Map

This is a map. It's a gorgeous map ten 7/8th graders (Noah's class) drew & shaded by hand for the school's auction that took place a few months ago. It brought in a nice sum for the school. It's a stunning piece. I just had the opportunity to create some over-sized postcards for the students to have as "memorabilia." I thought I'd share. Amazing, huh? (You can click on it and enjoy a slightly larger view.) Noah is known for his small, neat handwriting. Amongst other things, he wrote the "Key."

Ten Months Old

Nuriel is ten months old. Time surely flies. In this picture she looks so "grown up" to me. Maybe it's because she's growing hair? Or just the fact that she's playing in the dirt? She looks nothing like me. That's a fact. I'm not keeping a baby book with milestones, so before these things fade in my brain (better call it a sieve), here's what I do remember: 

She started rolling over when she was 4-1/2 months old. Her first tooth appeared March 16th. I remember sitting at school with her, waiting for Noah to come out of Spanish class & feeding her a nibble of something. My finger touched something hard. Tooth! The funny thing is that she wasn't teething prior to getting those two bottom teeth, but she's been teething ever since... However, she hasn't gotten any more teeth. Weird, huh? 

She started sitting up when she was about 7 months old. When she was about 9 months old, she started scooting around in a sitting position & doing 360 degree "spins." She also pushed herself around on her belly, but she was only able to go backwards & this caused some frustration at times. She started crawling right at 10 months and now she's all. over. the. place. - No kidding!  

Her brothers have taught her how to shake her head as if saying, "No." She loves to take baths & play in the water. She eats what we eat. I'm not a fan of buying baby food. She especially loves rice & beans, yogurt, kiwifruit & blackberries. Oh, and paper! She loves drinking unsweetened herbal tea, too.

So, I don't remember much. But that's at least a lil' something for the record.

I really don't neglect the boys. They just don't like to have their pictures taken. They don't like me blogging about them. I'll have two teenage boys come September. It seems that they are on track with the teenage milestones as well... You know, sleeping in 'til noon & acquiring debating skills. ;-) (They are also very helpful when it comes to housework & helping in general & I'm not being sarcastic about that!)

Oh, and another note: I'm a bit in "avoidance" mood right now. So I blog about the craft projects that distract me & other mundane things. 

'Twas May

Being a teacher, May is always a crazy-busy month. Here are a few recent pictures. And hopefully I'll be blogging more frequently again now that summer break has arrived! Yay.

With my 3rd graders I visited a city garden, an Alpaca Farm, and spent three days camping at Sustenance Farm in North Carolina.

Nathan & Nunu crackin' up.

Nunu at Mayfaire. The dress, one of those hand-smocked treasures, was a hand-me-down from one of my students. I made her a lil' flower-crown with herbs & weeds from the garden. It lasted for a photo moment. Really, she just wanted to eat it!

Nathan holding the flag for his city-state Corinth at the Pentathlon. His strongest discipline was the javelin. It was a nice day.

Nunu heading to Noah's class play, dressed in a fancy dress a colleague brought back from a trip to India. It's supposed to be a neck scarf, but it looks cute on her head.

Noah as Isaac Newton in his 8th grade class play. Scrambled professor. So totally him! His dream-hairstyle. No doubt. Ha!

The Teenager

You know, the one who drives me crazZzZy at times. Well, good news. He received his acceptance letter to Open High today. I wasn't at home. He called me & he was crying. I thought, "Bleep." I knew the letter was coming. We actually anticipated a letter from Community High as well, but apparently they are mailing later this week. He was crying because he was happy! Open High  receives about 200 applications & takes 50 students. As part of the application he had to submit 5 essays and go through an interviewing process.

I kept asking the spiritual world to prepare a path for the right high school for him & I asked Brent to work some magic from where he is... This is clearly the one!

Oh my gosh! I cannot tell you how relieved I am! I'm heading for the 1/2 bottle of Pinot Noir I still have in the fridge...

My blog post from earlier today can be found here, but I just had to share! 

