One of my favorite digi designers is having a sale at 2Peas this week:

I’ve already gone and gotten myself the January + February 365 Kit (yes, I’m starting my 365 Project in April.  So what? I’m a bit quirky!) and a cute little graph paper.  Crystal’s work is fun and fresh, and makes seriously awesome pages, so go check it out!

I’ve been struggling, a mighty soul-sucking struggle, with one of my boys. More days than I can count in the past several weeks, I’ve locked myself in the bathroom and broke down crying, calling out to God, asking for a break. Today, I nearly felt that I was at break-point, when I came across Owlhaven’s oh-so-wise words in her recent post Parenting: Hard Stuff:

As a human, I can’t ever affirm my kids perfectly– heck, on crazy days I struggle to do it even to a small degree.  It is darned hard in the busyness of life to really LOOK people in the eye, to make them know just how precious they are. It is doubly hard when 80% of the hassle in your day is coming from the kid most in need of affirmation.  I take great comfort in knowing that God loves my kids more than I do, and that He, unlike me, is a perfect parent.

I cannot tell you how mary’s words spoke to my heart.  As I struggle through this trying season with this precious boy, I need to remember that I am not a perfect parent (gracious, I am so far from a perfect parent!) but that I can only strive to be a human, imperfect parent and rest in the comfort of knowing that my boys do have a perfect Father.  and I need to remember that the God who loves them perfectly also loves ME the same way.  Even when I lock myself in the bathroom to escape my boys for 5 minutes.

To most people, March Madness means basketball.  For me, it means gardening.  March is when seeds need to get started indoors to be ready for planting later in spring. I’m pouring over seed catalogues, excited by the possibilities.  Should we try melons this year?  Will I be able to keep the rabbits away this time?  (I was so NOT successful at keeping the critters away last year, and they absconded with my whole carrot crop)

The first few years we lived here, we had one spot where we did all our planting.  It’s nestled in the back corner of our (small, suburban) yard, sheltered on three sides by fencing and the shed.  It was safe from tromping toddlers, and everything we planted grew like gangbusters.  But as our family grew, we realized that we wanted to grow the garden.  We wanted to be able to plant more varieties, and put our produce up for winter.  So, we expanded, and the original garden spot became what I affectionately refer to as “The Red Bed” - it’s where we grow all our tomatoes. Here’s the Red Bed last July:

It’s about 5′ x 11′, and gets a fresh helping of compost every spring. We turnt he compost in, then cover with wet newspaper and salt hay. We n-e-v-e-r have to weed this bed, because of the newspaper and hay. It rocks. In the picture above, the row closest to shed is brandwines, middle is cherries, grapes and romas, and the row closest to the fence is romas and amish paste. I just used the last of the tomatoes we put up from the garden last year, so I’m reeeeeeeeeeeally ready to get back out in the dirt and get growing!

Last spring, we added two new beds. After going back and forth on the best way to use the space we had, I decided to go with a Square Foot Garden. Two 4′ by 6′ beds, divided into a grid of 1′ squares. The Hubster built the boxes for the beds quickly one Saturday morning, and then got all fancy by surrounding it with some lava rocks. We filled the beds with a mix of our compost, peat moss and vermiculite. Here’s what it looked like the weekend after, when I’d planted a bit.

I cannot tell you how well everything grew in these beds. We planted several kinds of peppers, strawberries, lettuces, tomatoes, cukes, peas, green beans and several herbs. No chemical fertilizers, just our compost, and this is what it looked like in late July:

The yield from these two garden spaces was well over 150 pounds of produce. We had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with - and that was AFTER I’d canned salsa, barbecue sauce, and spaghetti sauce. We’re enjoying some relish now that is from our crop last year. We had pickled green beans with dinner last night that I canned back in August. It’s most definitely the best garden we ever had. And I can’t wait to do it all again this year!

So, what are your plans for a garden this year?

Apparently, there are some people in my house who think I’m a stick-in-the-mud. Moi? That’s absurd. I can be exciting. Adventurous. Daring. I can live on near somehwere in the vicinity of the edge. Just the other day I cut the tag off my new pillow. I even started a pair of socks, two at a time, on two circs.

Aren’t they lovely? That’s absolutely scrumptious handspun BFL from my friend Meri at HandSpun by SweetKnits (Go ahead, I’ll wait here while you drool over the handspun) It’s dyed in the perfectly named Snowmen at Night, by Selah. (An aside - have you read the book Snowmen at Night? So. Cute.) I am in love with this yarn, it’s a treat to knit with. Watching the color develop, without any jarring changes because of how well the handspun is well, spun; it’s so much fun.

Only, I really hate working two socks on two circs. Really, really hate it. It’s a tangle of needles, balls, yarn flying everywhere. Sure, I suppose it’s great because I’ll have two socks finished at the same time (instead of struggling through Second Sock Syndrome) but - ugh I just can’t get into a groove like this. Fiddling with the circs, always switching and fussing with which needle I should be using.

So, I’m admitting defeat. I’m a traditionalist. Handknit socks are meant to be made on double pointed needles. The way they’ve been made for centuries. Maybe that makes me a fuddy-duddy an old-fashioned knitter. I’m okay with that.

The socks and I are much happier now.

