Home's Jewels

Ever have one of these on your roof?

>> Monday, March 26, 2007 – Baby of the family, On the homefront, What's cookin'?

Neither have we. Brown eyes (7-yr old) woke up this morning telling dh that he heard someone screaming this morning. We weren't sure what he was talking about. Minutes progressed and I heard something loud and screechy. At first, we thought it was the brakes from the garbage truck. Later, our neighbor phoned to notify us that a peacock was on our roof. We learned about peacocks today. I love sponatanous learning. Evidently, there are peacocks in the wetlands near our home.

To be 12 again

>> Saturday, March 17, 2007 – Baby of the family, On the homefront, What's cookin'?

I took this photo of Pearly for the co-op yearbook. Oh to be carefree and 12 again when life revolves around school, music lessons, socializing, cooking desserts, socializing, volleyball, and socializing. I want to be 12 again.

On a Painting Roll

>> Wednesday, March 14, 2007 – Baby of the family, On the homefront, What's cookin'?

Lots of stuff getting done on the house. Dh got half of the floor laid downstairs. It looks great. I finished mudding the sheetrock in the ceiling that had been unfinished for 6 years (@@). I figured if I could frost a cake, then I could surely match the existing pattern which kind of looks like icing on a cake. The downstairs hallway has had missing sheetrock since we moved in 6 years ago. Dh finally put up one piece and will hopefully put up the other piece so I can mud that, too. I'll take pictures. It is a very messy job.

This house is OLD SCHOOL. It had paneling in the upstairs hallway, kitchen, and dining room. It was a good-quality paneling, but I am tired of that, so this week, I primed the walls. Priming stinks - the fumes are so bad, it makes your eyes water, a nasty feeling in your throat, etc, even with windows open. I just have to cut-in around the doors and floorboards and then I will be done. Hopefully, that will happen on Friday.

Hallway and living room at far end

In this picture, you can see the hallway which is newly primed. Down the hallway, you can barely see the living room with the new vinyl windows dh installed. I had painted the living room just prior to the flood. It is a gold color - I really like it. The hallway will be painted a very light gold from the same color swatch. Can you believe I lightened this photo? Our house is so dark!

Dining room paneling

monkey climbing gate

The above 2 pictures are in the dining room area. Dh made that gate. The other side where PJ is standing is the stairs. - 13 straight down with no landing. He's not supposed to be there. Also, if you notice, dh should have made the slots vertical instead of horizontal. I think he forgot that we don't have babies, but monkeys who climb everything. It's a pretty gate, but not very functional when it comes to keeping babies where they belong. Oh well.

I brought my knitting to Pearly's fiddle lesson. I turned on the radio, reclined the seat of the car, and took a catnap. So much for knitting.

Projects

>> Sunday, March 04, 2007 – On the homefront

Here are a few things I've been working on. Poor lighting, but you get the idea. Here is the finished painting job in the new computer room. I will not be using this paint again. The colors were not exactly what I had in my mind, but after painting 2 coats of each color, there's no way I'm changing colors now. I love the new white chair rail. It adds so much. And to think the wainscoting was just cheap paneling with Sharpie scribbled on it! What a difference!

I took the opportunity on Saturday to escape from unpacking boxes and painting and sewed up some bigs for a combined baby shower at church. I've been making these bibs for 10 years. They hold up well and because of the busy patterns, stains rarely show. Who ever thought of making white bibs, anyway?

Doin' it Right

>> Saturday, March 03, 2007 – Baby of the family, What's cookin'?

Doin' it Right - This is what my 16-yr old son told me when we woke up February 14, Valentine's Day, the day after moving back home. We had boxes everywhere, we were lucky enough to find our own clothes, but the children and I pulled it all together to celebrate Valentine's Day.

I love traditions. The children love traditions. Sometimes, they are inconvenient, like this year. But they really bind the family together - bring back warm memories and teach us to slow down and appreciate each other.