Managing Tis Season

"Managing" seems to be the motto this season. Managing as in... achieve something with difficulty: to succeed in doing something, especially something that seems difficult or impossible OR cope in a difficult situation: to survive or continue despite difficulties.

I managed to put up a few Christmas decorations. Nathan made the stars on the left & right. I made the one in the middle (so did my 2nd grade students).

I managed to put up a tree on a snowday. I was hesitant about putting up a tree. I even managed to buy the tree where Brent & I had bought one last year.

I had a few good laughs. It seems it took 20 picture snaps to get a decent, well-mannered one. (No, this is NOT the one!)

I made a pair of Turkish Bedsocks (using Koigu) for a very special person. I managed to get all my swap envelopes & the package out... albeit a bit late - but still scheduled to arrive before Christmas Eve. I also managed to bake a batch of coconut thumbprint cookies & we managed to devour them in less than 24 hours. I hid them from the children, but there was no one to hide them from me. Maybe I will manage to make another batch.

And Nuriel aka Nunu aka Noodle and I did a wee bit of Christmas shopping today. Her sweet lil' gift arrived in the mail and I got two things each for the boys. - I spent less than $60, but I bought things I know they will love.

Feed Me!

Who needs breastmilk if your big brother is willing to feed you some sausage, pancakes & eggs?

Turkey Day

All the beautiful children on Thanksgiving Day! We had a lovely, yummy day. Black Friday is not our sort of thing, so I'm giving some attention to crafting for the holidays & catching up in general. I'll have a post later this weekend to show you what I've been up to! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

Lantern Walk

Our school's lantern walk in celebration of Martinmas was yesterday. Nuri's first walk - attached to me in the Ergo carrier (which I *love*) & Noah's last walk as a grades student as he will be in high school next year. My students made simple lanterns using a sheet of watercolor paper. They drew on moons, stars, suns and shooting stars. I cut the shapes out with a paper knife and the students then glued colored wax paper over the cut-outs and finger-knit a handle for carrying.

Very simple lanterns, but they looked so pretty when lit! My students also insisted on making a mini version of this lantern for Nuri. Very sweet. I carried it for her, of course. I ended up not going with the idea my students had of attaching the lantern to a pacifier...

These are the lanterns Nathan's class created. Nifty construction, eh? I have no pictures of the walk as I tend to just want to enjoy the silent walking...

A Mellow Autumn Sunday

A lovely day of doing... not much of anything. Well, I did take a nap. That's doing something - right?!

Thanks to Pixie over at Peskypixies' Blog (Callin' her Pixie because I don't know if she's an out-of-the-closet blogger when it comes to her name...) for the sweet lil' pink cardigan. It's a perfect fit. Such a nice extra layer now that autumn weather brings some chilliness.

Hangin' with the brother.

Noah's Writing Blurb

I attended the "Friday Gathering" at school this morning with Nuriel. Noah's class presented snippets from the Creative Writing block. Here's what Noah shared:

Yesterday I was holding my baby sister. She got hungry, so she started pushing her face against my chest hopefully. When that did not work, she grabbed fistfuls of my shirt and tried to force them into her mouth. Earlier she had been face-planted in my brother's chest. When she couldn't get any shirt into her mouth, she started to fuss loudly so I gave her to my Mom and the problem was fixed.

Sweet, huh? Long weekend ahead! And it looks like sunshine!

Virginia State Fair

We ended up going today with good weather in the forecast. It was way too crowded and not old-fashioned enough for my taste, but we had a good time!

 

 Sucking up some lemonade. $13 worth to be specific.

Chillin' with a full belly.

 Joyful, happy baby!

Some knitted creations on display - including my blue baby afghan with the blue ribbon.

Noah's lyre & Nathan's spoon on the top right.

Sweater with the red ribbon.

Virginia State Fair, Here We Come!

