7 Quick Takes

Go visit Jen for more Quick Takes.

 

~1~

It's been a good week. I worked one measly little day and spent the last 2 days with my kids. Sorry about the lack of posts, but little boys come first around here. In the last 2 days we have:

• Signed up for the summer reading program at our library.


• Had a tux fitting for Ender (for his uncle's wedding tomorrow)


• Finished making the wedding gift for my brother and his soon-to-be bride (will share pics next week after they've opened the gift!)


• Broke my sewing machine


• read A LOT

Oh yeah- and Ezra colored all over the t.v. It was awesome.

 

~2~

Did you catch that "broken sewing machine" part? It completely freaked out on me last night as I got started on the secret wedding gift. After an hour of re-threading, cleaning it out, changing the needle, fiddling with tension and almost pitching it out the window I called my mom. She told me to turn it off and she would stop by to help me figure it out in the morning.

About 5 minutes before my mom was due to arrive I turned the machine on and ran a few lines . . . it worked perfectly. Mom messed with it too and I finished the whole project this afternoon without a problem. Grrrrr...

 

~3~

I've spent the last several days re-reading sections of Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss, primarily the Teaching Reading and Teaching Writing portions. This is the area that I am struggling in with Ender. He is pushing forward in this area in ways I'm struggling to keep up with so I needed better suggestions and ways to help him.  Is there any good way to help him with his handwriting frustrations? Ender desperately wants to write letters and the perfectionist in him wants the letters to look perfect on the very first try. Obviously he doesn't have the control necessary to do this- he's three years old- but he doesn't understand that.

 

~4~

I mentioned above that my brother is getting married tomorrow. We have had a ton of weddings in the last few years. Superman and I were married in 2001 but it wasn't until June 2006 that my first brother got married, followed shortly by a second brother in December 2006 and a third brother in March 2007. One of my sisters got married in 2008 and now I have my next-to-youngest brother getting married tomorrow. Only 3 siblings to go! My youngest brother and sister are both in serious relationships- maybe more weddings in the next year or two?

 

~5~

Superman and I have been having a lot of discussions about home learning lately. When to start kindergarten, how a "school day" will look, a budget for materials and books, what is important to cover, what outside activities the boys should be involved in, and that kind of stuff. I'm trying not to feel overwhelmed. Something about the idea of officially starting kindergarten has me a little nervous even though we have an entire year before we start. There is a lot of really good material out there and there's a tiny voice in my head chirping that I can't cover everything that needs to be covered. Then I remember- math, reading and writing, love of learning . . . that's the important stuff.

 

~6~

 Do I have the only little boy in the world who loves to dress in very nice clothes? He's been in 4 weddings before this and every time he has been absolutely in love with the tux. He asked me at the tux fitting if he could keep it forever. I recently found a new shirt and tie for him and he wore it for a few hours every day for almost a week. This kid likes to look nice!

 

~7~

Want to guess what is staring to ripen in our garden first?

Long Weekend

I spent my weekend in the car knitting. How about you?



I cast on for this cute little baby sweater a few days before the trip when we found out that my brother and his wife are having a little GIRL! The pattern is Daisy by Stephanie Pearl McPhee and I'm making it in the 0-3 month size without a hood. How many newborns need a hood?



We spent our long weekend with Brian's extended family for a family reunion of sorts. There was lots of grilling, a few bonfires, some time in the pool and shopping. Oh... the shopping. We hit a really great sale at a Carter's outlet that rounded out the clothes I already have for the boys for fall, and my mother-in-law gave me my birthday gift early- money for some new clothes for myself. I really have needed some new things for awhile, so I took advantage- 3 skirts and 2 shirts later I feel like I have a brand new wardrobe. And the most important shopping point? I FINALLY found a dress for my brother's wedding on Saturday! I'm playing in the wedding and neeeded something to fit with the bridal party. Now if only I could find some black dress shoes for Ender (who is the ring bearer) we'd be all ready for the wedding.


The boys spent almost the entire weekend outside. You've never seen 2 boys sleep so well at night and 2 hours every afternoon! Between the swimming, croquet, baseball, hot dog roasting, marshmallow toasting, and boating they were two happy little boys.

