I'm writing during the lull between activities, or more like during the calm before the storm. The Easter Bunny brought baskets of sweets, books and outside activities for everyone. A real kickball, a whiffle ball/bat, a butterfly net and buckets, scoops and watering cans have kept the kids well occupied while I readied the house for guests. Six kids and six adults, food and a really, really big egg hunt should have us all well worn out by nighttime, contented and grateful that we can be together here.
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Easter
I'm writing during the lull between activities, or more like during the calm before the storm. The Easter Bunny brought baskets of sweets, books and outside activities for everyone. A real kickball, a whiffle ball/bat, a butterfly net and buckets, scoops and watering cans have kept the kids well occupied while I readied the house for guests. Six kids and six adults, food and a really, really big egg hunt should have us all well worn out by nighttime, contented and grateful that we can be together here.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Arrival
Even without a calendar, you know it's Spring around here when these start to bloom all around the house:
I have no idea what this plant is called, I looked it up once but have since forgotten. It's not really a bush or babies breath, but long individual stick-like projections out of the ground with an explosion of tiny white flowers. They're taller than I am! It blooms at the same time as forsythia and the equally beautiful flowering quince here. I love the fact that not only is the house old, but so are all the plantings around it. The purple iris are ancient as are the tiger lillies and the damson plum trees. We also have an apple tree that's as tall as the house and a trunk that takes two people to reach around. Somewhere pruning fell by the wayside.
Appropriately, this first day of Spring is Lauren's actual birthday. One of her doctors actually nicknamed her "miss merry sunshine" after just meeting her, which matches her disposition exactly. She and the white flowers above have alot in common. They way they reach up to the sky makes me so hopeful for the mild weather to come.
Also arriving this week was the flu. John has been out of school all week and will miss tomorrow as well. Nothing like a two week long spring break! I'm in germ control mode with hand washing and "magic soap" as the kids call it, and failing miserably. Yesterday, despite his temp of 101, John and Allie were having what they call EGG WAR. It's a new phenomenon. In years past the kids would spend hours staging mini Easter egg hunts in the house with plastic buckets and eggs. This year the game has morphed into putting the buckets on their heads as helmets and pelting each other with the eggs. Hence the name, egg war.
Another arrival,
I can't stop making these. I'm mulling over a bracelet idea and will probably end up making a much bigger pendant as well.
Also, on the needles are some more bunnies. I ended up selling the first three I made for the kids (what kind of mother does that?) so now I'm finishing the ones I'll actually give the kids on Sunday. I'm glad it worked out that way because I think it's best to give each of them their own color. John gets the masculine gray, Lauren the blue below (her favorite color) and Allie will get cream or pink, I haven't decided.
Happy Spring everyone!
I have no idea what this plant is called, I looked it up once but have since forgotten. It's not really a bush or babies breath, but long individual stick-like projections out of the ground with an explosion of tiny white flowers. They're taller than I am! It blooms at the same time as forsythia and the equally beautiful flowering quince here. I love the fact that not only is the house old, but so are all the plantings around it. The purple iris are ancient as are the tiger lillies and the damson plum trees. We also have an apple tree that's as tall as the house and a trunk that takes two people to reach around. Somewhere pruning fell by the wayside.
Appropriately, this first day of Spring is Lauren's actual birthday. One of her doctors actually nicknamed her "miss merry sunshine" after just meeting her, which matches her disposition exactly. She and the white flowers above have alot in common. They way they reach up to the sky makes me so hopeful for the mild weather to come.
Also arriving this week was the flu. John has been out of school all week and will miss tomorrow as well. Nothing like a two week long spring break! I'm in germ control mode with hand washing and "magic soap" as the kids call it, and failing miserably. Yesterday, despite his temp of 101, John and Allie were having what they call EGG WAR. It's a new phenomenon. In years past the kids would spend hours staging mini Easter egg hunts in the house with plastic buckets and eggs. This year the game has morphed into putting the buckets on their heads as helmets and pelting each other with the eggs. Hence the name, egg war.
Another arrival,
I can't stop making these. I'm mulling over a bracelet idea and will probably end up making a much bigger pendant as well.
Also, on the needles are some more bunnies. I ended up selling the first three I made for the kids (what kind of mother does that?) so now I'm finishing the ones I'll actually give the kids on Sunday. I'm glad it worked out that way because I think it's best to give each of them their own color. John gets the masculine gray, Lauren the blue below (her favorite color) and Allie will get cream or pink, I haven't decided.
Happy Spring everyone!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
now THAT'S vintage
"In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught."
--Baba Bioum, Senegalese Ecologist
(thanks, Deborah!)
We are a family that is not opposed to hand-me-downs, remember this post? About the only thing we've passed up so far was a used toilet and that just goes without saying. I wouldn't consider myself a packrat, when things are past their prime I can let them go, but I hate to throw something out too soon, even when it may not be so pretty anymore.
Enter vaccuum.
Yes, this little beauty is my husband's great uncle's old Electrolux cannister vaccuum, circa 1965. You heard me right. 1965. Do the math, that's a 43 year old vaccuum. I love it that it still works, but much more than that it's better than any other vaccuum I've ever used. It creates such a vortex when you turn it on that everything is fair game. Legos, Barbie shoes, crayons, it'll even drag a shoe if you want it to.
