kidding around

…about a piece of wool cloth I made as an 18 year old in art class. It has traveled with me to college in California, stayed with me during the beginning years of my marriage in Cali. and came back with me (a young mom of 1 and pregnant with #2) to the midwest and has since moved to 2 houses. I feel like I should give this cloth a name. It has waited patiently to become SOMETHING.

I have used it as a blanket, but it’s an odd shape…approx. 24″ wide and 9 ft. long! It has managed to have candle wax dripped on it and dog hair collected in it’s weavings, but I am now determined to turn IT into SOMETHING.

I’m glad I avoided making clothing out of this…remember 20 years ago? Early 90s?

So what have I decided? 2 lap blankets made out of collected wool, cashmere, and quilting fabric. I figure this is them most useful thing I can think of, especially since winter will soon arrive and I will not use a “Snuggie”.

So today, after messing around in the yard for a bit, I found Ellie in the kitchen making Salsa Verde and blasting music so LOUD that I had to turn it down (I’m such an adult). She has become quite the expert. Oh, and she has found that wearing sunglasses helps her in the onion cutting department.

Good thing, we harvested nearly 20 pounds, maybe more.

Did I mention how WONDERFUL her salsa is? Perfect tang. Perfect bitterness and heat. Too bad we are out of chips.

Did I also mention that I do believe the “teenager population” has increased to 1 in the Shack house? Seriously, she looks and acts so confidently in the kitchen…all while listening to “matt and kim” at full blast!

A beautiful way to to begin the day.

I love the lighting in our dining room during the early morning hours. I savor every morning that begins like this!

This past weekend, we spent a great deal of time cleaning up our yard. The pool is covered. The garden has been harvested and “yanked” out of its plots. Our lush hops vines have been torn down. The last of the zinnias have been picked.

Now we have several lawn bags ready to be picked up.

I feel happy about our progress and grateful we aren’t trying to accomplish the annual clean up in dreary November, but I feel like we have opened the gates of winter to our life.

As I was working in the yard, I thought of our summer. One story I have not shared with all of you (family and friends!) is the event with our dog Ollie. He is quite a character and is my constant companion. He likes to cause trouble by sneaking food off plates, snatching Penny’s beloved Piggy, and barking at the little dogs next door. He even hunted a couple opossums and a squirrel last summer. Nothing is ever boring with this beagle/blue heeler. Good grief.

Anyway, after a lovely afternoon in the pool with my friend and all of our kids the mood suddenly changed right around dinner time. After our goodbyes to our guests, I quickly began to prepare dinner. I let Ollie out and never realized that would be the end of a relaxing evening.

A bit later, I heard a demanding bark at the back door and that was my cue to let Ollie in the house. When I opened the door, I noticed Ollie was shaking his head and blood was spattering all over me, the house, and the deck. I quickly shut the door and knelt down to check out where the blood was coming from…his ear had a huge chunk taken out of it! I felt terrible for him.

I got towels and thought if I applied enough pressure the bleeding would stop. I later learned that ears have many blood vessels and it is nearly impossible to get the bleeding to stop. I called Nathan, not panicking, but totally helpless not knowing how to help our dog and being okay with blood being splattered all over me (seriously, it was gross and I looked even grosser). Unfortunately, THAT day Nathan was in the city for a conference and THAT day I was a cool wife and said come home later and hang out with friends and THAT day he took the train.

So I waited for over an hour in the backyard with our blood dripping, blood caking on fur dog. All while my kids are in the house having a hey day playing the Wii, playing on the computer and eating whatever for dinner…remember, I am covered in blood and can not go in the house.

I kept things light and sent Nathan multiple photos of our dog saying “can’t wait to see you”. Obviously I was thrilled when Nathan arrived home and we figured a plan to get Ollie in the car without him shaking blood all over our car. I ended up sitting in the cargo area (why not, I look like a horror film character…a little more blood won’t hurt) of our van with our dog panting in my face and a towel around his ear. I sort of started to panic when we were in such close quarters and wondering if he would freak out on me.

To make a long and costly story short, Ollie ended up fine. He has the funniest ear and no matter how much I try to take a photo of it, he backs away and I can never get a good shot.

Look at him. You would never know that he could get in a scuffle with a raccoon, opossum, badger (ha!), or alien monster…we still don’t know what happened, just a good summer story to share.

Did I mention the mosquitoes and flies devouring me? Yep, they did. Maybe winter isn’t looking so bad.

We recently added ART to our school schedule. I was kind of waiting for routines and natural rhythms to occur before adding more subjects, like Spanish and Art and soon cooking/baking.

I thought the perfect way to mark the passage of the school year is to learn about the Limbourg Brothers and monthly draw a picture that symbolizes the month. It’s fun to see what the kids create and I had a little fun including myself as well. Plus, I have always admired their “Book of Days” and all the wondrous detail. The criteria:
*write the month

*list words that reminds you of the month

*reflect what the weather is TYPICAL…which isn’t always typical in the midwest!

*and then, of course, create a scene that is reminiscent of the chosen month.

I think in the end I will bind their books. This will be such a nice collection of their creativity that I hope will bring good memories in years to come.

I’m not sure why I have been so intimidated to teach art to the kids. I studied art education in college for crying out loud. I guess I have huge expectations of myself. All they want to do is create and all I need to do is lighten up. Seems like I’m the one always learning!