Winter Season's Round Exchange: Part II

If the first part of my package was a disappointment, I have nothing but love for the second part.

I love everything about it, the whole process of making her, the way she turned out the feeling of giving her and knowing that she would be loved in her new home.

note: my package did actually go out on time, but it was right before me moved and it seems I forgot to post about it. I still have to get some pictures of the package from my partner. It's wonderful!

2009

Happy Monday!

So, I had plans to post a Christmas Eve status update (these photos were to be a part of that) and I thought I would put out a Merry Christmas sort of post, but then I got caught up in all that is life and none of that ever happened. So I am here this morning to wish you a Merry Monday After Christmas and I hope that you are enjoying all of it's charms (how many of you just cursed me into eternity?? Come on now, it's not that bad...).


It's actually no where near the end of the frantic holiday season for me. The holiday season doesn't end, and the new year doesn't officially start for me until January 6th, possibly a little later this year since we are a hosting a big double birthday party the following weekend. That is the earliest possible date for me to take a deep breath and have a good sit. But there has been a shift: first set of goals met (or at least a valiant effort was made) and it's on to level two. This year that means a shift from the sewing machine to my knitting needles, and I quite welcome the change of pace, along with the potential movies that might be watched during said knitting.

Christmas was pretty nice here. A fairly quiet affair. It was good really, but it somehow had a little less sparkle for me this year then usual. I think a lot of that has to do with it coming right on the heels of the stress of our recent move. Everything was lovely really, I just couldn't quite enjoy it to the fullest.

There was lots of fun to be had though. Iain and Elijah got this and I'm currently enjoying my reign as world champion....alright, well, house champion anyway. I've been joking that I finally found my sport. How sad is it that it's tabletop pinball?!? Do you think I can count the blister that I've developed as a sports injury??


I'll be rolling out some of the Christmas crafting, just as soon as I get some good pictures. Can you believe that my camera batteries died Christmas morning! Apparently some of my usual planning was overlooked. Gee, I wonder why. It's not like there was anything else going on....hmm...

In a way it was good though. I kind of appreciated the shift in perspective; the move away from viewing through a lens and just being with everyone without any other agenda. It was a good one I think, for me in that moment in time. But it means that you might just have to wait a little bit to see how far I got with the Christmas pajamas!

And we still have Christmas part II to celebrate, with the arrival of my parents and sisters on New Years day. As I said, things are going to be busy, busy here for a bit longer yet.

Onwards and upwards!

Some yarn for the Mama...

Remember that dyeing kick the Goosey Boy and I were on a while ago? Well, this is *my* Christmas gift from Galen.


All his idea, I swear! Though, I will confess to only setting out dyes in the colors I had in mind for a particular project...pink, yellow and peach. It puts me in mind of a sunrise or the colors of a Waldorf kindergarten. I'm thinking about this yarn, my Wee Girl, and springtime, all mixed up together.

It occurred to me this morning that I need to track down this yarn (and these too), because Christmas morning is just around the corner. Last time I saw this yarn, it was in a heap like this, on the floor, a few quick pictures later and it was unceremoniously tossed into a box, a box which ended up?!? I'd imagine it made it to the house, so that at least narrows it down a bit...


We've got another little dyeing project in the works for tonight after the very little people are in bed (hmm...still have to track down the supplies for the one too!). This time it's *for* my little Galey-Boy and from his adoring brothers.

And now if you'll excuse me, I apparently have some box sorting to do!

WIP: Light Exchange

This week I'm working on our exchange package for the winter Season's Round Exchange.

The theme this season is 'light'.

I want to be sure to get these done and out the door before we move!

I don't want to ruin the surprise for my partner and her family, so this is just a little sneak peek.

Saint Martin

"Golden light is turning gray,
Mist begins to rule the day,
Bare the trees their branches lift,
Clouds of dead leaves earthward drift.
Deep below, deep below
New life will spring."

~Elijah's illustration for the story of Saint Martin~


"Through the fields the beggar goes,
Weary feet and tattered clothes,
Trust that God will keep him warm,
Shelter him from cold and harm.
Deep below, deep below,
New life will spring."

~ the opening song to "Saint Martin's Play"
Adapted from the legend of St. Martin by William Ward

This past Sunday, the children were in their first play; one angel, one soldier and one St. Martin himself.

