Every Time I Turn Around Lately I See . . .

This.
Or this. Aaron has apparently decided that he loves to climb. Unfortunately he does not yet love to get down by himself. He always starts with this look of amazement and delight that he actually made it up to his planned location. Then after walking around for a bit, he generally gets a bit nervous and starts fussing to get down. I was pulling him down immediately at first. But now I'm getting to the point where I figure that maybe if I don't instantly rescue him, he will realize that its not such a smart idea to climb onto things you can't get off of. Or he'll fall a lot.

In any case, we are now officially in a "clean table" mode again. This means that every surface except the kitchen counters (so far -- but he's pulling out chairs so it won't be long before he figures out he can move them up to the counter top) must be clear of all dangerous / sharp / breakable / interesting objects. As you can see above, he's just about to reach for my coffee.

Judith -- if you're out there, don't read this!

Odd for Nate and blanket for Jon
Originally uploaded by davenjilly

Meet Odd. He's presently sitting on the very soft, cute blanket I made as well. They are on their way to Fort McMurray to meet their new owners, Jon and Nate.
Jon is about 2 months old, and will appreciate the softness of his new blankie -- the yellow side is flannel and the blue nursery rhymes side is quilter's cotton. Its made as per the instructions in "Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts" (I do love that book).
Nate is 3 years old, and I thought it might be nice to send him something as well, since he is Dave's godson. So he gets Odd, one of my first recent attempts at a self-designed softie. You can read more about him below (above? I'm not sure).

Meet Odd.

This little guy is my first attempt at a completely original softie made from shrunk, recycled sweaters (commonly known as felted wool. But as I discovered while trying to find instructions for shrinking sweaters properly so they don't frey, this is a misnomer. Felted wool properly refers to fabric made from previously un-knit wool. So now you know).

One of the things I'm really interested in doing is finding a way to make various fun things out of recycled fabric. So in my quest to do this, I bought a few sweaters and inexpertly shrunk them. Three out of my four selected sweaters worked beautifully. The fourth one had this great snowflake pattern on it. I had great plans for the snowflake pattern, but the snowflakes came out as matted messes. The three that worked, however, produced this really soft, snuggly fabric that doesn't fray, is easy to embroider on and keeps its shape quite well. It is thicker than the felt available in Saskatoon, but considering that he quilt shop charged me $4 for a 6"x12" square of fabric and the sweaters were $6 each and will produce a lot more fabric than that, I think it was a bargain.

Odd is the second softie I have designed recently (the first is a little doll I made for a doll swap last year), and the third softie I've desined that has a head. In highschool and early university I made a number of Absurd dolls -- stuffed birds, dragons and monkeys that were perfect in every way except they were lacking heads. But in recent times I have been following some of the fantastic patterns I've found online to make my dolls and toys. So, I designed the pattern loosely based on my doll pattern.

Odd was supposed to be a bear, but the felt is really thick and so when I flipped him right side out afte sewing him together I discovered tha this ears were all wonky. Andrew and I breifly considered making him into a kangaroo, but that would have required finding a way to stitch a tail onto him. Thus, since he was a bit odd looking, he became the first of hopefully a small troop of Odds. I considered stitching a contrasting face and tummy onto him, but decided I liked the charm and simplicity of the embroidered face. I felt he needed a bit more decoration, so I added the star on a whim, and, later, this little curly tail as well.

Why Microsoft Drives Me Mad ( or alternately why I should have bought a Mac)

I have been trying to network my two computers for a month now. My old reliable is running Windows XP, and this one is running Windows Vista, and for some reason they can not seem to recognize each other. Despite the fact that they are both connected through the same router, it seems to be impossible to get them to actually talk to one another.

You may think I am not trying. But really, I have followed Help prompts, I have pushed all the buttons that say things like "Options" and "Preferences" that should lead to me being allowed to network the two computers. I have renamed my network, renamed my computers, reassigned the security features on both machines, downloaded stuff from Microsoft that was supposed tfix the problem, and actually read through the online menus on both computers and went through their lists of troubleshooting ideas. And still, no talkie.

I really am beginning to think that this process is set up to deliberately frustrate me so that I will either: a) buy Vista for my pc or b) call a computer specialist to come and click the secret box that the uninitiated can not find and charge me $50.

Seriously, you would think it would be possible to create programs that communicate with the former generations of the same program. No one bothers, but you must be able to do it.

In the meantime, in order to get my photos off my hard drive on my pc and burn them onto cds on my laptop so that my pc can once more perform a simple function in less than a month, I am going to have to upload them to somewhere online and then download them to my laptop and then burn them to cd.

And don't get me started on the fact that my laptop came with obnoxious programs with overlapping features that fight over who gets to operate my firewall and download photos off my memory card. And then won't do simple things like only download the 6 new photos on my memory card when I check "only download new photos" and instead re-downloads all 400 pictures on my memory card, thus taking up all the memory on my laptop by storing redundant information.

Arg!

I was actually going to introduce you to Odd, my first non-patterned fully recycled wool creature, but I couldn't pull him off my memory card without also downloading all 400 of my photos for a third time (in a week) so you can meet him later.

Thanks for all the nifty comments, by the way. I'll try to respond to some of them sometimes soon.

Testing, Testing . . .

