Day Eighteen in the Days of Joy

Knitting and Sewing

It seems that we have finally found the joy in these activities when performed together. For years, Lily and I have been knitting happily, and they have all done a little sewing with enthusiasm, but there are partially completed projects all about the house and the guilt I feel each time I come across one is terrible. There has also been the little matter of Aragorn not wanting to knit, "knitting is stupid and I don't want to do it. I want to go to school so that I won't have to knit, it's not real work," have been some of the more pleasant comments.

That all changed this week. Two birthday gifts to Alienor changed my mind. One was a lovely gift of sheets of good felt and needles and embroidery floss. The other was a wreath made by a seven-year-old friend. The one gift was so simple and perfect that we had to put it to use, the other so beautiful that it absolutely inspired me to give time to these endeavors, wherever they may lead.

Monday we began. The older two chose yarn and began to roll it into balls, that took the better part of an hour. I cut two pieces of rectangular felt for five-year-old Arthur, who really wanted to be a part of things, pinned them together, drew dotted lines to stitch along, threaded his needle and away he went. Alienor, eight, liked the idea of making a stuffed animal. She chose a piece of black felt and worked on her drawing on scrap paper all morning before putting it on felt in white chalk for me to cut out. A friend arrived for a knitting lesson, so everyone took a break from handwork to play with the others.

The friend, I am happy to say, got on beautifully with her knitting. It has nothing to do with me, she is just naturally talented, but by giving ourselves time to focus just on learning to knit, she was able to do it very quickly. Another day, I might have tried to over-achieve and start everyone in the house on a project and help out and not get on with the knitting we meant to do. After producing one holey trapezoid, the hallmark of all novice knitters, she made the nicest little square of pink and yellow yarn, no mistakes, no holes, no extra stitches. Nice going!

Later that day, Arthur finished stitching, with very neat, tiny stitches, his entire "backpack" he wanted to make. Alienor learned the blanket stitch and hemmed her little black bear and Lily decided to make a dove from felt A. loaned her from her stash.

The next day I took up knitting again with the two eldest. Our project had shifted from slipper liners to actual slippers, so I needed a moment to find a pattern simple enough, yet in the round, for slippers. We all sat down together at the table. I expediated the younger ones to the playroom, though they were clamoring for help with their own projects, in order to create a focused atmosphere for our lesson. Wow, what a difference. With me wholly focused on their stitches, they made great and quick progress. Aragorn, who had never managed to complete more than four rows in a day of knitting, was increasing, following a pattern and knitting like a pro. Lily, who had never consented to follow a pattern in her many years of knitting, was not only following it, but explaining it to her brother. Those slippers will be works of love, not stupid at all.

Day Seventeen in Days of Joy

The Sound of Music

Example not lecture. Children learn by imitating. Both true, as this experience has shown. I have always longed for all of us to have enough interest in music to each play and enjoy a musical instrument. My approach was paying for lessons for interested parties and poking around a bit on the piano I dreamed of having in the house for years. Interest waxed and waned, lamely, on a very small scale.

Yes, I noticed that if I wanted to practice piano, I would soon have little hands all wanting to pound on it too. But until I began a penny whistle program to teach myself* and then the children, and encouraged my husband to take those guitar lessons he'd always wanted to take, there was not much happening musically in our house. All of a sudden, our walls echo with music. The two piano students seem to occupy that instrument non-stop, the guitar players are constantly strumming and the recorders, harmonicas, and yes, penny whistles, are blowing melodies at all hours of the day.

I am amazed, I am grateful, I may be going deaf, but it is with the sound of music in my ears.

* The penny whistle program is called Living Music From the Heart, it is by Jodie Mesler. Her blog/order site is: www.homemusicmaking.blogspot.com, I highly recommend it!

Days of Joy; Day Sixteen

Yoga class

I have returned to my yoga class after two months of absenteeism. No good reason and a dozen reasons for not going for so long; the baby is ill, everyone else is ill, vacation, it's too nice out, it's too yucky out, I'd rather stay home and knit, someone needs to buy; jeans, rat food, paper, licorice, the cockatiel pooped on my yoga duds as I was walking out the door...you get the picture. That time when there are two adults in the house and it is neither too early nor too late to "get things done" is rare and much needed sometimes. It is so easy to let other things replace what can be viewed as a mini-vacation for mama.

But...everyone does better when mama takes time to go to yoga class! There is something special about relinquishing all actions to someone else's dictation for an hour, stretching the limits of body and mind in a way that does not involve carrying a toddler, stirring soup and talking with the chiropractor on the phone while two kids fight, one plays guitar and another screams for a band-aid. I appreciate the quieting of mind, the wooden floors beneath the yoga mat, the warmth and peace of the room. Thank you to my wonderful teacher and fellow students who make it such a great place to be.

