yarn along

MarthaKimball3 Comments

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I can’t remember why I signed up for her class other than hearing older students recommend it as life-changing.  My first memory of her, my favorite college professor, was her having us draw the word “God” on our paper, then draw a box around it.  She explained to us that in this class we would have to let God out of the box we have drawn around Him, that we would have to “stand under” the Word in order to “understand.”  She was a young old-soul, petite, spoke with quiet confidence and always with a grin on her face.  She exuded that peculiar joy I’ve come to know around people who walk with God.  She opened my eyes and my mind in the most beautiful ways.  I wouldn’t ever be the same after her class, simply titled Christian Doctrine.  She spoke into my life many times over the course of my college years and even still we write back and forth here and there, all these years later.  We now both homeschool our children, and she has been a help in so many parts of my journey, theological questions, homeschooling questions, etc.  That’s a part of her dissertation-in-progress under my pretty cake of yarn which she generously shared with me, asking for my feedback.  Life is a wonder, isn’t it?  So I’m hoping to squeeze in time here and there to read it for her and remember those sweet college days with my head stuck deep in theological books.

I’m knitting the Plume shawl by Melody Hoffman, my first time knitting one of her patterns and I do so love it.  Simple, dainty, the lace is addicting and not terribly complicated.  It’s a gift for a loved one, my second time knitting with The Fibre Co. Meadow yarn (both gifts for others) which may be my all-time favorite yarn ever.  I must knit myself something with it one day!

Joining with Ginny’s yarn along and Nicole’s Crafting On.

our first week

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So many firsts this week I hardly know where to begin.  Even though our homeschool co-op began a couple of weeks ago, we had our official first week of school this week and it went surprisingly better than I had thought it would.  I spent a lot of time this summer dreading, moaning, and complaining to my husband about school starting up and all the new things I would be juggling this year versus last year, all my fears and worries and things I wasn’t sure how to approach.

The reality is that it is always better to just get going and work out the kinks as they come.  I always feel a big sense of relief once we just get started.  I’ve made some changes in my expectations and my managing of household duties that I think will really help our school year.  For instance, instead of trying to quickly get school done in the mornings so we have time before lunch to run to the store, library or park, I’m devoting all of our mornings to being home until lunch time.  If we finish earlier, great, but at least I need to remove that pressure from all of us.  Errands will have to be run in the afternoons after the little one’s naps (which is not my preference), and some errands just devoted to weekends or evenings.  Already I can tell that one little shift has made a big difference in my stress level with school–we have all morning to be home and to work.

This year, I feel like I jumped from homeschooling one child to homeschooling three.  Since Noah is now busy for a bit in the mornings with school, Philippa also wants to have “work” to do until her brother/compatriot is free to play.  (I’m a big fan of letting children be children for as long as possible and not beginning any formal educating until 5 or 6 at minimum, but this little precocious 3 year old just won’t be left out.)  I also know that if we don’t get started right away and I don’t capture their attention early in the day, they lose focus and motivation pretty quickly.  It just so happens that this week Wren has been unusually fussy and skipping naps like crazy, and I realized she was cutting her first two teeth.  Of course that would need to happen this week!  So on top of trying to figure out how to jump between two kids asking questions and Phoebe’s adjusting to not having mom’s full and undivided attention, a 3 year old who wants to be in on the game, there’s been a lot of time shushing a hysterical overtired baby.  However, with all that said, it really went pretty well.  I feel more calm and relaxed, I have a better understanding of how to approach teaching phoebe (with some insights that we received from the state-required testing she did over the summer), and I’m learning that we have more space and time to experiment, stretch, and savor than I think we do.  It’s funny, teaching kindergarten to another child, chanting the “five vowels” poem with another little one and remembering how far we’ve come, Phoebe and I, since then.  So I’m telling myself to slow down, to enjoy these precious days because they will never come again.

The work, the planning, the weight of knowing their education is on my shoulders–it is the part of homeschooling that I like the least, but in reality, I so treasure and love this work.  I can’t believe we get to do this, and I’m so thankful.  So very thankful.  We may barely be able to pay the bills, but it is worth it to have this time with them during these fleeting years.  And God is faithful!  He always provides.

We are continuing to make some changes to our little school room, some improvements.  I am working to keep us more settled in that room as we work versus spreading out all over the house (as we used to last year).  It is helping as well!  Brandon has been building me a nice big chalkboard because I simply can’t do without it any more, as well as a “floating” sort of desk for Phoebe.  I’ll share some photos of them once we’re done.  Weekends are everything–so much that has to be packed into those two precious days!  Slowly we are getting little house projects done.

