...motherhood is fierce and wonderful... (and my lengthy current booklist!)

Fall colors, fair fun, moody skies.  School days fly by with lots of books and drawing and music and math.  Millie is learning about ancient British history, which is a pre-cursor to the (closer-to-home) American history Lyddie is now learning.  I am reading through a lot of the girls' books ahead of time so that I am a little ahead of the curve.  Homeschooling is really a part-time job, did you know that?  It takes me several hours every day to prep, teach, clean up, and prep for the next day.  It means I have to pick and choose what I'm able to accomplish or participate in very carefully to leave time for keeping up with running the home, spending time with Rosie, managing my friendships that I cherish, and maintaining one or two things that are mainly for me, like knitting or cross-stitching or reading or, yes, exercising (my least favorite but probably most essential renewed "hobby").  If something doesn't make the cut it doesn't mean it's not wonderful or important but just that I am so completely aware of my finite abilities that I know I won't do anything well if I add it in.  What a balancing act. 

We are participating/helping with Kingdom Kids two afternoons a week.  All of us girls really enjoy going and being with the kids and having fun.  I find it really life-giving. I try to keep an open hand with whatever the Lord has put in front of me, knowing that my main priorities of mothering this stage may call me elsewhere, but I feel thankful that my little three are doing well and enabling me to participate in something outside of our home that brings me such joy and delight in the long run. 

I haven't done any canning or preserving of any kind this year, which is really unusual but unsurprising, so to make up for it, I bought two boxes of peaches that I'm quickly trying to can so we have several jars to grab this winter to go alongside soup dinners. Fourteen jars in and I still have another whole box to put up.  I also have a cantaloupe I want to make into jam from Food in Jars- a recipe I've been wanting to try for a few years because we really love melon.  I plan to do some applesauce too, if I can, and that's about it.  

We had a surprise batch of chicks hatch from a broody free-ranging hen and they are just the absolute cutest thing.  Although we weren't desirous of any more chickens, (we already have about 17), I never get tired of watching them trail after their mama, who is as protective as can be and fiercely fluffs her feathers up and will fly at anyone ostensibly posing a threat to her brood.  Motherhood is fierce and wonderful. 

As long as I'm just writing a rambly post, I'll note my booklist:  

• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is a really well written novel in the fantasy genre but is what I'd call "gateway" fantasy.  The story is very good and it doesn't really fit all the "tropes" that some of the fantasy series rely so heavily on.  Jesse also picked it up to reread it after I started, in order to beat me to the second book, which, since I did give it to him last year as a gift, I guess I should defer to him.
•  I'm also reading Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix, 
• Slowly making my way through Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, 
• Reading Volume II: Parents and Children of Charlotte Mason's Home Education series (excellent and full of Aha! moments!)
•  finally nearing the end of listening to The Count of Monte Cristo along with the CraftLit podcast
• and delighting in listening to The Green Jacket  along with the Forgotten Classics podcast

For the girls' school pre-reading, I just read 

• Pinocchio for the first time ever and
• Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle, which is a book I remember really loving when I read it as a child for school and I think Lyddie is going to love it when I hand it to her as a free read,  
• Now I'm working on the Crimson Fairy Book of fairy stories compiled by Andrew Lang. 

 I don't know how I'm squeezing in so much reading; I'm not really, I just fly through the school books in a couple days each, and my own reading is much slower than that.  How lovely it is that there are so many delicious books.

glimpses: tree

  

  

  

Sparkling white lights nestled into green branches.  Smiles and squeals and ornaments everywhere, three on a branch in most places.  Cheesy fondue wrapped around bread, apples, mushrooms.  Music drifting around the room, twinkle lights peering in the window, cats curled up on the tree skirt.  Playmobil Nativity set up meticulously on the floor, all the gathered worshipers crowding the manger. Fragrance of pine and orange peels. Fake fire video flickering on TV screen (yes, we're desperate but the ambience was surprising).  This is one of my favorite memory-making nights of the year. 

My Grams used to have a business making handmade home decor and she has given me several sweet Santas and snowmen that I love to put out in December. They all have such wonderful accessories and individual touches - one Santa holding a bag of pinecones or a mini-Christmas tree, buttons, hand-stitched laces on cloth boots.  Incredible and so special to me. 