I knew the moment it happened. I could tell by the feeling of overwhelming panic and frustration welling up inside me. It wasn't the moment Aaron decided to climb onto the chest. It was the moment he decided to jump off. I had run over to show him the safe way to get down, and he had jumped into my arms. Thinking that this was a great game, and merited mom's full attention, Andrew joined the game. He climbed up and declared, "Look, Aaron. I can jump off like this!" And despite my protests for Andrew to stop, he would not stop jumping over and over. And Aaron was trying to step off of the 2 ft high chest right onto the floor, and I couldn't chase Andrew into his time out chair while also keeping Aaron away from the chest . . . and I really wanted to get the laundry done. So I did what any self-respecting mother would do when her husband is sick and she has woken up at 4:30 in the morning for the second day in the row and she just wants to have a clean shirt to put on . . . I put pillows around the chest so they couldn't hurt themselves, and went back to folding laundry.
And that was the beginning of the end. No one got hurt -- we have a lot of very big couch cushions which sufficently broke everyone's falls until the jumping fiasco came to an end. But that was the moment when I didn't act, and should have. I failed the 3 year old will-mommy-really-stop-me test. And we all know (at least those of us with 3 year olds) what happens when we fail the three year old test. The whining and hitting and knocking over and demanding and general obnoxious behavior begins. "Are you going to stop me mommy? Are you going to stop me?" seems to be the question that glows in the eyes of my child. "I won't stop myself. Will you stop me? When? How many times?"
So the test begins. And so the test continued all weekend long. And all week long, until I was numb from the pinches and the screams and my back was sore from lifting a heavy three year old into the little white chair and going to set the timer, and my baby started insisting to be carried becuase being down on the floor with big brother raging was just not safe anymore. . . . and I gave up with time out and gave up taking things away and just started giving warnings. Insipid, foolish warnings that do nothing. "If you do that again . . . " my voice rings hollowly. Until my clever 3 year old starts saying "I won't do it again, mommy." as I go to take away the shovel he has just tried to plow his brother with. I am struck with the foolishness of my warnings and I take the shovel away.
And so the test culminated today with a bite. Yes, a bite from my 3 year old son. I had finally sat down with him, and was tring to have a moment of peace while he played before bed. But really he needed to go to bed, and I just wanted him to stay up later to forestall another pre-5am waking tomorrow. So he sat down next to me. And when his brother decided to climb up as well, he bit me. Hard. And I got up and just walked away. And he cried "I need you, mommy!" and in a moment he came and apologized and curled up on my lap, and we went to have a bath. And in the bath he gently smoothed bubbles over the top of his brother's head to wash his baby soft hair. And they smiled at each other and in the way of small children, all was well between them.
After he is in bed, I am left to wonder what this test is all about. Is it because I'm trying not to yell? Is it abou power? Indepenence? Attention? Maturity? I'm not sure. And then I wonder why I need to know.
On my end, it is about consistency -- my lack of it. It is why I am chronically 10 lbs overweight, 10 min. late, 1 week overdue . . . you get the picture. I decide to do it now, and then I decide to do it later, and then tomorrow, and then the tomorrows become a week, two weeks, a month until it is too late to do it at all. With a library book, all this means is that you owe the library a few dollars. But what do you owe a child who grows up with no consistent structure and discipline because you were going to do it later and later and later and then they were gone.
Generally speaking I've always been good at tests. Teachers have usually asked questions I knew the answers to. Friends have usually been disarmed by a clever quip and a quick smile and a peace offering, if needed. But my son shows me what I still need to learn. Where I need to grow, and who I need to become so I can be his best parent, and my best self.

dad's 70th quilt

dad's 70th quilt
Originally uploaded by davenjilly

So, I thought my dad was 70 this year. I did the math wrong, and have since realized that he's actually 70 next year. But that's okay, becuase that means this quilt will be 10 1/2 months early instead of 2 months late. And I wanted to make him a quilt anyway becuase he's often in and out of hospital, and while some of my other siblings can rush to his side in an emergency, I have small children and no money. So I thought at least he could bring something of me with him so he would know I was thinking of him.

The result was this quilt. It started out with a fat quarter club I joined (that didn't work out, but that is another post all together), which resulted in me having 12 fat quarters of "Aunt Purdy's Parlour", a collection I would never choose to buy -- all burgandy, navy and deep forest greens. I did realize that these are all colour my dad really loves, however, so I started collecting a few homespuns to go with them. When I had about 20 or so fat quarters I was planning to do a turning 20 type quilt with lots of big blocks.

For christmas I bought myself the "Last Minute Patchwork and Quilting Gifts" book, and I loved so many of the quilts in it (damn Martha Steward inspired photography) that I had to try some of the techniques highlighted. I thought of making a coin quilt (basically several smaller rows of coloured strips with smaller solid strips between them) but it was now the middle of December, and my dad's birthday is Dec. 31. So I opted for the big strips of homespun and the two strips of bright quilters cotton and homespun.

This quilt was really fun tomake. It was my fist time using free hand rotary cutting, which is really fun and relaxing (frankly all my rotary cutting ends up being a tiny bit freehand becuase I suck at holding a ruler straight, so it was a bit of a releif) and my first time tying a quilt. I tied it partially because its quicker, and partially because then I could do that part in Winnipeg. It was also my first time using cotton batting, which I love. It has such a nicer weight than the cheap polyester yuk I've used so far, and I can tell that it will not disappear nearly as quickly. I was initially going to bind it in the neutral plaid, but I think that would have been too dull.

Anyway, this was a pretty fast quilt for something measuring 50" x 56", and I'm sure my dad will love it.

Curses, Foiled Again!

So aside from wrangling cranky teething 13 month olds and amusing bored snowed in 3 year olds, I've been trying to finish my dad's 70th birthday quilt. I had the top done before I went to Winnipeg, and decided to tie it so I could do that part on my holiday. I did finish it while I was there, so all week long I've been trying to bind it. It took me two days of breaking up fights over swords and who gets to drive / push the motorcycle toy and chasing Aaron away from unplugging the cords and tearing his hands away from the sewing machine's moving parts, etc, etc to get the binding strips even put together. Then I started sewing them on the quilt. And apparently there was too much action going on and I was in too much of a hurry becuase until last night, when I went to hand sew it in place, I didn't even notice it was all INSIDE OUT. Arg, arg, arg! So instead of spending my entire phone conversation with my long lost friend Medea stitching the binding on the quilt and getting to feel my only sense of accomplishment for the week, I spent it ripping the entire binding off the quilt. So now that I had trimmed all the edges, I have to try to re-sew the binding on while keeping all the layers together. Sigh.

On the bright side, during conversations with my siblings in Winnipeg I realized that I did my math wrong. My dad is 69 right now and doesn't turn 70 until next January. So the quilt is now going to be 11 months early instead of one month late.

I just looked at my thermometer, and it is reading -38. That is not including the windchill. Just thought all you people in British Columbia and places like Texas and the Carolinas might like to laugh at me now. Needless to say, we are not going anywhere. And Dave is installing a block heater. Today. No more car-not-starting silliness.

I have a ridiculous Chapman adventure to post, but not right now, as Aaron just ran out of noodles and is going to start trying to climb out of his highchair any second now.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Jeremy's Storybook Quilt

Finally, I finished this quilt and then after gazing at it for a few weeks and saying to myself "well, there's no use sending it BEFORE Chistmas, because Kris won't get it in time anyway so I'll just keep it and admire it", and then "Well, now they're in BC, so there's no use sending it until they're home", I finally mailed this quilt off and today Kris received it.

Kris and I's friendship started as many of my best friendships do -- as a complete disaster. We were working together on a play, along with my good friend Jonathan, and we would all go out after the play. We were the same age, only 14 days apart. She was totally hip with everything that was going on in popular culture, while I have always been a bit of an anti-establishment, anti-whatever-is-cool-at-the-moment kind of girl. So we would be out for after-rehearsal snacks and Ricky Martin would come on. I would grumble "oh my goodness. what is WITH Ricky Martin. I am so tired of this song. I don't understand why anyone would listen to this!" and Kris would say "Really? I just caught his concert in Seattle two weeks ago." We would be talking about tatoos and I would say, "What I don't understand is women who get tatoos on their abdomens. Like, hello, ever heard of stretch marks?" and she would say, "Actually, Jill, I have a tatoo on my abdomen." And so it continued with me chronically annoying her and her chronically tripping me up.

Eventually, though, she started showing up everywhere and dating my friend Jonathan, and we discovered that we actually did like each other. In particular, we both really liked movies. I discovered that she loved old movies. And I asked a fateful question: "Have you ever seen Fred and Ginger movies?" She said no, and I said, "But you have to!" and so we decided to watch the movies together -- all of them.