What is our Valentine's tradition you may ask? Well, it's food item that is heart-shaped, pink or red for breakfast. This year we had heart-shaped biscuits with our pink-ish purple grape jam (from our grapes), sparkling cranberry apple cider and a delicious fruit salad. We did it right. It was worth it.

And yes, this post is late - lol.

Back Home

>> Monday, February 19, 2007 – On the homefront

We moved back home on Monday. Cleaned the apartment on Tuesday. The girls decided they wanted the downstairs computer room to be their room, so a lot of changes are going on. In order for them to have that room, we needed to finish it - new vinyl window, finish the closet, etc. Before putting things in the new computer room, I looked at the wall, and the paneling (goes half-way up the wall) with the lovely Sharpie artwork from who knows which toddler, and decided we needed to rip off the horse/meadow wallpaper border and repaint the room. That's what I've been doing.

I painted the living room not too long ago and it went well (Ralph Lauren paint). This time, I used the best quality paint from the local hardware store down the block (Pittsburg Paint). I will not do that again. I have had to paint two coats on the wall and paneling. Not so fun. Oh, can anyone please tell me why it is when you hold those paint chips up, it looks different than when it's on the wall? Yet, when you put the paint chip right on top of the newly painted wall, it seems to match identically. The colors are not what I had in my mind. They looked great on the paint chips, but it's just a computer room, so I'm not repainting it.

Oh, and if you need to take off wallpaper, I highly recommend the wallpaper removal sprays you can get at any hardware store. That was the best $5 I've spent in a long time. My 9-yr old saw me remove one strip and then took over the job for me in not only the new computer room, but his room and the bathroom as well. He did it all in less than an hour. I love this kid. Do you get the picture that more rooms need to be painted (no, dh doesn't paint)? I think it's time to start passing the baton to the older kids.

We decided to use laminate flooring for all of the downstairs area instead of part carpeting and laminate. This means we have to special order some more. In the meantime, I will fix the ceilings that hadn't been mudded properly and also paint them. I have 2 wks to get it done before the flooring comes in. I'm excited to get these jobs finished once and for all.

Baby Love

>> Thursday, February 08, 2007 – Baby of the family, What's cookin'?

I got home from homeschool co-op today and this baby greeted me with so much sweetness. I was attacked with tight hugs, cheek pressed against my cheek, squeals of delight. He surely must have callouses on his cheeks from being kissed so much. I love this baby! I used to wonder how I could have enough love for each successive child. It doesn't diminish, it multiplies. Frankly, it's now out of control. I'm a certified baby spaz.

What's for breakfast?

>> Wednesday, February 07, 2007 – What's cookin'?

Most mornings I make a breakfast drink consisting of orange juice from concentrate, frozen bananas (overripe bananas), and some other fruit from the freezer. Today, it was strawberries. We all love these breakfast drinks.
We normally have hot cereal of some kind, but maybe once or twice a week, either one of the older kids or I will make something a little more special. This morning, it was Oatmeal Raisin Muffins from the American Cancer Society cookbook. They were delish.
How about you?

My Baby

>> Monday, February 05, 2007 – Baby of the family

is ONE - how can that be?????

I can finally say that my pubic bone and hips seemed to have gone back to where they belong. This has been the longest recovery of all, but it was oh so worth it.

Update

>> Wednesday, January 31, 2007 – On the homefront

We are still at the apartment. We will be moving back home in the next 2 weeks. The flooring is down in 2 rooms. The built-in cupboards are back up so we can begin the process of putting things back.

It's been a nasty week for our family, though. 8 out of 9 family members have been sick: runny noise, cough, fever, earaches, mastitis (guess who?). After I got mastitis, PJ did not want to nurse on the affected breast. I started getting engorged, but by that time, he got sick and his appetite decreased. Yesterday and today, I noticed that he's so fussy. He tried to nurse, but can't get much of anything on one side (mastitis side), and still not enough for his liking on the other side.

This is breaking my heart. The earliest I've had a baby weaned was 18 months. He's not quite 12 months. He doesn't even want to wean. He doesn't like formula or water. I did get him to drink a bit of soy milk. I'm going to spend a lot of time pumping tomorrow to try to get my supply back up again.

