{this moment} - cabbage stamping

{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. See Soulemama to play along.

sprucing up the library

Our library received a makeover about 2 months ago (has it really been that long?!) that seemed to take forever to finish because I waited until just before the holidays to begin, then of course, had no time to work on the curtains. The previous curtains in the library were actually the reason for the sprucing. They dry rotted right in the window (it's a southwest facing window), and they were sheer, which didn't work very well for our sometimes guest room anyway.

So after perusing etsy for what felt like months, I finally stumbled on a fabric I liked: It's a Hoot by Moda Fabrics in Pistachio. I *thought* the blue in the fabric would match the previous wall color, but alas, when the fabric arrived, the blue was more aqua, and the wall color was not going to be able to remain the same. So...we painted the walls celery, using a no-VOC paint, of course and then rearranged a bit. The lamp and end table were borrowed from other spots in the house where they weren't seeing much use. Fortunately it took me SO long to get around to sewing the new curtains, that my friend, Jenni, came to visit and offered to do the sewing (and even lined them!) for me, then had them completed and mailed back to me in a week. She's the best!


The everything wall received it's semi-annual sprucing at the same time and we decided, ahem, to buy a tv to hang on the library wall. While I was aghast at Paul's first mention of hanging a tv in here, neither of us have really ever liked the centerpiece, mantle-top tv in the family room, which was what we were trying to eliminate. The new tv in the library is not very large and hardly noticeable in a room with wall-to-wall randomness. Not to mention we rarely watch any kind of tv (we have no cable) so having it out of the way is wonderful.


We did keep Wills on the wall to keep us honest in our book buying. How can you look him in the eye and read a cheesy romance novel?!


Unfortunately the result of all the library sprucing and tv switching means that we are now left with a hole in our living room. Or a bare wall, more precisely. Over Christmas it worked well with some greenery, candles, and some tall glass trees. I couldn't leave the glass trees because they were just too Christmasy, and the greenery is not going to last forever so I need a good decorating idea for this space.


I'm sure we'll stumble across a sculpture or other art piece sometime that will be wonderful for this space, but I know that if I just go looking for one, it won't be perfect and probably will be too costly. Perfect art pieces need to be stumbled upon, I think. But if you have an idea for something to occupy the space for the short term, I'm all ears. :)

Yarn Along

Ahem, still working on Elizabeth's birthday socks for the Yarn Along this week. Only another 3 days until her birthday, so I'm getting close on time, but since I'm nearly ready to begin the toe of the 2nd sock, I'm not too worried.

For my reading this week, I just started Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto. Eileen, of Little Acorn Learning, Valarie, of Jump Into A Book, and I were talking over the weekend about reading this book, and quickly our plan turned into a Virtual Book Club on Facebook. We are still welcoming new members before our first book discussion on 2/4 so please join us if you are so inclined. The book club button on the sidebar of my blog will remain if anyone would like to join for a later book.


I took a brief break from sock knitting over the weekend to make this cute rainbow cowl from Rhythm of Family. I have to say that even though I added a few stitches and used the right sized needles and yarn, it still turned out relatively small on Elizabeth (and she has the smallest head in the family!)


The cowl also rolls really badly making it impossible to see the rainbow, but I suppose it adds a bit of neck warmth. It was a quick knit from leftover yarn so it was hard to be too disappointed.

What are you working on right now?

in a fog

The mood outside matches the mood in our home this morning. The fog and light rain has lasted for 4 days now and is starting to over stay it's welcome, and drippy, deadened blackberry brambles and elderberry bushes are not appreciated nearly as much as their spring and summer counterparts.

To top it off, Elizabeth woke up this morning with a tummy bug. For some reason, probably because I don't suffer the particular affliction of succumbing to tummy bugs myself, I am least equipped to fight these immunity lapses than colds, coughs and fevers.


So I am open to your advice, wisdom and suggestions. I do make a weak chamomile tea with a smidge of honey and pink salt to replenish hydration. I would love an aromatherapy suggestion or other external aid to help tummies that are not ready to accept food or liquid.


