The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

That's right ya'll! It's time for Christmas card photos! When I round up my protesting children, force them to put on hot winter outfits when it's 80 degrees outside and bribe them with ice cream for standing in one place and looking in the same direction... Does it feel like standards have fallen somewhat?




And yet we still can't do it. This might actually be one of the best shots. Certainly the most representative of the outing as a whole. I especially like that both Ben's shoes have fallen off due to his angry flailing, and his screaming has bothered Wren to such an extent that she's apparently sucking her thumb for the first time in her life. Jane is unperturbed but then she's probably planning to stab me again with her soccer trophy, which she insisted be in all the pictures with us. You can just barely see his head down at the bottom of the photo.

I hope you're all having better luck. And I think next year I'll just send everyone a picture of Ramona and the chickens. They're really my favorites anyway.

Friendship is Magic

For the non-Bronies out there, that is the name of the new My Little Pony series that my daughters routinely lose their shit over. Chase is also kind of a huge fan, and will happily chat pony character arcs and whether Applejack should really have all the responsibility of the orchard on her Little Pony shoulders.

Costumes were obvious to Bronies, everyone else was gently corrected by Jane, "NO I AM NOT A FAIRY I AM A PEGASUS! I AM A WEATHER PONY!!!"

And those wings are why parts of my house still look dyed chickens exploded.

Benno was Spike (Twilight Sparkle's dragon friend). He was happy and easygoing all night, although he did appreciate breaks from wearing the top part of the dragon costume. He also pulled up and stood unsupported for a looong time (and the first time) at the party we went to. Hurray Ben!

And here are our pumpkins. Wren designed a Very Scary Vampire pumpkin and somehow in the process managed to freak herself out enough that she ended up not wanting to look at it. And Jane requested (demanded) Hello Kitty and then I made it and then she dropped it on the ground. In that picture Kitty's face is held together with tape.

I feel like somewhere in that last paragraph this became a parable about motherhood? Meh. Anyway, I love Halloween because it's the non-family holiday. It's about your neighbors, that you never talk to, that have creepy couches on their porches but their light's on... do you send your kids to the door? Do you try that house down the street with all the decorations? Because those people were kind of dicks about your dog when you first moved in... you get to find out what kind of velvet painting your neighbor has in her living room, and who gives natural fruit snacks and who gives pennies (WTF?) and who gives full size candy bars (THE BEST PEOPLE THAT'S WHO).

Anyway if you're looking for me today I'll be at Target... buying some clearance candy. Because other than the initial "I made your whole damn costume" tax, my kids are not sharing.

Fallish

We are still here, busy and well, only lacking the charger for our camera... So unfortunately I just have the evidence of phone pictures, both with and without super exciting Instagram filters, to document my very favorite season.

This is a tiny sweater, blocking out on my bed. Luckily that's Chase's side of the bed, because I didn't use enough towels and things were sort of damp and sheepy over there that night.

I knit my first pair of socks, my first sweater, my first real lacework, and my first pair of mittens in the last month. The socks are on Chase's feet (turns out I don't like socks) the lacework went to a wonderful friend for babysitting, and the mittens are in the Christmas gift pile.

I've also made baby hats and baby mitts, but those are fast and I've made them before. Fall tv and fall weather combine to make the perfect knitting storm. And of course there's always the best show on earth to knit to- old 30 Rock.

Also of course working in the evenings means the library is nice and quiet and other than finding the occasional book on reserve, and chatting with the library ghost, I can just knit the night away.

On the first day with a high below 80 degrees I made gingerbread, pumpkin bread and even more pots of coffee than usual. I made a pumpkin cake for Ben's birthday, that was supposed to look like this:

And actually looked like this instead...

Upside-down in the mixing bowl it sort of slopped into. So then I made him a gingerbread cake instead.

And this is sadly the best picture from his little birthday dinner. Stupid phone. But it was a lovely night.

