Cooperation!

Well, the visits from the 'rellies' commence tomorrow.  The past week has been a bit trying with me focusing too much on other things and letting my mothering slide a big bunch.  Today, I tried to take a different tack and insert humor when I could, and whadya know, it worked.  The checker at the co-op even complimented me, and helped me in a moment of not so much grace, when Gus started consuming something before it was purchased.  I would have liked to have shared with you the nearly final kid image of the evening (before the discussion of who would sit where for storytime) in picture format, but I will just have to paint a word picture, because by the time I got my camera out of the car and into the house and defogged, the moment was over.  

So, here it is:   After doing as much of the mopping of the kitchen floor as she could possibly do by herself,  Ella joined Gus and Lucy, who had been miraculously peaceful and quiet during the mopping, and when I came upon them Gus and Ella were doing a new puzzle that Gus got and Lucy was combing Gus' hair.  Hmmmmm.  Peace through grooming, I guess.  It makes sense since they're such a bunch of monkeys anyway.  

 

In lieu of the grooming photo, I would like to share this one.  The kids are thrilled with the new washing machine, mostly because of the box.  It doesn't have a good place to be permanently so we have to fold it up behind the couch and bring it out when we can.  It is good to remember that they DO know how to share and cooperate!

OH and please check out this video about STUFF

Recent Craftiness

As the days get colder, we spend more time inside, and therefore have to find more things to keep our hands and heads busy.  I would say that 'handwork' and 'crafts' are two of the major subjects in our learning at home experience.  Robert is working on a huge paper-crafting project and so the kids have started doing a lot of those as well.  At first I sort of freaked, because I thought they would stop making their lovely homemade paper projects.  The truth is, it hasn't slowed them down any.  Now they use the stuff Robert downloads as fodder for their own creative inventions. We go through a lot of paper!  Also, growing out of my own desire to

 attend some sort of 

'stitch and bitch', I started a '2nd Sundays Handwork Circle' at my house.  It may be getting in way over my head, but I hope it will be fun.  Lucy started making a patchwork project, which she says is going to be a quilt for me.  And I made my very first quilt, using some directions from Amy Karol'ls Bend The Rules Sewing

I made it for a friend and it was a totally rewarding experience.  I especially enjoyed making bias binding with my new Clover bias tape doodad, and then finishing the quilt by sewing the binding onto the back by hand. 

Goodbye, Fall.

I awoke early this morning to the peaceful sight of fluffy snowflakes falling.  I do not have a photo of them, because by the time I got out of bed, they had all melted.  Nevertheless, the children were very excited.  Gus 'dressed warm for snow'.  We went out for an 'explore' at about 11:00 and there was absolutely no snow to be found.  Maybe if we went up the mountain.  We spent the rest of the day inside, doing cozy things.  Lucy and Gus built an entire village, or country maybe, which seemed to be closely related to Japan.  There was a train that led between the 'temple' and the 'tea house'.  Ella was odd one out today (which is unusual) and ended up spending most of the afternoon in her room, making some gifts for her brother and sister (!).  Then we started in on the December arts and crafts with some foldy stars from.  Very satisfyingly mathematical, they are.  I really want to find directions to make Julestearne or however you spell Christmas stars, which I learned to make in Denmark but forgot.  Before we launch whole-heartedly into winter, I will share a few more photos from our fall.  Each year, we watch as the European Beech tree that's right in front of our house turns lovely shades of yellow, then orange, then brown.  Then, one day a wind comes up and the leaves are gone.  We did have one day of jumping in the leaves before the rain made them too soggy for much fun.  I included the jack-o-lantern photo to remind myself that it was quite a momentous occasion this year:  each of the children carved almost all of his/her own pumpkin, sharp knives and all.  Only Gus needed help getting all the 'goop' out of his enormous pumpkin.  I guess we can check that one off the big list.

Thai Fresh Green Curry

Well, I don't know that I want to blog about food.  My job requires me to think about food way too often (there's breakfast, then second breakfast then elevenses.....).  However, I think that this time of the year cooking begins to get interesting because many things are not growing in many places.  A year or so ago I ran across this recipe in the book Real Vegetarian Thai .  I have told a couple of people about it and even promised the recipe to some... It is called:

Butternut Squash (OR OTHER VEGGIES) in Fresh Green Curry

This simple fresh curry paste takes only minutes to prepare.  It envelops sweet golden chunks of butternut squash  with a beautiful and savory green sauce in the time it takes the accompanying rice to cook.  Try making it with any prepared curry paste for an even simpler dish (see note).  (sarah's note:  I made it tonight with carrots, broccoli, green and red peppers--you can really put anything, including meat into this sauce.)

