Decemberings

I do believe it's the Christmas season. Around these parts, we've squirreled away the last trappings of autumnal orange,

the dried leaves and chestnuts, the dead dragonfly and butterfly bodies, the antlers and acorns, the owls and same old corn dollies that have been slowly losing bits of husk for a few years now.

As a sure sign of the season, we spent most of Saturday at the kids' school's Make-A-Craft Fair (which C refers to as the "Make-Some-Crap fair," due to the abundance of craft foam, and which I like to think of as the Take-A-Crap fair for no other reason than it rhymes and I'm totally immature). In years past, I've run a table for making Wee Felt Folk, which has been a big hit, but a lot of work, both for me ahead of time (bending all those pipe cleaners and cutting out all those tiny, tiny shirts and pants) and for the kids to do all that sewing, so this year I had them make gnomes instead (wooden bodies, glued clothes, sewn hat)--still some sewing, still subversively not plastic. I had, according to the final ticket count, 33 customers, and they all loved it. I love to see the kids get so into sewing, even though most of them have never sewn before. I love especially when the boys do it (I would say there was an even split between boys and girls). I forgot my camera, so I just have this lousy phone picture of two very intent boys and my dwindling supplies of gnome clothes.

The rest of Saturday, we spend decorating. Our poor tree has the problem of too few branches (being wild-caught and all) and too many ornaments, so those branches droop, but it is loved.

My favorite part, as always is our Winter Village (which I've mentioned before here, here and here), which seems to grow every year. On the windowsill behind it are three paper houses my mother-in-law made a few years ago and some sparkly Putz houses that I bought at an antique store last year, as well as E and Z's gnomes from the fair (E's never got a hat) and three trees I made by winding wool roving around yarn cones. That's the only Christmas decorating craft I'll be doing this year, but what a satisfying craft it is--super fast and easy and I love the results. I'd make a million if I had more yarn cones.

 Gnomes and Tomten patrol our other windowsills,

Along with three of our favorite Christmas villains, a Troll, Krampus and the Grinch.

This year I wrapped up the books for our Book Advent (more on that here and here) in the fabric gift bags I made last year, which made the whole wrapping process so much faster and easier than usual, and most of the gift bags will be back in circulation by the time I need them for gifts (more on our favorite holiday books here, here, here and here. I recently saw that Jan Brett has a new Christmas book out that we might need to get our hands on, even though we have more than plenty for the 24 days of Advent). E and Z are still game to read picture books, and sometimes M sticks around to listen (fortunately, we finished reading Harry Potter Book 5 just in time to start in on the Christmas books, and goodness I must say I'm grateful for the break!)

Things are a bit topsy-turvy this year (even more than usual), with holiday traveling plans ahead of us. We normally fit our holiday traditions in on the weekends closest to the celebration in question, but this year we'll be gone on Solstice and Hanukkah, so we're just celebrating any old time. Sunday E, Z and I played dreidel, using walnuts rather than coins (which lowered the stress level a good deal, as did not playing with M, I do believe--last year it ended in tears). 

And we made and hung birdseed ornaments on our tree outside (which we normally do on Solstice).

I was going to make spekulatias cookies over the weekend for St. Nicholas day, but we were out of eggs, and, frankly, I didn't really feel like making cookies. Instead, E, Z and I made them tonight after dinner, while M was at his guitar lesson, which actually worked out well (I had the dough made ahead of time). I gave the boys half the dough to roll, cut, mold at will (with the occasional admonitions to please just make a few cookies) while I used the other half to mold into spekulatias. Rather than six hours like last year, it took us about one hour. Yea. Who knows how or when we'll get around to latkes or Lucia buns, but it will all be fine however it turns out.

On Sunday I got out a tiny stacking house toy for setting up a wooden nativity scene (yes, we're heathen/pagan/atheists around here, but who doesn't love to set up tiny scenes with tiny people?) and it inspired all three boys to play with all these stacking Waldorfy toys that they almost never touch.

I loved what they came up with. Later E came back to it all and made little caves for little wooden animals. Maybe just clearing all the junk out of the living room was all they needed to settle down and play with a simple toy.

 Last summer, after we arrived home from a camping trip to find that the blackberries had gone by, C remarked that some day he'd like to stay home for an entire summer and work in the garden. Now to me, that sounds like my personal version of hell (yes I'd like the whole summer off, but I'd jump in the car and hit the road, not sit around watching the garden grow). On the other hand, I'd love to have the whole month of December off and spend every day baking and making crafts and decorating. That's unlikely to happen anytime soon, but in the meantime, I'll squeeze it in where I can.

