Summer Projects

 My parents have been visiting this week.  I can't believe the week is almost over!  The sweet corn was ready, so we had our yearly corn husking "party" with my in-laws and nephews coming over.  I had taken the kids shoe shopping the day before.  Knut thought it would be too much for me, so he came along.  It turns out it was still too much, because on corn husking day, I had to sit most of it out.  Fortunately my mom pretty much took over my duties of cutting corn off the cob, and getting it freezer ready for the winter.

 Elias and his twin cousins played pirates during the husking.  That is important too.

Ingrid was surprisingly content in the pack n play, and out of the mess.

Solveig and her little cousin, Leif, both ate cob after cob of raw corn as we husked.  Yum, fresh corn is good!

Then Knut and my Papa went to work on finishing up the boys' room.  Knut ended up hiring a contractor to finish up the taping and texturing of their room so that we would be ready to paint the week that my parents are here.

It has been constant mess upstairs in our house for quite some time!  David wanted to be involved in all of it, and helped wet mop, and then steam the floor before all of  the furniture was ready to be moved in.

The hallway was jam packed with "stuff" from the kids' rooms.  I'm so much looking forward to getting this space back!

 The colors I chose for the boys' room were tan for the walls ("Oat Straw" to be exact) with navy, red, and white accents.  We got some vintage-feel superhero posters, as well as some sports posters, and a map Elias picked out.

 All the furniture was from their old room.  We put by the window Knut's grandfather's old desk.  David was so excited to have a desk in his room, that he wanted to do his schoolwork up there at the first opportunity.

The room is pretty simple.  The boys really can't handle toys in their room yet.  Most of our toys are in the basement "toy room" of the house, and that makes bedtime that much easier.  It really feels plain and simple, but we all love it.  It's so peaceful.

It fits with our current de-clutter/simplify mission that I've been on this year.  I am always surprised how happily my kids react to simplicity.  They never ask for it.  They hate the process.  They love the finished product!

For those who may remember, this was formally the girls' room which I did last year.  I was trying to make the best of pink wallpaper surrounding the room even covering the ceiling that was bowing in the middle.  Now the girls are being transplanted to the bigger bedroom that the boys used to occupy since they outnumber the boys and could use the space.

We'll be taking the last few days we have my parents in town by pushing the projects aside and just enjoying their visit.  Next week Knut will paint the old boys' room a fresh aqua color for the girls, and all of their stuff will get set up in that space.  That room doesn't require the walls torn down or re-insulation.  It will be a "simple" paint job.  Thank goodness for that.

Back

Since the kids took my camera battery charger and placed it somewhere in the house, I've been aching to take some pictures.  It's so addicting.  It's fun to see the world through a lens, and somehow helps your mind focus on the beauty, and less on the noise.  We searched awhile, and then I offered a reward to whoever could find it.  After about a week of that, I searched online, and found a used charger for $10.  That will do.

So today if finally came in the mail, and I've been taking pictures like an addict.  So here's what's going on around here.

Ingrid is into everything.  She's this squishy, smiley baby that is determined to move and stand and crawl.  She has no fear like her big sister, Solveig, and charms her way into everything as well.  She's also starting to tell us stories in her own language.  I love baby stories.

School is going on about 3 days a week.  My aim is to work up to 4 as we get into Fall.  The more I think about it, the more I see that we like routine, but we also like to get out of the house and do lots of stuff.  It's been hard to have a whole summer of doing stuff without routine, but it's hard to say no constantly during the school year.  I'm wondering if we should move to what many homeschooling families do, and that's 4 day weeks year round.  That would allow for routine, but also planned interruptions to those routines.  We'll see.

I have this whole notebook of knitting designs to tackle, but with the trauma of the accident I've really had a hard time working on them.  I've started 3 designs, and all 3 of them need to be ripped back and adjusted.  My brain could not handle that.  I was aching for some mental clarity and focus, so I started this cross stitch that I got for Christmas last year.  It's been going really fast, and as I expect it to be done this next week, I just go a frame for it.  I love it so much.

