Christmas Crafting

Thank goodness for twelve days of Christmas-- I'm going to need all of them. My dining room table still looks like the first photo. I'll clean it off for tomorrow, but I still have plans for more sewing of Christmas gifts. I've sent out about 40 or so felt bird ornaments into the world with a few more to hatch tonight.

Peace to all this Christmas Eve.

Cousins

Today is the last day of our visit with my sister's family. We took a walk in the woods. I will be sad to see them go back home.

Thanksgiving Napkins

Yesterday afternoon (cutting it close), I finished a new set of fall napkins for our Thanksgiving table. I'm pleased with them as I've wanted some fall napkins for several years. I also cut out the fabric for a dress which I hope to sew today in between preparing the Thanksgiving sides. Ambitious? Yes. Thanks to my brother-in-law, the smoked turkey is already done. We also spent the day playing and talking with family, and my sister and I prepared a five- dish Indian meal-- probably more time consuming than our Thanksgiving preparations.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Owl Sighting

We were playing a family game of Harry Potter Clue last night when our neighbors rang the doorbell to tell us that an owl was on some lines outside of our house. It was a barred owl, and it let our neighbor shine a flashlight in its eyes and let me flash lights with my camera. Four adults and four children stood in the middle of the street in front of our house and looked up in amazement. The owl probably has a home in our neighborhood in a hollow tree or abandoned crow's nest. It may be responsible for the intestines our neighbor found in his yard a few days before. After about five minutes, it flew away across the street and out of view into some pine trees.

After doing a little research about the barred owl and downloading my photos, we returned to our game of Clue to rule out the owlery as the crime scene. The intersection of this feathered messenger with our Saturday night, however, was as bewitching as the world of wizards and magical creatures in our Harry Potter infused imaginations.

Wait-- a letter!

Courtesy of Charlie Deaton.

Carving

Happy Halloween!

October's End

The above photos were taken by my daughter for a visual arts project at school around the theme of "together we can." She visited my after-school knitting club and tried to capture how learning to knit often involves one-on-one instruction-- sometimes with "teaching hands" and "learning hands" wrapped up together with yarn and needles. This knitting club has been one of the bright spots of my October.

October also brought several challenges. This entire school year has been a rocky ride that has eaten up what used to be little bits of free time. I used to blog several times a week! Lately, I only seem to manage a few posts per month.

All of October's challenges, however, were not daunting. Some of the pleasant opportunities were:

• Taking a weekend trip to Birmingham for the Writing and Illustrating for Kids conference of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (Sarah Campbell, a writing buddy and fellow traveler from Jackson, wrote a wonderful description of the conference here;
  
• Learning how to cook Chicken Tikka Masala, Baighan Bartha, Naan, and Aloo Gobi Masala with some good friends;
• Reading Any Which Wall by Laurel Snyder with my daughter and thinking about "common magic;"
  
• Watching both of my children participate and progress in their Tae-Kwan-Do classes;
• Reveling in rain after a long time without.

With less than three days left in this month, I'm anticipating:

• Enjoying cooler, more fall-like temperatures;
• Carving two, large pumpkins and three, small pumpkins to welcome hallowed haints and saints;
• Strolling through the neighborhood in search of fall colors peeking out here and there.

Knitting Together

As promised. . . some photos of my after school knitting club at St. Therese Catholic School. Several of my students had been asking me to have a knitting club for several years. When I agreed to offer the after school activity, I did not expect that twenty-five third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders would sign-up. What is more, sign-up forms keep rolling in as other students see their friends knitting and want to learn.

We have met several times this year, and a few of the students are already able to mentor other students (love that). Thank goodness I now have some help teaching! I was barely able to catch my breath at the first few meetings. I'm also helping students one-on-one or two-on-two in the mornings before school.

One mother has already come to class with her daughter because she wants to learn, too. How cool is that? Another mother asked if she may come next week. Inter-grades and inter-generational (love that, too). Our club has several boys and more who want to join. The school principals want to learn, and I plan to have students teach them. One student has completed her first project-- a headband!

Knitting with students in the morning and after school has been a joyful part of the last few weeks. I am looking forward to their creations and accomplishments. Mostly, I'm looking forward to what we will laugh about and share while we knit, knit, knit, knit.

Maybe we will purl a little, too, in a month or so!

Balance

The beginning of this school year is throwing me curve ball after curve ball (my only excuse for not showing up here very often). I hope I learn how to hit these balls soon. At least I'm showing up every day for practice-- whether it is at work or at the kitchen table for homework each night. I love a challenge, but I haven't quite figured out how to master this school year yet.