The other big news in our life right now is our new housemate --

Fierce the Bunny. His owner, my sister Anne, is also living with us. Which means Ramona can usually be found right here

curled up on Anne's pillows. At least until Ben finds her, and then she reverts to hiding in her favorite, baby proof closet.

To summarize, we're great, but too busy to find the damn camera charger.

change in the air

Fall gardening (even though it's 103 again today).


Tiny baby winter plants, that hopefully will survive the ministrations of my 3 excitable garden helpers.


This one doesn't want to wait for squash- he eats dirt instead.


This one is rarely without her birthday cowgirl boots these days. She is heartbroken that they're not appropriate for school days, but that means they get worn everywhere else.


Last week when the temperature dipped briefly into the low 90s I got out the yarn basket. I've picked up my New Years Resolution socks again, so hopefully I'll make some progress on those. And I've made a few fast hats, 3 for bartering purposes with my sister's favorite carpenter (last year I got a chicken coop... who knows what could happen? I want to stay on that guys good side).


The strider bike Jane got for her birthday has been getting a lot of use, but the other favorite presents (besides her girl pet lion of course) have been the walkie-talkies. There's been a learning curve, and maybe an overly heavy reliance on the "call" button (dear god make it stop. or short out or something). But overall the girls have really loved playing with them together. So now I can reclaim the baby monitor from them.


And finally, I moved my craft stuff out of the living room into a closet... less light for pictures, but more ability to work for brief uninterrupted periods of time. This is a patchwork blanket in progress, and I am making a little stack of these for all those babies due this winter. Any mother who has suffered through the summer we've had deserves some handmade baby blankets in the fall!

So fall is on the horizon, I don't care what the thermometer says. Gingerbread, pumpkin pie, sweaters, knitting, HOT coffee, and RAIN. Things are looking up! Nothing but good times ahead. Right guys?

mercury in retrograde...

I feel patently ridiculous complaining about anything when my city is completely surrounded by raging fires and my neighbors have lost homes and cars and pets. Our house is standing. Absurdly, grossly messy, buried under piles of laundry, but standing. The kids are healthy, other than the standard "back to school" runny noses and coughs. We did not at any point this week have to scramble to throw our belongings (get the quilts!!) into the minivan and flee in panic, only to turn around and go back for the fishbowl.

But still. Can you please indulge me for a minute? In the banal and lame complaints department? If you really cannot stomach hearing someone talk about how they feel like they're living "under a black cloud" when you are actually living under a cloud made of the ashes of your home... maybe just pretend like I never wrote the following --

First dental work in 15 years (me and Chase), re-fixing dental work (just me- FUN), disappearing stomach lining (me again!), sleeplessness (everyone except Jane), late night missed buses (yep, me), and of course imminent suffocation by giant pile of laundry (ALL OF US SEND HELP OH MY GOD)

Also. When I make jam, 1 out of 8 jars seals, when I bake, it's mushy or burned, when I sew, my thread breaks, then my needle breaks, then my thread breaks again. When I knit I miscount. I rip out, I knit again. I end up turning it in the wrong direction and knitting diagonally?! WTF. Usually when things are feeling difficult I calm myself down by making something, but it feels like I need to just go to a cabin in the woods (not the piney woods.. ) and try not to touch anything.

We are both being really short with the kids. It might partly be the fact that Ben frequently wants to sleep just a little bit less than he wants to scream as loud as he can into your face, and that can be kind of wearing. NONETHELESS. My kiddos do not deserve this- they are living their own lives, newly jam packed with exhausting school days and new challenges and although they can be kind of IRRITATING (ha. kind of). as they work through these issues, they still need their parents to be on the ball, dealing with it kindly and presently, not just staring at the wall and wishing it would be time to open the bottle of wine already.

BASICALLY nothing's wrong. Everything's fine. Wah wah. We have a house and jobs and health. I'm shutting up already.

P.S. The "OMG I know how blessed we are and I am SO GRATEFUL" postscript- more or less effective than the more traditional version of putting dirt on your kids' faces to ward off the evil eye? Because I do that too.