Adventures in Jewelry Making

We are doing jewelry making for handicraft this semester and I am in love! Beads are fun (though not great to sweep up when they roll on the floor) and making necklaces and bracelets and even earrings is surprisingly easy. I want to try to document our creations as much as I can. This was our second project, and we made necklaces. 

Each child picked out their own beads and strung it themselves! What are you guys doing for crafts this year?

Reuben Scarf

This was for Christmas for my Reuben. A nice warm scarf for fall in lovely autumn colors. He loves it! I knitted it in the round and "made up" the pattern, if you can even call it a pattern. Hooray for winter, wool and scarf wearing. 

Whale Hat

 A creation for Becky. A whale hat! She has worn it EVERYWHERE! 

This is the whale hat crochet pattern by Hello Happy Crochet. We both love it and she has gotten so many complements when she isn't wearing it upside down! Tee-hee.

Potter-y Scarf

I made this for a friend at church! She traded me sourdough bread for it--thats what got me interested into making it again. A fun knit, and a lot of rows. Glad to be done!

I actually really like how I made this scarf in the round. It has a nice weight to it and its so...squishy and comfy. Maybe I will make myself one in Hufflepuff colors. I'm such a hufflepuff.

Hats for Squishes

I'm finally getting around to posting my 2021 Christmas knitting!  This hat I made for the little boy I babysit, and I also made one for his little sister. I hope he and she liked them!!!

The pattern I used was my own, and you can find it here. It's called "Fun Flappy Ear Hat" and is crochet with bulky yarn. Whee!

What are you guys making lately? I have too many works in progress!!!

The State of Things

Our first week back of homeschooling is going fairly well. We are detoxing from too much media time (we don't have TV but...during the great December sickness I did let the kids watch a lot of Daniel Tiger / Pepa Pig on the computer and occasionally play video games...) I really do not like employing media as an entertainment source but like any mother I have my flaws and weak spots. And having sick kids and a sick husband for three weeks made me turn to media. It's okay, I forgive myself. Which means, I am not going to let the mom guilt bury me.

Maybe I should make a post about why I don't like media? It really boils down to it makes my kids complain, whine and fuss, and sometimes cry when I turn it off. They can't regulate. We are a much happier family without it!

In other updates to my 2022 Amazing Life of a Stay at Home Conservative Mom of Two Saga, it's really cold. I don't like it when it gets below freezing and it has been in the 20s all week and I am cold. I hate being cold. I don't want to go outside!! Everyone is cold. Sweaters abound and warm fires in our fireplace are the highlight of everyones day. It is Not My Favorite thing to be the first one to wake up in the morning and start said fire in our frigid house, but...I can be thankful anyway. If that's the only hardship I must face today, I am blessed indeed. 

Also, on an unrelated-to-the-cold-front I have started making sourdough bread again. I know, that's so early-pandemic 2020 of me. But the kids have been enjoying my mistakes thus far as I navigate bread baking once again! Also, butter is delicious. Gaps diet, heal me soon!! 

Beckys birthday is in two weeks. Did I mention that? She's going to be four. It feels like a milestone. She's so sweet and headstrong, I just love her to pieces but I wish she didn't hate every single thing I cook for lunch or dinner. Yesterday she disliked breakfast (eggs and sourdough bread) lunch (soup and rice) and dinner (tacos--usually she likes tacos but these had bell peppers in them). I told her I was sorry but this is what we are having, and braced myself for the tears and crying...usually its one thing she dislikes, but all three is a bit wearing for this exhausted mama. 

Her whining gives me hives, I swear. Yes, all of the above is probably something I need to address parenting-wise, but it is what we are navigating at the moment. She equally finds my authority annoying? We are coexisting and I hope I am doing this right. At least I know I am reading her enough books. The child never wants to stop reading, and every time I try to get up she's brining me another book with that cute look in her eyes. She also wants to be outside and is sad that neither I nor her brother want to play when its twenty four degrees Fahrenheit outdoors. I realize that there are many other places in the world where this would not be considered a cold day, but bear with me. Here--this is a COLD DAY. I will say inside with my wool and my fire, thank you. We went out for a bit to do our nature journaling but this mamma wants all the blankets and some tea, thank you.

I feel mostly...unfulfilled lately. Like I am missing something. Many moments are so busy (cooking, cleaning, homeschooling, parenting) that when I do catch my breath I am left reeling from the climb of it all. I keep searching and reaching out to God. He is my foundation, my everything, and all else is mere paper idols. I just wish it would both slow down and speed up, all this hustle and bustle! Or that I had more arms. I feel like I am missing something, something I am supposed to be doing. What is it? I don't know either. Perhaps I just need more sleep.

