a new nightgown for Christmas

Are you like me?   Crafting, knitting, sewing, baking, cooking, enjoying?  It is not stressful.  It's not supposed to be anyway.  We lose the joy in it if it becomes a chore.  Its more like a very exciting, "what shall I complete today?" wish list, ball of fun, kind of thing for me right now.   And, if baby is born sooner than later or if I catch the flu and only want to watch movies for days, its fine, whatever does not get done.  It really would be fine...I will pick it all up again later.  Its just too fun to worry about a deadline.  Now, reading from our Advent calendar every night?  We do have to catch up on some nights for that but it is enjoyable with a new reader in the family.  He even gets out his Bible to read directly from the text!  Such a blessing.

I knit while my husband drives. Some of my favorite chat time with him along the way is while knitting and trusting him completely with the driving.  I love it. We attended my aunt and uncles 50th Wedding Anniversary toast in Bellaire Sunday night at their son and daughter's-in-law home.  I was able to craft a handwritten toast but did not read it aloud.  The other two three toasts that were said or read aloud were so emotional, it seemed all needed a break from it for awhile.  I surely would have become emotional too if I read mine.  I added it to the pile of cards they received.  They were married on December 23rd. They have a great romance.  A real one.  A sweet one.  They are heading out for a trip to Ireland together soon.  Such a wonderful reunion with them all, the cousins, the aunts and uncles.  Especially since they are all adopted aunts and uncles.  They don't have brothers or sisters, my aunt and uncle, so their high school friends, my father being one at the time, and my mother as mom and dad were dating and then married three years after my aunt and uncle, were, adopted long, long ago and they are still friends today.  The children, including my sister and I, and their children, do not see each other often, maybe once a year, but we still savor memories of years past and enjoy catching up for now.  It was so enjoyable to talk about my impending birth, my newborn to come in just weeks.  I am an "older" mother....all of them are finished with their families and have a couple of children each who are as tall as me (not a challenge) so I kind of enjoy that I am trailing behind with my little crew..the youngest batch of children and the aunts and uncles just love it and love to see them too.  So fun.  Who doesn't love a baby?

My crafting is highly motivated by this little crew of ours.  I want to see them running around in handmade anything.  Brings me such happiness.  Makes the making merrier.  So I am still, yes, six days, well, five days, before Christmas, making Christmas jammies!  This is Tessa's.  From Anna Maria Horner's Folksy Flannels line which is hard to find but you can search online..I picked up some on sale recently and a McCalls pattern here.  It is easy. It is sweet.  It is, uh, a little big!  She will likely be wearing it into next Christmas in fact but thats okay..she does not like anything to be too tight.

The boys are next.  Fabric is also AMH folksy flannel.  Its washed, patterns cut, fabric cut, just waiting for boys to be out of sight.  Maybe tonight?  Went to see a cousin yesterday at my folks house, to exchange gifts, play, talk, knit.  Got my cousin's daughter this book, The Mitten, by Jan Brett.  I would love to own almost all of those Brett books.  So good.  Have you read Christmas Trolls?  Pick it up..fun!

will check in again....got to show you that knitting work for sure!   ~Traci

knit for me

After completing the knitting of, care labeling for washing of and, Christmas gift wrapping of three handknits to be mailed today out of state, I lurched into something unplanned on my sewing and knitting plan still "to do" for Christmas before a new baby.  Phew, it was fun!

I cast this one on last night for me.  I rarely knit for me.  I have only one large handknit for me, a cardigan and I don't like it so it is "hibernating" until I decide to rip it out and reuse the yarn or save it eternally to show my daughter one day, when she thinks I am an amazing knitter (after years of dawdling in it, which I very much plan to do) and can see that I was not always, perfect.  Maybe it will encourage her.  So, cheers to the Razorshell Neckwarmer from Wanett Clyde.  Notes here on Ravelry.