I've never been to a State Fair! Isn't that somethin'? Then this year we decided to submit some things to the Virginia State Fair Arts & Crafts Competition. It seemed like something fun to do. It was 20 cents per entry. That made it something cheap to do. Never in my wildest imagination did I think we would win one of those prestigious ribbons! But guess what? We did! Noah submitted his pentatonic cherry lyre, Nathan a carved wooden spoon & I submitted four knittsie creations. That's six entries & we won FOUR ribbons! Noah got a blue ribbon (1st place) for his lyre, Nathan a white ribbon (3rd place) for his wooden spoon & I got a blue ribbon for this and a red ribbon (2nd place) for this. The weather has been coldish-rainish. It's supposed to be a bit better on Friday. I've decided to pick the kids up from school early & we're goin' to the State Fair! I promise I'll snap lots of pictures! (Either this is something to really be excited about or just a sign of me getting old. I haven't figured that out yet!)

These Days

I haven't forgotten about this blog. Nuriel is easy-going. Her nighttime routine is sleep from 10 p.m.-ish to 6 a.m.-ish with a quick nurse & back to snooze around 2 a.m. I had a bit of a baby blue day the other night. She wasn't happy with the lil' milk my boobs were giving her. So she nursed & screamed & I cried  while telling her "Papa stories." After that we were all better. :-)

I was not looking forward to her first appointment with the pediatrician today. Home-birthers & non-vaccinaters (or vaccinaters on a delayed schedule) are usually frowned upon. I tend to get impatient in these situations & I had asked Brent for help from spiritual realms. Boy, did I feel his presence! I love the pediatrician I went to see. Very positive towards home-births; the vaccination issue didn't even come up. She was totally excited that I was breastfeeding Nuriel so easily & successfully. She's already gained 5 ozs.! She even had someone do that state-mandated test for 29 metabolic diseases while I was feeding her, which made it as pleasant as such a poke can be for a 6-days-old. 

I'm enjoying Nuriel & Noah & Nathan & just getting into the new flow of things. 

I'll be back soon with a blog post. I'm designing a fern lace bonnet for my girl & I'm looking forward to sharing the pattern. 

Much love to all of you. All the comments really warm my heart!

Midwife Tuesday

Two posts today. The other one is here. Lil' Bean is doing fine. Strong heartbeat & he's active. Cervix is at 3-4 cm, 50% effaced, soft & squishy. No labor yet. If he hasn't made an appearance by next Monday, "the drink" will help him along. Tomorrow is Nathan's birthday. Wouldn't a birth on that day be a fun coincidence?

Noah & Nathan came with me. They wanted to meet the squirrel babies I mentioned here. They loved Noah's warm hands so much that one of them had a bowel movement. Aren't they cute?

First Day Of School

Voila! Noah and Nathan on their first day of 8th & 5th grade. My boys. They are amazing people. I just love them so much. They actually both got up at 6 a.m. joyfully; cheerfully. Let's hope each & every day this school year will be like that...

The school-cone is a German tradition for the first day of first grade. When Noah started first grade, he had a big one. Nathan, in Kindergarten at the time, had a small one. Nathan never had one for first grade (long story), so this year I decided to make the first day of school special. I surprised them with a school-cone. Nathan got the big one... a couple of years late & Noah has the lil' one as an 8th grader.

The i-tunes gift card is not part of that German tradition. Ha. As my children are getting older, I'm realizing that I need to loosen the chains a bit. He's almost 14... For some reason this is the first year ever that we are jumping on the new clothing, backpack, lunchbox... first day of school wagon (out of necessity, really). It's a very American thing we've never done.

Well, I better go & get ready before we're late on the first day because I'm blogging.

Edited to add: Just before we were leaving, Nathan said to Noah, "Why did you put your i-tunes gift card into the trash?" Noah says, "What? It's a real gift card? I thought Mom was tricking me with a fake advertisement." Oh my! :-)

Boys & Birth

"We're going to bury the placenta in the backyard & plant a berry-bush on it. But first it will probably be sitting in the freezer for a couple of days."

Silence.

"What if we accidentally take the placenta for frozen meat & eat it for dinner by mistake?"

"What if the placenta buried in the backyard grows into a giant underground squid & sucks up the hole house?" (Yes, I do believe they watched too much TV at their Dad's house.)

