Rhubarbsky

I went a little crazy with the ShakeIt App on Tom’s iPhone at a friend’s home this morning.  I do love the look of these pictures.  Such fun.

With sick days and TONS of rain, we’ve gotten pretty crafty around here.  Abby’s art is at it’s best with as little set-up and direction from me.

We’ve just jumped in and gotten an Art Pen Pal.  Abby is very excited to send her new “pal” Hunter some good art.

Here are a few examples of her recent work.
Stenciled, Colored, cut and taped to the popsicle sticks all by Abby. A gift for her buddy Reid.

She’s WAY into origami cups these days. They hold lots of good stuff, like pony beads.

A self-portrait for Granddad.

Abby’s embroidery. I drew a heart, she stitched.

Just found this on the hard drive and cracked up at myself.  I wrote this 2 years ago, I think:

“Housesitter,

I hope you came to stay.  Here are some details about the house (remember, I was Montessori-ed.  I’m anal that way!).

Food stuff:

Eat whatever.  Be wary. . .smell things and check dates, I think I cleaned out the worst of it.

• Eat the two slightly freezer-burned homemade veggie burgers if you’re inclined.  They look kinda gross, but they are very tasty.  When the ice from the freezer burn part melts into the burger, it makes them delightfully moist. There’s buns in the freezer too.
• Whatever might be left of the bottle of white wine after I drink more tonight is yours.  If I leave any, it will be in the door of the fridge.
• The giant tub of yogurt.  What was I thinking buying that 3 days before we leave for a week.  Goodness.  There’s frozen fruit in the freezer.  You could make SMOOTHIES! You could have a smoothie party.  You could make soft tacos and top them with Yogurt.  Remember, yogurt is full of good stuff to keep you from getting yeast infections.  No one likes yeast infections.  Eat it.  Please?
• Don’t forget there’s a pantry in the laundry room. . .it houses canned goods, dry good, crock pots (yes, there’s more than one), the food processor, old batteries, light bulbs, and a box of dried potatoes from 1999.  I really think they’ve been around that long.  Now I’m embarrassed. . . don’t eat those.  In fact, I think I’ll just get rid of them.  Forget you ever read this sentence.

Random location of things you might not find unless I write it down here:

• Toilet paper:  in the cupboard near the shower.  There’s also a switch for the fan in there.  Oh, and extra towels are there too.
• Sheets/blankets:  Abby’s closet and the closet in the office.  Oh, the office closet also has guitars, board games and old photo albums from my pre-tom life. . .feel free to lurk. . .it might be fun!
• Rags to clean a spill or something: under the sink in the laundry room.
• Keys to the garage/rumpus room:  on the window sill right next to the back door.  Most of my crafty stuff is in the rumpus room.  Sewing machine, serger, random (really great) books that have to do with teaching EE and other youth work.  If you go out the back door, please pull the door shut really hard and make sure it’s actually shut before going to bed or leaving the house, it takes some finesse.

Any compost can go out to the compost bin on the east side of the garage.

If you’re here, could you pull the recycling and garbage cans into our yard from the Alley any time after Tuesday?  It’s no big thing if you’re not around.

The mail has been stopped.

Please make sure the key goes back to its “secret” hiding place because Darek’s coming over Thursday night for TV.

I could write lots more, but really, it’s just a house.  You should see the list I used to leave with babysitters when we left Abby with them.  Funny.

Enjoy and I hope to see you soon!  We’ll be home either Friday or Sat. evening.  Hugs, Carrie”

Well, yesterday she was upright at least!
She spent the better part of 40 minutes looking through that viewfinder.  I’m thinking she’ll be ready to go to the library today!

