My first felted project

I have had these two pair of clogs ready to felt since the end of June, but since I've never felted anything before, I was very nervous to actually put them in my washing machine. So, they've been waiting on my nightstand all Summer and Fall. I decided that these projects needed to be completed. I got some help from MaryG and some tips at Ravelry and I proceeded to get these felted clogs felted. Here are the results! It was pretty fun to watch all that knitting shrink down into a slipper. I'm ready for my next felted project.

The Glory of Fall

This is how Tess celebrated 10 months! Here she is on the California Zephyr train that we took from Denver to California. She's obviously enjoying the view outside our little sleeper car. Of course, there wasn't much sleeping in the sleeper car.

She loves traveling by train!

I know these are a collection of random photos, but I've been meaning to post our miniscule garden harvest. Here are the carrots we harvested the day it snowed in September. Don't these carrots have beautiful colors? These carrots are only about 2 inches long--definitely one bite snacks! Next year, we'll be able to plant much earlier and hopefully, we'll grow much larger carrots and well, other stuff.

I've been knitting nothing but pumpkin hats lately. I'm starting my 4th pumpkin hat for my niece, but here's Sammy wearing his pumpkin hat today. I'm so excited that he likes it. I'm anxious to get back to other knitting projects, but right now, I'm knitting a pumpkin patch.

Sammy started a kid's cooking class today and here he is all ready to go with his apron and of course, the pumpkin hat (in lieu of a chef's hat). He made salsa today, but he didn't taste it.

The two little chefs- next week? Pizza!

On the drive home today, I stopped right in front of myhouse to take a photo. It snowed very lightly today and seriously, all this early snow is ruining my Autumn! Fall is my favorite part of the year and October is my favorite month of the year, but the snow? Not so much. I'm not ready for snow yet. I want to enjoy the crisp weather and the aspen and maple leaves and the occasional Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks and I am, but the snow and wind must stop! I don't want the leaves to fall so quickly! Here are my golden aspens.

That's my home all snuggled in with those Evergreens and Aspens!

Anyway, I had a really good trip to California with Tessie and I enjoyed the experience of riding the train, but I was very happy to fly back instead of riding the rails. It's good to be home with the rest of my family. I can tell that Sammy really missed me. A few weeks ago, I talked about feeling burned out. I had a crummy September and my vision for the school year was blurry, but I'm trying to relax and to let learning be more organic and fluid. That has calmed me down a bit. I constantly remind myself that less is more whenever I want to add one more thing. I'm beginning to find our daily rhythm and I'm spending more time in the learning room with both the boys. Paul recently found another desk so that Sammy has a place for his activities too. I know that I'm recovering slowly. I'm optimistic about our work schedule now. I've added nature journaling to our days and somehow, this small task makes me happy again about schooling at home. I look forward to cozy cold days inside reading with the boys...always reading...always learning.

See you next week...

I've had so much to say and no time to say it, but I'll be back next week. Tomorrow, Tess and I embark on an adventure. We'll be taking the train from Denver to California. I've always wanted to do something like this. I'll have pictures next week. Right now, I'm busy getting ready. There's just so much stuff to bring when traveling with baby! I'm going to be wearing Tessie in the Ergo as much as possible. Maybe I'll be able to knit?? We shall see...Daddy will be home with the boys as I leave on my big train adventure!

Enchanted Knitting

It looks like February outside my window today. We're on day 3 of snow and Fall just started! Anyway, it's the perfect day for tea and scones and flipping through my new knitting book which arrived yesterday from Amazon. It's always a good day when books arrive from Amazon even if there's six inches of snow outside!

