Rutabaga Dreams

If I have to ask the question, the answer probably is yes, isn’t it.  Here’s the situation.  My sister is getting married on September 20th.  It is a rather un-traditional wedding and will take place at a private campground 30 minutes outside of Willits, CA.  (Those of you unfamiliar with Northern California geography, this is pretty much the middle of nowhere).  It is going to be very hot, but the wedding will be in the evening.  I’m going to be in the wedding party, and I’m looking to wear something that I won’t a) broil in, b) can nurse in c) goes with either the silver of the groom’s side or the dark red of my sister’s wedding dress (yes, you read that correctly - like I said, untraditional).  

My mom suggested a black dress, which I think would work well and I should be able to find a decent looking black nursing dress.  What I really want to do it knit a shawl in either a silver-ish or a dark red that I can use to give the outfit more color and that I can also use as a nursing cover-up sort of thing.  I’m thinking something along the lines of this shawl.  It is a fairly easy pattern, and I did a test piece of it this morning and it looked really neat.  However, do I really have a hope of getting this done by September 20th?  I consider myself an advanced beginner in knitting - I know how to do this pattern, but I’m not all that fast.  I’ve never done a project this big before either.  And then there’s the upcoming move, the start of school and oh yeah, I have a 7 week old too.  Hmm.

I spent some time last night (probably more than I should have *ahem*) looking at nursing dresses, shawl patterns, and at Etsy to see if I could find something I could perhaps buy.  But it would be really neat to make it myself…  but could I really do it in time?  

Matt left last night for a business trip and won’t be back until Saturday sometime.  It is strange to be on my own with the kids as he doesn’t often have to do this.  So far we’re doing pretty well, but it does seem quieter and emptier around here when he’s not here.  And then there’s the fact that I have to do the dinner dishes…  :-)

I’ve been thinking about next month, and I’ve realized that it is going to be really busy.  Next week we have swim lessons and a trip to the fair, then the week after that we’ll be packing, then the following week we’ll be unpacking and cleaning the apartment, then in the last week of the month we’ll be starting school.  Yikes!  I am trying to figure out what our new routine is going to be once we start school, and I also need to plan what exactly we’ll be doing come Aug. 25th.  I have my weeks planned out for the first term, but I need to get a handle on the daily stuff.  

I’ve heard rumor that there’s going to be a Catholic catechism type class for kids Emma’s age, but I haven’t been able to get ahold of the person who I was told to contact to get more details.  From what I’ve heard it is supposed to be Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  This would be on top of the once a month class, and the weekly Wednesday night Faith Formation program…  which I am kind of thinking might be a little much.  Not to mention that being gone Tuesday and Thursday mornings would really wreak havoc on our schoolwork…  and make us need to be leave the house everyday except for Mondays and Saturdays.  I’m not so thrilled about that part at all.  But, it would be taught by a woman I really like and respect  and it would also include Mass with and oversight by the wonderful priest who celebrates the Mass we usually attend.  They are also talking about doing a potluck/social night on Friday nights, which is really more what I think is missing from our schedule at this point.  Perhaps we’ll just do this part, if that’s possible…  but I need to get ahold of this person first!  

OK, I have an unhappy stuffy baby siting on my lap who needs a change in position.  I wish I could do something to decongest this little guy, but I am not sure how to help him.  It would be nice though, as right now he isn’t sleeping well which means I’m not sleeping well either!

Gregory has decided that sunscreen should have a new name.  He calls it “sunscream”, which is ever so appropriate given the fuss he makes when you try and put it on him.  I’d love to know whether or not he gets the joke…  my guess is not. 

Matt recently dived into storage and pulled out my box of homeschooling and education books.  I pulled out some stuff I want to use for the upcoming school year as well as some books I either haven’t read before or haven’t read entirely.  I’ve been focusing on art right now, as I’m trying to get my mind around what I want to do there in the upcoming year.  I know I want to do some art appreciation, and I’ve owned the Child-Sized Masterpieces set of books for several years already so that part is easy.  

I also wanted to do some work with art skills and the like, and that part is more challenging for me.  I’ve never been known as “the artistic one” as I have two siblings who are very gifted in that realm…  but that has also made me not so interested in even trying anything.  I now firmly believe that at least basic art skills can be mastered by just about anyone so I have a lot of willingness to try that I never possessed before.  

I’ve also realized that Emma has gotten to the point where she will draw princesses but beyond that she flounders and will hardly even try to do anything.  If there’s something else she wants to draw, she will generally first ask for a coloring page of the object and if I won’t do that she will either try and get discouraged or not try at all.  

