knits of life

The Sweater

2011-11-23T11:15:00.008-07:00

The story of this sweater begins with this post that inspired me to try my first raglan, top-down, seamless sweater. I consulted E Zimmerman and then found a pattern on ravelry. That sweater is not this one, in fact that sweater is no more, (it was for Anna and I wasn't careful about my gauge... again, but more about that one another time, it's already been unraveled and is almost reknit).

About half way through that ill fated sweater, Kyire, at Are So Happy, posted pictures of the sweater finished and I was in love and determined to figure out a similar pattern myself someday (with a little more practice). So a few weeks later when she put out an invitation for test knitters I enthusiastically but nervously replied. Much, much to my delight it was indeed the pattern she'd just created.

I'm not sure how helpful of a test knitter I was because I finished my sweater on the day that the pattern was released, but I'm so happy to have been a part of project and I love the sweater that came out of it. In defense of my tardiness, I had a very specific color in mind for the sweater and I had a hard time finding it. I actually knit the entire yoke in a different color and then frogged it when I decided on this green. Truth be told I restarted so many times on different parts of this sweater that I joked to Ben that I knit it twice.

The restarts had nothing to do with the pattern, but everything to do with my perfectionism. I think it hurts Ben to see me unravel, I try to do it in secret because he doesn't understand my relationship to knitting, but it brings me great satisfaction to be able to try something, then try it a different way then get it just the way I want it (or close).

Below is the original sweater, it's lovely, but I wanted it to be a little more masculine and Joachim put in a specific request for a zipper.

So I did ribbing on the bottom and collar (and folded the collar over) and I ribbed the sleeves but didn't like it so I just did a finished cuff. The zipper was a real challenge, I cast on a couple different sample bands before I found a look I liked and then sewing on the zipper was a nightmare. Finally, I realized it was puckering not because of my sewing it on, but because I'd salvaged it from another sweater and the zipper itself was wavy. It mostly worked after I ironed the zipper.

I also deviated from the pattern by reducing the number of stitches under each arm by 2. I was thinking Joachim is a skinny guy and I had overestimated the girth for Anna's sweater so I wanted to take it in a bit. Now I wish I had followed the pattern exactly, but I also better understand how the math works out. Hopefully it will fit the rest of the winter, but it's ok if he grows too fast because I'm already planning his next sweater and I have visions of Anna in this one with a nice wool plaid skirt (I already have the fabric, thank you Corey).

I plan to use this basic pattern again and make the next size in a steel blue. I love this green color because it highlights Joachim's hazel eyes so beautifully, but I'm thinking a nice light blue yarn will bring out the sage in his eyes. I love the eyes Ben gave our boy.
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Joachim was always a willing model for fittings. My biggest concern was that I would make the sweater and he would refuse to wear it. He's very picky about comfort and very few things feel ok to him. On the contrary he loved being a part of all of the decision making and he loves his new sweater.

The pattern is Antler and Moss Cardigan featured in this post and when you purchase it from ravelry you receive the ebook wanderings which was inspired by two friends, knitting, tea and many handwritten letters, I definietely recommend it and I look forward to their future installations.

SunCrest Orchard and alpacas

2011-11-23T09:00:00.001-07:00

On the recommendation of a friend, I set up a tour at SunCrest Orchard and Alpacas for us and our home school friends back in September. It was a great experience from alpaca to yarn. They process the fleeces right there (and hundreds that are shipped to them from all over the world. In addition to Alpaca (very decidedly different than llamas mind you) they had angora rabbits and below an angora goat (mohair for you knitters).

I was very impressed that this was a completely hands on family run farm, they let the kids pet everything and touch the fiber along every step of the processing. Below are the bags of fleece in waiting, the whole process was so interesting with some great machines.

After washing, they are spread out on racks to dry, if they are to be dyed, they do it during the washing.

After it's dried, they literally blow it into a small room, like a large closet to form what is called a cloud... Joachim is holding *a cloud*

They it's combed out and sorted into long and short fibers, then turned into roving "tubes" (my word) and then spun into yarn.

Each of the below spools is one fleece, I believe he said the large one was about 5 miles long!

I'm looking forward to going back so I can purchase some skeins for some winter knitting, it was so cool I don't know who enjoyed it more, us moms or the kids. Each child was given a little bag of cloud fleece to take home and we got lots of Waldorfian play out of ours, tossing it like a ball, spinning it with his fingers, wrapping it around his little plastic animals and so on.

trick or treat

2011-11-03T11:17:00.010-06:00

This year Joachim was very excited to wear a hand-me-down Spiderman costume so for the sake of continuity I made Anna Wonder Woman. When I first told Ben he said, "you know she wears basically a bra and underwear." I didn't know, so I looked her up and I was frustrated by the sexualized superhero. Still, to not disappoint my comic loving friends Chase and Pidge I made the toddler version.

One glaring discrepancy between Anna and Wonder Woman is the lack of black hair (well, that and cleavage).

Joachim's good trick or treating buddy.

We went out with friends to both our Main Street event and a neighboring city's. Lots of kids activities and lots of familiar faces, lots of fun (and then we redistributed most of the candy Halloween night).

As a religious person I am a bit self-conscious of my enthusiasm for such a holiday, but I enjoy making the costumes and Joachim still wears the ones I made years ago (or at least the surviving pieces). We also, for the first time got to go through our own neighborhood. When I was growing up we went to block after block and only a few houses didn't participate, apparently in our neighborhood here, only one or two houses per block participate. Still, I got to meet a bunch of the faces that live behind doors I've walked by for years. One house had a bonfire, hot cider and big chocolate bars, yum.

There's a well-loved story in my family about my brother one Halloween when he was a little older than Joachim. His candy bag was heavy and dragging on the ground and my dad said, "Well, do you think you've got enough candy, can we head home now?" Jonathan vehemently set his bag down and faced my dad to tell him, "Dad, it's NOT about the candy, it's about seeing all the neighbors." And he was sincere, a beautiful trait about him to this day.

This pumpkin was a Martha Stewart project from the late 90's. Technically I was supposed to poke the Christmas lights through each hole, but that proved too time consuming so I just dropped the whole bunch in. I think I'll try again next year, but with a bigger drill bit and maybe a pattern of some sort.

Spidey party

2011-11-03T09:06:00.003-06:00

On the theme of Spiderman, I wanted to add this post from the summer. Joachim and I made a pinata for his cousin's birthday, it was a prototype for one we hope to make for Joachim's party. Apparently I've lost my pinata making touch since my own childhood because this one broke too easily, but I have a better idea now for Joa's.

Covered Bridge Farm

2011-10-26T21:57:00.005-06:00

We went to a new (to us) little pumpkin farm this year. Seeing as our usual pumpkin farm didn't mow a corn maze there wasn't much point in going in my mind. I was completely thrilled with the *experience* which included a looong hay ride, a hay bale pyramid for climbing, hot cider, roasting marshmallows and of course choosing your pumpkin. Apparently this farm is known as a Christmas tree farm and you get the whole experience with your tree (substitute hot cocao and Christmas music) I'm thinking we may need another tree in addition to our usual family tradition.

Anyway, Joachim said the hayride was way better than a corn maze so I think we may have a new fall tradition.

Below was my hope for that nice fall '11 picture, but as you can see Anna is noticing something to her right,finally gesturing and grunting to it. I took a half dozen such pictures before I came out from behind the lens to see what was bothering her.

It was this long horn skull, after that, there was no coercing her into sitting on the nice pumpkin display with brother. Anyway, the sun was in their eyes so it wasn't the best photo choice to begin with.

Anna initiated this hug.

With some force.

Vail getaway

2011-09-28T21:40:00.006-06:00

For four years now we've joined my parents for a few days of their timeshare exchange either in Telluride or Vail. Dipping into the more opulent lifestyle always gives me cause for reflection. It's such a world unto itself. But mostly I relish the chance to browse the internet, read, knit and write while my parents entertain the kids. I wish I did less of the first so I could do more of the latter, but...

The kids have had all kinds of fun, the last night Joachim and I spent a long time playing, yes, I would definitely call it playing, on the outdoor escalators. Apparently when you build a posh resort on a mountainside you need to put in escalators every now and then to get up the hillside (when I was in high school and climbing 14ers we used to joke "where's the escalator?" now I know,... it's in Beavercreek). There are no escalators in Delta, so armed with his knowledge of Corduroy's adventures we ran up the down, rode backwards, and walked in place until the sidewalk moved even when we stepped off. I myself have never had so much fun on an escalator.

Obviously they got soaked in the fountain. Below is the Pirate ship at the park, needless to say it was also fun.

sooo many pictures

2011-09-28T20:58:00.003-06:00

Our last day there we hiked through the aspens, but we almost didn't make it to the actual trail head. I had over-estimated Joachim's hiking enthusiasm and I very genuinely told him we could go back down to the condo and Granddaddy could finish the hike. I wasn't even trying to manipulate him and he said, "Well, I guess I can go a little bit further." And he went all the way with a few intermittent piggybacks.

Once we were in the tree line the hike became way more enjoyable and I realized something funny, since kids, the only hikes I've taken (except one) have been in the autumn aspens. It's special and beautiful, but I'm beginning to forget what the mountains are like other times of the year.

There's a nifty "rear view mirror" attached by a chord to the backpack. A funny accessory, but I can see how it could come in handy hiking alone.

Vail is a nice place, a bit like Disney World in it's perfect cobblestone streets, profuse flowers and European architecture. I really do enjoy it. People snapped colorfully arty pictures all around the village, but I realized pretty quickly, like I recently read on a blog, that I'd probably never look at those kind of pictures again. I can appreciate an Ansel Adams photograph, but it's always been people that attract me, I like the humanity you can read in a moment. That said, I love looking at my pictures from Russia and Africa, so I guess it just depends on what brings you warmth and closer to yourself.

together

2011-09-02T16:32:00.006-06:00

Joachim now "reads" to Anna and she "listens," a phenomenon I've seen in my friends' kids that we've now moved on to. He sometimes repeats the same page several times (or the same sentence rather) but Anna just continues to give him her full attention, it's astonishing really.

Anna's indicating to me that the monkeys bonk their heads when they fall out of bed. They're seated between the couch and the wall in a favorite play spot.

Double Nuk'n it. How exciting to find a lost Nuk while you already have one. If one is good two are better.

recently

2011-09-02T16:05:00.007-06:00

Ben and the kids making lunch I think. Anna's quite adept at wheeling around that little chair to get to things, lots of things. Ben affectionately calls her "mo-ped Annie" because she has this uncanny ability to be everywhere at once and cut you off in a second. (He's dropped the Annie part now and simply refers to himself as the "Semi" and her "mo-ped").

Occasionally they do actually play together, wonder of wonders, mostly because Joachim is surprisingly tolerant of her demands.

This is an apron I made in high school and up 'til recently I'd never actually worn it. After weeks of Anna eating dinner in my lap (and several stain sticks) I pulled this atrocity out of the cabinet and started wearing at dinner (surprisingly it doesn't occur to me put it on while making dinner).

We habitually strip Anna down to her diaper before lunch and dinner (she eats breakfast in her PJ's) to the point that when we call her to dinner she simultaneously tries to cross herself for the blessing and pull her shirt up and pants down. It's sweet and we get quite a few jokes out of the long term repercussions of such conditioning. Joachim was always much cleaner, to this day we'll finish a meal and his napkin will still be neatly folded while we've used the other three on Anna. Anyway, I have no idea what I was thinking when I designed it, the pattern's not bad, but the fabric?!

