life of seven

Mr. Knightly

***Finds blog site, checks login info, dusts off keyboard, wiggles fingers in anticipation*** 

My husband paid me what I took as a compliment the other day, though it perhaps wasn't intended as such. "Your worst failing in life," he began.

"Oh, no Ben," I groaned. "Do we have to have this conversation?" anticipating what was to come. One thing you need to know about Ben. His Jane Austen doppleganger, in personality, at any rate, would be Mr. Knightly.

Have you ever looked for your, and your friends' and families' literary dopplegangers? Those characters in literature that you recognize immediately because they are so much like you, or remind you exactly of another person? It is great fun. One of mine is the rather obscure Katherine Krupnik, the absentminded, artistic, excellent cook if she remembers to plan dinner, schedule-phobic, family-adoring mother of Anastasia Krupnik. Yep. Pretty much describes me to a T. But back to what I was saying.

You would think it would be wonderful to be married to Mr. Knightly. Actually, it is. Mr. Knightly, undoubtedly, would be my pick over, say, Mr. Darcy, or Mr. Bingley, Colonel Brandon, Mr Ferrars, or, borrowing from the Hunger Games, Gale, or Peeta (no contest there- who even invited those two schmucks into the competition???). Now, when you bring up Gilbert Blythe, the competition gets a bit tougher, but in general, I can say wholeheartedly that Mr. Knightly from Emma is one of my favorite literary male characters. So, it is lucky I married my own Mr. Knightly.

But here's the thing with Mr Knightly: the "Badly done, Emma! Badly done!" scene. Emma deserved that, and knows she deserved it. See, Mr. Knightly is not afraid to speak his mind when he thinks something should be corrected or rectified. And, so, being married to Mr.Knightly's doppelganger, perhaps you can imagine, has its own set of peculiar challenges. Ben and I devote time, lots and lots and lots of time, evaluating ourselves, our marriage, our family, and our lives, to discuss what's working, and what's not, what could be improved, and so on. Because of this, I have him to thank for helping me come up with systems to make our house run smoothly, homeschooling plans where everyone knows what is supposed to happen each day, meals that get on the table most evenings (even though I can space out about that at times: "Dinner? We need to eat dinner again tonight? But I made dinner last night! Do we really need to eat again so soon?" Told you I was like Katherine Krupnik! Thanks to Ben's help with coming up with a plan, that rarely happens anymore), a house that gets cleaned three times a day, time for me to spend with God each morning.

All these things have bettered our lives, even though they have been challenging to implement at first. That's the thing, us creative types don't realize at first that a clean workspace and environment actually encourages creativity, not inhibits it. While a detailed daily schedule really doesn't fit me well (I've tried), instead, having a daily routine that I stick to quite closely really makes the homeschooling day go more smoothly for everyone. Each child knows what is supposed to happen every day, and what their jobs and responsibilities are.

These things, I have to thank, in large part, to my Mr. Knightly. 

At times, though, being married to a real life Mr. Knightly can have it's own set of frustrations. Being reminded frequently of things that need to be corrected can feel overwhelming at times. In the book, he tells Emma something like (I don't have the exact words in front of me), "I have rebuked and corrected you, and you have born it wonderfully!" Every now and then, to keep my spirits up, and to make fun of himself for how high a standard he sets, at times, for our lives, Ben jokingly quotes that exact phrase to me. 

Anyway, the other day, Ben said to me, "Do you want to know what your worst failing is?"

"Not particularly, no," I groaned.

"Your worst failing," he continued, ignoring my scrunched up face and the fact I crumpled myself in a heap upon hearing the words (we were both laughing, by the way), "your worst failing is that you have not been faithful to your blog where you take pictures of our kids, and write about our lives, and put our stories as they all grow up, into your blog."

"That's my worst failing?" I repeated, straightening up. "Wow, you must think I'm amazing. How can that be my worst failing?"

"You are amazing."

"Oh." See, it's really a great thing to be married to Mr. Knightly.

"But I want you to write your blog."

