Monthly Archives: May 2011

daring jumping spider

After I got out of the shower this morning I heard Jonah exclaiming “I caught it! I caught it!”  He did tell me a few times yesterday that there was a big, cool spider by his window, but I didn’t think much about it.  He caught it this morning and he and Logan did all they could to learn who exactly their bedroom visitor was.  This is what I found on the table when I sat down for breakfast:

daring jumping spider

They used their field guide searching skills and discovered they had a Daring Jumping Spider.  Jonah made him a habitat in a jar.  Logan drew a picture.  All the boys went out in the rain in search of small insects to feed him.

I love it when stuff like this happens with absolutely no input (or interference) from me.  I hadn’t even eaten breakfast yet and I could count it as a good school day.

a quilt for baby Hazel

Hazel's quilt

My good friend RaeLyn had her 5th baby last month.  I’m so hit or miss with baby gifts– sometimes not getting them done until the baby is 8 months old, or 1 year old, but this time I delivered the gift to a 3 week old baby!  Pretty good, huh?

up close

I love the painterly style of Laura Gunn’s fabrics.  You can tell they’re made straight from her paintings with the texture of the paint and canvas right there on the fabric.  I’ve had a half yard of these two prints staring at me from a shelf for a LONG time and finally had the right idea coincide with the right time to make a quilt, so I cut into it.

a quilt for baby Hazel

I had a fun time with my design– making the border echo the shape of the blocks.  I quilted the middle part in swirls and then went around the outside a few times with straight lines.  I really like how it turned out.  It’s especially fun to sew for someone you know will appreciate the thought and time and be just as giddy about the pretty fabric as I am.

Hazel's quilt back

The back is another Laura Gunn print– lots of dots in the perfect colors.

Baby quilts are such a good size to play with and FINISH.  I need to find some fabric I love to make a few for this little girl kicking my ribs.

time to breathe

Today was a day I’m thankful I don’t send my kids to school everyday.  (The oldest 3 just go on Mondays.)  The school year is winding down, so there were class parties that needed treats prepared for, teacher gifts to remember, and the regular making of lunches, nagging to get shoes on, and feeding and clothing the littlest boys in order to get in the car and to school on time.  I am not a person that thrives on busy-ness and, quite frankly, getting 5 kids ready to get in the car is not my favorite thing to do.  Believe it or not, these little people all have minds of their own, and as much as I’d like them to immediately follow my every command when we’re trying to get out the door and somewhere ON TIME, they don’t.  By the time I had got them to school I was tired out for the day– but I had one appointment after another ahead of me.

And so Hunter and Ian and I were go, go, go until the big kids got home.  Then it was driving to karate, picking up from karate, Dad working late, wrestling matches in the family room gone awry (with at least 3 kids screaming like they were dying at one time), trying to figure out something for dinner, and feeling unsettled by the whirlwind of papers and toys and pillows and blankets strewn about the house.

I thought– there are people that do this every day– that have every minute scheduled, rushing from school to lesson to appointment to hectic meal where there is no real time together because those brief moments are spent hurriedly trying to get things done so you can all move on to the next thing.  And then I was overcome with gratitude for this path that I’m on where, for more days than not, we can go at our own pace, be intimately familiar with each other,  and the kids can draw and draw and draw and read and read and read.  I thought of these pictures of Hunter

drawing

who can spend all the time he wants intensely making his 2 year old “space men” and “lightnings”, who every minute has big brothers who draw with him and for him


paper and tape is all you need

and with their big brother magic (and some paper and tape) turn him into a “lightning space man”.

I’m thankful for all the unscheduled time to just be, to be real, to be really together.

I’m thankful for time to breathe.