Emma is type of person who has a very rich imagination, but not a very strong connection to the physical world around her.  She’s not really observant enough to remember enough details of the things around her to draw them to her satisfaction (and after all, she’s only six, so how much of that can you really expect) but she also doesn’t look at things deeply enough to really notice them in detail.  She’s much more likely to look at a flower and go off on forty different things she could do with the flower or stories about the flower than to notice, say, the various shades of color on the flower, the shape of the petals and leaves, or other things like that.  I sometimes wonder if a flower seems to be more of a symbol for her than an individual object.  I think this is part of what makes it difficult for her to draw anything other than princesses, because she can’t visualize the object well enough to get enough detail to make a picture she’s happy with.  She’s been drawing princesses for so long she has it down, but she hasn’t had that same developmental process with anything else… and now that she’s old enough to be more critical of her drawing she’s not willing to go through that process in the same way.  

So with all this in mind, I approached Drawing With Children by Mona Brookes with a lot of anticipation.  I’ve had this book for several years, but I haven’t really opened it until now.  Previously I’ve been rather intimidated by it, but now that I’ve dived in I’ve found that it really isn’t that intimidating after all.  I think it is going to be a great book for Emma, as it teaches how to look at things more deeply and notice their component shapes.  It also gives a lot of good information on how to start a drawing, what to look for, and how to simplify what you’re seeing into something that you can draw.  We started doing some of the lessons in it together, and we’ve both been enjoying the experience so far.  The real test will come when we have to start drawing things that aren’t in the book, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.  I’m actually glad I didn’t read this book sooner, as I think I would have started with it sooner than I should have and it would have been frustrating for both of us.  And if I had read it later, Emma might have already started to lose interest in drawing and she might have been more resistant to the author’s methods.  

I think this is a great book for children over the age of five or six up to adults and I highly recommend giving it a try.  Brookes says you can use the book with children as young as three, but I think that is too young.  The author of the other book I recently read would vehemently disagree with Mona Brookes’s age recommendation, but I’ll have to leave that for another post.  This is long enough already, and I need to get Emma and Gregory to bed!

Tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of our move from the Bay Area to Nevada County.  Since that time, we’ve lived in tents for two months, a run-down trailer with no indoor water or sewer for a month (almost three months for Matt), with Matt’s grandparents for a month (that was just the kids and me though) and in a two bedroom apartment in town for eight months.  And in less than a month, we’ll be moving yet again.  And no, we aren’t moving into our house-in-progress.  I’m really hoping this is the last move before we do move into our house-in-progress, but I didn’t predict all of the moves we’ve made in the last year, so I don’t do anything more than hope at this point.  

After this next move we’ll be a lot closer to our property and we’ll be in a bigger space…  but we’ll also be living with family.  I’m sure it will have its moments, but overall I expect it will be just fine.  It is not going to be easy for me, as the most introverted person of the group and the one who is trying to keep three little kids somewhat quiet and contained and homeschool one of them at the same time.  But it will be really nice not to have to drive twenty minutes to get to our property and have a lot of space where the kids can play outside.  And of course this will make it substantially easier to keep coming up with the money we need to finish the house.  

We’re hoping (there’s that word again) that we’ll be out of there before too long, but it is hard to predict.  Matt is still saying the end of the year, but I have a hard time believing that at this point.  I’m hoping for the spring, but we shall see.  

Well, the week is over and Emma had a great time at her Summer Faith Camp.  She’s exhausted - well, really, we’re all exhausted - but I’m glad she got to do it and had such a good time.  They had a little show for the parents today to demonstrate all that they learned, and Gregory and I enjoyed watching it.  I wish I had brought my camera, but oh well.  Emma got to say Tuesday’s Bible verse into the microphone and she did a good job.  It was probably best that I didn’t have the camera for the song part though, as my daughter seems to have inherited my complete lack of coordination and Matt’s lack of rhythm.  Doing hand motions to songs is never going to be something she will be good at!  Thankfully I think this is a skill that is only useful in childhood and for camp councillors and the like, and should not greatly impair her ability to function well as an adult.  :-)  I’m sure that in a few years, she’ll be quite glad I didn’t have a video camera on me to document this!

Gregory, Nathan and I did errands, and/or went to the property every day while Emma was in camp (except for today, because we were pooped and I was out of errands) which is a lot of running around and such for us.  We also went to two different parks this week, and Gregory enjoyed the experience…  although he did seem a little lost at times without his sister.  I also ran into someone at the park that I’ve been seeing at church every week but haven’t had a chance to say anything to, and we ended up chatting for over an hour.  We exchanged phone numbers, so hopefully we’ll get together again soon.