New Knitting Idea

>> Sunday, January 28, 2007 – digital scrapbooking

One of the main reasons I started this blog was to chronicle my knitting projects - to keep track of which yarn I used, what size, gauge, needle size, etc, for future reference. It would be very easy to make a hardcopy version of this information using the new scrapbooking software I have been playing around with. I just made this page (4 x 6) and I can easily upload it to Costco and have it printed for $.17 and put a small-size photo album. How cool is that? I love it when hobbies merge: knitting, digital scrapbooking, photography.

New Socks

>> Saturday, January 27, 2007 – On the needles

I began a new pair of socks. I have Sensational Knitted Socks book and want to see how the sizes work with my larger size feet, so I picked an easy pattern to start off with and then will increase the difficulty if these turn out well. I'm using Trampoline Stretch 7.5 st/inch, Size 3.0 needles. The colorway is kind of funky, but I'm a fall girl, so it will work. I've never worked with a stretch yarn. So far, so good. It started pooling on the initial ribbing, but when I changed to the slip stitch rib, it doesn't appear to be making any sort of pattern.

Moving on

>> Wednesday, January 24, 2007 – Crafting and creations, digital scrapbooking, On the homefront

The stocking is completed except for blocking. Thanks to Tammy who read my blog and suggested sources to help me with the short row heel, I was able to figure it out comparing notes. I actually was doing it right all along. Unless I'm reading the pattern incorrectly, it is the transition from the short rows to the foot that seems off. I will be making another stocking for another son, so I have made notes to watch out for that spot.

Today and yesterday, I have spent hours online trying to find an easy way to put together a yearbook for our homeschool co-op. Our co-op is nice size - up to 20 students per grade level from pre-K through high school and we traditionally put together a spiral bound yearbook. I found a free digital scrapbooking site which might just do the trick - Scrapbook Flair. Here is my first project which took about 10 minutes.

Not bad. It's basic, no-frills, but would be perfect for a yearbook. Now I'm trying to figure out the best way to get it printed and bound at a reasonable rate. Any ideas?

PS - My friend's daughter did not win the bridal contest. She won 2nd place and it was close. Too bad :(

Not Sure

>> Friday, January 19, 2007 – On the needles

Okay, here is my latest attempt at the short-row heels. In the process of trying to understand these instructions, I have discovered a thing or 2 about short-row heels. There are quite a few ways to do them: with wraps, double wrapped, no wraps, with yarn overs, and it seems that everybody has their favorite or a slight variation. I have figured out that the directions I am using are for a yarn-over short row heel. I have taken a picture of some of the directions. It seems to look right - but what do I know. What I really need to do is show this to an expert. Maybe an expert or at least someone who understands this can confirm if it was knit correctly or not.

Nevertheless, as I got to the last line, "Transfer the last 13 sts back to the left needle and REKNIT these 13 sts with Cranberry". I am utterly lost. I don't know how many stitches I was supposed to have (I love it when directions tell me how many stitches I should have at various points.). I am just lost. I may have to put this aside for a while to find my brains again. I mean, come on, I've probably made 10 prs. of socks now. I even know how to do the Kitchener stitch. I should be able to get this.

I think it would be great if there was a place that showed the differences between the different styles of short-row heels and even styles of heel flaps. Is there any such book/website? I'm trying to remember if the Twisted Sister's Sock Workbook shows the differences. I checked it out at the library a while back and remember thinking it was a great book.

Brain Overload

>> Thursday, January 18, 2007 – On the needles

I'm struggling through this Christmas stocking on the yarn over short-row heels. How do I do a YO on a short row heel? Off to google. If you know of any good tutorials, please let me know.

A favor, please?

I have a friend whose daughter is getting married and she has entered a local radio contest to win $23,000 bridal package. She is one of the top 7 finalists and the one who gets the most votes wins.

This girl is so sweet - she is a sign language interpreter and her fiance is deaf. I'd love to see her win. Their names are Karissa Loughridge and Michael Coleman.

