Ordinary Time

Back in May, when my pattern drafting class ended for the summer, I had just finished drafting a peasant blouse for myself. And the pattern then sat around for a couple of months waiting for me to do something with it. Last week I finally cut it out and took my time sewing it up. (I enjoy sewing so much more if I can really take my time with it.) Today I finished the buttons and buttonholes on the cuffs, which was the last thing needed.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out and with how it fits. I made it out of an old 100% cotton sheet that had ripped and was too far gone to be repaired. As a result, it is incredibly soft, like a very old favorite shirt but without the breaking in period. Here it is: The buttons came from my rather extensive button stash. About that button stash as well as other sewing notions I have on hand. Many of them have been salvaged. Here's an example. This is a pair of J.'s shorts that had become so worn out that they just needed to be thrown a...

I am very close to finishing the book, "Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives" by Daisy Fancourt. I also need to share a few quotes with you because they touch on some of my very favorite topics: Connection, creating, and play. "We humans are an inherently social species. Throughout our evolutionary history, we have relied on others for our survival -- so much so that if we find ourselves socially isolated (and therefore vulnerable), we are biologically primed to reconnect with others. Our brains and bodies flood us with hormones, distress signals, intrusive thoughts, and feelings of depression until we take the hint and reconnect. If we ignore these urges or can't find social contact, we put ourselves at substantially heightened risk of every adverse mental illness, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, frailty, and mortality. One of the most interesting evolutionary theories for the arts I've come across is that they evolved to help us become m...

This morning J., R., and I headed down to the county courthouse to appear in court. The reason? We were request that J. and I be given guardianship of R. It sounds more eventful than it was. There was no one else in the courtroom to have their case heard, so we were called forward immediately. The judge asked some questions so he could fill out his paperwork and then we were asked to wait for copies of the official decree to be made for us. That's it. The only vaguely interesting part was that the judge recognized us from when we obtained H.'s guardianship. The whole thing took no more than fifteen minutes. Having done this twice now, it always feels a bit anticlimactic; as if there should be something more to it. It's not really something to celebrate because it means that the young adult in question is never going to experience being an independent adult. But it also feels like a relief that this particular legal hurdle has been conquered. It's a weird in-between kind...

There have been a spate of books about trad wife influencers that have been published recently. I read them, though I'm not sure I should because I find myself being incredibly annoyed even if I am enjoying the overall story. Earlier this year I read Yesteryear and this week's iteration is Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza.  In the most cursory way, the trad wife influencer characters are very similar to each other, but the course of each book is vastly different. In both books this character has multiple children, homeschools, and bakes their own bread while sharing details their life with the wider world. In its barest outline it feels as though it hits a bit close to the bone. I've already written about why I am not (and never have been) a " trad wife ", so I won't go into that here. What has been causing me to grind my teeth a bit in this most recent book is the author's take on large families. Large families being six children or more. So to get ...

I came across an old post about our then most recent Harris Loan Program item we had borrowed. ( It was a taxidermied fox which sat in our front hall for several weeks .) It made me remember how much we loved checking out cool things from the Field Museum.  It also made me realize I don't hear newer homeschoolers talk about the program. This may be because we live further away from the museum, but I could imagine me (who doesn't really like to drive a lot) making the effort to go into the city because it is a cool program.  So, if you are a current homeschooling (or educator in a traditional school), the Harris Loan Program is designed to support educators. They have hundreds of artifacts or learning boxes that you can check out for free and take home for three weeks. We brought home a variety of animals as well as boxes that focused on music, math, and various other anthropological topics. They were all interesting and a fantastic hands-on learning opportunity. It is definit...

It is too hot to think much less do anything else other than care for the outdoor animals and make them as comfortable as possible. I find myself thinking of colder weather... of being chilly enough that wearing sweaters and snuggling into blankets sounds appealing. And who else is around in winter? The wild geese, of course. So for today's post, a wintery poem by Mary Oliver from her collection, Owls and Other Fantasies. Wild Geese You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body      love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world off...

It's been a while since I shared any weaving on my big loom with you. That's because it has spent a great amount of time in time-out these past few months. I would start, some warp ends would break, I would fix that, restart, some warp threads would break and I would put the loom in time-out. Over and over and over. I would think I had figured out what was wrong, but then the same cycle would happen. It was frustrating.  Very frustrating.  It's probably a good thing my loom is too big to pick up and throw across the room.  I finally asked a weaving friend over to help me figure it out. She had some very good suggestions that I wasn't aware of and she loaned me her temple. What's a temple? This is: The temple is the wooden stretcher towards the bottom of the weaving. It holds the woven fabric to the correct size and prevents it from pulling in. I am hopeful that I can finish weaving this warp and get something worthwhile out of it.  My original plan was to weave two ...

When we were in Michigan last month, I binge read the first book in a new (to me) mystery series, A Case of Mice and Murder. The series is called The Trials of Gabriel Ward, with Gabriel Ward being a barrister at the Inns of Court (and very reluctant detective) in early 20th century London.  It was a clever plot, but it was the character and evolution of Gabriel Ward that I found most interesting. Today he would probably be considered autistic. He is extremely intelligent, has various rituals that help to keep him centered, and finds much of human emotion in others to be challenging. Over the course of the books, while he does not change his character, he finds ways to broaden his life to include a few other people in it. He is also just a charming character.  Today I finished the second (A Case of Life and Limb) and went to put the third on hold only to discover that it won't be published until January. Alas. Which brings me to my other bookish news. I took a friends advice a...