From the moment we saw Ginger swank into a railway station in a cute, '30s pencil-skirt-suit and promptly get her skirt stuck in her heavy suitcase and chirp, "Porter! Porter!" we were hooked. Thus began our journey into the silly world of the 1930's dance musical extravaganza. My personal favorite is the one where Fred is a sailor, and there are several silly numbers where the crew, having nothing better to do, brushes up their large group tap dancing number skills. How can you not love that?

It is in honour of this obsession (and Kris' second son, Jeremy) that this quilt was born. All the fabrics are 1930's reproduction prints. The moment I saw the sailor print and the abc block print (Kris taught Kindergarden) featured in the same series, I knew it was going to be for her baby's quilt. I chose the pattern becuse the diamond is such an iconic art decco motif, and Kris loves art decco (and its also from the 20s and 30s).

The backing fabric was going to be just red flannel, but I thought that might be a bit overwhelming, so I found the monkey print to go with it, which is also kind of retro and cute. Kris says she loves it and that its very snuggly, so it all good. Happy birth / almost birthday Jeremy!

Gone South

Dave and I decided last winter that we would need to take a week off in January or February and go somewhere south so that we could recharge our sun and warmth batteries in the middle of the winter. We were thinking about Mexico our South America somewhere. Then we finished our summer vacation, and realized that was not realistic. So a month or so ago we were thinking of going to stay with our friend Scott's parents in LA . . .but then we looked at the price of flights. So we went south to Winnipeg.

Its pretty sad when Winnipeg is south. I must say its not any warmer, but there might be more light, and there's definitely more civilization. I've mostly just been visiting family so far, but I have already indulged in ethnic food, Starbucks lattes and a wander through Chapters. Ahh, civilization.

I think I need to start collecting Calvin and Hobbes books. Not just for entertainment, but for tips from Calvin's mom. Andrew has been on a vegetable strike all week and you know how I broke it? I disovered that if you cut the bulbous bottom parts of a red pepper just right, they look like snakes.

In other parenting news this week, Andrew is now obsessed with knights. I don't really mind this, beign a medeival / fantasy junkie myself, but I do get tired of confiscating "swords". I bought a little "How to be a Knight" book from the older kids section of our bookstore, and he found it and started getting us to read it to him. Now he will spout things like, "Oh mommy, you need to get me dressed so I have some proper padding under my armour" or "First Aaron has to be a page or groom before he can be a knight, mommy".

Aaron, on the other hand, is obsessed with dangerous and prohibited things and also telephones. One of his favorite activities is to be carried around the kitchen and talk about which things are dangerous and which are not. We point to the knife "knife, sharp". "ouch" and the oranges "oranges, they're okay" "o-anj", then the pots "ouch?" "only when they are on the stove top. Over here, not hot. Over here, ouch, hot" "ot". I was holding him in one hand while putting rice and water in a pot to cook today, and he kept pointing to the rice and saying "ouch". So I said, Nope you can put your hand in it." and as a joke he kept just touching it with the tip of one finger (like I do to show a cup is hot) and sa ying "ouch" and looking alarmed. I just hope my worse fear is not realized -- a child with Dave's taste for danger and my lack of common sense. We shall just have to watch and pray.

What I've Been Making Lately

I have been busy switching back and forth between projects and not really getting any completed. But I'll show you what I've been up to anyway. First, I made a couple of these blankets. They're very basic -- green dotty minkee on the top and white flat minkee on the bottom. I basically bought a metre of 54' minkee in each colour and divided it in half. Then I stitched them together, flipped them inside out and topstitched around the edges to make a little soft baby blankie. I THOUGH this was going to be a quick, easy way to make a blanket for my friend who just had a baby and a friend who is due in March. But I underestimated how fussy minkee is to work with. The outside is super soft and fuzzy, but the inside is this slippery synthetic stuff, so you have to cross pin every inch along the entire blanket edges so it doesn't bunch up while you're sewing it (that means you put pins both vertically and horizontally instead of just perpindicular to the edge of the fabric). Then you have to pull all those pins out as you go . . . . Then, just to make things more fussy, my cat decided to jump up and sleep on the second one when I was in the middle of pinning it. So I didn't realize that she had caused the bottom fabric to shift until AFTER I pinned and stitched it all together. Then when I flipped it inside out, I noticed that the white fabric was really awful and bunchy. So I had to pull the whole thing apart, re-pin and sew it. So: In theory, two little minkee blankets should be a quick one to two hour project. In reality they took me about five or six hours. Bu they are really really soft and snuggly. This is the roll of layers that will be a little baby quilt for Arden and Judith's new little one, Jon. It is a really sweet, simple pattern from the book "Last Minute Patchwork and Quilting Gifts" and I found some nice, snuggly flannel for one side and a cute nursery rhyme print for the other side. I did all the pinning for it, but then I decided to do the minkee blankets first, becuase my friend Taryn was having her baby any day . . . so there it sits, forlorn and unfinished.
But before I finish that, I have to turn this stack of fabric into a quilt for my dad. He turned 70 on January 1, and I decided that he should get an old man lap quilt in honour of that prodigious event. So I have been gathering these fabrics for a while, and perusing the internet and the book mentioned above for a nice, fairly quick pattern. I decided that I'm basically going to take the fabric you see at the bottom and cut it into three 10 inch strips. Then I'm going to cut freehand strips of the fat quarters and make two long "coin" type strips to be sandwiched in between those strips. Sounds confusing, but really its not. Again, I was waiting to finish the minkee blankets, and now this is next on my list of things to do. Especially since we are going to Winnipeg on Sunday, and I would like to have this finished so I can tie and bind it while we're there.
I was also very excited because I got these in the mail the other day. One of my favorite fabric shops, Keepsake Quilting brought in some Freshcut fabrics as a web exclusive. But I guess they're shop is mostly only visited by old ladies, because they were selling off the fat quarter packs for $11 each. Since you can hardly find this fabric anywhere becuase it is in such huge demand, I decided I had to buy some. In fact, I loved it so much when I got it that I then proceeded to get the farics on your right in half yard cuts as well. The ones on my left are really pretty, but not really in "my" colours, so I'm going to have to find someone who likes pretty pints and magentas and greeny-blues (what would you call that colour, Lisa?). I also got another yard of the brown - pink - green flecks, which finishes off the fabrics I need for my almost all paisley quilt that I'm going to make for myself someday.
Oh yeah, and I've been waiting until I finished these to post them, but I don't seem to be getting around to doing the embroidery on them (Andrew wants to "help" me sew and Aaron wants to try pull all the bits of felt off as I try to embroider them on), so I will post them anyway and then post the control panels later. This is ARC-1 (Andrew's Robot for Christmas -1) and BJ-1 (Beefy Jim 1 -- the grey robot actually has less stuffing thatn the multi-coloured one, but he just looks big and beefy, so I decided that his name should reflect that). These are some of my favorite fabrics in my super-bright and funky fabic stash (as opposed to my funky yet sophisticated fabric stash). Apparently I have to make a lounge suit for Rich out of the rest of the lime green.
Well, speaking of craftiness, I should be off doing some sewing intead of sitting here typing. I want to finish my dad's quilt top and make a laptop cover before I leave for Winnipeg on Sunday. Probably wishful thinking, but a girl can dream, can't she?

