Starry Night happened to this week.

Whew. This week totally got away from me. I blame Debbie Macomber. Why-you ask? Well, I started Starry Night a couple of days ago and got drawn into this great romantic story. I can admit it. I swooned. Sigh. I finished the book last night and returned to my regular life today.
I even missed Yarnalong on Wednesday. I had taken all the photos and even written the post but by the time I got home from Scouts that night I was exhausted and that was the end of that. So here is what I would have posted (2 days ago):

I've been knitting Valentine's Day mittens with little pink crocheted hearts and pink buttons for decoration. These ones are sized for kids 6-8 years old, knit from Vanna's Choice in silver grey heather.

I'm planning on posting them on Etsy tomorrow once I can get outside and take some pictures in natural light. 

Well, I should run and tuck the kiddies into bed. The Boy has been sick with a cold all day. Poor kid-who wants to spend the PD day sick?? The Em-ster has had her nose buried in Charlotte's Web for the past hour and I think she's at the part where Charlotte dies. Time for lights out for all of us!

Monday Knitting and Musings

Yesterday I managed to get the first pair of my Valentine's Day mitts assembled and took photos in the brilliant sunshine we had here in south-western Ontario.

I wanted to add a little something to cheery red mittens without it being in-your-face Valentine's Day-centric and I think the little hearts and buttons do the trick. The buttons are different on each mitten and I like the eclectic effect. More original that way. I have a grey pair for kids on the needles right now. I'm trying to decide if they'll get pink hearts or purple. Stay tuned for the riveting conclusion ;)

I'm having trouble with my camera, getting it to balance out the light and dark of an object without the dark looking over-exposed. I really need to google this problem. Do you have any suggestions on what to do??

In other news, it was a busy day of driving all over the countryside for my husband and I. We drove 40 mins to meet with the doctor who has completed a learning assessment on our daughter to discuss how to present this document to the special ed department at school and get some accommodations for The Em-ster. They aren't crazy or difficult-a fidget toy to help her listen in class, someone to scribe for her and/or a reduction in the written work that she struggles so much with. Writing is hard for her and one of the things we need to do is get someone to look at the way she writes and suggest some exercises to improve it. 

In April we meet with a pediatrician to discuss how to go about testing her formally for ADD/ADHD. It will be nice to have an answer finally one way or another and a plan for dealing with whatever it is. I keep remembering what Kim John Payne says in Simplicity Parenting- a quirk+stress=a disorder. It spurs me on to continue simplifying her environment and to encourage her to get lots of fresh air and exercise. I don't expect it all to magically erase a diagnosis but I believe it might just help alleviate some of the symptoms. 

So that's what's up around here this Monday in the dead of January. Another ordinary day in an ordinary week in an ordinary month. 

Gratitude Sunday: Hearts

Joining Taryn today at Wooly Moss Roots blog for Gratitude Sunday. A time to look back at the week that was and reflect with Gratitude.

(Every morning I look outside my bedroom window and I am greeted by this fella)

We went to a friend's wedding last night and had such a good time. I ate too much, imbibed too much, laughed until I couldn't breathe and danced until 1 in the morning. Today I am definitely paying for it. I see a glass of water by my side all day and another cup of coffee in my future.
Feeling grateful this week for:
:: a new part-time job started on Wednesday serving healthy food at a little bakery/cafe nearby. I'm catching on quickly and the other people I work with are lovely.

:: a surprise overnight visit with a good friend who came bearing little crocheted hearts for the Valentine's Day mittens soon to be in my Etsy shop and some outfits to wear to the aforementioned wedding.
:: sunshine today
:: new shoes and paying less for them than I had planned on
:: my friend Ellie who is the Dancing Queen whether there are people on the dance floor or not. Love that joie de vivre!!
:: coffee.

