Ordinary Time

This weekend is the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival and today was the day I could make it up to it. So G. and I loaded up early to get enough time there. We wandered around and looked at many things. I bought the gift I needed to as well as some antique buttons that match L.'s best perfectly. What I did not buy, and I know this will surprise some of you, was any raw fleece.  At least not on the hoof. Because by loading up to leave, I meant it was quite a process and involved some borrowed dog crates, and a tarp, and some old towels... See? Which turned into... Yes, those crates are each filled with a sheep. Shetland sheep to be precise. They are all ~5 month old wethers (neutered male sheep; wether = gelding). Meet Clark: And Fred: And Everett: The ride home was uneventful (except when I realized the low fuel light was on and I had no idea how for long... I was able to find a gas station with 0.9 gallons left in the tank) and we made it home.  Which was then sheep handling 1...

A little distance is always good before writing on a tough subject. I think I can tackle this rationally now, though I may step on a few toes. We'll see. As some of you may know, yesterday the State department issued a notice saying that China, as of the end of August, has closed their intercountry adoption program. This is across the board and regardless of whether a family has been matched with a child or not. This has been exceedingly hard news for the Chinese adoption community.  I think I need to fill you in on some background before I continue because I realize not everyone lives in this world. (This is an extremely cursory and very simplified history.) China began allowing intercounty adoptions in 1992. Since that time, more than 160,000 children (most were girls) were adopted around the world; ~82,000 of those children came to the US. The process was centralized and a fairly predictable process. Once a family assembled their dossier and had it logged-in, they could usually ...

It was a bad news day yesterday between yet another school shooting and China announcing that they have closed their inter country adoption program. I don't actually have words yet for either, but maybe by tomorrow I'll have something to say about the latter. We'll see.  Instead, I'll talk about our first day of school. As first days go, this one was pretty smooth. Everyone worked on math. Sometimes being confronted with math after a break is... challenging. This went smoother than I had expected. H. even decided to do some math. I had decided that school for her would be driven by her own choices. Towards the end of last year, we reached something in her math book that she didn't immediately understand, so she announced she was done. I said okay and she put it away. I didn't even mention it to her this morning, but of her own accord, she had her math book and wanted to know what to do. I'm happy to report that the thing which was so upsetting last spring wa...

As usual, we kicked off our school year by going on an outing. This year we went to the Brookfield Zoo with friends. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and not too hot. I accidentally left my phone in the car, so the few pictures I have are taken by others.  K. and L. The marmoset was a particular favorite today and we spent a long time watching him.  The Canada geese were very interested in our picnic lunch, but though a couple came fairly close, none were aggressive.  And the sleeping snow leopard was so cute and fluffy. The sleeping position also made us laugh because it was nearly the same way that Juniper sleeps.  It was a great day and everyone enjoyed it. Tomorrow morning we get up and start the official school year. The first day is far more discussing plans and sorting out our schedule more than anything else. Some people are not overly excited, but I think even they will survive. This also means I will be beginning year 28 of my homeschooling career. 

On Thursday night J. loaded up the van with six children and one dog and headed to his aunt's Beach house in Michigan.  I stayed home. By myself. Well, by myself along with four cats, five horses, and innumerable poultry. Sometimes paying a house sitter just isn't in the budget and I needed to sew.  So as I was recreating my own version of a sweatshop, I would get pictures like this.  They all had a lovely time. While I enjoy going to the beach house, it just wasn't in the cards this year and it was an unusual experience to be alone with absolutely no schedule for four days. For someone who likes very much to start a project and not be interrupted, there was great players in that.  Everyone is home now. We'll have our nit-back-to-school outing tomorrow and then life gets back to its usual schedule. In terms of sewing, I have handwork and hemming on my dress and H.'s dress, I have handwork on G.'s vest, I have nearly all the sewing done on L.'s vest, and my j...

Oh, don't worry, I'm still sewing, but while I was sewing I watched several episodes of Shiny, Happy People. It has been on my list for a while, but knowing the content I wasn't rushing to watch it. When I needed something to occupy my brain while I was putting bias tape on what felt as though miles of raw edges, I decided this was the perfect opportunity. For those who don't know it is a documentary of sorts looking at Bill Gothard's IBLP cult (and yes, I am using that term in its precise sense) in general and the Duggar family specifically. It was not pleasant to watch.  I'll admit to watching the first couple of Duggar family specials and enjoying them. I think we just had five children at that time and had not started the process to adopt TM. Society was constantly telling us five was a lot, so it was fascinating to watch a family with three times that many. I felt about it the way I felt about watching the show about the DeBolts when I was a child. Having d...

I sew, sew, sew, sew, sew, sew, sew, sew upstairs the whole day through I sew, sew, sew, sew, sew, sew, sew it's what I have to do. 34 yards of bias strips It ain't no trick to make a dress When you sew, sew, sew, and press, press, press. There are pins (there are pins) There are pins (there are pins) And it's the seam ripper that wins. Bias tape  I sew, sew, sew, sew, sew, sew, sew from early morn 'till night. I sew, sew, sew, sew, sew, sew, sew up everything in sight. I sew the pieces by the score, It seems like thousands, maybe more. Zipper in And I know what I'm sewing for,  Sew, sew, sew-a-sew, sew.  Heigh Ho... Still needs a hem and interior handwork.