Sock Puppet

This is Sock Puppet. Anna Irish made him for Andrew, as one of her first knitting projects. For about six months, it sat in my hats and mits organizer, becuse Andrew was really scared of it. But now he's getting to that stage where scary is good. So when we found Sock Puppet while organizing my laundry room, Andrew took to him instantly and gave him a terrible personality.

Sock puppet is mean. He eats everything. He's not allowed to go to church becuse he's too bad for church. He makes annoying sounds that Andrew is not allowed to make ("It wasn't me, mommy, it was Sock Puppet"). He grabs Aaron by the back of the shirt and drags him out of the way. Sock puppet is a big bully.

Now we get to the nearly theological question Sock Puppet presents: Would Anna still have made Sock Puppet if she had known he would turn out to be such a disreputable character?

New Years' Resolutions

I always try to have time to take stock of my life two or three times a year. The two minimums are new years and just before September (which I still consider to be the "unofficial" start of the year), and if I can, right around Pentecost (Lent usually brings some new insight with it).


This year, as I was taking stock of my life, I had a flash of insight. This is how my brain works -- it just accumulates bits and pieces of information until it has enough to culminate and recombine into some sort of intuitive brilliance. It happened while I was having a miserable day and had tossed the boys into the sled and was dragging them downtown. I was trying to pick up a few odds and ends to finish off my Christmas present crafts. I was really grumpy because I hadn't done everything I needed to do for Christmas, and my children were driving me mad (thus the sled ride) and all seemed to be in complete disrepair. I realized that what I needed in my life was more joy.


Even the things I was supposed to enjoy -- my children, my little sewing projects, my youth group job -- had become chores. I had set such high expectations for myself and chosen such complicated ways of doing things that I couldn't keep up with my own ambition. I was exhausted because I was staying up late making complex presents for people. I was worn out from trying to entertain my three and a half year old, when I could be teaching him how to play with his brother or with his toys. I was getting frustrated with my housekeeping, but I was expending so much energy worrying and being frustrated that I wasn't actually doing anything about it. So instead of filling my life with joy and peace, I was filling my own life with frustration and anxiety.


So, my new years' resolution is to live my life more joyfully. To make less complex gifts (I always want to make sure that my gifts are interpreted as handmade = thoughtful instead of handmade = cheap, but I don't need to go to quite the lengths that I do), to keep my house clean and organized enough that we can find things when we need them (this means putting things away right away, instead of procrastinating), to get enough sleep so I'm not crabby with the kids, and to take a few moments each night to pray, stretch and write in my journal so that I feel like my spirit is organized and ready to go the next morning. I know these things don't SOUND like most people's definition of joy, but I think they are the pre-conditions that will lead to joy. If I am not carrying around the mental and emotional weight that comes from all this confusion and clutter, I will have room left inside me to be joyful.

The Lappy has arrived!

There he is, the Lappy. While not quite as high quality as Strongbad's Lappy (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail119.html) it is a close second.

Although for some of you a laptop might not be that big of a deal, you must remember that I grew up in a family of computer fanatics. Dave and I are the only Cook-related household that up until now did not have one compuer per adult. My dad had personal computer (a Rainbow, I beleive) in 1984 or maybe earlier, a modem in 1990 and he soups up his computers like other men soup up their cars. I remember he used to get these giant sized computing magazines that he would pour over when I was a teenager, and I always, always used to love looking at the laptops. At that time I was planning on becoming a writer, so it would be an invaluable tool to have a computer with me at all times. I hoped that I would receive one as a graduation from highschool gift, but I got married, so I got my wedding paid for and a sewing machine instead (not that I'm complaining -- I still use that sewing machine and I wouldn't be able to say that about a laptop from 1993). So this Lappy is a fulfillment of a long time dream of mine.

So far I'm pretty happy with the Lappy. I got it for a decent price -- computer, word perfect, router and wireless printe for all under $1000, and about $180 worth of rebates to come back to me soon. It was the only Boxing Day sale computer I could find for under $1000 that had SRAM, which means its actually faster than our desktop computer. And its very pretty and has all kinds of clever Japaneese features (right now I have a bamboo forest as my wallpaper).

Now all I have to do is design and sew up a funky carrier for it so I can lug it around to the park and the local coffee shop and not be worried bringing it in the basement. Hmm . . . off I go to craftster to find some clever laptop carriers.

I should never subscribe to a magazine

because whenever I do they cancel it! A couple of years ago I finally decided to subscribe to "Organic Style", which was pretty cool, and they cancelled it as soon as I did. Now they've cancelled Blueprint, which is the most awesome magazine and the only non-quilting mag I've bought all year, and I had just subscribed to it! Why don't any good magazines ever last? Why do terrible rags last year in and year out and new, interesting magazines targeted to younger audiences die so quickly.

Maybe I should start subscribing to all my least favorite magazines.

Meet the Olives

These are the dolls I made for Beatrice and Marie. Marie is my god daughter, and I know her mom likes getting hand made gifts, so I made these dolls for the girls. I got the great pattern from wee wonderfuls and had a lot of fun putting them together. They are a bit more fiddly to construct, but much less time goes into stuffing and decorating them than does into the robots.

Here they are climbing off the chair. Their recipients are still at that age where clothes are considred an optional novelty when they are around the house, so I liked the idea of making it look like the dolls' underwear was peeking out.

And this is just a ridiculously cute shot of Aaron. Notice his lovely walking bruises. He had a matching set for the Christmas Eve service. He loves this chair. He will pick an item -- a scrap of cloth or paper, a truck, whatever, and go and sit in his chair and play with it and sing to himself for the longest time. Of course "in" the chair is a relative term -- he stands on the chair, climbs on and off the chair and sits in the chair, all while waving around his objet de jour. Does he really have to become a toddler? Can't he stay like this?

Christmas comes how many times in a year?

Meet Santa. I know he looks a bit young for the job, but trust me he's getting lots of practice. Every day since Christmas, Santa has been practicing giving presents. I have been given plastic balls, orange crates, my own Christmas cards and many other wonderful gifts in the last week. Santa also goes in the basement and demands that I get him coaco and load his sleigh for him. What I think is the most ironic about all this is that we don't even DO the Santa thing. Someone just gave Andrew a really cool pop-up book about Santa and away he goes. We grocery shopped in this hat, we rode on the sled and went for coffee in this hat and I narrowly avoided having it worn during church on Sunday. Ho ho ho.

