Inspired by Soulemama - {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Yarn Along

Joining up with Ginny over at Small Thing's Weekly Yarn Along...

I haven't "Yarn Alonged" is quite a while.  I've been participating though but can't seem to get my photos up in time. 

As of now, I'm just about to embark on a nice, big sweater project, Chickadee by Ysolda Teague.  I'm quite smitten with the nostalgic look of it and the old, sweet charm it has.  I've swatched to practice the stranded chick pattern and to get gauge.  The swatch proved to be too small and the next swatch proved to be too big.  I'm going to guess I need to use the needle in the middle to get it right.  Now I have to swatch for that one too.  It should be a nice project to carry me into the long month of February.  For being the shortest month, I think it will feel pretty long based on my husband's upcoming travel schedule. Blech.

Reading wise, I'm ever so slowly digesting Simplicity Parenting.  I know I can't function well when things are chaotic and competitive feeling and I'm quite sure my kids are the same.  I love this book.  I started it a while back but didn't feel the need for it that I do now.  I'm pretty sensitive to my space and the feeling/flow of my home and the ideas of taking things away to get more is really where we need to be right now (and always).  It is very evident in my youngest who is at that really, really hard age (almost 2)!  I'm pleased to see how much easier it is to control (probably not the best word to use) situations when the excess noise and stuff are not in the way.  I'm looking forward to slowly absorbing the rest of it and directly applying it. 

A Rat Hat

I have a brother (actually two) that I'm quite proud of.

He has a very cool job and I'm so glad that he found what is perfect for him.

Having an animator as an Uncle is pretty awesome for my boys too.  One Uncle can fix them if they are hurt (and take them fishing and burp really well) and one can answer any question about any movie or cartoon they can possibly ask.  Plus, he makes them movies. We are all pretty lucky to have both of them.

For this brother, who is working on a new movie, Ice Age 4, I cooked up something special for him.

Lately, he is working on some Pirate Rats.  I'm afraid to say anything more but here you go, Brando.  Just for you.

I'm happy to help in your efforts to not comb your hair.  You should though; you are so handsome when you do.  I just can't help but be bossy about it - oldest sibling and all.

This Moment

Inspired by Soulemama - {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

a week went by

How did that week go by so quickly?  All of a sudden it was Friday and now suddenly the week is starting all over again.

Our week was filled with:

Indoor play

Followed by snow (that melted in today's 60 degree temps)

Celebrating a birthday and an early birthday

Finishing projects

Lots and lots and lots of Lego's.  Lots. Oh man, A L O T.

Go me.  Another project finished.

And now getting ready to start another full week.  I'm hoping to contain myself and stay away from home projects and just chill with my boys and of course, knit and work on our rhythm that has eluded us since the holidays.

So far this week started off with an early morning yarn dyeing -  reminesent of the good ol' yarn business days...

and continued on with the bandit leaving his mark on each and every room in the house.

I anticipate this week going by a bit more slowly and accompanied by lots and lots of Lego's and probably lots of coffee. 

A hat, a vest, and a pair of mittens

I've started to crank out some little knits again.  I'm determined to get my enormous collection of scraps under control.  I've got more scraps than I do full skeins of yarn.  It is depressing.

To work on that, I've whipped out a few little ditties this week.

First was a sweet little vest for the Bandit.  A Milo - which I've knit before - is super fast and easy and great to wear.  I used some bright, vibrant yarn from my favorite peeps - Western Sky Knits - and some miscelanny balls of self dyed yarn to stripe it up a little.  I can never get enough stripes!

To finish the skeins of WSK yarn, I made a simple, yet highly effective hat, Basic Winter Hat.  I've already made this one before too and find it really great to have in my wool bag (yes, I have a bag of wooly objects in my car) because it fits everyone.  I finished the top with some fun little leaves.

Finally, I did a pair of super fast mittens for Reagan.  I accidently felted the first pair of made for him.  Luckily, they fit the medium boy so no big loss.  With super bulky yarn, these came together really fast!

I've had a bad case of startitis lately.  I just cast on a pretty cowl - Sylkie, and a hat to use up the last of my Shelter yarn, and of course, endless amounts of hexipuffs to make...oh and that other leg warmer that I can't make myself finish.  Oh....and that cardigan I really want to make yet can't decide with what or what pattern to actually do...ah, Knitting is so much fun.