5 Ways I Battle Seasonal Virus Potential

My days are busy with preparing things in my kitchen that I believe will help lessen or even help my family totally avoid the common illnesses of the season.  I know that once we or one of us receives a new virus, our bodies will make antibodies to it and it won't be able to attack again..that is if the immune system is kept strong.  I am okay with that too but, I am an avid hand washer and non chemical hand sanitizer user for myself and the children when we are in public!  I wanted to share some things here that take time away from more fun things to do but I feel are well worth the investment of time.  The payoff is a family of healthy folks.  I am not a health expert, just a mom who reads about this stuff often.

1. Take Vitamins.  We use quality assured ones which means the dose is what it says it is when some others are not "guaranteed"  but I think that taking them is just important even if you don't go through a practitioner but get them at your health food store.  Vitamins and supplements, a good overall multi is essential daily if possible.  That goes for children too.
2. Probiotics.  I buy them through our Frontier co-op but again, I have seen good quality, multi strain is ideal, brands, refrigerated at HEB or other stores.  Its important to take them as our immune system begins in our gastrointestinal system.  You are surely going to get plenty of the good fighting bacterias killed off is you drink soda water, drink water in restaurants or any other non filtered and fluoridated water, not to mention other bugs, literally, from salads and other produce.  Also especially, especially after antibiotic use.
3. Pesto!  This is a pile of Italian and Curly leaf parsley, some organic, some not, from the grocery store.  The recipe is for basil but since I cannot grow or buy that in bulk now, I use the two parsleys..the Italian makes the flavor milder.  For Walnut Pesto, in your food processor, toss in 1 cup walnuts, 6 garlic cloves, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 cup of olive oil, process till smooth.  Add 3.5 cups of fresh basil (parsley) and juice from half a lemon and process again until smooth.  Store in a mason jar in the fridge and it lasts for weeks.  Spread on toast or bring to almost room temp and drizzle on scrambled eggs or, toss to coat and flavor a hot pasta salad with tomatoes and seafood.  Delicious, nutritious, high in vitamins you need and easy.  My children like it!
4. Immune boosting herbs for all.  My husband and I take them in caps but for the children, I make Immune Booster pops using Wishgarden Herbs Immune Boost bulk herbs.  Drop a handful in a quart mason jar, add boiling water, steep till cool, mix with one part organic orange juice with pulp or fresh squeezed if you really want it fresh and a little liquid Stevia to sweeten it up a little more.  Juices seem to loose their sweetness when frozen.  The children love these, even in cold weather.  Wishgarden has other more specific herbal remedies too that have been effective for all of us.  Martin loves the Sore Throat Soother..calms his cough in seconds.
5. Eat orange.  Pumpkins, Butternut squashes, Acorn squashes, carrots, etc.  The high levels of Vitamin A are critical in battling viruses and bacteria.  See this book and this book for some ideas on preparations for these foods.  You can even make pumpkin smoothies with canned organic pumpkin..just don't overdo the sweet part.

So those are the basic things I try to do regularly around here to keep our bodies healthy during this cold and flu season.  What things do you do to boost your families immune systems?  Please share.

Pointy Elf hats

I have another post about all the goings on lately, mostly photos.  We have been busy and invited all around to go and do and for now, all are well and able.  I do have plenty of knitting projects lined up though and this is one.  Kind of a primer for making some for my elfs for Christmas. These were made as gifts to friends for their birthdays, a brother and sister pair.  It is Joelle Holverson's Pointy Elf Hat.  See notes on Ravelry here and here.  The pattern does not pan out as it is written or maybe as I interpret it but I made it work.  Reminds me of Elsa Beskow's Forest Friends book.  I love these sweet elf hats and know that one day, they won't! 

Hope your days are slowed with a passion or handicraft that you love to do, in spite of schoolwork, laundry, oh, and what's for supper?  Yeah, I plan all that just so I can make sure I get time to knit.

Playground mama elf hat

It is finished!  I love this elf hat for myself.  I can see days in February or March, me with baby in sling and watching children play or swing the three year old up and high...can't wait.  I do think some mitts are needed though..yeah, those will be coming along soon I hope!
 
See Ravelry for notes if you want to whip one up...pretty quick in bulky yarn...enjoy!
 