What do you do in the morning when Daddy's gone to work, Joachim's sleeping and you're helping mom with the laundry?
You put on three pairs of big brother's undies and party it up :)

family pictures

2011-08-15T16:35:00.003-06:00

Here are our Easter family pictures. I'm mystified as to how the professionals are able to take group shots with everyone looking forward and smiling, still, it's a nice one to have to have for the scrapbook.

cherry days and potato heads

2011-08-15T15:56:00.007-06:00

I have lots of pictures from the summer that I want to post. It doesn't seem worth it to try and post them in chronological order, perhaps I'll just post them as I stumble across them because that requires less effort and I can skip around at my fancy. Below they we are at the cherry festival as Joachim generously share some of his parade loot.

This last weekend we went up to Blue Mesa Reservoir for a day by the lake with Chase and Pidge, sadly there are no pictures because I brought my case WITHOUT the camera! In classic Uncle Chase fashion he got the kids Mr and Mrs Potatohead and he and Pidge spoiled them with lego play. Joachim has been playing with both constantly since we got back, but I got the biggest kick out Anna who knew exactly what the earrings were for and insists on wearing them whenever she stumbles across them in the mess that is our floor.

Some of Easter

2011-08-05T09:30:00.005-06:00

Palm Sunday

Lamentations
Anna and Godmama

A few pictures for my memories

2011-08-05T09:20:00.001-06:00

The easter dress(es)

2011-07-09T16:00:00.004-06:00

So, it all started last August with a gift from the "knitting gods" as my friend puts it. I had lamented to a friend at church about how expensive nice yarn is, but how much nicer it is for knitting. Later that week I came home to 9 skeins of baby bubble gum pink Rowan yarn at my back door (not it's official color, I forget what it is now). A very generous lady had overheard the conversation and left me the gift.

Now that I had the yarn I poured over my knitting books and couldn't find exactly what I was picturing. I found this dress below that I liked, but I wanted more of a sweater so I took the basic idea and turned it into a cardigan with extra ruffles which created way more knitting than I anticipated.
Below is the "pattern" as it evolved from what I sketched out and all the math I did to try and get it right, I started with just a musing on one of Joachim's coloring printouts and then this eel became my inseparable reference.
I'd hoped to finish it for Christmas, but I was knitting hundreds of stitches a row and it was taking forever. I should have trusted the original gauge I estimated because it wraps too far around her. And, by the time it was finished she had grown quite a bit in length. Anyway, I hurried up and finished it for Easter and started dreaming of a little dress.

While visiting my parents, I bought one fabric I thought I liked, but it ended up looking to bold? sixties? I don't know what, so I called my mom and asked her to go back and buy another one I'd liked but passed up. Lucky me, it was on sale and she bought the rest of the bolt and I am cherishing it for all sorts of projects. Here is dress #1.
I had already bought a Simplicity pattern and started making the above dress with the ugly fabric. Silly me, I've never actually followed a pattern so I don't know why I thought I needed this one. As a flaw in the design it zips up the side armhole like an adult dress rather than the neck like a normal baby dress. As such, the neck hole needs to be large enough to fit the whole baby head, which in Anna's case meant that her shoulders also slipped through the hole because she's so narrow (with a big noggin).

I then scrapped the pattern, sewed up the zipper seam and studied the buttons on the back of a dress that already fit her. I'm pleased with myself for figuring it out, but then with the back buttoning, the front was too loose so I pleated it and the dress ended up quite cute, although I still don't care for the fabric
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At about the same time my new fabric arrived in the mail I read a SouleMama entry where she said she was never any good at following patterns and always had better results following her gut and winging it. That's my general experience, not that patterns are bad, I'm just usually frustrated with them, (although there are some really gifted moms out there writing books with very usable patterns). So, with her affirmation of my gut I embarked on dress #2.

For this dress I sketched out a bunch of ideas I liked in my imagination and then narrowed them down to the ones feasible for my available time and which would suit the fabric I picked.Photobucket" border="0">
I stumbled on a tutorial for making mock smocking and I fell in love with it. I have no idea what the link is, but I know I found it in one of Amanda Soule's archived entries. It's so easy it's crazy and that's where I started with the dress. Joachim and I sat at the sewing machine during one of Anna's naps and we sewed line after line after line with the elastic. He's an expert at sewing straight lines, and lifting and lowering the foot.

Too bad it rained the entire Easter day and it was too cold for the dress, even with the sweater and since then, it's been to hot to wear the dress with the sweater. A bit disappointing after hours and hours of work, but they were all lessons learned and I'm not giving up on the handmade items, although I am taking a break for the summer and I'm sticking to very simple ideas for the future. I've realized just because I might be capable of actualizing an idea, it doesn't mean I should invest the time in it. A hard lesson for me because I can become driven, maybe obsessed, with an idea at the expense of other important things (people).
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dresses continued

2011-07-09T15:13:00.006-06:00

Here they are- not on a moving subject
I know the buttons are not centered, it was a bit challenging to cut the back and put them on in hindsight, it's not really noticeable when she's wearing it.
Here Joachim is modeling a child's baby sling I made real quick this morning for a 2 year old's B-day in addition to the doll stroller we got her. In a few months she'll be a big sister and I thought she would like to "wear" her babies like her mama. I'd seen these in Mothering magazine often and I was pleased to pull one together in about 15 minutes plus two 59cent rings from our local variety store. In a stash a friend gave me, I found two strips of the perfect gauzy fabric already hemmed and selvaged at the right width. Corey, I have no idea what they were, but they worked perfectly for this, I almost wanted to keep it for Anna, but I guess I'll just make her another one if she's ever a big sister.
Joachim was a good sport as I tried it on him several times in the process, but he wasn't too into the baby wearing until I got out the camera and then he nestled the baby in comfortably and officially demonstrated the proper way to "wear" a baby.

Why the hiatus?

2011-06-28T20:35:00.004-06:00

I'm not quite sure why I quit blogging, it was of course the convergence of several things. I started sewing Easter dresses for Anna (2 of 4 are completed and would you believe it poured rain most of the day here in our desert). Then from there the weather warmed up and we were outside more.

Ironically, I quit blogging the same week we got Internet in the house. I was overwhelmed by the many beautiful, inspiring, thoughtful blogs out there and the tedium of Facebook (which I've mostly given up on because it's too addictive for me). It happened that I no longer had "built in" computer time where someone would watch the kids and I would go to the coffee shop (and post my entries). As it is, every time I sit down I check my now narrowed list of blogs... and then I still end up blog hopping and internet surfing. A funny thing this internet.

But for myself I would like to start writing in it again because I find myself composing entries in my head and it's driving me crazy.

February

2011-06-28T18:00:00.001-06:00

I love this one. Joachim loves grinding grain -remember Ben's sour dough from last spring? he's still making it- and we had a about 40 lbs of organic wheat from my mom. It's my mom's grinder (maybe it's mine now) and my dad used to tease that it sounded like a jet taking off which is pretty accurate. Also it's seal is gone so it sprays a fine dust, which is why Joachim is operating it outside with ear wear.
The lite-brite, a very fun and satisfying hand-me-down for dark winter nights.
My parents got Anna a cake decorating kit that suited Joachim perfectly. Joachim decorated this "just because" cake all-by-himself.

And these were our V-day cards. Apparently it is a thing to send your cards to Loveland, CO and have them stamped with a special cancelation stamp and sent to your love. Our grocery store had a big cardboard box they collected cards in and sent on a truck to Loveland.
If you are Orthodox, you may recognize the above left drawing as an attempt at the seal stamped on prosfora (or cross bread as Joachim calls it). Baba always has one for Joachim after church and so Joachim chose to draw for him as his favorite association.
Above is a picture of Uncle Jonathan and his cat... I love the whiskers.
These we experimented with the hole punch and ribbon... Joachim punched at random and then threaded at random (and I mounted with precision). We also did some on the sewing machine which is one of his favorite things. When I get the sewing machine out, he always asks if he can sew designs on paper.

Barista

2011-06-28T17:18:00.002-06:00

Recently I was thinking about my life as a barista, I worked at four coffee shops in three states and I enjoyed each one of them (except Starbucks, actually). I loved the relationships I had with co-workers and customers. It was easy and fun.

Recently I've thought some about my college degree and what little good it is to me, Ben is about to pay of the last of my student loan next year and I'm a bit embarrassed about it. I don't regret college, but sometimes I marvel that they will actually let you graduate with a Humanities degree that does absolutely nothing.

At the time I was told what an important piece of paper it was and how jobs just wanted to see that you committed to 4 years of higher education, but I can honestly say only one job I ever had cared about that piece of paper and to be honest it does me little good in my day to day life of parenting and running a household, (or not running one depending on the day.) I do look back on it differently and the phrase "marketable skill" keeps resounding in my head.

Still, it afforded me a lot of adventures and for that I'm very grateful and have no regrets.

I'm sort of in the market for a part time job now with no real prospects, but, hey, I'm a modern "stay-at-home" mom and that seems to include some sort of cottage industry that I can produce to supplement my husband's income.

I'm jealous of all those moms I know that have some skill they can do on the side or when they feel like it to bring in a little extra cash. Hair cuts, icon painting, music lessons, a nurse, professional photography, blogs!, making jump ropes to sell in a high end children's catalogue and so on.

So far I can sub in a small school district already flooded with subs and I'm putting my resume together for a school related job so it can be "put on file" should any positions open.

Well, "comparisons are odious," to quote Will Campbell, and I have to decide regularly not to measure myself by others, either below or above.

A touch of nostalgia, the last coffee shop I worked at until I was 8 months pregnant with Joachim and I am still pictured as the barista in the virtual tour so check it out at Agia Sophia (click on the picture of the first floor).

Things are so different with kids, it's funny to me to reflect on those last unknowing months before my life really kicked into gear.

goddaughters

2011-06-28T16:22:00.000-06:00

This is actually going back to January when we watched out Goddaughters for a day... needless to say interesting to go from being parents of two kids to four of equal ages.

PIRATE PARTY

2011-03-15T13:26:00.012-06:00

I started imagining this party some time in January. It was sort of a celebration of finally having a house that I could have people over in, using Joachim as my inspiration. That's my acknowledgment that his Birthday party was for me as much as for Joachim.
I think if I'd been really in tune with him, I'd have planned a dinosaur party, but I didn't realize that until I was too caught up in the pirate theme. I think he had fun anyway, but next year I might have to put aside my visions of a tee pee and little headdresses for a volcano and claws.
I was lucky to have a gorgeous day and the boys spent a lot of time outside playing on the "ship". I hadn't anticipated the possibility of nice weather, but the week of the party we had a break in the freezing temperatures so Joachim and I "built" this ship.

We used the pallets from when the fencing was delivered and some of the sections of fence left by the previous owners. It was one of the things we did together that actually worked out really well because he got to do a lot of drilling and hammering.

Two nights before the party I started to panic at the prospect of having 7 pre-schoolers in our little house. I worried Joachim might be overwhelmed or the boys might not get along or nobody would want to wear the accessories I made.

As it turned out there was a born leader who came in costume. He headed up all the expeditions, made it really cool to dress up and to my knowledge there was only one attempt at mutiny which was was peacefully silenced by the captain.
Burying treasure boxes in our abundantly fine dirt.
Here they are decorating their treasure boxes with buttons, gems, and my many crafting things that I've been saving for way too long for I don't know what.