Home Sweet Home

I wanted to participate in Kimmie's call to Vintage Saturday. Alas. After 7-1/2 hours of driving 460 miles (730 km) with lots of fog in the mountains & a car malfunction, I'm exhausted. My boys are back home, though. Yay. - Might need to be a Vintage Sunday for me this week.

Sweet boys.

Silly boys.

Just A Bit Of Color

On Tuesday I thought it was Wednesday. Today it's Thursday & it still feels like Wednesday. I guess I'm stuck in time. I've had a lot of picture-less posts these past few days, so here's a bit of color.

Not many treasures remain from Noah and Nathan's childhood. They don't really play with these anymore, unless a younger child is over for a visit. When we came back to the U.S. a few years ago, what we brought had to fit into six suitcases and what we stored in a friend's house was destroyed when her basement flooded. This lil' corner brought a smile to my face today, because my boys are finally coming home this weekend. I can't wait to hug them.

I got tired of the plain knitting the Barn-Raising Quilt squares require, so I'm throwing some lace ones into the mix. Otherwise this would end up being an eternal project. I finished the Autumn Shawl, but my dear camera is not picking up the brown very well. It will need to wait 'til after blocking.

Another Vanilla soaker. Only a red one needed after this one to complete the rainbow stack.

And the shawl ready to be mailed tomorrow - unless I forget it's Friday, which is my mailing day. I decided to add a wool roving angel. I've just been wanting to create angels lately.

Smile

Children enjoying their "meat" bribe. Must have been time to get a haircut.
Sure enough.

I miss my children & I'm a bit under the weather. I've been looking at old photos. These pictures are over a year old (April 2009). Two days between them. Nathan actually prefers his hair short. Noah prefers his hair ala Jimi Hendrix. Anyhoo. I miss these goofy children.

Disclaimer: Yes, we eat meat. Yes, my children like to pig out at Whole Foods. No, we don't drink sweet milk & soda often. And no, I don't bribe my children with meat. Sounds like a good idea, though. ;-)

Random Saturday

I've been in a knitting frenzy. It's nice to have the time to just sit & knit & reflect & drink Barley coffee. This is my third soaker. The information on what yarn is best for a soaker is so varied. I didn't want to knit them all of the same yarn and then find out that my choice was off, so I'm knitting a rainbow of soakers from a variety of yarns. This one is a Malabrigo one. Way too big. It's so hard for me to go back and remember how tiny these wee lil' babies are. When Lil' Bean is born, it will be around 12 years to the day that I gave birth to Nathan.

I so love this colorway. I think the poop-stains would blend right in.

Up next is a square I created real quick last night using O~Wool Balance. It's for an upcoming Friendship Quilt swap. 12" square. I used the entire skein with maybe a yard to spare. I wanted a square that was knit from the inside out, like the Barn-Raising squares, but I didn't wanna do just plain knitting, so I used the leaf lace pattern from Evelyn Clark's Leaf Lace Shawl pattern. I kinda like it. 11 more to go. Yikes.

Please ignore the dusty wood floor.

And then for the proud Mama moments... Nathan drew this picture a couple of months ago & entered it into an art contest. When we checked out the website the following month to see who the winner was, we were sort of bummed out. Nathan's picture didn't make it & the winning one seemed much less sophisticated. Well, today the mailman showed up with a big envelope. I didn't recognize the return address & opened it. Inside was a note saying that Nathan won this month's art contest with his picture, but when I look at the website I still can't see it there. I called him to let him know & he was quite happy. They are on their way to Minnesota where they will spend a few days at a lake house. They were traveling through his beloved Illinois as we spoke.

Autumn Cardinal (Nathan - 11 Years Old)

My older one gave me a proud Mama moment this week, too. In 7th grade the school does give grades in preparation for a transition to a non-Waldorf high school. It was a report filled with "A" and "B+" for Noah. Proud Mama I am.

Last (but not least) I wanted to thank all of you for the lovely comments you leave me. I rarely ever respond to them, but I want you to know that they are quite inspiring to me. They make me smile & lift me up when I need it. Namaste!