Mushroom Hunting

Saturday found us wandering about Pigeon River State Forest searching for morel mushrooms, with Mimi, Poppa, Uncle Doug, and Aunt Suzan.

We climbed trees, found acorns (but only took home the ones with "their hats still on!"), played with sticks, and dicovered that you can write on birch bark with a twig.  No birch trees were harmed in the making of this photo....we only took the bark off of the trees that had already fallen down.  Drew confided that he thinks that "This is how the Indians wrote letters to each other, 'cause they didn't have paper."  I now have two scraps of birch bark on my desk that say "I love you, Mama," next to a jar of dandelions.  Perfect.

But most exciting of all, we came home with this:

Just enough for us all to have last night with our steak, and, oh gosh, were they good.  After reading 'I dig dandelions (and apricot blossoms)' by 6512 and growing, we also added a dandelion salad to dinner.  Ian wasn't impressed, but the rest of us thought it was great.  It might have been the perfect dinner, wonderful food, fabulous conversation, and the kids even used their manners so very well.  What more could a Mama ask for?

Finished Project Friday

I finally finished my brothers birthday present and if I can get it in the mail today it will only be 10 days late. Bad big sister. This toiletry bag gave me major trouble. It was just one of those projects were if anything could go wrong it did. I had to rip out the zipper five times, and always because of some stupid self inflicted error. Or because I can't seem to follow instructions without thinking that I can come up with a better way to do it. It never works out for me when I try to "improve" sewing patterns...you'd think I'd learn.


I'm more successful at tweaking knitting patterns. I made these soap bags for my kids after modifying the pattern so it has more holes for the suds to come out. Probably not completely necessary, but I think it looks better too. I really like the yarn I used, Hempathy by Elsebeth Lavold. I picked it up on a shopping spree with Ani.


And last but not least, I finally got these awesome shoe organizers hung. Ani made them during our last craft night. I hate that we live so far apart now. Craft night used to happen at least once a week, now it's more like once or twice a year. I miss you, Ani!

Spring Break...sort of (part two)

The second trip we took during spring break was to Lansing, to stay with the lovely Ani and family. We all went to Impressions Five Science Museum. We love this place! There's so much for the kids (and adults!) to do, from the water room, to the bubble room, to the light room, which oddly enough is a very dark place and so hard to get good pictures in. There's electrical circuits to build (Daddy's favorite part!), levers to compare, catapults to fling things, and pulleys to lift yourself or a friend with. It never seems like we have enough time there, they just about had to throw us out at closing time. We came home with model spaceships, a giraffe made from recycled pop bottles, a kit to make a soda/mentos fountain, and a rocket that, in theory, can be launched 100' into the air using baking soda and vinegar. So much fun and excitement crammed into one place!





Ani and I also went on a shopping trip to Joanne's and a LYS, of course, because we can never have too much stash. We then sent the husbands to the bar so we could get our craft on, only to find out that while I had packed a ton of supplies and even my sewing machine ('cause Ani's fancy machine scares me.), I managed to forget the machine's power cord. D'oh! The best laid plans.... Oh well, at least I managed to get some knitting done while Ani rocked out some awesome, but more about that tommorrow.

Spring Break...sort of (part one)

The kids had the second through the eleventh off of school for spring break. On the second it was 86 degrees, so we packed up a day early and ran away to Poppa's cabin in Mackinaw. We stopped at the cabin long enough to drop off bags, pack a picnic, and grab the grandparents. Ten minutes later we were at the beach (Lake Michigan). The water was still way too cold to be in. At least too cold for adults, the boys went in up to their knees anyway, even after Poppa told us that two weeks previously the lake had still been iced over. Still, the wind was minimal, the sun was warm, and I was at the beach. Luckily there were very few other people so the boys could run to their hearts content without me interrupting their fun, telling them to stop because their accidentally kicking sand on those nice people, or worrying that their getting too far away from me, too many other (maybe not-so-nice) people between them and me. Life is good at the beach. All peaceful and relaxing. Listening to the waves, watching the sand pipers doink about, looking for great stones and beach glass.


Saturday was cold and windy but I still had to go to the beach anyway. I may have been the only one who really enjoyed it, it was really windy. We celebrated Poppa's birthday with his favorite strawberry cheesecake.


Sunday was Easter and boy, did that bunny pick some good hiding places. Still, they managed to find all twenty-six eggs in around twenty minutes. The Easter baskets were a hit, especially with Mimi adding a large amount of candy. New t-shirts, bubbles, books, games, and tiny lego sets were greeted with excitement.



Two handmade additions to the baskets were Carrot Bags of M&M's and Chucks. The pattern calls them chicks, but mine came out looking more like ducks, so Drew and Ian dubbed them Chucks. Works for me.

Bands and Bagels

This morning I got to sleep in obscenely late (10:30!), I then had just enough time to quickly scramble an egg before attending the latest 'The Fox Band' concert, which the band members had graciously postponed until their sleepy Mama got with the program. Ian played songs on both the bongos and keyboard. Drew debuted a new original composition entitled "Foxes Are Mammals" while accompanying himself on the guitar.