I love my yarn braids.  I feel like I have long hair with this on.  Fun!!

Nature is shifty

By this time of year, in October, I am in full swing itching for cooler days.  The funny part is that, while living here in Texas, as I always have, I find myself outside while children play with buzzing bees and mosquitoes and some sweat beading off your brow, needles in hand.  The sweat makes for easy hold on the woolly silk yarn but it just does not yet feel "right".  None of it.

I recall, two autumns ago (can we call it that in our three season state?  autumn?), when I first began deliberately homeschooling.  I was hot to trot to do a small unit on Fall Nature Study.  I am so out of touch with what goes on outside at times (I am mostly an indoor gal) that I thought we would roam the neighborhood, more like...just our street, and find new fall colors from fallen leaves..in October.  Not.  There was maybe a handful of lightly yellowing turned leaves to be had or they were brown and dried up or just plain green.  For me, it turned out to be more of a "don't hype up a lesson until you see if nature provides" kind of thing rather than a great lesson on why the leaves change color in fall.  I guess I should pay attention to where or what part of the country the author hails before implementing my nature study choices.  The viewpoint of the author...matters.  This is one of those little things that mama/teachers learn along the way.  Its a good thing really.  Actually, its these little reality checks in my school that keep me from getting too hyper about how well I am doing and all the other plagues of being a teacher/mama.  Am I doing enough?  Am I doing the right thing for the age group I have right now?  Blah, blah, blah.  The beauty, the lesson, is really in the questions.  Not necessarily my questions but, my "students" questions of course.

So I have found, with any lesson I do now, that while I keep the oldest one especially, the middle one somewhat and the littlest one "kinda" going along and following what I am teaching, I love, even happily anticipate, the questions.  I have had to teach the two oldest that they can only ask a question pertaining to the reading, lesson, etc., while I am doing it, save it for later otherwise because there are so many and that has been a lesson in itself!  I am talking about our group study work.  Bible, Science/Nature Study and History.  (Not to imply that my oldest is ready for me not to be near or at elbow for study...he needs me for sure when it comes to handwriting, spelling, reading lessons, math lessons)

Let's talk Science.  I recently purchased a download on SCM called 106 Days of Creation Studies.  I was struggling with implementing one of the five or so books on science experiments/projects that we own, into our weekly plan and it frustrated me.  I really love science although I did not progress very far in school with it.  The highest level I met was basic Chemistry I think?  I was an Art student.  I would love to have been more like Leonardo da Vinci with his multi talents in art and science but, my dear reader, that is why he was the great Leonardo.  We have read this fabulous bio on him here.  Anyway, I segway.  So back to yesterdays science/Bible lesson.  From the book, 106 Days...on creation day one, there is a unit on shadows.  We were to draw around our feet, on the pavement and then outline each others shadows.  We did it.  We came in, we ate lunch and other things and planned to return a few hours later to re-record our shadows from the point of our same feet in the same spot we had marked.  I quickly realized that mama chose a bad spot.  The house had blocked all bits of sunshine from the cloudy day.  Oops... what now?  They get out their bikes and begin to ride and play while I start thinking...do we just skip this lesson or move it to tomorrow?  No, I don't want to skip it, it is good.  The Bible verse associated with it here:

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. ~James 1:17

So I get out my knitting, begin to work and think.  I realized that I don't have to do the three times in a day shadow marking, as the lesson suggests, to make the point.  I can get a new tracing in a good spot, play out here for an hour and then retrace and voila, lesson activity will work!  Well, low and behold, an hour later, sweat beading down, children hungry and hot, we go to check and the same mass of clouds happily perched right over the sun.  We talked about how the clouds put the whole village (that is what we call our suburban neighborhood) in a big shadow.  I read the Bible verse.  I asked what did it mean?  Blank stares.  Not a bad thing, the blank stares.  I have had to learn this one though.  So, today, I will not be lecturing, I will perhaps re-read the verse after we again, go outside, in the sun, and playfully, twice over an hour, mark our shadows and show them so they can indeed, ask the questions.  The beauty is in the questions.  There are not any answers given in this study.  It is provoking.  I have my ideas of the authors intent.  I will try not to lead unless I have to but, I anticipate the shadows and the Word will show them the way.