Thrifty Thursday: Ethics and Money

I want you to think about your personal ethics for a minute. What's important to you? How do they inform the way that you live? How do they affect the choices that you make every day and do you realize the impact they have on even the smallest of decisions?
This Thrifty Thursday I want to talk about ethics and money. When I began thinking about doing this I had themes in mind like cooking, cleaning, budgeting ideas and now here I am with Deep Thoughts by Amanda. Yeesh. However it seemed to me this was such a cornerstone of being thrifty that it needed to be brought out and aired.
So often being thrifty isn't only about spending as little money as possible. It's about making choices about how you live your life and what got you to this place. Perhaps you are a stay at home parent who chooses this path in order to homeschool your kids or be present for them before and after school. Maybe you look after an aging parent or work from home doing something that makes you happy every single day of your life but doesn't leave a whole lot left over after all the bills are paid.
Being ethical is about choosing not to fill your houses full of STUFF, making environmentally-friendly choices, avoiding all those crazy chemicals manufacturers seem to love to put into our food and everything else and being healthy. It's about buying used things instead of new and making things from scratch rather than spending money.
The funny thing I've noticed is my ethics cause me to spend less money rather than more in so many cases. It surprised me a bit because it's important to me to be environmentally-conscious and to buy foods without weird chemicals and that means buying organic produce and meat from animals who haven't been pumped full of antibiotics, hormones and food they wouldn't normally eat. And that costs more. But my combination of ethics mean that I may be spending $7.99 on a pound of grass fed ground beef but it gets offset by the fact that I only make the trip out to the butcher once a month when I can make it worthwhile for the gas and wear and tear on our car. I also don't spend money on treats for the kids, prefering instead to make them from scratch at home which is cheaper and healthier. I knit like a fiend and haven't bought mittens or a hat for myself in 9 years and when I wanted a new skirt last summer I made one rather than heading to the mall.
When I'm getting discouraged about how hard it is sometimes to make ends meet especially when the washing machine begins to make THAT NOISE again I find it helpful to think about why I'm still doing this. Maybe it helps you too.

Yarnalong: A Blueberry Hat

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

Knitting:
The Spirit moved me to begin another Blueberry Hat. I made one for my friend's little guy and I was so pleased by how it turned out I thought I'd knit one for Yarnnygirl. I can't remember where I found the pattern (probably Ravelry) but it's pretty simple until you get to the stem and leaves. I'm using Paton's Canadiana in Royal blue on 4.5 mm circs (I think). The needles are a bit big for the yarn so I might go down a size and do some math so the hat doesn't get smaller too.

Reading:
I'm still working my way through Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne. His thoughts and suggestions on rhythm made a lot of sense and are things we do anyway such as having a set time and routine for bedtime that rarely changes. We eat dinner together as a family 95% of the time. I like his idea of having a regular menu in so far as having a theme to each night of the week (ie Friday-fish, Monday-meatless, Tuesday-chicken etc) Less question as to what's for dinner for kids and me. We simplified The Em-ster's room last week and she has managed to keep it that way for almost a week and half. An incredible feat for this girl. I've also made sure to spend time with her every night after the lights are out talking about whatever comes to her mind. I've noticed it's really helping her to settle down and go to sleep. She's a lot calmer in general since these changes.
What about you? What are you knitting and reading?

Imagine...your ad here

Do you have a dream? I do. I have a bunch of them actually. One of them is to live in a world surrounded by people who spend their money carefully and consciously on things that are in line with their personal ethics. Another is to work from home so I can be physically and mentally present for my son who has Asperger's Syndrome and my daughter who more than likely has ADHD. I want to be here to bake bread twice a week, tend a garden that feeds us most of the year and pursue my passions-knitting and sewing. My dream is to combine the two using this blog as a vehicle.
If you look to the right of this blog post, beneath my Etsy shop you'll see a new thing: a place for sponsors. I'm looking for business owners who are passionate about their product or service, who are living out their dreams of providing a Something that makes this world a better place. You could be a spinner of wool looking for a new place to advertise your wares. You could be a teacher of an on-line course that will give people tools they can't find elsewhere. You could be a maker of beautiful, ethically-made toys. Whatever you do or make, there is a place over yonder for your ad with a link to your website to get the word out.

The word "imagine" to me looks like the face of a child writing her name in the air with a sparkler on a warm, spring night. That's why I chose this photo of my daughter from last May. I love the look of wonder and joy on her face. It reminds me of how it feels to dream a dream and watch it turn into reality.
If you are a business owner interested in having your ad over there please click here, or click the photo to the right or check out my Sponsorship page for all the information. If you a reader who knows of someone who might be interested I encourage you to send them my link and let them know I'm here.

