Yarn Along

Sunshine has come like a flash flood after our long winter.  All of a sudden the grass is bright green and we're wearing shorts and tank tops.  Knut is now in that near, yet far state of work.  He's always nearby but never here.  The cold kept them out of the fields extra long this year, so they're pushing this planting season hard.  At least it feels harder than other years.  He's getting at least 6 hours at home to sleep every night, which is more than sometimes.  Sometimes he even gets to be home for a whole 8 hours.

Mother's Day wasn't as relaxing as it has been in other years because he was so glazed-over-tired.  I told him to take a nap, and he thought I should since it was Mother's Day.  However, he operates heavy machinery, so I willingly give him that trump card.  For the good of the family, I thought he should get the fought over Sunday afternoon nap.  I was expecting the kids to behave better, but the 2 little girls were taking turns every 10 minutes waking up so I never got rest and felt exhausted by the time nap time was over.  We had a relaxing evening with family, but not before I took some strawberries and a magazine, woke up Knut and sent his groggy self down to watch the kids, and locked the door behind me for a precious 45 minutes.

So for knitting, I'm still on the Tsu Sweater.  The body is nearly done and I should be starting the sleeves any day now.  Soon it will be done, and the pretty lace will be stretched and blocked, and it will stand in line with my other knitting projects that are completed, or near completed, and just waiting for a written pattern, a photo shoot, more editing, etc.

While I'm finding enough moments throughout the day to get knitting in, I'm getting a little overwhelmed with the amount of pattern writing that is lining up to do.  I normally have one pattern in the writing phase, one in the editing phase, one in the knitting phase, etc.  I like to have a variety of stages going, so I always have something to do while watching a show, or a project that is easy to stash in my purse, or a pattern to work on in those precious evening hours.  I now have 3 complete projects done and just waiting for a few hours of technical writing to wrap them up.  I try not to ever have more than one in that waiting spot.

It's just that my evening hours are so short these days.  I have many projects that don't need any more knitting work but need a ton of writing work.  I simply cannot do that kind of technical writing as I am constantly interrupted and I can't seem to find 15 minutes put together from 6am to midnight that is not interrupted.

I've been reading "Knitting Rules" for the first time.  I just love reading anything by the Yarn Harlot.  It's easy to read with interruptions, and it makes you feel like someone gets you.  It's exactly the kind of book I need right now!  The sections are short, sweet, and hysterically funny.  Laughter is so good!

Solveig is going through the same sleep issues all of our kids have gone through when they were 2-3 years old and Knut heads into a busy season.  Silje, David, and Elias all went through it until they were about 4.  She misses Knut, and won't go to sleep at night because of it.  She lays in her bed and cries/whines for him for an hour or so on and off.  She doesn't want me.  She wants her Daddy-routine.

We've found in the past that if I take the kids out to the field to visit Knut more, the sleep issues disappear, so I need to make a bigger priority of that sometime this week.  Solveig has been keeping Silje awake, since they share a room.  I've been letting Silje stay awake even later until Solveig is sound asleep, because it seems to help Solveig get to sleep a little faster.

Silje has been a bundle of tired emotions during the day, which hasn't been the easiest to deal with either.  Ingrid just wants to smile at me until 11pm every night, and I'm working hard in the evenings to get her sleeping earlier.  I'm starting to see improvement.  Some nights she goes down around 9:45 now, though she still wakes up every 15 minutes until 11pm.      

I'm dreaming of a day when I'll get my evenings back.  I miss my quiet evenings so very much.

Right around 11pm, once the last of the 5 children falls asleep, I sit down with a cup of tea and some finally alone time, and Knut walks in pretty hungry as he often doesn't stop to eat as often as he probably should.  He's usually eager to tell me about his day.  I'm usually crabby and not interested with seeing another human being.  We end the day, and start it all over again a few hours later.

It's only Wednesday and I feel myself wearing thin.  I'm thinking I'm going to hire a babysitter to give myself a break on Friday or Saturday.  I'll call it a self-date night.  Since I doubt we'll be using our date-night budget this month, I'm claiming it for myself.  I would love 3 or 4 hours of uninterrupted time to just cross big things off my writing list.  I wonder if Ingrid would let me leave her, or if I should just have someone come over and I'll hide and work in the bedroom.