VOTE HERE

Thanks so much - and feel free to pass this along!

Snow Much Fun

>> Tuesday, January 16, 2007 – Boys will be boys, On the homefront

DAY IN THE SNOW

Little Miss Innocent Pearly
who is she going to get?

SCORE!! She got her big brother, Tall Dude

Victory is sooooo sweet

Pumpkin boy, 9-yrs old, couldn't get enough of the white stuff

4-yrs old Bunny had the time of his life

Brown eyes - 7 yrs old
I may be small, but I make the best snowballs.

Who dares to cross this line?

Extended Holiday

Today we got the rare treat of snow in Oregon. I've always wanted have snow in the background of a knitting project. Here is the snowman stocking that never got to be hung this Christmas due to obvious reasons this past month (read December blog posts). It's coming along well, now. I did have to take out a few inches while getting the hang of figuring out how much slack in dragging the alternate yarn along on the inside of the project. I'm hoping it will smooth out after it is blocked. This is the Annie's Woolens kit mentioned earlier.

On the homefront - dh picked up the laminate flooring at Home Depot last night and brought it home only to discover that they ordered the wrong flooring. They gave us the correct trim. The order # was just off by one number. It took 2 wks to get this order in, so we are going to try to extend our stay at the apartment by another 2 wks. It would be pretty difficult to put flooring in with all the activity of a large family around.

Sweetness

>> Friday, January 12, 2007 – Baby of the family, Boys will be boys, On the homefront

Brothers - 15 years apart

Shooting the Breeze

>> Thursday, January 11, 2007 – Boys will be boys, On the homefront

There's never a dull moment in a house full of boys. The other day I came downstairs to see this going on:

We love Nerf! (See the orange dart to the right of the hanging gorilla?)

Sweater for Pearly's Doll

>> – Off the needles

We are still at the apartment. The plumbing in our house has been repaired. The flooring is on order and should be arriving any day. We have been busy with much neglected schooling and now the homeschool co-op has started up again, so the busy life has begun again. A little knitting has been accomplished.

For Christmas, Pearly got the Just Like Me American Girl doll. She had been dreaming about this doll for quite a while. Unbeknownst to her, I also bought a book with patterns to knit sweaters for 18-inch dolls - Knits for Girls & Dolls, by Charlene Schurch. There was a mistake in the sleeve pattern, but was an easy fix. I will probably try another pattern. The sweaters don't take much yarn, so it would be a great way to use leftover yarn and of course Pearly won't mind adding to her doll's wardrobe.

I used Patons SWS Yarn. It's a wool/soy blend. It's a great yarn, but probably more suitable for larger sweaters - the striping was obviously wonky on such a small project, but we liked the look. Most importantly, little doll's owner loves it and that is what counts. I would definitely buy this yarn again.

Christmas Bonus

>> Saturday, January 06, 2007 – Holidays

Sometimes it's nice to have others in the family who pick up the camera. I found a treasure on my memory card this morning. Here's a picture of my 16-yr old son and me singing Christmas carols. It's a little dark, but that's exactly how it was. This year I'm directing a homeschool high school choir and he is in it. I love singing alto next to his bass voice. Makes a mom proud!

Our Family's New Christmas Present

Here I am, world!

Love this newborn shot with the baby still coated in vernix.

We welcomed a new baby this Christmas. My brother at the age of 38 had his first baby - well, his wife did all the work, but he would sure like to take the credit. I was able to be doula for my sister-in-law along with my sister. She did such a fantastic job. The OB ruptured her membranes at 3+ cm and 21 minutes later, the baby was born. It went so quickly that the doctor didn't make it in time. The L&D nurse did a wonderful job. Notice, she didn't even have time to put on her 2nd glove. Here are a couple of my favorite shots.

baby boy, 8 lb 3 oz

Weekend Musings

>> Sunday, December 17, 2006 – On the homefront, What's cookin'?

