Orion's Art Collection

Some recent drawings by my favorite artist! I've been wanting to post photos of his art for awhile now (I lack no amount of them. He's a very prolific artist and will make at least three new drawings a day). Enjoy!

He's been asking us what we are scared of lately and drawing pictures of it (I keep saying, "Maybe you can draw things we like" and his answer is, "But these are for Halloween!") Obviously, I said I was scared of clowns. Orion decided to make him a clown that throws bombs. Very terrifying stuff!

Mario and Luigi. I love when he draws detailed eyes.

Outer space, complete with asteroids and a little octo-alien. 

Bowser

This is a haunted gingerbread house. Note the angry ghost and bad guys on the right. Orion is the character with the red hat and when I asked him why he had no clothes on he told me, "That purple stuff is sticky glue for building the house and I not want to get my clothes dirty." Sound logic indeed!!

Link from Zelda

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles AND their pet turtle, Spike. 

Ahoy!

Spiderman! I love the intricate details of his costume. 

An Update with Pictures (Long post)

Currently eating this lovely little tureen of oatmeal while I type. It's so amusing to me that people complain about how long steel cut oats take to cook because from the time from when I decide I should start cooking myself breakfast to the time I actually get to eat said breakfast between feeding children, wiping up children, changing children's shirts, and finding children some entertainment so I can sit down to eat...it's been way more than enough time for my steel cut oats to cook (and making one batch makes enough for 3-4 days). This concoction is Comice pear, vanilla, and the tiniest amount of brown sugar. I cooked the oats in almond milk to use it up. 

Orion's fourth birthday was a huge success and he had a delightful handmade dinosaur cake that I regrettably did not get a photo of...

In this photo above you can see that he got to eat breakfast in the living room, because he was too excited to leave his new toy. It's a giant plastic monstrosity, but he had asked for it continuously for about two months (and even made me watch a ten minute YouTube review of all the cool features it has, which admittedly, is quite a few) so we decided that he should have it because he showed such devotion. It's the Lion Guard Training Lair play set and we found it for the best price on Amazon after the Target here was sold out of them. The Ninja Turtles and various Nintendo figures like to play on the jungle too, along with Kion and his friends. 

Other gifts included amazing Waldorf colored pencils, more dinosaur toys, and some chapter books to read together from Papa, Teenage Mutant Turtle figures and a Turtle Garbage Truck from his aunties, a Learning Resources cash register from his other grandparents, art supplies (including Dino themed art kits) and a set of Junior Legos from his friends. What is left for Santa to bring?! Just socks probably, haha...Speaking of the Junior Legos though...

We've been making a bag of Legos from his birthday set every day during quiet time. It's so much fun! These Legos have now moved to their own Lego shelf from the spot in this photo and Batman has been demoted from his wrecking crane operating because we made the construction mini figure that Orion insists is more qualified for the job ;) 

Last Orion related news, but we had his first parent-teacher conference last night and I'm pleased that there were mostly only positive things to say about his development and progress. The teacher is highly impressed with his artistic skills and even used the word "phenomenal." He does have a tendency to have a hard time with switching activities at school, which is something we see at home too, even when you give a warning...he just gets really focused! And sharing is hard sometimes still, which is another issue we deal with here. He's always making progress though, so I'm looking forward to what we hear at the next conference in February. 

(Some recent parts of Orion's drawings. The smiley orange guy is a squid, I'm told. Also, note the  "Triforce Guy" in the bottom picture).

In other news, I finished Luna's hat from last week! I had to start entirely over after I forgot a lifeline and tried to switch the project to a different set of needles and failed. That was on Friday. On Saturday her and I were up at 4:30 am and so I knit the hat in about three hours so she could wear it to Mike's family gathering that afternoon. Working on i-cord is a ton of fun! I don't enjoy decreasing hats, but I love working in the round. 

Since I took social media off my phone I feel like I am calmer and getting more done. I'll post my new knitting project in a separate Yarn Along post later today, but I also started a Dinner Diary, inspired by THIS article. 