Christmas Round Up -- with very askew pictures

I suppose there is some way to turn all these pictures around, but it is not within my patience at presence to discover it, so bear with my sideways pictures.

A week before Christmas things really got started. Andrew and I made gingerbread cookies

And put another sticker on our VERY classy advent calendar:
Then Andrew's little friend came over and the two of them ate icing and sprinkles -er, I mean decorated cookies -- together.
We set up the Christmas tree. Aaron was especially excited about being able to see both the tree and the reflection of the tree in the window. He just kept pointing and saying "ights! ights!"

He was also pretty excited about the ornaments. We had suspected this would be the case and so took the precations of moving the boys' drawers out of their room and putting the Chistmas tree on top of it. As long as we don't leave any drawers open (as Aaron will use them as a step up to the tree), we're still good.
The next day the weather warmed up and we actually managed to have a sucessful ride on the sled. I put my bag in the back behind the little bump, then Andrew leaning on the bag and Aaron leaning on Andrew. This was much more agreeable arrangement for everyone. On the way back Andrew got out and pretended to be a horse and pulled the sled, which was also good.

Here are the boys in their matching sweaters all ready for the Christmas eve service. They managed about 10 min. of the service and then were overwhelmed. They both fell asleep waiting for Dad to be ready to go home.Christmas morning. Andrew was pretty excited about the blocks. He said "NOW I will have enough wood for building!" He loved the chocolate money in his stocking and his robot (I'll post pictures once I'm done the embroidery on them) best, but was pretty happy with the blocks, too. Aaron really liked all the paper. He spend all morning waving it around and shredding it.Boxing day we had our sumptuous Christmas feast with the Hetkes. I made a very good turkey (if I do say so myself) and a great apple pie, while Sharon supplied veggies and potatoes. A good and delicious time was had by all.

On the 27th I purchased my Christmas present -- a new laptop (hooray!) which means I should be able to post more often without too much collateral damage to our bookshelves and computer cords. I tried to buy locally, but was informed by the guy at the local store that they had sold out of the one I was looking for before Christmas and had not brought in any more since they don't make any money on boxing day anyway. So now I am eagerly awaiting my personal Santa to drop off my present.

So, all in all a sucessful holiday. It was fun making the big meal, having people over and starting and continuing holiday traditions that we can carry on with the boys as they grow. Hope you all had a great Christmas, too.

A day of rest.

I did it! Christmas robots were assembled enough to be given on Christmas. A Christmas email replaced Christmas cards (sorry, anonymous, but you're fated for another cardless year. do what you must to console your wife for me). Andrew loves his robot and the weird Ikea night light Lisa sent him made him decide to spend his first night sleeping in his own room. Post-Christmas dinner was brillant and delicious, and my visiting friends decided to stay an exta night. My present, a laptop, is on its way in the mail, and despite my thwarted attempt to shop locally (if only local merchants would co-operate with my attempts to buy things from them) I still got it for a good price. Dave took Andrew sledding today while Aaron and I hung out and read "The Very Busy Spider" about a thousand times and folded laundry/played peek-a-boo, and otherwise I mostly just hung around the house today. All in all, a successful holday was had by all in the family. Hooray!

Now I just have several crafty things to finish up and mail and give away, and then I will have lots of lovely things to post for your viewing enjoyment (I just don't want to spoil anyone's surprise by posting it here before they get it in real life).

Only when you are making dolls is a bag of miscellaneous limbs a good thing. I can't reall post anything, but I have many half-finished stuffed creatures around the house right now. I'm working on the boys' robots by night and some dolls by day. I don't think I'll get the robots totally finished, but if I can get them stuffed and put faces on them by Christmas I'll be happy. I can then do the control panels later -- if I can manage to convince Andrew to give the robot back to me for a few days. He has coveted every robot I've made so far and I promised he could have one for Christmas, so he's pretty excited about the possibility of getting one.

I was super stressed out about finishing everyone's toys by Christmas, but then Dave reminded me that I'm doing this for fun. So I decided to try to finish the toys of the people who live here, and then send out the others late when I get them done.

Funny, funny boys!

I have lots of pre-Christmas goodness to post, but I don't have time to download and then upload the photos right now, so suffice it to say its beginning to look a lot like Christmas (or as much as it ever does) around here.

For now, though, just had to tell everyone in cyberland what Andrew said in the middle of dinner tonight: "Excuse me, but I have to go put out a fire. Oh, but I guess I'd better finish my dinner first."

Also, the other day he said he didn't want to eat anything because it wasn't dark yet, and I asked him if he was celebrating Ramadan (Dave was there, so someone did get the actual joke). Andrew replied, "I'm not a Dromedon, I'm a boy!"

Also, Aaron is starting to walk. He's hilarious, though, because he stands up somewhere, then waits until everyone / anyone in the room is looking at him (usually), then he sticks his arms out with limp wrists, like a zombie, and with great concentrations takes about four steps, then sits down. His other new trick is giving "five" which he will do for as long as you keep holding your hand out. I guess I know how I'm keeping him amused next time we go to Saskatoon . . .

How do these things always happen to us?

Well, I am in Nipawin. I was supposed to be here for three days while Dave went on his secret cross-border shopping mission. However, something came loose in our car engine and rattled around in there enough to trash the thing. So dave is hanging around in a town in North Dakota until it gets fixed, and I am here, as I have no car if I go home, and am not really into trying to grocery shop, etc, with the boys on the sled, and this keeps my boys occupied playing with other kids so they don't have enough time to constantly fight with each other. And I have other adults to talk to.

So here I am, until whenever the car gets fixed and Dave gets back. It is getting kind of surreal now. Today I felt like I was in some sort of strange dream all day, becuase yesterday I drove back home to feed the cat and then drove back here. Ever since I was in my house i've felt like I accidentally drove back into some parallell dimension. Very strange.

Fortunately I had decided to bring some of my craft stuff with me to do, so I finished a quilt and have got quite a lot of future fun fabric goodness cut. But I still have a ton of sewing and stuffing and embroidering to do when I get home, not to mention getting a Christmas tree, decorating, wrapping presents, sending Christmas cards, baking . . . we might be a bit short on time this year. Ah well, no one really expects to get their card from the Chapmans before New Years anyway.

Sickness guilt.

This always happens to me. After two or three days of haraunging Andrew for being unreasonable / failing to eat / waking up at strange times / complaining about obscure things (such as hurting bones) / wanting to be held and carried all day / not being able to walk fast, he invitably starts throwing up, wakes up with a fever, or suddenly has a runny nose. Upon analyzing the data from the last few days I then say "Oh, you were sick. Sorry for being so exasperated. That must have been terrible." I am then wracked with guilt as I remember dragging him through the snow on the way home from playgroup calling "its cold! hurry up! no, I can't carry you!".