1 small butternut squash, about 1 1/2 pounds

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped shallots or yellow onion

1 tablespoon corsely chopped garlic

1 teaspoon peeled and coarsely chopped fresh ginger

2 fresh green jalepeno chilies or 1 fresh green serrano chili (I omitted this because of tender palates...)

3 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup water

3/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves and stems

1 can (14 oz) coconut milk (about 1 3/4 cups)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves

Trim off the stem and blossom end of the butternut squash.  Halve lengthwise and scoop out and discard the seeds and fibers.  Cut into large chunks and carefully peel each chunk.  Cut the peeled chunks into 1-inch pieces.  You will have about 4 cups.  Set aside.

In a small food processor or the jar of a blender, combine the shallots or onion, garlic, ginger, chilies, the 5 tablespoons water, ad 1/2 cup of the cilantro.  Grind until you have a faily smooth paste, pulsing the motor and stopping often to stir down the sides of the container and incorporate all the ingredients.  You will have about 1/4 cup bright green paste  Set aside.

Shake the coconut milk can well.  Spoon out 1/2 cup into a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat.  Cook stirring occasionally, until it thiickens and releases it sweet fragrance, about 3 minutes.

Add the curry paste and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, mashing scraping, and stirring until the paste is dissolved into the coconut milk and is heated through.  Add the remaining coconut milk, the remaining 1/2 cup water, the sugar, salt, and butternutsquash.  Raise the heat to haigh and bring he curry to a rolling boil.  Stir well, reduce the heat to maintain a gentle boil, and continue cooking until the squash is tender and the sauce is smooth and evenly colored a soothing green, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile cut all but a few of the basil leaves crosswise into thin strips.  When the curry is cooked, stir in te basil strips and the remaining 1/4 cup cilantro.  Remove from the heat and transfer to a serving bowl  Garnish with the reserved basil leaves and serve hot or warm.

SERVES 4 TO 6

NOTE: This recipe makes a moderately hot curry.  If you like your curries very hot, increase the amount of fresh chilies to suit your palate.  • To substitute prepared curry paste, omit curry paste ingredients, and begin by cooking 2 tablespoons prepared curry paste in the 1/2 cup coconut milk (start with ONE, if you don't like it too hot!!)  •  Butternut squash and other hard winter squash are a challenge to peel.  Use a chef's knife or a Chinese cleaver if you are handy with either one of these tools, or use a good paring knife, holding each chunk steady on your cutting board and cutting down along its side to remove the peel

Ghosties, goblins, ghoulies and things that go bump in the night

The one blog I read faithfully is always right up to date, which must mean that Soulemama is way more on top of the blog thing than me, duh. I think that's one reason why I procrastinate blogging... there's so much that I could have blogged about and didn't, that I just don't. Hmmm.

Well, anyway, the stuff everyone has been waiting for is of course, photos of the kiddos in their Halloween get ups. Here they are, my friends: A pirate, (after the impractical, yet easy to make ghost costume was ditched for some more familiar togs; Snow White, complete with hair as black as ebony; and Lucinda the Good Witch.

A new little one...

Lest I jump straight into costumes and Halloween parties, let me pause and remember my lovely week in Texas, with my sister and her family, where I was fortunate enough to 

 be a part of the birth of my new niece, Kailey Anna Ruby. As always, the birth was miraculous, inspiring and left me filled with hope and lots of positive energy. It was also just nice to hang ou

t with my sister and her family for a whole week, since I never get to do that. I feel like I know them all at least a little bit better now.

My job of being a doula is always rewarding and wonderful, and working with my sister's family in that capacity was pretty amazing. It wasn't really 'work', now was it? I felt like I was on vacation, most of the time, because it was really just like being at home, except there were two other adults and one less child, so it was fun and easy--a feeling that I really wanted to take back home with me.

I could go on and on and on about all of the little details, but I think I'll let the photos do the talking:

.

Fall is....

