I manage to put my feet up and knit two rows for my baby’s blanket, while the children are cleaning up after lunch and finishing their music lessons and artwork. This is how this blanket is progressing: two rows at a time. I am not an accomplished knitter. I don’t even consider myself a “good” knitter. I have to completely pay attention to every stitch, and after two rows my mind starts to wander and I’m too inexperienced to zone out and just let my hands work. But, even with two rows at a time…progress is made. It is a good reminder to me, how forward motion or any change is accomplished: by degrees, by steps, by plodding. Sometimes it just takes two rows at a time.
A Day in My Life, Part 2
I join my 5 and 7 year olds to help them with folding the small mountain of kitchen linens threatening to overtake our sofa. We use mostly cloth napkins and dish towels rather than paper products, in reds, yellows, greens, and oranges. Bright colors for all of the wee people here I suppose.
Once the drawers are full of linens, I begin doing some teaching with my 7 year old, and we are still working on proper pencil holding. I regret not starting her with cursive first, and am thankful she wasn’t further along in ball-n-stick than she was. Her handwriting is becoming more and more fluid, and the death grip on her pencil is beginning to, finally, relax. I think those loopy-loo’s that always come so easily to my toddlers should have been an obvious hint to which style of handwriting they are better able to utilize, but I was too smitten with “how the schools do it” rather than really watching and listening to my own children.
Late Spring This-n-That
Here is some catch-up on what’s going around my home and farm-ette.
Flowers are coming into bloom, including the unusual pink lilic tree; what an intoxicating introduction to spring. I love wandering to and fro through the garden and smelling nature’s perfume wafting from the newest blooms. The apple blossoms are finished, and sweet rocket is in full bloom. The irises out front are in full purple array, and they–believe it or not–really do smell just like root beer!
I added three new kinder goat baby gals to my herd. They’re very sweet and adorable but I’ve had to work hard towards getting them healthy. I don’t know if it was the stress of the move or what, but I am learning as I go how to treat my own goats and keep them in the best shape. It’s not like I went to “goat school” or whatnot. I am very pleased with their progress so far. The little black goat on the left has the silkiest fur coming in and it does feel good to see outward healing. Isn’t she cute chewing her cud?!
I like this outside wall art and wanted to share it; it’s made from from an old bicycle chain link. I love this sort of clever repurposing; some folks are just so artistically talented! I would never think of this!
My girls anxiously awaited the first warm day of the season, and when it arrived, they grabbed all of their doll clothes and washed every one of them by hand on the washboard and hung them up to dry in the garden. I love the idea of having a clothesline, with sunshine and fresh air infusing themselves into our clothes. Maybe someday. And then I’ll know just who (times three!) will get to pin them all up!
Speaking of art in the garden, I love these painted pottery chimes as well. They sound very mellow.
My husband and I had the “great idea” of raising our own pastured chicken for our family’s food. We felt pretty confident that we could get someone to come take us through the butchering process, but as it worked out, everyone was busy. Let’s just say, “thank God (truly!) for internet and youtube instruction!” Here is my friend who showed up with her six children to help me figure it out. There are friends you can call at three in the morning, and then there are friends you can call on to help you kill and gut your food. This one is both.
Overall, we’re having a good start to the summer season. Our community has a new boat to the city, and though I’m glad my morning commute is just from my bedroom to the rest of the house, I’m real excited for the difference this boat will make in the lives of our commuters; shorter travel times mean more time for family and that I think is a real blessing.
Enjoy the season!
Sense-Full
I was thinking today of some beautiful things I am lately filling my senses with.
For one, I’m writing in a journal I bought from this company, Legacy. The paper feels so nice to the hand, the cover is lovely to the eye, but I must admit the pen was replaced! I miss writing in my journal. I don’t mind blogging to y’all but my journal is between me and the Lord. I write a few pages every morning; it clears my head. Plus I imagine my grand-daughters and great-grand-daughters might take pleasure in my journal books, reading my words. Or not. All I know is that I wish I had something such from the women gone on ahead of me. I hope they will be an encouragement to them.
The little book I’ve been reading is this one:
I have so many books I’m picking at, every one of them nonfiction and meant for learning. This little one however, with the cover I loved and bought because of it (yes, I can be that sort of book buyer), is such a gem. A few pages goes well with a cup of tea; it can’t be rushed. It’s a good mommy heart-to-heart sort of book. And yes, it’s nonfiction, too.
The vintage little loom I brought home has been warped and I am ready to start weaving! The warp was a bit of a learning curve, but I didn’t mind it. It was methodical, threading each bit of warp through the reed and then through the heddle (also known as, “those do-hickies on a loom that hold the thread in tension and in place”). It’s nice to just sit for a spell and make something that looks and feels nice. I’m spinning up the rest of the white merino, alpaca, mohair as well. I plan to dye it with natural plant materials, and then….who knows?! Maybe I’ll weave a scarf!
The farmer’s markets are back in business and my taste buds are so excited! It would be a dream to forgo the grocery store completely and just have real, simple food from real farmers eaten in their real seasons grown in my own region. To that end, I’m planting a garden again. I don’t know if I’ll ever get the garden of my dreams, but I do know that lettuce picked from my home garden has a monumental advantage in nutrition and taste over salad greens that have been picked who knows when, packed in plastic, and shipped for who knows how long over how many miles. I dream of a root cellar, a cheese closet, multitude of preserves from my front and back yards. Maybe someday.
My ears have been listening to Victoria Botkin’s She Shall Be Called Woman. I heard her speak recently and I just loved how light and down-to-earth she was. I wasn’t sure if I would hear anything I didn’t already know (not that I’ve learned it, just that I’ve heard it…sometimes it’s “in one ear, whoops, out the other” y’know?), but she is definitely coming at issues from different directions and it is good thinking fodder. I did read some real snarky comments regarding her words, and my thought was, “Hmmm…..guess those just prove her point!” Feminism can be so ugly. I hate the threads of it that still cling to me.
And smell? Every morning I am outside wrapped in the smell of a newly mercied fresh morning and I milk the one kinder doe I have in milk and it is something I love. It reminds me of my Greek grandma, milking her goats to give her grandchildren a little hot cocoa with their breakfast. I love the sound of the milk hitting the pail, the sight of the thin frothy milk increasing in volume, and sometimes I just rest my forehead up against her side, breathing in all her warm goat-ness while she munches on her grain.
My God has loved me sense-full, and I am thankful for it all.
Morning at a Happy Home and Farm-ette
Morning these days is glorious. The air just smells so spring with salty sea air filtering through the woods and daffodils perfuming the air. If I could put a scratch and sniff on all of your computer screens, I would. Want to come join me for a bit this morning?
I love the look of the morning sun filtering through the trees and cloud cover. These are shoots of lilies promising to come this summer. You don’t see all the weeding that needs to be done, do you?