Saturday, November 13, 2010
Molly Weasley Sweater!
Well, I didn't have time to make the front/back of the sweater, so I improvised and attached my sleeves to an old sweater. But, the important thing is that I finally finished the sleeves like the sweater that Molly Weasley (Julie Walters) wears in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Just in time to wear to the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1) this week. It was so much fun and such a special project - the yarn came from my stash and from friends all around the country that wanted to send various colors. It was such fun and with all the memories of friends from my knitting group included, it's going to be a treasured thing, indeed! Now, I just have to wait for the movie!
Time for catch-up!
Wow, things have been busy! School is moving on, another vacation over and done and now getting ready for the holidays. Never enough hours in the day, but what there is, is good.
We had a wonderful time in Disneyworld this year - again! Stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort for 16 days this year. That's just about long enough to be thoroughly sated but not fed up. Alyssa wanted to dress up as Cinderella, so that's what I made for her. She loved it, and was able to use it for Halloween, so at least it did double duty. She was such a lovely vision in blue! I think next year she wants to dress up as Rapunzel, but we'll see as that gets closer.
Stuart loved the water parks, well all the parks, really. I'm so fortunate that even at almost 17, he enjoys being with the family and vacationing, so I'm treasuring the family vacations even more as he gets older.
The holidays are looming, we're almost at Thanksgiving and I can almost feel Christmas on the horizon. I can't wait!! Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. Have to run, but hope to blog more often in the new year - we'll see!
We had a wonderful time in Disneyworld this year - again! Stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort for 16 days this year. That's just about long enough to be thoroughly sated but not fed up. Alyssa wanted to dress up as Cinderella, so that's what I made for her. She loved it, and was able to use it for Halloween, so at least it did double duty. She was such a lovely vision in blue! I think next year she wants to dress up as Rapunzel, but we'll see as that gets closer.
Stuart loved the water parks, well all the parks, really. I'm so fortunate that even at almost 17, he enjoys being with the family and vacationing, so I'm treasuring the family vacations even more as he gets older.
The holidays are looming, we're almost at Thanksgiving and I can almost feel Christmas on the horizon. I can't wait!! Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. Have to run, but hope to blog more often in the new year - we'll see!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
WOW - it's been a long time!
Time has certainly gotten away from me. I haven't posted anything here in so long. So, rather than play catch up, I'll just start anew.
Last week, we started school. We homeschool. What a wonderful adventure and journey it has been for us. I have a 16-year old son who is a junior this year. He's very creative, very analytical, a little bit shy and loads of fun to be around. This year his main course load is Chemistry, English Grammar & Composition, SAT Essay & Study, American Government, Trigonometry, Philosophy, Biblical Studies, Career Development and Driver's Education. With a little over a week started, all is going well. He continues to leapfrog past me in mathematics, so it's a good thing I married an actuary with a degree in math. He's the official math teacher! We're also continuing to look for a new computer game design program for him (gotta have some fun)!
My 7 year old daughter is a bit less excited about sticking to a schedule, but is accepting it with something which loosely resembles grace. Her course load is Reading, English, Spelling, Science, Heritage Studies, Bible, Math & Art. She loooooves the art class, a teensy bit less excited about some of the other classes, LOL. Although, she is very creative about trying to delay class, she does settle in well once she has some hot tea and a small snack.
It was interesting this year trying to decide which curriculum to use. In the past, we've stayed pretty much with A Beka. However, in the past year or so, I haven't been as satisfied with some of their updated courses. I think, and it's my opinion only, that they've listened too much to the criticism of the past that they were too hard. It seems they weren't very challenging last year and not only did we finish early, the kids were more bored than ever before. So, being a little disappointed by what we saw for this year at the homeschool conference, we changed things up quite a bit. I still went with A Beka for some of the high school courses (Chemistry & American Government), but none at all for second grade.
For second grade, we are mostly using Bob Jones University Press curriculum. Not for everything, but for most. They have a more challenging, cohesive curriculum which integrates with a biblical viewpoint even more than A Beka. They don't just throw in the odd Bible verse, they actually use the scripture as parts of their lessons. So far, after completing all of the lesson planning (therefore, reading through the entire books), I'm very pleased. They seem to be paced fast enough to ensure that "A" won't get bored, but not so fast that we lose the concept. After all, learning is what it's all about, not simply entertaining them.
So, we are off and running with school.
On other fronts, there is another vacation looming in the future. It will be wonderful to have just family time with hubby not working - while he works from home most of the time, it's just not the same as having free time together. It's never long enough, either. But, I feel blessed that we are able to take vacation and that we have a job to vacation from. I'll post more about that later, but I'll see if I can find some more pics from last years (I love seeing them).
We have recent updated pics for the kids homeschool I.D.'s that I'll load shortly. It's so fun to see how much they change each year.