"Oh. Okay. I agree. Actually, yeah, I really miss recording all of that down, too."

One of my dearest friends, Tarah, is akin to my husband in that she is not afraid to bring up the hard topics. Every now and then, she sends me a text. "WRITE YOUR BLOG!" Well, she happened to be over that night. "Write your blog, Jen!"

"Okay, okay, I'll do it! Okay!"

Yesterday, I saw her at church. "Write your blog!"

"Okay, okay, I will!"

And so I have, today, at least. 

I'll leave you with a picture of Cate on her 18th (for real!) birthday.

Impulsive

We were looking at old photos on Facebook last night, and my heart broke a little, realizing how many memories were on there, even though I don't feel that I put all that many photos up. And I realized I had hardly taken a picture since my last post, back in December. And what of all the memories about life I have written about on here? That does it, I thought, and first thing this morning pulled up Life of Seven and decided to post. I'm a person of extremes, I believe, always have been. It works for and against me, and I have tried to become more balanced over the years. But the times it works in my favor is when I decide something is a good idea and go with it. For instance, reading. Last year I read so little beside audio books. The beginning of this year, my sister printed out a checklist for friends who would want to do her invented "52 book challenge." To make a long story short, I scoffed at the idea initially. There was no way I could possibly read that much this year. But I got to thinking about it while I heard my kids talk about how fun it would be to try to reach that reading goal and realized how silly it is that I don't read more. I used to read all the time. I used to read voraciously, in every spare moment of the day. I used to go to the Denver Public Library and leave with a brown paper grocery bag filled to the brim with books (granted, a huge percentage of them were Babysitter's club books and the like) and read non stop for about three days before I finally slowed down, but got dangerously near to the end of my library stack before the three weeks before the next library visit were up.

"Where is that girl?" I thought when faced with Stephanie's 52 book challenge. Years ago, I would have scoffed at the 52 book challenge list because that would have taken me closer to a month than a year. But once I decided I wanted to find that "girl who reads" again, I started picking up books in my free time, like I used to. No lingering over the decision or easing in to it. No, reading is a great thing, and I'm going to do it, I determined. So here I am at the end of February and I find myself ahead of schedule, ahead of the schedule that I thought was impossible just a few weeks before (So far this year, I've read or listened to 12 books, in case you were wondering). 

My impulsiveness relates to my blog post today as well, and even blogging in general. One day a few years ago, I decided to start a blog, because I wanted to write more, and have more motivation to take more pictures of my kids. Which actually doesn't sound very virtuous, now that I think of it, hah! "Hey kids, I probably wouldn't bother to take pictures of you on my own, but now that I have a blog, lets get some quick pictures of you riding your bikes." "Look, Clemmie's walking! Better let the blog know." Shallow reasons or not, there's no denying that I've missed recording details and pictures from life when I haven't posted regularly. Well, why wait around? I decided. Let's rev up the engines again and have a go. So that's what I'm doing today.

 And now let me take a second and tell you about those photos: First of all, Clemmie was in a great mood and smiling for the camera. The problem is, when you ask her to smile, she squinches up her face and closes her eyes. So out of the different pictures I took, only a few of them showed her eyes open. But she's actually not pouting. I feel like the luckiest mom in the world when I look at those pictures of my four beautiful girls.

And the final ones, why yes, that is Cate on her 17th birthday. The strawberry cake was pink and lovely and tasted...well, it was okay. Beautiful food doesn't necessarily always taste good.

And about Cate: I'm going to just copy and paste what I wrote on Facebook the morning of her birthday, because my day is getting away from me and there are children who are supposed to be doing school work right now but are actually playing while my back is turned. 

So, here is what I wrote about Cate, and I still mean it with all my heart: "I love this girl SO MUCH! Happy 17th birthday, Cate! Your first moments on this earth feel like they happened just yesterday, and at the same time, a million years ago. Over the last 17 years, while I've taught you to do things like talk and read and ride a bike and share with your siblings and how you should tell the truth and love God, at the same time, you were teaching me just as much, if not more, about life. About how precious relationships are. About the fierce love a mother feels for her child. About turning to God when you feel hopelessly inadequate. About putting time and effort and work into something, and reaping the glorious rewards for years (and years) to come. The privilege of being your mother has made me a better person than I could have ever been without you. Happy birthday, my darling. Every day that goes by, you become more lovely and sweet and good and interesting and fun than you were the day before. God blessed my life so much when he gave me you!"