Still, my hands ached to knit, but my brain was stuttering on the design front.  So I decided I should make something from someone else's pattern so my brain could rest, but my hands could do their fidgety thing.  So I finally broke down and took this autumn orange yarn that I had intended for one of my own designs in the stash, and I cast on a pattern that I've wanted to make for myself since about the second it came out.  Heidi Kirrmaier might be one of my favorite designers.  Her designs are everything I strive for: simplicity, easy, yet interesting.  It's a hard line to find, yet she nails it time after time.

The pattern is called Nanook, and it's going really well.  I'm nearly done with the yoke already, and it'll be pretty fast after that.  I picked a size with a bit more ease than I usually do, which I think would make the designer happy.  Plus I just want a Fall sweater that feels so cozy.

I cannot tell you how good this project has been for me mentally.  Just the rhythm of being back in knitting.  My hands working together with such speed and efficiency.  I was trying to explain to Knut, that when I'm knitting this sweater, my brain is starting to focus better since the trauma of the accident.

Instead of starting one thought and having it trail off 1-2 minutes later, just to be invaded by another thought that trails off, when I am knitting this I can hold onto a thought for 15 minutes, and just think critically about what needs to be done, etc.

It reminds me that I used to get up in the morning and knit for about 15 minutes before starting school for the kids because I could organize their day better in my head when my hands were knitting.

When I say knitting is my therapy, I'm not joking.

Slowly but surely, we're all getting put back together.

I'm Blessed

I have been so sick of hearing myself talk about the accident, talk about the pain that it has been hard for me to talk or write.  It's just annoying.  So I was very pleased to realize that twice last week I had a couple of hours in the morning when I had literally forgotten about the accident.  I had a couple of hours without medication, without pain, without stress.  We just went about normal life in our house until about 11am when the pain returned, bringing the stress back, and it all returned.

I'm so blessed that I had a few hours this last week of "normal."  It gave me such hope.  I tried not to dwell on the fact that in order to achieve those few hours of normal, Knut was home with time off from work, I had about 5 hours of hired household help, and twice a week chiropractor appointments.  I feel like it takes too many people to put me back together.  On the other hand, I'm so blessed with the help I get.

Now to just get those normal mornings to be more frequent, and longer.  Then to get normal days without help.  It's coming.  I'm relieved.  It gave me such hope.

Ingrid just learned how to wave.  It's the cutest thing ever.  She is so pleased with herself.  She waves at people.  She waves at the dogs.  She waves at her toys.  She just stares at her waving hand.  The sheer delight in the simple things is one of the main reasons kids are so awesome.  I'm so blessed.

I'm blessed that my parents are coming at the end of the week.  I'm looking forward to so many aspects of their visit.

We're blessed the bedroom renovation is "hopefully" nearing an end.  The insulation is in.  Now to just put the walls back together...

It's going to be so exciting when that is done!

I'm blessed by the book I'm reading, "One Thousand Gifts" which seems so timely for me just now.  God is doing something in me now that is quite exciting.  This time of humbling has been so transformative, and amazing.  There is so much joy flooding on us right now.

I'm blessed.

In Waiting

I've been having some camera troubles.  First my camera card goes missing.  I wait a week, and then finally decide it's an old, outdated card anyway, memory is cheap and I got myself a new card.

When I get the new card, I start taking pictures, and then my camera battery dies.  I reach for my charger to find it wasn't where I left it.  With 5 little sets of hands in our house, I can't imagine how that would be.  So I go into one of those common slumps of motherhood when all I can think is "this is why I can't have nice things."

I offer a reward for the battery charger, if it is found.  The older kids search.  They find my old camera card.

Well at least I have something.

So here's some pictures from my camera card that was found and I had intended to post a few weeks ago.

Here's Missy and Lena hanging out.  Missy has been taking Lena for long walks to the neighbor's farm and then leaving her.  Lena clings to us normally, so it's not like her to wander off.  We've had to tie Missy up more than I'd like outside because she keeps going over to the neighbor's farm to inspect their animals as well.  Our neighbor's dog has made it over to our farm from time to time, so they are very sympathetic to our new dog figuring out where her territory is and isn't.