Well, that's all for now, I'll be back later with opinions on all kinds of things: styles, dating, politics (I'm conservative, go figure, LOL) and of course, homeschooling along with family issues and current events.
It's good to be back to blogging!
Last week, we started school. We homeschool. What a wonderful adventure and journey it has been for us. I have a 16-year old son who is a junior this year. He's very creative, very analytical, a little bit shy and loads of fun to be around. This year his main course load is Chemistry, English Grammar & Composition, SAT Essay & Study, American Government, Trigonometry, Philosophy, Biblical Studies, Career Development and Driver's Education. With a little over a week started, all is going well. He continues to leapfrog past me in mathematics, so it's a good thing I married an actuary with a degree in math. He's the official math teacher! We're also continuing to look for a new computer game design program for him (gotta have some fun)!
My 7 year old daughter is a bit less excited about sticking to a schedule, but is accepting it with something which loosely resembles grace. Her course load is Reading, English, Spelling, Science, Heritage Studies, Bible, Math & Art. She loooooves the art class, a teensy bit less excited about some of the other classes, LOL. Although, she is very creative about trying to delay class, she does settle in well once she has some hot tea and a small snack.
It was interesting this year trying to decide which curriculum to use. In the past, we've stayed pretty much with A Beka. However, in the past year or so, I haven't been as satisfied with some of their updated courses. I think, and it's my opinion only, that they've listened too much to the criticism of the past that they were too hard. It seems they weren't very challenging last year and not only did we finish early, the kids were more bored than ever before. So, being a little disappointed by what we saw for this year at the homeschool conference, we changed things up quite a bit. I still went with A Beka for some of the high school courses (Chemistry & American Government), but none at all for second grade.
For second grade, we are mostly using Bob Jones University Press curriculum. Not for everything, but for most. They have a more challenging, cohesive curriculum which integrates with a biblical viewpoint even more than A Beka. They don't just throw in the odd Bible verse, they actually use the scripture as parts of their lessons. So far, after completing all of the lesson planning (therefore, reading through the entire books), I'm very pleased. They seem to be paced fast enough to ensure that "A" won't get bored, but not so fast that we lose the concept. After all, learning is what it's all about, not simply entertaining them.
So, we are off and running with school.
On other fronts, there is another vacation looming in the future. It will be wonderful to have just family time with hubby not working - while he works from home most of the time, it's just not the same as having free time together. It's never long enough, either. But, I feel blessed that we are able to take vacation and that we have a job to vacation from. I'll post more about that later, but I'll see if I can find some more pics from last years (I love seeing them).
We have recent updated pics for the kids homeschool I.D.'s that I'll load shortly. It's so fun to see how much they change each year.
Well, that's all for now, I'll be back later with opinions on all kinds of things: styles, dating, politics (I'm conservative, go figure, LOL) and of course, homeschooling along with family issues and current events.
It's good to be back to blogging!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Finally, an update!!
Okay, well it's been a while and a lot has been going on. It's only the first of April and my kindergartner has finished her year's worth of curriculum (Abeka). So, we are now waiting for the first grade set to arrive. Good thing it's Spring Break. Also, my sophomore is just about ready to switch to 11th grade also. It is going way too soon. He will be touring bible colleges soon with his youth group. He's not sure if he wants to go to a bible college or a liberal arts one. We'll see how that goes. It's coming too soon for me.
I'm in the process of recovering from the carpal tunnel release surgery and the removal of a tumor from my elbow. Both are slow going and I can't really grip anything with my hand right now. Hopefully, that will get better soon. We're using knitting as a therapy, which I LOVE! But, I have only gotten about 5 inches of an 8" square done in 4 days. It's really hard and my tension is off. Usually I'm a fairly tight knitter, right now, I'm just trying to get the stitches formed and I guess I'll have to settle for that for now.
We've started attending a different church. We've gone for about 2 months and we all really enjoy it. It's small and friendly and just really warm. I've known the minister since I was about 10, also, so that's good, too.
Craig has surprised us with another trip to Disney in a few weeks. It's a bonus before our regular trip in a few months, so we're all really excited. He'll be working for a lot of it, but he'll have weekends off. The kids are thrilled!
I've bonded with a great group of ladies that I've never met. They are funny, articulate and highly intelligent. It's been a pleasant surprise to see how close I could become to people that are scattered all over the place (in the U.S. and out) that I've never met (which will change soon!). What have we got in common? Knitting and Conservatism. It's a pleasure and a blessing to be with a group of people who are very diverse and yet share a common bond. I've been so blessed to find them all!
