The Gamble Life

Merry Christmas!

When I first had Gus I was lucky enough to find a group of new moms all looking for friends too.     The group came together in a couple of different ways and has changed a little over the years when people joined us or moved away (or moved back, like me!), but the experience of those first few years of motherhood with this specific group of women and kids is going to remain one of the most important experiences of friendship in my life.

We don't get together multiple times every week anymore, we don't even all get along together anymore!  But we do make that effort to mark big occasions (like the second and third children most of us have had) and I think we all realize that whatever happens those years were so special and valuable. 

Our kids too seem to always know they are with good friends when we get together.  This week we held our annual Christmas Playgroup party and it was so relaxed and fun.  We've done a whole bunch of different crafts with the kids at these parties, from full-on decorated gingerbread houses, to gingerbread cookies, to little stockings, and this year I bought 6" grapevine wreaths, snips of greenery from our Christmas tree and our rosemary bush (smelled heavenly), and all the little garlands, random decorations and ribbons, and glitter glue I could find and let the kids go to town.

Some of the finished wreaths:

I think Vivian here is a Christina Hendricks lookalike in this picture!

 

I love how working with the exact same supplies the kids all made totally different wreaths!  Gus' wreath seems to me to be a pretty good reflection of his personality!  Look at that face, he knows it's wacky.

After they'd finished with wreaths the festive decorating spirit had awoken and all on their own they decorated my friend's playscape:

I hope you too have great friends in your life.  If you still have some ribbon or other decorations laying around how about tossing them to your kids and see what they do with them?  The playscape ended up surprisingly beautiful.

 

oh, I almost forgot, we do a gift exchange/name draw thing and my friend Kathryn made me so happy!

What could it be?

A butter dish!  The butter sits down in the bowl instead of sliding all over the plate.  I am so thrilled. 

Last Minute Knitting!

I've been busy trying to knit just a few more things this year...and I've gotten quite a bit done.  And I'm glad I've still got a week left to knit!  Interesting note, um, interesting to knitters that is, some of these projects have had the actual knitting completed for awhile now, but hadn't had buttons sewn on, been blocked, that kind of thing.  When do you count a project as "finished"?  I tend to say it's finished when all the knitting is done, but of course, it might not be usable for quite a while after that.

But, these projects are really and truly finished:

Ravelry link.

Ravelry link.

Sweaters for two sisters...

Ravelry'd here.  The most adorable baby boy sweater, even if I do say so myself.  Seriously, who could resist that little shawl collar and the manly buttons on a baby boy?! No one, that's who.

Ravelry'd here.  My TENTH shawl of 2010!  I can barely believe it, but I did it.  I'm not all that interested in knitting anymore shawls right now though.

Probably my favorite of the ten is this one, which I knit out of odd balls of koigu that I've literally had for at least 12 years.  Plus one new skein I had to buy when I ran out!

I've been wearing it around on all the cool days, mostly all bunched up like a gigantic scarf.  I just love all the colors and the way the ends wrap around.  Ravelry details all here.

I have plans to be back before January 1 with one more sweater and two hats (all presents) and maybe even something else, who knows?  Are you in a frenzy of last-minute knitting?

One of the best things about little kids is that they don't know how things are "supposed" to be done and so they do, if they are left alone, what they think up themselves.  I think kids learn so much by trying stuff out, and trying to do things that we adults are just sure can't be done.  We're probably right, we've got a lot of experience after all, but how much more satisfying for a kid to have his idea taken seriously and to have the chance to try it out and to learn for himself whether or not it works!

Whenever I can I like to provide things for my kids to work with and then just see what they pull out and what they make.  Gus has made all kinds of things just from paper, cardboard, and a couple of markers, including a really fantastic treasure map!    The other day I saw him take out his markers and a little canvas and create a new piece for his museum.

At two and a half Abe likes to write "notes" to all the important people in his life, and he really, really likes playdoh.  He has a set of clay working tools, but prefers to fashion his own.

He really concentrates and sometimes spends twenty or thirty minutes quietly working on making something.