Foxes Are Mammals

Foxes are mammals, they eat meat and hunt!
for animals for food to eat in spring

so they will not die to death
so they will never die

The mama will take care of the babies

so the babies will not die to their death
so they will never die


I just can't decide what to think about this song. On one hand, I'm glad my boys understand the whole circle of life theory. On the other, it's slightly disturbing to hear a 7 year old sing a song that seems so death centered. Neither of them seemed to think that there was anything unusual about this song and my parents had a hard time containing their chuckles during an encore performance this afternoon, so I'm trying to let it go and move on.

Husband and I made bagels together today. Mmmm, I love homemade onion bagels. Which is kind of weird, since I don't really like onions. Anyway, apparently I'm in a rather reflective mood today, because I realized just how well we can work together. Andy is a union electrician, sort of. See, he was laid off two weeks before Christmas 2008. So that means that for almost a year and a half we have been together all day, every day. Don't get me wrong we do have our small fights, but it really has been very good over all. I'm quite proud of us. Drew and Ian, of course, just love having Daddy home to play with all the time. And we eat much better with Daddy home to do the cooking. Our budget is squeaky tight obviously, but we have time to make things from food to furniture to presents from scratch and that, to me, is a very satisfying feeling.

The First Clothesline of Spring!

Mmmmm.....I love spring. It's currently 68 and sunny here, kinda windy but I'll so take it. It just makes the clothes on the line dry faster. And let me tell you how excited I am to be using my clothesline again. See, I hate the dryer. It's a waste of energy, it sets in stains, it shrinks and wears out our clothes faster. Since, we live in a older house we have great big, 12" square hole-in-the-floor heat vents. So all winter I have two of those folding drying racks set up over the bigger vents (and shirts on hangers hanging in random places) and dry our clothes that way. But, I can only hang one maybe two loads at a time, so I have to do laundry every day to keep up. Don't get me wrong, I love that I can heat our house and dry our clothes at the same time, with the bonus of adding much needed humidity, but, I get really tired of doing laundry every day. Needless to say, when I checked the weather this morning and it claimed the high would be around 65 (after a week in the low 40's), I was super happy. Yippee! I get to use the clothesline again! I actually like hang clothes up. It's soothing and repetitive and brainless. I like the *snap* of shaking the clothes out before I pin them up. I like that if I missed a stain I get another chance to get it out. I like the me time that I get when (after the smalls are in bed) I go outside and fold our clothes as I take them down, it's time to think and reflect without feeling like I'm ignoring my family or missing something. I LOVE the way the clothes and especially the sheets smell when I bring them in. Ooohhh, the sheets. Today as I was hanging the laundry, Husband was moving the compost pile onto the garden and working it in. My first thought was, "Don't do that now, it'll make the laundry stink." As I took a breath to ask him to do it later, I realized it didn't stink, in fact, it smelled good. Weird, right? I couldn't believe it, I think I'm still happily surprised. And it's nice to be surprised once in a while, no?

Could It REALLY Be Spring?

Oh my, what a wonderful, warm, sunshiney weekend. It was actually 45 degrees on Saturday here in Northern Michigan, which is usually unheard of. I keep trying to remind myself that it can't really be spring yet, that it almost certainly will snow again before spring is actually here to stay. But my spring loving self just keeps hoping that maybe, just maybe winter is over. I mean, look, my crocuses are popping up and surely those crazy things know what their doing. They wouldn't come up just to tease me.... would they?!?

We celebrated the beginning of spring with the first bonfire of the year. This is becoming something of a tradition, which I just love, as far as I'm concerned the more traditions the better! We went out to Mimi and Poppa's because traditions are better with grandparents and that's where the sledding/snowboarding hill is. Mimi still loves sledding. Drew and Ian will go down a few times, especially if they can convince her to "do a double-decker belly whopper." Which means Mimi lays down on the sled on her belly, one of the boys lays down on her back and then they go down the hill face first. It's gotten a lot harder to convince her this winter now that they weigh about 43 lbs each. They did them all the time last winter and the winter before that she'd even do triple-decker belly whoppers, with both boys laying on her, brave woman. Now that they are good on their snowboards, though, they'd rather do that then sled.

Ian (above) and Drew (below) both liked watching the snowboarders in the Olympics this year. Before the Olympics started most of the snowboarders actually came to our town and stayed at the ski resort here to practice. Majorly big doings for this little town. Apparently we have the biggest half-pipe east of the Mississippi. Who knew!?! Drew and Ian got to go watch them practice one day and thought it was the coolest thing ever. It really made them practice on their boards more. They also discovered, while watching the Olympics that "real snowboarders wear goggles." They were pretty disappointed that we didn't have any. But when we got out the play tools last week they found their safety goggles in the bin and (note pictures) those work just fine. I love it when they come up with their own (free!) solutions to these kind of problems.