 

Making things, reading

Yesterday, Gideon and Evie asked if they could paint. Since they were in their little room away from the little kids I carelessly replied, "Sure." This morning they showed me the painting they had made. Maybe because most of my kids' paintings end up looking like mud, I was both shocked and impressed when they showed me what they had painted. Also, maybe because I also have a soft spot for all things British. Yep, I'm definitely an Anglophile.

Here's what I've been making:

Oh my goodness, this is the funnest knitting I've had since... okay, okay, since my last knitting project. I love everything I knit. I just love to knit. But, an Icelandic doll with traditional Icelandic knitting patterns sized miniature? I think it's hard to top that for absolute fun. The great thing about doll clothes is that they just knit up so quickly, and you are never stuck on one thing for a very long time. Also, it lets me search through the house for those tiny remaining scraps of knitting yarn and use them up in a fun, quick, colorful way. The funny thing is I have had those tiny granny squares for the blanket for years. I have a whole lot more, actually, stored in a bag, not enough to make a big blanket, and the girls and I are long bored of making them. Well, at least some of them are getting used, and I sure love the doll sized result. I've got many more little items and accessories planned before all is said and done. The Icelandic doll and doll clothes will be a Christmas gift for the most responsible child in the house. Which means Cate, the 16 year old. Not sure if even she is responsible enough. I may have to put it all in a locked glass case when everything is finished, haha. Just kidding. Pretty sure Evie will be the lucky one. I'll have to train her to "Look, don't touch." Hee hee. 

Last but definitely not least, look what said responsible 16 year old finished yesterday:

Isn't it just the loveliest thing? I do not enjoy cross stitching, but Cate and Grace both like to. This is Cate's second sampler that she's finished. Pretty sure this needs to happen next.

Clearly we are busy making things, that's how fall goes, right? Let me give you a reading update, too! We are still looooooooving audible, so much! Gideon and Evie and I are listening to Anne of the Island, our third, and my absolute favorite, Anne book. I have read it many many times. It's great to listen to after reading so many times, especially since I get to share it with Gideon and Evie! We have also listened to Cheaper by the Dozen. Such a funny and touching story- I highly recommend it. Cate and Grace and I are almost done listening To Kill a Mockingbird. No words for that wonderful book. I'm too clumsy of a writer to do it justice. Harper Lee's writing makes me never want to write another word again- while at the same time inspiring me to want to do nothing but write, write, write. What else? Evie is discovering Encyclopedia Brown books. How I loved those growing up. The short stories are great for her to get through quickly. Cate recenly read The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. It's probably my favorite Christian book. Another one she and I would both recommend highly. Now she is reading Freedom's Forge. Grace is reading No Compromise, the story of Keith Green. Gideon is making his way through an Agatha Christie book. We are getting together with a group of friends weekly to read The Chronicles of Narnia series out loud, something we have done as a family as well as with friends quite a few times before. I think this may be our fifth or sixth time hearing them read out loud. But it is a worthy series to read and reread. I'll probably never tire of it. I love the big concepts C.S. Lewis conveys in the story, which is so entertainig to children. And yes, his use of words is second to none as well.  All this talk of great writing is making me want to end this blog post quickly. My sloppy, rushed writing is making me feel ashamed. But, It is just a blog post after all, not the next great American novel.