PIRATE PARTY CONTINUED

2011-03-15T13:01:00.006-06:00

They had macaroni and cheese and root beer (and salad for the moms).
We played pin the patch on the pirate. I made this about a week before the party and he hung creepily larger than life on our wall, just staring at us for days. He was the first thing to go after the party, but Joachim got a big kick out of practicing.
Here's the picto-treasure hunt. This was one of the things that Joachim and I did not work so well together on, but the treasure hunt itself went well, I think, I sort of missed it because I was trying to help get a woofle ball off of one little pirate's finger.
I liked the mob bunching from one clue to find the next.The cake, this cake could have an entry all to itself. I was completely ready for the party ahead of time and only had to make the cake the day before. We baked one from a box, which I've learned not to do again. This is my second box cake that absolutely crumbled. I think it has to do with our altitude because we're right at the cut off. I've asked around about this and no one else seems to know what I'm talking about. I think that's because they don't know any differently. I've noticed at church most of the cakes crumble while being served. My dad said that he's not successfully made Bisquick waffles since moving to Colorado (and he used to make them every Sunday for years, he's given up now).

So, we made the cake and I started to shape it into the ship I'd been envisioning and it was not going well. I had to stop to put Anna to sleep and when I came back out Joachim had sifted his fingers through what was left of what I'd cut and turned it into a little hill of crumbs. I was frustrated, but it didn't really matter because the cake wasn't working anyway.

Anna woke up so I left him to wash his hands while I patted her back to sleep. She wasn't settling back in and a little voice told me I should check on Joachim (who's usually very responsible when left to himself). The first thing I noticed when I entered the kitchen was the river of water running out from the sink cabinet. I very quickly realized he'd discovered that the faucet ran perfectly down the hole where the water filter was supposed to go... and it had been running the whole time I was trying to put Anna back down. Joachim had no idea it was coming out the bottom because he was standing on a chair.

Well, you can imagine the scene of Anna crying on the floor, Joachim crying in time out and me emptying the cabinet. I poured what was left of the dish soap in the soup pot, I had to spread out our garbage bags because they are compostable and will dissolve and all of our onions, potatoes and other miscellaneous cabinet stuff. I sopped up the water with all of our available bath towels and then picked up Anna and went in to talk to Joachim.

So, I recovered knowing this happens to everyone and we made the cake over again with brownie mix and Joachim decorated it. It was the richest, densest 4 year old birthday cake ever, I'm sure, but it served it's purpose and with a little dressing up, our handless lego people got a taste of pirate life.

In an effort to be prepared for the unexpected I have an extra of all of the pirate accessories except for the treasure box. I made the felt hats using the old newspaper hat pattern and there are belts from my scrap fabric. I have a sword, compass, treasure (assorted buttons and chocolate coins), a bandanna and some dinosaur tattoos. Since we've had internet I've discovered more blogs and I've been introduced to this giveaway concept.

I'm offering a giveway to my friends with kids or readers who know kids that might be interested (I think there are only a handful of you so the odds are better than on most blogs, although the giveaway is much humbler than on most blogs). All you have to do is leave a comment, send an email or write a letter to tell me you're interested. Joachim will draw the name on March 30th.

And, if you think this was a lot of pictures, just know that there we ten times this many and they were all cute and funny to me. Especially the ones outside in the yard. Kids at play are amazing, they set up the tee ball on the ship to use as a cannon!

more birthday

2011-03-15T12:42:00.003-06:00

As if the pirate party was not enough we still had to have a family party which he shared with one of his cousins
You see... earrings!
This one Joachim opened the play do confetti maker he'd always been wanting a Wally world. It has turned out to be a good cheap buy. Anytime I need him occupied I just ask if he wants to make play-do confetti. I actually get up to an hour out of this activity. Here he is the next morning confetti making.
This is the shirt I made for him, although I lifted the design from an image on-line, so I can't take any credit for it.
Below is one of my very first freezer paper works, I made it for Grandma almost 4 years ago. It was an apron then, and I was pleased to discover it has taken on another life in the sewing room to hold notions and what not. You see, it's all of the grandkids at the time, Katia is riding on grandma's shoulders with the funny little fountain ponytail and Joachim is the little baby bringing up the rear.

scoot 'n zoom

2011-03-11T14:50:00.002-07:00

Recently, a friend in Russia posted a video of her son cruising around in a walker, it was the old-school kind with six wheels that pivot all directions. I looked and looked for one of those here, but with American safety codes, all they allow on the market are four-wheeled ones where the rear wheels don't turn at all (you see, in Russia you are still responsible for your own safety). On the plus side, they're designed to high-center if a child tries to go down stairs, on the downside, they greatly limit mobility.

We retired ours because she only used it as a battering ram to get our attention. Then my mom got her this nifty scoot 'n zoom that pivots every direction and is as dangerous as can be... and we're loving it. Joachim drew a picture of her riding her scoot 'n zoom.

more anna

2011-03-11T13:50:00.009-07:00

Anna is the houdini who manages to get out of her high chair strap and tray on it's tightest setting. The first time she did it, Joachim came and told me in the shower, "Come see Mama, Anna is standing on her tray." My first thought was, "Why would Ben leave the tray on the ground" (he'd left for work) and my second thought was, "Maybe I should get out and see this." Needless to say, I never leave her in the high chair unattended.

a little creativity

2011-03-11T13:26:00.002-07:00

Joachim has been very busy drawing so I thought I'd document some of my favorites. Here we have the Stegasaurus he drew in November. I really like the little face with eyelashes, all the dots between the lines are his many knees.
Here's Grandma in her cave/kitchen, I'm not sure which, love the fingers and fingernails, all those rectangles are her appliances.
And this is the gumball machine a friend gave him. What's better than buying a gumball when you pay the city bill? Having a whole gumball machine that's your very own! He mailed this to her as a thank you.
Well, with internet I poked around on blogger and found a new design (obviously) and I finally signed up on ravelry, don't bother checking though, I haven't posted any projects. I like the idea that I can catalog things I make, but I'm a little intimidated by all the details I'm supposed to fill in, the yarns I use are always the cheapest ones I can get.

So, on ravelry I'm knitsoflife, I'd thought about using "purls of life", because knits sound like tiny insects. Ben didn't know what a purl was, and he pointed out my blog isn't about knitting anyway. True, but I liked the idea of a life knit together so I'm going to try it on for a while. I don't think it really matters.

Above are the socks that took me 3 years to knit for Ben. They mostly live in the drawer, but they are special in their own way.

snow day

2011-03-02T19:38:00.012-07:00

Now that it's nearly spring I'm posting our winter pics.
Well, there's still frost on the cars in the morning and there won't be leaves budding 'til May, but by lunch time it's tee-shirt weather, what can I say? it's Colorado.

And then we came in for hot cocoa, classic style, thank you Joanna for reminding me about melting chocolate bars in milk.

Gymnastics

2011-03-02T14:28:00.006-07:00

Several months ago a friend and I signed our kids up for gymnastics and I got to see Joachim grow a lot through the experience. I've stopped for now, largely because it got too difficult to manage Anna in the parent's seating area, but perhaps we'll start up again this summer (I'm hoping for a class with a few more boys in it, that's the other reason we stopped).

my crafting space

2011-02-18T14:11:00.007-07:00

I'd thought I'd write more about this, but time doesn't permit me to type out the long rambling entries about my crafting life that I compose laying in bed (probably a good thing).

Below is a picture of our "laundry room" before we really started work on the house. The previous owners used it as a bedroom (ick) because of it's size, but it houses our laundry machine so... our laundry room. When we started, it was just a cement floored cave with a leak in the wall.
And here it is after we moved in... laundry room, hence all the laundry, but oh so nice walls and a beautifully tiled floor (under all my stuff, I have much better control over my laundry now, don't judge me).
And here is what happened when we discovered the "wall" was still leaking. Ben had already fixed it once and run a hose down the roof, but this night the wind was blowing rain sideways. Since it seldom rains here, we took advantage of the night and started pulling down drywall until we found the leak. Done over again we might have thought it out better, but everything you do the first time is a learning process.

So, with the new hole, I started to have a vision for the room. It involved a window I'd always dreamed of putting in. I casually told a friend about the hole in my wall and my hope for a window. Would you believe she just had an addition put on her house and they had to take out a perfectly good window. She dropped it by the next day and Ben had no reason not to put it in, the hole was already there.
Ta-daa, here is the dungeon transformed into a bright sunny space. (We saved the best of the mismatched cabinets from the kitchen, painted them, and I put one set here and the other over the washer dryer along another wall.) We also got the large drafting desk Ben and his dad built years ago.

When I moved my stuff in I was really inspired and wrote out nice labels for all the boxes in the cabinets. It's been so nice to look for something and find it right away. Safety pins? I know exactly where they are. Not quite Better Homes and Gardens, (which I confess I by from the library, 10 cents a pop, and hoard), but I like it.
Unfortunately, we discovered the roof is still leaking, something to do with the water freezing and expanding through our patch job, so I live with a hole until spring, I GOT A WINDOW AND A CRAFT SPOT. For the first time in my life I don't have to clean up my projects so people can eat dinner.

And then what happened? Ben took over a business for a friend who's out of the country for a couple of years and he set up her computer on MY desk and my sewing machine went to the repair shop because Joachim had been "sewing" with it. That's OK, Ben's getting his own desk and because of his new responsibilities we'll be getting internet in our very own home! Hooray modern world, here I come!

woe-is-me

2011-02-11T16:15:00.004-07:00

This is to clarify an earlier post that led one friend to think Anna sleeps 12 hours a night, which is far far... far from reality. Our rosie life is once again colored by sleep issues. With Joachim it was the eczema that gave him trouble falling asleep and caused him to wake up scratching all night until he was two. With Anna the cause has been less clear, but it started with a round of antibiotics I took in August which led to 6 weeks of diarrhea and changing 3-4 diapers a night. So the habitual waking was established along with a mysteriously constant running nose and several colds over the next three months.

By Christmas I was toasted, so we tried the various sleep solutions from baby-wise to ferberize to Dr. Sears-wise. And that brings us to today. Each time we'd gain ground she'd get a tooth or two, (she's making up for lost time). Or most recently, she had a bad cold. She wakes up several times in the night and then from 3:00am on she never really goes back to sleep. We didn't let her cry long enough you might think, but after a week of listening to her cry for hours we gave up, when she did fall asleep she'd wake right up in 30 minutes and start all over, not to mention we needed Joachim to sleep and stay asleep because two tired kids is twice as bad as one.

What makes this difficult for are the friends whose babies cried 40 minutes one night, 20 the next and 5 the last and they've slept peacefully since. Or worse the ones who never had sleep problems, and whose babies slept peacefully from the first month. I would've doubted the plausibility of this last claim except I've noted there's a definitive difference between a well rested at peace parent and... well... me.

So, at her 1 year well baby appointment I regaled the Dr with our sleeping struggles. He listened patiently and nodded in his very mild way and reassured me that what works for one baby doesn't work for all babies. A parent whose baby sleeps easily or follows the books can't imagine just how different babies can be. It was a relief to realize it might not be anything I'm doing wrong, she's just her own person, that said I still feel guilty. He also said Anna must have an iron will.

Which leads me to another slightly alarming discovery that Anna is in the 15th percentile for size. Through Dr. Sears philosophy I've mostly ignored the charts, but Anna did start in the 70th and she's really plateaued in the last 4 months. I would have doubted the measurements had I not been right there holding her down, if anything, stretching her a bit.

Which brings me to our ongoing battle with food. It's not only bananas that Anna won't eat, it's just about all food. We went through baby food jars that she only ate 3 bites of (or none). I'd grind up food in the baby mill only for her to scream and push it away. The other night Ben (being a competitive type) declared he would get her to eat 8 bites... he threw in the towel at 5. The next night I made it to 8 with guacamole, and I had to rub it in a little, but she wouldn't give in to a 9th bite.

This morning Ben was trying to feed her cheerios and she was actually sticking out her tongue, picking them off with her fingers and throwing them on the ground.

