Home Scenes

Here's a glimpse into the last few months, minus all of the used tissues and cough drop wrappers. The weather is pretending it is summer and the plants have been reacting accordingly, although the temperature is supposed to drop about 30 degrees overnight tonight, with a high of 90 and sun today and 61 and rain tomorrow. Back to Portland spring tomorrow. My garden will love the water and milder temps, as will I. We've been enjoying the weather, though, with grilled dinners outside, kids running through the sprinkler, local strawberries (atop shortcake of course!), a yard full of flowers and lots and lots of seed sowing and transplanting in the garden.

I started that sweet mitten and bonnet set for Gianna's school auction and learned some lessons. First, maybe don't pick something with a new type of stitch that can't be found on youtube and is easily forgotten. Second, don't get a cold with only a few weeks left to finish it. Yeah, so the auction is tomorrow night and it is still only half knit. When I did feel good enough to work on it, I couldn't remember how to make that cute bubble stitch work! Fortunately I have a back up finished project and now I have a whole year to finish this for next year.

I have two rolls of Swedish wallpaper that I am hoping to get on the wall this weekend, plus maybe some strawberry picking, and the school auction tomorrow evening. It will be the kids first time doing bedtime with a babysitter. Fingers crossed for success!

Mealtime Magic

The view from my sewing studio. Can you see the kids through the branches?

Before

After

Body

Sleeve beginnings

Well, the rain has returned but happily the outdoor play has remained. As I try to get my studio organized I discovered that I can see the kids playing in the backyard through the window. I'm crossing my fingers that this summer they'll spend more than 30 minutes outside and I'll be able to actually get some sewing done while they are playing. I'm not holding my breath though...

After having many battles over mealtimes and snacks I sought out the wisdom of Ellyn Satter. Her book has eliminated many of the struggles we've been having. It's common sense advice, but apparently I didn't have that common sense. Now instead of waiting for the kids to come into the kitchen, rummaging for a snack, I put out a plate of food and announce snack time midway between lunch and dinner. She recommends putting out a variety of food and then letting the children serve themselves. You get to choose what you serve and they get to choose what they eat and how much they eat. When I put out the snack pictured above I was amazed to see that the pineapple was devoured first, then a few bites of cookie, some snap peas (Gianna insists that they are to be eaten like shelling peas, despite them being snap peas), and then finished off their cookies. And then, much to my amazement, they left the extra cookies on the plate! Since I wasn't the gatekeeper of the cookies it didn't turn into a power struggle. I firmly believe Gianna would have asked for, and eaten, a second cookie if she hadn't had the freedom to choose another for herself or not. Since it wasn't about control, she opted not to eat it. It was SO EASY! I take the same approach at mealtime. I put everything out on the table, let them serve themselves, and don't talk about the food at all. I have been shocked at how much more peaceful dinner is when I'm not continually suggesting eating another bite of broccoli or whatever, and they mostly eat a lot of good food. True, last night neither of them ate the braised baby bok choi, but it was a bit slimy and bland so who could blame them. This approach has really changed our days for the better. Hooray!

I've finished the body section of the Fimma and have just begun the sleeves. Knitting all of that blue was tedious. I'm so happy to be moving on the something else!

sunny january

last night, while watching the first half of a movie, i finished the scarf! i would include a photo of it completed but my husband is wearing while out roller skating with our girl. the construction of it called for knitting two halves of the scarf and then using the kitchener stitch to connect them together. of course, i'd never done the regular kitchener stitch, never mind the kitchener stitch for ribbing, but thanks to youtube it all worked out.

my little guy is having a rough transition from two naps to one. he hasn't figured out that he needs to sleep for more than one hour for that one nap. last night i put him to bed an hour and a half earlier than he had been (because he was just wrecked with exhaustion and it gave me time to finish the scarf!) so naturally he woke up extra early today at 5! we got up, made some tea and watched this lovely gardening show, The Edible Garden, that i recently discovered. i don't think it ever aired in the states. youtube has full episodes of it though! i'd love to have a wild, yet controlled garden like hers. it was the perfect motivation to get inspired to start planning my spring and summer garden. snap and shelling peas get sown next month, with greens following closely behind. maybe we'll add a few more hens to our flock too.

this is the first day of a three day weekend for us. swim class, hiking, cooking, home brewing, knitting and i don't know what else is planned. time for me to get the stew in the crock pot for tonight. happy saturday everyone!

a belated christmas post

december was a whirlwind with lots of crafting, baking, and cooking in preparation for christmas. we hosted christmas dinner which was a lot of fun. the baking highlights were the loaves of no-knead challah bread i baked for gifts (keeping one loaf for ourselves to munch on), the cherry pie (my first ever cherry pie, made with sour montmorency cherries i canned during the summer), and the Chocolate Cake with Cloudburst Frosting (my attempt to make a cake as beautiful as the cakes on Posie Gets Cozy - my second layer cake ever). i also used my pie bird for the first time. it vents the steam in the pie and prevents it from bubbling over, plus it is really cute!

the knitted basket, acorn baby and jar of jam were a gift to my daughter's amazing preschool teacher. other than that i didn't manage to accomplish very much of my crafting wish list. i did knit my husband half of a scarf. i wrapped it up still on the needles and have been working on it every moment i get. i made strawberry pants for my son and my daughter's doll, but not for my daughter. at the last minute i gave her the doll pants and now her biggest wish for her birthday, in three months, is to get a matching strawberry outfit for her so she can match her doll. ok, i think i can do that. i already have a yard of heather ross' briar rose red strawberries in jersey. wouldn't it be great to make the pants out of that and then a dress or shirt (for her and the new doll - her name is cupcake -) in the lilac strawberry color way?

the dala horse ornament and wooden christmas tree are new this year, purchased at a scandanavian festival. it was wonderful. next year i'm going to buy a bigger dala horse that i can have out year round!