What a Life!

It’s been ages since I took pictures of my knits.

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The view from our front porch today. And yes, more snow is falling.

Piled high and deep.

We have too many toys. Seriously, they drive me crazy. So the boys didn’t get much along the lines of toys this year. I did finally give them those fish hats I knit last year. They were quite a hit.

We set up the train for them so they felt like they had something “new” to play with. We managed to keep Joey from disassembling the tracks, but we finally put it all away because Ben wouldn’t stop hiding the train engines and cars.

Caroline’s first Christmas. She fell asleep while we were opening gifts.

It’s hard to summarize a year in just a sentence or two, so instead, I offer highlights.

• I taught Ben how to read. This was our first year of homeschooling, and I am loving it so much more than I had ever imagined.
• In fact, homeschooling should be an item of its own. Choosing curriculum and establishing a routine takes a lot of initiative and creativity. I have enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to continuing on into the new year.
• Miss Caroline joined our family. Once I was no longer pregnant, I realized how tired I had been the entire pregnancy. But we have our little girl now, and we’re so glad she’s here.
• I made lots of little sweaters and blankets and other handmade things for our precious little girl.
• I picked up my old reading habit again. I listened to a number of audiobooks on our daily walks during the spring, summer and fall. I also started checking out and reading books from the library for myself.
• I only paid $1.40 in library fines. We’ve developed quite a library habit this year, with close to one hundred books checked out at any one time.
• I served as Vice President/Program Director of the local knitting guild this year. It was fun, but now with three small children in my charge, I have happily passed those responsibilities on to other worthy and enterprising individuals.
• I have worked part time as a technical editor, working with knitting patterns. I’ve developed a clientele and enjoy working directly with designers.
• I played the piano for the children’s performances at a local church where the boys attend Sunday school. I also helped out during Vacation Bible School, helping herd forty preschoolers from activity to activity for a week.
• And if all that wasn’t enough, I survived surgery and general anesthesia when my appendix was removed early one Sunday morning in November. We are so blessed that it happened this year since I’d already met the [high] deductible with our health insurance.

Just thinking about all of that makes me tired…which is probably why I haven’t blogged much over the past year. It was a year of transition – a new baby and beginning our homeschooling journey.

And yes, the blog is back. Now that I’ve found my groove again, ideas for blog posts have begun popping into my head. I’ve missed blogging – I love writing – but it’s hard to write about things when they are changing. I’m hoping 2010 will be a year of ‘normal’ for us – it certainly would be nice for a change.

Here’s to a Happy New Year for all!

She’s here…and has been for about a month. Caroline Elizabeth arrived on September 8, 2009 at 4:01 p.m. 8 lb. 12 oz. 22 inches. She arrived one day before her due date, after I had acupuncture induction – it was the latest appt I could schedule in hopes to have her born on her due date. Ha!

She is a high-needs baby. She is either sleeping, eating, or crying. Ben had to be swaddled in the evenings or he would cry and cry. Joey had an hour or so of fussy time in the evenings, but we never swaddled him. Caroline needs to be swaddled practically 24/7. I swear she is held more than my other two ever were, but with all that crying I still am left to wonder if 1) I am too distracted with two other children to give her sufficient attention, 2) I am too self-confident as a mother to take her seriously enough, or 3) she is just a fussy baby. Now that she is a month old, I have gotten a couple half-smiles from her here and there, but no big smiles…yet. I’m still hoping!

She is growing well. At her one-month check-up, she was 11 lb. 2.5 oz. a la 95th percentile. So apparently she is getting enough to eat. She has settled down on the sleeping end at night, for the most part. She is fussy mostly in the mornings – like she’ll sleep a half hour and be awake and screaming again. She sleeps during the afternoon and then does the fussy thing again in the evenings. But for the past few nights she has only gotten me up two times or so, which means I am getting more sleep and thus feeling more like a real person.

Mom came a week before she was born and stayed two weeks after. Dad came two days after she was born, then spent a week in South Dakota checking on his land, then was here for a few more days before he and Mom left together. I went back to work the week that she was born, albeit slowly. When one is self-employed, you work or you don’t get paid. I’ve gotten back up to speed with that, for the most part.

The nicest thing about no longer being pregnant is that I have my energy back. I hadn’t realized how much pregnancy made me tired…the entire 9 months. Last week we got back up to speed on homeschooling. Now I’m ready to try resuming other things…like blogging. We’ll see. I’m quite busy these days. I’m hoping for once a week, at least.

I have gotten caught up on uploading pictures, at least back to when Caroline was born. The picture at the beginning of this post was taken the day after she was born, so if you click on it, you’ll be back to about the beginning of recent pictures. I have lots of things to blog about, but for now, I wish you happy viewing!

It’s not that I haven’t wanted to blog. Between homeschooling, working, getting ready for baby, and trying to keep up with every day life, I simply haven’t had the energy. So today, instead of my latest finished project, I have a parade of finished projects for you.

First, a little sweater that I crocheted(!!!). I have loved this little sweater since I first saw it over on Dawn Brocco’s website. In fact, I loved it so much that I decided it was worth figuring out how to crochet just in order to have one. So this was a major accomplishment. And I think it is so, so, so pretty!

This next little sweater was previewed in my last post. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Just for review, here is the little Cable Baby Blanket I made before we knew we were having a girl. The yarn is a really pretty pink which is hard to photograph and get the color right, but I think this picture mostly does it justice.

And a baby quilt. The back is done with pink minkee, so it is very, very soft and plush. I have more squares from another line of Moda fabric, but I haven’t gotten them sewn up yet. They will be done in a regular rag quilt with the squares being assembled (top fabric, batting, flannel backing) before the quilt is assembled. I’m still waiting for the right flannel fabric to come along…

Then we have the Pod of Cetaceans sweaters for the boys. This is Joey’s. They were both knit in the round (it’s easier to do colorwork when you’re looking at the front side) and then cut up the middle where the button bands were added. I’d never cut my knitting before, but I love these little sweaters so it was definitely worth learning the new technique. In fact, I went on to teach steeking at our last knitter’s guild meeting. Brave me!

Next we have the classic Baby Surprise sweater knit with handpainted sock yarn. It’s the smallest of all the sweaters I’ve made, so she should be wearing this early on. I literally had two yards of yarn left, which was a bit close for comfort. I think garter stitch is very good for handpainted yarn, and this would be a good example.

This is my favorite picture of the classic February Baby Sweater I made with Dream in Color Smooshy (yes, more sock yarn). The actual pattern calls for heavier yarn. I made it so it looks proportional which was a bit shy of the length measurements given in the pattern. You can see one I made with heavier yarn here. As far as yarn and pattern go, I think I like it better with the finer yarn. Click on the picture to be taken over to Flickr where there are full views of the entire sweater so you can see what I mean.

If you’re wondering how I’m doing, you can see for yourself. Baby is carrying high which means I am measuring big. But I’d rather be short of breath than going to the bathroom every five minutes. Just saying…

And here is a preview of our little princess. I just love those little lips. And yes, I feel her hands up by her face all the time. I can hardly wait to see her in person!

But between now and then I have a number of projects I need to finish…