Posted in Project: In Progress

Why did I do it? I was at Walmart yesterday and saw an afghan that was absolutely the perfect color for my living room. Since it has been chilly, a variety of throws that do NOT match that room have been dragged in there. So I was tempted by this chunky knit afghan in an olive color. But when I picked it up, I didn't like the feel, and looking closely saw it was poorly put together and would fray and pull easily. (For less than $20, what do you expect?)

But the idea was in my head, so I came home and looked up free knitting patterns on the Lion Brand Yarn website and found a very simple knit throw (so simple gauge doesn't even matter, since it ends up being very stretchy anyway). The Lion Brand website is set up quite nicely - for their sales department! When you look at a free pattern, it shows you all the yarn and needles needed to create that project, and allows you to click a box to change yarn colors if you wish. So without allowing myself time to think about it, I changed the colors and clicked! ... like I need ANOTHER project lying around!

I just learned to knit a couple of years ago. Our homeschool group started a craft club and one lady was teaching us all to knit. I made two squares for a Linus quilt, then did a simple sweater for my 3yo daughter. That one is finished, but has yet to be assembled. I retaught myself to crochet and made a really cute string bag. I have a couple of other projects in various stages of completion - so what did I need another for? Not to mention the unfinished cross-stitch projects from years past, and the jewelry-making tools I purchased. And we aren't even thinking about all the pictures yet to scrap!

Posted in Family Matters

Posted in Family Matters

If you choose to tell your children the truth about Santa Claus, be prepared for nasty fallout! Several years ago, when our oldest daughter was about 4, and very verbal, we went out to eat a couple of weeks before Christmas. Our very peppy waiter crouched down at her eye level and excitedly asked her, "So sweetie, what is Santa bringing YOU for Christmas?!?"

With a perfectly deadpan expression, our little angel turned to him and said, "Santa is DEAD."

The poor man, he looked as though she had hit him over the head with a frying pan. He gabbled something or other and looked at us as though we were devils incarnate.

Of course, she didn't mean it quite the way it came out. Early on in our marriage, my husband laid down a law: No Santa! He felt strongly that this was, in essence, lying to our children. I wanted to honor his wishes but at the same time be sensitive to my children's spirit and the very real appeal of Santa, so after much consideration I decided the best answer was, simply, the truth! I discovered later that other people have chosen this same path. Each year, early in December, we tell our children who St. Nicholas really was (and we usually give them their stockings at the same time). Nicholas was a real man born in what is now Turkey. He was a bishop in the Christian church and was martyred on December 6, AD 383, a day remembered as St. Nicholas' Day. His generosity and loving spirit were so cherished that his story grew into the charming legend of Santa Claus. (The name is taken from the Dutch, who call him Sanct Herr Klaus; Klaus is a nickname for Nicholas, Sanct is Saint, and Herr means Mister.)

However, explaining the true story of Santa Claus probably would not have changed our waiter's mind that we were incontrovertably Very Bad Parents. :-)

Merry Christmas!

After more than a year of absence, I have decided to recommit to my blog. I'm sure you are all breathless with excitement.

Posted in Light Verse

I was one of the first FlyLady subscribers, and I think I was the first to write a FlyLady poem; at least one of the first very few. Two babies later, I am not exactly on the wagon, but perhaps revisiting my Flypast will get me going again. This ditty is to the tune of We Three Kings.

We the SHEs of FlyLady are:

Clutter drifts, and piles form afar!

Laundry mountain, stains past counting,

Doors and drawers all ajar.

Oh, slob of weeks and slob of years,

Slob through joys and slob through tears.

Shoes, routines of morn and evening:

Clean and happy home draws near.

Lists and zones all bless my home

Flings of things and “Nobody moan!”

Keep reminders in your binders

SHEs are no more alone

Oh, slob of weeks and slob of years,

Slob through joys and slob through tears.

Shoes, routines of morn and evening:

Clean and happy home draws near.

If you are unfamiliar with FlyLady the housecleaning drill sergeant, check out her website www.flylady.net.

{Copyright (c) 2005 C. Paden. All rights reserved.}

Posted in Family Matters

I love the Barnes & Noble-published series "100 Things You Should Know About ..." and then the topic name such as Pirates, Explorers, World History, etc. Good car and bathroom reading, nicely presented in tasty tidbits. I had a new one in the car and asked my 10yo to read 10 items aloud to her brother (who is just beginning to learn to read) and me. She was complying, grumpily, until I suddenly said to my son, "Pick a number between 1 and 100!" and just like that [SNAP] it was a game. He picked a number, I picked a number, she picked a number ... and then she decided it was the little ones' turn. Now, the baby just turned two, so when she was asked several times to "pick a number" she began looking around saying, "Numboh? Numboh?" Then she looked out the window, placed her hands on her cheeks and called out, "Numboh! Wheyoh?" [translated: Number! Where are you?] We finally got her to say "two," her age. But we had already read two, so we doubled the digit for 22 instead. Then it was the 4yo's turn. He wouldn't say anything except the first letter of his name, so we counted up the alphabet until we came to 'K,' and used it for his number.

Did you know that Barbarossa means "red beard"?

Posted in Family Matters

How is it that, after years on Cigna, I finally find a doctor I like, who doesn't think I'm a complete nut case, who is fine with me using her as a diagnostician and supports me in researching gentler remedies, who has never lectured me even once for our alternative views on vaccinations ... how is it that, now, after having this great doctor for myself and my kids for just a little while, our company switches to a different HMO? Don't they know how many different doctors I had to slog through, over many years, to find the one decent on on Cigna? I don't have the heart to do it all over again ... it's just not in me ... [sigh] ... (NO, she is not on the new health plan; first thing I checked!)

Posted in Family Matters

Posted in Poetry

flames flicker fervently

atop a large white candle.

two halves, now one,

make a smooth white whole.

two wicks, separately lit,

lean toward each other,

not touching, their two lights

joined in one inseparable flame.

a great mystery has occurred:

two wicks produce one flame

two lives become one flesh.

{Copyright (c) 2005 C. Paden. All rights reserved.}

Posted in Poetry

on the walk in front of me

all my senses feel and see

a little crack that runs straight down

thru to the Other Side of ground.

and tho my eye somehow can't see

what all my senses say to be,

my ear could hear the sounds, i know,

if only the noise were not quite so.

perhaps at midnite i'll be back

and put my nose to that endless crack

and China's fragrances i will smell

. . . and that will tell.

{Copyright (c) 2005 C. Paden. All rights reserved.}