Of course, Ian (below) had to climb a tree to finish off the day. Drew ended up climbing it too but, my camera ate all three sets of batteries I'd brought with me before I could get a picture of him in the tree. Speaking of the camera, pay no attention to the dates on the pictures, obviously the camera had some sort of stroke.

Sewing with Drew

Drew came home from school on Friday, watched me knitting on my new slippers for a few minutes, and said "Mama, I want to knit." Yipee!! Finally, one of my boys wants to learn to knit! So I said (as calmly as I could) "Okay, let's go to the sewing room and pick out some yarn." To which he replied "Not with yarn, Mama, with fabric." Huh? "You want to knit with fabric?" "Yeah," he said, " I want to make a pillow for Zuzu (an alien) and my Monster Chunk." Ohhhh.... "You mean you want to sew?" "Yeah, sew. Zuzu needs a pillow and he'll share with my Monster Chunk." Okay, so it's not knitting but, wanting to sew with me is still pretty cool and some awesome Mama/Drew time. So off we went to search the fabric stash for the perfect fabric. And out of all the fabric, and you know I mean All the fabric, I have he would pick plain blue! At least he picked red thread to set it off a little. He helped me cut it out and then I had the epiphany to use safety pins to pin it. That may sound like a giant "DUH!" to some of you, but I felt so very smart to think of it. I figured he'd poke himself enough using a needle for the first time without adding straight pins to the mix.


I think he did very well for his first time. His stitches are pretty straight and not too huge. But most impressive of all is that he actually finished it all in one day. That's some serious commitment from my bouncy boy. He took it and the lucky recipients to bed with him that night. The next morning he told me, "Mama, Zuzu and Monster Chunk slept GREAT last night. They really like their new pillow!" Too cute and so much fun. Thanks for sewing with me Drew, you made my day.

Cheesecloth is mean...

Today I decided to make the fruit bag from Linen, Wool, Cotton by Akiko Mano. I didn't realize that Japanese fabric is thicker than American until Ani told me. So I used a double layer and, wow, does that stuff like to stick to itself. Very obnoxious.... or as Drew and Ian say "ignoxious." Oh well, it's made although, I don't think I'll be making another, at least not with stupid American cheesecloth.


Yesterday, husband and I went to Goodwill and scored these cool wooden folding chairs. They're surprisingly sturdy and will be perfect for the game table in the living room. Or they will be as soon as they're painted some fun color and I actually find a table to be the game table. I can't believe how hard it is to find a 33" round wooden table for a reasonable price is. I mean is $150 considered reasonable now? It certainly doesn't fit in my budget at that price!

Paper Overload

My kids bring home so many papers from school that I'm convinced they use a tree a week. And since our community recycling program has been closed (The guy running it closed it because he wasn't making any money doing it. Don't even get me started.) I've been trying to figure out what we could possibly do with at least some of it rather than just throwing it away. Then I caught the husband cheerfully making a list of game codes on my prettiest stationary. He tried to defend himself by muttering, "But, it was the only paper I could find!" After I realized he was right, there wasn't a notepad in sight and grudgingly admitted it, it hit me, scrap paper notepads! It's so simple I can't believe I didn't come up with it earlier. All I had to do was rip 3 sheets of paper into 1/4 stack them up and blanket stitch them together. Ta-da!!

A Very Knitty Christmas

For the past few years I have attempted to make most of my Christmas presents....and failed. This year however, since the husband has been laid off for over a year, I knew it needed to be a stash-busting kind of Christmas. And so I actually started making presents in October. Here is most of what I made.


Missing are another 7 gift baskets which hold homemade raspberry & apricot jam, canned green beans from our garden, cardamom and sourdough bread. Also another baby hat in pink and two pairs of flip-top mittens that had to be mailed before I thought to take a picture. The only people who got store bought gifts were my kids, because right now legos rule and I can't make those. I did make two knit lego guys that were a big hit. A HUGE thank you to Ani for discovering this awesome pattern, even if the difficulty of actually constructing these guys made me invent new and undiscovered swear words.

Our Christmas came with the boys' "winter concert." Ian had a speaking part. One line which he repeated over and over to himself starting two days after Halloween. I'd find him building legos or drawing while muttering "When I'm feeling sad, I like to think about things that make me feel thankful." But all the practice paid off and he did a fantastic job. I admit it made me a little teary-eyed to see my baby up on that big stage speaking so carefully and clearly in front of a very large audience. Drew made up for not getting the microphone all to himself by singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas" loudly enough to be heard over all the other (100+) kids. Thank God he didn't get his father's singing voice.


For the past 4 years we have gone to the same cut your own tree farm, with my parents, to pick out our Christmas trees. This year Andy, who apparently misses using his power tools at work, decided that his saws-all would be the perfect thing to cut down said trees with. I think my father was a bit surprised, however he made no objection to Andy cutting down his tree for him, instead of using the hand saw he had brought. After the trees were put in/on the trucks we had our anual snowball fight. Then we headed to Mimi and Poppa's house to help put up their tree and have some much needed hot cocoa.