Gratitude Sunday: bread

Joining Taryn today at Wooly Moss Roots blog for Gratitude Sunday. A time to look back on the week that was and reflect with Gratitude.

Today's big undertaking-bread. I've made bread in the past using a recipe from More with Less, compiled by Doris Janzen Longacre and the results have been ok but not great. This afternoon I used Edna Staebler's recipe from her 1968 cookbook Food That Really Schmecks. It's called Neil Harbour White Bread and it turned out perfectly. Edna Staebler is a pretty big deal around here. She wrote a number of chatty cookbooks based on her Mennonite upbringing. I think of her as kind of like the Elizabeth Zimmerman of the cooking world.

More to the point, this week I am feeling grateful for:
:: proper winter-if it has to be January then it should be cold and snowy and I should be wearing sweaters, knitting and sledding. I was and I did and it was good.
:: 3 meals from a $6 chicken-crockpot bbq chicken one night, leftovers for lunches and a hearty chicken stew from the bones last night
:: a job opportunity, out of the blue, working at a cafe close by that makes and sells delicious healthy food and fair trade coffee.
:: time to read
:: finding just the book we were needing on our shelf. Both kids have been having issues making and keeping friends lately and I had forgotten about picking up The Unwritten Rule of Friendship-Simple Strategies to Help your Child Make Friends by Natalie Madorsky Elman and Eileen Kennedy-Moore. I found it at our library's used book sale and bought it a little while ago thinking it sounded useful.
:: sledding yesterday. Both kids and I were in blue funks yesterday afternoon and it was The Boy who said "This sucks, let's go sledding" and I said yes. Why didn't I think of that?? A good time was had by all and when we got home again there was peace once more.
It's funny how I start out trying to think of what I'm grateful for this week and worry I will only have one or two things and before I know it, I'm up to 10. Does that happen to you too?

This Moment-Baby it's Cold Outside!!

Joining Amanda today at Soulemama for This Moment.

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

Thrifty Thursday

I've had this idea for a blog post series for awhile. I wanted to add my 2 cents to the frugal-simplify movement in my own voice. I believe in living simply, living within our means and living consciously.
Here at our house (as you may have read) I work 2 days a week, down from 5. I made this choice when I had no choice but to stop working at a job that was hurting my body and soul. I have never been more content. It comes with a price, that money is tight and we have to be careful where our money is spent. My husband is happy where he is and has no desire to move on and who am I to question being happy about work! So, we live simply, consciously and within our means.
My mentors have been Danielle Wagasky over at Blissful and Domestic blog and Tonya at Plain and Joyful Living.
Things I think we do well at our house to live out our beliefs:
1. We live within our means. Most months we end in the black. No debt on the credit card.
2. If we can't afford it we do without it until we can. For example, our extra bathroom has a leaky tap and instead of rushing out and buying a new tap on the credit card we closed the bathroom until further notice. We have another bathroom and we've been just fine.
3. Grocery shopping-I shop once every 2 weeks when we get paid and don't go back to the grocery store until we get paid again. Big savings there! Because I would rather spend our grocery budget on whole foods and organic, we don't buy much prepared, pre-packaged food. It's healthier for everyone and cheaper.
4. We don't eat out much. It's expensive and it's unhealthy most of the time. I write this with a sheepish grin on my face as tonight my husband and I went on a date to Harveys for hamburgers and poutine. Full disclosure at it's best! But....the last time we ate out was months ago and we chose this option for financial reasons and because we both love Harveys poutine.
So, there you have an introduction to this idea of mine. Have you ever read the book Living More With Less by Doris Longacre Janzen? It was written in the '70's by a Mennonite author of several cookbooks based in homecooking and sharing recipes. In Living More with Less Doris gathered suggestions from around the globe on how to live simply and frugally and published it. I would love to see this blog series of mine culminate in comments from you readers in the vein of this book. Comments on tips and tricks of how you live more with less. We all know we should track our spending and stop eating out but what about the little ideas that aren't so difficult and overwhelming and can easily be implemented one at a time??

