Ordinary Time

(I have so many favorite hobby horses, you're probably wondering which one it is this time.) It's been hot here again. I'm really kind of done summer. Actually, I'm done with sweating while doing very little physical work. Hot weather is just not my favorite. It also means that I pay attention to what I wear in order to remain as comfortable as possible. It's not unlike in winter, just coming at it from the opposite direction.  From experience, cotton is the most comfortable. Linen is great, too, but I own one nice linen shirt and I don't really want it to become a barn shirt. I even have a thin 100% wool T-shirt that actually is pretty comfortable, too. The key is breathability. All of these natural fibers allow heat and moisture to escape from your body.  Last week due to the weaving class I took, the laundry definitely didn't happen. Over the weekend I was down to the second tier of my wardrobe. This is why I found myself wearing a poly-cotton shirt on a

Last week I had dinner with a couple of very good friends at one of their homes. It was a lovely evening of good food and good conversation. Today, another friend offered her house for me to dry the fabric I wove (fabric that comes off a loom all needs to be wet finished before it is completed) because we have cats here who are a bit too entranced by yarn and textiles. Plus, she has air conditioning which means it stood a chance of actually drying. I got home from dropping that off, and then got everyone in the car to enjoy a friend's house pool.  After teatime, I received a text saying the fabric was mostly dry and did I want to come iron it at her house. I thought for a moment... Iron at my house where it's a bit warm and I would need to vacuum the floor before I ironed yards of fabric or iron at her air-conditioned house with a pet free sewing are. Guess which I chose. No vacuuming was needed.  Driving home from my friend's house where I had ironed fabric, I was struck w

I did a lot of weaving this past week between the class I took and... finishing weaving the fabric for The Dress. Look! For the dress For the jacket And here is a video of it coming off the loom. It's a lot of fabric. Step 1 complete... and it's still July, at least for a little bit. On to the classes I took. It was on learning to weave crackle weave and we wove samplers of the various ways it can be woven. This is the whole thing.  And some close ups so you can get a better view. It's all done on the same warp and if you look closely you'll see the pattern is the same but the color and how the weft interacted with the pattern changes.  I also finished the band I was tablet weaving. And because this is something I have brain space to do at night, I put another warp on my inkle loom. This is some odd silk yarn I picked up on sale. I'm not entirely sure about it, so it feels a bit like an experiment. Here is what the band looks like.  Looking at all this, I'm real

The ponies, specifically Buddy the Shetland pony, may do me in. Buddy is an escape artist. I feel as though all I do is try to keep up and add new layers of pony proofing with each escapade. (Pony proofing is very similar to toddler proofing your house.) It was raining this morning. On rainy days, the big horses stay in the dry lot with hay nets and I open the aisle up to the ponies to give them more room. We are already on the advanced level of pony containment in order to do this. I though all was well and we headed to church. After church I head to the barn and as I'm walking up I see this. Yes, that is Buddy grazing in front of the barn, outside of any fences. Vienna was incredibly annoyed that he was out and she wasn't. I pause and return to the house to enlist J.'s help because I don't think this is a one person job.  To too it off, Buddy doesn't really like to be caught. We've been working on it and I'm the pasture I can get to him with a rope if I

J. took nearly everyone on a fishing outing to a local state park today. I didn't go as I had clients to see and a presentation on EAL to give. K. didn't go because he had to work, but D. got to join in because didn't have work.  And now, as I share pictures of their outing, I have a few thoughts to share. I'm sure you are as tired as I am about the opening ceremonies brouhaha, but if I don't write something, I'll continue to create blog posts in my head which doesn't sound restful. Humor me, here. Thought #1: The Olympics are being held in France. France is most definitely not the US. I thought they did a great job of celebrating French history and culture with some interesting nods to areas that are challenging. (The dozens of Marie Antoinettes come to mind ) But not surprisingly, the show was very French. This is the country that gave us La Cage aux Folles in the '70's. I'm not sure why anyone was surprised. Could I also gently suggest that th

