cici at home

possibilities

Today is the feast of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. My liturgical celebrations need some work.  The days always seem to sneak up on me.  I forgot to borrow St. George and the Dragon from the library.  I couldn't find a holy card with any of the three on it.  I didn't even have blackberries in the house!  And why is it so many people seem to have Michaelmas daisies growing wild near their home but me?

Instead, we had pumpkin chocolate chip muffins baking in the oven.  There was a tea party here today and our guests were a local, Catholic homeschooling family.  The girls played dolls. The boys raced a remote control car around the yard. And most everyone made a clothespin doll (these are my children's creations: rapunzel and man with cars shirt and pirate pants and overly glued hair that turned out looking very chic).

Do you homeschool? Are you Catholic? Have you read Haystack full of Needles by Alice Gunther? If the answer to the first question was yes.  You should read the book (psst...if you're not a Catholic this is still a good book. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.  Take a look around Alice's beautiful blog and within 5 minutes you will know and understand what a wonderful book on hospitality this is). If the answer to the second question was yes, you should really, really read the book. If you answered yes to the third question then you are surely nodding your head in agreement with me.

How did this post turn into a book review? It didn't really. Well, I didn't intend for it to be a book review. Throughout the day, though, my thoughts would wander back to this book and I guess they just wandered right out here onto this blog post.

Anyway, if you worry just a bit about how you might be driving your children to the therapist by keeping them home from traditional school and making them wear denim jumpers and isolating them from the "real" world (kidding. really. denim is so passe), then this book is definitely worth the read. Sure, it's full of good ideas - where to find fellow homeschoolers, ideas for get togethers and "clubs" - but its so much more than that.  It's a note to families beginning the homeschool journey, it's a quiet whisper of encouragement, and its a steadfast lesson on hospitality.

I'm sorry we couldn't offer our friends scones with blackberry jam today.  I'm sorry that we didn't have a beautiful bouquet of purple asters adorning our dining room table.  But today, amidst the glue and pipe cleaners and fabric scraps and embroidery floss; at the heart of the giggling fits, and in between the crumbled bites of muffin, we found needles.

do this?...check!

So, I've been struggling a bit with getting things together around here.  This house is a bit smaller than the one we left over a year ago and many of our things didn't make the move (a sure benefit of moving).  But i'm feeling like there is still too much clutter. I feel claustrophobic with clutter.

Surely my children are feeling this.  I'm quite certain they are responding to my tension. And I'm starting to feel like I'm nagging all the time.  Ooh. I hate that.

So, remembering a post I saw on Mommycoddle awhile back, I thought I would try the same.

These. Are. A. Hit.  My daughter loves these.  I think she likes that she knows exactly what to do (though we do these same things every day).  She loves that she has to "do something creative" - though they are constantly drawing/painting/gluing/etc.).  Today, she got straight to work making paper dolls.

I had to make one for my 4 year old, too. No, I don't think he really needs to work on his letters every day.  Not even his numbers, really.  But he wants to have his list. And he wants to "do math" and "do handwriting", so I oblige. He sees these quite literally, of course. He and his sister  have recently discovered (and have been able to reach) the nooks and crannies of our Bradford Pear Trees, and so he immediately read interpreted the tree drawings of "play outside" as "climb trees".  So on his I drew his orange bike (except, he pointed out, his has orange handlebars not black and so why did you draw them black mom?). Now he must ride his bike everyday. And climb trees every day.  The rest of playing outside is superfluous, I suppose.

Anyway, these work great. I think I'm going to do a morning and evening list too.  Just so I don't have to hear myself nag gently remind: brush teeth, pick up towel, pick up todays dirty clothes and toss them INTO the basket, put your shoes away (as in the closet and not in the middle of the bedroom floor) - ha! these are high expectations. Maybe I'll just draw out the list and hope for the best.

linen pocketbook

I am so fashion forward that I don't even know what to call this.  It is linen. And cotton.  And has a cute little vintage button that I swore swore swore was black.  I double checked the color. I was certain.  And here it is in the photo looking decidedly navy blue.

My friend saw one of the artist totes at Mayfly and really like the concept. She isn't a big bag kind of gal.  No no no.  And she's not the natural linen/gray linen kind of gal either. no no no.  She's a very very very good friend and evidenced by the extremely long time it took me to finally getting around to cutting it out and sewing it up.

Small little pouch with long straps (the d rings there? my friend is very much attached to one of the purse straps from an old coach bag.  or at least she removed the straps from another bag and used the coach strap - so i thought i would give her the option here, too. not that the linen would look good with leather).

As a side note: my daughter has recently discovered Kay Thompson's Eloise.  Honestly, I found myself typing things three times in a row.  Of course, I had to follow through for effect.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, and especially if you have a 6 year old daughter, get thee to a library and check it out. Now now now for lords sake.

four!

We had a birthday here this past weekend.  What is it about four and this boy?  Counting down until the exact moment - 9:45 am - until acknowledging he is "4 for real" (this, after celebrating the night before with birthday dinner, and cake and ice cream, and presents).  And then, magically, at 9:46 am he is grown and more mature and...well...four.