Then a few days later, when I get struck by the first, hidden symptoms of the same sickness (a terrible headache, chills and a low grade fever, or hurting bones), I feel even more guilty. I am an adult and I wish someone would snuggle on the couch all day with me. Fortunately, Andrew is usually up to the all day snuggle job, as long as I read him the same book a hundred and fourteen times while we are snuggling. The only problem is that then when I need to get something done he is insensed and unreasonable that I expect him to find something independent to do for 5 minutes while I change the baby's diaper or peel carrots.

So yeah, we're all sick around here. I'm in the stuffy head / sinus infection stage and the boys are in the rattly chest cough, if only we could get this phlegm up we'd be happy stage of a really nasty cold. Fortunately, since I didn't feel I could foist my very sick self off on any of my friends for three days, Dave decided to pospone his secret mission for a week. Whew.

Making a Thorough Examination

Aaron is at that stage now where he is pulling everything out of everywhere -- all my cupboards, bookshelves and toy boxes are emptied daily. His examination routine has become more elaborate over time. Before it used to be pretty simple: Can I pick it up? Can I shake it? Can I eat it? Can I drop it? After a "yes" or "no" answer was added to these boxes (generally ending with either eating or dropping said object, or as a variation, carrying it around in his mouth like a dog) he would carry on. Now we are getting into more complex evaluation. Added to the list are such questions as: Can I spin around in a circle on my bum while shaking / holding it? Will it fit inside my Weebles farm? Will it go down the slide of my Weebles farm? Can I push it around on the floor? Can I push other things with it as I push it around on the floor? This has led to the discovery that Andrew's sippy cup will fit into the Weebles farm (we tried about 10 times just to prove the theseis), but will not go down the slide, while Andrew's toothbrush will go down the slide.
Of course the ultimately entertaining question is, "Will it elicit a scream from big brother if I touch it?". The joy of having multiple children.

Time to get a new sled.

Well, trip #2 in the sled was another disaster. I only put Andrew in the sled this time, because Aaron fell asleep as I was nursing him just before we left, so I decided it would be kinder to carry him. Andrew sat in the sled, and becuase there's this little ergonomically designed bump about 6 in down, he's usually uncomfortable, so made him sit in front of the bump, with my diaper bag behind the bump for him to lean on. Then I bundled him up in a blanket and we took off the Extra Foods.

Little did I realize that it was really cold. Although the thermometer said -15, I'm sure it must have been at least -22 or more with the wind chill. So there I am, half way to extra foods, thinking "Well, it can't get any colder. As long as we're quick and get out before it starts getting dark, we'll be fine."

We got to Extra foods about 2:30, but since the sun goes down early these days, its starts to cool off even more by 4 or 5, so I rushed through our groceries, carrying a grumpy, awake, too hot baby who was trying to roll himself backwards out of the mei tai to get away from my body heat, and a preschooler who kept protesting "You're going too fast! Too fast, mom!" because he hasn't figured out how to walk well in winter boots yet. After a rushed shopping trip, we tuck the groceries around and on top of Andrew -- milk, soy milk, cheerios, juice, fruit cocktail. I bundle Andrew and the groceries up and we start towards home.

Two older women stop their cars on the way and ask us if we need a ride, because we look so cold. Plus Andrew kicks the blanket off and I have to go back and get it (reminder to self: do not use baby's newly made blanket on the sled again in case it gets lost/damaged). So we rush home, which was great excersise for me, through the wind and cold. Aaron fell back asleep (or was just stunned into a coma by the cold, I'm not sure which) and Andrew peeked out miserably from underneath the blanket until we got home at 3. I take both boys into the house, and come back out to get the groceries only to discover . . . that I have one can of fruit cocktail in the sled. Fortunately the milk was in the driveway and the Cheerios were just down the road. Unfortuantely, the soy milk and apple juice were never recovered. I consider them casualties to the cause.

You Should Live Each Day As If. . .

A plumber was about to come and turn off the hot water. Seriously. I was so productive this morning because I knew that I had to get things done before the plumbers came to replace the hot water tank. I should always do things right when they need to be done (um, instead of writing on my blog while my supper dishes sit in the sink . . . ).

Madness! Madness!

You may well wonder where I've been lately. Well, I've been wading through the madness of having a mobile baby and a posessive preschooler. Suddenly, every time I have Andrew alone, he asks, "Why did you want another boy, mommy?" or comments about how "Aaron gets into all my stuff". Consequently, as well as doing a lot of protecting the baby from being pushed / redirected / dragged around by his brother (as well as burried under blankets, duvets, sleds and couch cushions), we have moved all Andrew's favorite imagination play toys into what will be his room once we re-arrange everything and clear out a room in the basement to be the guest room.

I have also been making little people birthday gifts. Here is one of the sets of beanbags I made for some of Andrew's local friends.

And this is Sam Lukin's robot. It is slightly less ornate than Edmund's because it is for a one year old (no choking hazards, please), but I did mail some buttons to be added for eyes at a later date.

I also made a cute little red courdoroy purse for my god daughter, Marie, but I forgot to take a picture (I'll have to get one later). I love the size and shape of it so much that I am going to have to make myself one with a longer strap. Its a perfect wallet / keys / novel or notebook and pen size.

Then there has been the snow. I bought a sled so I could trek through the snow with the boys. Our first trip was not a qualified success. It took us 40 min. to get to the library (it usually takes 15 in the stroller) because I had to readjust everyone, Aaron was laying on Andrew and "hurting his bones", Aaron was falling out, Andrew was pushing Aaron, Andrew wanted to pull the sled, the rope came loose and parts of the sidewalk had been cleared and I had to drag the sled across them. There were some points where Aaron was just in the sled. It was a very silly trip, we were 20 min late for library story time and there were some points on the way home when no one was in the sled except the library books. Ah well, we'll try again this week.

I have also been fiendishly working on baby Jeremy's quilt, which is two seams away from being ready to sandwich and quilt (hooray!). For some reason Andrew loves to drive over the pieces of this quilt every time I lay it on the floor, so its a bit wobbly because I just couldn't keep ironing the big pieces as I was putting all the blocks together, but I needed to lay it out so I put them together properly.

Then I also hosted a Chineese food night at youth group where 22 teenagers and me and another parent made stir-fry, spring rolls and fortune cookies. And I baked two cakes, one for a potluck and one for marie's birthday. and then there have been all the christmas present deliberations . . .

And Dave has been hogging all the computer time for the last few weeks, working on his latest secret mission (which I am not allowed to disclose to the public -- but ask him and he'll tell you all about it).

I have a lot of really interesting idea posts I want to write, but no breathing room to write them. All I want for Christmas is a laptop . . . sigh.

Whew!

I survived! Four days with my in-laws with no blow outs or arguments or drama and I'm still somewhat sane. Andrew is sad that his grandma and grandpa are gone, but I think Aaron is glad no one is picking him up off the floor (which was apparently too dirty for him to crawl on) and taking everything away from him and putting everything away as soon as he took it out. I am richer by 4 lbs of organic brown rice and 6 lbs or organic raisins (both of which are in my freezer) and several packages of organic grapes. Now I just have to find all my dishes and figure out what all those mysterious odds and ends wrapped in wax paper in my fridge are . . .

