I decided to hold out until mid-October to begin our first year of homeschooling. There was just too much harvesting, preserving and summer projects to finish while the weather was warm to wrap my head around how our daily rhythm was going to look, plus we had an early October trip to the beach planned. I figured we’d get down to business after we returned from vacation and settled back in, which was perfect. Garden season is over for us now and it’s raining outside as I type this. We may start school in October every year.
When I say “homeschooling,” my oldest daughter is only four and a half years old, so our lessons are short and very much led by whatever she happens to be curious about. Right now, she’s really into the solar system/planets, letter pronunciation and word formation. Matt and I have been doing that thing lately where we spell words out in conversation to keep the littles from paying too much attention to what we are talking about (like, “do you want me to buy some i-c-e c-r-e-a-m ?”) and I think this is largely responsible for her sudden interest in figuring out how letters form words. Right now, we’re working on phonics together whenever the baby naps, and she thinks these little lessons of ours are all fun games. I’m taking this as a sign we’re on the right track.
In the meantime, Matt and I are working furiously on a new secret language.
As for making, it’s been difficult to find the time. Meri is nearly seven months old and officially mobile. She’s not quite crawling yet, but she’s scooting forward and pivoting around in circles on the floor. I knew this day was coming sooner rather than later, and I’m mentally prepared (I think) for the vigilance required during this phase of her life while she explores her body and her surroundings, but this means I have less time for getting things done, and it will probably stay this way for another year or so if my first child was any indication. So it goes. I’ll find ways to squeeze in time for making and writing here and there. I always do. It’s important to me.
On my needles right now is the first sleeve of Matt’s Tamarack Sweater. This was supposed to be his birthday sweater, but the date has come and gone. I’m knitting it with Brooklyn Tweed Quarry, which is a beautiful, autumnal colored bulky weight, woolen spun yarn. I love working with Brooklyn tweed so much, and with the bulkier weight, it really does progress quickly when I am able to put the time into it, so I’m hoping to have it done before Christmas.
I also just finished a pair of Sointu Fingerless Mitts made using some beautiful, local BFL that was spun by my sister-in-law and given to me on my birthday. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around knitting with handspun sometimes because it’s so beautiful in skein/hank form, and I imagine all the time and effort gone into spinning it, but I’m a pragmatic person, and I’m also a bit of a minimalist, so it gives me great joy to put such things to use. Once I manage to come up with the right project for the yarn, I don’t second guess myself about it anymore.
Lastly, I managed to squirrel away a few hours last weekend to sew up some much needed cloth napkins for the dining table. We’ve been using cloth napkins in our house for years, and on a daily basis, so my collection was looking pretty dang exhausted from such constant use. This was something that has been on my to-do list for months now, but I wasn’t particularly excited to do it. Now that I’ve got a new stack made, I wouldn’t mind making several more less casual variations for when we have guests over. Maybe even some that are naturally dyed and made of linen. Maybe even some embroidery? We’ll see.
Now, if only I could manage to dye up all the linen for that quilt I’ve been meaning to make…
You’ve given me some inspiration in the making napkins department. I’ve been wanting some cloth napkins but the thought of purchasing some leaves me feeling like it’s not a necessity. With our strict budget there’s not money left over for things such as cloth napkins even though it would mean saving money and being more self sufficient if we tossed our paper towel habit. I even told my beeswax food class this last night…that I would like to ditch the paper towels. Anyway, you’ve inspired me to make some. I’m not a sew-er by any stretch of the imagination but I can certainly sew some straight lines and make up our own napkins. And I like the idea of being able to change them out depending on the season and the tablescape.
I do hope you find some time here and there to create and write! And thank you for the inspiration.
In my house when the kids were little, the adults spoke "pong" language. We still spelled things, but the consonants were stated with an "ong" ending, and the vowels were pronounced normally. So if we were discussing the possibility of having pizza, we’d have to say "What do you think about ordering pong-i-zong-zong-a?" Ice cream would be i-cong-e cong-rong-e-a-mong. It takes a bit to get used to it and be able to decipher it, but it works!