Ezra was in love with this little croquet set that my in-laws brought for him. He loved to push the stakes in and out, and he also tried to wear the wickets as hula hoops. Silly boy!

Ender spent much of his weekend practicing batting. Superman's true love is baseball and it seems that he's passed that love on to the boys. Ender stayed out there for ages asking his daddy to throw the ball to him and practicing running the bases (which were a shirt, a towel and an extra baseball mitt. Grandpa was home base.) It will be fun to see this boy play some t-ball next summer.


But of course, now we're home. I tried to get through at least some of the laundry last night while answering Ender's unending question: "but whyyyyyy can't we stay camping all the time???" I promised him that there will be lots of camping this summer, but he won't really believe me until we go again in a few weeks. But once he realizes that our neighborhood pool is now open and that Mama is working much less (which means whole days outdoors) he will be just as happy as he was camping.

Time Out

I'm taking a tiny writing break until Friday. There is just too much going on right now. Ezra is sick (again!), this is my last full week in the studio, we're leaving for a long weekend away early Friday morning, and I'm trying to finish up several projects before we leave.

 

I'll be back Friday morning for 7 Quick Takes!

Seven Quick Takes

 

Go check in with Jen to see more Quick Takes.

 

 

~1~

 

This is one of my favorite things in my kitchen. It's just a bottle that I used to use for olive oil, but awhile ago I bought a new one that fit in my cabinet better. So my old olive oil bottle became a dish soap dispenser. It makes me happy every time I see it and I like to think it contributes to my attitude about the cleanliness of my kitchen. The recent challenge I've issued myself is to get every last dish taken care of before heading to bed just because I feel better about my day when I come downstairs to an empty sink in the morning. When it's full it's just one more thing I have to take care of and I resent it.

 

Pretty soap bottle?

 

Totally helps.

 

 

 

 

~2~

I've been working all kinds of late the last few weeks. One more week of this insanity then we're off to the lake for a long weekend, I'm off work for a week and my brother is getting married on May 30th. Then summer- short work days, lots of time at the pool and in the mud, and best of all lots of time in the kitchen and at the sewing machine!

 

~3~

Speaking of crazy work stuff, I've apparently been playing too much music lately. The pain started in my wrist, migrated to my elbow and now I'm having a lot of shoulder pain. I've struggled with tendonitis in my left arm since high school- back then I was practicing violin 4 hours a day. Now I'm getting minimal practice time but all the demonstrating for lessons and chord work I've been doing lately for piano has brought it back. The shoulder pain is new though. I'm sure that's a great sign.

 

~4~

Superman and I are adding a new step to our diet change in a few weeks.  We've already worked on eliminating caffeine, eating more homemade and not  bringing  things home that we shouldn't eat- after all if it's not even in the house you're less likely to eat it, right? Well, our next step forward is to eat less meat. Neither of us think there is anything wrong with meat, it's just expensive and we're trying to cut back our budget without changing the kinds of foods we eat. So we're going to try to have meals centered on beans or rice twice a week instead of meat. This was actually Superman's idea and that totally surprised me- he's a meat and potatoes kind of guy. We'll see how it goes.

 

~5~

Wanna know what happens when your toddler wakes up at 5 a.m. you settle him back in and he's completely quiet? I can tell you for sure that he didn't go back to sleep! Instead he did this:



 That would be his train border that he systematically peeled off until he cried for me to get him up a little after 6.

 

It's like that on the other wall along his crib too. *sigh* Fortunately it's only ripped in on place so I'm going to attempt to salvage it this weekend.

 

And move his crib to the middle of the room.

 

~6~

I finally managed to get all the way through the boys clothing and pack up their winter stuff. Now it's on to the closets- I need to pack up the winter jackets, hats, mittens, boots, etc. so we can exchange them for ball caps and beach towels. I should probably do something about the disaster zone we currently call the closet in our master bedroom. It has become the collection point for all the bags and boxes of stuff we intend to donate, but it's stuffed to the point that it's getting difficult to get to the clothes we actually do wear. I suppose I should actually make that trip to Goodwill.