Yarnalong: Button-tab Mittens & Simplicity

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

Knitting: I finished these sweet button-tab mittens this week and posted them in my Etsy shop this morning. I used Paton's Classic Wool Worsted in Aran on 4mm needles.

The button is the result of me saying to my husband "Do you think you could make me a couple of buttons for some mittens I'd like to knit?" He dug out an olive-wood pen blank he had laying around and quick as a wink it was cut to size, made round and coated in carnauba wax. They are perfect and I love them.

While I was outside taking photos of mittens I took these two pictures of the untouched snow in our backyard and my frozen sage.

Reading: Still working my way through Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne. It inspired me to do some major purging of toys, kids books and The Em-ster's room. Her room looks and feels so much more peaceful and inviting now and so does our family room with all that STUFF gone. We don't buy much during the year for our kids but somehow the house fills up with books, bits of paper, pencil crayons and markers and clothes. It's overwhelming for me to look at, I can only imagine what goes on in my kids' brains when confronted with all these choices and the clean-up afterwards. I'm onto the chapter entitled "Rhythms". We're pretty good at keeping a consistent routine but I'm interested to see what he has to say on that subject.
What are you knitting and reading?

Yarnalong: Sock Mitts & 2 Books

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog:

Knitting: Sock Mitts for my Etsy shop. The wool I'm using is Paton's Classic Wool Worsted in Dark Grey Mix for the grey part, Aran for the cream part and Bright Red for the stripe. I'm using my old stand-by 2 needle mitten pattern and 4.0mm needles for these guys.

(you can see the first mitten in behind that still needs to be sewn up)

Reading: 2 books this week. I'm almost always reading several books at once. I'm working on Jan Karon's In the Company of Others and Kim John Payne's Simplicity Parenting. Jan Karon is one of my favourite authors. I picked this book up in a thrift store a month ago and have been reading it for a few weeks now. I only seem to find 15 minutes a day to read and usually at bedtime. 

I also checked Simplicity Parenting out of the library on Monday. I kept hearing about it, especially on Bliss Beyond Naptime and wanted to see what it was all about. With all the challenges we've been having with The Em-ster I've been searching for new ideas and this book meshes with what my gut is telling me about simplifying life. I strongly believe kids are way too scheduled and need more free time to just play and relax. Kim John Payne points out that a quirk+stress=disorder. This girl is definitely quirky in the best way possible and she is clearly stressed out by her teacher so I wonder if that's why the ADHD tendencies of inattentiveness and hyperactivity?

In other news, many thanks for your suggestions and comments from this post on what the heck to call the above mittens. The prize goes to Kimberley who said call 'em "Sock Mitts" and the name has stuck. Kimberley will be finding a pair of Sock Mitts in her mailbox very soon. I love simplicity! 

Knitting, Growing, Goaling in 2015

I just finished reading Soulemama's post about her intentions for 2015 and it inspired me to do the same.

Every year I vow to do the usual: eat better, floss everyday, exercise more, expand my mind etc., etc., etc., and I feel like I'm over this stuff. Mostly I eat well, floss, exercise and read so I guess I've kept my resolutions. But I don't feel excited or enthusiastic about any of those things right now.
My goal for 2015 is to work from home. It's not a resolution or an intention, it feels so strong it's definitely a goal. I like being home, being available when kids are sick and can't go to school, planning and preparing healthy whole food meals and most of all being in control of our financial situation.

I enjoy knitting for my Etsy shop so much that I feel like it's my calling. Time seems to slow down when I sit down to knit a pair of mittens and what a great feeling that is. The job I work at 2 days a week sucks the life out of me and it is clear to me that I am meant to work from home. I've applied to all sorts of jobs in the past few months without success and the small, quiet voice in my head just keeps saying "home". Alright then. Home it is.
The other night I made myself a little plan with small, manageable steps so wish me luck!
What you'll notice is more regular blog posts as well as mitten patterns for sale in the sidebar and on Ravelry. If I may be so bold, I hope to join some of my fellow bloggers and acquire some well-chosen sponsors to advertise here as well.
Lots of people have been talking about one word they've chosen to describe or guide them through the year. I haven't discerned one in particular yet but some in the running are: knit, grow, expand and peace. Last year's words were "breathe" and "create". Looking back they were so very accurate in describing the theme of my year. Amazing.