I honestly felt that it was really spectacularly beautiful (even if the Littlest Angel, ahem Galen, did get bored halfway through, take off his sash and pretend to go fishing with it down from heaven).

We got the script for this particular version from a teacher at a local Waldorf school and I'm so glad we did. It was really just lovely, full of poetry and music.

We have two 2nd grade boys in our little group, so they played the role of Martin concurrently. We have two fourth graders at the moment as well and my hope is that our next performance will be related to the subjects they are studying. There has already been mention of a play geared toward our third grader this spring. I've been thinking about how great it would be if we as the parents could come together to put on a small fairytale (perhaps with puppets or marionettes?) for our kindergarten and preschool set.

Can you tell that I've been missing the theater days of my youth?

We were blessed with warm weather, which allowed us to stage the performance outside. I don't think that this stone circle could have been more perfect for the show. And the fact that we were nearing dusk just made it all the more enchanting.

The performance was well received by our little audience of family and friends. And after we enjoyed a potluck dinner while waiting for the darkness to arrive in earnest.

Then we went out for our lantern walk, followed by spiced cider.

It certainly could have been worse, but during the walk, we didn't exactly manage to foster the reverent atmosphere that we were hoping for. We had some set backs in the beginning with lanterns falling apart (not the ones that we just made). And I think that a big part of the issue was that we never really talked about it in advance and didn't actually have someone set up to lead the walk.


live and learn.

We still got out there and we took our walk and sang our songs.

The three of us founding mothers all agreed, managing to pull off the play in such a short period of time was a mightily impressive task, there was no shame in not having the perfect walk too and there's always next year.

A New Look

You would think that by now I would know better then to make promises about when my next post might be! I have sick littles again and lots going on besides.

As you can see, things are looking a bit different around here! We're still working out a few kinks; changing and updating things takes a l-o-n-g time on dial-up!

This little blog of mine is coming up on it's third anniversary. Wow. And it's looked pretty much the same, with the exception of the occasional change of banner, for probably 2 1/2 of those years. It seemed like it might be time for a change. I've been kind of nesting for winter, if you will, both at home and now on-line. The goal is warm, cozy and homey all around. What do you think?

On the home front, apart from the vases of berries and evergreens now dotting our house, I made up this little banner last week to hang in the playroom.


I used the some of the leftover paper from making books for Halloween.

.......................................................................................

It's come to my attention that half of one of my posts has somehow gone missing. Very strange. Very strange indeed. I know I tend to be easily distracted, but I don't normally just stop typing mid-word; honest. I do however make some hilarious typos and mis-types (like misspeaking, only with typing) when I'm really tired. For instance, when paging back to see if any of my other posts had been damaged, I noticed that in this post, I mentioned not wanting to have to bother with climbing on a latter, when clearly I meant a L-A-D-D-E-R. It's a good thing I never take myself too seriously. I had a pretty good laugh at that one, as well as several others. I really am a fairly intelligent person, it's just that I haven't had a full night's sleep in roughly a decade or so.

As for the half a post, I know it was all there at some point (there are even comments referencing the missing section). I'll try to remember what I can and finish it up again at some point.

Leaf Mobile

Monday morning Galen woke up with a burning desire to make a mobile. I have absolutely no idea what inspired this, but it was all he could talk about all morning. Really, his resolve suited me just fine as I've always loved mobiles of all sorts. The only thing was to decide on what kind to make. Simplicity was of the utmost importance to me. And a bit mother nature's bounty was the answer.


We gathered our leaves that day, though most of the ones around our home are decidedly past their prime. The blackberry bushes still yielded some interesting splashes of color. And the little bit of red oak available to us was still at it's stunning best. We managed a bit of yellow from the birches. And really nothing says "autumn" like the big brown oak leaves anyway. And they are so sturdy that they we often find the wind skidding them around on top of a crusty snow; with no sign of a blemish or a crease.


We dipped our leaves in beeswax that evening before dinner.


Then our project sat until Wednesday. We had plans for a full family field trip on this day, but the rotation of this illness made it so that we had to divide up. Steve, out and about with the older boys, and me at home, tending under the weather littles.