I have two other projects rattling around in my brain to make some headway on soon and this will be the first (maybe only?) place you'll hear about those as well. I do plan to continue posting links to my blog posts on Facebook so you can find them easily, but I would love it if you'd consider leaving any comments here so I don't have to log into Facebook to check/miss anything you have to say :) 

Finally, here's something to make you laugh...a very wonderful mom at Orion's school gave me a bin of little girl clothes. Inside, I found this very...curious...pair of pants (which I am not keeping!!) Bless whomever thought this was a good idea. My sister's comment that "this is proof that society doesn't care what we call our daughters as long as they are pretty" seems accurate! 

Here are few photos of gorgeous, funny (she laughed in her sleep yesterday!), alert, & smart little Luna to end this post.

xoxox until next time!

Sometimes Thinking About Money is Tiring.

I am really interested in finding a balance between being smart with the money I am given to make work for each pay period and once in awhile identifying a personal want that I should fulfill.

I admit, I believe everyone around me EXCEPT for me has the ability to walk into Target (or a local yarn shop or a restaurant) and buy whatever they want with no fear of overspending or weight on their consciousness. It appears to me that this might be an over exaggeration, based on the fact that I assume a lot from social media posts and only what I am told by individuals, but I do know that I live in an area where many people are well off or come from money so it's not outside of the realm of possibility that nearly everyone I know does have more expendable income than me at the moment.

Which leads to me feeling guilty, because I don't make an income. Also because I know so many people have it worse. Why am I complaining to myself about not being able to justify pricey jars of nut butter or name brand clothes for the kids? Are those necessary to a happy life? No, but my mind goes there sometimes, darkly..."If only..."

One of my daydreams is to eventually go back and work a soul crushing job after the kids are in school only for a paycheck that I'll use to do things I really want to and would feel guilty doing with money my husband makes (yes, he's told me that's a horrible way to look at it because it is "our" money, but I feel weird about that still).

We make a good amount of money. Life happens, however, and having a house makes those things that happen usually costly. There are a few loose ends to tie up with student loans and stuff. It's mostly a waiting game and things can get better, especially if I am smart with what I am given now. It's just rough and I am fatigued.

Do you know what else? I find it hard that I cannot afford to support friends who make things. I would love to buy a necklace from a certain person I know, but I can't afford that luxury. When there are things I want to invest in as personal possessions, they usually are from small vendors and not big-box stores. I am really sad that supporting them is not usually a reality for me due to my current financial restraints.

In conclusion, this has been a small sad pitiful rant, but I wanted to post it so if anyone else sometimes has these dark or sad or (shallow) feelings, they know they are not alone. I am fully aware that the thing to do here is count my MANY blessings and maybe be proactive about what I can change and then to shut off my auto-comparison trigger (why is that so hard??)

Questions I Have Regarding Knitting

1. How can people who knit seriously afford to buy $22 skeins of yarn (multiple ones!) for each project?

2. How come yarn that is that expensive is always twelve times more exciting than any colorway I can find at Michael's or Hobby Lobby?

3. How is it that every single project I want to do requires new needles?! 

4. How am I the only mother on Earth who apparently has children that gravitate towards yarn like a moth to a flame? I'm unable to find any other experience online or in my questioning of real life friends of people with children who inhibit them from knitting during the day time due to being more interested in mommy's yarn than any of their toys. And yet, it happened to be with baby Orion and it's happening again with young Otto. 

These days, knitting gets put off until nap time--and on those days, housework gets put off for knitting--or until bedtime, when knitting isn't even much of a joy anymore. I long for the age to come where they don't give a hoot about my knitting. Or I can teach them to knit with their own yarn (maybe even $22 yarn! I can afford it in my day dream)! Actually, by the time they are that old, I'm sure I'll have another wee bairn (been reading too much Outlander...) around to grow into a feisty yarn tangler...and he/she will have two crafty older brothers to teach them how. 

There was like a few month window when they were tiny ones where I could knit while they nursed. But one time I bonked Otto's head with the needles and quickly abandoned that.

5. Okay, last question...do you think it is possible to be a knitter who ONLY uses circulars? I am hopelessly in love with circs. I think I am going to try. Magic loop is the easiest bleeping technique and makes way more sense to be than trying to wield 5 needles for socks.