recent handwork...

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I have taken to using the bookshelf as a knitting shelf. It is working quite well. Knitting bags are every handy too, as they keep balls of yarn safely unwinding within and can be hung out of reach of baby.

My knitting bag was a birthday gift from Chloe. She now has times, often late in the day, when she simply must start on a particular project immediately, and she will then work for many hours to get it done. (Reminds me of my 1am, or 3am!, sewing nights from when I was younger!) (I can't believe I just said, "when I was younger".)

So yes, knitting bags are useful, my mind is now whirring away with thoughts as to what makes a most perfect knitting bag. Chloe included a knitted i-cord strap on mine, which is most definitely perfect and lovely.

More on Chloe's finished sewing list includes a nightgown, a cap (this one, which I think is very becoming on her) a linen pillow for Elsa with her name embroidered on it, and a green corduroy frock/dress (which just happens to resemble a dress I made myself about 20 years ago, and was even cut from the same length of fabric…)

Now if I could just get myself some time at the sewing machine!

(Would probably be easier to do if I would put down my knitting.)

But knitting… Two pairs of pants now for Elsie, and the second pair is plenty, plenty long, hopefully she will be wearing them all year.

And then my other so very special knitting project…

But the sewing!

(And the teeny tiny dolls!!! Not more than 2 or 3 inches tall. Lots of these little people about our home…)


~ Joining friends Ginny and Nicole ~

(p.s. knit pants are picky pants pattern and elizabeth zimmerman baby leggings. and i really should update my ravelry page sometime…)


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st. lucia, and johnny cash, and...

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(Photos are from last year's celebration, it was Chessa's first time to be Lucia…)


Really. Yes. Somehow these two things are related.

A clever little seasonal calendar is only helpful if you have any idea what day it is.

Fortunately, when one day last week I thought to myself, "Hmm, I wonder when St. Lucia day is?" I started counting back to the last day I was sure of (don't worry it was just a few days back, I'm not that lost..) and oh wow, the very next day was St. Lucia day! At least we didn't miss it!

But I did then kind of forget about it for the rest of the day.

And that's how Chloe ended up spending her evening listening to Johnny Cash and baking our Lucia buns.

And that's how I ended up baking a second batch of Lucia buns the next morning at 4am.

Chloe's batch came out a little crisp (not quite burnt!)
She is a very good baker,
but Johnny Cash.
The girls are really loving him lately. Listening to their favorite songs and trying to write down all the words.

(Anyone else have memories of wearing out tapes (cassettes!) using the rewind button to listen to the same songs over and over again?)

Well, so, Chloe was distracted by song lyrics, and the Lucia buns were... (not burnt…)

The 4am batch turned out just right (lucky, since baking at 4am probably has the potential to go not quite right) though not finished until the sky was losing it's darkness.

And I decided to be Lucia. I had a feeling Chloe wasn't feeling up for an early morning rising (true, she told me later) so I layered on some white clothes, put the crown upon my head…

headed out to get the candle and wake the girls…

oh, and there was Elsa, sitting up wide awake in bed!

and probably Elsa then thought something like...

oh, there is mama, with a crown of candles upon her head!

So I scooped baby up into my arms, somehow lit the candle, and went to wake my big girls...

who thought it was very neat to be awakened by their Lucia mama,

and were even more wide eyed over the transformation of the dark crispy buns into a tray of soft and sweet buns…


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first week of advent

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The Festival of Stones. St. Nicholas came. Three oranges this year!

Maybe next year I will remember to re-post my advent calendar tutorial in time.

(If I wait for good light and unblurry pictures then blog posts will never happen.)

Our advent angel shows us how many days until Christmas, but that still leaves lots of asking... "How many days till St. Nicholas comes." "When is St. Lucia's day?" "When is Three Kings Day?"

So our Winter Festival Days Calendar should help with that...


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november gratitude (Steiner on gratitude...)

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(Do you see? We have an apple fairy this year!)

