Pondered In My Heart

Yarn Along: Fall Shawl

I am joining Ginny for her Yarn Along this week. I, along with the rest of the folks in my house, tend to break from 'yarning' in the warmer months every year and then naturally take up crocheting again as the weather gets cooler. This fall has been like the others and we have our hooks flying again. I wanted something simple to work on while I sit with my young ones doing their schoolwork so I started this 'Eva Shawl' for myself. The pattern looks lovely in lace weight but I was in a hurry to just start something and use what I had on hand - so some Paton's wool in 'cognac heather' from my stash that I had picked up at the craft store on clearance it is. It should prove nice and warm for the winter. You can find the free pattern at the Without Seams blog (patterns are listed in the sidebar) or on Ravelry.

Presently I am reading The Golden Key and Other Stories aloud at teatime. We are all very fond of fairy tales in general and George MacDonald in particular and thus are greatly enjoying the book. Yesterday we finished the beautiful, lush History of Photogen and Nycteris and today read the Dickens-evoking Shadows. We love stories of other worlds and unusual beings, rich with language and descriptions that are at once so simple and yet run so deep.

"How old are you?"

"Ten," answered Tangle.

"You don't look like it," said the lady.

"How old are you, please?" returned Tangle.

"Thousands of years old," answered the lady.

"You don't look like it," said Tangle.

"Don't I? I think I do. Don't you see how beautiful I am?" And her great blue eyes looked down on the little Tangle, as if all the stars in the sky were melted in them to make their brightness.

"Ah! but," said Tangle, "when people live so long they grow old. At least I always thought so."

"I have no time to grow old," said the lady. "I am too busy for that. It is very idle to grow old..."

Be sure to visit Ginny for lots more yarns of all kinds!

 

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

I'm joining the ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter for another edition of {pretty, happy, funny, real}. I'm only two days late to the party!

{pretty}

Having our very own Kateri in the house, we are naturally very excited about dearly beloved and oh-so-soon to be St. Kateri! Lydia was wondering what to make next for the shop the other day so I suggested a St. Kateri bookmark in honor of the upcoming canonization. I think she turned out so lovely! (Naturally there are also birds.)

{happy}

Here are my new kitchen dishcloths that make me happy. I like to have a fresh cloth out every day but it seems like we never know-did someone get out a new one? is this one clean? is it today's? (and the dreaded no, that stinky thing is from two days ago) I thought a simple solution would be to have a set of cloths labeled with the days of the week so it would be easy to keep straight. I bought one of those bundles of washcloths at the store and used the sewing machine with the free motion quilting foot on to stitch the names of the days. Kitchen Happy.

{funny}

Jonathan has wanted to teach me to play the piano for many years, and for better or worse he is finally getting his wish. He's teaching a number of other students and so I figured I might as well join the fun and give it a go. Gives him lots of experience for teaching beginners who Don't Know Anything as well as patience with students who Never Practice. I had my second lesson yesterday, and the little girls always come running to see the entertaining sight when they hear me plinking out Twinkle Twinkle.

To encourage me and enhance the playing of my Mis-sis-sip-pi-hot-dog (or pep-per-on-i-piz-za as some other folks refer to Variation A), Jonathan jazzed it up with some jolly accompaniment.

Look how hard I have to concentrate to play with one finger at at time. Very Funny!

{real}

Here we have the collection of items found inside the piano. The packing-tape-on-the-end-of-a-ruler method failed to retrieve the pencil that had fallen into the grand piano, and actually caused it to recede even further in the depths. So Jonathan took a front piece off and ending up finding all sorts of things in there: St. Cecelia (very appropriate), a plastic rosary, a crocheted cookie, the aforementioned pencil, a magnet of grapes I don't recall ever seeing before, and a note from K to L. In case you are wondering, it reads: Dear L, I found my ATC's! They were on

 the art table chair! Love K to L

It's Real nice to know there's nothing in the piano for now.

A Little Birding Trip

 

 

We snuck away for just a couple of days to enjoy some much needed R&R. In reality there wasn't much rest as in sleep involved, as the main attraction of our destination was to take our birder birding. From sunrise to sunset and then some. But being away from the usual routines and demands of work and school provide relaxation very nicely indeed, and that is truly restful, despite the lack of sleep. As we often say, it's hard work having so much fun.