 

~7~

If you don't hear from me again that will be because I had a nervous breakdown. As you read this I'm probably at the car place getting the oil changed and a car inspection for our van while my 1 and 3-year-old boys are with me. Then after that I'm supposed to hit the DMV and renew the tags. All in one morning.  Hopefully I'll have brought enough games, snacks and books so that we won't even notice the passage of time, but there's no way to be sure.

Recent Fiction

Books have always been extremely important to me. Superman and I hope to one day own a house with a library- we already have enough books to fill it! Superman is pretty much a genre guy- a lot of science fiction and fantasy, but he does appreciate classic literature as well. I'm eclectic in my reading choices. Mysteries, suspense, urban fantasy, chic lit, classic lit, historical fiction etc. I read a little of everything. At the end of last year I read mostly historical fiction for some reason, and now I'm on an urban fantasy kick. Eclectic, right?

 

My reading year started with two gigantic books- Kushiel's Chosen and Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Cary- that took me until pretty recently to finish up. In the last few weeks I've read The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory, Undone by Rachel Caine and I'm most of the way through Little House in the Big Woods. I haven't read Laura Ingalls Wilder since I was 7 or 8 years old!

 

It's so interesting re-reading books from my childhood. I remember this book differently from how it actually reads. It seemed so large and the chapters so long when I first read it, and the story so big and wild. I loved this book tremendously as a child and I can remember exactly what our copies looked like when my mother gave them to me and what they looked like after I'd read through them several times. I had this same feeling when I re-read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry a year or two ago. That book had such a tremendous impact on me as a child and on really directing me to see what truly important things are. Reading it as an adult brought a different direction and depth.

 

Ender's current favorite is The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. We've read it at least once a day for the last week or so. He has such empathy for the little house as the city moves in around it and the house is abandoned by his owner. He cheers when we get to the page where the little house has someone to live in her again! Empathy and compassion is a big theme in Ender's life right now and I see that reflected in his reading choices.

 

Ezra is obsessed with Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. Besides the fact that this book is a classic, I think Ezra is attracted to the book because he can say most of the animal noises. This book is important for Ezra because it's the first book that he will sit all the way through and often will ask to read it again. For a child that refuses to sit in one place for longer than three seconds it's quite an accomplishment to get through a full book.

 

Superman? Well he's been on the same Star Trek book for months and months now because sadly his reading time is full of text books. He does listen to audio books while driving for work and currently in his truck is the Left Behind series. I believe he's on the fourth book now.

 

I'm pretty sure you can tell that books are an important part of our home. We seem to have stacks of them everywhere and we have a weekly visit to the library. I always seem to have non-fiction books I'm working on as well- I'm sure I'd get through fiction faster if I didn't have 3 books going at once!

Plants and Animals

We planted a few things this week: tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, carrots, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard and a few different kinds of flowers. Ender is hyper-aware of the plants' presence and asks to water them about 100 times per day. I'm just hoping that I don't kill them too quickly. I've never grown anything before, so we'll see how this goes.

 

Ender also has a little cactus that he is enthralled with- I'm hoping that that is a little hardier than the other plants and less likely to die since Ender is treating the cactus like a pet. I expect him to name it any day now.

 

We also managed a family morning at the zoo last week. This is the first time that Ezra really remembers going. We went last year right around his first birthday and I think he enjoyed the animals then, but this time he was really ooh-ing and ahh-ing.



 

This giraffe ended up coming just about as close to us as it could get. Ezra was in my arms at the edge of the fence trying to reach over, pointing at the giraffe and opening and closing his mouth like he wanted to say something but was awe-struck. Ender, on the other hand, backed up as far as he could on the trail when the giraffe came close to us and said, "I can see him fine from here!" That perfectly demonstrates my boys- Ezra inviting the excitement of adventure, Ender being cautious in the face of the unknown.

 

Ender asked immediately to go back to the zoo when we got to the car. We have passes for the year, so we plan to go back quite often over the summer and fall. There are a few different sections to the zoo that are all big enough to take a full morning at our pace, so each section is perfect for a long morning, grab a bite for lunch then head home for afternoon nap and quiet time.

 

Other impressive animals were the peacocks with their feathers fully on display, the elephants (where Ezra could have stayed all day!) and the hippos. The hippos can walk under a small bridge at our zoo and they did right when we were standing on top of it! The boys got a very close view of the hippos from above. Ezra even tried to say hippo, he was so fascinated by then!

