From a Boy to a Man

16-yr old son and father underneath the truck changing oil, etc.

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Picture Solution

My picture-eating problem has a "fix". Someone recently posted about a new photo-hosting site on a scrapbooking board that I frequent. I was finally able to post the correct pictures in the correct spots. Anyway, the new photo-hosting site is easy - - and it's free, too. Check it out: allyoucanupload.com

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Moving Right Along

I put aside the withholding-adjectives vest I was working on. I made a mistake on the back. And I'm pretty sure there is an error on the pattern on the front. I need to check and see how it works with the other sizes to be sure. But, nonetheless, it is being set aside until I have a clear head. Here's another infant sweater I'm restarting. I'm making the one on the right. I will never buy this yarn again - it's kind of a fun look, but it's a pain because you cannot see the defined stitches. I had tried making this sweater a few years ago, but dropped a stitch. Because it's nearly impossible to catch the stitch, it had to be frogged. So it is being attempted again, but I will knit a little more slowly so as to not drop stitches. This is the perfect summer sweater for chilly nights. I was just looking at the buttonband on the pattern picture - I have no clue how to pick up stitches to knit the button band when you can't even identify stitches. hmm.

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Cute Couple

I'm getting a little frustrated with Blogger. I've reposted the pictures on 2 of my posts twice now, and they still are disappearing. So, I'm testing another picture with this post.

Here is my dh in 1990 with a nice-looking tall, young lady. Don't they make a cute couple? Too bad my dh was already taken and had 2 children.

Brooke Shields was on a USO tour to servicemen in the Persian Gulf. My dh had been there for several months on duty. He went to his office to get an envelope to send me the letter that you can see in his hands, when someone yelled over to him to stand next to this young lady for a picture. Dh was the only one in the office who was taller than Brooke. She's pretty cute, but he's mine :)

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Is it just me?

Or is Blogger eating other people's pictures? I put up a post yesterday and it removed pictures from another post. So I re-added those pictures yesterday. Today, yesterday's pictures are gone as well as some from the other post. So weird.

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Graduations

We are involved in a close-knit homeschool community and tonight is the high school graduation ceremony. We received 10 announcements out of the class of 14, so my 19-yr old and I have been trying to think of what we could give as a graduation gift that would not break the bank, but would also be meaningful to the graduates. My daughter came up with the idea to get a flowering plant for each graduate. And then I thought of getting perennials instead of annuals so they could watch them grow over the years. We chose Liatris spicata or 'Floristan Violet Gayfeather' - supposed to be easy to grow and very attractive flowers which look like this:







Here are 3 of the plants wrapped in tissue paper and hemp:


And the card reads:

Psalm 1:1-3

Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams

of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

The flowering perennial represents the “tree” in Psalm 1. Our prayer for you is that you will take the time to plant this in your garden and in the years to come when you see the leaves, you will grasp the real spiritual truth of being delighted in Him.

~The ___ Family

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Misty River

Pearl and I went to see Misty River in concert in WA state at a cute old theatre. I have to say that it was probably one of the best concerts I have attended. It felt like we were in their living room having a jam session. Many people are able to sing and play music, but few are able to pass along their enthusiasm and excitement to the audience like they do. Misty River is comprised of 4 multi-talented ladies. All of the ladies sing. One lady plays accordian and another switches back and forth from guitar to fiddle. The remaining two are mother and daughter. The mother plays banjo and guitar and her daughter plays an upright acoustic bass. The music varies from folk, bluegrass, to Celtic and they blend beautifully when singing a capella tunes. It was a great time for Pearl and I together and especially for Pearl as she was able to meet Chris, the fiddler.

Check them out: Misty River

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What does homeschooling look like at our house?

Pearl swinging in the hammock reading historical novel.





6-yr old doing Miquon Math using Cuisinaire rod math manipulatives with big sister helping.















Pearl reading botany assignment and planting seeds with 3-yr old wanting to help.



Orange boy outside doing his hands-on
discovering how a magnifying glass and sun = fire.


Playing four-square after lunch.

Fun, fun :)

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Happy Mother's Day!

Having Fun with Baby

I had a great Mother's Day. Unfortunately, Dh and our eldest son were away at a funeral, so the rest of us had a picnic in our backyard under the cherry tree. It was in the 80s - absolutely gorgeous. My daughter bought me a hanging flower basket, paid for a month at the gym, the other children got me 2 Reese's peanut butter cups (definitely will need to go to the gym), and a nice card. While I was at Costco, I bought a beautiful bouquet of flowers because my dh would have if he were here. He concurred. I have seven beautiful, happy children. I am truly blessed. Hope you all had a wonderful mother's day!