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Rudolph Steiner from "The Child's Changing Consciousness As the Basis of Pedagogical Practice" (Lectures from April, 1923) ...

"All that flows, with devotion and love, from a child's inner being toward whatever comes from the periphery through the parents (or other educators) - and everything expressed outwardly in the child's imitation - will be permeated with a natural mood of gratitude. We only have to act in ways that are worthy of the child's gratitude and it will flow toward us, especially during the first period of life."

"It would be very incorrect to remind children constantly to be thankful for whatever comes from their surroundings.
On the contrary, an atmosphere of gratitude should grow naturally in children through merely witnessing the gratitude that their elders feel as they receive what is freely given by their fellow human beings, and in how they express gratitude.
In this situation, one would also cultivate the habit of feeling grateful by allowing the child to imitate what is done in the surroundings.
If a child says "thank you" very naturally - not in response to the urging of others, but simply by imitation - something has been done which will greatly benefit the child's whole life. 
Out of this an all-embracing gratitude will develop towards the whole world."

"The cultivation of universal gratitude toward the world is of paramount importance.
It does not always need to be in one's consciousness, but may simply live in the background of the feeling life,
so that, at the end of a strenuous day, one can experience gratitude, for example, when entering a beautiful meadow full of flowers. Such a subconscious feeling of gratitude may arise in us whenever we look at nature. It may be felt every morning when the Sun rises, when beholding any of nature's phenomena."

"And if we only act properly in front of the children, a corresponding increase in gratitude will develop within them from all that comes to them from the people living around them, from the way the speak or smile, or the way such people treat them."

"This universal mood of gratitude is the basis for a truly religious attitude; for it is not always recognized that this universal sense of gratitude, provided it takes hold of the whole human being during the first period of life, will engender something even further."

"In human life, love flows into everything if only the proper conditions present themselves for development. The possibility of a more intense experience of love, reaching the physical level, is given only during the second period of life between the change of teeth and puberty."

"But that first tender love,
so deeply embodied in the inner being of the child - without as yet working outward -
this tender blossom will become firmly rooted through the development of gratitude."

"Love, born out of the experience of gratitude during the first period of the child's life, is the love of God. 

One should realize that, just as one has to dig the roots of a plant into the soil in order to receive it's blossom later on, one also has to plant gratitude into the soul of the child, because it is the root of the love of God. 

The love of God will develop out of universal gratitude, as the blossom develops from the root."

"If, during this first period of life, we create an atmosphere of gratitude around children… 

then out of this gratitude toward the world, toward the entire universe, 

and also out of an inner thankfulness for being in this world at all 

(which is something that should ensoul all people), 

the most deep-seated and warmest piety will grow. 

Not the kind that lives on one's lips or in thought only, but piety that will pervade the entire human being, that will be upright, honest, and true."


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Blessings, love, peace and well wishes to all...


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making, knitting, reading (and homeschooling)

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Rather than being made of wool, this little doll is made of wood. She is Chloe's "fancy" woman from England. Carved one day at the land and then dressed at the house...


In my Waldorf mind, I imagine my little baby with the simplest of play things around her, and very few of them. A wooden tree and a knit animal. Perhaps a set of felted nesting bowls for her first birthday.
But this little Waldorf baby has two older sisters who already have a forest of trees, and are ready to knit up a whole entire farm for her!


Sometimes, actually most of the time lately, I feel like I have turned into the slowest knitter in the world.  I'm pretty sure I just spent at least several months knitting one little pair of pants. Finally they are finished. Elsie is wearing them all the time, just as cute as can be. But I don't think they are long enough! Fine for now, but we are only at the beginning of autumn, and she just keeps growing. I think I am going to have to take apart the bottoms and add some length. But that means that I'm not really done with them yet! Oh goodness. At least I have a new bonnet almost finished...


We have been slowly starting our homeschool year. It is October after all, I couldn't put it off much longer.