In other news, Wren has moved into her big-girl crib in Noah’s room and also started her first solids this week.  She isn’t terribly productive or interested in eating yet, but she is curious and feels very grown up to be eating like the big kids do.  She is really changing and growing so quickly and I did cry a little when I saw those two bottom teeth poking through her little gums.  I remember how it felt like it took FOREVER for Phoebe to turn six months old, eat solids, begin teething.  I couldn’t wait for her to move onto the next thing!  Now, I just want to slow it all down.  It seriously feels like we just brought Wren home from the hospital and already she is beginning the first real stages of growing up and growing independent.  Of course, it’s all good but you parents know what I mean–these are bittersweet changes.

Crunchy leaves are beginning to accumulate in our yard bringing the earliest feeling of fall, even though September in our neck of the woods can be quite humid and sweltering so I keep telling myself the worst of summer’s heat isn’t behind us yet.  Those fall winds are almost here and then with all the busy activities of October (my favorite month!) and the birthdays and holidays of November/December, it will be New Year before we know it.

yarn along

MarthaKimball2 Comments

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Just popping in here real quick for today’s yarn along post.  It’s our official first day of school and of course, things are wonky and not terribly smooth and quite rusty.  The morning went well, but of course trying to manage and divide myself to do some instruction with noah and phoebe both, and philippa wanting to be in on the fun is all challenging.  Little wren is cutting teeth (much to my surprise! and yes I cried when I saw them!) and she screamed and cried most of the morning while I was trying to teach.  We are also all a little bit under the weather, of course, because this is just how first days have to go, right?!  Still, it wasn’t horrible.

I’m on the final bit of my campside shawl, on the ribbing.  This is something I’ve knit in hopes of sharing some of my knitting with you all–meaning I plan to sell it.  Quite a few people asked me if I would sell a shawl like this after I knit my yellow one, so I’ve knitted one up and have sort of been toying with opening a very small, very seasonal little etsy shop to sell a few hand made items (not just knitted) from our home.  Anyway, it feels scary putting that out there, but do tell me your thoughts!  I will share more about it as I pull things together.  I do so hope someone loves this shawl as much as I do and finds it a cozy way to welcome autumn.

I’m still reading my way through Courage, Dear Heart and have been enjoying it more than many books I’ve read lately.  If you have been weary or walking through something painful and challenging where your soul is sensitive to the often trite and pithy words of others, you will find true encouragement in these pages.  Reynolds writes as one who understands what we most need in our darkest valleys: words to illumine the darkness, the presence of a friend, and hope.  True, deep, abiding hope that isn’t based on our performance, (because who can perform anything spiritually for God when wiped out by suffering?) but is based on the finished work of Christ.

Also, I mentioned my little book light last time but thought I would share it with you in case anyone else is looking for one so that you, too, can stay up far too late reading without disturbing anyone!  I’ve also used it in the car for car knitting when we were driving in the dark (hooked it onto my seat belt across my chest so it would shine directly on the stitches.)  It was great!

I hope this week you find time to squeeze in some making and some reading!  As always, I love to hear what you are up to if you feel like sharing.

Joining with Nicole’s weekly Crafting On.

 

 

wild blueberries

MarthaKimball2 Comments

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Come August, the blueberries ripen up in the cool mountain air. I had planned to officially begin our school year this week, but decided instead to get a few more things ready before jumping in.  It would be better for me to begin peacefully rather than frenetically, although there’s a measure of feeling unprepared that will likely always accompany homeschooling (for me at least).  Instead of beginning our usual school day, we took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Graveyard Fields on the Blue Ridge Parkway, where the berries are abundant this time of year.  I still called it our first day of school, and it was a happy way to begin for us all, though Noah keeps asking to begin the work of letters and numbers.

Of course, as we got going it began to drizzle and the parkway was foggy most of the drive but everyone wanted to keep going so we did.  (I had planned to bring my regular camera along but because of the rain I just used my phone, so pardon the different quality of photo.)  Wren doesn’t sleep well if we aren’t home, rarely sleeping in the car and too curious about what is going on around her if we are out and about.  She was up way past her usual morning nap time and was very fussy when we began hiking and picking.  She also doesn’t love the ergo, but we carried on.  Finally, she fell asleep in the ergo and I was able to get a little more picking accomplished.  The kids did a good job picking but of course they didn’t gather very much, phoebe spilling most of her basket of berries after stumbling at some point.  Still we came home with about a half gallon and I would love to go back just with Brandon and pick as much as we can to freeze for the winter.  There isn’t a better spot to get organic, wild fresh blueberries and best of all, they are free!  It just requires time and work. 🙂

While we all kept our eyes and ears open for bears which definitely frequent that area, we only saw a brown snake which was sizable but didn’t look venomous.  I’m guessing it was some sort of water moccasin but we steered clear of it just the same.  It was a great teaching opportunity with the kids, though.