She usually will eat cheerios and occasionally oatmeal, crackers, carrot from stew, a few peas, brown rice in broth, and most recently a little scrambled egg, but never much. I've heard parents complain their kids don't eat, but always it's been a picky toddler, Anna has never been an eater. She doesn't even nurse much anymore. I know one parent whose one year old did start eating and growing when he had his enlarged adenoids removed, but there's nothing obvious like that with Anna.

The Dr thinks a lot of her difficulty staying asleep is related to not eating, which is the obvious possibility that never occurred to me. So he offered a vitamin prescription and encouragement in my feeding endeavors. We're trying to make a game of it, but it's challenging to feed an unwilling baby and demoralizing to watch other babies gobble down jars of food. That said, today she added some black beans and blueberries to her acceptable food list, so we are making headway. On the other hand, I had to lock her head in my crux of my elbow to get her to even try the eggs.

I didn't know she was small for her age, but that explains why people think she's younger than she is, I always thought it was the bald head and toothless grin. At least in every other way she's developing normally.

To be fair, Ben did point out that she's sleeping better now than she was in January when she woke up every hour. Sorry for all the venting.She's still cute, though. She loves this dolly, it always makes her light up and she gives it lots of hugs and love. Actually, she goes nuts anytime we go down the dolly aisle in the store. Girls are so different.

doing dishes

2011-02-11T16:14:00.002-07:00

Anna loves to do the dishes, I mean looooves. This video is a couple months old, but her interest and skills have only increased. We now have to covertly load dirty dishes because she's not discerning between dirty and clean. She will, however, try to wipe off dirty dishes before handing them to you.

Anna's birthday

2011-02-07T16:00:00.002-07:00

Anna shared her birthday celebration with her cousin whose Birthday is a week earlier, and I'm embarrassed to admit I don't have a single picture of Elena and her pie or presents. I was selfishly engrossed with my baby.
Anna usually goes to bed between 5:30 and 6:00pm so I wasn't sure how the "late" evening would go (she gets up, wide awake and yelling at us, between 5:oo and 5:30am, sick, I know, we've tried everything, yes, the obvious later bedtime and not going to her until 6:00am, but she has a very strong will and she's broken me).

But, I under-estimated her extroverted personality and she thrived on the attention. You can see in the cake pictures she's beginning to fade, but then she got her second wind with the presents and was glowing by the end of the night.Anna's Godmama made her a banana pie because as much, as I fought it, Anna has become Anna banana or, just "the banana". It's ironic because she hates bananas. She has banana radar and if you offer banana on a spoon, no matter how disguised it is, she'll reject it every time until you remove the offending banana piece. I thought every baby loved bananas.
So, she may not have eaten any of the bananas, but she really dug the vanilla pudding on top.
And Elena's blueberry pie.
Grandma put together this "church box" for her. It has some neat treasures that she loves taking in and out of the box. She really likes the necklaces. She's such a girl in that she loves "dressing up." Her favorite is the Theotokos/Jesus icon. She sits in church opening and closing it. (I'm missing a couple items in the picture below).
This one was the the most fun to watch her open an when it was pulled out of the box she knew exactly what to do with it. Her Godpapa made it for her and she knows it's hers. It's in our living room right now and if Joachim touches it she shrieks at him (which makes him do it more and thus goes my induction into sibling rivalry).
Anna "dressed up" in the ribbons and necklace she put on all by herself.

Anna's actual birthday

2011-02-07T15:00:00.002-07:00

I had no plans for Anna's actual birthday so I was glad to get an invitation to Willon and Rhetta's birthday celebration. Joachim and I missed it last year because... well, I was birthing. This year they had the celebration at the Climbing Tree Children's Museum in Montrose, which was fun for all ages. We haven't been there since Anna started crawling and she had a blast cruising around with the toddler toys. She loved the kitchen house because it's loaded with cabinets and accessories. After this I set out again to find a kitchen set for her and Joachim (which I'll picture another time).One of the little girls dressed Anna in this hat. I should add, in addition to necklaces, Anna also likes wearing hats, but not winter hats, she's very discerning and will wear, straw hats, top hats, pirate hats, but generally not knit hats, (although, she seems to make a concession for Tary's hat, I think she knows it has a glamor flower on it).
Here the kiddos are decorating their cupcakes, a favorite activity for Joachim. In fact, I was worried I would never get him away to play with the other cool things. He decorated while all the other kids did. He continued to decorate while the other kids gobbled their's down and he was still decorating and admiring his work after all the kids had gone to play.Finally, the kids came back for present opening and Joachim began to eat his cupcake. That's my boy, not a crowd follower in the least.Thank you Corey for an awesome day, here's to another great year for our kids.

Joa sings for Anna

2011-02-07T14:06:00.001-07:00

Even though it was Willon and Rhetta's party, Joachim stole a few moments to covertly sing for Anna before eating his cupcake. He honestly didn't want her to feel left out.

Anna rides the elephant

2011-02-07T13:19:00.001-07:00

Anna, in the toddler room on the rockin' elephant.

Merry Christmas

2011-02-04T13:07:00.001-07:00

I've been planning this post for, well, weeks now, and I haven't given up. I wanted to include some of our Christmas frenzy. It was the first year Joachim was old enough to be really fun opening presents (and with grandparents, Aunties, Uncles, and Cousins there was no shortage of gifts).
In the background you can see the stocking I tried to make with Joachim (on left), I wouldn't call it a success, but it was a start. I had these visions of my kids having special felt stockings that they would cherish for years and the very sight of would evoke warm memories... it needs a little more work... next year. I don't want them to end up with the tacky cookie monster stocking my brother has... but to be honest, I think both of us are sort of sentimental about that stocking.
Do you see my new dangly earrings! Ooooh, I love it.Joachim's first remote control car. We're really enjoying this toy... I mean Ben and I, I think it's a throw back for us. Joachim's getting pretty good at the controls, but he does best when the batteries are a bit worn down (and it's slower).
Anna's absolutely adorable hat knit and adorned by my eleven year old niece with some creative guidance from her Godmama. I've actually stopped having Anna wear it in the store because we SO much attention, I mean it was hard to get shopping done, but flattering at the same time.
Anna and the bead chain Elena made for her.Joa working intently on new dino stamps.
Anna pestering the two cousins at grandma's house. Katerina informed Anna in no uncertain terms that she was too little to play with them.

handmade nativity

2011-02-04T12:16:00.001-07:00

I see all the neat handmade things on other people's blogs, I wanted to be sure to spotlight all the neat creations we received (it helps to have lots of nieces and nephews). I think I pictured everything except a hat Elena knit Ben. Below is the hat I knit Ben (he'll not be hurting for hats for years to come). I did it using the mistake stitch which is generally for scarves but I thought I'd try it out on a hat.
After I finished it, my friend's husband revealed the very cool hat he'd knit and I wished I'd used that pattern, I've tucked it away for future reference. I still don't have a hat so I think for next winter I'll tackle these two. She whipped them up in a week (with four kids!), but I never get that kind of consecutive knitting so we'll see. I'm still working on a sweater I started for Anna in August, I hope I can finish it before Easter (lesson learned- use thicker yarn, save time).
This is one was Ben's project. When he first told me about it I didn't really understand what he was describing, but as you can see it turned out really nice. It fits perfectly on Joachim's card table and has a ledge going all the way around to keep it from siding off. Ben also scored five pounds of legos on ebay to go with it.
Here's the felt basket Tary knit for Ben last year. When he opened it, we weren't sure if it was supposed to be a hat for the new baby or what. Now that we've figured out what it is, it's become a favorite accent in our living room. Ben empties his pockets into it every evening (keys, notes, chapstick, thumbdrive, and coins - Joachim always pilfers the quarters to buy tatoos from the vending machine at the grocery store, it's endearing).Here's this year's basket. It's on our bedside table, but nothing lives in it yet. We're still waiting for it's purpose to be revealed.
Here's a close up of Anna's flapper hat, complete with blingy vintage button.
And here's the perfect hat Jess knit for Joachim. This is a unique hat because in certain situations it brings out the brown in his eyes and in others, it brings out the hazel. It's a great muted green that doesn't shoe up in the picture.
And the very neat printed/sewn bird shirt for Anna. She's still growing into it, so she'll have to model it in another couple of months. I've seen Jess's various works show up on her blog and I'm thrilled to have one of my very own.
Here's the shooting star shirt Benny and Corbin stenciled for Joachim. Kassia explained they picked out the stencil and then added every color until it became a bit muddy. Actually, I think it turned out pretty cool and Joachim wears it proudly. I like seeing how kids create things we as adults wouldn't, and somehow it works.
Earrings Tary made me.
The necklace peg board Elena made. Another one of those gifts I wasn't sure what to use it for when I got it, (but I knew I loved it) and it has been perfect for organizing my jewelry. It's actually rather loaded right now and I'm thinking about expanding on the idea because it works so well. It's helped me wear more of my beads that often just become knotted in the back of a drawer.
This one is my pride and joy. It was my nephew's premiere knitting project. As he pointed out, one end is wider than the other, but it shows the astounding improvement in his stitches and I love the colors. It's 100% wool in purple, green and burnt orange. The colors don't show up in the picture as richly as in life. I feel so sophisticated around town in my new scarf.
This is another interesting one. Nectaria carved it from a very sweet smelling branch on their property and Joachim has really loved it. He left it at their house once and asked about it for weeks until I finally got it back. It's surprising he liked this one so much because he also got a very real looking revolver from them for Christmas. I think the revolver is a little big and heavy and this one is easier to wield and tuck in his pants.

My friends' positions on guns range from no guns for play to rifles kept in a doorless gun cabinet in the living room. I think because we live in a rural town we have a different relationship to guns than in the city where they represent gangs and violence.

Last year Ben had to shoot a sick skunk stumbling around his parent's property. Hunting is very common here (although we're not much into it). We've had it all from elk to rabbit to bear. Just a few weeks ago the butcher came out to get one of my sister-in-law's cows. Talk about grass-finished, he just walked out in the pasture, lifted his rifle and the cow went down. Beckah said her stomach still flipped a little, but I guess that's a cow's life. It was far more humane than where most meat comes from, (and we're now the happy recipients of some hormone/antibiotic free grass-fed ground beef).

Joachim is allowed guns, but he's only allowed to shoot plants, furniture and stuffed animals in the house. I know he plays good guys-bad guys with the boys after church and I'm pretty sure they shoot each other, so, so much for not shooting people.

Anna's first steps

2011-01-28T13:20:00.004-07:00

I actually got Anna's very first step EVER on video. Just as special, it was early on the morning of her birthday. I was sitting in the kitchen deleting pictures off the camera to make room for her special day when Ben stood her up and she didn't sit right back down. I thought I'd be videoing her standing so it was a huge surprise when she stepped to Ben. Today, a week later, she still hasn't repeated the performance and she sits down most of the times we stand her up, but I know she can do it, and here it is!

Joachim's first chopstick success

2011-01-28T13:00:00.001-07:00

While I'm on firsts, I thought I'd post Joachim's first bite with chopsticks. Ever since he was 2, every time we've had Chinese food, or anything that resembles Chinese food, he's asked for chopsticks and with frustration he's tried to eat like Daddy.

Usually we resort convincing him to stab his food, but last week he actually grabbed it, held onto it, and got it into his mouth (granted it was more of a clutch than a pinch, but hey, that's hard for a lot of non-Asian adults). He also was not able to repeat this first as precisely, but we're excited for him because he's got the hang of it. (In his defense, dinner was beginning to take too long so we had to put a limit on the chopstick use.)