So the training continues, and I believe it is going well.

I love this picture.  With the addition of Ingrid to our family, we've had to shuffle the kids' rooms a bit so that it makes more sense and all the beds fit.  We removed all the old wallpaper in the old boys' room last year, but held off on painting it a girly color for the girls until we were ready to move the boys into the old girls' room.  The old girls' room needed to have the walls gutted, re-insulated, put back together, etc. etc.  It was supposed to be our summer project, and we debated whether or not to do it since I couldn't be much help since the accident.  With everything in chaos upstairs, we decided just to move forward.

Silje and David really wanted to help with the demolition of the walls.  I was so impressed.  Silje mostly liked to take a hammer and just pound holes.  We got her ripping down stuff that way.  David did his work with his well-known intensity.  Knut gave him a crow bar and a hammer, and he just got to work as if he's been doing it for years, ripping down board after board.  He may be skinny, but this kid has muscles.  My jaw was pretty dropped when I took that picture.  Seriously?  The kid's only 7.

Knut said that Silje and David worked so fast together that they did everything in the room demo-wise from the waist down, and Knut did everything from the waist up, and gutted the closet, which had some crumbly places.

Right now the room is in a very different state.  All the old walls have been torn down and brought to the dump.  The room is cleaned up and ready for the insulating guy to come sometime today.  The wall in this room is most exposed in the winter time, and the cold subzero prairie winds hit it hard, thus making it by far the coldest room in the house.  So when it comes to putting in new insulation, we're going a little bit overboard.  We think it's necessary.

As for me?  I'm working on a cross stitch on the couch downstairs.  I'm teaching a bit of school, and trying to work through about 3 different knitting designs.  I recently finished up about 4 projects at the same time, and I like to have about 4 projects on the needles in various stages.  Having a few all at the beginning stages is frustrating.  So I picked up some embroidery.  The pattern I'm working on is here and it is by far my favorite cross stitch project ever.  I'll get some traction on the knitting soon...I hope.

Don't tell the girls, but I'm making a "Miss Maggie Rabbit" for each of them for Christmas, with a few knitted clothing items for their bunnies to wear.  It's another couch-job I can do, and I'm looking forward to it.  I'm needing the inspiration these days.

I can't wait to show you pictures.  Sigh.  Soon, I hope.

I'm Blessed

I love this time of year when the wheat is ready to harvest.  We don't grow wheat anymore, but our neighbors do, and it's the prettiest crop you could imagine.  It almost seems to reflect sunshine and wave like the sea.  I'm sure this week all those fields will get cut down and put to sleep for the year.

I got a nap yesterday.  I do not even know where to begin to tell you how wonderful that was.  Ingrid hasn't been wanting to nap longer than 15 minutes for the last week or two.  She was too big for her cradle, but with the bedroom remodel going on upstairs, I didn't want Solveig out of the crib yet.  Our pack n play is so low to the ground it hurts my back to lay her in it, and she hates sleeping in there anyway.  The thing is on its last leg.

So my sister in law dropped of a spare mini-crib of theirs on Saturday.  When they lived out East in a house with tiny bedrooms, she put her twins in mini cribs so they would fit in the same room.  So Knut got this little crib up in our room in place of the cradle.  The cradle moves every time Ingrid tries to roll over and I think that's been what's been waking her up.  That's why she's been sleeping with us so much.  It's fine, I just don't get the kind of sleep I like when she's with us.  As she's more mobile, I've been really nervous about her being in the cradle as well because she's about ready to crawl out of it.  We just needed a new solution until the kids' room remodel was done...hopefully soon.

The first night she slept in the new mini-crib she slept like a rock.  So I slept like a rock.  Then she slept like a rock for her nap after church, so I slept like a rock for a nap after church too.

It's a good trend.