Either way, I hope you all enjoyed that long winded complaint.  These days get long, but really they go by so very fast.  I'm really loving the time we're getting outside and in the garden.  I'm loving the projects the kids and I are doing.  I just crave some peace now and then.  Spring planting is only for a season.  It's almost always a jolt for me after a winter of quiet peace.

Linking up with Ginny, along with other knitters and book lovers!

Chicks!

Yesterday we had the pleasure of driving 74 chicks home.  50 red rangers for our meat experiment, and 24 new layers.  It's good to have chickens back.  It's like the world has become right again.  I've been missing my hens sorely these last weeks, and I cannot wait for these ones to get big and make me some eggs.

There seems to have been some sort of miscommunication between Knut and I about where these chicks were to brood.  He doesn't remember any of my comments on this besides what I said on the phone yesterday.  It's been a busy time getting in the fields again.  He's been out planting from 6am to midnight almost every day.

We had these old horse troughs in the barn that we've used before as brooders, but he and his cousin had built this huge moveable structure for the yard to keep the meat birds in.  I asked him a few weeks ago if we should use 1 or 2 of the horses' troughs to brood the chicks, and he just shrugged and thought we should use the big moveable structure.

I told him that was silly.  First off, they used this huge wire netting, which I thought was too wide to put on anyway for full sized birds.  I don't think it's predator-proof enough.  They shrugged, because of course, I'm a city girl.  What would I know.  But put chicks in there?  Well that's just silly.  The openings in the wire are as big as the chicks.  What could it possibly keep in?

The morning the chicks were to arrive, Knut went down to the barn to set it all up for me.  I thought that was kind.  He was going to set up and check the warming lamps and lay down some bedding.  Great.

However, when I brought the box of 74 chickens down to the barn from the van, I was shocked to see the new movable structure set up as a brooder.  This would not work at all.  So I called Knut at work, and said, "Um, this isn't going to work as a brooder.  It won't keep chicks in."  He assured me it would.  I'm looking at the chicks in my hands, and looking at the wide wire netting, and thinking he's crazy.  He reassures me again.

So the kids and I start taking the chicks out of the box, one by one.  We dip their beaks in the water, and set them under the warming lamps one by one.  With Silje, David and I all at work, it goes pretty fast.  About 30 chicks into it, David notices that the chicks have gone exploring.  Keep them in?  They just walked right out of the brooder.  They didn't even need to climb.  30 chicks head in all different directions of the barn.

So Silje and David are put on chick patrol to try to keep them in, and I grab some hay bales in the corner, and line the whole perimeter with a wall of hay bales.  There's not enough of it, so I take some large boards, and finish up covering the corner.  We finish getting all the chicks out of the box and into this make-shift brooder.

I called Knut up and said his idea didn't work.  He suggested that we take some string and weave it in and out of the netting to make it more dense.  Since that sounded like the most tedious job ever, I told him the hay would work just fine.  We'll leave it at that.

Knut was good enough to feed and water them before he went to work today.  He had closed off half of the structure to keep the chicks in a smaller space for now, and he said a couple of them had somehow got behind the boards and into the half that had no bedding, light, food or water.  He didn't have time to chase them, so I went down there and rescued 2 from the dark side.  They were shivering in the dark and huddled together.  After only a minute under the heat lamp, though, they perked up and started eating and drinking.  We'll have to keep an eye on that, but I think after a day or two of growth, they won't be small enough to sneak back over to that side again.

We've had trouble in the past of chicks just dying for no reason.  These ones look so great, though!  They're energetic and all of them eating and drinking so well.  I'm really excited how healthy each one of them looks.

Although the kids and I just want to sit down there and hold them all day long, we have chores and school to do.  I think I know where they're going to spend every moment of free time this week!