Balance is the mantra I try to hold in my mind, and I hope that I am helping my children learn how to balance their interests and obligations, too. My son has three new endeavors: cello, after-school choir, and Taekwando. My daughter is adding Taekwando to her art, piano, and the increasing academic demands of fifth grade. Their schedules impact my schedule and vice-versa.

While I want my children to be academically successful, I also think the expectations of today's schools are sometimes unrealistic and just too much. I don't want my children sacrificing their creativity for worksheets, busy work, or multiple choice tests. I ask myself: "Do I have computers with bodies, or do I have children?" My vocal inflection on asking the previous question might equal Patrick Henry's cry: "Give me liberty or give me death!"

I remind myself that balance is important when I need to check off items on my "to-do list," but I also need to exercise. I may not have photographed or blogged about my newly formed knitting club at school, but I promise photos and a blog post after all twenty plus students get the hang of the basic knit stitch. I may not have a perfectly clean house, but I have found a few creative minutes here and there by sewing some needed p.j. pants, dyeing curtains with turmeric, and making journal covers and pillowcases for gifts.

And, I'm diligently searching for some writing time with that idea that keeps popping into my mind during moments of silence on my way to work and late at night before falling sleep. I have so much to say about education.

Painting II: Sky Blue Walls

Because I painted my daughter's room, I also painted my son's room. Everything is EQUAL around here. He wanted dark blue instead of light blue walls. We compromised with this in-between color that reminds me of a sunny, cloudless sky. I had a little help with the painting and constant companionship from a varying audience of my son, my daughter and her friend, the cats, and the dog. We listened to my favorite stations on Pandora, NPR programs, and a few chapters about Gregor in the third book of his adventures in the Underworld.

Painting is so satisfying.

And now, he wants curtains. EQUAL!

Knitting in the Afternoon

I have been so lucky this week to knit with friends (and cats) for three afternoons in a row. After swim team, chores, extra chores, and errands, we have been able to sit in my sitting room with some relaxing tea and spend a few hours doing something we all love to do with each other--slipping stitches and bits of conversation in between the hard parts.

Jennifer is working her heel flap. She loves the stripe pattern her yarn is making and is interested to see how the stripes change as the heel is turned.

I'll take my socks to the pool this morning. I predict a small crowd of children to gather around me as a I work. Yesterday, one 7-year-old boy was amazed that I could knit socks. I let him try them on his foot, and he said, "These feel soooo good." I said in return, "That is one reason why I make them."

One mom who does not knit remarked that she didn't know anyone made socks by hand any more. "That is really a lost art, isn't it?" she said.

Lost art? Not really. Not if you take a look at all of the knitting blogs. No, I don't have to knit socks. I can buy them in multitudes for dollars. But there will only be one pair of socks like my socks with their hidden mistakes and interwoven memories of making them with friends.

Swimming & Knitting

Swimming and knitting. . . two challenging and fun activities that sum up our summer thus far. The children are participating on swim team for the first time, and I am knitting two socks on two circular needles at the same time for the first time. No, I'm not swimming and knitting at the same time! I'm grateful that all of us have coaches and friends who are helping us along the way in our gross motor and fine motor endeavors.

Swim update: Both children have participated in at least one swim meet and have started a collection of colorful ribbons. They are learning how to do the various strokes better and better every practice. They will have to teach me someday.

Sock update: We have turned the heels and picked up gussets on one side of both socks. Today, two more gusset sides, and we'll be ready for gusset decreases and toe shaping! Yeaa!

Knitting with Friends

my socks with Conn (the cat) as the shadow in the background

Knitting with friends is so much easier than knitting with cats, but I like to do both! Two of my friends joined me on an overcast and sometimes rainy afternoon to knit two socks on two circular needles at the same time. We are using the basic instructions from this book, and we have all pledged to help each other out through the difficult parts (heel flaps, gussets, and toe shaping). All three of us are equal teachers and learners in this endeavor.

Jennifer starts her socks. . .

Sarah knits, knits, knits . . . with Bailey (the dog)
in the background watching the weather outside

Conn the cat hung out with the ladies for the afternoon-- sometimes chasing the grape ball, sometimes inspecting our knitting bags, and sometimes scratching the furniture so that I would throw the ball for him again. After my friends left and the power went out for a little while, he assumed the same spot he had occupied before they arrived. Perhaps he stayed with us all afternoon because he just wanted his chair and cheerful, log cabin pillow back!