For now, she'll continue to sip her tea, and I'll be grateful that she's my least-afflicted-with-tummy-bugs child and hope that none of my other children succumb to a similar plight.

new virtual book club

Our First Book to share together will be Weapons of Mass Instruction’ by John Taylor Gatto. Regardless of your schooling choices – this book will get you thinking about our current educational system and model!

Order the book from your library, Amazon or download it to your reader… read it and in between come on over with a cup of coffee to sit in on our Virtual Book Club Facebook Page! Pop on over any time to chat – you’re never behind!

In addition, our first ‘scheduled’ book discussion will be hosted by bloggers Eileen Straiton, Valarie Budayr and Joy Blaser on February 4^th where we will cover the Prologue through Chapter 1 of our book, asking questions and inspiring others as they read along.

{this moment} - making sachets

{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. See Soulemama to play along.

seeking a blogging balance

A week in the life of our family consists of 4 kids living here on 4 days, 2 kids on (most of) the remaining days, driving 8.5 miles to take and retrieve Elizabeth from school each day, driving an additional 44 miles to pick up the boys from their schools in a different town 2 days a week, 14-18 meals completely from scratch, cleaning (most of) the house, washing/drying/folding 10-12 loads of laundry, homeschooling (or something resembling that) Finn on 4 days, grocery shopping, blogging here on 4-5 days. And that doesn't even cover the reading aloud, helping with crafts, going for walks, poking around the yard or garden, knitting or anything else that happens at regular intervals that is impossible to quantify.

When I started The Book Children almost 2 years ago, I had the intention to share some of our family's and my children's favorite book with anyone who was interested in children's literature or just looking for a recommendation for books for their kids. Somewhere along the way, life changes happened, life became busier than usual, children kept growing up and time grew shorter and shorter.


But even though time for The Book Children fell short, I still held a spot in my heart for that space and longed to get back to it. I frequently find myself wanting to share books here that the kids are particularly enjoys as we go about our days. But I hold back because I know that really belongs over on The Book Children so I end up not sharing the books at all.


So after trying to come up with ways to incorporate The Book Children back into my day, I decided to try a few things that will hopefully keep balance in my life. I'm going to invite guest writers, probably mostly my older children, to review books that they've recently enjoyed. I also may end up posting here slightly less in effort to find a bit more time for The Book Children.


I'm not sure what will come of this new system, but I hope you'll join me over at The Book Children as I try to get things started again over there. And if you think you might want to contribute a post about a favorite book, send me an email (which you can find on my profile) and maybe we'll all find some new books to enjoy. :)

New posts at The Book Children can be found here and here.

Yarn Along and a birthday sweater

For this week's Yarn Along, I'm still reading on Folks, this ain't normal. (Don't judge me.) For as long as it's taking me to get through, I really am still enjoying this book quite immensely.

I've also finished the first knee sock for Elizabeth's birthday socks. The second sock is barely begun, but I'm confident that I can finish in the next week and a half before her birthday. If there's anything the Christmas sock race gave me it's the luxury of time when I only have to knit 1 sock in 1.5 weeks instead of 3 pairs in 3 weeks. ;)


Her birthday sweater is finally finished, seamed and ready to go. I think she'll really enjoy this soft rainbow sweater. Self-striping yarn is always interesting to me when you have a style like raglan to see the thinner stripes grow wider at the top. The beauty of handmade, I guess.


This sweater was very simple as sweaters go, but my ravelry notes are here if you are interested.

weekending with the boatbabies

We were thrilled to spend part of our weekend with Cindy and her boatbabies, who were in town for the weekend. The kids had a blast playing with sticks, splashing in mud, building legos, sending robots climbing down ziplines, you know, the usual. We always enjoy our time with Cindy and her kids, and today was no exception. There's nothing quite as special as spending some in real life time with the members of this lovely blogging community. ♥

{this moment} - the engineer is in

{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. See Soulemama to play along.