Well, for one thing, fall is nearly over, isn't it? I guess we have about one third of fall left. However, yesterday and today, the weather has turned so tremendously cold, that it really seems wintry outside. Mittens are in order, and hats, and possibly long johns.

Fall is always a busy time, perhaps for everyone, but I seem to tend to kick the creation part of my life into overdrive starting around the end of September. And, usually around about this time, I'm ready to go to sleep until January 1st or so, because I've already burned my candle at both ends, albeit in celebratory ways. This year has turned out to be not much different than most in this regard. I've had a few recent reality checks, from the kiddos, from Robert and from my own body and (lost) mind.

With all this creativity happening, I often have the thought, "Oohh, that needs to go into the blog," and then, it is 1 or 2 o'clock am and I need to sleep instead of blogging. That is pretty much the case tonight. But, since we have just returned from a nice Thanksgiving with Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, and Honorary Aunt and Uncle, who haven't even seen what our Halloween costumes were like, well, it seems like possibly the rest of the relatives may be in the 'want to know' about how fall has been before it's dead and gone, too.

Life is a Miracle!

Life is a Miracle!
This is a direct quote from my beloved son. He said it as he was bounding and balancing his way to the park yesterday. “Don’t ya think, mom?” Well, yes, I do think that. And, being able to spend time with my kids each day seems pretty miraculous as well. Our new rhythm, homeschooling and all, means everyday is once again, filled with children. It means most of the time, happy kid noises are around me all day long, and some of the time not-so happy kid noises, too.
Everyone keeps asking, “How’s homeschooling?” Or, those that don’t know us and see us out and about say, “How’s school?” or “What grade are you in?” The kids seem bashful about this question, afraid or shy of saying, “We homeschool.” I realized a couple weeks ago, I was a feeling a bit the same. Maybe every newcomer to homeschooling feels this way. We ran into one of Gus’ former teacher’s husband in the store yesterday, and he asked one of those questions, and Gus said, “We homeschool, and it’s not very much fun.” EEEEk. That wasn’t something I wanted to hear, and yet, I wasn’t very surprised, especially since the guy was his handwork teacher’s husband and he really liked her a lot. So, rather than letting my doubts creep in this time, I just asked him on the way home what would make it more fun. He wants me to tell stories. I can do that! I told him that it wouldn’t always be as fun as school was for him, but that in some ways it would be more fun, and it is good if we can talk about it when it isn’t fun. Of course, school wasn’t always fun either. I reminded him of that yesterday, too.
So, how is school?
Well, I seem to have been gearing up for this journey for many years now. What, with my wild ride through a Danish alternative school system, and my job at The Little School in Bellevue, a fair amount of information about alternative education has come my way. Then there are all of the books that I have also been reading since the time of Gus’ gestation. There is something about the way the writers talk about how children learn better, the best, actually, when they are the ones steering the educational boat. In particular, John Holt’s ideas strike harmonic chords with me. So, previously, my thoughts about our family’s homeschooling experience is that it would be what John called ‘unschooling.’ Unschooling is not the same as non-schooling. In his book Teach Your Own, John Holt describes unschooling thus:
“This is also known as interest-driven, child-led, natural, organic, eclectic, or self-directed learning. Lately, the term “unschooling” has come to be associated with the type of homeschooling that doesn’t use a fixed curriculum. When pressed, I define unschooling as allowing children as much freedom to learn in the world as their parents can comfortably bear. The advantage of this method is that it doesn’t require you, the parent, to become someone else, i.e., a professional teacher pouring knowledge into child-vessels on a planned basis. Instead you live and learn together, pursuing questions and interests as they arise and using conventional schooling on an “on-demand” basis, if at all.”

