First

Those expressions! K made the same ones when she had her first solid food. A lot different than milk going down, eh??
Around our house, babies wait until close to the age of one year before starting solids of any kind. With food allergies, lack of interest, their readiness (and my own!) that is just how it worked out. It has been the norm for the past three babies and I expected it to continue with our latest one. Baby F, on the other hand, had different plans. I should have known he would. At dinnertime he would watch us intently, studying how we bring silverware and cups to our mouths, all the while making chewing motions with his jaws mimicking ours. Recently he started lunging and grabbing for our food, screeching and screaming like a little velociraptor in my and Kevin's laps. That made things a bit interesting, let me tell you! Finally, just before eight months of age, exhausted and hungry from dinnertime struggles, I gave in and mashed up some avocado for him (we love our baby food grinder that was given to us back when K was a baby - similar to this one). Oh the sheer delight of sitting in a highchair for the first time and gnawing on a spoon full of anything other than milk. I think of all my babies, he enjoyed his first eating experience the most - even with the funny faces from feeling food go down his throat for the first time. I think we might be doing something different than our usual banana as a first birthday "cake" this time around...


"Ahh yes This is what I had been wanting!" This photo is blurry but doesn't he look so proud of himself after his first meal?

First

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

I have less than a week until the Trailing of the Sheep festival and I still have three projects that I need to complete:

1. Kevin's hat
2. Baby F's baa-ble cardi
3. the babywearing cover to keep Baby F warm  (pictured above)

Since I am still waiting on Kevin to finalize some things with his hat, I decided to finish up the babywearing cover. The weather will be much cooler up in the mountains so that would be something practical to have with me. Plus it would be nice to have all of those needles back that are holding the live stitches waiting for an i-cord trim.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Welcoming Autumn

 I had the greatest of intentions to type up a post about our not too distant future tonight but oh that sweet little baby of mine was just so warm and cuddly that I fell asleep along side him as I nursed him down. I always feel so discombobulated the rest of the evening when that happens so I best not try to write too much. We'll just stick to simplicity tonight instead.

Autumn is officially here! Time to break out the woolies!! Also time to fight colds. Baby F has one that just doesn't want to go away. We had a beautiful rainy day that just begged all of us to go outside and play. The Mountain Home autumn winds have come, too, so I am rescuing anything delicate left in my garden like our Chinese lanterns that we grew for our Martinmas nature table.

Our local youth center kicked off autumn with an apple camp for the younger children. I took the boys there and Little L had a good time. I think he was just happy to be out with me alone (well, for the most part - Baby F slept through it). I am trying harder to spend more one-on-one time with each of my children. They need it, and so do I . That really is the best form of discipline in our family ("discipline" which comes from the Latin word "discipuli" meaning student. Not to be confused with "punishment" which comes from "punier" meaning "to inflict pain". This words are not synonyms, although they are often used that way, especially by those who think some don't "discipline" -ahem. Sorry, this topic has been on my mind lately and has me spending a lot of time re-reading Parenting with Grace.)

Moving on...

Purple Grandma sent K a birthday box last week and in it was some organic Blue Sky Alpacas cotton yarn for me. Look at the price tag on them - what a score! I used that same yarn for Little L's baby blanket and loved it. Now to find a project for it...and Little L's baby blanket, come to think of it. It has been missing for months. Oh and speaking of generous gifts, our neighbors stopped by the other day with some spruce branches from their latest trip up in the mountains. Our home has been filled with the incredible smell of spruce ever since as I have been making tea with it.

How about you? How are you welcoming autumn?

Welcoming Autumn

Journey

Alarm clock from Nana and Grandpa (this one) Books from Nana and Grandpa

 My clever, feisty, compassionate K turned eleven earlier this week. Eleven! Can you believe it? I can't. My journey as a mama started with her and I can't believe it has been this long. It feels as if I just blinked and here we are, eleven years later. But oh what a ride it has been. I look forward to all the years to come! Please continue to be patient with me, my dear K. I am learning right along side you.

We celebrated K by giving her her own space for the little time we have left here (more on that later). The playroom has been moved out to the living room and she now has a room of her own. She has a hard time concentrating on schoolwork with the rest of her siblings around so we thought we would give her a desk to work at in her room. I found the one you see pictured at a consignment shop and just fixed it up a bit with Kevin's help. I thought it was perfect at the time because it was vintage and so compact. Well, unfortunately that means that I can't find a chair to fit it. I found the one you see pictured above at another consignment shop and painted it the same blue as my bookcase to get us by for now. She is pleased with it and that is what matters...right?

