Yarn Along, (and a finished project)

I started this new blog primarily to document my various crafty endeavors, but so far haven’t gotten in the habit of posting here much at all. But today I’m joining Ginny for my first Yarn Along linkup of the new blog, to show you both my most recent finished project and what I have on the needles now.

I recently finished my very first pair of socks! Timothy has been asking for handknit socks since before we were married, but I thought they were intimidating. While I still think it’s intimidating to knit anything on size 3 needles, I did a pair in worsted weight with size 6 needles and the actual process was not difficult at all. I finished them the day before Valentine’s Day for his Valentine gift. And they even fit! Whew! Ravelry notes here.

The day I finished, I stopped at the yarn store to get the perfect yarn for a birthday/Pascha sweater for Miriam. Her second birthday falls two days before Pascha this year (so, on Holy Friday, poor girl. I think we will be celebrating on Bright Saturday instead), so I figured I could kill two birds with one sweater. I knew exactly what I wanted and had a hard time finding it. I wanted a cap sleeved sweater to go over a white Pascha dress, very much the same shape as her “In Threes” but with an eyelet pattern in the body. The closest I could find was the “lila[c]loud” pattern, which is only written as 12 month size. So this is the first pattern I have purposely and carefully sized up (rather than just guessed) by checking gauge and swapping out yarn weight and needle size. I’m making it in worsted weight, a beautiful pink madelinetosh, with size six needles. Nicole, of Frontier Dreams, sized one up for her four year old and it turned out great, so I’m hoping this works out too! I’m also hoping to cap the sleeves, which might be tricky with the lace pattern on the sleeves, so we’ll see how it works.

Since I’ve been knitting up a storm, I haven’t been reading much for myself, just bits and pieces of things here and there, but we read some of this collection of original Thomas the Tank Engine stories every day, usually multiple times. James is obsessed! I told him not to say “darn it!” any more since it wasn’t polite for little boys, and so instead he says “rubbish!” like the trains

St Timothy

On Tuesday, we celebrated the feast of St Timothy the Apostle, the name day of my husband Timothy. One of our two priests is Fr. Timothy, so we were lucky to have a Liturgy for St. Timothy that day. Usually the only one of that has a Liturgy on their name day is Miriam, since she is named for a major feast. We celebrated at home with beef stew and cake. Many years to my husband and our dear priest!

The Children

Tonight I noticed for the first time that Miriam (20 months) says her own name. James didn’t say his name until the day of his second birthday. Lately, Miriam has been pointing to things and saying, “me?” Sort of like, “is that for me?” I thought it was strange that she would use pronouns so early. Kids don’t seem to get that for quite a while, and James referred to himself as James for a very long time before he said “me” or “I.” But as I was getting her in her pajamas tonight, she said it more like “Meeam?” and I figured out she had been saying Miriam! Then I asked her if she could say “Mee-ree-am,” saying it slowly and clearly, and she copied me very clearly. It’s so cute to hear her sound out her own name!

Miriam has always been incredibly affectionate, but she has started giving kisses constantly. She gives us kisses on the lips, but if she can’t reach, she’ll kiss our hands, our pant legs, or even things like the couch. She can also be explosive and reacts with pure fury when she doesn’t get her way and will even hit. But then when she’s been chastised for it and told to be gentle, she immediately pets us gently and reaches up for a kiss. She really is a darling and sweet girl. I’m kind of done being her “lovie” though – she never got attached to a blankie or toy or anything, but every since she was a newborn she has had an intense need to have her hands under my clothes, kneading me. She sticks her hands down my shirt, up my sleeves, up my pants leg, or up my skirt with her sometimes freezing cold little hands and kneads. All. the. Time. I remember her doing it before four months of age, and she seems to only get more intense about it. It drives me bonkers, and even though I try to be sensitive to the fact that it is a real comfort need for her, I find myself pushing her hands away and pulling them out of my shirt constantly. And this makes her FURIOUS. She screams, “NO!” and fights to get back under my clothes. She has almost no interest in nursing anymore, though. I thought she might lessen up on her need for skin contact when she was ready to wean, but I think she’d wean quite happily right now but she might never, ever give up sticking her hands in my clothes.