This evenings to-do list: Figure out how to stream Olympic opening ceremonies ✓ Pick up brie and cream puffs to eat since the Olympics are in Paris ✓ Repeatedly point out to children places of interest in Paris ✓ Listen to ongoing commentary about the aesthetics of each country's flag by a couple flag obsessed children ✓ Watch endless commercials ✓ Critique the endless commercials ✓ Wonder if the surfers in Figi felt left out ✓ Feel relieved there was not an actual guillotine ✓ Admire the very cool mechanical horse running down the Seine ✓ Enjoy the light show on the Eiffel Tower ✓ Ask a lot of questions about the hot air balloon cauldron ✓ Spend a very enjoyable evening watching a great spectacle with everyone at home enjoying it ✓

Usually about this time in the summer I'm writing vaguely whiney, anxious posts about needing to plan for the next school year and wondering if I have time to get everything done. Not this year. I have moved into unfamiliar homeschooling territory with just sophomores on up doing school. It's not that I'm not familiar with homeschooling high school, but that I'm unfamiliar with homeschooling only high school. So we're trying something new this year. It is definitely time to start giving the responsibility for education over to my high schoolers. I find that by doing this in high school, when I'm there and can offer support, then when they head to college being in charge of themselves is little different.  I presented my new plan at dinner tonight and told everyone to start thinking about what they would be interested in learning this year. Then we could sort things out through August and be ready for school in September. Everyone was pretty amenable to the idea.

I'm more tired than normal. On Monday and today I spent all day at a weaving class learning a weave structure that was pretty cognitively challenging to figure out initially. Yesterday I caught up on the things that didn't get done on Monday and had dinner with two good friends, putting me home a little later than usual.  But does being tired stop me from writing a slightly opinionated post? No, no it doesn't. It is actually the catalyst as my margin in a bit thinner than usual.  And what has irritated me today? The idea that to educate a child, all you need is a good curriculum. As I read about new homeschoolers asking over and over (and over and over and over) for a good curriculum that is going to teach their children everything they need, I'm actually surprised I haven't started to scream out loud at the insanity I it all.  Because here's the deal, while a good curriculum can be a fantastic tool, without a good teacher (and for homeschoolers, I'm assumin

I haven't really seen any garments in a couple of years, being distracted by other fiber activities. But there's this wedding coming up, and The Dress, and the fact I have other children to clothe. We don't dress up much these days, so having everyone dressed appropriately is going to take some work. G. and L. have both requested nice vests, preferably ones that fit. A vest seemed like a good way to brush off my sewing skills. Since I had fabric in my stash that G. liked, I started with that one. I think it came out pretty well, and it fits very well.  Here is the front. This is made with Simplicity 8023. (Ignore the weird shadows from my poor picture taking skills.) It is fully completed except for buttons and buttonholes. I was not thrilled with either the drafting or the directions. I wouldn't recommend this pattern to a new sewist. I added the top stitching because the way they had you interface it made it impossible for the seams to lie flat. The top stitching neat

It's been a while since I updated my readers about the ponies. Vienna continues to do really well. The farrier was here last Monday and Vienna's feet look like normal hooves again. It is so nice to see! She is back to working with clients as she is one of my most useful horses to teach children (and sometimes adults) how to lead a horse.  Buddy is continuing to settle in and he seems more comfortable being here and has figured out the routine. He has been particularly useful when I have clients visit. Usually even the most trepidatious person is won over by him. He's a smart little thing and loves to be told how cute he is.  About that smart business. I've had to play pony rodeo a couple of times because Buddy is so smart. At night, when the ponies move to their stall and the big horses move to the dry lot, I open up the back barn door to let the cool night air in. Twice now, I have forgotten to shut the door before I move the ponies back over to the dry lot. I open doo

This afternoon was not enjoyable. I made a couple of expensive errors in accounting which I was not pleased to discover. But even better I got to call both a credit card customer service number as well as Amazon's. The list of things I'd rather do than navigate Amazon's customer service is long and includes things such as scrubbing out litter boxes and cleaning out disgusting chicken co-ops to make a few. Yes, dealing with excrement is more enjoyable.  But I persevered and nearly four hours later the finances were organized and bills paid. (Usually this job takes me less than two hours.) To recover I watched yet another episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. A show that has been more difficult to watch than getting a live person at Amazon. This is why I was so excited yesterday to come across some full episodes on YouTube. (I optimistically check every so often.)  In case you want to watch this charming and diverting show as well, here's the link.  But I am not totall