Joachim and Katerina

2011-01-21T15:35:00.004-07:00

I got these great pictures off of Grandma's camera recently. She's been having Joachim and Katerina over fairly often since all the bigger kids are in school. It's been great fun for Joachim (and me).
This one they are hot and tired after a long summer evening, ahhhhh, summer.

A couple of thoughts

2011-01-14T16:34:00.006-07:00

With the approach of Anna's first birthday this week, I'm having another crisis of sorts. My sentimental side is gaining on my sensible side and after feeling regret for not filling in a single line of her baby book or writing more than her birth story in my journal, I called a friend wiser and more experienced. I asked how she reconciled the passing years with her four kids. In the course of our conversation I got the answer I needed and had a poignant revelation about what is at the heart of my problem.

I believed I would have regrets about bad record keeping of her milestones or missing the special photo moments (I still wish Mhari could have done a photo shoot. Mhari, if I have another one, I'm FLYING that baby out to you!).

But, what I realized is that what I will miss is the ability to snuggle her, smell her, hear her and feel her warmth. That's an entirely different problem relating to the acceptance of time passing. While it was in ways worse to realize I can't preserve that which I want the most, it was also a relief that I really can do nothing. Isn't serenity found in those who know the difference between that which they can change and that which they cannot?

I am making her a little memento for her birthday and I do have this blog. As I looked back for ideas of what I want to include it was beautiful to see how she's changed. The memories that tugged at me the most were the pictures of her in the Sleepy Wrap (the physical touch thing again). I want to have another baby just so I can wear it some more . To be honest, there was also a part of me that wished for more pictures, but now I know that's not the answer to my dilemma, I am now looking for peace in the acceptance (and celebration) of change and growth.

I didn't feel this sentimental about Joachim, I barely baked him a cake for his birthday, but Jen said that with each subsequent baby she realized more clearly just how quickly time passes. And, having looked through the blog I realized I haven't put up good Anna smiles in a while so here are a few too many for her appr0aching birthday
I'm coming up with a few ideas I think will work for me to keep them babies in my heart. Hopefully I will stop beating myself up over baby books left empty and I will hold the tangibles like pictures and drawings with a more open hand ready to move on.

How appropriate, I just checked this blog I started following recently.

Christmas & decorating

2010-12-30T15:30:00.004-07:00

I'm never quite happy with our Christmas picture, probably because I'm excessively picky, but every year I've framed it in an ornament frame and every year when I hang the previous year's picture I love it. So here's to next year.
Here is Anna with her godparents (she now reaches for Godmama at church which is so sweet). I took the picture and I'm not quite sure what happened. I'm interested in being an amateur photographer, but I think I need to work a little on my timing and chemistry with my subject. I'll have to call Mhari for some help. I tried to take a picture of my nieces and nephews for my SIL's present... more on that later, but Ben's honest comment was, "It's not really that great of a picture, huh?" It definitely takes more than a nice camera to take good pictures. Anyway, I LOVE Anna's Godparents and I'm glad to have this picture for her sake.
Above is our Christmas card, I'm very sorry if you didn't get one, I ran out and when I went back to the fabric store to buy more of the fabric I was cutting the snowman family from they were out. Next year I am buying cards, but I couldn't pass these guys up this year. And to all of you who send pictures of your families and kids every year, thank you, I love them and I love seeing you hang on my wall of fame.I'll not going into the details of this picture, but suffice it to say Anna wanted NOTHING to do with Joachim and Joachim was trying VERY hard to earn his M&Ms. Fortunately, all it takes is a split second to give the illusion of sibling affection. (They really are affectionate with each other, just not when I have the camera)
Since this is our first year in our new house I've been enthusiastic about decorating. It was pretty humble this year, but with after Christmas sales I have visions of colorful icicles and glowing trees in the front yard for next year. Hopefully new siding and window trim will also be in the budget for 2011.

The weekend after thanksgiving Joachim and I decorated the little tree at our door. A week later our neighbors across the street hung a whole bunch of lights and in the subsequent weeks four more houses on our block decorated. This is the first year in the four Christmases that we've owned this house that people decorated.

In fact the block before and after us were entirely dark. Even though we're barely acquaintances with our neighbors I still felt a proud camaraderie with our street.
Below is the gingerbread church Joachim and I made complete with meringue dome. Joachim spent many a meal rambling on telling stories about the church and nativity figures. The church is now in the woods behind Grandma's house hopefully being nibbled on by some happy woodland critters.

Tree cutting

2010-12-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

This year I bought our pass the first week the Forest Service sold them and we went up the second weekend of the season. The challenge is to get there before the snow makes the road impassible, which is actually relative to our vehicle. We got to traipse through some snow, but mostly mud.

Below Ben is very nicely modeling the hat I knit for his Birthday.
It's funny, I've only ever had pine trees in my life, jack pines growing up and pinion pines here. They're not a classic Christmas tree and the ones here are obviously not groomed, still we always manage to find a full and nicely shaped tree among all the more ragged, wild looking ones.

Delta Parade of Lights

2010-12-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

This is an annual tradition we have not made every year. Cold + wet + kids = just not worth it. But this year it was mild and festive. There were not nearly as many parades where I grew up as there are in this region and never had I been to a parade where the showered you with candy quite like they do here. Joachim came home with pockets full of candy. For some it's a chance to shamelessly advertise their businesses by driving a company truck down the road with a wreath on the front. But some are really quite beautiful.

I have to admit every year one of the floats that is put together with the most care, attention and brilliance is the Wal-Mart float. I don't think this so much a reflection of Wal-Mart as a Corporation, but rather our particular store's relationship to the community and the interest of its employees. Did I also mention they threw lots and lots of candy?Another nice perk is a church that provides free hot chocolate, marshmallows and a mountain of home made cookies. We really like that part. Above is our cups of hot cocoa and Joachim is working on a cookie.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

My parents graciously joined us on this side of the mountain for Thanksgiving this year so it was a full table at the Jones house.

Uncle Chris and Auntie Beckah.

And we went for our annual post meal walk down the dirt road and enjoyed the sun taking a little of the chill off the freezing temperatures.These two always make me wonder. They have an entire world all of their own and to explore it even more they've been enjoying Thursday mornings at grandma's house with Grandma all to themselves.

The knitting post

2010-11-30T15:32:00.004-07:00

I've been inspired by my dear friend's knitting blog to start posting some of my knitting accomplishments/experiments. I've been surprised just how interesting it is to follow her journey to "master knitter" which I believe is an actual title people receive when they've mastered certain techniques.

I've also discovered I'm a seasonal knitter/reader and since the seasons here are split almost exactly I get six months of reading in the summer and six months of knitting in the winter. Here Anna is modeling the hat a made her just after she was born and the sweater I knit while I was still pregnant. I had a strong intuition she was a girl which is why I chose a reddish, but I made sure it could suit a boy also, just in case.

She's technically wearing the sweater backwards according to the pattern, but if I turn it around it practically strangles her... so this works.

new look

2010-11-30T14:58:00.004-07:00

For my 30 and a half birthday I got my hair bobbed again and I got my earlobes pierced for the first time (I took my cartilage piercings out when I was pregnant with Anna, it was the first trimester and everything bothered me... when I went put them back in I felt like I'd outgrown that phase of my life.)It was this picture that first inspired the idea for me... this and the several posts of earrings on her blog (I also want to note she is modeling the cardigan she designed and knit). It was a two month long decision and in the mean time I polled my mom friends about earrings. Here's what I learned... most of them haven't really worn earrings since the first or second child and the novelty is pretty much gone after twenty or more years of earrings.

Those of you who know me very well know I never got mine pierced because of a birthmark on my left ear that I never wanted to draw attention to. But recently I've been feeling boring and wanted to feel young and feminine again and became attracted to delicately dangley earrings (yes I know I have a baby).

It also happened that my sister in law suggested we go to the hair salon in town and get our hair cut together so we could watch each other's kids. This past year I decided to try longer hair again because I wanted those luxurious layers and waves of the movie stars and my 13 year old niece. I've concluded I'm just a bob girl, though, and I needed to get it off my shoulders.

We made a whole morning of it and got our hair cut, went to the coffee shop and pierced my ears. The Latino woman who pierced them didn't realize until I sat down that she was not piercing Anna's ears, I felt a bit embarrassed but I've since recovered. I'll be ready for dangleys by Christmas and I hope my nieces make me a pair or two because I have twenty years of missed earrings to collect. Here is my mug shot...
Here's a picture of the cartilage piercing just for fun... the flower crowns are part of an orthodox wedding.

Telluride in September

2010-11-24T15:20:00.001-07:00

Telluride in July

2010-11-24T14:59:00.003-07:00

We took a day trip to Telluride this summer, mostly to get in the mountains and ride the free gondola, but also to crash our cousins camping trip on the way back. It was a long time ago, but I didn't want to miss posting these pictures. I hoping we can go back in December to see Telluride Christmas lights and snow... no skiing for us!

Halloween

2010-11-20T12:11:00.003-07:00

Presenting Bob the Builder.
I had a lot of fun putting this costume together, it really only included sewing him the tool belt which actually proved more challenging than I had expected because of the way I was trying to layer the pockets.

After wrestling with my sewing machine over sewing through 6 layers of canvas I finally broke the needle. In searching through my sewing supplies I found replacement needles a size larger and I vaguely remembered buying them when I was in high school. I popped one in and and ta da! It was like sewing through butter.

Ben printed a BtheB logo that I glued on his home depot helmet and it was complete.
We opted to only trick-or-treat on Main Street. It's easy because the stores are close together and it starts at 3:OOpm. I made Anna a sort of cute lamb costume, actually it was rather a flop, but I might revisit it again next.

It didn't matter because she was running a fever and had to stay home with Ben. I'd planned to put her back in her costume and take official pictures of her first Halloween, but I finally put it away this morning after it spent the last 3 weeks on my dining room table.
I'm hoping Joachim can actually use the tool belt when he helps Ben with projects, but as of yet Joachim is too apt to walk away with the nails in his pocket.

A funny story about that, recently Ben had to go under the house to fix a leak, I stood outside the crawl space for a little while handing him tools. Joachim came wandering outside and upon find Daddy under the house he declared he would watch him and help. Since I was holding Anna and it was cold I went inside.

Later Joachim came in the house wielding a large foam noodle. I asked if Daddy was finished and Joachim launched into a story about how he was using his noodle to help Daddy. I suggested he go back out. Thirty seconds later Joachim was back asking for a flat screw driver. We found one and he returned to the crawl space.

When Ben came in I asked about the noodle. Ben said, "Is that what happened? I asked him for a screw driver and he was gone a really long time. When he finally came around the corner and saw me in the hole he jumped and turned on his heels" (which is when he came back in the get the screw driver he'd forgotten all about.)
Jaochim's jack-o-lantern complete with cheeks, ears and eyelashes per his request.
Cousins came to our house and I threw on Anna's costume, she had four hooves, but it looks like only one ended up on for the group shot.

marble run

2010-11-05T15:10:00.003-06:00

We got this idea from a mothering magazine. There were several ideas for indoor play in small spaces. Joachim spent a lot of time racing his marble for about three days, and then while he was trying to add a tunnel he got frustrated and pulled the whole thing down.

He is 3 after all. He did give me the pieces and said, "It's ok mama, we can make it into another one." He's also reminding me save rolls for a really really really long marble run. We'll see.

roller baby

2010-11-05T14:55:00.004-06:00

Joachim never had the space to give this a try, somehow it suits Anna's personality better anyway. She cruises all over the kitchen, living room and hall. She can navigate thresh holds and area rugs. She just holds on to the side of her roller and lifts it over obstacles.