Galen and I took this opportunity to string up our leaves and hang them in the playroom. It was hard to limit the kids when they were so enjoying dipping the leaves. Which meant that we ended up with a lot of leaves. And of course Galen insisted that we simply must use them all, making the resulting mobile quite large. It's hung close to the ceiling and he can still reach it while standing on the ground.

It's a bit lop-sided at the moment. One very large and heavy leaf fell off the end, setting it off balance. I kind of like it. We're going to say it has artistic flair. A decision that probably had a lot to do with the fact that I have absolutely no desire to climb on a ladder to fix it!

A Halloween Piñata

A new addition to our usual Halloween celebration this year was a piñata made by one Mr. Elijah Rain.

It turned out really well, I was impressed!


This is the first piñata that I’ve ever been called upon to fill. I grew up with ones full of gum balls, tootsie rolls and junky little plastic toys, so this required some thought.

Here’s what I ended up with:

• Little baggies with lumps of clay
• Colored pencils (some regular, some metallic and shimmery, some chunky for and built for little hands)
  
• Some of my chocolates
• Roasted pumpkin seeds
• Gum (the stuff I mentioned here)
• Raisins
• Stickers
• Glitter glue
• Goji berry and orange white chocolate (which was wonderful AND a gorgeous bright orange!)
• Nuts and dried berries

But my favorite thing was these little blank books that I made, simple though they are:

I’m on a big fancy paper kick at the moment. I love all of the fun and inspiring prints out there. The covers for these (which all have a coordinating print on the inside) came from an autumn inspired craft paper pack that I found on clearance at the craft store.

I wanted to add in green chips and popcorn, but I didn’t get around to making them. A friend suggested polished rocks and gem stones and another mentioned bouncy balls, both great ideas, but didn’t have time to get any. I was kicking myself for not thinking to add packets of some of the seeds that we gathered from our garden. I thought about those little gnomes made of a felt cloak stuffed with some wool, but that was one of the treats a couple of years back and my family has just received some fresh ones, so I filed the idea away for the future. Maybe whistles of some sort? Or kazoos? I thought bells would be fun. Friendship bracelets? Honey sticks? Small felt animals?


I should have ample opportunity to use all of my ideas. Iain already made a piñata for his birthday in January (let’s just hope it holds up well in the attic) and Galen just announced that he wants one for his birthday too. So, if anyone else has any inspired ideas, put them out there because I’ll be needing them!

~Sometimes I suspect that Elijah actually *is* Harry Potter!~

Now, perhaps you’ve noticed that I have a nasty little habit of making the simplest of things exceptionally complicated?

You see, the things is, I don’t like the whole piñata mentality; this rushing and pushing and shoving to grab as much as you can. Kind of puts me in mind of that poor person being trampled to death at a holiday sale last year. I’m just not comfortable with it. And when you are looking at an age range like we were (from not yet 2 to nearly 10), there are very good odds on the little people being pushed aside, with huge discrepancies between treat bags resulting. Beyond which not all of the filler was appropriate for all ages.

Enter The Grand Plan.

I had this idea to turn it into a kind of treasure hunt. I made each child a bag with their name on the front. On the back was a child specific list of star stickers, with each combination matching a prize in the piñata. So, for example, 2 year old Rosa would have the combination for raisins, but not for gum. Each child was to seek out one of each thing on his or her list, with the older ones helping the little ones once their own bags were full.

I know, me and my ideas! A little too rigid perhaps? Too structured? My fear was that a) it would be too convoluted, and b) it would negatively impact the joy and spontaneity of the moment. I may never know. I didn’t exactly get to see my grand plan in action…

On Halloween morning Steve was feeling kind of off, but still running errands and going about his usual business. By noon he was slowing down and not looking so great. At 1 I was optimistically filling the piñata. By two he was unconscious on the futon in the middle of the living space, despite the four kids crowded around him and making a racket. And by three I was calling to cancel. Did I mention that he spent last week in training classes at work, closed up in a small room with two other guys, both of whom currently have children diagnosed with swine flu? Yeah.

knitted me a sock....

found me a stick...

Gotta get this horsey going, lickety-split!

uhm, how many days do I have left before Halloween again? (she asked while biting her nails)