The weather is cooler and it is blissful. Of course, the cooler weather was brought in by two nights of thunderstorms which also brought a record number of tornadoes to the northern Illinois area. We are fine despite one touching down a few miles south of us. The worst we experienced was lots of branches on the ground from the silver maples, but they do that in a light breeze, so it wasn't anything unusual.  Other than that there is not much to report. I got caught up on laundry. I drove children to doctor's appointments. I enjoyed not dripping in sweat while cleaning the barn. And we have all enjoyed being able to turn the stove on to cook dinner.  Since there is little to share, I'll leave you with yet one more funny conversation from dinner earlier this week. Somehow the conversation turned to dinosaurs and what dinosaurs could do. I don't remember the exact details. I said something along the lines of T-Rexes not being able to make things because of their short arms

"But the situation with rewards is even more interesting. In a recent multiphase study, Warneken and I [the author] gave twenty-month-olds various opportunities to help. Some of the children were given a concrete reward every time they helped: a small toy that they could use to create an exciting effect, which they loved. Other children were given no reward at all, not even a smile or a thank you from the adult who simply accepted the help with no reaction whatsoever. Most children helped on five occasions, and those who did participated in the second phase, in which the infants had the opportunity to help several times again. This time, however, there would be no reaction from the adult in any of the cases. The results were remarkable. The children who had been rewarded five times in the first phase actually helped less during the second phase than those who had not been rewarded.  This 'overjustification effect' has been documented by the Stanford psychologist Mark Pepp

I am pleased to announce that we finished Lonesome Dove at teatime today. It was a journey. I ended up liking it as did many of my children. (A couple were on the fence, but didn't hate it.) I was actually surprised I ended up liking it as much as I did because I wasn't convinced at first. The introduction of a strong female character towards the end helped. A lot.  The things I liked right off the bat were Mr. McMurtry's ability to create realistic and interesting characters and his ability to tell a story. It was the story he was telling that I wasn't sure about. While the characters were interesting I wasn't sure if I liked any of them. Over eight hundred pages is a long time to spend with characters you don't care for. Over time, though, as we got to know them, they became more like oddly quirky friends.  But the few women in the story. I'll just leave it as the word 'whore' is used an awful lot. That didn't make me dislike the women, but it

 You start dying slowly if you do not travel, if you do not read, if you do not listen to the sounds of life, if you do not appreciate yourself. You start dying slowly When you kill your self-esteem; When you do not let others help you. You start dying slowly If you become a slave of your habits, Walking everyday on the same paths… If you do not change your routine, If you do not wear different colors Or you do not speak to those you don’t know. You start dying slowly If you avoid to feel passion And their turbulent emotions; Those which make your eyes glisten And your heart beat fast. You start dying slowly If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job,  or with your love, If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain, If you do not go after a dream, If you do not allow yourself, At least once in your lifetime, To run away from sensible advice. - Martha Medeiros

I don't have much to show you by way of finished objects this week. I am continuing to weave the fabric for The Dress and am probably about halfway done with the 9.5 yards of warp. I will show you my selvedges, though, because I am pretty proud of them. Just so you know, selvedges in weaving, the edges of the cloth, should be even and smooth. I'm pretty happy with these. The first picture is truest to the actual color of the fabric. But really I want to talk about something else today. As most of you know, I use my hour or so cleaning the barn in the morning to listen to lectures and podcasts. It's pretty much the only time I can be sure of not getting interrupted.  A few days ago I was listening to an interview with Clara Parked, who wrote among other things, Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool. (It's a very good book and I recommend it, especially if you are interested in the state of the American Wool industry. And I'll give you a hint. You really shoul