Joanna, this is for you. I took Anna to her 9 month appointment last week and she weighed 17lbs 3oz. Apparently that puts her in the 25 percentile. Thinking I was alarmed, the doctor immediately followed that up with a reassuring explanation about it being a normal drop in weight and crawling burning more calories and so on.

I wasn't at all concerned, my thought was that if she were any bigger I wouldn't be able to carry her around, I'm perfectly happy with her size, and geez, Gregory must be huge!

rodeo

2010-11-02T11:21:00.006-06:00

These are from summer, but I still wanted to post them. It was a really fun time for our family. Even though it was our county rodeo, we felt like the tourists. It was quite the cultural experience. Below is Mutton Bustin', an event I never knew existed. It's a chance for little cowboys (and cowgirls) to get a start on bull riding skills.

Generally the kids clung to the sheep facing forward, but this one amused us all coming out of the shoot backwards.Apparently sheep DO buck when ridden. Who would've known?

applefest tradition continues

2010-11-02T11:16:00.000-06:00

Yoga reading

2010-10-19T13:41:00.000-06:00

P I gave her Joachim's book to keep her at bay while I tried to make sense of the not so helpful baby sleep advice.

Ben got some nice shots of her, she really likes to ham it up for him.
At 6:30 am, in one fell swoop, Anna pulled my entire cup of tea onto the floor. One would think I would know better and keep my food far from her reach... yes, one would think.

As I got out the mop and bucket I reflected on how broken in my brand new house is becoming. The grout is still stained from the spill and it bothers me every time I walk through.

Anna is such a different baby from Joachim. She's sort of thick and many of those cute girl pants don't fit around her waist (I had the opposite problem with Joachim and when he started walking I bought a dog collar from Petco because I couldn't find a toddler belt in his size, even elastic pants still fall down on him).

She gets angry if you offer her a bottle (and has since she was 3 months old), but she will drink from a regular cup if you help her. She absolutely will not swallow baby food in any form or flavor, but she'd eat teething biscuits, bread and saltines all day if you let her, she completely snubs cheerios. Joachim was a fruitarian. Anna is very opinionated and has an iron will at the ripe old age of 8 1/2 months.

And, I'm pretty sure she's a lefty.

Still, all she has to do is give me that grin and I melt into a happy lump of putty.

Joachim entry

2010-10-19T13:39:00.001-06:00

Joachim is a chatterbox at home, but mute in public. We had his hearing tested back when he was two and not talking at all, but his hearing and comprehension were great, in fact the technician said he was her first child in his age group that had the attention span to complete the assessment. She said she was able to collect a lot of information from him for their study. I think he just gets shy when he's on the spot.

We're part of a great free preschool home school program and every month we check out a different themed Tupperware full of motor skill, thinking skill and reading skill activities designed for play. There's also a craft and a sheet of activity suggestions for me. For example we got a stencil and first he colors it in, next time he traces is and cuts it out to make a puzzle and lastly he does a crayon rubbing of it.

Our first box had lincoln logs, puzzles, horseshoe game, he made a tipi and so on. Yesterday we exchanged boxes and the teacher asked if he wanted the camping or the dinosaur box. I know from other moms that the camping box contains the fixings for s'mores so it took some self control not to answer for him. He looked down and mouthed dinosaur. As we were leaving someone else asked him his name and he held up three fingers. It was all good for my humility.

Last week Mhari and her mom stopped for lunch on their way from Seattle to Taos. It was such a wonderful surprise for me and even more delightful was how much Joachim loved Jane. He talked to her from when she walked in the door to the moment they left. Later that day Joachim told me he was shy of Mhari (who he's met several times) but that Mhari's mom was his friend and he'd like her to come over again. I don't know if it was her warm British accent or her bright smile, but I don't think she realizes her place of honor in Joachim's world.

Last night Joachim said "Hey" to my mom and she responded, "Hay is for horses" and without stopping to think he said, "Yes, but we are using it to mean, 'hi'". He is very articulate.

The other night Ben was sleeping on the couch to get away from baby and me and in the middle of the night Joachim came in to snuggle because he thought it was morning. Since Ben was in the living room I let Joachim stay. After holding him a little while I rolled away and he said, "No Daddy, hold me longer" I didn't even get credit for sleeping with him! A few minutes later he was laughing in his sleep. He laughed hard in a building laughter and I thought it would sure be nice to have his dreams.

He's had only one bad dream that I know of, it consisted of a bat in the laundry room. Apparently I got out a chainsaw and cut it up and cooked it in the oven. Who knows?

So Joachim's interest in Dinosaurs is probably from our visit to the Dino museum last week. It left a bigger impression on him than I thought. Although, who could forget a giant robotic dinosaur eating the head off of another dino complete with entrails (see video in next post). Needless to say, a lot of our pretend play with the large plastic dinosaurs from the box has included eating each other.

Dinosaur Journey

2010-10-19T13:23:00.002-06:00

backyard s'mores

2010-10-19T09:03:00.003-06:00

Ben has traced my obsession with s'mores back to a childhood feel good association. Whatever it is I took every opportunity to eat s'mores I could get this summer.

After a Labor Day trip up to the mesa I became fixed on going camping as a family. As is life with kids, the stars never aligned for us to go up before it got too cold, so we roasted marshmallows in our backyard. I have to admit was it was really nice to go inside, wash up, and crawl into our own warm beds. I'm hoping to go camping next spring.
My pride and joy of the summer was the bag of mammoth marshmallows that I found tucked obscurely away in a store. I was the favorite (and only) Auntie at all of the family bbqs. Below my marshmallow is dwarfing a standard marshmallow. I fantasized about how awed my marshmallowless friends in Russia would be if I sent them one of my mega-mallows. Sorry they never got there.

Us up on the Grand Mesa

the attempted family photo

2010-09-28T21:28:00.013-06:00

We don't have any photos of all 4 of us and I thought fall in Telluride would be a great opportunity. At the onset, I bribed Joachim with ice cream if he smiled nicely for the pictures. He did exactly what is predictable for a 3 year year old and made a goofy face in EVERY single picture.

Finally, we went back to the condo and I told him in no uncertain terms he would not be getting ice cream (to which he reacted predictably). Realizing how important this picture was to me, Ben graciously gave him another chance (although I would not get my cool outdoor picture, I was happy). We wiped the dirt smeared tears from his face and he did a little better, but if it wasn't him then it was Anna.

Notice my plastered smile, I'm thinking "all he needs to do is smile once, just once, c'mon and smile once for me." I really wish Mhari was around to work her photo magic and create art from my family. Perhaps I should just make this into a collage, I have three times this many pictures.

These are the pictures in which one or the other of my children appear drugged.

And so we enter the sticking out the tongue portion of this photo shoot.
On the bottom here we have the winner, it lacks the fall flare I was going for, but we're all in the same picture and Joachim did get his ice cream. There are plenty more family photos to take and now I have a new appreciation for all of those beautiful family Christmas pictures we receive.
My dad snapped this one while Ben and I were discussing what to do with Joachim, he had no problem being cute here.

Blue Mesa Resevoir

2010-09-28T13:05:00.000-06:00

On our way home from my parents' I stopped with the kids at the resevoir to stretch our legs. If we'd had bathing suits we'd have gone all the way in. This is the closest to a beach Joachim has ever been... he even kept calling it the ocean despite my attempts to correct him.

what is this blog anyway?

2010-09-28T12:10:00.005-06:00

Recently in several of the blogs I follow the authors have pondered why they blog, or what direction they want to go. So, now it's my turn.

I've become self-conscious of my marathon-blogging as I try to catch up on time between my internet usage. I'm always thinking about you, my friends, who might be reading and skimming and even losing interest in my lengthy stories and repetitive pictures.

Of course blogs are a colored slice of life, we all know that, but Ben has had more than one conversation with me (ok, a lot of conversations) about how my life is perfectly adequate and if reading what my friends are doing is going to make me unsatisfied and feel unaccomplished then I'm going to have to stop reading. (I won't go into the problems facebook creates for me... there is absolutely no way I can keep up). On the flip side reading blogs also makes me feel less alone and more connected to myself through my friends.

I love living in Delta and have no interest in moving anytime soon, but I do feel isolated here with only a few moms whose parenting I can really identify with (thank you Corey and Kassia).

So, laying awake with Anna at night and considering the world of blogs, it occurred to me one of the things I like most about my blog is its scrapbook quality. I have aspirations for a physical scrapbook of sorts, yet alas, a book is far from reality, I barely even get pictures printed to send to the great-grandparents, let alone to hang on my wall or put in a book. Nonetheless, one thing I love to do is look through the 8 or so fat photo albums my grandmother is still adding to.

So, I realized as the mother of two I don't blog to spread my pithy thoughts, and obviously I'm not traveling so there're no adventures to share. I concluded it's just so I can see the story of my life unfold. I know Ben looks back on previous entries at work and Joachim always asks to see himself on the computer. I can even see how much I enjoy having my own story to read. After a few months some entries I cringe with emabarassment over, but boy, wouldn't I love to have a book like this of my own childhood to look over.

I don't know... my grandmother just has a few black and white pictures pre-WWII and maybe that's better, a way to live in the present unencumbered by the past. After all living lightly is supposed to be liberating and I regularly read about our societal need to simplify. I see it in Delta whenever busy big city friends visit and I realize just how beautifully slow-paced our lives are.

In fact, for 2 years my sister in law has not even had a phone in the house in which they live, it's 30 yards away in the house they're building and sometimes, much to my frustration, days will go by without someone checking messages. It's difficult if I'm trying to make plans, but it always gives me a great excuse to stop by and visit. She said she actually really likes not having phone interruptions. It's a foreign concept to me with my cell phone, that said my phone is 5 years old and based on the ads Verizon keeps sending I think they can't believe it still works :)

So, here it is, my scrapbook blog, although that doesn't change anything except how I see it.

Palisades Peach Festival

2010-09-28T11:05:00.008-06:00

I have now been to all of the produce festivals on the western slope... I think. Next year it'll be Huck Finn Days and Mountain Harvest Festival I hope. Here Joachim is giving Anna an up close view of the balloon monkey a clown made for him.

There was peach everything, but all we came home with were peach colored beads and peach flavored popcorn. There was a surprising number of visitors from Denver... they were the only ones crazy enough to pay those prices for peaches, we got ours elsewhere.
I just love her cute little nose and I can't get over how bald she still is. I think it throws people off because she'll be wearing a pink onsie, purple pants, and pink socks and women (never men) will have whole conversations with me about my son. It bothers me just a little, ok, enough to tell Ben about each and every incident, I just don't get it.
Joachim chose the caboose, of course, and the ever exhausting moon bounce.

Free hand drawing

2010-09-27T23:00:00.013-06:00

All summer Joachim produced stencils with crayola markers. He never turned down the suggestion to stencil.

Once our refrigerator started over flowing, I sent them to grandparents, then to friends, I decorated presents with them and finally I started discreetly throwing them away. He was beaming proud of each and every one he produced and he would always call me in to share in the reveal.

Ben expressed concern Joachim wasn't free drawing, and I didn't have much explanation for why, but then I didn't need one because the first week of September we started up story time at the library again and something clicked for him.

At the end they did an incredibly corny craft decorating a pencil and Joachim absolutely fell in love with his. He named it Sandy Bairdy and when we got home first thing he did was draw a picture of Sandy Bairdy using Sandy Bairdy. I was dumbstruck, I guess a summer of stencils wasn't a waste after all.

He then added the picture below which he told me is Wallace and Gromit going to the moon in their space ship. Oh, what a proud day for me. He's gone on to draw all sorts of imaginative stories. He narrates as he draws giving me a beautiful glimpse into his world.