When Knut was setting up this mini crib, we were trying to decide how low to put the mattress.  After it was set, we set Ingrid in there to see how she looked in it.  She squealed, and Knut said, "She's almost ready to pull herself to a stand."  I said, "She's been trying but she's not quite there.  I'd give it another week."  Much to our surprise, in the next 10 seconds she pulled herself up to a stand right in front of us in the mini crib and she practically screamed with her delight in the accomplishment.  I don't think I'll ever forget the look on her face when she got to the top.

Oh we're blessed.

Don't you just love how little kids, and especially babies have such un-checked joy?  It's so uninhibited, so automatic, and such a reflex.  They just scream with joy if that's how they feel.  It's times like that when I think of Jesus' words about the kingdom of heaven belonging to such as these.

Oh, we all need more kids in our life, and the unchecked, uninhibited joy they have.

I try to look at the good things of me doing less physical things around the house.  I'm reading to my little kids more.  I was sitting on the couch the other day just thinking about each of my kids' personalities, and how I always want to remember the beauty of each of them.  Little Solveig has been mothering me a lot.  Nothing melts your heart like seeing concern in the eyes of a 2 year old.  She comes and snuggles me a lot.

I love snuggles.  She seems un-phased when I cry or lose my temper as it happens from time to time. Especially since the accident and I'm feeling overwhelmed by the stuff I can't do.  She always just calmly comes over and holds my hand.  It's so not her job to settle me down, but she takes it upon herself and does it so well.  It's one of those guilty/proud moments as a mother.  You're so proud of them for having such a big heart, and so guilty that you had an imperfect moment.

Silje's off to Prairie Girl Camp for the mornings this week.  We're so blessed with some friends who loaned us her costume.  As God was raining down the blessing of a used costume, He said "why not make it purple, since that will really make her smile."

And so it was.

We're blessed.

Teacher Notes

I'm glad we started school early this year.  We're on week 2, and I would say for the first time, this year I have some realistic expectations.  We haven't been doing our bought curriculum daily because we're still busy with summer activities, but we get in a good 3 days a week.  For instance, right now Silje and David are with Knut on a field trip to the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center where they will participate in duck banding with some other kids.

Next week Silje gets to spend 4 days at a "Prairie Girl Camp" put on by a teacher at the Christian school for local kids in the summer.  It's just over at her house during the day, but she's going to have a blast.  They have to dress in traditional prairie dresses like Laura Ingalls Wilder, sunbonnet and all.  On day 1, the girls will make homemade laundry soap and learn to wash clothes by hand.  On day 2, they will make biscuits, butter, and jam all from scratch.  On day 3 they will make a small quilt and rag doll.  On day 4 they will participate in a mock 1 room schoolhouse with pioneer style lessons, and then finish up at the library.  We're studying this portion of history right now, and so it's so timely that she will be able to participate in this.

The other big news this week is Elias joined our school day much more.  He's only still preschool age, and next year he'll be kindergarten age.  I'm a big believer in letting kids start when they're ready.  David didn't really do much with our school day until he was over 6.  Elias is only 4, so it wasn't in my plan to start him doing lots of school, but he's just been aching to be included with the big kids.

For the last year or so, Elias has taken it upon himself to learn his letters.  We have these magnet letters and he would bring them to me and say "what sound does this one make?" while I was busy doing something else.  I kept thinking that he was ready to learn to read, but I wasn't quite ready to sit and teach him.  So he had to wait until he was 4.  I know.  Poor guy.

I've carved out part of the school day every day to just sit on the couch with Elias and work on reading.  I'm just using the introductory "Hooked on Phonics" that I used with the other kids.  We don't use the cd much anymore since I've basically memorized it going through it a couple of times before.  I gave him the flashcards, and told him these were just for him.  It was his school.  He just beamed.

So in the last week, Elias has proven he knows what sound every letter makes, and has mastered the "at words."  (cat, sat, rat, fat, mat...)  We started learning the "an words."  (can, fan, man...) although when the book mixes together the "at" words and the "an" words he gets all mixed up.  That's okay.  That happened to the other kids too.  It takes awhile to realize you have to pay attention to each of the letters in the word, not just the front or just the end of the word.