So much catching up to do . . .

that I don't even know where to start. I'm in that zone where I have been so busy living irl that I haven't had time to keep up with my internet commitments. So I am now about 5 events behind on my blog, and don't feel right posting about present events because I need to play catch up. So, with apologies to Sharon (who said I'd better write a good post about my birthday) here is a breif summary of what we've been up to in the last few weeks.

The second annual Jill/Edmund birthday party. Edmund and I share the same birth date. So Sharon threw a dinner for our two families the weekend after it. It was fabulous, and contained much roast beef, a delicious cake, and many small children refusing to eat a proper meal becuase they knew there was going to be cake at some point in the evening. And I gave Edmund his robot, and received some fun magazines which gave me good cause to mock and rail against the fashion industry on and off through the evening.


This is Edmund preparing to blow out our candles
This is just a funny picture of Dave and Richard that I had to post.
This is Pumpkin Day, which I think we're going to do every year because it was fun. We had the pumpkin you see above (or pumpnin, as Andrew insists on calling them) and a smaller pie pumkin on hand the week before Halloween. During the day Andrew and I baked pumpkin pie, and then that evening after supper we carved our jack-o-lantern and ate the pie. In true form, Andrew doesn't actually like pumpkin pie, but he insisted we make it. We had enough pumpkin left over for pancakes the next morning, so it was pretty good. Here is Andrew's little pie.
Halloween, of course. We had tons of dress up clothes, including a full suit of armour for Andrew, but he remember that he was a cow last year, so it was a safe choice for him.
The men at the church also built us a garage the week of halloween, and Andrew rushed around under Dave's supervision randomly banging things and dragging old pieces of our fence around the front yard. I would have got lots done around the house if Aaron hadn't had a miserable cold.

Dave also took his last motorcycle ride of the season before he put his baby away in the new garage for the winter. This is some reserve land about 30 min. north of here where he likes to bomb around. The sad thing is that I didn't get to go on it once this year. Maybe next year.

We also had an actress from Saskatoon and her husband come through town as they did a few bookings of her performance of the book of James (as in the entire book of the Bible) which was really thought provoking. And I went to a discovery toys party (probably a rant about that coming to you in the near future). And I went to a double two year old birthday party, for which I decided to make two sets of beanbags in little matching fabric bags. And Sharon and I went to Saskatoon (which is definitely another post, and sadly one for which I foolishly have no photographic evidence), and now my in-laws are here. I'll let you know how that goes when its all over. So now we're caught up. Sorry I'm lacking in my usual charming anecdotes, but I must sleep sometime.

Okay, now I feel like I can go back to my regularly scheduled posts.

Status: Nov. 11

What I've Been Doing: tending to sick kids, making birthday presents, hosting visitors, plus all the usual kids, youth group, playgroup, etc.

What I've Been Reading: Unplugged Play, Quilts and More (Winter 2007), PopCo, Lisa's emails

What I've Been Making: Robots, beanbags, Jeremy's quilt (honestly Kris, I'm still working on it), bread, supper,

What I've Been Thinking About: is ethical consumerism even possible?, how to control my temper, my in-laws upcoming visit, temperments: my own and Andrew's, introversion and extroversion, being an oddball

What's Making Me Angry: Repeated, endless requests for candy, sherbert, television, juice, chips, and more candy, Sweat shops, the deteriorating standards of North American goods, Wal Mart, people who can't just let their children relax and enjoy themselves, my son's anxiety level, my temper (circular, I know, but there you have it), my son's inability to be kind to his baby brother . . . um, okay, just my son in general.

What's Making Me Happy: watching my sons play happily together, watching Aaron crawl, making toys, laughing at Andrew's funny, wise statements, going to Saskatoon with Sharon, my birthday party, Lisa getting a laptop, late night lane swimming.

What I'm Planning: world domination, the exploration and colonisation of space and what I'm going to buy in Saskatoon tomorrow

Yes, I'm still here!

Sorry for the scanty posts! We've all had terrible colds, and Aaron will not pull all the books off the shelf if left on the floor in the study, while Andrew will demand endless Strongbad cartoons and then be really obnoxious all day. This, my friends, is a sign that I need a laptop.

Robot 1-E is ready to launch

I whipped up this adorable creature in two nights this week. I call him robot 1-E because he's my first robot, and he's for Edmund, who shares my birthday. I plan to make quite a few of these in the future, including one for Andrew, who loves this one, and one for myself named Doris, who will preside over either my kitchen or my sewing corner.

He was really fun, and made me realize the value of having a fabric stash. Most of the fabric I have on hand is already designated for some quilt or project I'm thinking of. This makes it hard to put together little things like this when I want to, becuase my fabric choices are somewhat limited. But if I had more of a stash, just a bunch or random fabrics I thought were cool and cute, I could pull two or three that I liked for robots or stuffed toys or bags or baby balls or whatever whenever I felt the need to make some. Not that I'm saying I don't have a lot of fabric, I just also have a lot of ideas.

I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been trying to go through and label my posts. I think I'm done now, because some of the remaining ones either defy description or are not really important, and also because I'm tired of it now. If you look to your left you will find that many of my posts are about children, while I also apparently do many things I consider to be adventures and spend a lot of time talking about the weather. I was impressed with myself because I had to add a category for "thoughts". I apparently do have a few these days. I was surprised at how many "adventures" I have had, but considering my definition of adventure as anything that is unusual or that doesn't exactly go as planned, that category should really encompass most of my life. I also realized that having lots of posts about the weather just showed that I am a typical Canadian, while the fact that I even have a label for "hair" shows that I am a typical woman.

Visitors!

I love having visitors. ANY of you can come and stay at my house any time you want. It gets pretty boring around here, and although I do have my children and my sewing to keep me company, I do like to have my friends around, too.

That said, we had visitors this week! Steve, Amanda and Kaylee drove up from Cambridge, ON to see us for a few days. They spent a lot of time driving because Kaylee is 11 mos, and so they could only do a few hours a day, but they were here from Tuesday until Saturday morning, so it was a nice visit.

Andrew had a blast playing with his uncle Steve. He wanted to do whatever Steve was doing and spent a lot of time tackling Steve and attacking him with blankets. Kaylee, who is very pretty and almost walking, had fun exploring a new, baby proofed house. She and Aaron took turns poking and pulling hair. We enjoyed hearing all the news from Cambridge and being regaled with a new batch of "Private Steve" stories. Steve loves his job and he loves to tell us about all the crazy things he sees as a police officer with the Kitchener Police Department. The cousins all enjoyed playing together, too.

Steve and Amanda took Andrew to the park and then shopping one day and got him this cool air-driven motorcycle. Its great, and works perfectly as long as you push the little piston button to the forward position and then pump the little air pump exactly 25 times . . . . I just told him I don't know how to work it and he has to ask Daddy or Uncle Steve to play with the motorcycle.