I don’t know what I thought it would look like in practice, but I certainly believe that if it is possible to be with my children in such a way that we are all able to live and learn together, to stay curious, experience joy, and retain playfulness for as long as we can, I would like to do that.
The children, at this point, desire a lot of structure. Duh. I mean, of course I know that, and yet, it always seems to sort of wap me in the nose when I forget about it. I like the Waldorf word ‘rhythm’ for the kind of structure that children thrive on. It makes life seem more like a dance than a military drill.
Our rhythm looks like this these days:
Waking up—usually I wake up before the kids, but sometimes, Gus is already awake and reading in his bed (I think he's finished all of the Calvin and Hobbes books and is now just reading whatever book is on the top of the pile by his bed.)
When everyone (except Dad) is awake, we come together in the living room to greet each other and the day. Sometimes we sing a song, sometimes we do yoga, sometimes we recognize the four directions, light a candle and set our intention for the day. This is stuff I was doing by myself, but they were interested and so, I started including them. We usually leave the candle lit, and it reminds of our intentions.
Breakfast—One of the children helps me make each meal. If someone else really wants to help, I usually try to find something for him or her to do. This is working much more smoothly now that we’ve worked it out so each kid helps with a particular meal for a whole week at a time.
After Breakfast—We clean up the kitchen and Gus plays his violin. Violin and cello lessons are all going really well now that the kids have each been playing daily at a time of their choosing, but at the same time each day.
Journal Time—This is something that I learned in Steve’s class at The Little School. Everyone has a journal, and each day, they can draw whatever they want. The only rule is it has to be interesting to them. In this way they are learning to write, and also to read their own writing, since at the end of each journal time, they read it to me. Ella is just beginning to write and read. Gus is working on his lower case letters. Lucy is trying out writing, especially because she wants to keep up with everyone else.
Outside time—If we don’t have anywhere to go in the afternoon, we go outside after journals and either ride bikes or swing or go for a hike. Today, Ella and Gus were headed for ‘Fairy Ring Island’, which seems to be downhill and off the coast of Greasy Creek, to make a clubhouse. We haven’t planted a fall garden because of the water issue, but we did spread some worm castings on one of the beds the other day, in way of gardening. After our walks we do plant and animal identification.
Lunch—I need to figure out a way to get in more picnics before the glory of early fall is gone.
Afternoon—Gus plays his cello. The girls do puzzles or play a game, or work on a math project. Last week we had a bean jar and guessed how many beans, then measured, poured, counted some more…Someone recently gave us a math workbook, which has some material that is appropriate for each of the kids. Gus really enjoyed the story problems. I also got some cool books written by Mitsumasa Anno at the library that have interesting math games, puzzles and ways of presenting mathematical concepts. Usually this time is sort of a free flowing time, where each kid works on something different. I think next week I will start telling stories after Gus plays. There is almost always more outside time in the afternoon. On Mondays, Gus has cello lessons. On Tuesdays, we are busy in town all day with ballet and violin, and on Wednesdays, there is a group of other homeschoolers who meet at a park in town. The girls play their violins in the afternoon, so none of us get to tired to do it!
Dinner--Gus helped to make a really nice soup the other night. It's soup weather yahoo!
Evening—we have returned to the lovely fall habit of handwork after dinner. Yay! Ella has been needle felting, Lucy, too. Gus is working on a knit beanbag. I am making a sweater, and Robert is constructing an enormous paper castle. I have also been trying to play at least one instrument every day. (Mom has to practice, too!) I often play after dinner. It feels so good to do that.

So, that’s how homeschooling is. I get to the end of everyday pretty exhaustified. I would like to answer more of the questions in the ‘big book of questions’ which keeps getting filled. I am grateful to have the resources of many friends who have done this before, and have given me their old materials and advice. If I get stuck, I can look in one of many (MANY) books and find some new ways of approaching things. I am also grateful that Robert is around and supportive and interested in making this happen, too. Life is a miracle.

Another day....

Well, that was actually yesterday, Wednesday, and today is another day. My ankle is turning lots of pretty colors now, and after making dinner and pretending that nothing was wrong because I didn't want to be in bed all day again, it's pretty dang swollen. However, we have had a nice day, which included a rare event, a MOVIE! For those of you who haven't seen it, 'Miss Potter' is really lovely. I think I have been enchanted by Beatrix Potter's watercolors since first seeing them as a kid, and fell in love with them again, when our Doula, Kelley, and her family gave us a set of 12 when Gus was born. I still remember his tiny face looking so intelligent as he really listened to us read The Tale of Peter Rabbit the night after he was born. The children have all agreed that a weekly (at least) art time outside would be just the thing to help us all be a bit more like Beatrix. A lot of the movie was over their heads, especially all of the social nicety stuff, but they did enjoy the art.
Seeing the film made me wish Ella and I had adventured to the Lake District whilst in England. Alas, we did not, but here are a few gratuitous English Countryside shots to tide me over until I Flickr the rest of my photos:

not so back in the saddle....