Removing Winter

The sun has been out this week, and in the last days before Knut is gone in the fields, he drove an old farm tractor from his uncle's house over so that we could remove the protective winter blanket of leaves from the roses.  We fence in the rose garden, and pack the leaves in good to keep our roses safe.

Then in the spring, we throw open the windows of the house, leave our socks and heavy jackets inside, and remove all the winter leaves from the gardens, and let them breathe a bit too.

The lighting was perfect, so I had to grab my camera.  It tells me I took over 200 pictures that day.  Whoops.

I'm happy to announce, I'll only show you the best ones, and not all 200+.

Solveig and I were actually out first.  She's a particular little lady, who likes to wear her bonnet and a necklace at all times, as well as the color pink, if possible.  Yellow or purple is sometimes a fine substitute.

We were playing in the fine weather, and then Knut got home, and he called all the kids to come out and help.  We had to load all of the leaves into the old manure spreader.  We all helped, and then Knut took us all on a ride across the street to our field to "dispose" of our old leaves.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

I love them all so much it hurts sometimes.  Who knew a human heart could hold so much?

Yarn Along

Progress is being made on the Tsu Sweater.  I have other work to do, but this keeps coming back.  My Post Cardigan has been written and edited, and 2 eyes on it still has leaves mistakes sometimes, so I've decided to get a few testers going on that one.  That process is almost done, but one of my testers found a rather large mistake, and I'm working to get that all sorted out.  The number of times I've declared to myself "It is done!" has now become numerous, and now I'm ready for it to be done.

The pink sweater still needs finishing work and buttons, and needs the pattern writing to get going.  Both those patterns are at the point where they don't need me to knit, so that's where the Tsu Sweater has been coming in.  Knitting sorts out my brain, and nothing gets me stumped on a pattern faster than not having something to keep my hands busy as I'm working out the numbers.

This lace has such nice rhythm to it.  I've tried it on myself and on the dress form, and I couldn't be more happy with how it's coming along.  It's at the point where the stitch is memorized, and I can take this with me wherever without much fuss.  I love this point of a project.  It might be my favorite.

For reading, I have a few things going.  I'm still going through One Thousand Gifts.

I'm also working my way through some back issues of Taproot that a friend of mine gave me.  (This one has a knitting pattern in it.  It's by Carrie Bostick Hoge and uses Quince yarn...my favorite.)  This magazine is really growing on me.  It's a nice balance between enjoyable, restful reading with poetry and prose, as well as patterns and projects...that I will likely never do.  There was one issue with a bunch of canning jar labels, and a link to print off more.  I really liked those, so I might do that project.

I may or may not be sketching an idea to send into the magazine as a submission.  We'll see how it develops.

Also, I'm thumbing through a new resource I picked up.  Aromatherapy for the Healthy Child is a book on essential oils, which is my new curiosity.  Usually I'm the weird one in my circle of friends and family that picks more holistic things, but apparently I'm a little late to this party.  When questioning some friends of mine "What's the deal with essential oils?  I hear everyone talking about them!"  and I got an earful from both friends and family with how they use them to promote wellness.

From what I gather, they are more multi-purpose than drugs, but they are not intended to replace drugs. They help build the immune system, and can fight of many infections and ailments.  I know some people are more sensitive to drugs than others.  I have found that whenever I take some medication, I get the full range of any possible side effect.  I'm noticing Solveig inherited that trait from me, because even a minor antibiotic a few months ago put a rash all over her body from head to toe, and dealing with the whole range of side effects from antibiotics is sometimes more of a pain than the illness itself.

So while I'm not throwing out the medicine cabinet in our house, I'm attempting to build up an arsenal of natural remedies to at least try before we reach for the medicine.  I've been all over websites and blogs, trying to get a handle on what essential oils do, and finally purchased this book, which is specifically targeted for children from newborn to teens.

I think it's a pretty good book, so far.  I think sometimes it was written by lawyers.  Many passages say what you should give for a certain ailment, and it's often followed by "and then immediately seek medical help."  That is an important phrase because yes, we should seek medical help.  However, it goes after ailments like "bug bite" or "sunburn."  I like knowing what essential oils help with bug bites, but I don't see myself taking my kids to the doctor every time they get one!

