Sunday, February 04, 2007

Winter hues

Refusing to be bogged into the blues by habituation, I am truly enjoying random acts of weirdness that keep us uplifted these dark days. Moon sand, though messy, is a fun and liberating toyaster.
A good day to do it is the day AFTER you've washed all your vacuum filters, not that same day. Lesson learned. Ori doesn't speak well of it's taste, but even he got into shaping it in the little molds we found hither and yon - hither being the easy bake oven, yon being all over the kitchen. Beca has been thinking about and working on her story for the Reading Rainbow contest (6 weeks and counting). Very good for HER! And I - I got Adobe Photoshop idiot's edition and have been playing around with it. Still (after all these years) too much the goof and never enough of the hard core editor in it for me, it's a lot easier than some of the stuff I've been sketching with, and a TON more productive. Now to figure out some interesting ways of using it...

We've gotten some good skiing in, and give our thanks and mechanical prayers that the snowmakers keep doing their metalically snowy thing! The coverage is not bad, though the lower mountains don't have much in the way of trail variety. Typical to east coast fashion, the trails are blazing in the AM and icy in the PM. Ah well...once you've got the turn-twist-slow-recover move down, it's a snap.

JAC is MUCH better. Still coughing sporadically, I think he's really and truly over the hump on this viral episplemetic. And we are all otherwise extremely healthy! YAY! I'd like for us to enjoy it for a WHILE, now...sigh. Knowing all too well that between toddler time and art class, we're bound and determined to catch some new invasive.

On the needles is the tanklet in Patagonian cotton for Beca. I couldn't find a terrific trim, so I got a terrific color in a merino that will be soft for her, and not stretch out - which is for me, of course! I finished the caliometry in the varigated felting wool, and it's lovely!
If it felts well, I'll send it on to Jo-Anne (to whom I can never ever repay knitting debts for that georgeous sweater set for O last year!). I think it will look smashing on the beach with the wind whipping in from White Rock, and it will help her keep an eye on her ever growing pack of he-wolves! Oh how I miss you guys! Next is either a bag for me...I'd really like that...or more likely longies for Ori.

The weather is cold cold cold again. I'm not going to complain, this is the warmest winter on record here, I think. Certainly the least precip (of COURSE it is! The Bilzzak's are just pining away for snow), and again, you won't hear a hint of complaint about that either. Anymore. I mean again. Cough cough. I should really go gargle, something is stuck in my throat...

Mary and Bob have returned safely from St. Johns, tanned and relaxed. Bob never even returned my call today. Huh. I suppose Winnie deserved a good long walk in the park, and perhaps there was a letter or two needing some attention. But OH! The rejection. :D Good thing I really had nothing of great excitement to share!

WHMS is looking good for next year. Well, from our perspective, anyway. Andrew is, I think, a much tougher teacher than Sandy (or heaven's above, than Julie, the smooshmallow teacher of the year! Who doesn't love a smooshmallow teacher!). Tim has moved on to Math classes of more import, and Olga is filling in for the remainder of the year. Beca doesn't like Andrew or Olga, or Sandy either. All of them have deigned to "speak" with her about getting her work done, and sitting still for 10 or more minutes consecutively. Well, so be it. I think she is learning a ton right now (absorbant mind or no), and is now working on compound multiplication problems and fractions (though early stages there, yet), sentance deconstruction and she finished her Rhino project right in the nick of time. It looks darned good! I helped her with her essay, but hardly at all with her diorama. And I'm glad. Although she still brings it up occasionally, I can't really see her happy in a public school at this point, she is still unable to self-guide or achieve task completion without adult supervision. Hopefully next year's bigger class will help her to find her 'place' and build some social esteem. It's all in her control now.

Ori is doing wonderfully! He is two with a vengence, and his vocabulary seems to double weekly. Today, in trying to coax a bit more food down him at dinner, he said "No thanks. You eat it. You eat it mama." And I did. And he asked "Is it good?" And I said "Yes. It's very good." (it was) So he took back his fork and said "Ok, I'll eat some." And he did. Imagine my surprise! He will leave things around, take them apart, and certainly climb and open anything to see what's to be found. But when asked, he quite obediently will put things away, or try to put them back together, and will always stop when asked. He's a bit sly - he'll stop and wait inconspicuously until there's a quiet moment, and then - even half an hour or an hour later - he'll be back on top of the chair trying to open the drawers above the computer table! So keeping an eye on him has truly turned into a full time job. He's made a teency bit of progress with potty learning, going in the potty (pee and poop) when asked. But he hasn't yet taken the feeling of having to go to the potty and put it together with actually sitting his sweet smelling little tush onto the potty.

In other news: Naja had her baby (a girl!), and Lisa hasn't. Brig and I are considering Aikido classes ourselves, or a digital photoraphy class (if there's still room). There's an incredible writing workshop in Troy on the 3rd or 4th of March, which - if it's the 3rd is out, but if it's the 4th is a possibility for me. :D Keep your fingers crossed!

Enough from me - keep warm out there and send some snow, if you have any to spare (NOT complaining lol!). Peace all...

Current mood: uplifted

1 comment:

Katherine said...

Wow, that is GORGEOUS yarn! I'd love to see what you're playing around with on your Photo Shop. It's like crack, I swear...