Ordinary Time

The countdown to leaving for Yellowstone is beginning. Guidebooks have arrived from the library and children are beginning to make lists of the things they would most like to see or do. L.'s list is very helpful... and short: Everything. Totally doable in five days, right?  I'm afraid my own lists of things we need to do before we can leave are not so short. There are lists for what needs to be ready for when we get back. There are lists for our meals and the food we will be bringing. There are general packing lists. There are lists for things related to the house and animals so our house sitter is completely set. There are lists to keep track of the lists. Lists. Lists. Lists. So that's all I have for you tonight. It will be a good trip. In theory I'm looking forward to it. I just have to get to that moment when the van is packed, everyone is loaded up, and we are pulling out of the driveway. Then I'll be excited. 

"There is an important point here: All our decisions are made in ignorance. If we knew what to do, we would just do it. That is, we would not be faced with a decision in the first place. The problem is not knowing; rather, the problem is thinking we should know. Understanding how we approach decisions -- and how to make them a vital part of our mindful creativity -- is an important part of our personal renaissance. Any new endeavor is rife with decisions we'll have to face without much experience or knowledge. With respect to painting, how can we know what colors we need, in what amounts, and what kind of brushes we'll want unless we know just what we are going to paint and and how we are going to paint it? But if our plan is that exact, the painting is not likely to be created mindfully, nor is it likely to be much fun in the doing. When faced with a decision, we tend to consider what we think are our options and then predict the consequences we think are likely to result

We're all actually fine. I seem to have a bit of PTSD regarding property taxes and spent all last week catastrophizing. I'm doing better. I think. But that's not fun to talk about so let's move onto something that is.  The to-do list has been long, so I haven't been making things as much as usual. I did get back to my loom this week. I decided not to take a picture because when something is on the loom, it all kind of looks the same. I'm nearly done with the dishtowel I'm currently working on. When I get to the next one I'll take another picture. As we drove to Indiana this past weekend, I got a bit of knitting done. Here are the sweater pieces I have so far. This is the back and the two front pieces laid out shoulder to shoulder. This means I just have two sleeves left to knit as well as sewing it all up and adding on the neck and button band. My goal is to get everything blocked this week so I can sew it together while we're away. I'm also goin

  Between worrying about money, being gone all weekend, trying to get everything planned and sorted for school, worrying about money, planning for our trip, doing all the usual things that need to be done, worrying about money, getting ready for the continuing education course I'm co-teaching, and worrying about money, I'm kind of done in at the moment. So enjoy this picture of Emmy as she decides whether or not the paint horse Halloween costume is really working for her.

J's uncle passed away a few weeks ago and today was his memorial service. This is the aunt and uncle we spent every Thanksgiving with for years and whose summer home in Michigan we would visit every summer.  It's been a day of family and memories. 

You might have guessed, but I can be fairly intense, especially when it comes to something that I am interested in and want to learn more about or want to learn to do better. Riding would definitely fall in those categories. I take it very seriously and want to learn as much as I can during my lessons. At one point, as my trainer was giving me instructions for what I was to do next, she added, "And have fun."  Now, in theory, I know that I ride because I enjoy it, but I think I forget that during my lessons because I am so busy improving and learning all I can. The instruction to have fun kind of blindsided me for a moment and I realized that I can often forget that piece of it in my intensity. I get so caught up with making improvement, perfecting my riding, doing things the best that I can do that I forget ultimately why I'm doing this. You know what? When I added in the instruction to have fun (and I realize that it is telling that it took the direction to have fun to

This evening before dinner, R. was having a hard time. She had earlier been disappointed that a disc she was watching was scratched so needed to be turned off which caused her to go stomping up to her room and slam the door. This actually pleased me as she was able to express her frustration and not bury it deep down while disassociating. I'm all for honest emotions, sometimes even when they involve slamming doors. But that is not really what this post is about. Later, R. had come downstairs and was able to mutter that she was hungry. J. got her some peanuts and suggested that she might want to watch D. and Y. play a video game. He also added that he was so glad that R. was able to tell him what she needed because he I and I like to take care of our children and give them what they want and need. R. then takes her peanuts into the family room to watch the video game. A moment later, H. asks, "Do they really?"  I think this caught both J. and I off guard. J. assured H. tha

There isn't all that much to share this week. I've been so inundated with things that need to get done in order for the fall to run smoothly that there hasn't been a whole lot of time left over for playing with fiber. I really do function better in general if I have some time each day to make things. I haven't touched the loom in nearly two weeks because the weaving pattern I'm using is a little more complicated than I have attempted before so need enough brain space to be able do it correctly. I have no extra brain space by the end of the day, so it will have to wait a little bit longer.  I did do some more dyeing this week. This time I wanted to try to dye some of the alpaca that a friend gave me. Everyone I had talked to about it all had the same reaction. There would be a brief pause, a sigh, and then the words, "Oh, alpaca," uttered. It is evidently a little tricky to get to take color. Knowing this, I decided to be generous in how much dye I put in.

