Sunday, October 29, 2006

One little monkey jumping on the bed.

If you look forward to setting your clock back an hour so you can sleep in on Sunday morning a little longer, you must not be the parent of small children. We will probably be messed up for the better part of the coming week. To add further insult to waking up when the clock said 6:00AM this morning Char had me up every 1/2 hour before that until 3:00AM when I decided she could sleep in our bed. We usually have a firm "no kids in bed " rule, but desperate times call for desperate measures. She slept really well snuggled down between us, for a solid three hours before she sprung up and jumped on my head and said "Up." Ugh.

I got to have a little physics lesson in my house last week. On Monday I brought home the groceries and started putting them away. While I was doing that the kids were off in the living room playing...or so I thought. In a few minutes I heard a strange thudding sound coming from the stairwell and then a little cry. Nope, it wasn't a child that fell, it was a honeydew melon. My little monkeys were studying the Law of Gravity and wanted to see what would happen if they dropped a melon down the steps. It split open, so the littlest monkey decided to have a snack. They are pretty smart--they knew I would get all twitchy if I saw them trying to cut the the thing open with a knife.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

When size matters.

Our church is having a silent auction next month to raise money. What does one do when one wants to contribute in a knitterly way, but has very little time? Why break out the biggest needles she can, of course!



Look at the size of those suckers! You are looking at a baby blanket being knit with size 19mm needles (number 35 if you are American) and four strands of chunky yarn held together. I knit for one of Char's naps and I am just over 1/4 of the way along.

My gauge is 1-1/2 stitches to the inch!! That's some biggggg knitting!


A little perspective: look how teeny the stitches on my sock look--look at the teeny needles!! Let's see how much farther I can get after bedtime and the Buffy or Battlestar Galactica (I haven't decided yet) starts.

Monday, October 16, 2006

My little tadpole and finding my way.

Mom and Dad came for a visit this weekend. They come at this time every year because of a conference for emergency services workers that is hosted by my city. Dad is a fireman and a paramedic in training in addition to his day job of high school teacher. We also went out to dinner to celebrate their 33rd wedding anniversary.

We took the kids swimming at Mom and Dad's hotel and they had a blast. The kiddie pool was just deep enough that Char could crawl along the bottom with her hands and keep her head barely out of the water. Her legs and feet trailed behind her--she loved it. She really seems like a natural swimmer. The first time we tried to take her out of the water she wiggled away from my Dad and slipped right back into the pool like a little seal. She was exhausted by the time we could get eventually get her out and dried off. Once Emmett got over his initial nervousness we couldn't get him out of the water either.

In addition to all of that I managed to squeeze in a seminar on Sunday School teaching at a local church. I haven't written much about my new job on this blog because I am just not sure what to write. I am still feeling my way around this new territory. I am so unsure of myself and feel like I don't quite have a grip on my feelings yet.

The learning curve is steep. In addition to learning how to teach, I am learning a lot about a church I didn't grow up in, and am nurturing a newfound faith that I am trying to figure out.

I am teaching kids about God and Jesus and how to live a Christian life and feel like an imposter sometimes. I grew up in a home where talking about God and Jesus was frowned upon. It made you one of "them" (you know the ones...the people that knock on your door to ask you about your personal saviour and offer you brochures to their church, usually at a really inconvienent time.) We called ourselves Christians and went to church on Sundays--more often when I was younger. I was never involved in church life outside of Sunday morning. There was a Bible on the bookshelf, but I rarely saw anyone read it.

Now I have not one but two Bibles on my bedside table in different translations and a rosary that a kind friend made for me in the drawer. My kids were baptized in the church we were married in and that means a lot to me. I carefully chose their godmother because she is so special and she has a strong faith. The kids watch Veggietales and I sing The Butterfly Song to them.

I am not going to ask you about your Personal Saviour. I am not going to shove brochures in your hands that warn you of eternal damnation if you don't find Jesus. I am not going to tell you that you are going straight to hell if you tell me that you have been touched by His Noodly Appendage and have no interest in my church. I don't want to be one of "those". I might tell you about Family Fun Night or the craft I am thinking about doing with my students. I want to wear my faith with a quiet confidance. I don't think I am there yet.

Sometimes I wonder how I ended up here. I keep trying and I keep going back because my students are terrific and I am loving getting to know them. They trust me. I just really hope I am not letting them down.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Brrr!




This is the view from my front doorstep today. This has started the mad flurry to dig out winterwear and find out what fits and what needs to be replaced. The ceremonial loosening of the carseat straps has been done. Emm loves the snow. All of the trails you see in the yard are from his feet.

One more thing has been started:

I'd better hurry up! (Oh and I need to say a prayer to the Knitting Goddess that matching yarn is to be had in my city--there is not enough there for a hat!)

Thursday, October 5, 2006

There is a new biped in the house!

Char is walking! Slowly, with stiff legs and a shuffle, but she is walking. Over the past few days she is getting braver and walking farther and farther between hand holds. She can still crawl much faster so if she needs to get somewhere in a hurry she drops to 4WD mode. I think her practice is hampered by Big Brother and his tendency to knock her over when she is concentrating. I just hope she is keeping score in her head so she can seek rightous vengance at a later date when she is bigger and more capable of that sort of thing.

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Whew! I can keep my Sunday School job after all.

You Are 24% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.
In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.