Cooking Lessons

I couldn't leave my blog with such a downer post. I wanted to write about something that I'm very excited to incorporate into my curriculum this year. Cooking!! As I've written before, I left home for college without any kitchen skills. I could scramble eggs and toast things and I could slice up banana to add to cold cereal, but that was about it. Over the summer, I started thinking that I didn't want this to be the case for my kids. Sammy always asks if he can help in the kitchen and he likes to pretend cook. Luke likes to bake things like chocolate chip cookies, scones and chocolate chip muffins-essentially things he likes to eat. I started thinking that he was more than capable of making breakfast, lunch and dinner on occasion. So, I started checking out tons of children's cook books and I decided on a few to use this year. What I would like to have Luke learn this year is kitchen safety, basic meal planning and budgeting, and creating his own cook book. The final exam will include cooking dinner for the family entirely on his own. Doesn't that sound fun? It might make my life easier.

Needed: Serenity in September

Wow! a post without pictures! Well, we started school last week and we had a pretty good first day, but it seems that things fell apart by day two. To be honest, I had plans brewing in my mind all Summer for this school year, but they just didn't translate to a well-planned Fall term. My ideas were nebulous and unfocused at best and well, it's my fault. This isn't usually like me. I'm usually pretty excited for Fall and usually, Fall is our best term since Autumn is my favorite season of the year.

I'll admit it. I'm feeling very overwhelmed right now. Sammy has been transitioning out of naps for the last six months or so and the baby isn't really sleeping well either. Now, I have a 5th grader and a pre-schooler and they've been clashing. I'm not very optimistic right now. Until a few days ago, I didn't know that I was experiencing burnout. It took me reading this and this to understand what I was feeling. I think that it is strange that I couldn't identify it myself. I mean, Burnout? It's September for crying out loud! Shouldn't this come in May or June as I'm about to wrap up a school year?? I've realized that Summer isn't three easy breezy months anymore. It's swim lessons, camping and reading programs and staying up later. It's more flexible and definitely fun, but we're still just as busy as any other part of the year. Needless to say, I didn't begin this year feeling refreshed and ready to go. At this point, I'm trying just to be comfortable with our choice of schooling especially as my son gets older. I've never second guessed myself before and frankly, this shocks me. I never thought I'd feel this way--running on empty.


I've allowed my life to get to full. I am just one of those people that wants to do and experience everything. I am an eager learner and I want to discover everything. There are just too many exciting things to learn. In a nutshell, I just want to pass on to my children the love learning and in so doing, I've lost my way a little. Ironic, isn't it? There's always this little echo in the back of my mind to keep it simple, but what is simple, really?? I think I used to know, but somehow simple seems like something that is far far away. I just looked over my never-ending to-do list and I have to make some cuts. It just has to be done. I realized I'm trying to make up for all those years I didn't know how to knit into one year. I have five knitting projects in the works. Knitting has become such a joy to me, but I take on too many projects at the same time. I won't sign into Ravelry until these projects are finished. How 'bout that? There are way too many books on the nightstand. I've started two different reading challenges this year and well, I can't say that I won't sign into my Goodreads page, but you see a pattern here? I think that I'm going to cut this reading challenge. It's not essential. I read plenty-- probably too much. I need a no-reading challenge! Oh, how sad that sounds! It's something I wanted to do, but if I cut out something I wanted to do for the sake of my family, then it's the right thing to do.

It's no wonder that my mind isn't clear and I'm so unfocused. I hate having to make cuts because it makes me feel that I have somehow failed by not accomplishing all that I set out to do. Just because I want to do something doesn't mean that I should, right? There are things that absolutely need to be done like getting the baby on decent nap schedule and transitioning Sam from naps to scheduled quiet time. I need to plan the Autumn menu. It will be a two-week repeating menu until the new year. I don't want to think about what's for dinner anymore. These are, without a doubt, essential to having our days move along in a peaceful fashion.

The root cause?? I've let a lot of my prayer time go replacing it with more unfinished projects which just increases my stress. This burnout is real and tangible and affecting everything in my life right now. How to get back on track without blowing off my entire Fall? How do I get my confidence back about my little home school?

I'll be taking a little blog break for a couple of weeks, but I hope to post something to lighten the mood around here soon.

How can he be 10?

Luke was born on Labor day (fitting, huh?) 10 years ago today. I still can't believe he's ten. It's just moving too fast. Don't grow up so quickly, okay??