Birthdays, Books, And Projects: October Yarn Along

Our sixth grandchild, Rowen, turned three years old yesterday.  We had her birthday party on Saturday.  Her mother threw her an amazing unicorn party.  She made unicorn cupcakes, piñata, unicorn poop (marshmallows) for appetizers, unicorn snot (slime with sparkles), she even painted a unicorn selfie spot on the mirror over their mantle, even though my photo of it doesn’t quite give the full effect.  It was all so cute, and Rowen was thrilled.

A few months ago we were in Michael’s when the Halloween decorations first came out.  Rowen picked up a skeleton bride doll and wanted it dearly.  It was totally inappropriate for a three-year-old in regards to safety so her mother asked if I would make her one for her birthday.  I made her out of felt, and then needle felted the face and bones.  I really like the way she turned out and best of all, Rowen loved her.  She also received the dress I was knitting for her and her cousin which I posted about last month.  It’s a little big, but wearable.  And at three that’s probably a good thing.

We kept her and her brother Jools overnight the night before the party.  One of our activities was to make ghost puppets.  It is such an easy project but at 3 and 4 years old it was a little more difficult than I thought it would be for them.  Even so, they enjoyed playing with them. 

I’ve started knitting for Christmas, but it’s currently hard for me to be enthused about it.  I could say the same thing about the book I’m reading.  I had been on the hold list for Bob Woodward’s book at the library since it came out.  Now that I’m into it, I have to continually remind myself that what I’m reading is not fiction.  Maybe one of the reasons it’s bothering me so much is that we’re less than two weeks out from the midterms and I’m so desperate for change that I don’t need to be reminded of even more reasons to be so.  Never the less, I’ll persist!

The other book is another I had waited a long time for from the library.  The Lost Words by Robert MacFarlane is a gorgeous book.  It’s a children’s book, but I really can’t see any of my eight grandchildren engaging with it.  But for anyone who enjoys poetry and beautiful watercolors, it’s magic.

After the sleepover, then the party on Saturday afternoon and into the wee morning hours on Sunday, and then another twelve hours on Sunday, we printed, cut, bundled and delivered to volunteers ready to address and sign 3000 postcards we are sending out to unaffiliated voters.  We are working hard on our final push to get out the vote.  I hope we will be rewarded for all of our hard work these last months on Election Day.

P.S.  A few weeks ago I came across yet another abandoned sofa dumped on the side of the road.  I had to include it here since my blog holds my collection of photos of other abandoned sofas.  Is this a just a rural Kansas thing or do other states have this problem???

September Yarn Along

I didn’t post an August Yarn Along.  Which is a bit ironic because besides my immediate family, (husband, children, and grandchildren), reading was about the only thing that brought me any peace. August was an emotional month dealing with the problems of both my mother and my husband’s mother, problems that so many seniors face today.  September has always been a month for changes and new beginnings and this month has brought us a new normal I’m learning to adjust to.  And sometimes reading and working a puzzle can help an overloaded, emotional brain. 

For the September Yarn Along I just finished knitting two dresses, one for Rowen and one for Sophie. The pattern is River Dress.  It’s a fun, quick pattern, and best of all, it’s free.  But it only fits size two.  As for books, I just finished reading White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism.  There is so much to learn from this book, the most important in my view is that no matter how progressive we believe ourselves to be, “it is impossible to completely escape having developed problematic racial assumptions and behaviors.”  To say it was an eye-opening read is a vast understatement.  I can’t recommend this book enough.  I then moved on to the State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.  It’s been on my “to read” list for some time and I’m halfway through it.  I hate to think it, but once I’m finished reading it I can’t imagine having time to read much more of anything else until after Christmas because the full press of gift making will begin.

I’m always sad to say goodbye to the summer and watch the kids go back to school. It always takes me a week or two to change my mindset and adjust.  Now that fall is officially here there’s so much to do!  This month we’re not only busy with our grandchildren’s activities, (cheerleading, and football and soccer games) we are also helping to take care of two of our grandchildren while their parents are out of the country.  But this September is different because we are also busy with our commitments as chairs of our local Democratic party.  With only a little over a month until the midterm elections, we’ve been out canvassing door to door nearly every evening and weekend, passing out literature, putting up yard signs, and getting people interested in going out to vote.  We’re also passing out pens we made ourselves.  We wanted to order promotional pens but the best deal we could find was .22 cents apiece for 1000 pens.  The problem was they wanted $100 to ship them!  So we watched a youtube and made our own. 