The children requested blueberry pancakes the next morning, and we read Blueberries for Sal, one of my favorite books from childhood.  The rest of the berries I’ve tucked into the freezer for a crisp or muffins, or to have over homemade ice cream.  Phoebe kept exclaiming how she felt like Laura Ingalls, and I felt a bit like Sal’s mother trying to preserve a bit of summer’s glory for cold winter days sure to come soon.

yarn along

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I’m onto the last chart of my campside shawl and it shouldn’t be too long before it’s done, if I can keep myself from getting distracted with another project.  So many things I want to cast on.  I’m almost done with my pink socks, too!

Courage, Dear Heart: Letters to a weary world (affiliate link) is a book I selected to review.  Fernando Ortega endorsed it, and he is a favorite musician of mine whose lyrics often strike a deep chord with me so I figured I may like this book.  I got it in the mail yesterday, picked it up last night and had a hard time putting it down.  I think it’ll be one I hold close.

Joining with Nicole’s Crafting On.

making by hand

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Last week we were having our AC unit replaced and while the guys were here working on it for the morning, I took the kids out for a bike/walk around the neighborhood.  I quickly realized something was going on as cars were buzzing in and out of our usually quiet streets, lining the roads all around our home.  People were walking to their cars carrying boxes, armfuls of wood, all manner of odds and ends.  I asked one guy what was going on and he said an estate sale was happening around the corner.  We decided to stop in the sale since it was on our usual walk route.  How strange to go inside a home that we have walked by hundreds of times, one of our neighbors that I don’t think we’ve ever met.  Strange, to wonder what has happened to them, to see everything in their home with a price tag on it, people hustling in and out of rooms hawking items.  All their precious things, their life held in the chipped and peeling walls.  How much you can uncover about a person by just entering their home, seeing what they’ve held onto, what mattered to them.  Walls and walls of old books, probably a treasure trove though I didn’t have time to hunt through them.  She had a craft room–bags of yarn, half-finished projects, piles of crocheted afghans.  Old dolls, an ancient sewing machine on a wooden table with patterns for dolls clothes and such stored in a tupperware nearby.  Shelves of crafting books.

All these things, her treasures, now priced and sorted through by strangers.  How odd really, that things come to us, we hold them, transform them maybe and then they slip through our fingers and go to someone else.

She was a maker and I wondered at how many other women in my little neighborhood spend their evenings like I do, with needles in hand or some other handmade project.  I don’t know why it struck me as profound, but it did.  All this work of our hands, and why does it matter?

I think because of my love for knitting, my children are “catching” the value of handmade things + craft.  At least, I hope they do.  I think the mindfulness and intentionality of it, the sense of accomplishment in finishing a project, the stimulus of creativity–all is good.  I recently ordered some little cotton muslin bags and a couple of pounds of dried organic lavender flowers to make my own little satchels for our closets.  On a rainy afternoon, it was a perfect activity.  Noah and Philippa filled up all the little bags with scoops between sips of warm tea, and then helped place the little bags in our closets and around my (small) yarn stash.  Lavender is a beneficial in so many ways, as most of us well know, in relaxation and helping to aid sleep.  It is also a pest/bug deterrent and helps keep woolens smelling good and unappealing to moths.  Every time I open our closets now, it makes me smile, the rush of the scent of lavender fields.

Phoebe also requested some new loops for her weaving loom, and she has been busy making beautiful, colorful little squares.

All these things, into our fingers, slipping through.

yarn along

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I finished sock no. 1 last night and cast on for the second sock.  I already love these so much.  They fit more snuggly than the last pair I knitted with the exact same “recipe” but maybe they will grow a bit with blocking.  If not, it’ll be just fine.  I think it must be a slightly finer weight sock yarn.  Even though I prefer the aesthetic of simple neutrals, I have sincerely enjoyed every single stitch of these socks.  The colors are simply gorgeous, especially the coppery flecks and golden yellow.  No second sock syndrome here.  Is it just because so many people are talking about school starting back this week or did I sense a tiny shift in the weather here?  I don’t tend to allow myself to think about fall until we are through with September because August and September seem to be North Carolina’s hottest months.  Even still, it seems the mornings have a different sort of chill to them this week and it makes me excited for cool fall mornings wrapped up in shawls next to a fire.