She was asking for her own essential oil diffuser so we got her a horse one (of course!). Kevin hung a little shelf I painted on the wall above it to hold her oils. She has been having so much fun choosing her oils each day. Next to her oil shelf hangs a mirror so she can sit at her desk and brush her hair or put in her earrings. Although as you can see in the photo of her and C - she has turned this space into her own little vanity/beauty salon. My little girl is growing up!

In her window hangs a very special spider plant that is from her beloved teacher back at Portland Waldorf School. I knit a hanger for it in her favorite colors to keep it safe from our plant loving cats.

Nana and Grandpa gifted her with an alarm clock for her room as well as four books (from your recommendations!) - Heidi, The Secret Garden, The Penderwicks and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.   Little L gave her a pumpkin and C gave her one of her special hedgehogs. I also knit her a birthday sweater as I do every year. She is wearing it in the photos but I will share more about that in another post.

But perhaps her most favorite gift of all was her very own base ID. Now from time to time she can go places on base without us. She tested it out right away by biking to the library and getting her own library card and then going to the commissary (base grocery store) to pick up some fruit for her siblings. We had her take my phone with her so she could call us at each stop and check in (because this mama's heart needed that!). She is truly loving this new found independence. I have a feeling it was just what she needed most. Just don't grow up too fast, my little one, okay?

Journey

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.
Still working on Baby F's Baa-ble cardi. I am not too happy with my stitch tension at the moment. I think I purl looser than I knit but I am hoping that things will resolve themselves when I block it.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Ambitious

Gluten-free vegan doughnuts - it can be done thanks to Chloe's Kitchen! Bull snake Amaranth Orb Weaver

I am trying to convince Kevin and our budget (ha!) that we need an apothecary hutch. I think the evidence of such a need is overwhelming, I mean just look at the photographs above! My herbs and supplies are taking over our kitchen. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a real wood hutch in our price range yet but hopefully if I am patient enough one will present itself. I am looking forward to finding another fixer upper/painting project!

Little L found the book Mortimer's First Garden at the library recently. It is really a sweet book and I think we might have to add it to our collection eventually. I had to laugh when I read it to him though, as the mice visiting our garden have not been as patient and kind as Mortimer. In fact, they devoured our entire patch of wheat as well as our beans. I always try to plant extra for the animals and insects but these guys were being just a bit too greedy for my taste. We put down these live catch traps and have already caught and released five mice. Our wheat may be gone but I pray we can save the rest of the garden before the season is over.

On a similar note, we have wild amaranth growing in our yard this year. It is getting quite huge and trying to take over but I am hoping we can hold out on pulling it until after it has bloomed. I really want to try dyeing wool with it. I know C would love the pretty pink it is supposed to make.*sigh* I do believe I have too many ambitious thoughts at the moment and I have yet to finish K's birthday gifts for next week. I guess I'd better hop to it!

p.s. - Thank you for all of you input on the website issues. I am hoping to look into the viewing from a phone issues over the weekend.

Ambitious

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.
As if Baby F wasn't going to be sheepy enough for Trailing of the Sheep - I thought he needed a little cardi that incorporated the baa-ble sheet chart. I refuse to do another steeking project so I am working the chart on bot h knit and purl rows. I need to go back and add my notes to the project because it ends up that I was making up my own cardigan pattern instead of doing the one I linked to. Not sure how that happened but as long as it fits in the end! I'll try to keep posting my notes on the rav page as I go along.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

housekeeping

Hey everyone. My computer bit the dust last week (bad things come in threes, right? Geesh!) so I had to go out and find a decent one that wasn't going to put me too much further into debt *sigh*. I accomplished that but now as I view my blog on this new computer with internet explorer I am noticing that paragraphs are missing and photographs with captions are not there. I checked it using firefox and it was fine though. Now I am a bit nervous that the posts are not coming across correctly on certain browsers. I am not sure how you would know something was wrong other than my posts making less sense than they usually do (do to the first paragraph missing). Have any of you had any issues (like this or something else entirely)? Would you mind telling me which browser you are using? Thank you so much for your help!

housekeeping