We have been enjoying so many Jakob Streit books lately. His stories are just right for everyone right now, having spent much of last year with stories of Saints for Chessa's 2nd grade, and with Chloe beginning her main lesson work on the Middle Ages.

A very useful book to me these days, which I wish I had gotten years earlier, is Teaching History by Christoph Lindenberg. Subtitled "Suggested Themes for the Curriculum in Waldorf Schools". I guess that makes it somewhat self explanatory. I am glad to have it now as I plan the middle school grades, and I'm sure it will be incredibly helpful to us when we get to high school. (!!)

I was so unable to keep up with homeschool posts here this past year that I hardly know where to begin. Perhaps some belated 2nd and 6th grade posts, and then I will be able to move on...


And to those of you who wondered what I was sewing over the weekend... Who said it was me sewing on the machine?


Joining my Friends Ginny and Nicole... (if I remember too...)


Happy making and reading to all...


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notes from the weekend...

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... accompanied by those way too many baby pictures I mentioned the other day.
(Because Mel and Jules encouraged me.) (But I already knew they would want to see them...)
(And also just cause, just for us.)

On Saturday morning Jason and the girls went to town to do our errands and pick up our raw milk. At about the time I was expecting them home, they called to say they were delayed. They had to make an unexpected stop, but they would be home soon, and they had a big surprise. I was unable to think of what it could be, for about 2 seconds, and then I realized that they must have found some apple trees.

Apples, apples, apples!!! I nearly danced around the house with Elsa, happily singing apple songs, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the harvest.

There was only a brief moment when I let my enthusiasm dampen, realizing that I could be wrong, and maybe there weren't any apples.

But oh yes, apples apples apples!

Hmm.. You would think I might have some lovely apple photos to share...

You might also think that Sunday was a day full of apple chopping, saucing, etc...
But no, it was not.
I guess it had something to do with scissors, needle, thread. Fabric, sewing machines. Things like that.
Thank goodness apples don't turn as quickly as peaches.
(Did I even mention this year's visit to the abandoned peach orchard?)

Looks like today will be filled with a little bit of homeschool lesson time and a whole lot of apples.
Hopefully there will still be some moments for handwork.

Wishing you all a happy week ahead!

p.s. Babies sitting on top of tables is not very safe. But it is pretty cute. And apparently quite fun for baby.



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and so many other things...

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When I wrote the other day (weeks ago now!) there were so many other things I was going to say. But then Chessa and I were making that list, and I just went with that instead.


I was going to tell you about the beautiful blue flax flowers...

When Chloe was born, and for her first two years of life, just outside our little mountain cabin grew the beautiful blue flax flowers. And all the sumer mornings, when we first walked out the front door to greet the day, the flowers, the trees... we (I) would say, "Good morning beautiful little blue flax flowers."

We do not live with the little blue flax flowers anymore. But if ever they come across our path we always give them the same greeting.

And someday we shall live with them again.


~ ~ ~


Always, there are so many other things...


I actually started writing this post on paper. I am just more awful than ever about computer time.

(Perhaps not such a bad thing, other people seem to have trouble resisting the computer. I, on the other  hand, can hardly force myself to get anything done on it...)

(Then again, I was just distracted by a lovely Pinterest sewing board.)

Really though I am more of a books and notebooks, pencil and paper kind of person.

But sometimes I miss this little blog space, and often I very much miss my blog friends.

And along comes September, and here am I posting pictures from July.
Which doesn't make so much sense with photos of babies and gardens, cause both grow so so fast.
But at least it's not like knitting, when the baby outgrows the bonnet (socks, pants, etc..) before it is even cast off.


Baby. Gardens.
Knitting. Sewing.
Homeschool planning.
Waldorf happiness. Reading lots of Steiner.


The other evening at the land, while preparing for our camp dinner, Jason said, "If only we had some potatoes." And then we remembered that we did have potatoes, growing in the ground, and we could harvest some if we wanted to. Which we did.


I am going to try to keep up a little better here...


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