I found out how old it was a few years back when the hose developed some leaks and it needed replacing. I went to the Electrolux store and picked out my model based on their pictures and sure enough, it was from 1965. So, for $70 I got a new hose and a practically new vaccuum. A few years after that the motor began to make a funny (LOUD) whine when I turned it off. Kevin took it apart and assessed the problem; it needed a new motor. He said he could replace it, no problem, but was it wise to spend $200 on a new motor, or just go ahead and get a new vaccuum? I opted for the motor and haven't looked back since. Tell that to Dyson.
I've slowly been reclaiming the house today. It always amazes me how quickly things can go to pot and how much paper the kids come home with from school! It's a never-ending battle with clutter and this little treasure or that. Where can they all go? It's almost so bad that I need a major organizational piece of furniture (or two) in every room. And as that is not in my budget, I have to get creative. Part of that creativity involves a little deception when it comes to school papers. The kids expect me to save everything they come home with which isn't at all feasible. I keep a stack of the boring, rote stuff they bring home, and take out the keepers and put them in a stash of their own. As the boring pile grows I just lop off the bottom half from week to week and stash it with the "to-be-burned" items and the pile seems to stay at a nice level (for the kids anyway). We would drown in paper otherwise. So sad.
No, I haven't stopped knitting, in case you wondered. There are happy little bunnies and purses hopping off to new homes for Easter as we speak and more in the shop waiting for adoption. It seems the applique is liked, as well as those without it, so I'll keep making what feels right. I think it's working.
final mono report: 3 weeks. MUCH better.
--Baba Bioum, Senegalese Ecologist
(thanks, Deborah!)
We are a family that is not opposed to hand-me-downs, remember this post? About the only thing we've passed up so far was a used toilet and that just goes without saying. I wouldn't consider myself a packrat, when things are past their prime I can let them go, but I hate to throw something out too soon, even when it may not be so pretty anymore.
Enter vaccuum.
Yes, this little beauty is my husband's great uncle's old Electrolux cannister vaccuum, circa 1965. You heard me right. 1965. Do the math, that's a 43 year old vaccuum. I love it that it still works, but much more than that it's better than any other vaccuum I've ever used. It creates such a vortex when you turn it on that everything is fair game. Legos, Barbie shoes, crayons, it'll even drag a shoe if you want it to.
I found out how old it was a few years back when the hose developed some leaks and it needed replacing. I went to the Electrolux store and picked out my model based on their pictures and sure enough, it was from 1965. So, for $70 I got a new hose and a practically new vaccuum. A few years after that the motor began to make a funny (LOUD) whine when I turned it off. Kevin took it apart and assessed the problem; it needed a new motor. He said he could replace it, no problem, but was it wise to spend $200 on a new motor, or just go ahead and get a new vaccuum? I opted for the motor and haven't looked back since. Tell that to Dyson.
I've slowly been reclaiming the house today. It always amazes me how quickly things can go to pot and how much paper the kids come home with from school! It's a never-ending battle with clutter and this little treasure or that. Where can they all go? It's almost so bad that I need a major organizational piece of furniture (or two) in every room. And as that is not in my budget, I have to get creative. Part of that creativity involves a little deception when it comes to school papers. The kids expect me to save everything they come home with which isn't at all feasible. I keep a stack of the boring, rote stuff they bring home, and take out the keepers and put them in a stash of their own. As the boring pile grows I just lop off the bottom half from week to week and stash it with the "to-be-burned" items and the pile seems to stay at a nice level (for the kids anyway). We would drown in paper otherwise. So sad.
No, I haven't stopped knitting, in case you wondered. There are happy little bunnies and purses hopping off to new homes for Easter as we speak and more in the shop waiting for adoption. It seems the applique is liked, as well as those without it, so I'll keep making what feels right. I think it's working.
final mono report: 3 weeks. MUCH better.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
I've got company
Okay so maybe she's not all warm and fuzzy 24 hrs. a day, and I overlook the fact that she turns into a tazmanian devil when I try to give her allergy medicine or take her to the vet, but my little Betsey knows when you need her. During each of my three pregnancies she was always there, right when I turned around and anytime I sat she was ON my pregnant belly. They know, they just KNOW!
And I guess I'll forgive her for choosing the woodstove over me...I just lit it and she's in heaven.
I'm getting Easter in my head and will be previewing a little bunny purse I made soon, once my models get home and the wind dies down for pictures. In the meantime I'm envisioning a wistful little bunny, a bit solemn and dreamy. We'll see if the picture in my head matches what I can do with yarn. Here is it's beginnings on needles:
The creation of something new is a favorite time for me. The picture is in my head, but it also has a "feeling" attached to it. It's hard to explain, but more than the picture (because it's bound to change) I try to convey that feeling with my knitting. If I succeed, then every time I see what I've made I don't just see it I feel it too.
What's that? No, I'm not taking medication.
And I guess I'll forgive her for choosing the woodstove over me...I just lit it and she's in heaven.
I'm getting Easter in my head and will be previewing a little bunny purse I made soon, once my models get home and the wind dies down for pictures. In the meantime I'm envisioning a wistful little bunny, a bit solemn and dreamy. We'll see if the picture in my head matches what I can do with yarn. Here is it's beginnings on needles:
The creation of something new is a favorite time for me. The picture is in my head, but it also has a "feeling" attached to it. It's hard to explain, but more than the picture (because it's bound to change) I try to convey that feeling with my knitting. If I succeed, then every time I see what I've made I don't just see it I feel it too.
What's that? No, I'm not taking medication.
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