How are your Decemberings going?

Oh, and P.S., my needle-felted Emmet Otter got a shout-out on the blog Geek Crafts. Check out her to-die-for crocheted Emmet O.

We Have a Winner

Thank you all so much for your kind and enthusiastic response to my Lyme disease/thumb injury/blogiversary (re)giveaway post. M's finger is totally fine, but Saturday night I noticed E had a rash and remembered the doctor saying something about rashes, so I checked the amoxicillin prescription insert, which said something like, "If a rash forms while taking this medicine, it could be absolutely nothing, or it could be a deadly allergic reaction, so seek medical attention immediately." Right. At eight o'clock on a Saturday night. Thanksgiving weekend. So I called the on-call physician who was much more blase than the prescription insert, and said stop the medicine, and he would prescribe something else, which I could give E after the rash goes away. And then C said he'd noticed a rash a few days earlier. And then I forgot to pick up the new prescription on the way home today. So now I officially qualify for Worst. Mother. Ever.

Anyhoo, on to your comments. You are all so sweet and smart (and, yes, I agree--no messing around with Lyme! And I can't believe how many of you have had up-close-and-personal experience with this lovely pathogen).

I wanted to share a bit of everyone's good book recommendations, so we can all be on the lookout for a good read:

Miri wrote, "a really good book is 'diary' by chuck palahiniuk."


Emily HK wrote, "My favorite novel of all is "Possession" by A.S. Byatt, in large part because of the wonderful variety of forms of writing contained within the cover -- prose, epistolary, poetry, all in one amazing story"


Lone Star Ma wrote "I just finished reading my favorite sci-fi author (Joan Slonczewski)'s new book The Highest Frontier and I loved it. Future-political scion goes to college in spacehab and has adventures with corrupt politicians and aliens - very satisfying."


Aunt Kirstie said, "I recently read Needles and Pearls by Gil McNeil. It is a light and fun read, not great literature, but was just what I needed."


Domestic Diva wrote, "I have so many favorite books, one of them is Love in the Time of Cholera by Marquez."


Mary Beth wrote, "As far as my recommendation goes, all I can say is that I am currently _obsessed_with the Little House books. Highly recommended if you haven't read them as an adult."


6512 and growing wrote, "i just finished State of Wonder by Ann Patchett and LOVED it. Now I'm reading Cutting for Stone, not quite as thrilling as Patchett's novel, but lovely writing."


Jaimie wrote, "A book--well, I've had magical realism on the brain lately, so this is neither current nor particularly relevant to anything, but have you read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's _100 Years of Solitude_? It's in my top five."


And Raina wrote, "As far as books, I'm just in shock that there are moms who have time to read. I read magazines and blogs, but I can't think of the last time I snuggled down with a book. It's almost like seeing a unicorn isn't it? I did go to my cousins wedding a while ago (sans kids) and read a book on the plane and at my hotel room. I loved the book, but it might have just been because I actually got to read it :). It was The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent."


Yes, I have to say I miss the days when I had a baby (one baby) attached to my breast all day long and nothing to do but read (this did not work so well with two babies attached to my breasts all day long). But once I read an essay by a mom writer (and very prolific reader) that said something like, "never do anything you can do while your kids are awake while they are asleep." In other words, save the housework for when the little vandals can lend a hand, and use that precious nap- (or bed- or school-) time to read or write or knit or sew or do whatever fills your soul. I try to take these words to heart.


That being said, I haven't read any of these books you lovely ladies recommend, except for the Little House books, which I too became obsessed with last winter while reading them to E and Z, and when the boys lost interest in the middle of By the Shores of Silver Lake (much less bullet-making, and fewer near-death accidents), I kept reading through the series and into Laura's newspaper writings collected in Little House in the Ozarks (which I confess I did not finish).


I will keep this list handy for next time I get to read a book of my choosing (with two votes for Marquez, that might be the direction to go, no?). And I had so much fun with this, I think I'll have another giveaway next week. Stay tuned.


Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot, the winner of Suzanne Kamata's short story collection, The Beautiful One Has Come, is: Life As I Know It. Congratulations! Email me your address at andreaelani at yahoo dot com, and I'll send your package out within the week.


