What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Mid-April

April 10th...and it snowed again last night!  Woe!  WOE!!!

Friday looks to be in high 60's so I will look ahead in hope.  I can grin and bear it until then.  I think I can, I think I can.

  But I can't promise we won't play hooky from school to just.be.outside.all.day.long when Friday rolls around.  In fact, I CAN promise we will!

In the meantime a smorgasbord of pictures and a few crafty projects...

A pretty dress for a prettier girl...  I was inspired by this shirt/dress I saw on pinterest and tried to copy the design.  I have very little experience with applique so I was pleased with the birds.  The dress was a bit wonky- which seems even MORE wonky now that I linked to (and saw) the original shirt and dress again.  (Ah!  Shouldn't have done that...)

But baby Skylark wears it well. 




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On one of the mild days we had before it decided to turn winter again, I decided we would take our science outside and explore a state park.  I packed a picnic lunch and it was sure to be a fine day.

We got to the park and sat down to eat and discovered I had not taken into account the chill of cold waterfalls freezing the air around us.  It was cold.  And then, five minutes later- it started to rain.





We ate the rest of our lunch in the van and then did our errands/shopping.  I told the children that if the weather had cleared by the time we were done, we would go back to the park. 

It did.

So we went back to the park and started playing/skating/having fun. 

Apparently, for some of us all three can be done at once...





Unfortunately, only a few minutes of play and it began raining again!  No chance for science- kind of a bummer field trip.

Weirdly enough, it wasn't what we had hoped it would be- but it still felt good to have done it.  Everyone ran toward the van, dodging raindrops, smiling and happy and we all agreed it was still worth it to have come.


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Finishing up the stored winter apples by making applesauce.  28 quarts worth.



An angelic reader:


Winter baby in fur:



Proudly displaying their paintings:




(On a side note: what kind of lunatic makes fingerpaint for children that is not washable?!?!  Answer: The worst kind.)

 (this one is Corynn's)

Frozen summer makes snowy days more colorful:



Toddler models are far less accomodating than baby models. 

I made this hat for a father/son matching hat to go with this one.  It was supposed to fit a 7  year old.  

yep.  

major fail.


On the upside: another baby hat in the gift cupboard, ready to be gifted on a whim!

Not great pictures- (it was freezing outside!) but kept for the sole purpose of remembering Ineke in this precious hand-me-down dress:

Also to remember: that when I say "SMILE!" she thinks that means "RAISE YOUR ARMS!" 

And yes- she is wearing my heels. 

Again.






Currently:

Finished Killing the Rising Sun (so glad! That was really very hard.) and Jack and Jill and have moved on to good 'ole C.S.Lewis for a stint.  The Joyful Christian, on my nightstand. These are super short little readings.  Not devotionals, just excerpts on certain topics from his writings.  Really enjoying it.  Also- I just started The Problem of Pain, in audiobook form. 

linked up with crafting on, small things

Tuesday, April 03, 2018

Yarn Along



Of Hooks:

I'm working on Adele's mermaid and it is taking FOREVER...mostly because I am avoiding it because it stresses me out.  Though I have followed the pattern exactly the same as before and used exactly the same hook size, this doll turned out to be twice as big.  I figured I would chug through and just use up a bit more yarn (not a bad thing) but then when I saw that the largest doll eyes were teensy compared to the head I was at a standstill. 

Do I embroider the eyes?  They could be pretty but I like the more 'simple' black eyes, less detailed and often less 'gaudy'.  Plus, I don't have loads of experience embroidering realistic eyes so there is always the chance of botching it up badly.  That held me up for a while.  I eventually decided to use the doll eyes and embroider some black eyelashes on top to make them look bigger but hopefully keep it simple and clean looking.

Then, there was the fact that Adele' wanted the exact same coloring as the other mermaid which to me was kinda boring.  If you make the same doll twice- why not make them with different personalities and styles?  I spent a few weeks trying to coax a few different colorations/ hair options out of her but she held fast.  Okay fine.  Same colors!  Her doll, her choice.

And then there was the worry that the sizing is going to mess up the decreases in the tail and it will be a short, stubby mermaid...or maybe a super long tapered mermaid.  And WHY is it so different anyway? 

All of these things have discouraged me from picking it up.  Long intervals of ignoring it, coupled with my bad habit of not marking where I left off (because of course I will remember, ahem.) means the body and tail is turning a bit wonky shaped as I probably repeat rows or delete rows over and over again. 

*sigh*

I like how it is turning out but I will be happy when it is done.  I refuse to start any other yarn projects until this one is done!

Of Books:

I finished HOME by Marilynne Robinson and I have to say it has been my favorite of her books thus far.  And that says a lot because I loved Gilead and Lila.  HOME is exquisite.  The end, in particular, touched me deeply.

I try to alternate between fiction and non-fiction and I always have an audiobook and a real book going at the same time.  The audiobook for when I am doing household chores like deep cleaning a room-or everyday cleaning the kitchen- folding laundry, etc.  And also a real hold-in-your-hands, read the little letters and turn crisp pages book for at bedtime. 

My current audiobook is Bill O'Reilly's Killing the Rising Sun about how America vanquished World War II Japan.  I am finding it hard to find time to listen to it though because it is written in gruesome, sordid detail and my children are always surrounding me.  I don't want the children listening to some of the things that I have had to listen to so I am careful to only turn it on in those few moments I find when I am alone.  I don't really like listening to it myself- it is gruesome and sad and horrific. But this is history and one needs to know where we have been before we know where we will go.   I have always thought of the Japanese to have been the victims of World War II- I've really only thought of those poor Japanese Americans unconstitutionally interned into camps in the US and the victims of a horrendous, atrocities of an atomic bomb (or two).  This book has jolted me to see the atrocities inflicted BY the Japanese.  No book is written without bias, as we all know.  Sometimes it is hidden better than others.  I've only read a few of Bill O'Reilly's books but this one seems to show the most clear bias of the ones I have read.   The Japanese are portrayed as only horrible and awful and the Americans were always honorable and good.  We all know this is not the whole story and not always true.  That said, it has given me a more balanced view of World War II Japan not being only victims.  And it has reminded me, as all historical war books do, how ugly and terrible war is.

My honest-to-goodness book to read at bedtime is Jack and Jill by Louise May Alcott.  It is syruppy sweet and the children are honorable and good and kind and just lovely.  Maybe a bit flowery but perhaps the pages overflowing with goodness and kindness and empathy and innocence and honor is just what I need to offset the harshness and ugliness I see in my other current 'read'.

... linking up with these ladies ...