A good friend of mine is thisclose to giving birth to her fourth child. I know a little bit about those fourth babies - how they pretty much have no choice but to adapt to the family routine, tag along to the market at a week old because everyone else needs to eat, and how virtually everything the touch has been touched/played with/worn by someone else who came before them.

I wanted to make sure that this precious babe had something handmade just for her. A sweet something that wouldn’t be outgrown quickly; no, rather, something that could be loved and used for many years. A reminder that even though her mama has been through it all before, that she is so very special and loved in a completely new way.

It’s a very simple blanket, basically a giant granny square. It’s worked in CottonEase, one of my very favorite baby yarns, in a riot of various colors.

Granny Blanket for Baby
Yarn: Lion Brand CottonEase, one ball each of the following colors: Lake, Terra Cotta, Plum, Maize, Lime and Hazelnut
Hook: I hook
Gauge: not critical, since it doesn’t need to fit

The Purl Bee has excellent info on the Basics of Crochet, so please refence that if you need some guidance.

I used Attic24’s excellent Granny Square Tutorial to get started, and then just kept going (and going, and going) until I had worked through almost 5 full repeats of my colors. The colors were worked in the following order, one round each: Hazelnut, TerraCotta, Lime, Plum, Maize, Lake. Work 4 full repeats of the color sequence, and then work the 5th repeat up to the Maize. With the Maize, I worked a single crochet in each stitch around, to give a nice base for the edge on the last round. The last round is worked as follows (with Lake):*[hcd, dc, hdc] in next stitch, skip 1 stitch, sc in next stitch, skip 1 stitch; repeat from * to end of round.

It’s certainly an easy project, reminding me once again that simple can be immensely satisfying.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about menu planning before, but I’m going to try to get better about posting my menu here weekly, because a few folks have asked how and what I manage to feed the tribe each week

Monday: braised pork chops with peach cinnamon chutney, red cabbage and mashed sweet potatoes
Tuesday: Choco-Chili with cornbread
Wednesday: dinner at church
Thursday: Honey Baked Chicken Legs, homemade cole slaw and steamed carrots
Friday: homemade pizza or calzones (whichever the boys want when I start to prep dinner)
Saturday: beef brisket, oven fried potatoes and garlic broccoli
Sunday: Tacos

…must come to an end. Our day today, in pictures and a few words:

“Again, Again!” Rusty loves sledding.

This hill is steep - not lovin’ it quite so much…

Yeah, totally done with the sledding. Not lovin’ it at all.

Neither did Greg, once his face got run over by an out-of-control sled.

Make Baby Stuff Says So!

I have been meaning to post this every day for the past week, and I keep getting distracted by the multitude of craft projects sitting on my desk, and really, every other available flat surface in my house. How ironic, no?

Make Baby Stuff is one of the coolest sites on the internets - there’s the amazingly fun cardboard house, adorable little baby clothes, and some wicked cool toys.

So, go read my little Crafty Mama interview, and then go poke around and find something cool to make for your baby.

nana

I learned to knit + crochet from my Grandma, one rainy day when I was a little girl. (Isn’t that how so many of us learned? A weary adult trying to find a way to entertain us and contain a bit of the boundless energy? I fully admit to teaching my boys just so I could get them to sit down for a few minutes) Now, she’s too arthritic to be able to do any stitching, though she asks me about my projects whenever I see her. I know she probably misses being able to work with yarn, although it wasn’t an all-consuming passion for her like it is for me. I think it was more just something all women her age knew how to do, as much a part of a young Brooklyn girl’s education as knowing how to make gravy and meatballs.

Her birthday is this coming Monday, and I though there was no more appropriate gift than a handmade blanket, born of the craft she passed on to me so long ago. I started this on Saturday night, but had to rip out all but the first row I did that night, because I was distracted watching a movie and did the stitch all wrong. The pattern is the 5 1/2 Hour Throw, modified to work on a slightly smaller hook, with doubled yarn. I’m using Homespun in a plum shade, and Red Heart in a medium pink.Only for her would I suffer through these yarns, because I know she’s neither got the space nor the inclination to handwash a wool blanket. I know she’ll love snuggling up in this, and then being able to toss it in her building’s massive washing machine without worry.

Happy Birthday, grandma!

Here in Pennsylvania, we’ve got the singular pleasure of being home to what might be the most famous rodent in the world. Punxsutawney Phil, prognosticator of all prognosticators, saw his shadow yesterday, folks. We know what that means, right?

6 more weeks of winter. 6 MORE WEEKS OF WINTER, PEOPLE! How to take this news in stride? Throw yourself in front of oncoming traffic? Lock yourself in the closet and weep bitterly? NO! We’re knitters! Pull out the good wool, grab some patterns (20% off!) and k-n-i-t the winter away. It’s really the only civilized way to deal with defeat.

Perhaps you’d like to warm some feet for these remaining cold weeks? Lucky for you, we’ve just released the 2008 Sock Club patterns from the Vault. Not into sock knitting? (It’s okay, I forgive you) Maybe slippers are more your style? How about working up a new pair of mittens to replace those that got buried under the snow pile? Perhaps someone you love needs a new hat? Or, start thinking ahead to those warm spring days that are coming (they are, I promise!) and work up a sweet little dress?

I can’t make the snow melt, I can’t make the mercury rise. But I can help you survive the rest of the winter with some fabulous patterns made even better with a sale! Now through Sat, Feb 7th, our entire pattern collection is 20% off. Shop Now!