I've lost track of how many years I have frantically spent the month of August doing our school planning, but it's a lot. It is so many that you would think by now that I would have a good sense of exactly how long the process takes me. Clearly, I still have no clue. Not only did I spend the majority of last weekend when I was all alone planning for school, but I spent about seven hours straight yesterday working on it as well. I wish I could say I was completely done, but I can't. I am soooo close, though. I am to the point of writing everything neatly down on my real list, making lists of library books and when I'll need them and of craft supplies and when I'll need them as I go. I only have the spring left to do this for. What is still left is making the photo copies that I need, K's study of Afghanistan, and I think this year I am going to make weekly checklists for each student of what they need to do on their own each week. With everyone going into 8th gra

It's felt like a very long week. It seemed as though Friday came and went more than once, but here we finally are. My plan to organize my planning worked. I spent a good chunk of the morning looking at the next two weeks and really figuring out what needed to be done when. I have it all sorted out and assigned a day. It looks doable and I am not nearly so overwhelmed. Plus, every time I think of something else I need to remember, I find the day when I'm dealing with that particular issue and add it. It feels good and I no longer feel as though I'm holding too many things in my brain trying desperately to not forget something important. Last week I went to a baking outlet store. The one thing I really wanted (parchment circles for cake pans which we use in our bamboo steamers) wasn't there. And now I'm going to have to actually cut circles for the steamer baskets. Life is hard. I did get the one thing on Y.'s list which were cupcake liners. She really wanted to b

Swamped is exactly how I am feeling at this moment. Today was one of those days where I went from activity to activity... and they were all good activities... and didn't really have a chance to sit down and rest until about 5:45 this afternoon. While I enjoyed each of the activities, I really dislike coming to the end of the day and feeling as though I have no margin left for anything. It is not a relaxing way to live and I try very hard not to let myself be over-scheduled. Some days you just can't avoid it.  The trouble is, I fear that the next two weeks are going to somewhat similar as I try to work through all of my to-do lists for being ready for September. It's not all about school planning, either. That I feel as though I have enough of a handle on that it is manageable at this point. There's just a lot of other things. Such as, getting outlines made for the co-op classes I am teaching this year. I have definite ideas about how each class will work, but I think it

If I'm not posting everyday at the moment it's because all I'm doing is planning school and am saving you from endless posts about planning school. You do not escape today, though. While I have a general outlines of what we are covering and when in both the middle ages and botany, that is really just the beginning. Once I have that, it is time to find more books and movies and resources and slot them in. That is where I am right now. It means that while I checked out a lot of books to begin with, that was nothing compared to what I have out right now. As I mentioned, I hit the limit for allowed number of holds at our library. This is because as I was planning the general outline, I then had a better idea of the specific topics owe would be covering which required specific books.  It turns out the librarians at our library didn't even know that there was a limit of the number of holds. I learned that the first time I was in today checking out books and figuring out which

Being knee deep in school planning means that there was very little fiber related things happening here this past week. I did finally gather the tools I needed to start dyeing and the dye I ordered arrived, so I took some time to mix up a few dye stocks. I felt like a mad scientist with mask, protective eye wear, and gloves weighing out dye powder and measuring liquid. No, I didn't get a photo. Sorry.  With the dye stock made, I wanted to try drying one of the fleeces I have. I chose the one that was the least nice. It has a lot of vegetable matter in it and is going to be a pain to card into something spinnable. If I did something horrible to it, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Dyeing was also the perfect thing to do while I was planning because it involves a lot of waiting. I would put a part of the fleece to soak in water and go back to the books. Then I would get the dye pot ready and go back to the books. I would check on the process and either go back to the books or

I'm still here and still functioning. I warned you I would be buried under a pile of books and that is exactly what happened. There's also a little more to the story. J. really wanted to get everyone up to Michigan at least once this year and this past weekend was pretty much the only window. Due to our upcoming and trip and other reasons, we really couldn't afford to pay someone to watch the animals one more time. So we decided that J. would take everyone and I would stay home and watch the animals. That way I could still teach my lessons and see my clients, the animals would be cared for, and I would have uninterrupted hours in which to plan the school year. They all left on Thursday and came home in time for dinner tonight. I had a lovely four days. I met a friend for lunch one day and a different friend for dinner on another. TM stopped by and brought me treats (which were so generous I'm still working through them). I picked up the house...once.... and it stayed pi