Y. has been taking Japanese for seven years, six of those with a private tutor. (And if you want to learn a language without moving to a different country, having a private tutor is the way to go ) She is pretty conversant and loves learning languages. Her tutor had told her about a Japanese Festival which was happening this weekend in Skokie and Y. was interested in going.  One of the downsides of having moved to the far western suburbs of the Chicago area is the lack of diversity. I'm still not quite comfortable with the monochromatic-ness of where we live, especially since we have children of color. (I need to explain that by far western suburbs I do not mean Naperville which isn't quite as far west as we are. We have to drive a half hour east to get to the Asian and Indian markets in Naperville. I am very thankful for them.) It takes effort to find cultural mirrors.  All this to say, J. and Y. had a lovely time at the festival this afternoon. They saw dancers and musicians...

So it seems everyone is okay with me blathering on about whatever happens to flit through my mind, so I'll keep going with that.  Today was one of the days that L. worked so I needed to drive her. It's about a 25 minute trip one way. (She is a deckhand for the paddlewheel river boat on the Fox River .) This also meant I would need to pick her up. I worked in the studio after lunch for a while, checked the time, and realized I needed to leave to collect L. G. wanted to ride along, so we both got in the car and headed for the river.  As I'm pulling into the parking lot next to the boat, I glance at the clock and notice it's showing an hour earlier than I think it is. My first thought is to wonder why I didn't remember that we hadn't changed the car clock when daylight savings began. That didn't seem to make much sense, so checked my phone. Yes, I was an hour early. No, I don't know how that happened.  There was no way I was going to drive home only to turn...

Having finished the last volume that is published of the Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, I am bereft. I feel as though I have lost a group of good friends and it's going to be far too long until I reconnect with them. Pity the book I just read after them because they were a hard act to follow. The world feels fairly flat without Emma and Pierce and the Duke of Islington and Young Hawks. Why can't authors write faster and books be published sooner?  To add to my woe, I don't have anything to write. I'm not even sure who my audience is these days. I don't really mind no one commenting, but it also means I have no idea who is reading. So my comment-shy readers, what are you interested in? I'm happy to continue my nightly blathering, but am not completely sure where I should aim. Help a blogger out. (With actual topics, it also means you avoid having to read posts such as this.)

It's been a while since I had a Fiber Monday post. This is mainly because I didn't have anything to talk about as I wasn't really working on anything. I've mentioned my interests tend to have seasons and early summer didn't seem to be a season for making things. I'm thinking about it, I realized that contributing to my lack of interest was that my studio was rather chaotic and I had too many projects started and left lying about. I needed order and clarity.  Much of the 4th, I spent organizing the studio... filing things, tackling piles of projects that needed organizing, doing some reorganizing, and then being able to clean because I could find the surfaces. I gave up on a couple of projects, put some others away for another season, and finished up a couple of things that were 95% finished it felt good. I now enjoy being in my studio again.  The newly clean studio: It had been a very long time since I spent consistent time spinning. So I put away the fleece tha...

Illinois has had a tough go of it these past few months. Most notably we have broken all sorts of records for tornadoes. As of June 21, there were 196 documented tornadoes (I'm sure the number is higher now) which is more than twice the next state in the list has seen. So that's fun.  Then, over the weekend, Iowa decided to share its torrential rain with us. There was over 4 inches of rain on Saturday and yesterday was an enormous storm. (No tornadoes this time though.) Flash flood warnings were going off all over. This was the prelude to showing you this video of our "driveway" yesterday. J. went out to see what the state of things was. He stopped walking when the water level was going to top his boots.  The creek in front of our house had definitely overflowed its banks. Today things are nearly back tomorrow, but definitely damp. Duck has enjoyed it immensely.  Having put in that nice seque to poultry, the other thing that happened yesterday was that L. deemed Chick...

I have mixed feelings about the holiday. The current state of our country is horrendous and terrifying. The hand basket we are all traveling in seems to be getting closer to its destination every single day. I am beyond angry that those who could turn things around refuse to do so. I am baffled that there are still people who support the evil that is being done. And on days when I can manage to read the news I despair for our country.  My family and J.'s family have very long histories here in the US, with family from both sides arriving before 1776. If family lore is correct, one of my ancestors was part of the group who dumped tea into Boston Harber. Both of our families have ancestors who fought for the North in the Civil War. I am in possession of my great-great-grandfather's fife. My ancestors fought for freedom and for their country who was on the side of freedom. Freedom from tyranny, freedom from slavery, freedom to speak openly, freedom from abuse. They would not recog...

Buddy would like me to tell you he is tired of the weather and that it is hard being a pony.  First it was miserably hot so he and Vienna had to be inside the barn so the big horses could have access to the shelter of the stalls. Then when the weather was slightly better and everyone was out, storms started coming through so the ponies had to move back into the barn. Again. It's not fair and the big horses get all the cool stuff.  Having delivered Buddy's message, I'm going back to my book. I brought the last three Emma M. Lion books home from the library yesterday. I finished volume 6 before bed last night, I'm well into volume 7, and fully expect to read volume 8 before the weekend is over. I suppose if I were really nice I would go out to the barn and read them to the bored ponies. 

It is too hot to think. If I could just stay holed up in the air conditioning, it wouldn't be so bad, but having outside animals means you have to go outside to care for them. I dislike sweating through multiple outfits in a day.  Since I can't think, I thought I would link to some of my more... opinionated... posts. Some newer readers might have missed them. And what's a little more heat when it's already so hot? In no particular order and certainly not all of them, just what I could easily find.  On disabled people as community service projects More unpopular opinions, the thin-skinned may want to move along On parenting trans children  Another episode of very unpopular opinions  A parent's worst nightmare  On homeschooling  A kvetchy list dealing with homeschooling misinformation  Let's talk homeschooling curriculum  I may have lost my temper a bit today Things NOT to say to a homeschooled child  Take it slow... warning great kvetchyness a...