What does Anna do all this time? She rips up paper towels into confetti, her current favorite occupation.

Llama Llama misses mama

2010-09-27T22:38:00.003-06:00

This was the story read at story time. It's about a Llama and his first day at pre school. It was poignant for Joachim because he had tried a pre school last spring and he will tell all who ask that he was too scared, but he'll try again when he's big like Jacob.

I found the drawings to be so expressive of my own little boy it touched me too. Interestingly, all on his own he started calling me Mama Llama and himself Llama Llama. It sort of roils off the tongue nicely.

I've ordered Llama Llama and red pajamas and Llama Llama mad at mama through inter library loan and I can't wait to receive them.

lego-holic

2010-09-27T22:35:00.008-06:00

Joachim has also entered a major Lego phase. He will literally do legos for more than an hour at a time, and has an amazing ability to start over when something falls apart (balanced at other times with outbursts of frustration in which he scatters pieces everywhere). Our collection has been humble, yet adequate, but recently Ben bid on some legos by the pound on EBay and scored 5 lbs of awesome legos at a fraction of their retail price.

Each one of Joachim's creations is an original, although he does get out pictures and tries to follow the instructions. If you see the picture he was working from you can always see the resemblance.

He won't accept help and if you do help him he will redo your work, "to make it something better." They all involve a long and interesting story if you have the patience to listen. I have an astonishing number of pictures I will spare you. The picture above is a mechanic's garage, if you look closely you can see the car is up on a little lift. He also clips thread between legos to create tow trucks and trains.
And yes, he's still practicing to be a master chef. Below he convinced my mom he needed flour, water and spices to bake bread... I wonder where he learned that?

toilet lid

2010-09-27T22:05:00.005-06:00

I'm going to hear it from Ben for this one, but for weeks after we got this new toilet lid I had to go through this ritual with Joachim. I was so tired of him slamming the lid and waking Anna up that I put in a request for this lid... worth every penny to me.

the fence project

2010-09-07T12:29:00.009-06:00

This morning as we waved goodbye to Daddy, I noticed a thin layer of frost on the car. A sign of things to come and a reminder we need to bring everything that's ripe in from the garden. Already! This year's growing season was so short.

Yesterday Ben finished our fence! I hadn't thought it was much of a priority since Joachim is a homebody and he mostly plays in the shade of the carport and doesn't leave the yard.

But a fence keeps out wandering dogs and I realized I couldn't safely have other people's kids over to play. I was also getting tired of looking out my kitchen window at our Baptist neighbor's cinder block building and asphalt parking lot. (Aside from that, they make great neighbors).

In May someone accidentally backed into the passenger door of my car and the insurance settlement just about covered the cost of the fencing materials. I unfortunately have to live with a slightly crumpled door, but the car is old and it still runs fine.

Here Ben is drilling post holes, although he had to dig a lot of them by hand because the dirt is so hard.
Here he is nailing up the pickets... a LOT of pickets.
This is the finished south side (the chain link is coming down next).
This picture is from the front of the house (our side yard).
This is from my kitchen window, no more asphalt and cinder block! Ben doesn't know this, but I'm going to ask for one more section of fence that is angled to 4 feet so it won't end as abruptly.
I do love my finished fence and I'm looking forward to planting lots of flowers along my new border. I think our neighbors at the church are pretty happy with the fence too because our yard isn't much to look at right now... we even got a weed citation warning from the city, which was mortifying, but easily remedied with a lawnmower.

One morning, Joachim and I stepped outside to find a backhoe digging up our yard. Nothing could have been more exciting for a 3 year old boy. They were doing something to our water connection and they had to dig a 6 foot hole!

my scariest moment yet.

2010-09-07T11:42:00.005-06:00

Ben finished the fence Saturday and that evening I have my first parenting panic attack.

Thanks to Corey and our awesome stroller I walk to church as often as we can, it's only about 15 minutes and the kids love it. We were getting ready to leave for vespers and I told Joachim to go out to the carport and get in the stroller, Anna was already buckled and I'd run back in the house to get something for her. When I got back out, Joachim wasn't in the stroller. I called in the back yard and then in the front and he didn't answer. I was a bit worried, but mostly annoyed, I went back in the house and looked in all of the rooms calling him, but no Joachim.

Worried, I went back outside and walked all the way around the fence looking for him down the alley and around the baptist church.

He had NEVER disappeared like this and he always came when I called him. I started to think, ok this is Delta, I've never heard of a kidnapping, so he's probably not far, I just have to find him. The problem was I'd also recently talked to my neighbor and learned that fifteen years ago her 6 year old son had been hit and killed by a drunk driver who drove up on the sidewalk (they lived two blocks off of Main St. then).

I started imagining my son somewhere nearby unconscious which is why he wasn't answering my yelling. I called Grandma and asked her to come right away to help me look, (Ben was running an errand in another town). I kept walking around and around our house and down the alley calling him. None of our neighbors were home or in their yards because I'm sure they would have stopped to help.

I went back out to the sidewalk and there he was walking back from the end of the block with hands full of rocks and sticks. Before I could say anything he called to me, "I didn't go in the street. I just had to get these pretty rocks." Upon further probing I put together that he had walked to the other end of the block on his way to church and was waiting for ME to come. When I didn't come and he heard me calling he decided to come home. He just thought he'd get a head start and I'd catch up. I was literally sick the rest of the evening, and we've had many conversations with him since about wandering off and where he is and isn't allowed to go by himself.

I'm glad the fence is complete, but it's only around the backyard, which I can't really see from inside the house and he still prefers playing in the front (there's more going on in the neighborhood). Actually, I know everyone on our block has a pretty big backyard, but I've noticed we all spend a fair amount of time in our front yards playing or just sitting on the stoop. I like that. At least by spring he'll be 4 and I'm hoping less prone to absentmindedly take a stroll.

The 6 or 7 minutes he was missing was a strange mix of feeling like an awful parent and realizing nothing is really in my control because anything can happen at any moment, like my neighbor's son who was hit on his own sidewalk in front of his house.

texas

2010-09-07T10:50:00.007-06:00

My grandparents treated us to our annual visit and as always we had a great time. Joachim is starting to remember them and their house from one visit to the next which is fun. We went in July which is a pretty big mistake (bigger than I realized), but I wanted them to see Anna when she was still a baby. We will now get back on our winter visit schedule and I don't think we'll do summer again. I really don't know how people live there, it doesn't even cool off at night!
My rose was in bloom! More than 20 years ago my grandmother had each of is grandkids pick out a rose and she planted the bush in her garden for us. I am happy to say my rose bush is one of the surviving few (It has been a long time). It's a yellow peace rose developed after WWII. I of course didn't know that when I picked it, but some time in high school my grandmother sent me a newspaper article she found all about my rose. I vaguely remember picking it based on scent... and it still smells just as luscious.
Martha Gene and Baity as an engaged couple.
I sometimes try to picture my Grandmother with 4 kids under the age of 6, taking diapers to the laundromat down the street and having ice delivered to her ice box. I always want her to tell me how she did it and what she remembers and she says it's so long ago no one could remember. She's still sharp as a tack and not one bit senile, I guess it just was a long time ago. It makes me wonder if I'll really forget these sleepless baby nights. I already forget parts of what we went through with Joachim's skin rashes. The days are long, but the years are short.

Cookie Monster

2010-08-30T21:44:00.002-06:00

I read the adventures of my childless friends' blogs and I feel like my life is so boring and redundant, but hey, this is entertainment to us :) The last one Ben took after her bath.

Roubideaux Canyon

2010-08-30T21:42:00.002-06:00

Roubideaux Canyon is a short 25 minutes from our door and I had no idea it was so beautiful. We've been crashing our in-laws camping trips this summer, showing up for the s'more eating and swimming and then going home to sleep in our beds. We do plan to camp with our kids... but this works out much better for now. Joachim and Katya the adventurers.
Roasting marshmallows with spears!
I like this picture of Fr Daniel... he has this same expression in EVERY picture I've ever taken of him. We have a picture from 1976 and he has the very SAME smile! I have one like it of Ben, when I remember which folder it's in I'll post them together.
The last thing before we left Joachim and Katerina were drawing with charcoal, I have just informed him we are leaving.

Cherry Days

2010-08-30T21:12:00.001-06:00

In my effort to make it to all the local festivals, I took my parents to Cherry Days in the nearby hippie town of Paonia. This is the town where Mothering Magazine was started and originally published. One of the midwives we interviewed had all of the original publications... very grassroots.

This festival is definitely one we'll make a family tradition, probably replacing the Sweet Corn festival. It's higher in the mountains so it's cooler and the people are exceptionally friendly, the problem has been that it's over the 4th of July which has conflicted with my family reunions.
Paonia from the top of the ferris wheel.
The parade was a blast and the Carnival was so much nicer than when it was in Delta. I talked Joachim into riding the kiddie roller coaster which turned out to be a terrifying experience for him, what do I know? That said, when he rode the bull-dozers, which was his choice, he made a big show of riding with no hands like the girls did on the roller coaster. I didn't realize he'd even noticed , he's so precious.

about ben

2010-08-04T20:55:00.002-06:00

For father's day I made some freezer paper stencil shirts for the kids and much to my satisfaction I think Ben got a kick out of them.My dear husband has taken on a new hobby or rather a new hobby has taken on my husband. A while ago he ordered a sourdough starter in the mail and since then he's been feeding the beast. It seems we almost always have a bowl of the stuff spilling over in the corner and it is like a third child needing regular attention.

At first he tried to keep up with the bread baking so as not to waste any of the growing goo, but that proved impossible. I'm not sure exactly how he's managing it now, but he's mastered a pretty good loaf and has made sourdough English muffins, sourdough pita bread, sour dough pizza and sour dough pancakes. Below is his first ever loaf.

summer book club - 5 & 6

2010-07-07T15:11:00.004-06:00

The Rec Center
I've taken Joachim to the pool several times, but it was so much more fun with friends. We brought all of our pool supplies and I started blowing up the Spiderman tube. No sooner was I finished than Tristen took off with it... and Joachim generously let him.

Next, I blew up the Nemo tube and when I finished Lydia asked if she could use it, and Joachim was quite obliging. Finally, I blew up the pink flower tube and Joachim happily took it off into the pool. It's funny, I didn't was annoyed he let the other kids take the tubes, I guess he has a little more Christian spirit than me, and he wasn't at all bothered by the pink tube.Kieren (one of Anna's potential future suitors) and Anna lounging in their tubes.
Most recently we went to the Kidzplex which is a giant indoor climbing facility with tunnels, slides, ball pit and the ever popular zipline. Below Joachim is having a ball (he he he) behind Tristen and then racing down the zipline.
It 's been an awesome summer of fun for Joachim and socializing for me. We had an outing every week but now many of his play buddies will be returning to school.
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Joachim has a blossoming interest in drawing, more specifically stenciling and our house is being overrun by his work. Literally, I can't mail them to grandparents and great-grandparents fast enough. He's exceptionally meticulous about it which transfers to his coloring pictures. He can color perfectly in the lines, and it takes him and painfully long time to do it. That said, if I need to do something with Anna, I just set him up with a stencil.I don't know what's the story with this one, but it's funny, right up there with when he decapitates everyone and stacks 6 heads on one guy. They all have stories if you have the time and patience to listen.

summer book club - 3 & 4

2010-06-24T14:14:00.014-06:00

Dinosaur Museum, Cross Road Orchards and Children's Museum-
The entire Grand Valley is apparently a dino graveyard and there's a nifty museum that Joachim was a bit young for. The robotic dinosaurs were almost too much for him, especially the one that "spit" water at standersby. Below some of our boys are waiting to be "spit" on.There was sort of a digging pit that Anna really dug, (he he he). It was made entirely of crushed walnut hulls, a very interesting texture quite unlike sand.At the history museum there was an old train and as far as extinct goes, they had the largest collection of old and rotting tractors I've ever seen. As Corey put it, "I assume to climb on and play with."
Good ole Trist crankin' the engine.
And Joachim not far behind.
Another of our outtings was to the Children's Museum, a neat little hands on, crafty, dress-up, experiment, takes things apart and play pretend place.