We're now nearly in the middle of August which means that I need to get a move on and plan school. So that is what I'm doing this weekend. I don't imagine I'll get it all finished, but I'm really hoping to make a dent so that I can just fill in the odds and ends. Here's my starting pile. I have more books due to arrive at the library in the next couple of days, but I have the essentials for starting a general outline. This year we'll be studying the Middle Ages and botany. I will have two 8th graders, a 9th grader, and a 10th grader this year so I can't really reuse previous year's Middle Ages lesson plans because they are aimed at a much younger audience. Once again, I'm pretty much starting from scratch.  If you don't hear from me in the next few days, this is why. I'm either still staring at books and making lists or I'm done staring at books and making lists and cannot do anything else at that moment. Here we go... !

This time it is a story about me instead of one of my children.  Do you remember a while back, long about last fall, when I was at my riding lesson and the horse I was riding threw me off? I ended up with a very sore tail bone, a cracked helmet, and probably a slight concussion. It could have been worse.  I didn't ride that horse again until late this spring. I haven't shared this story, but things were going along fine until my body did a sort of panic attack and I suddenly could barely ride. Everything felt terrifying. I managed to make it through my lesson and figured things would be just fine. Except they were not just fine. For about two weeks, my body was stuck in panic mode. I couldn't even ride Bristol without panicking. It was bad. I'll also add that none of the horses were doing anything that would have triggered such an extreme reaction on my part. I told my trainer and we began the hard work of getting me riding again.  This is what caused the work I was doi

I've written quite a bit about the idea of mistakes and rigidity in the past couple of weeks, so I found it very interesting to come across some more thoughts about mistakes in the book I am currently reading, On Becoming and Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity by Ellen J. Langer. These quotes are all from this book.  "Most of us fail to engage in creative endeavors as meaningfully as we might, or even decline to involve ourselves in them altogether, because of the risk of making mistakes is too great. What does 'making a mistake' mean, and why does the urge to avoid mistakes have so much power over us? If we don't begin with a rigid plan, it is hard to make a mistake. Our rather mindless aversion to mistakes is rooted in our belief in plans, that is, in our expectation that we should execute a plan we had previously set, with no deviations. Ultimately, this is a defeating mind-set, one that does not take advantage of what our present circumstan

I didn't think I had much to share today as I didn't think I had done much fiber-wise this week. Then I started looking at photos upload and realized I had more than I thought.  The biggest item is that I finished warping my loom and have started weaving the dishtowels I'm making. As it is difficult to see how they are progressing because it all gets wound on the cloth beam, I have three photos showing my progress. I'm very happy with how they are turning out.  The sheet is to protect the weaving from the cats. All those threads seem as though they would be a wee bit too enticing.  You can see how effective this is. This is one of Apollo's favorite places to take a nap. Next, I played around with the Coopworth and Wenseleydale locks that I dyed in my class last week. Remember?  First I combed the Coopworth (the darker ones). You can still see traces of the purple and the turquoise dye. Then from this, I made this yarn. This was chain-plied and when I did the plying

I find a lot of parents are stuck. I've come across several instances of various examples recently, and while they are each very different, at root is the fact that most people have a very fixed idea about what parenting and raising children should look like and people's abilities to meet that idea. It often means that how parents relate to their children is also extremely rule bound.  The trouble with this is that relationships don't follow rules, even the best of them. People are unique and thus the relationships they enter into are also unique. Yet, how many times have you heard about "rules for marriages" or "rules for parenting"? Then you add in social media... seeing photographs of other people's trips or celebrations or homes or photos of happy, smiling children, etc. etc. ... and on top of the rules there is this perceived standard that everyone must live up to. And because of how these things actually work, it always seems as though everyone

We are not watching a movie tonight. I rarely watch anything in the evening, so that two night movie fest felt as though it took up a lot of time, though I'm glad we did it. Yesterday I took K., Y., G., and L. to American Science and Surplus because I needed some supplies to be able to dye wool. I think I can say most of them have now found their favorite store. There was so much that was ogled. Steampunk gears, pirate maps, knives, gas masks, Army surplus, magnets, pens, and any amount of other goofy somewhat useless items mixed in with the genuinely useful. It is the only place I know where I can find beakers in mm, funnels, glass stir sticks, protective eye wear, and syringes of all sizes in one place at crazy low prices. If you live in the area and have never been, you should go. If you don't live in the area you can still check out their online store and just wonder at the vast array of things they sell.  Last Thursday I had a large hay delivery arrive. Seeing this in my b