But what was that you are asking? What am I reading right now? Oh dear, it's kind of embarrassing. I'm working through Patient H.M., a grisly book about the history of brain surgery, however, I have misplaced the book so it's been a few weeks since I've picked it up. I'm also about a fourth of the way through a huge tome called The Dollmaker. The first chapter took my breath away. It is the best first chapter of any book I have ever read in my life. But now I am in that place where I feel I have read so much that surely I must be done with the book by now, and unfortunately there are far more pages to go than what I have read. So I've put it aside for now, too. On Kindle I'm kind of reading The Woman in White, a book I started months ago and, again, yes, set aside. I picked it up again recently and can't really remember what is happening, even though, good old Kindle, my spot where I left off has been saved. I've also begun reading The Lion's Gate, a book I've heard is an incredible read. I believe the people that have told me this. But I just can't seem to get into it. Actually, it would also help if I knew where this book was. There are another three or four sad tales like the ones I have just told you, about other books I am attempting to read. I wish I didn't have such trouble focusing on finishing a book. That's life right now, though. Maybe my brain book (Patient H.M.) can explain to me why I'm having such concentration issues. But for it to do that, I would first have to locate the book.

 

 

Beautiful Fall

Last post, I wrote about my intarsia sweater that I was determined to finish. Well, apparently, this fingering weight fair isle pushed itself ahead of the intarsia sweater and I finished that instead. That's why it's never a good idea to commit your knitting commitments in writing.

Here is my sweater on Ravelry. It is a Marie Wallin design. I love her patterns so much. Yes, my daughter is wearing it in a couple of pictures. I had to remind her frequently that I needed it right back as soon as I was done taking pictures of it.

You can read my pattern notes on Ravelry, but I don't feel like writing about knitting on here today.

Let's talk about the fall instead, and the new school year! I love fall. So much. I must make lots of soup and homemade bread. Yesterday I made homemade marshmallows. It was my third attempt in a week. Turns out, a candy thermometer really is essential to the making of marshmallows- who knew? We built a bonfire outside last week and sat around it with friends for hours. Sadly, that was the day that my marshmallow making attempts failed, so we had to roast store bought marshmallows that night. Next bonfire, I'm going to be ready, armed with the homemade kind.

Our coming weeks are pretty full of activities. Of course. Always. Next week, Cate and Grace are playing in a piano competition and Evie has a special performance at an elementary school with an orchestra! She is so excited about it that she journals about it every day in school. I have a four year old who begs me everyday to teach him how to read. So far I've tried to comply and squeeze it in. None of my kids have done preschool except for my firstborn, Cate, when I had nothing else to do with my time, haha. But Truman has been so eager, and even more than that, displayed so much readiness, that it's hard to resist him. Maybe once I do the basics with him he can teach himself the rest of the way. Sort of only kidding about that. He figured out how to write his name by himself, and actually writes it legibly, but he holds his pencil in the oddest way (self-taught, that's where bad technique comes from) and makes out each letter starting in the wrong spot and making me, his future handwriting teacher, cringe. Guess he needs some help, after all.

I wish you could hear Clementine sing "Hey Jude." Cutest thing, and I don't want to forget how she loves singing it. Also, the other day, she walked up to her big sister with a piece of bread in one hand and a stick of (unwrapped) butter in the other, asking Cate to fix her toast. I wonder how many things I've forgotten that the other kids did when they were little. Well, now I have a blog to record them.

Well, that's all I can think of to say today- I hope my writing isn't getting rusty from disuse. Maybe I will have more thoughts to share with you tomorrow, or in the coming week. Yes blog, I've missed you too, though apologizing for not writing is getting old. You'll not hear an apology from me- but hopefully this post is the inspiration I need to get writing again!

What we've been up to

Wow, guys, sorry I haven't checked in for a while. The last couple of weeks, as you may have guessed, have been quite busy. Part of it involved an anniversary/birthday trip that Ben and I went on for three days to California. Okay, why lie? We spent all three days at Disneyland. Yes, that was our getaway. I may write about it some more in another post, but Ben proposed to me at Disneyland 18 1/2 years ago. Some members of our family are kind of Disney fanatics. Not so much about the movies, or the characters, but the theme parks. When you visit a theme park, you truly are visiting the Happiest Place on Earth, so, what better place to celebrate an anniversary and birthday than at Disneyland? Sounds like a recipe for a great celebration. And it was. One of the funnest trips we've ever taken, though at every turn I'd see a little girl Evie's age, telling me about a roller coaster she went on, or two little kids Jude's and Truman's ages giggling, giggling, giggling on a water ride, or a toddling two year old like Clementine dressed in a ridiculous princess dress, and my heart broke a little in loneliness for my kids. The paradox of parenting. You want to get away by yourself, until the moment you finally are away. No matter, I promise you that Ben and I made the best of our homesickness by tearing throughout the park at lightning speed (not something that's possible to do with all seven kids in tow) getting to all the rides.