Aaron really started bum scootching and belly crawling this week, too. He will scootch over to a convenient pull-upable object, pull himself up to standing, and stand there singing "dadagabadabaga" forever. He especially loves to do this on the tupperware cupboard knob in the kitchen, or on the open cupboard door -- then he can throw all the plastic containers across the kitchen while bouncing and talking. Its pretty funny to watch.

Finally Finished Aaron's quilt!

Well, he is only 9 months old, and his baby quilt is finally finished. I thought it might be nice to snuggle him in his very own quilt as winter sets in and he starts to get too big for little baby blankets.

This quilt matches the one I made for his cousin Kaylee. I made all the blocks for both quilts simultaneously in February and March, then finished her quilt in April. Then I was tired of it, so I went on to make all the blocks for baby Jeremy's quilt in May. Then I was doing retreats and art camp and summer vacation and getting back into the swing of things and then I messed around with Jeremy's quilt and got about half of it put together, but then decided I didn't like the backing I had for it and ordered something else online, so I decided to finish Aaron's quilt.

I really like how it turned out. Its kind of frustrating that it is one of my tamer quilts so far, but that was becuase I decied to match it with Kaylee's quilt, and I knew Steve and Amanda were a bit more traditional in their thoughts of what would be a proper "baby" quilt. It is super soft and cute, though, so I can't complain, even though its not as cool as Sam's quilt or as flashy as Morwyn's quilt or as funky and retro as Jeremy's quilt will be.

Socks!

Socks are presently our favorite toy. I had a basket full of socks to be sorted, and they have spent the day being thrown on me, piled on the baby, bulldozed around the living room. They are everywhere, in the study, the kitchen, the living room, the hallway. Of course, this happens the day before Steve, Amanda and Kaylee come to visit when I already have to clean the spare room, the extra bathroom, wash sheets, cook food and vacuum and sweep and mop and . . . well, lets just say I shouldn't be sitting at the keyboard typing about socks.

Aaron actually crawled more than 2 ft today. He made it all the way out of our room and down the hallway today before he realized that he wasn't wearing any pants and had some serious rug burn on his knees. He was sort of shreiking with excitement and crying in agony at the same time. It was pretty funny. But cute because Andrew and I were both cheering and clapping for him while he did the worm crawl down the hallway, and Aaron was super proud, but also sort of saying "Don't just stand there clapping -- pick me up already!"

Regained my Equilibrium

One bath, one early night, one quilt top completed and one sleep in later, I am feeling much more sane. I get frustrated with my son for pushing himself to the end of his limits -- waking up early, pushing through naps even when he's tired, insisting we go out even when he's obviously too overstimulated to manage behaving well, refusing to eat enough good food to properly fuel his body . . . but I do all the same things. I need to learn what I want to teach him and put us both on a schedule of good sleep and healthy meals and laid back activities in between bouts of working.

I have resolved that although being organized and having a decently well running house is important, so is my sanity and peace. I just need to find a way to keep both up better.

That's It, I Give Up.

Once more, as Dave predicted, I have managed to overload myself. I somehow find myself teaching sunday school every second week, running the city playgroup, running the eccumenical youth group, writing for a new website, and trying to keep up with the general madness that is taking care of a difficult three year old and an eight month old who has decided he must walk. Now. Oh yeah, and then there's trying to keep the house in order and organized, lose weight, get back in shape, do something with my hair, look presentable every day, and support my husband as a minister's wife. And do all this on a very tight budget, with no family nearby and no break from my children. Did I mention winter is coming, too, and kicking Andrew outside to play when he starts plowing through my piles of freshly folded laundry or trying to grab food off the cutting board while I cut it is not going to be an option for more than a few more weeks?

So the question is, what can I drop? Who should I disapoint? Which activities are the least essential to my family?

To be fair, though, Dave was gone on clergy retreat all week, and I have been single parenting with no releif other than at bedtime last night since Tuesday morning, and my older son was completely uncooperative and screaming at me all day and then almost drowned in the bath tonight, and my younger son kept biting me to try to get my attention because, well, he knew there was no way he could be more dramatic than his brother. So this might not be the right time to make any major life decisions. In fact, this might be the time to ignore the ghastly state of the house and go take a bath.

If I Were A Pioneer I Would Be . . .

Dead. Seriously, my gardening and food processing skills are atrocious. Take away my grocery store and refrigerator and I would starve. Many of my friends have been blogging about their wonderful back yard harvests lately. The tomatos, the lettuce, the peas and beans and the squash -- the endless, endless squash that has been produced by a perfect mix of sun, rain and their loving labour. In my last three years of gardening I have utterly failed to have one sunflower bloom. Last year my six zucchini plants conspired against me to only create two zucchinis. This year the rhubarb I planted in June is still only six inches high. I simply lack the discipline or mysterious skills required to keep up a garden.

Aside from this, there is my apple tree. Due to Dave's passion for pruning, we have a huge crop of beautiful apples every August. Which I utterly fail to use. I pick large buckets of apples and leave them on my deck to "deal with later". This is code for "to toss in the compost a month from now when I realize they are too yukky to do anything with". Despite my admirable intentions this time around, I managed to make 6 jars of apple sauce, which were instantly devoured by my son, and 6 jars of apple butter. Oh, and I made 6 jars of peach "jam" from some organic peaches I bought at the store. So my ability to can / preserve / freeze for the winter is virtually non-existent.

If I were living in pioneer times, my family would die of scurvy by November. They would be warm from all the quilts I would make them. Very warm. But still very dead.

Daylight Savings Time

Saskatchewan does not have day light savings time. I think this has something to do with the big sky. Saskatchewonians feel no need to have a time change because there are no hills or mountains in the way to block the sunlight in the winter. Unfortunately, no one bothered to mention this to Andrew's biological clock. He has developed his own little internal time change and has begun waking up between 4:30 and 5 am, eating supper at 4 pm and wanting to go to sleep around 7pm. Its madness, I tell you. Sheer madness.

I tried giving him a nap yesterday, hoping that he would go to sleep later and thus wake up later. No luck. He went to sleep around 9pm, but still woke up, bright, bushy tailed and LOUD at 4:15. I made him stay in bed while I got the baby back to sleep (who was NOT bright eyed and bushy tailed). He came to find me at about 5:45, raring to go and insisting that he needed breakfast.

I think that 4:14ish must be right at the end of everyone except Dave's sleep cycle, however, becuase I actually feel more awake if I wake up at 4:30 than if I wake up at 5:30.

I just try to remind myself that one day I will be shaking him awake and trying to get him out the door in time for school. One day.

Canada Writes?

Hello, my faithful readers. CBC just opened this contest: http://www.cbc.ca/canadawrites/categories.html

Its for bloggers, ad copy, humour writing, etc.

The limit is 200 words.

So, in your opinions, what are some of my more memorable, clever blog entries?