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Hi.

It is February 1st and I really haven't "blogged" in a while, but that's ok. It happens.

We have been enjoying, and sometimes not enjoying, the ups and downs of the North Texas winter. 70's one day and 30's the next will drive anyone's nose to drip at an alarming rate. We have chickens. We love them. Really, they are awesome and you should get some too.




Our girls love them. And they lay eggs... giant eggs. Did I mention that the girls love them?




We made cards for Thanksgiving.



I spun some yarn... dyed by the lovely Dawn of Daybreak Dyeworks.



The girls colored pictures of chickens.




I spun some more.... Daybreak :)



And I bought some fiber... from Daybreak Dyeworks!



I cut up a quilt.



The girls busted out their water colors.

And I spun more Daybreak - surprise!



I washed a fleece.



Crocheted one of these crazy hats.





Made Helen cry by trying to take a picture of her new sweater... a Bulle.



And some other stuff... including...

Starting to read a couple books.

The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's Heart of Eternity by Sally Clarkson

and 

Our Lady of Fatima by William T. Walsh

Ordering a bunch of seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, so that we can pretend to be real farmers.

I also roasted a pretty darn good chicken last week (from the store, not the backyard)!

That is about it, welcome February!

Playing at Home

The school year is back at full swing and that means daddy is back to work and mommy has lots of time with her girls. We have been having a lot of fun with art, and games, and outside time.



Helen has started showing an interest in family portraits in all kinds of mediums... from blocks to chalk! We found most of these blocks at garage sales this past summer. I have always wanted a HUGE wooden block collection!



Don't you just love the "dogs on leashes" detail!

Clare loves to paint, and so does Helen... right now Helen loves to draw a picture with a black marker before she starts to paint.





Spiders!! I found these paint trays at Joann's. They come in packs of 10 or 12 for only a few dollars.

Today's adventure was all about sorting, charting, and counting. Helen liked lining up her beads and counting how many she had!

Clare's Sweater

Here is a look at Clare's finished sweater. This ended up as a mish-mash of patterns...
and a little of my own thoughts.





Yarn is Berroco Vintage in Lilac. Buttons are from Aunt Tillie's stash. Cables are from the Tuckernuck pattern. The baby is mine.

Cardigans for My Girls

The sleeves of my Tuckernuck cardigan are finally complete! (And sewn in too, but I don't have a photo of that yet...) This sweater is a real beauty. Size 5, in Berroco Vintage Lilacs, less than 3 skeins. I just need to knit the collar and button band and this is done!



After sewing the sleeves on I had Helen try it on and, gulp, it is super-snug. OH NO! All that work. Ok, breathe. Luckily Berroco Vintage has a high wool content (did I tell you that I love this yarn - it is SO reasonably priced, washable, and has A HIGH WOOL content!). So, I am going to block this baby out as much as possible. The style is a vintage "snug" fit. So it is ok it stays close fitting, I just want it to fit all winter.

Then I started Clare's sweater. It was going to be another Tuckernuck, but I really can't do all those cables again... even in a smaller size, ugh. So, I am seriously modifying the pattern.



I cast on a basic raglan cardigan and am knitting the Tuckernuck cables down the front panels only... everything else is plain stockinette and I like it that way, especially now that it is starting to get chilly and I want these done!

Cooking for Baby: Pureed Pears

Baby Clare is now 7 1/2 months old. I have been very slowly introducing a few solid foods into her diet as she shows a lot of interest in dinnertime activities. She has now had occasional little tastes of brown rice cereal, oatmeal, banana, avocado, butternut squash, mashed potatoes, and ice cream (oops.).

Today I pulled out my absolute favorite baby food cook book: Cooking for Baby by Lisa Barnes. You will find the newer addition of the book here: Cooking for Baby: Wholesome, Homemade, Delicious Foods for 6 to 18 Months.

           

I always recommend this book to new moms who are interested in preparing homemade foods for their babies because the recipes are simple, the information is solid, and the pictures are beautiful.

Pureed Pears were on the menu today since we have some absolutely lovely and sweet pears right now. I quartered and cored two pears (keeping the skins on). Steamed them for about 5 minutes. Let them cool and used a spoon to remove the skins. Then it was into the food processor with them and in moments we had Pear Puree!

2 pureed pears filled 1 1/2 ice trays leaving just enough for Clare to lick the bowl clean :) I use these special "Baby" ice trays: Fresh Baby Trays. I like the ice-cube size because it is easy to customize... one cube of pear mixed with one cube of green beans or some other puree. After they are completely frozen I just pop the cubes out of the trays and put them in a labeled freezer bag so that I can use the trays again.

The Christmas Dresses

I felt a little crazy last November when I decided to knit my sweet girls matching dresses for Christmas. But, after shopping around a little bit, I just couldn't find anything that felt special enough (and for the right price!) for my girls first Christmas together.

I searched all over Ravelry for the perfect pattern and really found exactly what I was looking for in the Principessa Dress Pattern from Alligator Knits. I loved that it was simple, seamless, and customizable! I had the  perfect light green yarn - the Cascade Sierra I ripped from my first attempt at making myself a sweater.

Helen's Dress

I started the larger dress in the van on the way to Iowa for Thanksgiving, and cast it off my needles in the van on our way to Houston the week before Christmas (Don't you just love travel-knitting!). The baby's dress had to be completed pronto, so every extra moment I had that week before Christmas was put into that sweet little dress. I finished with a whole day to spare!