James is totally obsessed with trains. He always has been, but we fed the obsession by getting him tons of train stuff for Christmas. We got him another set of wooden trains and tracks to add to his small set. And his auntie got him and even BIGGER set of more tracks, plus a shed, turntable, cranes, and all sort of other parts. We got him a little wooden Thomas the Tank Engine, and a giant book of the original Thomas stories from the 1940s, which we read every night. It is all trains, all the time, and he plays with them all day. He even insists we call him Thomas, which became a problem with he went up for communion last Sunday. As usual, Fr. Theodore called him “the servant of God, James” as he received communion, and after receiving, James piped up, “My name is Thomas!” I had to tell him sternly that he could pretend to be Thomas anywhere else, but it was very important always to tell the priest his real name!

Why?

I obviously haven’t done much about this new blog, now, have I? Part of it is because WordPress and my computer really don’t like each other, as my computer is seriously outdated and WordPress doesn’t work right with my old browser. So doing anything with the blog takes a reeeeeally long time. Also, I kind of think the whole appeal of a family blog is in the pictures and I’m not really taking any good pictures lately. We updated to a new camera before Miriam was born, and even though it was supposedly a “better” camera, it takes terrible pictures, especially indoors. So I take most of my pictures with my phone these days, and since my phone doesn’t talk to my computer either, and blogging from my phone is painful, I’m kind of at a standoff when it comes to pictures.

But the bigger issue is that I’ve always struggled with the question of why. Why put our lives online? I love reading so many other beautiful, creative, helpful blogs, but have a hard time with why I need to add to the millions out there.

But I keep coming back to the documentation. I would love to think that I could keep a beautiful journal of thoughts and photos of our family life, but the fact is it’s easier to do online, and easier if you think someone is reading. I love that I have the record of family life from our marriage up until I stopped writing sometime last year at our old blog. I’m sad I don’t have as complete a record of the past year. So if keeping a blog inspires me to document just a little bit more, I’ll do it for now. Hopefully I’ll start taking better pictures soon too

Stocking Stuffers

I’m trying to come up with non-candy stocking stuffers for the kids, so I made up some play dough tonight. It took less than an hour to make three separate batches. They are going to be so excited Here is the recipe I used, although similar ones are all over the Internet.

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/4 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 T. oil
Food coloring

Mix all ingredients well, then cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it turns into a thick blob that holds together. Turn out if the pan and knead until smooth. Store in airtight container.

Too small

For the second time, I have made a hat for my husband that is too small. I’ve ripped it back and am redoing most of those tedious cables. Hope I can finish by Christmas!

Grateful

Well, this Advent and Christmas isn’t turning out exactly as I planned. I had an extensive list of all we were going to do and make, and almost none of it has happened. We have a tree. We have some snowflakes on the windows. Nearly all the homemade projects I had planned have been given up on, save just a few. My house is mostly undecorated. I have no idea what I’m making for Christmas dinner, nor have I baked a thing. I have been down with a terrible sinus infection for a week now, the kind that makes me lay on the couch and let me kids watch Caillou on my phone for two hours a day. I was mostly well for a week before that, but was sick with a mysterious sinus/pressure headache for the week before that. So all of December has felt kind of like just holding on.

I had about a ten minute pity party about failing at Christmas before I got a hold of myself (not that I haven’t had plenty of other pity parties over being sick). This is a Christmas to be grateful. We are in our new home, after so many years far away. Other than this temporary illness, we are all healthy. Miriam has managed not to do any permanent damage to herself, despite her best attempts. And even though I can barely stand to think about it, my prayers are focused on those far too many families in Connecticut for whom Christmas will always be missing someone. So, even as I spent my pre-Christmas days hunched over a bowl of boiling water to try and clear my lungs and sinuses while my kids watch yet another episode of Caillou, I am grateful for all our blessings, especially having my husband and children here with me.

I’m hoping we will all at least be at the Christmas liturgy at midnight. I’m trying to let go of the rest. At least we’ll be going up to my parents’ and grandmother’s houses after Christmas, and I assure you, they won’t ever fail at Christmas

Although the list is much smaller than I hoped, I’ll post here after Christmas about the few projects I did manage to finish.