. What the art teacher appreciated about Anna's pumpkin picture was that she drew a background of pine trees.

Socks

I finally wove in the ends and finished up these two pair of socks this past weekend. On the left, Sofia feet. Anna's are on the right. The socks were made toe-up with finger-weight yarn. Sofia's are all wool, Anna's are wool/nylon blend.

When you don't pick up your dirty laundry....

.... someone might fall and slip on it with our hardwood floors. Like your mom. When she's looking for a shirt for you to wear to church.

Lately, if I trip or stumble, my body does it with gusto, with knees and ankles getting hurt way more than they should. This morning it was my big toe, mostly, that hurt. Call me talented.

So after I got the shirt, I sat in a chair and told the kids to leave me alone to have a pity party. Examining my toe 'I think it's swelling', 'It might even be longer than the other one'.

As all mom's know, when mom is hurt, no one knows what to do. Most of the time they don't believe we are hurt or sick, because after all we are super-heroes.

As my family processed my pain and my self-pity, my 4yo came quietly to my side, "Mommy, can I pray for your toe?" She put her hand on my foot and with a heart full of faith prayed for my healing.

I hugged her with tears in my eyes, in awe of her quickness to ask her Father in Heaven to attend to all our needs.

When I looked up, my 10 yo son was standing near. His offering to my pain - a Snickers bar from his Halloween loot. My very favorite kind of candy.

I have such great kids.

Holiday Preparations

Sweeper on the Roof

This afternoon, we took care of some home maintenance. Perhaps the 'help' was having a bit too much fun...

Sweeper on the Roof

Do not try this at home.

Today I did some sealing up of a fireplace that gave full access to the outside of our warmed inside air, as well as inviting the cold in. I am generally confident in these little matters of home maintenance. After cutting and fitting foam sheet insulation, I sealed the edges with this fun foam product. I also gave our leaky chimney (the other one) some foamy love.

In the midst of it, my hands got covered. No big deal. I've never met a mess I couldn't beat. Until today. I'm writing this at 8:30 in the evening, and have been working since 12:30 to get my hands cleaned, and functional again. Purell, regular bar soap, especially dirty hands hand soap, cream. My hands can bend more and are only thinly covered now. But there is still a lot to wear or pick off.

Next time, I'll be wearing gloves.

Time Economy and Cookies

The oatmeal raisin cookie recipe that I use says, “Bake for 10-12 minutes”. When I bake cookies, I play the role of efficiency expert.

.... to read more, check out my post over at GNMParents.

Homeschool to Public #3 - the Lunchbox

This school-year is going to be different from all the other school-years our family has experienced. For the first time, my 9yo and 7yo are going to school. After six years of homeschooling, our chickies are going to take their first test flight into a new way of life, and mom (that’s me – yippee) is going to get a sabbatical. Since there are so many things that I want to capture as we make this transition, I will capture many of my thoughts in a series of posts over the next couple of months.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At one point last winter, Anna asked me, "If I go to public school, will the I get a lunchbox?" I had forgotten about that until it came time to get them ready to go to public school this summer.

I asked my friends who helped me out with school shopping what their thoughts were about lunchboxes and again got great response. Ideas about hot lunch versus cold-lunch, types of lunch bags, and the ease of prep and eating. While I have offered my kids the opportunity for hot-lunch, they are still quite pleased to have momma make lunch and pack it with treats from home.

The funny thing was, that during all the shopping, Anna's biggest concern was the lunch-box. Are we going to get it today? Where are we going to go to get it? What will it look like? The crayons, notebooks, clothes didn't matter nearly as much as The Lunchbox. And the morning we finally got it, seemed to settle something for her. She knew she was ready. She had a way to feed herself, but the importance of it to her was clearly about more than food.

The lunchbox has remained an important part of Anna's days. She makes sure things are packed, that her thermos is filled (with water, I love that!), and reminds me to include a little note. The school day ends with The Lunchbox being emptied. For some reason she loves to save something from the day to eat at home. And she always comments on the little note.

I don't think I will get a full understanding of the significance of The Lunchbox. I'm okay with that. I'm amused by that. I think she looks so sweet with her Hello Kitty stuff, and I'm delighted that she wants a lovenote from me every day.