30

A happy Birthday to Superman, who is 30 today, or as we've been saying around here:





OLD





OLD





OLD





(that is, until I turn 30, then 30 is the new 20.)

Practical Life

 Ezra is just starting to drink from an open cup. We've had a few of these little coke glasses since we got married and they're a great size for Ezra's hands, even if they aren't a very traditional looking Montessori item.

 

Ezra started to take a very active interest in our cups a few weeks ago, so I started him out with just enough water in the cup to have 1 sip. After he was able to control that I started giving him a little more each time. He still spills on occasion, but he's very careful in general. Once he's really doing well with drinking out of the glass I'll put together a pouring activity so that he can pour his own cup and drink it. Now if only I could get Ender to be as equally interested in drinking from an open cup!

 

Ezra has also started to try to fold things. He watches me fold laundry almost every day and Ender has the fun task of matching socks. Ezra wants to have a job too so I've been directing him to hand towels and washcloths, showing him how to make the corners meet and to smooth out the fabric. He doesn't quite have the patience for it though, so he usually makes one nice fold and then crumbles it all up on the second fold and throws it back into the basket. Work in progress.

Seven Quick Takes

Be sure to visit Jen for more Quick Takes.

~1~

I'm not in a very knitty mood now that the weather is warmer, and in my search for the perfect baseball game project I came across photos of some hexagon quilts. I especially love this one! All those little hexagons, basted and pieced by hand! Would I just end up with a pile of 500 basted hexagons and no quilt? Do you think it would hold my interest long enough? I'm not sure. I just love the geometry.

~2~

Ender and I decided to make a "fun jar" for the summer. I will only be teaching 3 days a week over the summer, so we made a list of several things he wants to do on my free days and I had a list of things I added as well. They range from going to the zoo to drawing with sidewalk chalk, playing a card game and having a picnic. The plan is to draw one card each day and add it to the plans that day.

~3~

Superman has been a die-hard Royals fan since birth. Have you ever heard a sadder thing? Every year on January 1 he wakes up to tell me how many days there are until pitchers and catchers report. By the time February rolls around he's predicting, "This is the year!"

 

Seriously. It's an infectious disease, this baseball stuff. So now I too am a Royals fan. It permeates the house.

 

This year is looking petty good. 18-11, Zack Greinke pitching complete games, shut-outs, a gazillion strikes per game and a 0.40 ERA . . . I've liked Zach and his weirdness ever since he came up several years ago and I'm glad everyone else finally gets to see how awesome he is! Another thumbs up to the Royals organization for actually putting together a team that can support their pitchers.

~4~

In my giant geekiness I've been watching a new show on the History Channel called Life After People. I find it all so interesting! People think that all these things they have built will remain important forever, but in this show they demonstrate just how fragile our human history is.

In another geeky note, I also have 2 netflix disks awaiting my attention- Colonial House.

~5~

I haven't baked bread in several weeks because I'm just not happy with my bread recipe. It's great for general bread eating, not so great for regular sandwich bread- which is what I need. I've been reading Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and I'm considering trying this method in my search for a good sandwich bread.

~6~

Ezra is finally starting to pick up some language! It isn't recognizable to many people, but he's making 1 sound in reference to 1 particular item with intention. He's now asking for water (ra-ra), gesturing constantly and babbling and at least TRYING to speak. At the zoo on Tuesday he was enamored with the hippo and kept pointing and saying "mmmmmmmm-po!"

Must have been the threat of a visit to the speech therapist.

Oh- and can't forget this one: he says no to us, then runs away giggling.

~7~

I'm starting to get through some fiction again, thank goodness! So far this year I've finished a grand total of two books- Kushiel's Chosen and Kushiel's Avatar, both by Jacqueline Carey. Can I just say that I should get credit for reading 5 books after that? My latest read is decidedly shorter- Undone by Rachel Caine. I'm a huge fan of hers, and true to the other novels in her Weather Warden world this book is keeping me up way too late. I started it Monday night- I have about a third of it left.

