Wishing For Pine Needles

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today in.....

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

 

Yarn Along ~ February 22

Still dutifully plugging away at my cowl and having a marvelous time.  I think next I will cast on for another baby sweater because I just can't help myself!

I'm reading A Fine Mess: Living Simply With Children this week.  It's a quick read with great concepts for simple family living and is written from a "been there, done that" perspective.  (Apparently the author has done everything from living in her car with children to a comfortable suburban home and lifestyle.  She seems to have struck her balance while living on a farm in Vermont.)  The book is interesting but has some typos, run-on sentences, etc.  Not enough to effect the message, but a bit annoying at the same time.  I say give it a go!

I'm linking up with Ginny this week.....what are you knitting and/or reading?

A Sacrament

Lena Jane's Baptism

February 19, 2012

 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  (Galations 3:26-29)

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today in.....

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

 

On "Stuff" and Simplifying Our Home

Winter brings out the homebody in me, so we spend huge amounts of time inside these walls.  And I love it.  I could be home for days on end and be completely happy.  This hibernating also gives me the itch to organize, sort, de-clutter, and simplify our home.  In a crazy way.

I recently read a blog post about "managing stuff" and it struck a positive chord with me.  I was thrilled to see that another mom likes to see things move through and out of her house as quickly as I do.  Although our house has a little more square footage and two less people than hers does, it still got me to re-think how important it is to be pro-active about managing all of the material possessions that seem to multiply right before my eyes.

Party favor bags, drawings and crafts, garage sale finds, clothes, shoes, paper, mail, TOYS, books, pens, trinkets...wow, I could keep going, but you get the picture!

It is not that having is inherently wrong, and I walk the line between being grateful for our things and being overwhelmed by them.  Material blessings certainly have come easily to most of us, haven't they?  But I have come to realize that there is a difference between enjoying material blessings and collecting stuff just for the sake of it.  If something is no longer serving a useful purpose in our homes, then why keep it around?

I know....easier said than done.  While it's easy for me to spot the toys my children no longer play with and the clothes they no longer wear, it's much harder to look around my fabric and craft stash and spot the items that I just don't need anymore and that take up space in our precious home.

So, in an effort to "practice what I preach" I recently went through my fabric and craft shelves in the basement and donated bag fulls of fabrics, crafts, and books of my own.  And this china cabinet that held my pretties?  Gone!  (Well, to the basement anyway.  And serving perfectly as a storage area in Dan's office.)  It was just taking up too much space in the kid's craft/homework area. 

The contents of this china cabinet have been dispersed throughout the house, consolidated with kitchen items, or donated.  I tried hard to only keep the things that are functional or beautiful to us, and pass along the rest that we have collected throughout the years without second thought.

Now this space is home to items that we find both interesting and educational.

De-cluttering "stuff", both my family's and my own, brings about order and peace.  It creates more room to live and move, gives us less to clean, and is just plain good for the soul.

Simple Mom is hosting Project: Simplify beginning in March.  It looks to me like a fun and fabulous way to simplify our homes and offer some accountability at the same time.  There is even a schedule given for what to tackle each week.  A true method to the madness!

I plan to join her.  Is anyone with me?

Valentine-ing

 

How did you spend your Valentine's Day?  (Hope it was a happy one!)

Enjoying

:  Snapping lots of pictures of the sweetest little Lena I know.  I can't get enough of this wee girl!

:  Staring a little too long at this antique lamp and trying to figure out which kind of replacement shade would look the best.

:  A little bit of snow!  Hoping for more, but we'll take what we can get this balmy winter.

: Our first attempt at making our own laundry soap...more on this soon!

: Celebrating another birthday with the world's best (great) grandma and feeling glad that all ten of her great-grandchildren were in attendance. 

 

What are you enjoying?

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today in.....

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

 

Yarn Along ~ February 8

Yarning along with Ginny again this week...won't you join in?

I have begun my honey cowl and I can already tell I'm going to love it.  I'm using Quince & Co.'s Lark in Carrie Yellow, and the color makes me so happy.  It's a warm, mustardy yellow perfect for winter wear.  I've enjoyed the rhythm of the *slip 1 wyif, purl 1* - it's very soothing and calms my end-of-day nerves.  Three cheers for that!

I'm enjoying watching this honeycomb pattern form as I go and am still amazed by the whole knitting thing.  I love how my fingers and some needles can turn yarn into something beautiful and useful.

I found this book in the clearance bin of the local grocery store and just couldn't pass it up.  An impulse buy if you will, but at least a practical one!  Besides, what's an extra 7 dollars tacked onto an already monstrous grocery bill?

Happy Knitting and Reading to You!

Thank Goodness Our Tooth Fairy Has Origami Skills

Have any of you been stunned by the going rate of lost teeth these days?  Five or even ten dollars per tooth?! 

If my math serves me correctly, at a $10 per tooth rate x 20 baby teeth per child, our tooth fairy would be spending approximately $800 on lost teeth for our four children.  (Our tooth fairy told us that she thinks not!)

So, in an effort to make the standard one dollar bill seem way cooler, our tooth fairy has learned the art of origami.

Over the years, since Rylen started losing her teeth, we have had a heart, letters of the alphabet, a bird, a church, and more I can't quite remember.  I never thought to get a picture of those sweetly folded dollars before they started to burn a hole in one said little girl's pocket.

Marianne is our toothless girl as of late and so far has gotten a jet plane and a butterfly.

It is always a thrill to see what the tooth fairy will come up with next...including for me.  You see, around here I am neither the tooth fairy nor the origami expert.

(Thank goodness for tooth fairies and for paper-folding daddies!)