I took Alyssa shopping the other day for an Easter dress and she fell in love with one! It's white sleeveless with a very full skirt (4 layers of tulle and slips) with small embroidered flowers down the front of the skirt with a wide banded empire waistline. She looks every inch the princess that she knows she is, LOL. Now, I just have to alter it a wee bit before Easter. No problem at all with one hand and no ability to grip with the other, but challenges build strength, right! I bought another one (just in case), but she really wants to wear the white one, so I'll get it done somehow. With it being cool, she'll wear it with a pale pink shrug. The hardest part was finding shoes that didn't look like something someone 16 should be wearing them. Back to my pet peeve of styles for little girls being made to look like tarts. Grrrrr. What was that I said about challenges? Yeah, I'll have to remind myself of that one.
Well, new pics and such coming soon! God Bless!!
I'm in the process of recovering from the carpal tunnel release surgery and the removal of a tumor from my elbow. Both are slow going and I can't really grip anything with my hand right now. Hopefully, that will get better soon. We're using knitting as a therapy, which I LOVE! But, I have only gotten about 5 inches of an 8" square done in 4 days. It's really hard and my tension is off. Usually I'm a fairly tight knitter, right now, I'm just trying to get the stitches formed and I guess I'll have to settle for that for now.
We've started attending a different church. We've gone for about 2 months and we all really enjoy it. It's small and friendly and just really warm. I've known the minister since I was about 10, also, so that's good, too.
Craig has surprised us with another trip to Disney in a few weeks. It's a bonus before our regular trip in a few months, so we're all really excited. He'll be working for a lot of it, but he'll have weekends off. The kids are thrilled!
I've bonded with a great group of ladies that I've never met. They are funny, articulate and highly intelligent. It's been a pleasant surprise to see how close I could become to people that are scattered all over the place (in the U.S. and out) that I've never met (which will change soon!). What have we got in common? Knitting and Conservatism. It's a pleasure and a blessing to be with a group of people who are very diverse and yet share a common bond. I've been so blessed to find them all!
I took Alyssa shopping the other day for an Easter dress and she fell in love with one! It's white sleeveless with a very full skirt (4 layers of tulle and slips) with small embroidered flowers down the front of the skirt with a wide banded empire waistline. She looks every inch the princess that she knows she is, LOL. Now, I just have to alter it a wee bit before Easter. No problem at all with one hand and no ability to grip with the other, but challenges build strength, right! I bought another one (just in case), but she really wants to wear the white one, so I'll get it done somehow. With it being cool, she'll wear it with a pale pink shrug. The hardest part was finding shoes that didn't look like something someone 16 should be wearing them. Back to my pet peeve of styles for little girls being made to look like tarts. Grrrrr. What was that I said about challenges? Yeah, I'll have to remind myself of that one.
Well, new pics and such coming soon! God Bless!!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
A time to knit....
Finally got the time to take pictures of Stuart's sweater. I started knitting about 9-10 months ago and this is the first sweater I made for him. I've done a couple of large market bags, a shrug and a couple of vests for Alyssa, and hats & scarves for everyone. I'm working on another sweater for Alyssa (a hoodie) and have a cabled sweater lined up next, plus Stuart wants a hat to match the sweater. Oh, and Alyssa wants another hat. I'm thinking I'll do a cabled one to match her sweater. I'm about 1/2 done with her hoodie now, so it's moving along nicely. Stuart chose this sweater to match one he saw in a trailer for the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie. It's a striped, zip-up cardigan that Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) is wearing in the trailer(he's in the middle in the back) and he wants a hat to match like the one Ron wears in Prisoner of Azkaban (I'll add a picture of it and one from the trailer). It took almost 2 months to make, but I had to adapt a pattern for a zip-up cardi that was solid and figuring out the stripes and lining them up on the sleeves and body of it were a challenge. If I use the same yarns they should look good together. It's a shame the movie was moved back to July, he wanted to wear the sweater. Oh well, he's wearing it now since it's gotten cold and says he loves it. The cabled sweater and hat are from Harry Potter movies as well, they are patterns from the ones worn by Hermione (Emma Watson) and are in a lovely soft gray wool. Since I'm making Alyssa's hoodie in white wool-ease, I'll probably make these in either a soft rose color or stay with the original gray.
I've started listening to the Harry Potter series on tape/CD. It's so relaxing to listen to them while I'm knitting, along with a lovely hot cup of tea (Earl Grey). Such relaxing times, although far too few! At this point I only have the first 4 books on tape/CD, but am getting the others for Christmas. Along with a new set of interchangeable circular needles and some lovely wool I wanted to order from Ireland. It's been highly recommended from my knitting group and I can't wait to try it. Oh, and I am thinking about ordering some lovely organic, hand-dyed wool from another Raveler. I'm still trying to decide on the colorways. It's more expensive than I would usually buy, but it's so pretty and unbelievably soft.
Well, I guess that's about it for now. It's late and I'm turning in. I've stayed up late a few nights this week already making a doll for Alyssa and the clothes and shoes for it and I'm feeling it tonight. I'll add pics of Alyssa and her doll later.
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