Oh yeah, I'm mother of the year.  No birthday candles in the house. Truthfully, I kind of like the tall taper look.

my left handed mother scarred me for life

Seriously.  I have pretty much learned to do things a bit backwards.  I say "a bit" backwards because she learned to do them backwards, and then showed me putting her left handed twist onto things. Convaluted? My point exactly.

Take, for example, this knitting needle case.  When I first sewed this rick rack closure into the seam it was on the opposite side.  Why? Because my mother is left handed. This is true.  While the little fabric sandwich was sitting inside out, I thought about which side that tie should be on and I pictured myself rolling the case - backwards.

Nonetheless, when it was turned inside out and topstitched, I realized my error. Clipped the rick rack, got friendly with the seam ripper, and reattached the rick rack to the other side. Done.

The pattern is from multicrafty.  I wanted a bit more bulk so I threw in a layer of fleece I had in the stash (well, not exactly the stash - it was a hideous blanket someone had made one of my children.  ugly. so now it stays hidden in various projects).  One thing I didn't take into account was that most of my knitting needles are shorter than that top row.  It's that measuring thing again.  I think I may have to make this again - a smaller version for the double pointed needles.

trying to knit faster

(ha! no 55mm lens - no worries! just break out the old telephoto and stand waaaay far back, or switch it over to macro and get really close. the lens i ordered will be a few days. apparently "neither wind nor rain nor sleet nor snow" doesn't apply when a hurricane hits.)

I'm really slow at knitting. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but its worth mentioning again.  It would explain why it took my several evenings to nearly finish the child's fingerless glove. As in one of the pair.

I'm using some bulky weight ole ole yarn from reynolds as opposed to the dk weight suggested by the pattern writer.  It's what I had on hand, though. And its pink.

This is the second glove I've started. The first time around I tried using size 4 DPN to compensate for the bulky weight yarn. It turned out too small, though, and so was frogged. Yes, I was heartless and amidst the "no mommy I'll wear it. its good enough...please," I took it apart and started over.  This one on size 6 needles.  The hard part? Remembering to write the pattern changes down so I can make another one just like it.  The details get me. Everytime.

In other late breaking news, Jennifer at JC handmade is hosting a scrap challenge.  Of course, and here are those details again, I should have posted a link a few days earlier so that you could join too. Its closed now, so I guess me telling you is a little bit like mentioning a fabulous party that you can't be invited to. But don't worry, I'll post pictures to let you know it went.

without pictures

because i dropped my camera. the camera is okay, thankfully, and a replacement lens should be here shortly.

in the meantime, we have had a bit of unexpected vacation of sorts - all of us at home at one time and just hanging out. it's been nice.

and my ravelry invite arrived. need i say more?

spy games

The children found an inexpensive digital voice recorder in one of my kitchen drawers.  Once the initial rapture had subsided and experiments with high decibal levels satisfied, the little gadget was employed to record their original stories.  Soon, however, even that lost its luster as listening to yourself tell a story to yourself is only fun for the first two lines, or so.  After that, you know how it ends and can't be bothered with the ending when there are plenty more beginnings to be told. And recorded.

And so little hands could be seen poking out from behind walls, doors, and any other convenient hiding place.

I was being spied on. Unfortunately for them, I don't have anything scintillating to reveal.

Ahh...back to the experiments in voice.  The sound of your own voice can keep you occupied for the rest of the afternoon.

ebo love

our ebo (easy bake oven) was given to us by my cousin's wife several years ago.  she had a few laying around and so passed one off generously gave one to my daughter.  that same year Santa was generous enough to stuff a few packets of those yucky delicious tasting just-add-water packets in my daughter's stocking.

he was kind enough to not do it again.

to replenish the stash of gross mixes myself, i'd have to spend a hefty amount for food that i so amiably leave for the kids to enjoy after they are done baking.  this is not something i am willing to do.

and so i come to the point.  eborecipes.com.  oh yeah.  real recipes with real ingredients found in real pantries: flour, sugar, vanilla extract, milk, and instant pudding mix.  measure, stir, and place in a little plastic oven to bake over a 100 watt light bulb for about 12 to 15 minutes.

when you're six, it doesn't get much better than this.

pillows: linen + patchwork

I should have titled this post "i heart brown."  My house has a definitive neutral color scheme.  When I made a trip to the quilt shop to spend a gift certificate (burning a hole in my pocket since Christmas!) I stumbled upon this lovely set of florals in shades of aqua and orange. I purchased it, brought it home, and decided to make a couple of much needed pillow covers for the living room.

Somehow a beige linen made it into the finished product.

I made simple envelope closures for the back - but I'm wondering if I should have made buttons or added velcro to hold them shut?  I'm sure - absolutely certain - its just a matter of time before various cars, trains, plastic animals, and bouncy balls find their own way into these pillow covers.  Hiding, of course.