Good Nights

Bath time is my very favorite part of the evening. After baths there's spiky hair, lotion for the rough eczema spots, and picking out favorite jammies followed by running to Mama and Daddy's bed to cuddle and read. We read as many picture books as Ezra has patience for and the boys switch back and forth between us, sometimes mid-book. In case you didn't know, some books are "Daddy books" and some are "Mama books" (nothing to do with who is reading) and you have to sit with the right parent for the right book- this is Ender's rule, at least. Ezra is happy to have which ever parent is left with an empty lap.


After reading it's on to Ezra's room for a family singing of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (Ez's favorite) then kisses, noses and squeezes from everyone. I stay and rock with Ezra for a few minutes before he goes to bed; Ender and Daddy go on to read Ender's chapter book.


I kiss Ezra and sing a bit more to him before he points to his crib. He sleeps with a special Mickey Mouse pillow and blanket my mom made for him, as well as his silky blankie and a veritable zoo's worth of stuffed animals. Ezra barks at me- he wants me to ask if he's a doggy or a baby, so I do and he smiles and says, "Bay-beee" (his newest word). He waves to me and cuddles into his blankets. I leave the room and go to visit my other boy.


Daddy and Ender are done reading and hiding in wait under the blankets. I pretend that I can't find them anywhere and search all over- behind the dresser? Inside the piggy bank? By then Ender can't stand it any longer and he bursts out from under the blankets. "I was here the whole time!"


I kiss him goodnight and he asks if Daddy can sleep with him "for just one minute. And then I'll send him back to you." I agree and tuck him in a little tighter. We sing the blessing song and I kiss Bear-bear good night too. As I close his bedroom door I hear him tell Brian, "I told Mama I'd send you back to her in just a minute." True to his word, Ender sends his daddy out just a few minutes later.


Good night, my sweet boys.

A Few Notes

** I updated the About Us page for my own clarity. I needed to re-define what this blog's purpose is so that I use it the way I need to without unnecessary guilt.

** If you're interested in a new educational blog, Check out Amongst Lovely Things. I like her term "Relaxed Homeschooling". That's totally my intent.

** If you're hunting for Kara at Rockin' Granola she can no longer use her typepad account and has moved to blogger. You can find her new place here.

** If you're wondering where all the Montessori stuff went from this blog, I'll be honest with you. There's been very little "formal" education here. The grown-ups have been very stressed out busy with the end of the school year (Superman=finals, violingirl=scheduling for summer lessons) so the children have been busy digging in the dirt, visiting the zoo, creating "the longest train track EVER" and reading lots of books. Mama will be back to more organized things soon. Only two more weeks of school year lessons and then we're into a much lighter summer schedule!

Don't call- I'm busy for the next 6 years.

I kind of had a crafty weekend. Two of my sisters came over Friday night for a crafty evening- I finished up the elastic on pajama pants for the boys and then worked a little on the socks that have been merely a cuff for weeks and weeks. One sister cranked out over an inch on her crocheted afghan, and the other sister is learning to embroider and gave us all a mini lesson on what she's learned so far.

 

I realized while cleaning up my crafting area for our little get together that I have about a million half-finished projects. I generally finish what I start, but I work on everything in phases. I absolutely hate cutting pieces, so when I'm in the mood to cut pieces I cut out pieces for a few different projects and then I don't have to cut anything for another month. It's awesome. However, I occasionally get a little nuts and have too much going on at once. I'm down to quilting the last few blocks on Reed's Quilt, I'm halfway through a beautiful purple sock, I have the pieces cut for an apron going to my future sister-in-law, I'm finally down to embellishments on this odd project I'm calling "bloomers", and I'm working on some curtains for the kitchen.

 

Those are just the projects I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there's something lurking in the bottom of one of the project baskets.

 

So I thought it would be smart to go through my fabric and yarn stash during Ezra's nap on Saturday and write down the projects I had planned. I don't really stash fabric just because I like it- I generally have an idea of how I'm going to use it. So I have all this fabric earmarked for projects, and when it's written down on paper and I consider how much time I actually have, I discovered that I have enough projects lined up to last me until 2012.

 

Seriously.

 

And the bigger problem? I have 29 links in my "Future Projects" folder. TWENTY-NINE. Four of them are quilts. So that takes me through 2014 at least.