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Pearly's Quilt

Pearl has been working on her quilt again. I stopped helping her at the end of my pregnancy because it was hard on my back to be leaning over to cut strips. She's on a roll and hopes to get the borders done this weekend. Here are shots before and after adding the lattice strips between the blocks.

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Pouty Lip

I don't know what it is about me, but I find this pouty-face look absolutely adorable. The other day, I was singing lullabies to my sweet baby and he started to stick his bottom lip out, got tears in his eyes, and was about to start crying. I stopped singing and then he was back to his old self again. When I started singing again, out came the lower lip again and he did eventually start crying. It was so funny - what a mean Mommie I am, laughing at her poor baby crying. Maybe I should be crying that he was crying about my singing. As a life-long singer, I'm trying not to take it personally ;)

Just yesterday, Pearly confided in me that she faked a cry to see if he could be coerced into pouting. He performed well. I guess it runs in the family :)

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Time to Catch Up

It's been busy around here. With spring upon us, we've been busy in the yard, cleaning, etc. Also, trying to do a little working out myself. I joined a gym and have been working out with a friend for about 2 wks now and have lost about 5 pounds. Still have a ways to go, but progress is good.

Lots of schooling going on now that baby is developing sort of a sleeping/waking/eating schedule on his own. Here's my 11-yr old's science project. She's doing the botany book put out by the folks at Apologia. Thankfully, the book explains everything so my daughter can do it independently. She's got seeds trying to germinate in all sorts of places (dark place, fridge, etc). Here are some seeds germinating on the window. You can see her chart where she marks growth. Cool stuff.



PS - I have no idea why the above is underlined and a hyperlink. I cannot figure out how to remove the underline on Blogger. So there you go.

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Remember those clams?

This is the part about homeschooling I like - everything is a learning project. I came from a family who did not eat seafood - except for tuna. My mom's idea of baking fish was opening a can of tomato sauce and pouring on top of the fish and baking (remember, Mom? - lol). Sorry, but it wasn't too good. I had no clue how to deal with the clams and so I assigned 16-yr old son to make clam chowder. I referred him to The Joy of Cooking as his guide and made last night's dinner for us. Now he knows the full process: how to catch clams, how to clean them, and how to cook/eat them. Oh, and he enjoyed the process. He agreed that it was good for him to learn how to make it and mentioned that his future wife might be happy to have a husband who can cook at least a little bit.

Okay, put an "X" in the skills-you-want-your-children-to-learn box. What's next?

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Boy Fun

Today, dh and our eldest 2 boys went to the coast to go crabbing and clamming with a friend. This was the first time. They came back with loads of clams/crabs and had a blast.

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Eleven and One-Half

What goes on in the mind of an 11-1/2 yr old girl? Do you remember? I remember playing in the field with neighbor kids. We would help each other do our chores in order to have more time to play. I liked to read, sing, and play the piano.

Pearly takes after me in a lot of ways. She loves her music: piano, violin, flute, and singing. She loves to read. Today she was reading a good book laying in the hammock in the backyard. She sews, cooks, loves to play four-square with her brothers. Life is sweet at 11-1/2 yrs old.

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Cake Competition

Some of our children are in AWANA - a Bible club for kids. Yesterday, there was a cake competition at AWANA. The cakes needed to be made by dads and kids only with no help from moms. We had a bunch of overripe bananas, so dh thought banana cake would be good. He picked out a recipe from The Joy of Cooking and went to town - no Betty Crocker box for my dh. Both Pearly Girl (11-yr) Orange Boy (8 yr) made theirs separately from scratch. Because dh got home late it was put in the oven around 10:45 p.m. While the cake was baking, I played Yahtzee with the kids (a cool math game, but the kids don't realize I play it so they will practice their math). So yeah, the kids were doing math and science projects at 11 pm, what can I say? We homeschool - we get to make our own schedules, so I just let the children sleep in the following morning. The following day, when dh got home from work, they quickly had to decorate the cakes. He had stopped by the store to pick up cake decorating supplies. Orange Boy was really into the decorating part. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a decent picture of Pearly's cake. She wrote 2 Tim 2:15 and drew a Bible. Orange Boy wrote Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed - the AWANA motto. The competition was stiff and was judged on creativity and taste. Orange Boy wanted his judged by creativity and Pearly wanted hers to be judged in taste. Unfortunately, Orange Boy did not win. Pearly Girl, however, won first place for taste. She won 3 coupons for Baskin Robbins, so she decided to take Papa and Orange Boy with her.

