Weekends are for knitting

We had a lovely, blustery November weekend here. Lots of rain and wind and then snow. It was perfect weather for homemade soup and bread and knitting. I finally finished the first sock of this pair. They are for me, and I started them last fall. Maybe by next fall I will have the completed pair.

Knit-less

The last couple of weeks have been rough. I have been so busy and I have not taken the time to relax. I miss my knitting time. Knitting is good for my soul, it makes me a better person. I am a better mother, wife, and friend to myself when I knit. During the week I usually have too much going on to knit, but weekends are for knitting. During the week I homeschool my children, raise and nurture them, cook mostly from scratch (I do on weekends too), run errands, take the children to various lessons, and go to school full-time myself (thankfully all of my classes are online at this point). Weekends are for knitting, and baking, and Making, and just slowing down.

The last couple of weekends there has been no knitting or slowing down, and I am really feeling it. I have been knit-less and I am not happy about it. I do not think it would be wise for me to wait until this weekend to knit again. I am going to go bake some chocolate chip cookies, make myself a cup of tea, and knit... my homework will still be here tomorrow.

Weekends are for knitting

Weekends are for knitting, but there was no knitting this weekend. This weekend there was pumpkin carving and baking and partying galore. We baked brownies and bread and cookies and made soup. We roasted pumpkin seeds and painted and laughed. We played games and listened to spooky music and ate so many tasty treats. Happy Halloween!

It is in the making of things...

{"If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little - somebody who is obsessed by Making".
e. e. cummings
I find such joy in the Making. These pictures are from some of the Making moments this week.}

Weekends are for knitting

We are having a delicious rainy weekend around here. This weekend has been exactly what weekends should be. There has been lots of knitting and watching movies and Making. The children and I made soup and flat bread and cake and apple pies. We spent Saturday evening at my sister's house playing cards and laughing ourselves sick. We took the children to a farm to pick pumpkins. We came home with boxes of apples and pears and raspberries as well. Our home is overflowing with simple abundance! I bought some cute little quilted crystal, four ounce glass jam jars that I put tea lights in and placed on our kitchen table. They are sparkly and warm and cozy when lit. They make dinner time just a bit more magical. The children are all painting at the kitchen table right now, creating joy and love. I think I will start another load of laundry, bust out my watercolors, and paint with my babies. I adore weekends!

It is in the making of things...

{"If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little - somebody who is obsessed by Making".
e. e. cummings
I find such joy in the Making. These pictures are from some of the Making moments this week.}

Weekends are for knitting

This has been a glorious Autumn-y weekend full of knitting and baking and Making. I finished a pair of socks for myself. I love them so much! I made homemade broccoli soup. I bought a grain mill and ground my own flour. I have bread dough rising in the kitchen. I can smell the yeasty goodness and my children are so excited for the flatbread I will make for dinner this evening. Life is grand and beautiful!



pattern: Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Pattern
yarn: Lorna's Laces
colorway: Trick or Treat
needles: US 2

Planning for the upcoming school year

I have been super busy this last week getting everything ready for our official first day of school next Monday. The children are so excited they can hardly wait! It is so much fun to see them happy about learning.

We have tried nature journals in the past but we tend to be stop and go. This year I am beyond thrilled to have found this blog. http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/ (Can anyone help me put links in my blog posts?)

Here is a quick show of last weekend in pictures:




I found this yummy blueberry cake recipe at http://totallysmittenmama.blogspot.com/

Back at it

We have officially started school again. We are more than ready. It seems that things fall apart here without our normal routine. We are supposed to get a lot of snow here again today and it is the perfect setting for snuggling up with my children and reading and baking.

I think today calls for homemade soup and bread. The children and I could eat soup and bread every night for dinner and be perfectly content. John, on the other hand, prefers to not eat soup. I have expanded my soup repertoire to include more hearty soups and stews and the husband is much happier. Our new favorite is Linda's Lentil Soup. I doubled the garlic. I LOVE garlic!
http://fourlittlebirds.blogsome.com/2008/12/01/lindas-lentil-soup/

The seed catalogs continue to pour in and I often find myself lost in dreamy thought. The day the first one came I threw myself in my cozy chair and time melted away as I devoured it. John would make comments about, well I do not know what exactly, and I would answer and get back to my seeds. Eventually he started laughing and I pulled myself out of my happy place and asked him what he was laughing about. He said that every time he said something I would look at him and start talking about different seeds. Apparently I didn't even realize what I was doing. Later that day I asked him if he would go shovel the snow from our walk and he looked at me and said, "So, what about those seeds?" LOL!

I must go and deal with the laundry but I leave you with this thought.

IT IS GOOD TO BE ALONE IN A GARDEN AT DAWN OR DARK SO THAT ALL ITS SHY PRESENCES MAY HAUNT YOU AND POSSESS YOU IN A REVERIE OF SUSPENDED THOUGHT. ~JAMES DOUGLAS, DOWN SHOE LANE

Baking bread is good for the soul

Jack, Hannah and I made banana bread this morning. Three beautiful loaves!


While we baked bread Toby laid in misery on the living room floor and Christy read to him. We are having banana bread, cheese and juice for lunch.

We have decided(starting this year)that we are going to focus on the Resurrection on Easter and not do secular Easter stuff. We are going to do "spring" baskets instead of Easter baskets. We will give the children these baskets on the first day of Spring. This way they still get the fun of Easter eggs and hunts and baskets and Easter Sunday will be about Christ.

I am planning on our Easter supper being broiled fish and honeycomb. I will probably add something to the meal as that seems not a lot to eat. I was thinking of serving cheese, and grapes, dates, flat bread...

We are also taking a few minutes each evening this week and talking about what Christ did on that day during His last week. So, Sunday we talked about His Triumphal Entry, yesterday about cleansing the Temple and tonight we will talk about some of His parables and teachings.

I have this great book called A Christ-Centered Easter that has a bunch of great ideas and has been very inspirational in our quest to truly have a Christ-Centered Easter. The authors are LDS. I picked it up at Walgreens a couple of years ago and am just now getting around to making the changes.