There's some good information with helping soothe growing pains, which Silje seems to be getting a lot.  It has some great recipes for clearing up stuffy noses and soothing upset tummies.  So while I'm not reading this book straight through, I'm thumbing through just seeing what sorts of things are available.  I've purchased some basic essential oils, and have been blown away by how quickly they deal with a headache or stuffy nose.

Silje and I are also experimenting with making some shampoo and cleaning things with oils, though those recipes aren't found in this book.  We've made some shampoo, and we're still debating whether or not we like it.  We may need to tweak the recipe, but it sure smells good!  I also made a carpet freshener using oils put into baking soda and sprinkled over a carpet before vacuuming.  I've always used the baking soda trick, and was astonished at how much better it was with the oils!  I'm loving that.  My house doesn't smell like dog anymore.  I'm really sensitive to perfumes, so the fact that I can get something that smells great and refreshing, but doesn't have the perfume-headache effect on me is quite fun.

Going through this book, I'm keeping a growing list handy of all the oils I would like to add to this arsenal.  I tend to get laryngitis every winter, so I'm eager to try this new remedy if it hits again next year.  I'm trying to mark pages of sicknesses that seem reoccurring in our house, and see if I can at least help with those.  I'm hoping I won't have to use any of them until this fall, when schools go back in session and it seems the whole town gets sick.

Knitting and reading with Ginny again.  Her blog is such a sweet place to visit.

I'm Blessed

I had this beautiful moment this last week.  I had been working for a few weeks on a deeply personal post, but one that was so personal that I was too afraid to share.  I was caught in this place where one part of me wanted to stand up for an injustice, and one part of me didn't want to offend anyone.  No, it was that I knew the deep hurt some people were coming from and I didn't want to crush them.  I prayed a lot.  I didn't want to be a coward in my faith, but neither did I want to politicize Christianity.

I prayed.  I wrote.  I posted.  It went viral on a very small scale.  It's more attention that I was used to x1000 or so.  I know there were some out there who were praying for me.  It was fun, as well as nerve wrecking to see comments come in.  I got so many emails.  Some good, some bad.  Mostly good.  Some were upset that I portrayed the abortion industry so badly.  Some were upset that I had not portrayed them bad enough.  Some were upset I had told my kids about abortion at such a young age; some were upset I didn't share enough and didn't show them gory pictures to drive the point home.

I became even more acutely aware of my depravity, and my need for Christ.

It was awesome.  Have you ever been so aware of how much you need Christ, that the Holy Spirit just washes over you?

It was Friday night, and the kids were in bed, and I was washing dishes.  I was very aware of my failings of the day.  I was aware of every poor parenting moment, and how my kids forgave me, and I was very aware of how God had taken my flawed writing to minister to others.  I was in awe that he would have done such a thing.  I had put on one of my favorite worship CDs (Third Day) and started dancing back and forth with my arms in the sink up to my elbows in suds and warm water.

I want to sing a song for you, Lord...

A song of your faithfulness 
A song of your grace
And of your loving kindness 
To the glory of your name
With everything that's in me Lord
Listen to me say
I want to sing a song for you, I want to sing a song

The CD continue playing, as I went through the silverware and the mugs.

Who am I that You should suffer
Your very life to set me free
The only thing that I can give You
Is the life You gave to me

This is my offering, dear Lord
This is my offering to You, God
And I will give You my life
For it's all I have to give
Because You gave your life for me.

It was at that point, where my prune-y fingers left the soapy water and the mess on the counters, and I lifted my hands in the air, bowed my head, and let the soap run down my arm and get my sleeves all wet.  I just couldn't help myself.  I was getting washed.  I was being cleaned.

...and I'm Lutheran.  When our hearts pour out to the Lord, it is shown by standing respectfully.  If the Spirit is going really crazy, we sometimes close our eyes, and if we're worshipping with our Christian friends from other denominations we may sway.  We don't raise our hands and dance in our kitchen while doing dishes.