All of these neat things to do and my son spent the entire time in the "space shuttle". It was difficult for me as a parent to not try to coerce, bribe or even threaten him into trying something else. In my effort to encourage him to try different things it's difficult for me to let him choose his own activities. I suppose there's a balance, but it's not a matter of me finding it I already know I'm too pushy.Here Joachim is sitting in the cockpit of the space shuttle under an irritating blacklight, thoroughly enjoying himself. I couldn't even coax him out with the excitement of playing with Tristen who was trying on every costume, delivering long narrations and asking to be fully documented.

dino movies

2010-06-24T14:10:00.001-06:00

You can see it was quite gruesome as the rex lifted its head, chewing on the head of another large beast with entrails hanging out.

This was a bit more fun, we did the earthquake simulator again and again and again.

summer book club - 2

2010-06-24T13:37:00.003-06:00

Day at Confluence lake-
The overall goal was to alternate free activities with paid activities. Fortunately, there were enough kids that we often qualified for a group rate.
Here's Tristen, who is often in my pictures. He's quite a different temperament than Joachim which is probably why Joachim lights up when Tristen arrives. Tristen is a couple years older and Joachim is one of his great admirers. Tristen tells me that if he doesn't marry baby Anna then one of his brothers will, so there you have it Anna.On our way to the lake we saw the carnival was in town. Joachim has a standing love affair with ferris wheels, I think from a Thomas movie or a book, I don't know, but I just had to take him.

After some pressure Ben caved and let us go just to ride the ferris wheel (although after we got there I begged two more rides on Joachim's behalf). I didn't mention in the circus entry that these sort of things attract a slice of Delta that is... well odd, I'm sorry.

Interestingly we went to the exact same carnival 2 months later in a hippie town 45 minutes away. It was a completely different vibe, much more festive, uplifting and positive. It's interesting to me the energy different crowds create.
Anyway, here's Delta with the Grand Mesa in the background.

summer book club - 1

2010-06-24T08:41:00.002-06:00

For the last two years I've met regularly with a handful of moms in an informal book club. This summer we planned out weekly activities and it's been fun looking forward to each gathering since most of the places and museums are new to me. It helped me realize that even though I live in a small, somewhat isolated town, there are still plenty of opportunities.

Our first adventure was on the Grand Mesa, it was early June so there was still snow, but since it was already hot in Delta, it was nice to get up higher and cool off.
Roasting marshmallows. You should ask Ben about my S'mores obsession this summer.
The best part has been watching my son emerge as a social being, making friends and trying new things.

circus

2010-06-22T11:21:00.003-06:00

I serendipitously, acquired some circus tickets. I'd gone down to the Federal Credit Union to check out their grand opening, get some free grub, load Joachim up with balloons and other freebies and stumbled on the country music station giving out family passes to the circus (a $45 dollar value for us). It was a small town circus that hit four cities around here in 4 nights. It had mostly retired animals from bigger circuses and second class acts, but it was fun in the same way it's fun to go to minor league baseball games. The performers all gave it their best and we came home dusty, but happy.

new and old

2010-06-22T11:07:00.002-06:00

I got distracted sorting through pictures and I started looking up pictures of Joachim at the same age Anna is now. Here is a good Joachim on top and Anna below. And this is my strolling dream and that every time I use I thank Corey for "handing-around" to me. If you live in Delta you could find me anywhere with it, the coffee shop, library, consignment shop, any one of the parks and best of all we can walk to and from church now. I love, love love it!

love birds

2010-06-22T10:29:00.007-06:00

A couple of years ago I declared to Ben I wanted to start collecting something. I think he envisioned our house overtaken by cows or little bears, but I'd already decided on bird because they make me feel cheery. Above is our "we've moved/Anna is born" announcement he did for me (which, by the way, if you still need our new address please let me know).
Below are the little glass birds I stole from my mom for the top of our wedding cake... this was the beginning.
This is a bird he got me for valentine's day.
These are a Christmas present (salt & pepper). Also featured are peonies, but not just any peonies. Ben's parents drove over buckets of these peonies for our wedding. They came from Susan's garden. Susan, who is now Anna's godmother and our neighbor two blocks away, gives us a bouquet for our anniversary every year.
This year Ben bought me this bird ring from etsy for our 4 year anniversary. I love them and all they represent to me.Finally, while I'm on the sentimental string, Ben's mom presented us with this plant. Almost 5 years ago when I first met Ben I gave him a tiny house plant to go in his very bachelor pad. Not long after that he visited me in the Springs and the little plant froze in the unheated apartment. He left it for dead at his mom's house and we never thought about it again. We'll, she nursed it along all those years and here it is alive and thriving! I only hope I can keep it going.

new life

2010-06-01T15:23:00.000-06:00

I have so many things I never get to share, so suffice it to say I'm loving living in our very own house.
Joachim got on a Julia Child kick so Ben checked out her early cooking videos and we watched them in the evening. Since we moved "into the city" we actually lost TV channels and now only have two and those don't even come in reliably... it was unfortunate to lose our PBS stations, but who needs TV anyway, when you can watch hours of Julia Child for free from the library? Joachim's favorite episode is the lobster one, followed by the chicken episode. We discovered his love for cooking shows when he watched an entire Martha Stewart completely engrossed at a friend's house.

A bigger house

2010-06-01T15:20:00.000-06:00

The advantage to a bigger house is more space for expending energy.

philly memories

2010-06-01T15:19:00.001-06:00

These are a few pictures Mhari took when we visited in November, what a fabulous time we had.

pregnancy

2010-06-01T14:00:00.000-06:00

Mhari not only did our wedding photography, but she did some maternity photography when we visited in the fall. We had a wonderful photo shoot and I only wish she could have done baby pictures of Anna also, I can't help but be a little greedy, her work is so awesome.

the house ptoject

2010-04-26T09:51:00.003-06:00

I figure our epic house project deserves an epic entry. We've been asked for over two years when we think we'll be in our house, and now I am happy to announce we've been living in it for two weeks and it's awesome. I miss the open fields and the nearness to grandparents where we used to live, but this house does feel like our home.

A big huge thank you to Ben's parents who installed the windows, hung all of the doors (and even rehung a few per my specifications) who painted the walls and cut, caulked and painted all the trim and baseboard for us. Thank you to my dad who spent hours on his knees tiling with Ben and who painted all of the doors and my many salvaged cabinets (and my mom who played with Joachim on her many visits). They all made it possible for me to moved into a finished house. Following are our before and after pictures.

This is the living room, in most of the house Ben and I scraped the popcorn ceiling off except in the living room and the laundry room were we actually took down an additional ceiling. Ben and Chris rewired the entire house (hence the hole along the floor). Ben plumbed the sinks, tub, dishwasher and washing machine...and he now detests plumbing. He also refinished all the floors and even laid new wood floor where someone had cut a crawl hole in the middle of the hall.
When opened the entry to the kitchen and took out the arches. We put insulation in the wall as a sound barrier to the bedroom behind.
This is the kitchen, it was the first of many tiling projects. We were blessed that one of Ben's friends recently bought a house and gave us the stove and dishwasher which are both the nicest I've ever used. This is the steps down to the laundry room, another tiling feat. I bought the kitchen and laundry room tile on super discontinued sale more than a year before we put it in... and we were a few tiles short so I had to get a different color, I think it turned out well.It's a huge laundry room.
This is Joachim's bedroom, the two bedrooms are mirror image of each other with a walk through closet between.
Walk through closet on the right, we wired it to be two closets if someone wants to do that someday, but I really like it this way.
And the bathroom, my pride and joy. I spent days cutting and hanging tile in this room, around the window and on the shelf. I had Ben change the height of the shelf three times... fortunately I got it right the third time because I was out of chances. I want to take this bathroom with me to every house we ever live in.
The floor was completely rotted out to the crawl space below, Ben cut the entire floor out and it was very hard for me to imagine this room put back together again. When you opened the door you stepped straight down to the dirt.
The vanity was a freebie from someone at church, we painted it white and salvaged the sink from Chris' field. We literally walked out back from his house project and pulled it out of the mud... his yard's not really that bad, it's just under construction. The sink cleaned up nicely.

pascha

2010-04-08T08:46:00.006-06:00

The service began at 11:30pm in only candle light. At about 2:00am the service ended and we broke the lenten fast. This year we were on our way home a little after 4:00am. Different families have different tactics. We put our kids to bed and woke them up for the service, Anna slept until the party and Joachim was up for all but 30 minutes of the service. There is so much joy and anticipation that everyone does very well young to old.
Here Joachim is standing with Grandma who is directing the choir.
and here his waits his turn to receive communion.
Sunday we all got together for a church picnic and Easter egg hunting. Since Anna slept in her car seat the whole night I dressed her up for the picnic.
Below is the icon of the resurrection. Ben's sister painted this one. Her icons are the nicest of any contemporary ones I've ever seen. She painted all of the ones on the iconostasis in the picture at the beginning of the post. They depict different feast days like the nativity of Christ, Theophony, Tranfiguration and so on. This church is very blessed to have so many handpainted icons. She's often working on one when I take Joachim over to play with Katia. It's not just painting with acrylic or oils. She uses gesso, egg yolks and tempera paints, gold leaf, and I don't know what else.
This is the 5 and under egg hunt. In the subsequent video you see them all make a dash for the field, fortunately the older kids "hid" dozens of eggs and there were PLENTY for everyone.

Christ is Risen!

2010-04-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

easter egg hunt

2010-04-08T07:07:00.001-06:00

In which Katia gets bulled over by Tristen and Joachim gets left by the herd.

my makeshift photo shoot

2010-03-31T16:02:00.005-06:00

Ok, I am totally in love with my kids (and my husband, but he prefers not to be posted).
I seem to have a fetish for baby carriers, but from judging from a few of my mom friends, I don't think I'm the only one. For some women it's shoes, others it's purses and me it's carriers. Below is my newest and current favorite. I was too intimidated by the wrap with Joachim, but with Anna I've met several mom's who encouraged me to try it and I love it. It is as easy as tying your shoe, just on a larger scale and there are so many possibilities.

Benny & Corbin B-day

2010-03-31T15:00:00.002-06:00

We had a marvelous time again this year and Benny and Corbin's Sherwood park party. So many kids for Joachim to play with and cool mom's for me to meet. I'm so grateful Joachim has these boys in his life (and their awesome mama). Above Joachim is waiting his turn wack the rooster pinata and below he is fencing with one of the dads and then "beating" Josh, who he really admired.

pat-a-cake

2010-03-18T08:42:00.001-06:00

Joachim needs a little blogging attention because he's feeling a left out. I couldn't have hoped for a better big brother. Yesterday I realized just how important he is. For an hour Joachim went to grandma's house and I was supposed to be resting with Anna, but she cried and cried and cried. I had flashbacks to my first lonely depressing year here when I was home alone with Joachim crying and crying. It was like being in another reality with no reference point for normal or rational. I realized that Joachim is grown up enough to be a peaceful presence. He's completely un-phased by her crying and is a very calming companion for me. What a blessing.