So he's pretty proud of himself.  He just loves reading.  He reminds me more of Silje as a reader than David as a reader.

Anyway, I have been asked what curriculum we're using this year, so I'll try to get that out as simply as I can.

My Father's World
This is our core curriculum this year.  As an experiment Silje and I decided to switch from Sonlight to My Father's World.  I've been debating about these 2 since we started, so this year I asked Silje what she thought.  She liked all of the activities that MFW had, so we went for that.  I'm not disappointed with that decision, and it is laid out very nicely for me.  The one thing that Silje is missing, though, is all the books, books, books that she gets from Sonlight.  She keeps asking for more books.  The ones we get from the library just aren't enough for her appetite.  I may place a Sonlight order for some age appropriate readers sometime this year just to keep her going, but right now I'm weighing the cost of doing that additional purchase.

I really love all the music in this program.  I also like that it follows the "Story of the World" books because we have been preferring those, and have been using it WITH Sonlight, and it was too much to do both.  So doing a program that has our favorite history book already programed in was nice and easy.

This core covers history, science, geography, reading, music and art.

Math
We're staying the course with Saxon math this year.  Silje is finishing the second half of 5/4 and David is finishing the second half of level 2.

Language Arts
Sigh.  This is the part where it gets embarrassing.  I have a few programs and I use parts of each.  Some are used in their entirety, and some are not.  I'm piecing it together because that's what I like to do.

Shurley English- I'm doing this with both kids this year.  I'm squishing together years 2 and 4 so both students can get the concepts down at the same time.  We do songs together, etc.  I've been through this program a few years now, so I feel comfortable leaving the script and just making it work for my 2 kids.  I use this more or less as a loose guide for grammar.

The Works People- I love their flashcards for both handwriting and phonics/spelling rules, which Shurley lacks.  I have their whole program, and am pretty sure I'm not using it to the fullest because I prefer using Shurley still because that's what I know.

Institute for Excellence in Writing- I've noticed a trend with Silje the last few years.  She used to like to write stories.  Her spelling and handwriting were terrible, so I really tried focusing on that.  What ended up happening is now she hates writing with a passion.  I worried I pushed too hard, and squashed the joy for her.  I was talking to another homeschool mom about this problem.  How do you set the bar high without squashing their spirit?  Also, if you have squashed their spirit, how do you un-squash it?

She told me about the Institute for Excellence in Writing videos and writing program.  It's not super cheap, so I just got a bit for Silje, since it starts around her age.  So she's watching these videos everyday, and I have to say, just after one video her love of writing returned.  The teacher in the video is SO funny, and really gets inside kids' brains.  I was blown away impressed listening in on it.

Latina Christiana- We've been dabbling in Latin in the past, but now we're to the age where it can be studied a bit deeper.  The benefits of studying Latin are endless, so I won't get into them here.  Silje especially wants to get into a science/biology related field, and knowing Latin in that field would be a benefit.  I'm trying to go through it with her more this year so I can learn it too.

Rosetta Stone Chinese- We're continuing on with this, as soon as I purchase our 3rd set of headphones this year.  The kids break them so easily, it's driving me bonkers.  Other than that, I love the program for them.  I wanted them to learn a modern foreign language, and a few years ago, this is what Knut and Silje picked.  We may branch into Spanish next year too if I can fit it in.

We don't do every subject every day.  I have tried different ways to organize our day from workboxes to assignment books.  It's hard to find a system that both inspires the kids but isn't a ton of busy work for me.  I've turned this corner in our homeschooling journey to step back from forcing learning to happen, but starting to just let learning happening.  It's hard to explain.  Anyway, next week I'll try to go over this year's way of keeping track of what needs to get done.  Organizing isn't my strong suit, so finding someway to organize our school has also been a journey.  I really like what we're doing so I'll have to share.

Tsu Sweater

I. Love. It.

I love wearing this one so much.  I love this yarn. I love the lace.  I love the color.  It's been a reeeeeeeally long time coming, but I would like to present you with:

The Tsu Sweater.