Gratitude Sunday: Knitting & Hosting

Joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for Gratitude Sunday:

The Boy exploring at my parents' house over Christmas

Feeling grateful this sunday for:

:: a surprise (to me anyway) lunch with friends today. I had been told that one of my husband's friends would come for lunch then before I knew it 3 other people were on the guest list. One person you can get away with dining in your comfy pants and wiping the bathroom counter off, 4 guests require actual pants and cleaning the spit off the bathroom mirror too. Yeesh.

:: snow yesterday morning. So pretty.

:: both kids going outside without a fuss and coming in rosy-cheeked and calmer.

:: celebrating New Year's Eve with skating outside, hot chocolate and warm pajamas afterwards.

:: a successful sleepover to finally celebrate my daughter's birthday

:: knitting time and 2 pairs of finished mittens in as many days

:: a new year full of new possibilities

:: getting my baby fix when our friends came to visit on New Year's day. I have no desire for more babies of my own but I love holding other people's babies.

:: flexing my creative knitting muscles with a rolled brim blueberry baby hat knit in 2.5 hrs. Last minute gift for the aforementioned baby. In-utero he was known as Blueberry so of course needed a funny hat to commemorate this. Sadly, no pictures but I plan on knitting another one for the shop.

Sleepover hangover

Last night we hosted a sleepover to celebrate the Em-ster's 10th birthday...6 months late. Sigh. At the time of her actual birthday we were so worn out from dealing with a teacher-student match made in hell that we had no energy to entertain and feed a gaggle of girls to mark this momentous birthday.

She had really been struggling at the end of the school year to hold it together at school and we were exhausted from the melt-downs and new behaviour our usually happy-bouncy girl was displaying instead. I am not new to challenging behaviour, having parented The Boy in his Asperger glory for 13 years. But this was new and I was out of my element and struggling too.
It was such a relief for school to end and my girl to finally calm down and be the joy she normally is. To shake things up with a birthday party? We just couldn't do it.
So here I am the morning after, having survived 4 10 year old girls in my house and up till 1:30 am. I am the picture of someone who hasn't taken very good care of herself this week. Have you been there? I bet you have. I shouldn't have stayed up to see midnight on New Year's Eve and I should've gone to bed early the next night. I should've gone for a walk or something this week to get some kind of exercise but I didn't.
However, despite the exhaustion I feel pretty good about how last night went. The Em-ster ran the show without any input from me. I stayed out of things, only appearing to announce that food was ready and smoothing things over when the choice of movie was a not a favourite among all involved. This is how I roll-hands off except when it's needed. Definitely not a helicopter parent for the most part. How are kids supposed to learn anything if you're always jumping in to help/do it for them/make suggestions??
But I digress ;) I'm going to jump on the self-care bandwagon again, read some and go to bed early.
Good night.

A Flaming Christmas Tree, Gnomes and Turkeys

As we wrap up the holiday season here at our house I thought I'd better post some of these photos before they just seem like a strange afterthought.

My mother in law is German (East-Prussian actually) and keeps some of the old traditions alive including candles on the Christmas tree and plates of treats for everybody on Christmas Eve. Now that my kids are older and less likely to fall into the flaming Christmas tree I can finally enjoy it. So pretty.

This year she hung apples and sugar cookies on the tree.

At my parents' house, my mother has always had these little gnomes and elves decorating the corner cupboard. My brother has added a few characters he's found in his travels including the old man and woman you can see in the right-middle-ground above.

Me and the turkey (I'm the one on the left ;))

The Em-ster and I, delirious with hunger.

So, there you have it. 

Tonight once the kids are tucked in bed and the house is quiet I will carefully pack away the Christmas decorations for another year. Decorating the tree and the house is a family tradition with holiday music and hot chocolate and cookies. Undecorating everything is a job I like to do quietly and solo. It's my way of saying good-bye to another Christmas, remembering the food, family and fun from this year and years past. I make sure everything gets carefully packed up and put away. It's closure and meditation all rolled into one.

Happy New Year to you and yours. I hope this year brings you peace, many steps closer to your dreams and time to pause, reflect and simplify.