Just like at home, everyone managed to have a great time together while not exactly always being together. When folks tired of watching the thousands of migrating birds there were miles of beach to walk and investigate. Reading, drawing, making music, taking pictures, laughing, playing together, and that one always looking towards the sky searching for anything that flies - it's jolly fun to take this gig that is family life on the road and plop it down in a new and different place and watch how it all stays the same and remains intact even while exploring the new and unknown. Even the littlest ones know how to settle in and set up shop so that a hotel room quickly reflects our family culture. (Never leave home without your Tolkien or your Sibley's.)

We had wonderful weather, although quite chilly in the mornings the days cleared up to beautiful warm sunshine and the excellent north northwest winds that bring lots of migrant birds. We saw raptors and songbirds and waterfowl, oh my. So many hawks and eagles and falcons. On the beach we saw lots of gulls and shorebirds and even the delightful frolicking of playful dolphins. I do love to watch those sanderlings, those little sandpipers that scuttle back and forth to find their food by following the waves flowing in and out. They rush to chase after the receding waves, digging fast and furious in the freshly wetted sand for tasty tidbits and then scurrying back up to escape the next wave rolling in. Back and forth they go with such seemingly effortless urgency. I could really relate to their rhythmic dashing to and fro, always running from the waves. (sometimes life feels like that, no?) Eliza enjoyed just watching the endless waves rolling in - she said they looked like a palacsinta. She's good at similes like that.

As we don't get away much, just a couple of days feels like a grand adventure - we fondly refer to it as Bird Vacation. :-) Lydia will have to sort through the hundreds of pictures and get a post up on the birds, and hopefully I'll be back soon (ish) to share more about our encounters with the monarchs. (Hint -  Eliza got to tag and release one!)

Hello October Daybook

Outside my window - It's cool and rainy and very fall-ish in weather and coloring. The trees aren't turning much yet but there is a stand of goldenrod right across the way that imparts a yellow feeling to the view.

Listening to -  Shouldn't Augustine's hair be colored in? ~ Who are these two bishops? ~ Should John the Baptist have a honey comb to go with his grasshoppers? ~  I like Dominicans - they're fun to paint. ~ I want do the roses in St. Rose of Lima's crown. ~ Don't we have any dark purple?  I want Veronica to wear dark purple even though she's next to Mary Magdalen who is wearing purple.

The always interesting running commentary of my three big girl artists working on a project. They were asked to provide some border artwork to decorate a classroom at church, and presently they are creating a twenty foot length of saints. They've drawn seventy-one members of the Church Triumphant and now are painting them in. And that's just for the first wall.

I just gave St. Francis black hair. ~ St Bridgid has interesting shoes. ~ I got them out of Trina Schart Hyman. ~ They match St. Lucy's dress. ~ I'm going to run along and color St. Colum - he has a whooping crane. ~ Excuse me, I can't reach my archangel. ~ Don't sneeze on the saints! ~ I'm sneezing like Peter Rabbit. (that was Eliza)

Wearing - A grey-green peasanty skirt with cream flowers, lacy cream shirt and a gauzy grey scarf, black Mary Janes. Typical fall attire.

In the learning house - Wrapping up our monarch studies - they have all gone now and it's strange to not have any little critters around the house. We were really quite monarch obsessed for a few weeks there.

In the kitchen - Just getting into the fall favorites like soups and pumpkin cake and apple pancakes. We made two of those pumpkin cakes when we had friends over for tea last week and they were so yummy.

Living the Liturgical Year - We celebrate St. Therese tomorrow (on the old calendar/EF) followed by St. Francis. I'm thinking I haven't read Story of a Soul in a great while and it might be a good time for a re-read.

I am creating -Little bits of pretend artwork. I hope to spend just a wee bit of time with watercolors every day of the month of October.

One of my favorite things -Watching my children make art. Watching them work together on such an epic project is an unusual extra special treat.

Watch out because I'm going to draw the captain of the Legion of not-worshipping-Mars-ers ~ Anna's drawing Saint-Killthesacredoaktreeofthepagans ~ I'm drawing the Viking saint with wings on his helmet ~ Put Dominic Savio and John Bosco down there ~ You draw Thomas More, he just has an S necklace ~ Where's the history book? 

A picture thought -