Ordinary Time

Today we are celebrating Y. being able to vote for the first time. I hope you'll forgive me for hoping it's not also her last. 

B. and HC decided they would like me to weave them a light throw as their wedding gift. They also decided that they would like the colors to be similar to the ones which were in HC's bridal bouquet.  And here is what I ended up making for them.  The color is more accurate in this picture. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It looks like what I envisioned. I'm also pleased it is a good weight because for a while I was concerned it would be too thin. The yarn is 50% merino and 50% silk, so it's warm and soft.  In other news, I'll have some more things to share next week. I have a new project for the loom, I'm about to ply a large spinning project, and today L. began working on sewing a pair of jeans. No, she's never seen before, but she wanted to learn to sew and pants were what she was interested in making. I figure if she can learn to make pants, then anything else beyond that will seem easy. I'll be helping her and I chose a pattern with video t...

I'm tired. J. had been out of town all weekend and I've been single parenting. With everyone the ages they are, that's not actually difficult because everyone is helpful. I think it's that I don't sleep well when he's gone and I am a person who very definitely needs my sleep. And what I my key signs that I am more fatigued than usual? Well, I fell asleep on the couch yesterday afternoon and I don't normally do that. I also haven't read nearly as much in the past couple of days because my brain wasn't focusing well. But the biggest indicator is that I found myself getting in an argument on Facebook which the rational, well-rested version of me knows better. Given all that, I think my wisest course of action is to give myself an early bedtime.  This is also a heads-up that posting over the next few weeks could be spotty. I'll be in Arizona next weekend to visit my mom and do a little piano judging. And, in the next few weeks I need to finish writin...

You will have to all bear with me as I read though Radical Homemakers and drag all of you along with me. Despite it having been published in 2010, I don't think things have improved for US society, and in fact, I think there are some important dots to connect as we live through the fall of our democracy.  This first part has to do with busyness. Forgive me for cherry picking quotes, because I really dislike doing so, but if I don't, I will essentially be typing out the entire chapter for you. You don't want that, I don't want that, and the copywrite lawyers certainly don't want that.  To begin: " Indeed, the woes of work have plagued Western society since the industrial revolution imposed clock time upon us. Despite labor regulations, the number of hours we toil today is more than the medieval peasants endured during the feudal period." (p. 88 - Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by Shannon Hayes) I don't know about you,...

K. took these while he was at work on Tuesday. 

It took a while before the Trad Wife label made it into my consciousness. Much of popular culture tends to bypass me, and I think it was one of my children who first brought it to my attention. Curious, I then had to look it up. My immediate reaction was not positive, but there was no blog post about it at that time, because I needed to come to terms with it all. This was mainly because on some superficial level, my life and those glossy social media Trad Wives were kind of the same. I knew they weren't, but I truly didn't have words to explain the difference.  The library to the rescue! A while back, I came across the concept of Radical Homemakers. this sounded promising based on what I read, so I put the book of the same title on hold. And waited and waited and waited, until yesterday when it finally arrived at me library. And while I've just started reading it, I think this is my answer. From the introduction: "Some of the Radical Homemakers I came to know professed...