This Moment

Inspired by Soulemama - {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Rules of the Home

After lots of talk (mostly due to recent road trips) Nathan and I have tried to come up with some new ideas for family management.

We thought of doing a "mission statement" so when we are in the heat of toddler-hood, we can remind ourselves what the purpose is.

A mission statement seemed to adult.  We needed it to be something a bit more tangible to the very little people we are targeting.  Yet, something that can be changed as we grow and change as a family (thank you chalk board paint!)

Thus, our rules were born.

1.  Be NICE

2.  Talk To God

3. Be Creative

4. Love Your Home

5. Be Yourself

Dinner time has been used to talk and describe and make examples of the rules and why and what they are.  Both the boys like them as the oldest is (a huge) rule maker and the medium isn't. He told me he won't break these.  "They work for him."

We want our home to be a sanctuary.  Our oldest is bad at running his mouth at inappropriate times about people he is seeing and our medium one, is well, very much an individual who needs to feel secure in a space if he is a dragon, dancer, ninja, jedi, or just plain ol' Mason.  Hopefully #3 will figure out what works for him.  We are hoping these will be his guidelines to what our sanctuary looks like.

Continuing along with this idea of defining things, we defined each of our boys and gave them their own personal rules (so to speak) to what we are seeing in them right now.  We know it will change.

We are hoping our rule maker will start to think of these rules when he chooses to upset a brother or make something out of nothing - good or bad (like the invisible finger wound tonight).  We hope our rule breaker starts to recognize that moment before explosion and how it is always ok to be what or who he wants - especially at home.  We all hope to remember the littlest bandit's need to be part of the gang.

I'm hoping all of these will remind me when I try to make them bend to my rules even though I really know they can't.

The New Year

Hi!

I've enjoyed taking some time away from the time (I am barely) here to enjoy the holidays.

We did enjoy them too.  At least we did once the Christmas stomach flu was past us.  I remember telling Reagan how we will laugh next year when we remember how he got sick on his presents and under the tree.  Yuck.


Our holidays first started with Aunty Jane visiting and Ryan visiting via Google Talk.  We've had more than one Christmas like this.

From there we traveled to Nathan's parents and had 3 different Christmas celebrations.

Our family came home on Christmas Eve so Santa would not be confused on where to go.  With my oldest having the flu (after the medium boy got over it) we didn't make it to church.  We just had to improvise and probably had a more meaningful and enjoyable "service" at home.


Christmas morning started with someone getting sick and then immediately asking if Santa made it.  Logan was very excited he got a sucker from the big man.

The homemade gift was proudly given (a butterfly box) then off to our next destination. We wish we would have known how sick Reagan was going to be.  It was not pleasant for him.  A lot of TV was watched.  There were a lot of Star Wars questions asked by the medium boy to my youngest brother.  He is a very cool Uncle.

Once finally home and waiting to ring in the New Year, everyone got better.  I only had the flu for one night.
Lego's were the theme this year and since then there has been Lego this and that everywhere.  Even little Logan, ever the copy cat, is into them.

We rang in the New Year with friends at a pool party that was lots of fun.

We also rang the year in with a little paint.  Soft yellow paint.  It is bright and happy now.  Pink is now involved too.  It is becoming more of a "mommy" room - hopefully happy and bright. 

I did a lot of knitting over the break. I tried to catch up on knitting hexipuffs for my Bee Keepers Quilt.  I think I did around 20.  I also finished a shawl for a friend.  It was fun to do.  I'm tickled to do it for her.

We didn't make any resolutions this year.  We did make some rules though (more on that later).


I'm not good at resolutions.  I don't do well with promising myself anything - unless it is more yarn :)


I hope to do a lot of things better.  One is to be here more in this space and share my little monsters and our lives with family and friends whom we don't often see.  Another would be to show more of what I make.  Also, I'd like to "make" more with those aforementioned monsters.  We've gotten away from it lately.  And style and my lack there of or do I have one?  Hard to say.  That too is a goal. And lots of knitting.  I've got a mission to minimize that massive amount of scraps in the top of the closet.  Get ready to gets some hats next Christmas. 


We are looking forward to a fun and challenging year.  We hope you are too.