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Done, Finished, Lessons Learned

Thankfully, I have learned to not take my knitting too seriously, or I think it might be upsetting. Here are the things I am happy about: I love the yarn - LOVE it! I love the contrasting ribbing and buttonbands, love the yellow buttons on the white buttonbands. However, knitting is just like life - in order to succeed you need to learn from your mistakes. Here's what I learned not to do next time around:

Lesson 1 - When calculating buttonhole placement, don't forget to account for neckline ribbing. I figured it would need 6 buttons including neckline, but when calculating the placement, I forgot to include the neckline in the total figure, so instead, ended up with 7 buttonholes. This sent me in a button frenzy because I only had 6 buttons and bought the last of them at the store. Thankfully, my friend was able to find some at another store. After all this was said and done, I think 7 buttons were too many. Six would have been much better spacing - maybe even 5 would have done nicely. Oh well!

Lesson 2 - Do not expect 13 lb 3 oz newborn baby to fit in Size 6 months sweater. That said, dh's office just gave me a belated gift for baby - a gift certificate at a LYS - how cool is that?! Woohoo!! Maybe I'll make another one, but this time, hopefully one that will fit PLUS some growing room.

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Birthdays

Sunday, my parents came over to celebrate my mom's and son's birthdays. We went went bowling again and had a blast!! Our 3-yr old son beat most of his older siblings. Okay, well, the 3-yr old brother did use the bumpers to his advantage. But what fun we had! I love this picture of my mom and son.

Oh, and see my son's dimple? I put my order in early for that.

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International Cuisine and Lively Debates

Last week, my daughter invited her Moroccan friend from her college Spanish class to come over for dinner. He had come over a few weeks earlier, and this time wanted to reciprocate by bringing us a Moroccan meal. We weren't quite sure what to expect and couldn't wait to try something new. The kids did a great job trying the new foods.

Oh, her friend also brought another friend. You see, this wasn't just about a meal, it was about the conversation that was to be discussed after dinner. These guys are Muslim and are trying to convert our daughter (and perhaps our family). Our daughter is Christian and my husband, daughter, and her friends have been having friendly, yet lively debates comparing the two religions. It has been fascinating. I have really appreciated the mutual respect both have shown each other.

Back to the dinner: we had couscous with beautifully seasoned roast and stewed vegetables (carrots, zucchini, turnip?, chickpeas, onion, etc). We were expecting something more spicy. Maybe they were being gracious not knowing that we like spicy. Who knows?

One interesting note: unbeknownst to us, our 6-yr old son was on the recliner in the living room when it was prayer time for our guests. They politely excused themselves and went into the living room to pray. One of our guests came back to the kitchen to ask which direction was north (Muslims must pray towards Mecca). A little while later, as they continued to pray, our son came out and asked what they were doing. It must have been pretty interesting for him to see them bowing down, praying, and chanting in Arabic.

Here's a bit of info about Islam I found on the net: The second pillar, devotional worship or prayer, requires Muslims to pray five times a day - the dawn prayer, the noon prayer, the afternoon prayer, the sunset prayer, and the evening prayer - while facing toward the Ka'bah, the House of God, in Mecca. Like all Islamic ceremonies, prayer is simple and personal, yet also communal, and the wording of the prayers, the ablutions which are required before prayers, the number of bows, and other parts of the ritual are set out in detail.

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Please, Tell Me It Isn't So

Please don't tell me this style of sweater with the saggy armpits is considered fashionable. I don't know if I can bear it. I just got an e-mail from Lion Brand regarding their new improved baby pattern sweaters. Is this improved?

"Your adorable baby will get even more attention in these easy-to-make sweaters."

Yeah, I'll bet they'll get more attention! But you won't catch my baby in a saggy armpit sweater.

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Old Film, New Treasures

I was going through my file cabinet and found a file with 8 rolls of undeveloped film (who thinks of film after converting to digital, anyway?). It was sure fun to see events I had long forgotten. I thought the film for these little bird pictures was lost forever. The mama bird abandoned her nest and while my little boys were playing outside by the trees, the little chicks landed on my son. My children put their fingers out and the birds landed on their fingers. We took pictures and then I told them we needed to leave them alone. In the back of my mind was the little book by Eastman, Are You My Mother? Poor little chickies.

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Sound of Music

Ok, I have been a serious slacker since pregnancy and new baby. I have 3 children who are taking Suzuki violin lessons from a wonderful teacher at the homeschool co-op. I have been learning along with them (kinda, sorta). Thankfully, I have a musical background in my favor, so that has sure helped.

Today, I spent probably 30 minutes with our 6-and 8-yr olds teaching them a little theory: quarter notes and eighth notes. They learned it very well and quite easily. My goal is to get everybody singing and playing instruments. Now my 16-yr old wants an acoustic guitar (in addition to his classical guitar) and has expressed interest in singing vocal parts. We WILL do this. It has always been my dream to be like the VonTrapp Family Singers. Off with the TV. We WILL do this!