We have made many car trips to Arizona back over the years. Sometimes we stayed in motels and sometimes we camped. We always made use of friend's and family's floor space when possible. On one trip we were camping, but only the type of camping where you pull into a campsite, set up the pop-up camper you're towing (it was J.'s mom's), and go to bed. Meals were either sandwiches for lunch, pop tarts for breakfast, and inexpensive restaurants for dinner. This meant we didn't carry any cooking equipment with us which also meant we didn't have a way to heat water in the morning for coffee.  Coffee is vital to the morning, and so our first activity would be to start driving and find somewhere we could buy some. On this particular morning we had camped outside of Omaha and were on the search for coffee. I think we were fairly close to Lincoln when we found a place and drive through to get that vital liquid which makes for happy parents. On the top of the cup lids w

Last night was the once a month inclusive game night that the disability committee at our church sponsors. We make it a whole family event which is really its purpose... a place where families can feel safe bringing their disabled children but also someplace where abled siblings can also have a place. It's always a lot of fun.  Yesterday as a result was a lot of people-ing. I had an EAL client in the morning and then Y., L., and G. went to a homeschooled teen meetup with people we had never met before. Then when you add the game night at the end...  Well, I had nothing left. It took me a very long time to figure myself out. I have pretty much always known that I need lots of alone time to function well. As a child, this often took the form of copious reading. But even knowing this I never really put together that there was a direct correlation between being social and needing to recover, even if that socializing was with friends I knew well and enjoyed spending time with.  For year

I've just been out of sorts today. It could be several things... a lack of a schedule, too much paperwork, heat and humidity. I'm actually going with the last one. Compared to what other parts of the country are dealing with, ours is pretty manageable even without air conditioning. But I still don't like it. Humidity just makes me feel slug-like. Gross and slimy and slow. Give me thirty degrees over high humidity any day. At thirty degrees things are frozen but not so frozen I have to haul water to the barn. I have to wear a coat but I don't need multiple layers. There are no gnats or flies. I can wear sweaters. It's a lovely temperature.  Of course there are no flowers or green leaves at thirty degrees. Here is one of the upsides to having to slog through heat and humidity. I have finally gotten the hot tub pond looking like I had imagined it could look. 

K. was out with a friend for the afternoon and brought me home a gift.  Isn't that sweet? 

It's been kind of a crummy afternoon and I am in a very tetchy mood. I've learned I shouldn't write in this state because I run a very high risk of being offensive. So I'll spare you my highly opinionated post about why I think neuropsych testing feels a bit like a scam. It would only serve to upset everyone. I'll stick with something safe instead. I'll give you all a minute to go put your popcorn away.  Ready for non-inflammatory content now?  I realized yesterday that I forgot to post a few of the other projects I had started this past week. The lost seemed short when I wrote it and then I figure out why. I'll briefly share the missing projects. First up is that I have a new card weaving project on the inkle loom. Next, I cut out a vest pattern for G. I'm going to use this to resurrect my sewing skills before tackling The Dress. I spun some polworth fleece from the collection of samples I bought to do a breed study. I'd spun polworth before so I kn

Are you ready for this? I think I have been experiencing stress crafting this week. Usually when the state of the world feels more than a little precarious I engage in stress canning, but that takes lots of cooking and boiling water, none of which sounds remotely appealing without air conditioning. So I guess my fallback is making things. I'm not even sure where to start.  How about with some fleece? Last fall at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival (the one where I wasn't going to buy anything), I came home with a beautiful corriedale fleece that was several shades of grey. I washed it before it got too cold and it has been living in a closet ever since. A few days ago I decided I really needed to get it out and take a look at it, which is why I spent quite a bit of time separating three pounds of fleece into separate shades.  The dark grey is the smallest pile that you can there in the back. And since I had it out it made sense to do some sampling to see how it sound up. The

J. drove to Iowa and back today to collect K. from my brother's. It sounds as though K. had a great time. He helped with the animals, helped put up fencing, and got to really get to know his aunt, uncle, and cousins. We missed him and it's good to have him back. And a big thank you to my brother and sister-in-law for hosting him and letting him help out.  A few of the many photos he took.