Father in Heaven
Lord, may Your name be glorified
Above all others
Above all this world
Above everything else that is in our lives
For nothing else in all of this world matters
But to live our life for You and You alone.

Each and every word was ministering to me.  In the middle of my messy kitchen, and my messy life, and all of my shortcomings, and all the ways I fail, with tears in my eyes, the Holy Spirit came and ministered to me, and it was awesome.  I know that word is over used, but I was literally full of awe.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of Earth
Will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.

I am blessed.

Teacher Notes

It's been a good week, school-wise.

I am noticing a pattern in myself, every April/May when it's time to wrap up some school year things, and I've already received the fall curriculum in the mail to review over summer, and I say, "Oh why not?!?" and start next year's curriculum.

I haven't done that yet.  I've already started toying with the idea, though.  It's not that this year's is done.  I wouldn't say that.  It's just even though we use a box set for curriculum, I'm gradually turning into a pull stuff together myself sort of teacher.  I like the box curriculum because it gives us stuff to do when I don't pull it all together.  I give Silje a book to read.  I have her write a paper on it, and we talk about what she got right and wrong, and we discuss the book.  This last week she read and we discussed Number the Stars because she's already read through this year's readers and I don't want to just tell her, "OK, you're done for the year for reading."  So I'm picking out some of my favorites from when I was her age.  She loved Number the Stars so much and that gave me lots of joy.  She was in so much suspense she did not put it down until it was ready cover to cover...twice.  We'll start getting into WWII next year, so that was a good introduction to some subjects we'll be discussing.

I've noticed at our library trips, she picks out the really pretty books, and I pick out my old favorites from my childhood that she would normally have never considered.  However, she likes the books I pick out most, so I've noticed when we get home from the library she digs into my pile first.  I feel so blessed that we both share an obsession with books.

It's not that I'm taking on anything else, it's that I'm becoming more comfortable in knowing where my kids are academically, and where they need to go next.  We just follow that path.

I'm really getting excited to dig into the things I got for next year.  I already let Silje start on the science.  She loves biology above all things.  She just started studying sea creatures, and is giving us random facts throughout the day.

She's been acting bored, so we've stepped her up a bit to keep her challenged.  I don't mind my kids spending their time reading or studying or playing or even staring at a plant outside, but I hate seeing their time wasted.  This often shows up when it takes them 30 minutes to do a 5 minute job, or asking me every 5 minutes if they can play on the computer.  So when they start showing a pattern of being wasteful with time, we started filling their time with better things.

We've switched her 30 minute piano practice a day to 45 minutes.  She was really upset about that.  It wasn't a punishment, we just thought she'd get over a few humps with the extra time.  The funny thing is, she used to practice in the morning, and then play on the piano for fun in the afternoon for 15 minutes or so for fun.  Now that we've switched her to 45 minute practices in the morning, she plays for fun for 30-40 minutes in the afternoon during her free time.  I think she's just enjoying the delight of doing something well.

I showed her this clip about a homeschooling family that all sent their kids to college early...just because they qualified.  Silje looked at me and said "can I do that?"

I should first clarify that I didn't show it to her because I want her to go to college when she's 12.  Far from it.  I wanted her to see kids...genuine kids doing things with their lives.  I wanted her to see that God has called us to prepare, yes, but adulthood can be something to grow into, not just arrive on some magical date.  I want her to see kids who do big things.  She wants to be a vet, so I told her she should probably plan get a degree in biology and then go onto grad school to be a vet.  So she started reading every biology book she can get her hands on.  Like I said, she's studying ocean biology right now, which might be her favorite.

Anyway, I was trying to tell her that math is important for vets to know well.  She didn't believe me so I talked about calculating weight and medication.  That's the only application that I could think of, but I'm certain there's more.  At any rate, it made sense to her.  She asked if she could take the college entrance exams early like the other kids in the video.

I told her not to grow up too fast

but...

if she wanted to be on the path to early college, she would need to start paying more attention to her writing and not rush through it so much, and she could do 2 math lessons a day instead of 1.  All the other subjects she's far ahead with, and those 2 subjects she drags a bit.