And, while she drew, did puzzles, watched too much television/movies and looked through the viewfinder I was able to do the following:

• 2 loads of laundry, folded and put away
• loaded, washed, emptied and loaded the dishwasher
• Made a quart of yogurt
• Started cooking some beans
• made jello
• drew a cat (not a very good one, but a cat nonetheless)
• planned my next knitting project (it might actually come before finishing my sweater).  The last pair of these I made are finally too small for Abby.  I’m thinking really loud pink and turquoise for this pair.
• cleaned out the refrigerator
• cleaned out 2 cabinets of dry food
• read 4 chapters to Abby of On the Banks of Plum Creek (Little house book)
• cleaned out Abby’s closet
• swept, vacuumed and mopped
• played at least a dozen rounds of Rat a Tat Cat
• inventoried and organized the freezer and the chest freezer too, which totally made want these “Frozen Things to Eat” notepads!

There was more, but I’m spent.  Keeping a little one in who is too sick to play, but well enough to have a TON of energy is a lot of work!

The little one stayed home sick yesterday.  There was soup and snuggling and stories.

The view for me was a lot like this all day:
and this:
Abby made a grocery list.  It says “Honey Stick”:
Some friends stopped by with soup and one friend came by with all of these hand-me-downs for the sickie.  Swoon!
We’ll be back on our feet soon, I hope.  Dang, being housebound is a bummer!

Well, I’ve worked my way through one skein of yarn. . . twice.

I get going along on this sweater, lose track and then find that the best way to deal with it is to rip back.  Sigh.

Anyway, I’m almost to buttonhole number 2.  So, I’m officially further along on this than I have been before.  This first picture shows the color of the yarn best.  I’m not sure why the second picture is so washed out, but c’est la vie.The first buttonhole (which was a pain in my butt the first time I did it, the second time was much easier!):
And, just a shot of the yarn itself.  Thanks to my friend Jo, who de-stashed and gave me this yarn!  Yay!
Despite the little set-back at the beginning, I’m finding this knit pretty fun.  It’s a top down cardigan and I think I’ll get to switch to a lace stitch right when I’m ready to tear my eyes out for the garter, so that’s good.  It’s been so slow to start that I’m going to start feeling really guilty knitting on this when I *could* be working on Christmas and birthday gifts.  For now, I just hope to finish my February Lady Sweater before it’s actually February!

So, my mom hasn’t found the photos I mentioned in my matchy matchy post, but she *did* find something I think is way better.  A photo of herself with my grandmother in matching dresses.  1959.  Whoa.

When we bought this house nearly 6 1/2 years ago, I wanted to keep some sort of home/hearth record.  I figured having a record of home repairs, garden news and the like would be a handy and fun thing to have around.  I thought that and then did nothing about it for several years.

This blank journal was on our shelf for a lot of years.  When Abby was 2 months old when I finally pulled it down and wrote this:
“Feb. 13th 2005:  Abby’s born– Clear blue skies.”

It is a *very* sporadic journal that seems full of entries in spring and stands completely empty through winter.  I *have* noted what flowers have comprised every Mother’s Day bouquet Tom and Abby have picked for me from our yard.  That first year, it was lilacs, chive flowers, yellow tulips, a red rose, purplish-pink azaleas, calendula, a pink rose and rosemary.

I’ve noted how many quarts of applesauce I’ve canned or frozen each year, what method I used to do the strawberry jam and when I noticed the first snow in the mountains.

In the back of the book, I started writing down poems or songs that would work as grace for before mealtimes.  Sometimes we remember to say it or sing it, but mostly we don’t.  Abby will get on a bender about “The Heart Book” and we’ll sing every night for a week.  Then it will go back up on the shelf until I’m inspired by a bird stopping in our yard or when I’m trying to remember how what bulbs are planted in that west bed.  Someday, I’ll have Abby start writing in it and eventually, I’ll pass it to her when she starts her own household and is looking for some heart.

Abby took the camera away from me today.  Click on the pictures to see them at flickr with notes attached.

Remember when I was tasked with making an eye mask for a stuffed cat?

I’m thinking my job as “stuffed animal accessorizer” may be over.

I present “headphones for otter” by Abby Sanford:

Oh, and yes, my job as the “doer of Abby’s hair” is likely over too!