Love and Yarn

 

I am joining up for my favorite thing online of the week! - Yarn Along! Book chat and yarn? It really hits on two of the things that make me smile.

Yesterday I finished and blocked my Cabernet hat and I love it. What a great pattern! Just slouchy enough to look cute but not too droopy, I think. I felt so awesome knitting the cables with two cable needles... as if that made me a pro... right?! My girls think it is really pretty, but since I have never really had any cute hats, I haven't worn hats for a long time and they were a little baffled as to why I was wearing a hat all day, especially my fashionista, Millie. However, she kept saying how pretty it was after I told her I was just wearing it to be pretty, so I got her stamp of approval.   It made me happy every time I passed a mirror because it is fresh and different and I do like how it turned out!  Next I am making modifications to the Baby Amanda hat to fit a toddler in fuschia Simpliworsted.  I made a baby version for Rosie in bright yellow Cascade 220 Paints and it is probably the cutest baby hat I have ever knit, except maybe Susan B. Anderson's Ribbons which I made for a friend's baby (after my mom made the one for Lyddie).

CraftLit is back! The new book we are listening to is Gaskell's North and South. I started to watch the BBC mini-series last year but stopped because I thought Jesse might enjoy it too, but we never got back to it, so I was excited when Heather decided to do this book next. We are just one chapter in until next week's podcast.

I am devouring The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr. It is not a lighthearted read but it is to be packed with beauty, with good versus evil, with searing pain and triumphant joy. And get this – all this good and evil, joy and stuff? The main characters are chickens!! But although the main characters are animals, they are written like humans and I am just in awe of the skill of this writer in portraying the “humanity” of the characters believably. It really takes a special book for me to want to read and read and read it, and this is special. I even pick it up when I'm nursing and tough it out with a squirmy baby wanting to crane her neck to see what I'm looking at. I mean, really, it's that good. I'm also reading Christ in the Chaos by Kimm Crandall and based on the fact that all the glowing reviews come from some of the writers and pastors I have most respect for, and the fact that I heard her interviewed last year and the interview made me cry... well, I expect it will be an encouragement. I love it when books are divided into short enough sections that you can read one in the 1 ½ semi-uninterrupted minutes you have in the bathroom or before you roll out of bed in the morning, and this book is like that.

Our snow has finally stopped, although I don't think it got above freezing for long enough today to make much of a dent in the piles on our property. Soon it will be a sloggy mess.  But soon after that I will be starting seedlings somewhere indoors.

Valentine's Day is a couple days away, which is also the day Jesse proposed nine years ago, so it makes me really remember and celebrate our relationship in many ways when it rolls around. I am so thankful to be married to my best friend. I know a lot of people say that, and I'm sure it's true for others too, I am doubtful I have the corner on the market for a happy marriage.  But really.  The first thing I want to see when I wake up is his smiling face (granted, I like it even better if the foreground is a steaming cup of coffee for me in his hand) and the last thing I want to do is entwine my arm through his before falling asleep. He is my best friend and it is crazy how much more deeply I love him now than I did in those exciting first days. I am so blessed because it's still such a romantic love for each other... not like flowers and candy and jewelry but more like forests and oceans and mountains and stars.  

Early

Rosie woke up to eat early this morning and although she fell back asleep, I couldn't drift back off.  When Jesse got up to make coffee around five, I decided I might as well get up and go for a walk all by myself. 

I have to admit I came back grinning like a fool, it was so nice.  I listened to a podcast, took sweet Gabe with me and just wandered up and down the rows of the orchard.  My shoes and socks were drenched with dew from the long grass, I found a few maple starts growing under the apple trees that I think we could nab and transplant to our yard, I had a fistful of beautiful over-mature asparagus to show off, and I delighted in the gorgeous sunrise over the hills to the east.  Truly lovely.

Full Swing of Spring

 Spring is officially here around our little haven and we're having fun and working hard.  We have 13 chickens, one of which appears to be a rooster-in-training, named Eustace.  Eustace the Rooster... I felt way too clever for that than the name actually deserves.  He is going to be beautiful, I think!

 Jesse (with Lyddie) is working hard in his spare time to get our chicken coop finished.  Yesterday the poor man was coming down with a cold that has hit full-strength today, but he is so determined to get the project done that he pushed for a little while to make some progress.  Our summer ministry time is fast approaching and I can tell he's feeling pressure to finish up some projects around the property before summer hits.  He designed the coop himself and it is looking SO great!  I am so proud of him!  Lyddie loves to be out helping him by handing him nails and mostly by talking his ear off with her sweet chatter.  

He designed nesting boxes that open with a hinged and latched door on the backside, making it easy to reach in and collect the eggs.  

 

Jesse named this sweetheart Aretha.  I wasn't going to name the chickens, and I wasn't even sure I'd be able to tell them all apart, but I am starting to be able to tell each of them apart by looks and names just naturally sprang to mind.  So far we also have Gladys, Sylvia, and Marilyn.  Aretha is our biggest pullet and she is one of our most mild-mannered when being held.  She loves to roost on top of our waterer... so clearly we need to get them in the coop with real roosts!

Britt, our sweet red pup to match our sweet redheaded daughters.

This is Gabriel, our Maremma shepherd.  I am so in love with him, can you tell? 

What's going on around your home with spring in full swing?