life of seven

Kids on the Keys

Grace giving Jude piano lessons: I love it. Don't you love the photo where he's showing Grace how he can find the triplets with his eyes closed? Jude is really enjoying his lessons, and Grace is enjoying teaching him. Often, family shared teaching responsibilities don't work out well, I've discovered, for us and other families I know of, so I've tried to make this as professional as possible, paying Grace at the beginning of the month, picking the same time and day each week for the lesson, writing it on the calendar, getting Jude dressed into clothes I would actually feel comfortable leaving the house in (and actually he really likes to dress up and put on a bow tie or a suit coat), and having the living room clean for his lesson. All of this has seemed to have worked quite well, and both Grace and Jude take the lesson time very seriously.

I don't know how long Jude will continue with lessons with Grace, or whether Truman and Clementine will follow suit in a few years, but for now this is working really, really well for us. I'd like to see Grace doing more teaching over the years because she seems very gifted in that area. This initial teaching experience has been a very positive one for her, and she'd love to do more in the future.

As for Jude, he is doing so well and learning so much after just a handful of lessons. At first he seemed uncertain about learning to play piano, probably because of all the practicing he observes his siblings do and the occasional grumbling about it that he hears. But Grace made his first lesson so much fun that he quickly changed his mind about piano and has become a very enthusiastic learner. He has such a good time at it, that Truman, observing, and participating in a couple of activities at Jude's lesson, has begun asking when he can learn, too. In fact, Truman told me a couple of days ago that he wanted to be a piano teacher. Well, you may be jumping the gun there a little bit, buddy, but high praise for Grace!

Meanwhile, there is Clementine, who cannot resist walking by a piano with an open lid. Quickly she scurries up on the bench and begins the serious act of playing notes, occasionally turning pages of music so she can find the right one. It's next to impossible for me to help Jude practice without Clementine discovering us and straining to get up, so I usually have both Jude and Clementine on my lap while Jude finds A, F, D, G. 

Often I wonder why I ended up having so many piano players in the house, and no other instruments being learned to vary it up a bit. But my husband is adamant that each child learn piano before foraying into another type of instrument, and I do agree with him there. After a couple of years of lessons, it seems a little silly to quit piano to learn a different instrument, thus the four, or rather, five piano players in the house. I suppose the older ones know enough about music now that in many ways picking up another instrument wouldn't be too much of a challenge. But, meanwhile, I love the piano music I hear all day. Love it. And adding Jude's piano playing into that mix is nothing but pure joy.

Intarsia

Look what I'm knitting for Clementine: a fantastic flower frock! All that intarsia...you should see the back! So many ends. It's crazy. It went much quicker than I was thinking it would, though. Something about color work makes the knitting really fly. I have to knit the back still, and I'm just going to do it plain, no intarsia. I thought that would make it go faster, but I'm not so sure about that, actually. No flowers to watch grow, along with the knitting, just lots and lots of green. I'm using some leftover Wollmeise for this dress, by the way. I love the colors. I love how each color goes so well together. I'm looking forward to adding embroidery at the end, like the pattern calls for. Overall, it's a very fun and rewarding project.

I've owned Lucinda Guy's book for forever, and have never knit anything out of it before now, because all that intarsia scared me to death. But I'm discovering it's really not so bad. The main key, I've discovered, is to use 24" pieces of yarn for all that color work, and just let them dangle. Do NOT mess with yarn bobbins, no, no. That will make you scream and throw your knitting across the room. Speaking from experience, I promise. No, let those ends dangle, adding in a new one when you run out, occasionally pulling your hand through the back to easily untangle them. Piece of (extremely messy) cake. And don't bother with intarsia if you are scared of weaving in ends. That's going to be the most time consuming part of this project. But I'll tell you a secret: I don't mind that all that much. I use one of those gold darning needles, grab a pair of scissors, and sit back and let a child read to me, listen to them practice piano, or I watch a movie, and before I know it, it's all done. Totally time consuming yet mindless work.

Well, that's my plug for intarsia knitting. Go for it if you want a new challenge and there's a project calling your name. Don't be scared of it for years, like I was. Just prepare yourself for some messy looking knitting before all is said and done. It'll look good in the end. (This isn't my first foray into intarsia knitting, by the way. I'm still working on this, having finished the front and knit half of the back. One day I will finish this loveliness. Maybe it'll be the next thing I knit.)

 

Back again!