(sorry about the weird type size issues...but it was either giant or tiny at the end...grr...blogger...)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Picking Winterberry

This has been a bumper year for these festive berries that line the roadsides, especially in wet areas. I was able to find some on our property without having to venture too deeply into the bog.

Finger Knitting

E rediscovered finger knitting and had knitted up about three miles of "garling" for the Christmas tree by the end of the weekend.

Being Thankful

We all took a turn writing (and drawing) what we're thankful for in our Gratitude Journal.

Feasting

OK, I only included this picture to show off my Thanksgiving table runner one more time, but I do love it so!

Tracking Turkeys

This was the one that got away, apparently. He and his mates were so happy to have made it past Thanksgiving, they danced all over our yard.

Muddy Biking

And Rolling Giant Snowballs

Because the seasons flow seamlessly into one another.

Planning

A few projects.

Painting

Getting a jump on next month's Total Overhaul room, and finally putting that third coat of paint on the north wall.

Tree Hunting

Thanksgiving weekend is insanely early (for me) to get a tree, but the boys wanted it early since we're going away for the holidays (last week E was crying because he didn't want to go to Colorado for Christmas because if we do, he "won't have enough time to look at the tree." I melted.) and next weekend is chock-a-block full of to-dos.

It's funny to read last year's tree-getting post about how anxious it made me to get the tree early (the first weekend of December) and how this year I didn't mind at all a whole week earlier. Maybe it was the snow. Or maybe I'm lightening up. I mostly thought about how we've made this same trip into the woods for a tree with a baby in a sling, and a toddler in a sled, and two babies in back packs and to toddlers in two sleds, and now they can put on their own snow pants and have snow ball fights the whole way and express their opinions about trees and saw through the trunk themselves.

We won't decorate it till next weekend (really, November is far too early). But we did clean and rearrange the living room, so that, in between the scheduled activities, all we'll have to do is cut off the bottom four feet or so of stem (C gets closer and closer every year to his dream of taking the top six feet of a giant balsam fir) and stick it in its stand.

I believe...

...in the forest and in the meadow, and the night in which the corn grows.

                                                         --Henry David Thoreau

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Don't forget to enter my blogiversary giveaway!

Weekend Craftiness

Over the weekend, we got a jump on holiday crafting (yes, I do consider the third week of November a "jump") with silk

and wool.

And I made that autumn birdie to guard the front door for the next week or so (until he's replaced by his more red-and-greeny cousin).

Don't forget to enter my blogiversary giveaway!

Monday Morning Drama AND Blogiversary (Re)Giveaway

So this morning, right after I got to work, I returned from the restroom to see the school had called, and I figured it was about E, who had an engorged tick on his head last weekend while I was off whooping it up in Connecticut, and we were practicing "watchful waiting" (as advised by one of my co-whoopers who happens to be a nurse practitioner) until this weekend, when the bite spot started swelling up and looking red and hurting, and E developed that droopy-eyed low-energy appearance of a kid who just feels off, and we figured this was what we were watching and waiting for, so I called the doctor and made an appointment for 1:00. Only after I hung up did I listen to the voicemail and learn that M had jabbed a lead from his new mechanical pencil under his right thumb nail and that it hurt so he threw up. We waited for the school nurse to come in from one of the other two (or is it four?) schools she covers and when she wasn't able to get it out, I called the doctor back, only this time it took an hour to get through to anyone and they had no appointments and suggested I go to the ER.

So I left work and picked up both boys. By now it was 11:30 and it seemed unlikely that we would be able to get through the urgent care center fast enough to get to E's appointment in time, and M looked perfectly fine and healthy, except for a thin gray line under his fingernail, and as I was raised in the "Let's wait and see how you feel Thursday," school of healthcare, as well as in the belief that warm salt water is the cure for all flesh wounds, I handed M a tupperware of just that elixir, headed into town to feed both boys and run a few errands before E's appointment, where of course the doctor waffled a bit, because no one knows about Lime disease, really, but it was the right incubation period, and he does have a bit of a fever, but then again it's hard to tell if it's a bullseye or just red, what with all the hair in the way, and do you want to take chances with a disease of not entirely clear consequences and possibly lifelong effects or take chances with an antibiotic? Three weeks of three times-a-day antibiotic?