Here he is proudly showing off his creation, which he brought me and said "Abe make a Handful!".  No grown-up would ever come up with that.

Doubly Lucky

I'd never seen a double rainbow before.  These happened in Denver this past August while we there vacationing (me & the kids), working (Chris), and visiting friends (all of us).  We just stepped out and there it was!

I think it must be enhanced by the wide open skies Denver has.  That feeling of openness is something that makes me feel at home.  I loved Durham and by the time we decided to move back to Austin I no longer wanted to leave and we probably would have stayed except for having all of our family here in Austin.  But when I first moved there I felt positively claustrophobic because there are SO MANY trees and those trees are so TALL.  You are just constantly surrounded by trees and there is no long view.

When we moved back this summer I immediately felt relaxed by the space.  Driving down the highway felt beautiful to me...not because our highways are beautiful (no, they certainly aren't) but because the sky was so beautiful and it was there, all around me, visible. 

I know people who didn't grow up here who feel like our trees are small and few, who see acres of dirty grass and dull ground, but I see space and freedom and beautiful skies and a truly majestic tree just right when you need one.  It's nice to be home. 

a (very) little knitting

 

I just haven't been knitting as much.  I'm not sure why.  It's much hotter in Texas than in North Carolina, I have lots of friends and lots of family to spend time with and we have been spending time with them, the house needed (well, needs) setting up...but I think the main reason is that we did not bring our TV with us.  That's right, we are TV-less!  That doesn't mean we don't watch any though, since hulu has almost every show I like, and most of the others are on the network website.  This way I still watch shows I really like, but none of that mindless watching whatever is on happens.  And I never get sucked into all those terrible medical shows (aka modern day traveling freak shows).  Those shows are hypnotic and then afterwards I would feel guilty for watching them!

A side effect is less knitting time though.  That's alright, I don't need as many knitted things here in Texas anyway.  And it isn't like I've given it up altogether!  I can't imagine that.  Also, the yarn would really make me feel guilty then.

I made these socks (the pattern is Sam by Cookie A.) in trade for a beautiful woven scarf that inspired me to ask for a loom for my birthday!

I've finished two little sweaters, one for a new baby and one for a five year old, but both lack buttons, so pictures for those later.  Several shawls and gifts...of course.

A lacy scarf for my sister-in-law...and I've seen her wearing it several times!  Rav link here.

oops, this one is for me!  a little dropped stitch scarf.  Rav link here.

Adorable dresses for new baby girls!  Rav links here and here.

A really sweet pattern named Clothilde.  I doubt I'll ever wear it, but it came out just lovely.  Rav'd here.

This is a long rectangular shawl, symmetrical (you start at the center and work out in both directions)...very beautiful and hopefully just perfect for the person who is going to get it as a gift.  Rav'd here.

I have one more to show you ... but I think it will get it's own post!  What have you been working on?

 

hello! and chickens.

It has been a loooooooooong time since I've been around here.  Yikes!  We had a really busy fall and even though now we are smack in the middle of the holiday season I actually feel like I have things a bit more organized and have a bit more time.  We'll see how that goes, right?

Who wants a massive catch-up?  No one!  Least of all me, since I don't want to write it.  So a few highlights posts instead.

One of our chicks used to like to go for rides on Gus' shoulder.

Miss Frizzle.  She lives at my mom's house, but is *technically* mine...she's really a sweetheart chicken.  I can't say that she enjoys being held, none of them seem to, but she tolerates it really well.

The chickens who live here have no choice but to tolerate being held!

Sadly, the gray chicken there met an untimely end when part of the pen fell on her and broke her neck!

Believe it or not, I haven't been very productive knitting-wise lately.  I have managed to finish a few things though, so I'll get some pictures of those up, hopefully tomorrow.

I've read a few great or fun books too.  I finally read the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series and really enjoyed it, although, who knew Sweden was so misogynistic?  Of course, who knows if it really is or if all those statistics were completely made up?  Oh dear, I know I read something else really great and now I can't remember what it was.  It's about time to go wake up Abe so I've got to go.  Hopefully someone will come see this...tell me what you've been doing!

