It is 7:16 am.
I’ve been up for an hour and a half. Well, that’s not strictly true. I woke up at 5:45, then laid in my bed for 15 minutest trying to decide what to do. Go back to sleep? (SO tempting. And rational. Who gets up at 5:45?) Get up and work out? I’ve been trying to get back into my workout routine and have been sleeping instead, so since I was awake I decided to haul myself out of bed and pay a visit to miss Jillian.
Miss Jillian is mean at 6 am. 🙂 I did her 6 week 6 pack Level 2, which is really just uncalled for. But now I’m up and moving, which is a good thing.
Z is sitting on the floor playing Cootie, or “Cutie” as she calls it. She’s just playing with the bugs, rather than playing the game. Tiny is asleep, and will hopefully sleep in for a while. I violated one of my huge self rules yesterday (Never wake a sleeping child, they will hate you and you will hate yourself) and woke her up at 8:30, and she was a big ol’ mess. So today she just gets to sleep.
It’s really pretty outside, overcast and lovely looking. I’ve realized that I’m really ready for fall, but seeing as it’s just starting to feel like summer, I think we’ve got some time.
School has gone excellently this week, the girls are enjoying it, and we’re getting into a flow. I’m getting down my own procedures for tracking what we’re doing, and getting a better feel for how much time to allot to each subject, and how long Z’s tolerance for each subject is. (Math? Unlimited. Writing? 7 minutes.) Yesterday we started learning how to sew, using yarn and plastic canvas. Whoever invented that stuff was brilliant. And whoever suggested it to me (my momma) is brilliant too. The girls loved it, and even Tiny was getting the hang of her needle going “up and down, up and down, up and down”. Today we’re doing our regular lessons and then going swimming for P.E. Bliss.
I’ve been working on a bunch of projects lately (and have a bunch more to do- goodness, the list is long!), would you like to see?
These are our school rules. We refer to them quite often.
A quilt for a friend’s baby.
A quilt for another friend’s baby. We had a “kid baby shower” for the new baby’s big brothers and their friends, and had each kid draw on a square. I think it turned out cute.
I’m part of a virtual quilting bee, and I got to be the first to host (to pick the pattern, send out fabric) and thus will be the first to have a completed quilt! I chose a “Confetti quilt” pattern- lots of little squares of fabric on a white background. These are the two sample squares I made up. There’s supposed to be an element of “wonk” to it, so that it looks like confetti that just landed on the blanket. I’m not totally sold on the wonkiness, but trying new things is what the virtual bee is all about!
This little dolly is for the class I’m teaching at Super Saturday.
This is my Grandma. I didn’t make her, but isn’t she dang adorable? I ran across this picture this morning and just had to post it. I’m fairly certain that my girls get their feist from her.
And Tiny is awake. I’m off to get girls dressed, fed, and ready for school.
Oh, but first, it was my anniversary yesterday! 9 years of marriage, woohoo! We went to my favorite restaurant for dinner (SO GOOD!), I got a ridiculously expensive set of knives that I’ve been wanting, and I got B a new watch. And while I was at it, I got myself one too. I haven’t worn a watch in probably 5 years, but this one is worth breaking the trend.
The faces of the watches are actually super cool and flip over. I’ll take a picture of that later. 🙂 I just like how mine looks like a bracelet when you flip the face over. I’ve been really into bracelets lately (inspired by Mackin Ink (seriously, there are not words for how much I love her writing. And let’s be honest, I pretty much love her too. Is that weird? To have a girl crush on someone you don’t even know?) (And yes, I just did a parenthesis inside a parenthesis, and now I’m doing another one. You got something to say about that?) ) – I’ll have to take a picture of all my new ones sometime soon, but here’s a teaser:
And now the girls are playing, so I have half a minute to talk about books read recently:
Heathers by John Bowie: This is part of the Deep Focus series, where people write about their experiences with a film while analyzing it. (Kind of like the 33 1/2 series for music.) It was interesting, and a great read, but I wish he’d gone just a titch farther in his analysis. He did, however, confirm that Sherwood, Ohio was a nod to Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, which was validating.
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: I love this play. Love it. I love the wit, love the incisiveness.
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman: Goodness sakes alive this book was good. Really really grab you and not let you go but in a really subtle sneaking up on you kind of way. It’s the story of an international newspaper and the people who work there, told in a series of interlinking short stories, and once I started reading it I just couldn’t stop. There’s an honesty to the stories that makes them compelling, and while they’re not action packed, there’s an underlying emotional tension that had me flipping through the pages like it was a thriller. There are a couple of the stories that I just keep thinking about, and it’s been a couple of weeks since I finished it. (Note: There is quite a bit of swearing, so be warned if that bothers you.)
And now it’s really time to go get moving. What’s happening at your house at this moment?
Your quilts are darling! I love them. I just finished The Imperfectionists too! I didn’t like it though. Oh well….I’m moving on to the next book.
I am glad that “don’t steal” isn’t on your list of rules, because I am going to steal them.
Our home and school are much in need of simple and loving rules laid out like these instead of “Get your mathbook out of the spilled milk!”, “Stop jumping on the couch with your pencil!”, and “If you don’t stop asking to play the computer, I’m going to feed you to the chickens!”