Nature is shifty.  Families with gardens know this all too well.  I hope to have some kind of vegetable garden one day not just as example of wonderful lessons learned from a garden like patience, consistent care needed like weeding and watering and fighting off pests but also for the bounty and beauty we could grow in our own backyard.  We plan to start just simply cultivating the soil.  We will begin with a compost pile but I want it contained and that, for now, is the hang up.  Until then, it seems every deliberate "nature study" we embark upon may just give us those little lessons anyway...patience, unpredictability and successes and failures.  Like life, yes?

more baby feet

Again, I had to show you.  More baby booties to match the umbilical cord hat,here.  Shameless, shameless self indulgence to show off my work!  My sewing table work is piling up.  After this flurry of knitting, maybe I will tackle it, maybe.  More knitting work to share in the works!

If you care to know how to do these babies, go here to my Ravelry page for the pattern.

Hope you get time today to indulge in a favorite hobby, whatever that may be for you.  You really can squeeze a row or two in here and there amongst the laundry, dishes, meals, homeschooling lessons..really, you can!  But the very best, best time, is early in the morning...ahhhh, sweet time.

Happy Tuesday!

Maternity Sewing Made Simple

 I am saying "can you see the straps?" (I know you can see my bump!)

 I am begging, "please Martin, take a little time to get a good photo."  Love these ruffles!

 There are the soft, stretchy cotton straps and I think the best photo.

The full bump, 20 weeks along and shows the length of the gown.  ( I think I am pushing out a bit here, or am I that big already?)

I have made several, quite a few really, maternity dresses, shorts and pants and, other things I don't recall but have saved in a box for fun but, never anything to sleep in until now.  I even made a vintage 1960-something maternity dress that I don't wear anymore since I think it makes me look huge...but, it is very cool.  Maybe I should remake it in a more drapey fabric...hummmmm.  Wish I had photos of it.  However, this is just an alteration into a nightgown.

So many of my maternity things were given away after Tessa since I just thought it was time and so many things are gone that used to fit or, the old things, at this point are just, old.  I wanted something new, comfortable and affordable to sleep in and did not want to get those Motherhood gowns that are ready for nursing yet.  I also don't like seeing myself in a big, frumpy husband tee shirt...not too much.  Besides, I enjoy the break between babies to wear things that I cannot necessarily easily nurse a baby in and, wear comfortably and, feel beautiful.  I nurse my babies for about two years so this is a precious little window.  I found this bathing suit cover up at Target a few weeks ago and bought it on sale with the thought that I would add shoulder straps..it was strapless.  The front bust has two layers and with those sweet ruffles, I feel decent if someone were to ring the doorbell in the morning while I am still in my nightgown. 

All I did was cut the bottom off, left it raw, then sewed two tubes, turned them out, sewed the front on where I thought they should be, safety pinned the back in place where I thought they should be, tried it on, adjusted the back placement, then zigzagged them in place with two or three rows of zigzag.  Voila!  I love my new nightgown!  I think I also surged the edges of the ends of the tubes to make it neat.  I would not wear it out as it is kind of thin and it is the color white.  But at home, it feels so comfortable and the children even noticed it.  They wanted to touch it and bury themselves in the soft all cotton jersey fabric.  So there it is.  Maternity sewing made simple.  This can be worn non-maternity and non-breastfeeding too...that is my plan anyway, if it stays stain free.  Go get those cotton maxi dress swimsuit cover ups now and get to sewing!

By the way, it is quite embarrassing to have to ask one's husband to take photos of me, in a nightgown.  He is not a photo taker, at, all.  Ever.  All photos, 99%, are by moi.  So, if I look frustrated or otherwise not smiling or acting like my normal self, it was because my dearest was just clicking away, non-discriminantly...got a couple good ones to show I was, in fact, here.  Good thing I know he loves me, right?

{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.   Inspired by Soulemama