Going out and talking to people really has been a wonderful experience for me.  It’s so gratifying to feel like you’re making a difference.  If in November my desired outcome doesn't come to be, at least I know I did everything I could to create change in my little corner of the world.

#16

 

Our youngest grandchild, Sophie's second birthday book.  I finished this one in the car on the way to the birthday party.  That's happened only one other time. I have to admit I was in such a time crunch, (literally sewing every spare moment) it was hard for me to spend much time thinking about this being my final book.  What started as a first-year memento for our first grandchild has morphed into a family birthday tradition, each grandchild receiving one for their first and second birthday.

They started with children's poems and song lyrics but with the need to make each one individual, we started using modern music as inspiration.  And that is where Paul stepped in to help.  He is very good at creating his own lyrics to popular songs.

For Sophie's final book we used the song Home by Edward Sharpe.  It was performed by Sophie's aunt and uncle at her parents' wedding, which is such a wonderful memory for us all.  Except for Sophie of course.  :)

Summer Break's End / Back To School

While the drought here in Kansas is becoming more severe, this week we finally had a little over an inch of rain.  There’s been plenty of heat, which does produce very short and spotty afternoon showers.  But we were beginning to feel as if there was a force field around our house keeping us dry.  This is the first year that I can remember our rainwater pond got too low to water from and there was no more reserve left in the cistern.  Then Tuesday we had an entire morning of downpours which was enough to fill the pond and yield overflow to the cistern.  It also reminded me to appreciate the beauty in a rainy day.

The drought has brought us one really cool consequence.  We have a friend who is a cattle and sheep rancher and a couple of weeks ago she discovered wild lotus growing in one of her ponds.  The pond was built in 1980 and never has had lotus growing in it before.  She thinks it has something to do with the drought and the water level being so low.  Since the lotus is one of Paul’s and my hobbies, we invited ourselves over.  We heard you could find it growing wild in Kansas but really didn’t believe it. 

Paul finished digging our own second small, ornamental pond, recycling what used to be Turtle Island, giving it a purpose again.  I want to dig up some of the rock from this cliff we live on to line around the edges.  He was only able to capture one of our fish to move from the lily rainwater pond to the new one, Popeye, our one-eyed goldfish.  He was blindsided.

We have all been trying to savor the last bit of summer.  Yes, the heat and calendar say we still have much left of the season but the schools here in Kansas and Missouri say differently.  Our two teacher daughters went back on Monday, while the grandchildren start next Tuesday!  To make it even worse, the local city pools are all closing this week.  For the past few years, they’ve been closing when the kids go back to school because they lose their workforce.  But grandma and grandpa’s little pool stays open until Labor Day!

So we’ve tried to fit in as much fun as possible here at the end.  It’s now a tradition on our last Friday brunch to go downtown on the streetcar to have lunch.  We made a trip to the farmers’ market, (which meant homemade pickles and peach cobbler), and we made it to the parade at the fair.  We had a back to school sleepover with the two oldest granddaughters.  Their littlest cousin ended up being part of the fun due to a daycare snag.  We had a great time going on a nature walk to gather materials and then making a sun catcher box.  And for the grand finale, the Perseids helped us commemorate with an outdoor movie and meteor night and a family sleepover.  Now I for one could use some recuperation time.

I’ve not knitted for two weeks, instead making Amelia’s second birthday book.  Her favorite song is Footloose.  Paul wrote the words for the book, using Footloose’ lyrics as a template.  If you think of the melody while reading it hopefully you can hear it.  I also made a little reversible dress for her.  I embroidered what I thought looked like a lower case “a” on the pocket.  But no one has been able to guess what it is.

Looking up over these photos I'm about to post, I'm struck by how full and wonderful my life is.  I am so grateful for what I have.  Blogs and Facebook are wonderful about showing us the very best of our lives.  But often, while living through all this love and happiness, we also deal with problems, stress, tragedies, and heartache.  Sometimes we just need to be reminded to not let ourselves become consumed with the negatives.