Well, now, I said I wasn't planning to write about our trip, but there it is. A quick synopsis.

As a place holder for not having taken pictures for a couple of weeks, I give you a couple from the Olympic party we had at the start of the Olympics. This was so fun that I think it will have to become a tradition. A few simple games, that everyone, from the littlest kids to the adults, can participate in, a few cheap trophies purchased, food representing the host country (we allowed for a little creative license with the Brazilian food), a bit of decorating which included wrapping hula hoops with streamers in the colors of the Olympic rings (that was my idea, and I admit I felt, and feel, so clever to have come up with it- I hope people pin it a million times on Pinterest!), and you have the makings of a fun evening for everyone.

School has started up again, more or less, for the kids. We aren't putting in our full days yet, but easing into it gently, which is how I like to do it. I've been bad about making sure my little boys have been practicing piano, so that was kind of my goal for this week. I love spending time with Jude and Truman on the piano, since they love it so much and watching them pick up rhythm and melody and harmony is so delightful. Let me write this here and now, as a reminder, for when I find myself too "busy" to help the boys with their piano practice. 

One more thing- we are continuing to love Audible- perhaps the best addition to our lives that has happened to us this year. Gideon, Evie and I just finished Anne of Green Gables, and though we knew the story well, I, having read it a half a dozen times, Gideon once, not to mention the many, many, viewings of the movie, hearing it read aloud to us was a new way to experience it and we all laughed out loud throughout the story, as well as brushed away tears, and sighed, often, in the most satisfied way at the conclusion at the end. Gilbert giving up the Avonlea school for Anne, without any prompting, or even letting Anne know, must be one of the best moments in all of literature. Such a perfect book. We hurriedly began listening Anne of Avonlea because we just didn't want the sweet moments to end.

Today, Cate and Grace and I are going to finish up our last ten minutes of Unbroken, and then it will be To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm really looking forward to listening to this one, because I have heard that Sissy Spacek narrating it is second to none. 

Finally, I hit upon the brilliant idea of downloading a book for my littlest ones, and let them practice sitting quietly like they are supposed to do during church. I picked out Beatrix Potter for them, which they like pretty well, but I am trying to come up with something they may enjoy a little bit more for next time. Possibly Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Winnie-the-Pooh, even Betsy-Tacy,  but I'm still deciding. 

That's a wrap, you guys. Hope to post more soon. Surely you are all dying to know what I'm knitting, for one thing. That's coming, it's coming.

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!

Catching up a bit

October. My very favorite month of the year. I hope Denmark's October promises to be as beautiful and cozy and wonderful as Colorado's. Sunday we went for the most glorious walk. The sun was out and shining, the weather was warm enough to discard our jackets, and it felt just like the perfect fall day. Our walk brought in Roskilde brought us in close proximity to the North Sea, where Vikings used to sail their ships, and where jellyfish, hundreds and thousands of them, swim. I could have stood there all day, observing them floating around hypnotically. I'm pleased my camera was able to get a decent picture of them.

I have a couple more days of our London/Paris trip to show you, but I'm eager to get back to my normal daily life blog posting. It's my favorite type to do. I have trouble describing big events without feeling like a journalist of some kind. I much prefer writing about our little life adventures, in homeschooling, in knitting (of course), in raising a large family. I hope to post about our trip over the weekend perhaps. And anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that.