Happy December, my friends.  Thinking much about the Light of the world lately.  Every time I drive by a small group of lights dangling from eaves I am reminded that "the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it"!  "Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven!"

garden chicken party

  

  

   

(Picture taken by Lyddie)

It's been awhile since I shared pictures of our chicks and look how they've grown!  The guineas are losing their head feathers and their heads are turning blue.  The turkeys are also losing the feathers on their heads and getting bright red wattles and funny bumpy necks.  I have some hope that one of them is a tom because it seem to be developing a little faster and more dramatically than the other, but since there is a three week difference in age between the two, it's hard to tell for sure.  One of our chicken pullets, named Cleo (short for Cleopatra since she had vibrant eyeliner feathers when she was very young) has an interesting personality; she is very boldand since Lyddie has chosen her as the favorite, gets carried around a lot.  I'm not sure which came first - Lyddie's interest because of Cleo's personality, or Cleo's boldness because of her constant contact with humans. I can't wait for them to start laying late this summer because the five grown hens I have right now are, I think, starting to moult and their production has slowed way down again.  I've had bad luck with eggs this past year, and hopefully this reboot of our flock will help with that and we'll be back to having an overabundance. 

My garden is getting slowly planted, one little section every other day for the past week which means I have in some carrots, lettuce, spinach, beans, a couple rows of peas, some sunflowers, some strawberries with many other thing planned but not planted.  Our raspberries are going bananas and have many many flowers and bees buzzing around them all day.  I love having fresh raspberries through the summer, and my mouth is watering just thinking about it. 

I'm debating the best way to trellis peas because I've not yet found a system I like that is very cheap and very easy.  Do you have a favorite?

Little Glimpses

It is evening now, even though most of the pictures are from our mornings.  One of our favorite movies is on as I write:  The Adventures of Milo and Otis; does anyone else adore this movie like I do?  If we can't be outdoors because of weather, or if we can't have kittens or puppies, it's the next best thing.  

Rosie is laying on the floor pretending to change her own diaper (laying on the floor seems to be her preferred activity lately, either playing, giggling, or tantruming - hello tumultuous twos!).   Lyddie and Millie are finishing dinner at their little white table while watching the movie, our Tuesday night tradition of girly night while Daddy is gone at church. The wind is wailing in through the drafty places in our old windows, while the sun flashes through the branches outside.  Even though it was very windy today, I was able to work in the flowerbeds pulling up the fast-growing weeds and grasses that don't belong, and now I am tired, but it is a good tired.  

We have a growing collection of poultry this year, and we are all having fun watching the various chicks grow.  Turkeys are such strange looking birds, but even stranger are our guinea chicks.  They add a chatter to our yard as they begin to explore their territory and I hope they continue to do well. Isn't that a stunning rooster?  His name is FancyBoy.  Yes.  FancyBoy.  

Someone needs to tell Millie it is still too cold to run through the sprinklers.  :)

Yarn Along, October 1

Well, my friends, I finished my Shalom - all except for buttons which I still need to decide on.  I am suddenly looking at the picture here and thinking a dark gray might be what I want instead of the wood buttons I was imagining initially. One day soon I will get buttons and have my dear husband snap some pictures of me in it.  I love it this cardigan.  It is long and springy and warm and will be a go-to knit for this winter since I love that it is short-sleeved and will just pop over a long sleeved top comfortably. 

Next up:  I have been thinking way too hard about what project to tackle next and decided on my first pair of socks in a long time.  I ordered some yarn from Knit Picks (and an Elizabeth Zimmermann book 40% off!) which probably won't be here for a couple weeks so in the meantime I may go back to my cobweb lace shawl that I really almost would rather frog in favor of a new pattern for yarn that I love. We'll see.

Written words:  I'm reading North! or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson.  It's great, what can I say?  Read it!  I'm listening to North and South on Craftlit and the archived podcasts for The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins because I just can't wait a whole week between the live podcasts for North and South.  Wow, The Woman in White is so fun to listen to - Wilkie Collins really knows how to write intriguing and intense characters!   I think very little action has actually take place but I'm totally gripped by the storyline and relationships, knowing something is looming ahead but flummoxed about the details of the looming thing.  I am also reading The Last Battle- the final book in the Chronicles of Narnia.  I can't even remember this one even though I know I have read it before, so it's a bit like reading an entirely new book.  I can't believe how much darker and more sinister the evil in it feels than the other books and I'm certain I didn't pick up on that when I was young and read it.  Something about aging and knowing more about the darkness in our world makes me feel it that much more and I imagine I will spend a good portion of the latter half of the book in tears which might be awkward because this book lives in the bathroom for those few minutes I can escape into Narnia each day until fingers crawl under the bathroom door and I hear "Mommyyyyyy I see your feeeeeet!!"

And then, just for fun, some pictures of my munchkins since my time has been too short to keep up well here the past couple of weeks!

Follow me over to Ginny's to celebrate yarn and the joy of knitting!