So, today, the second day of school for all the other Philomathians, (Philomathematics? Philomathematicians?) of school age, I had a day out with some other home schoolers planned. It is a bit odd to have that first day come and go, and our friends in the neighborhood gone. They will get over the first week of school and be able to play next week, but for now, everyone is occupied during the day and too beat after school to be a good playmate. We were munching down the last bit of scrambled eggs with herbs, and out the door, nearly on time, with a snack, lunch, and water to boot, headed toward the farmer’s market then a hike on Bald Hill with these friends we always see at the co-op and say “Let’s get together!” But, it was not meant to be, apparently, because here I sit, since just about that time, in bed with my ankle wrapped up and the edamame on it. (they were older and more expendable than the peas.) A sprained ankle! After I howled in pain and probably really freaked the kids out, Robert was fetched and doctored me right up with arnica and an ace bandage and the ice pack, and sent me to bed.
I don’t think being on my bum in bed really suits me. However much I sometimes fantasize about lollygagging about in bed all day, not having to attend to all my mama duties, and the other stuff of life, well, it really sort of sucks! I didn’t actually stay in bed all day, but enough of it so that I am already sick of it. I thought, gee, maybe I’ll get some of that knitting done. I only have about 10 projects started. I think I knit 4 rows of the stripy sweater. My knitting baskets (3!) are all in a big ugly mess next to the bed, looking like a cat had a party.
The kids seemed to get over the surprise of me being hurt fairly quickly and moved on to wondering what to do, since our plan had been foiled. I suggested going outside to enjoy this splendid September weather. It was, of course, one of the best weather days of recent memory. Gus and Ella went off and built some kind of structure by the enormous vertical root system of the big fir that went over last December. I haven’t been down to see it yet. It’s one of the first things on my list when I can walk a little more smoothly.
Luckily, Lucy was having a hard time finding something to amuse herself with today. She came in after a short while, and I helped her do the knitting mushroom. She, too, was bored with knitting quickly. So, she went to check out our newly acquired stack of flash cards. She seems to enjoy figuring out what you’re ‘sposed to do’ with them, even if much of it is over her head. She brought in the telling time flash cards and we had a bit of a time learning about telling time. We moved out to the table, and she brought some phonics cards. Going along with the theory of letting kids come to reading and writing when they are ready, we haven’t done too much alphabet stuff with Lucy. She does seem to know all of the letters, and most of the lower case as well. She was cruising right along and then she came to this card with a picture of a BUG and a BUS on it and it had ‘Uu’ at the top. She looked at me, confused and said, ‘Mama, can Bus start with a U?” Then I explained that it was about the middle sound ‘uh’ instead of the first sound. I said, “There are other words like that, too, like: Gus, and what’s that called that we eat in between breakfast and supper?” Lucy: “NOODLES!” Ha! That’s when I called her a noodle head and she got mad at me for calling names. I guess I have to work on my social skills a bit.

Back in the Saddle

Well, It has been over a month since my last post, not exactly what I was thinking of when I said I would post more often, but of course there was the trip 'across the pond' in there. Things are finally getting back to a relatively normal mode around here, whatever that means.
What it means is: DANCING for two little girls who love to dance, and even me and Gus sometimes. Yesterday, they put on a CD, and had a different dance for each of the songs on it, and sometimes different costumes, too.
Also, PLAYMOBIL, Gus and Ella have recently spent saved up birthday or gift money on new sets of the mini plastic folks. For Gus, pirates, of course, and for Ella a Mom and Baby and Dad/kid and baby set. The thing they seem to do most often is 'wrong play' which seems to mean that they switch everyone's hair and clothes around, and they think it's totally hilarious. After at least a week and a half of 'nothing to do' and lots of squabbles over nothing much when Ella and I got back from England, they finally found something they can do together, and it seems to be 'wrong play.' Thank goodness. It was exhausting to have everyone either fighting or bored and wanting me to fix it for that long. I knew that it was just transitioning, but it seemed to last forever.
Yesterday, normal included BAKING. The girls helped me finish some biga barley bread, which turned out 'like storebought', according to Robert. I'm not sure if that's a compliment. But, it was soft and squishy and sandwichable, so maybe that's what he meant. We also made some not so good molasses cookies, which my Papa would definitely described as 'somewhere between a chamois and a sponge.' I'll have to use my Grandma's recipe next time.
Today, normal was LESSONS back to cello lessons. Gus has been playing his cello a lot, even outdoors at sunset last night, which seems like an excellent match for the deep tones of the cello. We also had violin lessons last week for the first time in a while. It's time to get back into the groove of playing our fiddles each night. I always feel like Pa Ingalls when I get mine out of its box after dinner. It is certainly a nice way to say goodnight to the day. I have a bunch of new photos to use, but that reminded me of this fun day last fall playing Ma, Pa, and baby Carrie. 'Night y'all.

