This man is my best friend and the most wonderful father in the world. We love you, Daddy!

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

My kiddos are enrolled in swimming team and lessons this summer. For eight weeks we will go to the American River College pool every afternoon, M–Th, so Lucas can be on a swim team. This team is noncompetitive; although they have “inner squad meets,” they are really only racing against teammates and their own times. This is good for many reasons, not the least of which is that we don’t have to give up every summer Saturday to competitive meets. Ours will take place on some Thursdays, during the normal practice time.

Lucas missed practice three days last week due to being ill, but this week he has rallied and is back at it, apparently giving it his all. He’s got new swim fins and new goggles and new shorts and a new rash guard and a new backpack to carry it all in. He’s a well-equipped boy. I think he’s enjoying it a lot, although it will be nice when he makes some friends there.

Asher, on the other hand, hates his swimming lessons. He has now gone to six of them and is no longer spending the time in the water with his instructor screaming (as he did his first two days). Nevertheless, he is not a fan of this experience. I can tell he is learning and becoming more comfortable in the water, practicing the skills (face in, dip underwater, streamline arms, kicking, etc.). I’ve even caught him smiling a time or two. Every morning, though, he wakes up and asks if we’re going to swimming lessons. And when I say yes, he asks, “Now?!” Since they are at the end of the day, I get to answer “Later” about a hundred times every day. He worries about it all day. Here’s a picture of him going underwater, which he would never choose to do.

His instructor is pretty and fun and she jollies him along through the twenty-minute lessons. And the point of all this is not to torture my child, but to teach him that he can be OK in the water and (hopefully) get to the side if he falls in. I remember Lucas didn’t care much for swimming lessons at this age either. Now he is a fish!

So, sports. Not really my thing, but I’m making an effort to be a “Swim Mom” this summer to give Lucas what I hope is a good, gentle introduction to a team sport experience. I’m doing my best to have a good attitude about the whole thing. Thank goodness the bleachers where the parents wait are in the shade!

This knitted kitty I made is far simpler than the knitted donkey I made a couple of weeks ago. Seriously, it’s all rectangles and all garter stitch. Easy, even for me.

My cat is about 2 inches high and 3 inches long. The pattern I used is from Toymaking with Children by Freya Jaffke, but all you have to do to make this little cat is to knit a rectangle that’s almost a square (for the body). Then cast on half as many stitches as you used for the body to make a head, which you will knit until it is a long rectangle (almost three times as long as wide). Last, cast on less than half as many stitches as you used to make the head, to make a tail. Knit about the same number of rows as you knit for the head rectangle. Then sew up the tail into a long tube. If your cat will be small like mine, then no stuffing of the tail will be necessary. If your cat will be bigger, you might have to stuff the tail with wool roving. Fold your head piece in half, sew up three sides, stuff it with wool, and sew up the final side. You may wish to make a few stitches to accentuate the ears. For the body, pinch a corner of your rectangle and sew it into a cone (leg), then move to the next corner and do the same thing. Repeat for all four corners to make for legs. Stuff all of the legs and body and sew up the body at the cat’s tummy. Now attach head and tail in a way that looks appropriately catlike. Voilà! A kitty!

I have this stash of fun fabric for making Asher pants, clam diggers, and shorts and today I finally had all the pieces in the same location and a little time to get started. I haven’t sewed clothing like this since last summer, so I wasn’t entirely sure I’d remember what to do, but it all worked out pretty well. We’ll call these a “proof of concept.” I’m still using the pattern that my mother bought in 2008, I just cut them a trifle bigger. Now that I’ve got them all together, I can see that they’re pretty baggy and could be skinnier in the legs. But baggy clothing is cooler on hot days, no? I may choose to hem them up another inch….

And because these clam diggers are roomy this year, they will probably fit him again next summer, too, only they will be a little shorter. (Ahser is still able to wear the pants and shorts mom and I made last summer.) These are made from “Vehicles Allover” fabric from “Oh Boy!” by David Walker for Free Spirit Westminster Fibers. Fun!

I’ve discovered I like sharing our delicious children’s books, so here is another one I treasure.

Earth Mother by Ellen Jackson is the gentle story of the goddess going through her daily routine of tending to the earth and the earth’s creatures.

With dignity and great reverence, she nurtures even those things that seem insignificant, giving the beetles shiny jackets and sharpening the thorn bushes. She brings the rain and cradles the otter in a tangle of seaweed, rocking him on the waves.

“Bending low, she placed a piece of summer in a flower’s seed.”

“She spangled a tree with fireflies. She spread spiderweb lace on the grass.”

I love the illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon, award-winning (Hugo Award and Caldecott Medal among others) illustrators who have been married for five decades and collaborating and making art together all that time. In this story, Earth Mother is radiant on every page; the patterns in her clothing change with every scene, sometimes they are geometric, other times feature frogs or mosquitoes or men. Flowers break out of the square frames on every page. But the real test of any picture-book illustration is whether it supports the author’s story and theme. The Dillons accomplish this brilliantly, in my opinion.

Along her way, Earth Mother meets a man, a frog, and a mosquito. Each of them complains bitterly about one of the other two, and gives thanks for the abundance of the third. Each would like her to rebalance their proportions.

“Thank you, Earth Mother,” said Frog. “Mosquito and her sisters fill my belly and give me life. But why have you sent Man to catch and eat me? Man is bad, bad, bad. Sweet, delicious Mosquito, on the other hand, makes me happy. If there were more mosquitoes and no men, this world would be perfect.”