Yesterday, we went to friends' property to get our Noble Fir Christmas tree. It was a gorgeous day and we could see Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood from their yard. I silently prayed for the 3 mountain climbers who were still missing on Mt. Hood. There have been other times people have been missing on the mountain and it is always so weird to be so close to the mountain, to see it's majestic beauty and know that at the same time people could be suffering that very moment - very tragic.

Then we spent several hours at the house cleaning, packing, ripping up carpet that got flooded again with the most recent storm. There must be so much water beneath our house. It stinks very badly now. I dislike being there.

We returned the the apartment and heard a bang. A ball of fire shot up in the air and then all of the power went out. Turns out there was an explosion at a substation and the power company shut off the electricity to about 50 thousand customers. The kids were very excited to see the fire, so the older ones took off down the block to get a better glimpse of inferno. Dh and I followed behind with the little ones. We got back to the apartment realizing that we could be wtihout power for days since there were already still thousands without power from Thursday's storm. Of course we were not prepared for no electricity, so we went to the store for candles, flashlight/batteries and breakfast before church. Can one have enough excitement in a week? Thankfully, power was restored around 12:30 am.

Sadly, after church today, we found out that one of the climbers had been found dead. This is so sad - along with the recent tragic story of the Kim family.

On a lighter note, here is the first of our baking - molasses cookies. They are/were wonderful. More to come. And on this day, I became the mother of a 20-yr old. Is that even possible? Surely not.

Pompoms Everywhere

>> Saturday, December 16, 2006 – Boys will be boys, Crafting and creations, On the homefront

We went on the pompom bandwagon. It was the perfect craft for us in our temporary housing. The kids from 16 on down all loved putting them together. After they were strung, there of course were extras laying around. You see what happens when you have boys and their toys. Doesn't every boy need pink pompoms to transport in their matchbox trucks?

Sharing Your Gifts

>> Friday, December 15, 2006 – On the homefront

Last Sunday, our three violinists played Christmas carols with their Suzuki violin class at a retirement community. It was a beautiful program. I love to have the children visit the elderly. They get so much joy in seeing young people.

My mom really modeled for me to have respect for the elderly. She took me to retirement homes to visit elderly relatives when I was young. And most recently, she took care of her mother who was suffering from Alzheimers until her death.

When I was around 11 years old, I had a paper route. I delivered papers at an assisted living facility. When I collected the $$, sometimes I was invited in their rooms and we would chat a bit. I can't imagine my children collecting $$ for a paper route now, and especially wouldn't like the idea of them going inside people's rooms or homes, but it was different back then - or at least we were all naive. Anyway, as we would share stories, some of the residences found out that I played the piano and wanted to hear me play. So, one time, I stuck my piano music in my bag of newspapers and when the route was finished, I played some pieces for a handful of residences. They enjoyed hearing me play - mistakes and all. I eventually realized that these people were so anxious to see a young person, it didn't matter what was played. I decided that I would practice my lessons at the retirement facility - scales and all! They didn't care.

So, it gives me great joy to see my children using their music abilities and time to be a blessing to others. What a waste to play music just for yourself when you can bring a little sunshine to others. Here are a couple pics. This is the chaplain who interviewed our 7-yr old. He didn't seem to have any stage fright - lol.

Ok - working on a laptop, not having my photo editing software to crop is a pain - lol.

Moved in

>> Thursday, December 07, 2006 – On the homefront

We are finally settling in to our new 3 bedroom apt. It is a 3-story townhouse.

I have come to realize after living here with only the bare necessities that we have way too much stuff at home. I will be spending a few hours each day packing up and getting rid of the excess that has been accumulating over the last 6 years. It will be a daunting task, but I know it will feel so good to have it done.

I just realized that I left my cord in the computer to upload pictures. I'll get that next trip. I am so thankful for insurance. We are probably going to be living here for 4-6 wks.

My girls made it their mission to find the Christmas decorations and have already put up lights and decorations around the place. They decorated their room, too. It's nice to have girls who want to decorate. Oh, and we had to bring all of our baking stuff over here - baking stones, Cuisinart, etc. We will be baking soon. How can you have Christmas without baking?

More later . .

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