Still reading Devoted (affiliate link), and almost done with it.  I’ve finally gotten myself a book light (why did it take me so long?) so I can read in bed at night (when I seem to get the most reading done) without disturbing Wren or Brandon.  It’s been a game changer. 🙂  So yes, hopefully I will get a bit more reading accomplished!

Joining with Nicole’s weekly Crafting On.

growing up

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He’s long overdue for a “big boy” bike, my boy.  He had a little bit of birthday money that I set aside for a new bike, and Brandon looked for awhile online before settling on this one.  It was a real treat to watch him open that box and help daddy put the bike together.  When he realized it didn’t have training wheels (he’s just been riding a strider) he panicked a little bit and didn’t think he’d be able to do it.  It’s a bit big and heavy for him, so I was a little concerned, too, that it would be too hard.  Then, we had rain for days so he couldn’t take it outside to try it.  Finally, the sun came out and he tried it out on the grass.  He pretty quickly caught on to riding Phoebe’s (a bit smaller) bike without training wheels but didn’t feel comfortable with his bike.  By day two, he had it down.  He called me to come outside and see, and there he was pedaling it around with a big grin on his face.

Often this little man of mine balks at something new and I hear a lot of “I can’t”s from him before he’s really given it a try.  Our homeschool co-op starts up on Monday (in just a few days!) and as Noah thinks about school starting, he’s been panicking and saying “but I don’t know how to read or write!”  Oh, sweet boy, that’s the whole point, I say.  I keep reminding him about his bike, how he thought he couldn’t do it and that he’d HAVE to have training wheels.  And then by day two, he had it down and has been out riding it every day since.  I can’t believe this has been my last summer with this guy before he starts formal (home)schooling.  And I can’t wait to have time with him, to work with him on letters and sounds and seeing his little mind come alive with the joy of learning and realizing he can do it! He’s growing up!

yarn along

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I bought this crazy fun happy yarn over a year ago and tried to cast on for socks but was so sick in my pregnancy with wren that they idled for awhile before I ripped them out.  This yarn is so bright and different for me, I wasn’t much in the mood to work with it.  But lately I just craved wood dpns and the bliss of simple vanilla sock knitting and these socks are literally flying off my  needles.  I cast them on on Saturday and in three days I’m nearly onto the foot of the sock, which is pretty fast for me.  It’s hard to capture the color accurately because it’s so neon-y but this is fairly close.  The yarn is addicting to work with because of the constant variation in color.  I’m knitting these for myself, hoping to maybe attempt to make one pair of socks for myself each season of the year, so these will be summer socks since the color is summery to me (of course i’ll be wearing them in the winter).  I think they’ll be fun to have on dreary grey winter days.  Also, my girls are so terribly jealous and coveting my crazy yarn so maybe some more fun neon pink yarn will be in my future.  I don’t mind.

About half way through Devoted: Great Men and their Godly Moms (affiliate link) and loving it so far.  Highly recommend.  Short stories/biographies and so much encouragement for every sort of mom.

I’m joining up with Nicole’s Crafting On to share what I’m reading/working on this week.  As always, I’d love to hear what you’re making and reading too!

 

yarn along

MarthaKimball4 Comments

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The skies are brooding, ready to open up any minute.  I am just sitting down with a cup of afternoon coffee, which I never ordinarily make, but after a busy morning running errands and sitting for 2.5 hrs (!!) in eye appointments for the children and then hurriedly mowing the lawn for the last couple of hours before we have a few days of heavy rain… I think I’ve earned it. 🙂

Yesterday I took the kids to the Greenville Zoo for a fun day trip before we picked up my parents from the airport in Greenville.  It was a super fun day but no naps were had by all and today the house is quiet and hopefully the younger babies sleep and we have a more peaceful afternoon.

I finished the test knit hat for Noah and you can see finished photos of it on instagram or ravelry.  I’m making more headway now on Wren’s like sleeves top, beginning on the front/bodice portion of it.  It is so lovely to knit with Cestari, even if it is primarily cotton.  This yarn is super soft and just so soothing moving through my fingers.

I just ordered the book Devoted by Tim Challies (affiliate link) with some birthday money and am excited to start it.  It’s a small book about the lives of the mothers of some of the most influential theologians and men of faith in history, and I’m curious and hungry for the mothering tune-up I so need.  I feel the need regularly to immerse myself in books that sharpen, encourage, and shape me as a mom since this is probably the most impactful and important work I will ever give myself to.  Still have a few other books on the go as well.

Anything good that you’re reading or working on lately?

Joining with Nicole’s weekly Crafting On and Ginny’s yarn along.