I had just recently read this post, and it did make me pause. While I'm not terrified of medicine, or even red dye number whatever, I do try to minimize my children's exposure to both--I always buy dye-free ibuprofen and give them honey (or ginger syrup) rather than cherry-red cough syrup. On the other hand, lifelong debilitating disease...yikes. The doctor and I agreed we should treat him. He was very thorough in looking up the recommendations and dosage on the computer (he recently practiced in the city and had little experience w/ tickborne illness; but he was also concurrently going through something very similar regarding his own young son) I appreciated his honesty (a doctor who can say "I don't know" is somehow much more reassuring than one who has all the answers) and his willingness to broach all sides of the issue. E has never had to take antibiotics before (Z did once for pneumonia and M for an ear infection; otherwise we've been very lucky), and I figure of all the times to rely on Western medicine, this is one.

By the time we were done, M did not want to go to urgent care, and I found the prospect increasingly ridiculous, so we picked Z up from daycare, headed home, M returned to the salt water soak and all three boys zoned out in front of the TV in a rare breaking of the "no screen on school nights" rule. Later, after C came home, he extracted the lead (which was a good 5/8 inch long) using--wait for it--a razor blade. It was stomach-turning, but it worked and M immediately headed off to practice guitar.

Here's the most terrible thing about this whole story: for the last week or so I had been thinking, nay, hoping, that if one of the kids got sick, I could take a day off and get some of the millions of things done that are pressing down on me like an ice sheet grinding away at a mountain. And now I have one kid with (possibly) Lime disease and another with a self-inflicted stab wound. And I had to take most of a sick day. And I didn't get one blasted thing done. I hate the phrase "careful what you wish for" because I detest cliches in all forms, but really that one couldn't be more true, could it?

ANYWAY, today is my four-year blog anniversary, if you can believe that (what I can't believe is whatever possessed me to think Thanksgiving week would be a good time to start a blog??). I just went back and saw that first post just to check the date, and it brought back that great big sense of inadequacy that dogged me then (and now), especially when I viewed my own life in comparison others' lives in blogtopia. I wanted this to be a little space where I kept it real--talked about the very unperfect side of motherhood. I hope I've accomplished this in some small way. I do know that I've learned to slow down and appreciate the little things, to pay attention and take pleasure in moments that, while far from perfect (or blogtopian) and wonderful in their own way. I have, on occasion, been accused of making my life look perfect, which it is not, and that is not my intention (so please come back and read this post if that thought ever strikes you!). Thanks for sharing this journey with me, whether you've been here since the beginning, or have just popped in for a visit.

As a small token of thanks, I have to give away to one reader a signed copy of The Beautiful One Has Come, a collection of short stories by Suzanne Kamata, who was one of my very first writing teachers several years ago. I won the book on a giveaway on Suzanne's blog Gaijin Mama a few months ago, and now I want to pass it on to another reader who might enjoy it as much as I did. Suzanne is an ex-pat living in Japan with her Japanese husband and bicultural twin children, one of whom is deaf and in a wheel chair. Many of Suzanne's stories explore the nuances of life as an American in Japan, as a mother of bicultural children, and as a mother of a disabled child. Once you've read The Beautiful One, I hope you check out Suzanne's novel Losing Kei and the anthology of essays about mothering across cultures, Call Me Okaasan.

With the book, I'll throw in some chocolate and something small and handmade. So please leave a comment here between now and next Monday (November 28) telling me about a good book or a bad Monday (and your email address so I can contact you if you win). Thanks and good luck!

A Quickie

I made this little banner/flags/bunting/garland (seriously, why is it so hard to decide what to call these things?) a few weeks ago...OK, way back in September, but I'm just now getting around to posting it.

I had been thinking of making a fall wreath, but knew I had no time/energy for that kind of project, so I whipped this out in literally five minutes, while the kids were putting on their pajamas one night. Using a business card as a template, I laid it with a short side on the fold and cut rectangles of fall-ish fabrics with pinking shears* then stitched them to a length of turquoise rick-rack I had lying around. Super fast and easy and yet satisfying. I want to make a little fall birdie to replace that silly vampire if/when I get around to taking down the Halloween decorations (the kids made the window clings at daycare, using fabric paint on cling wrap).

*I must tell you about my pinking shears (again)--I inherited mine from my grandmother, and they were the dullest, most useless things, until I sliced through a piece of tinfoil with them a few times and now they are beautifully sharp. I don't remember where I first read the tinfoil tip, but I suspect Martha Stewart had  something to do with it.