The day before the day before....

Well, it's the day before the day before departure for Jolly Old England. Ella's stuff is all but packed and so is mine. I finished the skirt for the wedding, and, Ellas 'wedding dress' and another cute play dress arrived from Boise. She put them on to dance around and try them out right away. I was wishing, for the second time this week, that I could capture her look of delight on film and send it right off to the gift giver. Of course, I wanted to make at least one more skirt, but I can always do that later, when I am not trying to get ready to go somewhere. Gus and Lucy both played over at friends' houses this afternoon, so that made the getting ready easier. And Ella, well, she stayed home with dad and, "mostly made egg flower soup," her new specialty. She got a Mollie Katzen's cookbook called Honest Pretzels for her birthday, and it just so happened to have the recipe in it. Tonight's soup wasn't as good as the birthday meal soup, but it was still very tasty. I will try to put some photos in before I go, but there are still the last minute things to do before we leave. I had a recurring bad thought that Ella's passport had actually expired, even though I knew it hadn't. I was relieved when I got it out tonight to see that it truly does not expire until 2009. There are in a safe place, waiting to get on the plane. Now all of us and Mr. Christopher (er, unSaint Christopher?) will just have to visualize them staying safe as I venture out into travel mode.

A cowboy's life....

The other day, Gus went to his dear friend Julia's birthday party. One of the party favors was a small plastic horse. Upon returning home, Gus realized that he needed a rider for the horse, and asked Dad whether or not he had any 'clay'. Upon hearing the reason why, a search commenced for the supply of Fimo that used to live in our house. I encouraged Gus to make a mock-up sculpture with Plasticine before making the real one out of Fimo. He did this, and I wish I had a photo to show but, I didn't take one. Within an hour of the first wishing for a cowboy, Gus had constructed this little guy:
Pretty groovy, huh? He was very enthused about the holster and guns. The little cowboy fit on his little horse perfectly and we baked him right up. (along with a Fimo 'lassoo') Meanwhile, Gus made a place for him to live out of Lincoln Logs and other ranch accessories he found around the house. There was a nice large corral for all of the horses (2) and many cattle as well.
I wish I could say this story had a happy ending, but, alas, we buried Mr. Fimo Cowboy in the garbage can yesterday. He was held together in about 5 places by crazy glue, and then got dropped on the floor and broke into little bits. Sniff sniff. Rest in peace little buckaroo.

Hello (hello) is there anybody out there....

I have no idea if anyone will ever read my blog. But, just in case they do, I might like to get into the habit of writing more often. There seem to be a lot of bloggy thoughts in my mind lately, and especially when I read SouleMama's blog. Summer is zooming by, and many times a day I think, how can I slow down and just enjoy this life? Today we went to violin lessons and then came home for a bit and played with our pinkeyed neighbor friends, helped her big sis sew part of a quilt, I made a sling, complete with the new packaging option proposed by my sister, then we turned around and went back into town to a swimming/gelato party. It was kind of cold but much fun

.
Last weekend was the Oregon Country Fair, always a fun time. The kids keep rehashing in the car. We got to see our friend Katy's daughter, Laura, perform in the 'Ricochet Circus' doing ariels on the trapeze and a long cloth suspended from high. It was even more amazing than her show last year.
Gus had a nice time today finishing up his knight's helmet. We seem to be in the middle of an interest shift. Knights are becoming very interesting to Gus, possibly because we listened to the wonderful recording of Sir Percival and the Hidden Grail by Odds Bodkin. It might be nice to have a bit of chivalry in our lives after 3 years of living with a pirate.

knitwit

I should so be sleeping, knitting, folding laundry, or doing SOMETHING to get ready for birthday week, instead I'm trying to be a blogger.. I am working on a sweater, a Wallaby, for the auction at G's school. I just thought I'd post a photo. Now I am going to go and do one of those other important things.