Next week is another busy week, as we are going to my Mom’s on Wednesday through Sunday.  We’re going to see my Grandmother, visit with Emma and Gregory’s Godmother and her kids, and of course spend time with my Mom too.  Well, Gregory’s noticed where I escaped to, so I better go contend with my very tired, fussy and cranky toddler.  (joys…)

Today Emma had her very first day of summer faith camp through our church.  This is the first time she’s ever done something without some family member present, so it was a big occasion.  Emma was nervous and concerned this morning, and was not happy that I was going to leave her there.  I reassured her that I’d stay for a little bit if she wanted me to, and if it was too horribly awful that she wouldn’t have to go the next day.  She, of course, had a great time and is eager to go back tomorrow.  

I was a little more frazzled by the whole experience, but that was largely because I made the assumption that Saint C’s Hall would be somewhat near Saint C Church, rather than about a mile away on a narrow street with a street sign nearly overgrown with bushes.  Forgetting my cell phone compounded the problem and added to the overall anxiety of the experience, but we did make it there and everything was fine.  We were about a half an hour late but perhaps it was for the best as it allowed time for a couple of the adults that Emma knows from faith formation to notice her and help bring her into the group and activities.  

I had tried so hard to get everyone out the door on time, and even though I was delayed by a last minute toddler poop, I was still doing fine…  I just should have made sure I knew where the place was, even when it seemed obvious!

BTW, if you’d like to see more about why I like YNAB, take a look at the comments on the Quicken post.

A few days ago I was changing Nathan’s diaper with Gregory looking on.  I happened to mention in passing that Gregory used to wear cloth diapers too and Gregory thought this was very interesting.  ”Gregory wear cloth diapers?  Wear cloth diapers like Nathan?”  I asked if he would like to try them again rather than his disposables, and he said yes.  (well, actually, he said “hegg” which means the same thing)  I didn’t have any covers in his size at the apartment, but I knew where there were in storage and thought I would get them soon.  Gregory proceeded to ask me about them every time I changed his diaper for several days, and today I got the covers out of storage.

When I changed his diaper this evening, Gregory was at first excited about wearing cloth diapers “just like Nathan”.  After I put it on though, he wasn’t quite so sure about the idea.  He stood up and looked like a cowboy who’d spent way too many hours in the saddle.  He tried an experimental waddle around the room and looked rather uncertain.  He touched the diaper somewhat hesitantly, then patted it and said “it a bit fluffy”, at which point I couldn’t hold the laughter in anymore.  He didn’t seem to take offense, thankfully, and he seemed to settle down to it before too long.  

I’m really hoping that he will tolerate them this time (after all, I’m almost out of disposables!) and that it might give him more of an incentive to try potty-training soon.  We shall see!

I have been faithfully (and some might say obsessively) updating Quicken with all our financial information for close to seven years now.  Unfortunately I don’t have it all in one file, as we moved from Quicken for Windows to Quicken on the Mac and back to Quicken on Windows, but I have at least three years of financial data on all our accounts easily available. 

A little over two months ago I started using a new financial tool called YNAB (short for You Need a Budget)  One of the most important aspects of this program is its reliance on zero based budgeting, where every dollar has a job.  For the first time in all these years of managing the family finances, I finally feel like I have a handle on what is going on with our money.  Even though the results aren’t pretty (i.e. we’re spending how much on housing costs?!?!) it is better to have the information rather than just a sinking suspicion that all is not well.  I finally feel like I have the financial information we need in order to make good decisions about what we’re going to do with the money that comes in.  

However, it is making me question why on earth I need to be updating the financial information for all of our accounts, checking, savings, credit card, investments, etc. in Quicken.  I have been doing double entry since I started using YNAB, and I’m getting a little tired of it.  I’m also wondering what the value is in tracking the minutiae of our various investment accounts.  It is easy enough to look at the last monthly statement or if I want more current information I can log onto the appropriate website and check our information there.  Why should I be duplicating by hand all this information into Quicken?  Sure, I can see our net worth number this way, but that’s not really all that important…  and if I really want it, I could add up our numbers online and get the number in less than ten minutes. 

The more I think about it, the less I can justify the time it takes to keep Quicken up to date.  But still, it is very hard for me to jettison the product - I feel like it is throwing away all that time I have spent in the past.  But I also realize that is a ridiculous reason to continue!