Whoa - I just had my son check out his vocal range. He's a baritone. That means my 11-yr old sing soprano, my 19-yr old and I can sing either tenor or alto, and my son is baritone. (The other little munchkins would be soprano/alto at this point). We have all 4-parts covered- woo-hoo! Agenda tomorrow: get/order 4-part vocal music! We've been singing rounds as a family for years, so it won't be too much of a stretch to sing 4-part. Why have I waited so long for this?

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Sweetness

This is the kind of thing I love to see going on.

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Baby Vest

I'm just about finished with the back side of the vest. The pattern is quite easy to memorize and it is coming along pretty quickly (if I can just find the time to knit!). Spring fever has hit, so unfortunately, the vest has not been top priority this week. I should have taken the picture during the day - the lighting is yucky.

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Nekkid Baby

Today I had fun with my camera and baby after he had a bath. What you don't see is that he peed on the sheet twice - lol. He's 9-1/2 wks old now.

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Baby Shower

I just received pics back from the baby shower my friends gave me. I love how my friends welcome every child to the world, not just the first baby. We were spoiled!

In the picture below, Pearly is behind me and Birdie is the other redhead on the left.

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Here a chick, there a chick, everywhere a chick chick . . .

Saw these cute little chicks at a friend's house today while I was taking photographs for her son's senior pictures. Aren't they adorable?

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Kids Return Safely!

The older 2 kids had a great trip to Honduras. They were able to help at an orphanage several times, have health clinics to educate the people on hygiene, help a single mom of 5 boys, etc. Our dentist donated cases of toothpaste/toothbrushes for the cause. What a great experience it was for them.

Welcome home hug from Papa.

Of course they both couldn't wait to kiss little Polliwog.

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Big Weekend

This weekend was pretty busy. The two older kids were spending their last day on a mission's trip to Honduras, so we wanted to have a little special time with the 5 younger kids. So we on Friday, we took the younger kids bowling. This is probably the 2nd time they had gone bowling in their life.

Bunny trying to find his bowling ball - lol.


Once, Bunny (3-yr old) got up to bowl without Papa's help. He threw the ball, but instead of going into our lane, it veered off into our neighbor's lane just as our neighbor was about to release his ball. We all laughed hysterically. Thankfully, our neighbors did, too. It must not have blown our neighbor's concentration too badly as his next roll was a strike :)


Dh helping Bunny bowl.

It didn't matter whether he got several pins down or zero pins down, he always had a huge smile on his face. He did manage to get 2 spares!

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Spring

It's so nice when we get a dry spell after seemingly weeks of rain. How fun to be able to enjoy God's creation. Pearly made this daisy wreath:

And the kids played with this snail (he was only about 1/2 inch).

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Guinataan

We used to live in the Philippines over 15 yrs ago, and one time, I stopped to see what a street vendor was selling. I usually was not too adventuresome when it came to trying ethnic cuisines - especially if I didn't know what it was, but for some reason, I did this once.

Looking in the big pot, I thought it must be fish eyes or something equally as bizarre. But it turned out to be little balls made out of sweet rice flour, marble tapioca, plantains, etc, cooked in a coconut milk sauce/pudding. It smelled so wonderful, I gave it a try. I was seriously hooked. Ever since living there, I have tried to find this recipe, but I only knew what the locals called it which I later figured out was not the same name that most Filipinos called it.

Yesterday, I met with some Americans who live in the Philippines and I described it in great detail and found the correct name: Guinataan.

Hello Google - here it is - a picture and all. This is definitely on my to-do list: Guinataan

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The Littlest Redhead

3-1/2 yrs old

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Sirdar Vest

My latest project is Sirdar Pattern 3155. Suggested yarn is Snuggly DK, but since this will be a summer vest for my baby, I have chosen a cool cotton by Elsebeth Lavold - Cotton Patine 100% cotton in the Honey colorway. It's knitting about 22 stitches over 4 inches on 4.0 mm needles. I really like the way this cotton knits up. I love the earth-tone color instead of cutesy light-blue.

I noticed when shopping for infant boy clothes that 90% of the clothes are in light blue color scheme. How predictable and boring is that when there are so many other colors from which to choose?

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Four babies later . . .

I knit this sweater for our 3rd baby when I was pregnant 12 years ago. The sweater is still in great shape. Unfortunately, this baby is tooooooo big. This is the first time I've put him in it and it is too short. It could use an extra 2 inches in the torso, although the sleeves are fine. I loved this yarn - it's a 3-ply with purple/navy/teal.

Oh, and see that dimple in his cheek? I put my order in early for that!

Here's the breakdown:
Mama's eyes
Papa's nose
Mama's mouth
Papa's hair
Mama's chin
Papa's dimples
Mama's forehead
Papa's legs
Mama's hands

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