Day Fifteen in Days of Joy

A Perfect Day

With the whole family home for a day of no school, no weekend obligations, and plenty of good food, the day of Alienor's birthday was a thing of beauty and joy for all of us. There were pancakes for breakfast, just like a Saturday. Then the older children read their chosen book of the day and tinkered about their rooms. Alienor, Arthur, Puck and I cuddled up on the sofa and read "Harry Potter." It had been years since I actually read the book and I had forgotten how very good it is.

After a lunch of nachos and quesadillas, Alienor and Arthur and I attended a nature program and went for a long walk in the woods. The day was sunny and warm, perfect for being outside and rare for November. We stayed until the sun was setting on the river across the way, a glorious end to a wonderful day.

Dinner was hamburgers on the grill and homemade fries (French, of course). We read some more Harry Potter and went to sleep. I hope their dreams were as good as their waking moments.

Anticipation

Day Fourteen in our days of joy experience; fostering and enjoying the high spirits of seven-year-old Alienor, my little girl who was about to turn eight. Her whole little self was excited about the coming day. We teased her a little throughout the evening; birthday? no, I don't think there's a birthday happening here tomorrow. You're going to be how old? Five? Six?

There was such sweetness in her expression and such happiness to think that we would all be thinking of her for a day, that it would be impossible to label it selfish or greedy. It was the anticipation of a family tradition and a shared love and joy.

Days of Joy: Day Thirteen

An Afternoon Outdoors

Everyone was very excited to be going back to playgroup after a two week hiatus. Where to hold the event became a hot topic. Our general rule was 50 degrees and over, we go outside. The day promised to be sunny and warm-looking, but only 45 or so at noon. The question was soon decided by the holder of the keys to the alternative; her church. She was brave enough to face the elements, we would be too. Thank goodness! I had really been looking to spending some time in the sunshine, and though we froze our... exterior parts a little, it was great to be outside. Lovely day, thanks for the push, fellow homeschoolers!

Day Twelve

Celebrating the Life of a Friend

Dr.Jim Hodges; teacher, scholar, bringer of wit and wisdom, character. He chose All Saints' Day to depart to another realm, with typical insight and one last wink to the world. Immediately upon meeting him, you realized that Jim was someone special. His wit was lively, his knowledge of the world thorough and his opinions decided.

He was an expert on birds, their songs, their migrating habits, their mating grounds and practices. I learned quantities of things from him on birds over the years. His approach was thorough and simple. Each day, he said, he walked outside and greeted his Creator and then fed and watched the birds in his yard. They would come to him, eat from his hand, sing. From the time he was a boy he observed and studied birds, one island in particular received his attention as a wild place to observe their spring rites and learn their calls and song.

He was a professor and continued his studies every day of his life, reading four newspapers and one book a day, and studying, just last week still, two or three languages, Hebrew, Greek and Arabic being the ones I remember.

A week and a half ago he gave a class on personal finance, the state of the world and how to survive in it. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. As was his habit, it was riveting, controversial, and educational. Until the end, he remained true to himself.

Though I miss him, like so many, I am grateful to have known him in his last years, he touched lives everywhere he went, our family's included.

I do hope Jesus speaks the right dialect of Arabic when Jim meets him!

Days of Joy: Day Eleven

A Long Library Visit

Lily, Aragorn and I took a trip to the library without the younger three today; bliss! I got to ask the poor reference librarian all of the questions I had been saving up; can you find a biography of Harun-al-Rashid? The black and white movie of Thomas Edison? Canterbury Tales, children's version? How about ordering a book on CD for a seeing-impaired friend? Thank goodness the reference person gets "credit" for each question they take while on duty; I went through two of them while I was there.

I wandered through a guided tour of the children's and young adult section with my kids, they pointed out all the cool books I have not yet read and I offered suggestions of what I had read that they might have missed; not much!

Libraries have always been hallowed, favorite places for me, I am so lucky to live in an area with seven or eight at my disposal, what better resource could a homeschooler ask for?

Day Ten in days of joy: cranberry sauce and postponing grocery shopping

We are obsessively organized where food is concerned in our house. We make out a menu each week, a shopping list to go with it and shop once. No take-out, no restaurants, unless we are traveling or the occasional exception. However, with the bouts of swine flu the past two weeks, I have been putting off shopping forever, adding a couple of things here and there in quick trips to the store and using up items in our freezer.

Last night I found cranberries from last year; time to eat those! Although it is not yet Thanksgiving, I have sauce simmering on the stove to go with our chicken tonight. We will celebrate with family out of town this year, and the kids will miss their favorite cranberry from scratch sauce, so we're having a mini-holiday now. I'll bake the angel food cake I've been promising Lily as well...a real 1950's dinner.

Days of Joy: day nine: a haunted house

We made our haunted house from the gingerbread house kit we bought; fun and sweetness! I mixed the dough, Lily baked the house, I assembled and everyone decorated. I'll have a picture up just as soon as I figure out how to remove it from the camera.