"That's easy."

So that's what she's doing now.  She's still fighting me a bit on the writing, but I've looked ahead to her program next year and she's going to get plenty of work done then...or next week, I haven't decided.  She has the tendency now to fill half the page of a 1 page writing assignment with the words written large: THE END.  Next year's program looks so fun, I may just start it...like I've done every other spring. But as far as math goes, she faithfully does 2 lessons of work a day.  She's about 1/2 a year ahead, making it one of her lesser subjects, but she just doesn't like it.  I think it requires her to exercise her brain than her other subjects, and it takes her a long time to think about answers she thinks should be easy.  It frustrates her when she has to work for an answer instead of wait for it to pop in her head.  I like that she has to learn how to work about as much as I like her learning math.

I asked her yesterday when I was pulling our her math textbook, "so are you going to do one or two lessons today?"

"Two...you make me do two." (with eyes rolling and lots of sighing.)
"Silje.  I make you do one.  That's all I require.  One lesson a day.  However, if you decide to work harder and take that initiative, I won't stop you from doing two a day.  I think you're old enough to make that decision."
I paused.
She smiled.
"I'm doing two."

"Silje, this is your education, not mine.  You own it.  If there is something out there you want to study, don't wait for someone to hand it to you.  If you want to get ahead, do the work.  Don't give me the credit of pushing you towards it.  That's all you."

"Does that mean I get to study whatever I want now?"
"No, that means when you're done with everything I say you must study, you can study extra of whatever you want."

She smiled, and got to work.
It's been a good week.

Since Silje got the focus of this week in this post, maybe I'll switch back to another kid next week.

Yarn Along

Well, the Tsu Sweater is coming along beautifully.  The lace section is going much faster.  I still feel like I don't have enough time to knit.  I wonder sometimes if I will ever feel like I have enough time to knit.

Since my reading is still the same book this week, I thought I'd add in what the kids and I are reading together now.  We're reading aloud Farmer Boy which Knut said was one of his favorite books as a boy.  I asked him what his favorite part was, and he said "the food."  I see what he means.  This book makes you hungry!

We're reading Knut's old worn out copy.  It's missing a cover and the back cover as well as the last few pages of the book.  Silje thought we should check out a copy from the library, and I told her maybe when we get to the end.  I think it might take longer than 2 weeks to get through this one.

In other news, the flowers I bought to bring Spring inside when it refused to come outside are dying.  This is why I don't have house plants!  I try over and over again, and I kill every plant I touch.  The ivy is actually thriving.  The mums...not so much.  I put Silje in charge of watering because I always forget, and she never forgets anything.  She started overwatering, so then we drained them and stopped.  Then Knut said that they were drooping because they weren't getting enough light, so we brought them out to the 3 season porch.  Now they look like this and they won't perk up.

Knut, the farmer, was sure bold to marry a woman who kills every plant she attempts to grow.  That's for sure.  That's not totally true.  The ivy is okay.  This has not been the burst of confidence I needed before planting our vegetable garden very soon.  I was doing so good pumping myself up about it this year.

Lastly, I got Ingrid a new toy when we were in the city yesterday.  It was so cheap at a consignment shop I was at, and I had a coupon, and our previous one has seen better days.  She loves it so much!  Solveig loved being worn pretty much all the time.  Ingrid doesn't mind being worn around the house, but she's always reaching to go be with the other kids.  Yesterday she was in heaven, being down with the other kids, and being able to stand up and play with them.

I see in that picture, there's one of David's socks that he sheds all over the house.  Whoops!  I cannot wait for sandal weather.

She's really getting into bouncing and jumping in my lap lately, so I think this will be helpful too.

After I took this picture, I wondered what was on her forehead.  Don't worry anyone.  It's just she is very loved by her 2 year old big sister who routinely gives her big, overpowering, smothering kisses.  Her big sister just ate a chocolate chip cookie just before I snapped this.  It's just a chocolate forehead kiss.  No biggy.

Linking up with Ginny again this week.  Knitting and reading to stay a bit sane.