Getting rid of Facebook and limiting my social media has helped me prioritize what is important to me, but it isn't enough. More must fall away, until only Truth, Beauty, and Goodness is left. Yes, I am aware I sound like the poster child for a Charlotte Mason Education, but it really is all-consuming.  

The more I age and raise my children the more I notice how trivial the things of the "the world" are. Who can name a famous person from 100 years ago? 200? All that matters not, it is only a passing fancy. Fame and fortune distract from God as people look to the rich and forget to look to the One who made them. They strive after wealth and forget to strive after God.

I don't know about you, but I have become convinced that women joining the workforce en masse is a massive trap. For one it degrades the quality of the home and the lifestyle of the family unit. If I work outside my home, the chores and atmosphere (and also lets be honest the food) in my home is going to suffer and decline in quality. One person really is needed to fulfill this support role, I am a big believer that one person in a family should stay home and manage the diets and atmosphere of the home. In my family, this is me. I support my husband and make sure he eats healthy, goes to bed on time, and can do his job well--the job that in turn supports the lifestyle I cultivate. It is a huge cycle. Take myself out of the home and suddenly the cycle is broken and must support itself; it will not thrive or survive. 

Many women want to stay home but have to work due to debt. It is sad that this is also a trap. I hope to raise kids that will not go into debt if possible. The government (and/or our culture?) has created this monster--we are told we have to have a job and a degree to mean something, to achieve something, so we do. And the home and our children suffer for it.

Why furthermore do women have to be just like men to be seen as successful and achievers? And why are men (the majority who used to work) seen as something we should strive for anyway?? After living this quite life staying home, raising my children daily and working hard at making our home a beautiful and relaxing place to live in--I can't imagine giving all this time and energy to another "workplace" instead of my home in exchange for money. What a cheap, unfulfilling way to spend my existence. 

And who, then, would take care of my home? My children? My husband? Why, it and they would all fester and go to dust. There is goodness in working inside your home, it is worthy, it is wonderful and it is needed. Don't believe the lie that your energy is best served elsewhere, and don't try to serve two masters. It won't work. Having a job or a career does not make you anything. Fulfilling the role God made you for (glorifying him) is what will bring everlasting joy to your heart and is the only thing that will bring peace. Money, fame, fortune, are all idols--and yes, being a stay at home mom can be an idol and a distraction too! 

This blog post is a lot longer than I expected and went in a entirely different direction. Head musings are wonderful things when I let them out, sometimes. I'm chewing on these thoughts, but I am seeing so much more of the degradation of the family in these years, and it is sad. The family needs support and without it, how can it stand under duress or tribulation? It cannot. Mothers and Fathers must dig the trenches and do the work or when the flood comes, there will be nothing prepared and all will drown. 

My Husband was Right

It turns out my husband was right about that pocket knife. Not that it was unsafe, but when I caught my six year old trying to saw the sofa with it, I realized I may have overestimated his level of maturity. In other news, I now own my very first pocket knife! Whohoo!! 

How are we all? We are finally pulling out of the sick. We have not started homeschooling again, but will on Monday. I'm excited for our term two of Year One, where we will do jewelry making for our craft! Lots of amazing learning ahead! 

My husband has a lingering cough, and Reuben is still gaining weight back and healing. That was one long haul of sickness. I have not exercised in forever and our routine is long forgotten! Pull it together, I tell myself, and I wonder if I can. 

Through it all I tried to rest in God, but I definitely hit rock bottom at least twice. Reuben kept having reoccurring fevers of 102 and I was doing everything while worrying about my sick husband and child. It was exhausting. God is good. The only way I survived was clinging to his promises. The promises of joy and of rest in heaven and of his everlasting presence. I have learned and grown a lot in December and been stretched in ways I would rather have avoided, but God knows what is best for me. 

Now it's another year, and that also has caught me by surprise. Its already January 6th and my brain is stuck in pre-Christmas festivities. We still have our presents under the tree for Grandparents and Aunts and Cousins and I need to set a date to celebrate Christ's birth together! Since my husband still has a cough, we are waiting at least another week. We also have two birthdays in January. My Becky turns 4 and I turn 35 (I think??) and what a crazy start to the year. It reminds me of January 2019 when I had an awful eye infection for most of the month and was quite annoyed. Now I am less annoyed because I have learned to go with the flow of what life hands you, but I do feel a little windblown. Where has the time gone?

We are throwing Becky a wonderful little birthday party where guests will make necklaces and enjoy birthday cake and princess dresses. She is so excited to turn four.

That's about the just of it. Love you all, and maybe I'll have time to write again after the craziness of homeschooling and loving my family. I really do love being a mom and a homemaker (most of the time) and just marvel at our little family and all God has done and continues to bless us with. Happy 2022!