Haunted House

 

Day Eight in Days of Joy: Trick-or-Treating

A joy of childhood with no equal; running up and down the neighborhood streets in the dark, dressed up and gathering insane amounts of candy. It was, according to my husband who stayed home to give out candy, rather than freezing his sitting-down-parts out in the cold like some of us, a perfect Halloween night. The wind picked up and with it the leaves went flying in great waves everywhere. The rain abated for a few blessed hours and all was color and wind and spookiness. Truly a grand occasion.

Days of Joy: day seven, getting better and one long nap!

Yesterday, many of the little people in the household began to look a little more perky. Some of them even got dressed, others promised to do so tomorrow. The littlest one gave me a fright however, he went down for a nap at 1:30 or so. He awoke around 3, and fell immediately back to sleep in my arms. I finally settled his heavy self on the sofa in the middle of everyone at 4 and he stirred not a muscle until 6:45. Upon waking, however, he was jubilant and noisy and full of ideas to keep us on our toes until way past my bedtime!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for trick-or-treating tonight. We do have a plan B the kids came up with: take all the candy Mama has not yet eaten and play trick-or-treat in each room in the house, "helping ourselves," as one put it, hurrah for ingenious ideas!

How to Look Gorgeous in Fifteen Minutes or Less

I have just been informed that this is my 100th post. It seems to me I should have chosen some momentous topic to write about for the occasion, but sadly enough, beauty will have to do. If just one thing in here rings true with you, then perhaps this be "all ye need to know."

I firmly believe in this, by the way. Laugh if you will, but staying home on many days with my children could be enticement to "let myself go" or be too busy to wash my face or get dressed.

No one is paying me, (darn it), and there is no one but my children to see me on some days, but I've decided no pay does not need to mean no self-respect. Same thing for a high-power job or career in academia; being busy or smart doesn't have to mean you look like you couldn't care less about your appearance. So this is what I do each morning.

Shower or bath; this takes the most time, so if you shower the night before, your prep time can be cut to 5 minutes. Start with a good hair cut or really long hair which doesn't take you half an hour to untangle. Wet head, brush, throw in product, finger-style, voila. That's all I do. The good hair cut costs more than my frugal self will admit, but it makes all the difference to the amount of time I need to spend on it each day.

Wash face, apply moisturizer. I quit using foundation this summer, when it would just sweat off anyway. How liberating, how much cheaper! Apply some of whatever makes you feel prettier. For us red-heads with no visible eye-lashes, this means mascara and eye-liner for me, it might be lipstick or blush for you. With practice it takes one minute to "slap face" as a friend once put it. Put some decent cloths on, sweats are for running or for days when you are too sick to get out of bed. For more polish when going out, I keep a compact in the car and brush on powder and a little lipstick at the first red light. Or powder at the first, lipstick at the second. If you live in a small town, you might want to do this in your drive-way or in the orthodontist's parking lot. Try not to park outside an office window.

Have a beautiful day!

The Rest of the Story

I used to think that Paul Harvey was the cat's meow. Then I grew up and listened to his news and commentary and was horrified. But this is my story, not his, those just happen to be five words from the English language whose harmony suited me this morning. Lest I sound too goody-goody and lovingly grateful in my days of joy posts, let me tell you how things also look around here.

I'm writing with a konked-out baby sprawled across my lap in my bed and I've run out of tea. One week of children with the flu has left me brain-addled. I made myself a cup of chai this morning and very hypocritically dipped into my personal supply of Stevia because I don't "do" sugar and I decided long ago that life was too short to drink chai with no sweetener. I proceeded to tilt the minuscule quantity of Stevia into the sugar bowl instead of my tea cup. The hypocritical part of the story is that to a poor-me syndrome led me to break into the Halloween candy this week before trick-or-treat night. I bought it early this year, figuring it would be one less thing to try to do at the end of a weary week, and I did NOT resist temptation, even though I hid it (from myself) in the garage in a far corner inside a pink shopping bag all crumpled up. I tried Babe Ruths for the first time in years (yucky, waxy chocolate), Mounds Bars (very satisfactory), more than one of those escaped the bag, and picked up a couple of bags of Milky Ways to compensate for the missing quantity, as I was yet again buying kiddy acetaminophen and ibuprofen at the pharmacy last night...I only had two on the way home. Note to self; never tell yourself where you hid the candy, and use the pharmacy pick-up window, for goodness' sake!

Today's big dilemma: how to have a no sugar day (mostly for myself) to fast before Halloween's big candy orgy when I promised we would make a haunted house from our gingerbread house kit. Can you tell I've had no adult to talk to for a week or so? But I hear your voice, dear reader, telling me to buck up and have some self-control, for goodness' sake. Got it, thanks. Or stop fixating on sugar? I like that advice even better, thank you again.

I did manage a shower while baby howled in hubby's arms for three minutes, and I thought I would do a short piece on how to look gorgeous in fifteen minutes or less. Please see next post.