This week I am striving to have more patience as a mother and as a teacher. It's too easy to freak out about any little thing that comes up, or get upset or angry when someone isn't doing what they should be doing. I am praying that I would use a sweeter, kinder tone with everyone. Sometimes just being aware of something that is an issue gets you halfway toward fixing it. A peaceful home is a happy place to be, and I want to set the example for everyone else. Since it's no longer Monday, let me wish you all a happy Tuesday!

A Trip to the Zoo

I am so sorry about my post title. As a general rule, I don't like to apologize for things on here, like lack of posting, or boring posts, or bad pictures, because then it only calls attention to the error and you can't help but notice them once it is mentioned, however, I am sorry about this title. Coming up with blog titles is often my least favorite part about having a blog. I heard other people say this before, and I never believed them. I mean, how hard can it be? Just give your blog post a title and move on! But, obviously, my disdain for others' plights has come back to haunt me, and here I am, complaining about thinking up a post title. If you want to know my usual trusty little secret, I take a couple key words in the first paragraph, occasionally end the final paragraph with a couple similar key words, and then pick my post title out of those key words, or synonyms of them. That often works well for me, but not today. I'm stumped. So, "A Trip to the Zoo" it is, and if this scintillating title is enough to make you want to read on, then please do.

What a lovely morning at the Osherrod Zoo/Animal Preserve and Rescue. This is a very small zoo minutes from our house, in an unlikely location, considering what a small town we are in. Not the place where you would expect to find a zoo. It is a very small, quaint, zoo. That's how I'd describe it. I imagine that because of it's small size and relatively small number of visitors (if our morning was any indication), we were able to have a much more exciting zoo experience than other visits we have had in the past to other zoos, say, the Denver Zoo.

This had a much more laid back and relaxed feel, with an occasional zookeeper showing up, unlocking a cage door to feed monkeys by hand; peacocks and pygmy goats wandering around free; certain monkeys able to leave the confines of their cage and climb to neighboring trees, to snag a berry or two; simple chainlink fence to allow visitors to get close as they feel comfortable to some animals. I was warned that the monkey might pee on me if  I stood too close, so the children and I backed a safe distance away. The animals seemed thrilled with visitors and appeared to show off for us as we visited each cage. The gibbons howled for us. The yaks stayed right at the fence so we could visit with them. The pelican flew from branch to branch (that is a mighty intimidating bird, I tell you. Seeing it swoop through the air is enough to give me nightmares) and finally sat and drank from the pond for several minutes. We got to see the unusual way it drinks, dipping its head underwater, filling its beak with water, which expands, then tilting its head back completely and from side to side to swallow the water. My friend, who actually does have nightmares about birds, after a few minutes said with a shudder, "I can't stop watching it. I want to turn away, but I can't look away." Maybe look up a youtube video of pelicans drinking water and you'll see what I mean.

Jude and Truman wondered why they didn't see an elephant or giraffes or a baby hippopotamus, or a rhinoceros, but I was impressed with how many animals the local zoo actually had. And without a doubt, this was the most interactive zoo experience we have ever had. I've never seen my kids so excited about a zoo trip. Usually it's something the older people in our house kind of dread. First of all, it's always hot. The zoo goes on for miles. It's hot, and the animals seem to feel as miserable about it as we do, and lie in a comatose state while we strain through crowds of people and try to attempt to spot the back half of a cheetah hidden from view by bushes and rocks.

"I see it!" one of us finally says in relief, because spotting it gives us permission to move on to the next exhibit. Great, only 500 more animals to go before we are finished with this wretched place.

No, I don't actually feel that negative about it, but hopefully you know what I mean about some trips to the zoo. This visit was not that. I've never seen my children study the animals so closely, and I think it helped that we were close enough to the animals to be able to see them without the aid of binoculars. 

Way to go, Osherrod Zoo, for an unexpectedly delightful visit today.

Hopefully I will have a knitting post for you tomorrow, for those of you tired of reading about zoos. I think you maybe just had to have been there today.