Some of you may remember me knitting this up last year.  It was my anniversary trip to Hawaii plane knitting.  I swatched and swatched and measured and did everything right, and when I tried it on...it was not right.  It was not right at all.  The neckline was not sitting right.  It was annoying to wear.  It looked sloppy on the dress form.  I tried saving the sweater.  Then I let it die.  It got frogged completely, and I used that ashes of that yarn to knit up the Clarity Cardigan.  That turned out to be my best selling pattern to date, so it wasn't that bad of a turnout.

I moved on.  I told myself I learned a lot, and it just wouldn't work.  The Tsu Sweater was a bust.

Then I started making friends.  I don't want to name drop or anything, but I made friends with Alicia Plummer and Melissa Schaschwary.  Both are talented designers.  Both are moms with young kids.  It turned out we had a lot in common.  So anyway, they started looking at my project page on Ravelry, and pretty soon they each sent me a note about the frogged project of the Tsu Sweater.  What ever happened to that pattern?  It's gorgeous!

So once again, I ordered some yarn.  This time I went for a different color just to mix it up a bit.  I waited a month or two until Quince and Co. had peacock back in stock.  In the mean time, I browsed Etsy on sleepless nights, looking for some "staging clothes" for my knitting patterns.  I found this vintage 1970's skirt and thought it was just perfect.  I swatched a few new neckline techniques, from trying various cast on methods, to finally settling on this faux-ribbing stitch.  It had the look I wanted, without the stretch of ribbing.

My sister-in-law is getting into the photography business, and offered to do my photoshoots.  It was so much fun, and she was so easy to work with.  I was a little nervous because I like to think of myself as laid back, but when it comes to my design work, I'm a bit particular.  I knew her artist's eye was particular as well, and I didn't want us to clash because we had such a good relationship already.  It turns out her artist's eye was spectacular, and I just loved all of the pictures she sent me.  We were totally on the same page, and so I'm excited to work with her lots in the future.

What I love about this sweater is not only how I love the fit, or color, or yarn.  When I see it, I think of the community of women in the online knitting community that have taken me in as one of their own.  We play up these designers as somehow famous, when they are just as crazy as the rest of us.  Besides Alicia and Melissa's encouragement before the publication, after the publication, Joji and Bristol Ivy both sent me notes saying that they loved my new pattern.  I was flying on cloud 9.  Really?  C'mon people, let's not undo all this humbling God has been working on with me.  :)

The knitting world is actually a pretty small world.  I love this sweater because it's a story of friendship. Tsubasa, who loaned me her gorgeous japanese clothes way back in the day.  Alicia and Melissa telling me to try one more time.  Kristin photographing this piece, and us working so easily and beautifully together.  Joji and Bristol encouraging me when it's done.  I feel so so lucky when I wear this sweater.  

If you're interested in knitting up your own Tsu Sweater, it's more simple than you might think.  You can buy the sweater here:

 6.00

Or if you want to check out the sweater on Ravelry first, that can be found here.

Tearing Down and Starting Over

I have a soft rule not to start a post by apologizing for my lack of posting.  It's just a boring thing to say, and assumes that people revolve their lives around your writing, and therefore you have disturbed their lives in someway, which in most cases, is not true.  It may shock many writers that no one revolves their lives around their blog.

I apologize to the only person I know who I can count on to look forward to my posts (Hi Mom!) and to myself for breaking my goals in consistently writing, and of documenting our family's life.  In my defense, nothing this summer has turned out how we had thought, and many goals are being re-written.

And that's okay.

At least that's what I keep telling myself.  Knut keeps plowing on, determined to make the most of the working days that the summer offers, and has been pulling the weight for both of us in so many ways.  I'm spending a lot of time practicing patience, talking with my kids, and just getting through each day with some pretty low expectations of myself.

It has been humbling.  I knew pride was my great struggle, but I wasn't aware of just how badly I needed a good humbling.  When your body is struggling to heal, and there are no outward signs of injury, people just have to take your word for it.  That in itself is humbling.