The interconnectedness and interdependence of the three creatures is beautifully explored. All the while, Earth Mother maintains her calm serenity, simply sighing because they do not see how perfect the earth already is.

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Except this time, I cannot resist writing a few words: My Lucas is now officially a third grader, and just look at him! I couldn’t possibly be more proud of him. Today was the last day of school and of second grade, and fortunately he felt well enough to go to school for this special day. Here he is playing tetherball on the third-/fourth-grade playground, where he will spend lots of joyful time over the next two years. (That’s a student-made river-rock igloo in the background.) We were blessed to have Daddy along with us when we picked up Lucas today, and then we all went to celebrate with some yummy burgers and milkshakes.

And now it’s officially SUMMER!

My dear Lucas has been sick this week. Monday night, after a day of feeling low and opting to sleep with his head on his desk at school, his fever when sky-high and stayed there for a couple of days, with small breaks, thanks to the children’s ibuprofen I give him. So Tuesday and Wednesday, he worked diligently on the couch with a peg loom that Ian and I brought him from Seattle. (It seemed way more appropriate to bring Lucas an open-ended toy or craft rather than a silly Space Needle statue. And we were right!)

The Harrisville Designs Peg Loom kit comes with a long plastic needle to make weaving easy. The frame is wood; the pegs are plastic. It also comes with cotton warp string and 100% wool yarn in bright colors.

See how sick he looks? Kind of hollow around the eyes. But he worked hard on this and you can see he’s proud of it.

Binding off the warp strings was a bit tricky because they were quite short. I helped a little with this. But then he folded his woven piece in half, sewed up the sides, and sewed on a button. I showed him how to make a button hole and he did that with some embroidery thread. Now there is no mistaking where the button should be pushed through to close his pouch. He opted to finger-knit belt loops (instead of making a purse-like strap) and attached the loops to the back of his pouch.

Here’s Asher’s Yellow Bear modeling the finished pouch. It’s tremendous!

For a final step, Lucas “finger-wove” a belt. That’s what he calls it; I don’t know if this technique of “knitting” a wide belt using only one’s three fingers as pegs has another name. The technique he used is similar in principle to using a knitting nancy, AKA knitting tower or spool knitter. But that’s where my knowledge ends.

Waldorf kids are cool!

Oh Seattle!

Ian and I took a three-day trip to Seattle, Washington to celebrate our 15th anniversary. We had an amazing time together, which was a wonderful balance of spending time alone and spending time with darling friends whom we don’t often see. We were treated to drinks and Seattle-brewed beer, attended a “babycue” (baby shower/BBQ for expecting friends), and got a marvelous driving tour around Seattle, featuring a walk through the arboretum, visits to Gasworks Park and the working locks, and a photo shoot with the Fremont Troll. Saturday featured glorious weather and it was perfect for such site-seeing. We waked our legs off all throughout the downtown area to Pioneer Square, along the waterfront to the Olympic Sculpture Park and past the Space Needle and the EMP/Science Fiction Museum. We visited the renowned Pesos for breakfast with friends and had a romantic, delicious dinner for two at the Palace Kitchen, where we didn’t even get off the appetizer menu. We received two passes to the Seattle Art Museum and spent two lovely hours with friends there; Ian really enjoyed the Andy Warhol film and photo exhibit and the Kurt Cobain exhibit. I took pictures of nearly everything, but not enough of the beautiful people we spent time with. Our room at the Hotel Max was terrific and very comfortable, especially after they moved us up to the tenth floor to a room with a downtown view,  and I’d recommend it if you’re hankering for some modern decor and really comfy pillows. It rained on us just enough to be authentically Seattle, but not enough to hinder our adventures in any way.

M and J took us to a gorgeous overlook in a ritzy neighborhood on a hill above Seattle—sorry, I forgot the name.

Park mosaic table top near the Seattle Space Needle.

Sculpture detail. This is fairly near the Needle.

I was really impressed with the beautiful hanging baskets of flowers and garden planters all over the downtown area. Everything was clean and beautifully maintained. Even the manhole covers were artistic.

This is the nighttime view from our hotel. Pretty!

Irises at the Olympic Sculpture Park—there were so many and they were so beautiful; I liked them more than the sculptures.

Part of the amazing Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum building. I think it’s a little schizo. We didn’t go inside this trip, but I know we will someday. I loved, loved, loved the reflective skin and shapes of this building.

Here’s Ian being handsome on the waterfront near the Sculpture Park.

We love exploring places, love walking and walking and walking together. It’s been a really long time since we had the luxury of doing this, just the two of us. Everything I saw was beautiful because I was with my love.

Many, many thanks to our generous friends for showing us a fabulous time!

The knitted donkey work in progress that I wrote about last week is finished. Here he is!

We decided our newest mom-made toy is named Sturdylegs the Donkey. Other name contenders—all great suggestions from Lucas—were Nightsky, Faithful, and Chimney. His names were so perfect and creative, it makes me want to knit three more donkeys just to use them all. (I doubt any family of four needs four knitted donkeys, however.)

Sturdylegs is all one piece, knitted from wool yarn and stuffed with wool roving. His mane and tail tuft is black acrylic because that’s what I had. The pattern is from Toymaking with Children by Freya Jaffke.

I’ve started knitting a cat, which is far easier than the donkey.  😉