Catching Up

We kicked off the Holiday Season for the Kelly family.  This involves my birthday, 3 of my children's birthdays, 2 extended family birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christams all in 2 month time period. 

November 8th was my birthday and I turned 38.   How blessed am I!! At 38 years old, I am married to my best friend, the mother of 5 little ones (with hopefully a few more years of babies still to come - whatever the Lord wants for us!), and a stay at home homeschooling mom.  At 38, I am doing what many do in their late 20's.  It hasn't been easy but I can look back and see how the Lord has drawn me nearer to Him in the last 6-7 years than all the years prior. 


Baby sweetness! 

Tooth pulling
The tooth was so loose that the "grown up" tooth was already half way up behind it.  After many failed attempts (mostly because of chickening out on Sis's part), I grabbed that tooth, ignored the protests, and pulled it out! 

I love how babies climb into boxes!

November 11th was Gram's 89th birthday.  We celebrated by making a whirlwind trip up to Seattle.  Gram looked terrific, better than last year.  It was fun to see her and visit with my Aunt and Uncle. 

I am so greatful for this man!  I appreciate how much he cares for us.  I appreciate the hard work that he puts into his children!  I appreciate the respect that he shows toward my extended family.   I appreciate all he does and his servant heart, even though his sacrafices are often overlooked. 

My Aunt, my mom, and my Gram.  I have lived with all three of these women at one time in my life!     

Playing

I am proud of my children.  They did a great job.  It isn't easy to spend a lot of time in the car, be in a new environment, not have a chance to blow off steam, be around "excitement", and still be able to hold it together as well as they did.  I have super children! 

Poisonous mushrooms....aren't they beautiful!

 

I HATE GRANNY SQUARES!!

I had this vision of quickly whipping up a granny square baby blanket for my older girls for Christmas.  I figured I could take advantage of the 8 hours in the car and have the project nearly completed. 

My vision, small little grannies, all the same color.  This part was fun!

Then comes the hard part...how do I join them.  I tried all the methods - slip stitch, whip stitch, back loop join, nothing looked good.  I spent hours doing and undoing and wasn't satisfied with any result!

I settled on this but I can't stand the way the corners come together. 

See?  The stitching shows and it makes it look sloppy plus the squares pucker a bit.

Then, there is this nightmare!  I don't like weaving in the yarn, and this is a yarn weaving nightmare not to mention the seam isn't very appealing.  

Join as you go required me to add another round to each square thus ruining that little petite look I liked so much.  It is a little sloppier looking but the seam issue is solved and I don't have quite so much to weave in.  It may be a loooooong time before I attempt to granny square anything again!!

Wool!  This was my birthday treat.  Phil took the day off of work and helped out with the children and housework while I puttered with wool!  I have gone through all 12 huge garbage bags of loose wool except for one!  It is all sorted, skirted, washed, and dried.  I did end up throwing out quite a bit of unusable stuff but all in all, I learned a great deal and it was a cost effective way to jump into yarn making.  I have a few more fleeces still drying and I am hoping to skirt, wash and dry the very last bag and be able to put away the huge drying rack that has taken up the entire school room for the past 2 months!  Then, I can concentrate on carding and spinning! 

Freshly washed and dried wool! 

My hand carders

My drop spindle and spun yarn

I have had people ask, "how do you have time to do all this?"  Truthfully, I don't really spend that much time "hobbying".  A few nights a week, I may work on a project while Phil does the bedtime routine with the children.  I may spend an hour or two on the weekend.  I sometimes take advantage of rest time during the week.  Hobby time is irregular.  I may go a week or two and do nothing.  The next week, I may get in 3-4 hours total of "yarn play".   When the weather changes and we are outside less, I have a little more hobby time.  I also allot my time so that I am mostly home.  I try to limit errand running to one time per week and I don't take on extra curricular type activities outside the home.

And here is the oddest little confession...I would never have gotten into fiber arts had it not been something that was so easy to pick up and put down and so repitious that once I figured out a pattern, I could do it "mindlessly".  I actually prefer the look of sewing (quilting, especially) but keeping a sewing machine out, laying out fabric, keeping track of multi steps, concentrating on patterns and directions, is not something that I can practically do.  I can pick up yarn, a hook, and crochet a granny square or a row of a blanket in a few minutes and then put the projet away and feel like I accomplished something.  So, fiber arts, it is!