Hi folks, don't worry, all is well at the Davenport home. We started up our home schooling after the holidays, and I got in such a good, busy routine that I had trouble fitting in the blogging. I thought about posts I could write, and I missed my daily, or almost daily writing habit that I'd been keeping up, but on the other hand, other things in life were falling into place, which is always a good feeling. And that's kind of the way life goes- it's so hard to keep all the balls you're juggling in the air at once. On the one hand, Jude started piano lessons and daily piano practice has subsequently taken place, but meanwhile my poor little blog got put in a corner for a bit. I think I'm usually pretty okay with that aspect of life, for better or worse. I don't stress the details too much, which can be a great thing, but it depends on what other things fall behind. Like, sometimes it's paying the bills. Oops, there's a pink slip from the electric company...probably could have skipped a day of spelling lessons that week and gotten caught up on bills...

This reminds me of a blog post I thought of, but didn't write. "Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider its ways." (Proverbs 6:6) I used to always kind of think of that scripture as an insult, or a rebuke, which obviously it is for the slothful person, but after pondering it for a bit, I've realized I really like the days that I feel like an ant. Hustling around, getting lots and lots of things done. I love to be busy. I love accomplishing talks. And, as nice as relaxing and lying around the house can be, after a day of it, I am done. I do feel exactly like a sluggard, if a sluggard is what I imagine it to be, which is some Jabba-the-hut type of incarnation. That's how I picture it when I hear the word, hah! After doing nothing my head feels muddled and I get grouchy and start snapping at people. I'm definitely a much happier ant than sluggard.

Anyway, this blog post is supposed to be about that baby doll you see up there. Evie (with some help from me) made the doll for Clementine for Christmas. Do the pictures show you how much she adores it? When Clementine opened the present and saw the doll, she grabbed her, hugged her tight and then began walking around the room, showing her to people. But she wanted to show, only. She got quite upset when other's assumed she wanted them to hold her doll. She grabbed the doll back quickly and walked away to someone else who would admire the doll from afar, rather than try to take it.

This doll design is a little different from baby dolls I've made in the past. Slightly bigger head, and the body and legs weighted down with millet. The doll feels so great in the hands. Just the right amount of weight to make it feel much more real, and the weight means she can sit up on her own and be posed slightly. At a less busy time in my life, I will make dolls again, including more like the one you see here. Because she's just wonderful. I like the simple french knots for the eyes and mouth, and the blush on the cheeks and nose and hands. Clemmie likes her too.

Aaaaah, writing again. Feels great. I hope to talk to you guys again in the coming days!

Christmas 2015

 

With three boys in the house, you might imagine that many of the gifts this year were Star Wars related. Our girls love Star Wars, too. I'm not a fan, but I'm a fan of watching my kids be fans. If you know what I mean. I told you we weren't a Waldorf homeschooling family, right? and here's the proof. When we were at the mall doing a bit of last minute Christmas shopping (say what you will, I love going to the mall at least once during the holidays, because it always feels so Christmassy, and the season doesn't feel complete till I've gone one time), you could see my husband and my parenting styles contrasted quite nicely. We decided to split up for a moment, so that I could go to Hanna Andersson, and he could go to the Disney store. "Okay kids, who wants to go with Mommy, and who wants to go with Daddy?" Need I tell you that Clementine and I went in to Hanna Andersson together, and everyone who could talk followed Daddy into the Disney store (all that plastic...sigh...)? It's all about moderation, the wood toys, and the ones that use batteries, I guess. For the record, the kids loved the light sabers, and the wooden cash register. Whew.

Nothing like a puppy to help you open your gifts...Britta is just an awesome puppy. Grace is working wonders in her training with her. The bond they have is so fun to watch.

A furry alpaca joins the wooden animals (that we purchased while in Denmark)...

One last Star Wars gift, from my younger sister, who always picks out the best gifts, really.

And, finally, the best tasting apple pie I think I've ever had, made by that same sister. I really wish I'd gotten a shot of the brussels sprouts she made, too, since they made me discover a brand new vegetable love, that I think I can share with the rest of the family, too. They were a little suspicious at first, but more receptive than I'd thought they would be (so was I). Next post I will write about the sweet little homemade gift that Evie made for Clementine (with a bit of help from me). It was the hit of the day, and there is truly nothing better than a handmade gift being loved the best of all. I've had the joy of that happening to me, and I loved that Evie got to experience it herself, first hand. Meanwhile, I'll wish everybody a wonderful 2016.