You have to say over and over throughout the day, "I can't do that."  That's not a phrase I like, and I do not enjoy saying it as often as I have needed to.  It's not a phrase I like to teach my kids, but I'm learning that it's a phrase that must be learned if one is to grow a compassion for others.

My anxiety is getting much more under control, though I don't feel like I can juggle as much mentally as I could before.  I used to be able to juggle so many things in my head at once, and now I feel limited to 2 or 3 things.  That's an improvement, but has made for some frustrating days where I drop balls that never used to get dropped.  More humbling.  Plus, as much as I like my chiropractor, I'm honestly sick of revolving my week around his appointments.  There's things I'd rather be doing.

So in farm news, this last week Knut and his cousin, and a few young friends butchered all of our meat chickens.  I have no pictures for you of that day.  (You're welcome.)  They had it all so organized, and I was impressed by that.  They learned so much too, and are already discussing improvements and expansions to make for next year.  It's exciting.

There are now 20 chickens in my freezer (our share) and if I had any freezer meals in there before, I won't find them for awhile.  On the menu: chicken.  That's pretty easy.

Knut finally got the cupboard doors and locks on the school supply shelf, and I'm looking forward to a week of school where a good portion of time is not spent picking up and rescuing supplies that Elias and Solveig have spread around the house in an effort to destroy everything of value, including my sanity.

Knut and the kids have also started ripping up what was formally the walls to the girls' room.  We've been needing to do that bedroom's renovation for a few years now, and as we are trying to structure sleeping arrangements of 5 kids in 2 rooms, (generously sized for the age of the house) it's just so necessary to do this now.  Right now the 4 older kids are all in the boys' room during the remodel.  Ingrid is still in the cradle next to our bed.  She spends half her night in our bed, and half her night in her bed.  I don't sleep well when she's with us, so I'm eager to get her space worked out better.  She's getting too big for her cradle, which has spurred on this whole project as I want all the kids settled in their new spaces.

The girls' room was smaller, and now that we have more girls, they are getting the boys' old room.  The boys old room just needed a paint job, but the girls' old room needed a bit more.  Ripping down old plaster that was crumbling places underneath the layers of wallpaper, and replacing the insulation in that room are the main things.  Then of course, drywalling it, taping, texturizing, and painting it for the boys.

It's just created mess.  We debated what would be more stressful for me: having Ingrid sleep in our room for the next year, or having a mess in the house for a few weeks and me not worried about the kids' sleeping arrangements.  Then the demolition began.  One more project where all I can contribute is picking out paint colors.

Fortunately, my parents are coming at the end of the month, so that will push Knut on to get it done before they come.  We like to make the visit as relaxing as we can.  I cannot tell you the number of projects around the house that he gets done in the weeks prior to a visit from Mom and Papa.  It makes me love them coming even more.

Knut's sister and family are moving away this week, and we've been taking extra time to say our goodbyes to them.  My kids will miss their cousins so deeply, and that has been hard too.  There will still be visits, but it won't ever be quite the same.

I'm still working on some knitting patterns, all in various stages.  I have some exciting ones coming, if I could just unbury my brain from the things at home that clutter it.  I've been picking up some calming, therapeutic projects for the main purpose of just letting my brain settle and organize.  A reboot, if you will.

I wanted to show pictures for this post but I can't seem to find my camera memory card anywhere.  It's been lost for a few days now.  So you'll just have to imagine this cross stitch pattern in progress, that is a project I started just after Ingrid was born.

I had literally been wanting it for months before that.   I hadn't seen an embroidery design that I loved this much in years.  After realizing I had counted incorrectly, and messed it up to un-fixable proportions, I emailed the designer many weeks ago, explained how hopelessly I had messed up due to my lack of following directions.  I asked if I could order just a few of the supplies to start over, without ordering the whole kit with pattern again.  She turned out to be one of the sweetest people I've met online, and was gracious enough to gift me a redo.

So I'm starting over.  Which is okay.  Because creating something beautiful doesn't get old easily.