More goals

Forgive me for the random pics, since that's not what I was planning to write about today. I will tell you though, that the top one is a Dutch baby that we ate for breakfast this morning.  A Dutch Baby, not a German pancake, like I originally called it, since Jude was incensed that it neither looked nor smelled like a pancake. So I called it by the other name it is known as, a Dutch Baby. Anyway, Jude was still dubious until he tasted it, but then ate three helpings. He claims it's still his least favorite type of pancake, "First Swedish pancakes, then oatmeal pancakes, then pancakes, then this,"  but it didn't look like that to the rest of us.

But what I wanted to write about was goals, again. Last week my list ended up being very helpful. Shall I review it? No, that sounds boring and I really don't have the time for that anyway. Let's say I was about 80% successful. That's pretty good, I think.

This week:

1. No sugar, until the weekend. I made it close to sugar-free last week, and as I expected, it felt great. So I'm doing it again. The coconut sugar was, surprisingly, both purchased and normal tasting. I'm going to try to use it from now on in my coffee.

2. Continue with the daily Bible stories with Jude and Truman and whoever wants to listen. It's amazing how the fact that I wrote it down actually reminded me to do it. Accountability at it's best, eh? I loved that this got done everyday and Jude and Truman and I enjoyed it so much. So, that's going on the weekly list of goals until it becomes a habit.

3. Curtains. I have some curtains for all the closets in the house with sliding doors. The sliding doors are junk. Just, junk. They absolutely DO not stay on their tracks and Ben and found some pretty curtains to hang up instead. Only, they are too short. So, I need to sew on some additional length to the bottoms to lengthen. This job, I'm sure, sounds much much more annoying than it actually is. I hope it will be a "How easy! Why on earth did I not do this months ago? Why did I ever put it off for so long?" rather than a "Oh my word this is such a pain in the neck I quit."

4. Complete Gideon's sweater. I've made a ton of progress on this handsome sweater. I'm loving it, but I would still like to, you know, finish it and start something else.

5. This is the real reason for the list this week. I've been thinking about Bible reading and how to be better at incorporating it into my daily life. So, I have a goal, for this week at least, and I'll see how I like it. Starting in the first chapter of Ephesians, because I've decided that's the book I'd like to concentrate on right now, I plan to read and study only chapter one, every day this week. After spending time on chapter one, I will study a Psalm. That's it, but I want to do this every day. If I do more, fine; like maybe start looking at chapter two as well, or another Psalm, but chapter one and a Psalm every day will be my bare minimum. I think this will be a really profitable way of getting very familiar with Ephesians, and I am interesting in trying this approach to Bible study in what for me should be a very doable goal. After Ephesians, hopefully I will then proceed to another book of the Bible.

Okay, that's my list of goals for the week, leaving me room so that if, say, another room remodel gets thrown on the table (the painting of the attic is done and now we are having a ton of fun decorating it- I'll show you pictures later), it'll be able to fit right in. Haha.

P.S. I am not a list maker so don't worry I don't plan to bore you every week with my weekly goals, only when I feel like it. Boring you, that is. Because you know, it's my blog, and I get to write what I want, and blah blah blah....

I wrote a...Book!

See that? I wrote a book last year, without even really trying! Well, that's not strictly true, but it is true that it didn't seem to take nearly as much effort as what it looked like when I saw it all, bound up into one thick book. (Did that make sense? I feel that sentence was akin to Bilbo in Lord of the Rings: "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.")

Blog2print was the website I used, and of course the instant I ordered one for us as well as the grandparents, I began getting 20% off  coupons in my email. Oh, well. I'll use it next year.

This has been a busy week for us. Cate and Gideon both recorded their piano concertos for a competition, and Grace and Cate are in a piano competition this Sunday. I hate doing live recordings. Even if I'm not the one doing the piano playing. Of course our memory card ran out of space the first day. So we tried again on day two. And of course one of the recording had a glitch in the middle of it and cut out two minutes of the piece. Despite these frustrating attempts I think Cate and Gideon both ended up each with a good audition.

Now I am off to make breakfast for some mid-week breakfast company. That makes for a fun change on a Wednesday, but I will have to try to recover and still fit everything in today. I think I'm still trying to find my rhythm after the holidays...