Coach Pitch

It's almost soccer season so I'd better get the baseball pictures posted or their time will have passed.  I don't believe they are too exciting for other folks, but for me they are sort of revolutionary.  I was there, I saw Gus playing, but somehow looking at these pictures of him makes me really see how much he's grown up.  He is so much more in control of his body.  He looks like he really knows what he's doing.  And that makes him look so grown up to me.

His coach (in red) and I actually went to high school together.  We had Spanish class together.  It's so fun to be back in Austin where that kind of accidental history can happen.

I made end-of-the-season cupcakes for both teams at the last game.  So easy.  Especially since my mom did all the decorating! 

Noodles AND Fork

Chris has been working with an Indian company and one of the guys brought these noodles with him on his last trip and gave them to Chris.  When I opened the package I found this little foldable fork inside.  Totally adorable, if sadly wasteful.  The product is for the Indian market, but manufactured by Nestle.  They were delicious.  I was strongly reminded of the amazing Vietnamese noodle cups my friend Tuan would bring to college by the case and which we would all devour.  They are so spicy and delicious; far superior to Top Ramen or Lipton.

First Days

Look at them in their new school shoes, ready to go!  Today was Gus' first day in elementary and Abe's classroom visit; tomorrow will be Abe's first full day of school.  It's such an exciting time and a little sad for the mom of course, but not at all for the kids; as it should be I suppose.

Other firsts, my mom's dog got another chicken and Gus' Sapphire would appear to be a rooster.  So...

These we've brought to our house and are keeping in a dog kennel until they are bigger.  We are handling them every day so that they will grow up more tolerant to small people in their space and to being petted (Although really, treats are the way to make that happen!  So I guess we're also going to be raising soldier fly larvae for our chickens; more on that later.).  We thought we'd go and buy an older hen but no one could resist the little chicks.

And Gus' first time roller skating!

I think I could accurately have been described as a roller rink rat in my early teen-age years.  I lived for Friday nights and roller skating.  It was so much fun, and I was never a particularly good skater either.  Next time I'm renting skates and hitting the floor too!

Chickens!

I grew up with backyard chickens, and with the one notable exception of being attacked by our rooster (short-lived after that!) I really enjoyed them.  Backyard chickens are the new cool thing to do so of course I had to join in.  I do not let a trend pass me by.

Right now our chickens are living with my parents, but our coop is built (and decorated by Gus!), and as soon as we get their run finished we'll be moving them into our backyard.

The day we brought them home was almost a complete disaster.  We bought the chickens from a local guy (Who turned out to be really horrible and was obviously not feeding the chickens because they were pecking each other to death.  It was gross.  We felt like we rescued those poor chickens.)because we wanted them old enough to live outside with the chickens my mom already had.  Gus had specifically chosen a silkie chicken and paid for her (we hope) himself.

We let all the chickens out into the yard except for Gus' silkie (Sapphire is what he's named her) because he wanted to hold her.

 

You can see that doesn't really look all that healthy here.  She's very small, even for a banty chick, and kind of bedraggled instead of fluffy.  Well, chickens are a group creature, they don't like to be alone and they get very nervous and scared and tend to just run around freaking out.  Kind of like Chicken Little actually!

About one second after I took this picture Sapphire jumped down and dashed through the fence into the neighbors' yard.  Gus immediately was hysterical (I couldn't really blame him since he just watched his first pet AND his five dollars disappear through the fence probably never to return). 

We had to leave before Sapphire was found, even though we got the neighbor to help us look around.  That neighbor has a giant garden and tons of shrubs and one little chicken could really hide in there.  I felt so bad for the chicken, who was just freaked about being alone with no other chickens (because they had gone to hide in the shrubs); and I felt bad for Gus.  It was a mess.

But yay for chickens really only wanting to be around other chickens because by the end of the day she'd come back! 

This picture was taken just six days later, and already she looks so much healthier!  I can't wait to bring them over here.