Clare's Dress

I loved knitting with the Cascade Sierra and I will definitely be using it again. The combination of cotton and wool makes for a lovely knitted piece and it is perfect for Texas! The girls looked lovely (and comfortable - one of my top priorities from children's wear) and wore the dresses all Christmas Day first to morning Mass, through nap time, and then to Nana and Pa's house for Christmas dinner. I even let my two-year-old EAT in her hand-knit Christmas Dress. Oh, My!

Helen demonstrates her dress in action!

No worries though, I threw those dresses in the washer with the rest of those sweet kiddos clothes and they washed up beautifully! However, the next time I knit with this yarn, I will remember to add an inch or so for every twelve because they did shrink in length a bit in the wash.

I am so happy to be able to share these dresses, and soon I will be sharing #1 of my 12 sweaters I am busy knitting... that long awaited sweater (actually a vest) for which my dear husband has been patiently waiting for over six years.

Clare is Born

Photo by: Auntie Amee

Welcome little one. We have been waiting for you...

There were very few things in common with the births of my two precious little girls. What took practically thirty hours with sweet Helen, took only four and a half with tiny Clare. She made us wait until almost 41 weeks to meet her, but when finally deciding to enter the world she did so in a hurry!

Looking back the funniest thing both had in common was dinner the evening labor began.  Both times we ate out at Italian restaurants with three piece Jazz ensembles.  Watch out for that walking bass!

Photo by: Auntie Amee

With Clare, we were beginning to wonder if I would ever go into labor.  We had finally agreed to setting up a time with the hospital to have my water broken. Little did I know, Clare had her own plans.

We met my parents for dinner the night before the appointment so that they could take Helen.  We enjoyed dinner and then went home to relax.  At 10pm I had my first contraction and mentioned to David that it felt real but didn't think much about it. By 10:30 the contractions were eight minutes apart... and they hurt. I called my sister and during the course of the conversation they sped up and intensified. By 11:40 I was convinced we had to go to hospital and we checked in a little after midnight... I was already more than half-way ready to go.

We discussed our birth preferences with our nurse and she brought in the birth ball for me to sit on. We discussed some light and late pain management. Clare was still sitting quite high, so it seemed there would be some time.  At 1:30am the nurse checked again I was already to an eight. The contractions were  intense and I told her that I was ready for that pain management since singing "Sally the Camel" and "These are the People in Your Neighborhood" wasn't really working for me anymore.

The anesthesiologist was called, though in the minutes it took him to arrive two mega contractions locked and loaded Clare and brought me to a 10.  I wasn't going to get my epidural.  Really? Really.

David and my nurse were wonderful. Our doctor was wonderful, and I guess I was pretty wonderful too.  The whole situation felt crazy to me, and I let everyone know that - repeatedly.

At 2:24am, Clare was born. It was amazing. She was beautiful.

Miracles are real.

Keeping Busy During Transitions

Everything feels restless right now.  Our lives are transitioning and we cannot do much else other than wait.  At 38.5 weeks pregnant, I am beginning to feel overdue.  Sweet Helen was born at 37 weeks exactly, and I am quite surprised to find myself sitting here now still pregnant and waiting for baby Clare.

Having left work at 37 weeks to rest and prepare, I have been enjoying time with my family.  Now, our home is clean (mostly), our bags are packed (mostly), and everything is in order for Clare's arrival (mostly).

To fill in the quiet moments of the day, I have picked up a few more projects and preparations.  Yesterday, I wound a new hank of Pure Wool, hand-dyed by a friend to start a Vanilla soaker for baby Clare's wool collection.

I know I have made a ton of these lately, but they are seriously addicting! I love the COWYAK provisional cast-on method.  I love that the more I have made the pattern the less I have to follow the directions.  I love how quick they are, how little yarn they require, and how fabulous all the different wool's are to work with!

For this size small, I followed the 10 ply pattern, used US4 and US6 circular needles, added an extra set of short rows, and picked up 48 stitched for the leg ribbing.

How do I keep knocking out these projects so quickly? Easy. I am literally knitting almost all the time. I start my day knitting before the rest of the family wakes up (pregnant insomnia), I knit in the morning while Helen plays and naps, I knit in the afternoon when the heat keeps us indoors with the lights dim and Bambi humming in the background, I knit in the car whenever we drive anywhere - 10 minutes, 20 minutes, every minute counts, I knit in the evenings after Helen is in bed and until David falls asleep on the couch.... I just knit...

And when I am not knitting, I am sewing....

I have been cutting out and sewing up flannel and terry cloth wipes to use with our cloth diapers. I am always so nervous about the first laundering of anything I sew, but these really washed and fluffed up so nicely! I do not have a serger, so with right sides facing each other, I sewed around the edges leaving a two inch hole on one side to allow me space to flip them right-side out.  I clipped the corners before flipping and sewed around the right-side edge to finish them.

I also made a wipe solution to keep in a spray bottle at the changing station to moisten the wipes with. I filled my spray bottle almost full with water, then added 1 Tbsp each of baby oil and Dr. Bonner's Baby Castile Soap.

There is a lot more going on around here - it is strange to think that I will not be going back to work full time.  But, I am enjoying planning a home preschool curriculum for Helen and I this fall. I will of course share more about that later. And, of course, as soon as baby Clare decides to come out to play you will hear about that as well.