Spring Inside

Snow all day tomorrow - last year at this time the temperature was 72 degrees! Yeah, March can be pretty unpredictable in the Midwest. So to help lift the spirits, a few attempts have been made to bring spring inside, since it is refusing to make an early appearance outside. It helps a little...

Connor was so excited last week for the first day of spring. It came, and then the next day we got several inches of snow. "Mommy, it still looks like winter to me."

Me too Connor!

Piano Man?

My poor old piano - not getting much use these days. Its main function: dropping spot for random mail and other loose ends. The other day however, as I was finishing up some laundry I heard its familiar echo as I was coming up the stairs. And there was Connor. He had cleared away enough clutter to open the old beast up.

It shocked me how lyrically he was playing. When he was a year or so younger he loved to pound out a few tunes all at one sound dynamic - LOUD and one tempo - FAST. This time he was alternating loud with soft, slow with fast.

I have been eagerly awaiting the day that he wants to learn to play, if that day ever comes. My big parenting philosophy is not to push. I have always cringed at those parents who are so adament about little Johnny or Susie following in mom/dad's footsteps that they make the poor child frightened of failing or just plain unhappy.


So I have held myself back, but this time he wanted to try to learn so I dug out my old first book. This little lesson did not last long. I think maybe Connor figured that after 5 minutes of learning he would master a song... Maybe he is not quite old enough yet...I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someday he might decide to follow in Mom's footsteps but who am I to decide that?

An Experiment

I guess you would call this one a "transition" scarf - warm wool in spring yellows and greens. The yarn is hand-dyed and handspun from here. I really really love it - the colors, the varying thicknesses, the way every section looks different...

The process used to create this was a little strange. I started off knitting but preferred the way the yarn looked when it was laid out straight. So, I tried weaving, although I'm not quite sure that you would call what I did weaving, definitely not properly anyway. I used a thinner crosswise yarn that is pretty much invisible resulting in something that looks somewhat like a really big, messy, complicated braid. Random sections were left loose and unwoven. I'm not sure if any of this makes sense.

Yep, it was definitely an experiment!

Teeth and Bones

Lots of talk going around here about teeth. Connor has eight loose! Hopefully he doesn't lose them all at the same time. If so, we might have to alter our meal content (applesauce and bananas?). Also, it was recently dental hygiene week at school. All the talk about teeth prompted a certain someone to decide he wanted a special pillow to put his tooth fairy teeth in. So here it is, complete with a pocket to keep those shiny whites safe:

Not my best work, but I was under some pressure with eight ready to come and the constant "is it done yets?" The tooth pillow was made using this pattern:

Toby the dog has also started losing his baby teeth. Connor thought he would try to trick the tooth fairy by putting Toby's molar under his pillow. Well, she is not tricked so easily...Connor ended up with a giant bone in his bed the next morning. He's convinced it is a dinosaur bone. The tooth fairy also left a little something for Connor to thank him for the rarity. Both dog and boy were pleased.

Welcome March

Thank goodness for March. This winter has been LONG. What do we have, one month of slushy gray melting before a little green starts popping out? Sometimes I wonder why we live here and put up with it all, but I think each season makes us appreciate the next so much more.

This weekend recap:

Friday - movie night. I think I am somewhat of a jinx when it comes to movies. Every time Justin & I watch one together it ends up being a really bad flick. This could also be my requirement that the movie be less than two hours. It seems that the length of the average movie has doubled over the past few years. I can understand why some need to be three hours long for artistic purposes or whatever, but 3 1/2 hour romantic comedies......come on!! I guess I just lose interest after a certain point (unless the movie is so fantastic that it deserves taking up my whole evening).

Saturday - some friends we have not seen in so long came over - fun fun catching up.

Sunday - tiling the bathroom - Justin and my dad that is. Connor and I were a little less ambitious.