Mama-Bunny Bookclub

The Sweater You Made

2007-05-01T15:45:00.000-06:00

Here are those pictures of Baby A in the sweater you made. It is still a little bit big!

And here is a picture of Miss CAP all dressed up for the Author Celebration last week.

NEW - DIFFERENT MAY TITLE

2007-04-27T17:53:00.000-06:00

Hello! I changed the May title to Body Clutter - yes that's the one by Marla Cilley and Leanne Ely. The new Flybaby Habit for May is Moving and Kelly recommends we read Body Clutter, so be it! I know I am looking forward to reading this more than I was the original book I listed.

Our baby is spending the night in the hospital receiving IV fluids. If anyone out there is reading this besides us, please add her to your prayers.

By-the-by - the prayer shawl is very lovely! And the fringe exquisite. :)

2007-04-26T07:45:00.000-06:00

Look! I finished something!

This is a prayer shawl for church. Our knitters have made hundreds of shawls, but this is only my second. And it is the first one I made with:
Fringe.

Fringing was hard and tedious. Or maybe just tedious. But it looks nice!

Baby A made a fast turn around from this:

to this:

After 18 hours of vomiting/changing clothes she is sleeping soundly. The hardest part was knowing how much she wanted to nurse and having to tell her no. We would nurse for two to three minutes and then wait to see if it would stay down...and it wouldn't. She would have just nursed/vomited continuously if I had let her. Jeff stayed up with her through most of the night while I got a little break. Hopefully we've gotten through the worst parts. Now to get caught up on the laundry...

I Did Read - but am not blogging, yet.

2007-04-16T22:34:00.000-06:00

How FLYLady Helped Me Find Jesus... and other news

2007-04-16T09:36:00.000-06:00

So, how are you anyway? Now that I have my calendar figured out a little better and know what month it is and what book we're reading, I'm trying to get back to work.

CAP and I went to the Marathon County Public Library's 100'th Birthday Celebration yesterday. It was wild and crazy and we had a good time. We took a trolley ride around downtown. CAP thought that was great; I had fun, but was glad it was a short ride - too bouncy for a carsickie girl like me. I remembered to re-check out the April book. CAP had cake. She said she was sad they didn't have ice cream, but thought that might be too messy for a library party.

Our kitchen herb pots are doing well.

Several times during the past few Christmases it has been possible to hear a conversation like this at our house.

Me: Has anybody seen baby Jesus?

Confused Family Member: What?

Me: Has anybody seen baby Jesus?

CFM: You mean today?

Me: I just need to know where he is so I can glue him back on.

CFM: What?

Me: He looks like a peanut.

CFM: Baby Jesus looks like a peanut?

Me: Never mind.

This happens because baby Jesus has been missing. He fell off of Mary's lap, not to be seen again. It is unfortunate to look so much like a peanut because that means that possibly you have been tossed out with the trash, or eaten by a then three year-old. So, I have done without baby Jesus (on that particular decoration) for some time. It is sad really.

Joseph and Mary (missing baby Jesus)

Today I was decluttering in my laundry room (well, ok, it's really just the basement) and I found lots of things I wish I hadn't. Globs and globs of laundry lint, many more spider webs than necessary, gift bags from our first baby shower (more than seven years ago) and one yucky old peanut. I was tossing things like mad when suddenly I yelled "A PEANUT!!! THAT'S NOT A PEANUT, THAT'S BABY JESUS!!!!!" I was immediately glad everyone else was asleep or away at school.

I found the glue and fixed the little nativity. (Do you remember this one? It was a gift when I memorised the 23rd Psalm in December of 1983. I know this for certain because you labeled it for me.) Now all that's missing is Joseph's staff. I can hear it now.

Me: Have you seen Joseph's staff?

Confused Family Member: What?

Me: It looks like a toothpick.

Success

2007-02-02T17:38:00.000-06:00

At the library sale we found these - which made us all very happy.

Inspiration + Action =

2007-02-02T12:25:00.000-06:00

For the past few months, I've been reading some very wonderful, very crafty blogs. Somehow, they have given me the kick-in-the-pants I needed to move from just looking at pretty things to trying to make pretty things. Yesterday, with the help from this book, I made a clutch purse that actually looks like a clutch purse. It was quickly claimed by CAP when she got home from school, so now I have to make another for myself. It is lined and everything! Very, very exciting.

Today is tidy up the nursery day at our house and tonight we grown-ups are going out to dinner. There may be a quick stop at the library book -sale in there somewheres too. How about you - any weekend excitement planned?

In other news, the chancel choir is performing a cantata on Palm Sunday and their accompanist will be out of town, so I am filling in. It is one we've done before, so it should just be a brush-up job for me. It will be nice to play a little bit, and to spend some time with the choir. I miss the rehearsals, but not the late nights. Our director is arranging the time so we work on the cantata first and regular Sunday music afterwards so I can leave part way through. What fun!

End of January Update - Finally! :)

2007-01-30T21:18:00.000-06:00

Here I am, finally - per your request - and my desire. I am enjoying Mark Twain's book much better now that he admits having so much trouble with the pilot Mr. Bixby sent him to - _______. I loved it that he would go to bed imagining all the ways he could murder him. I loved it even more when he finally pummelled him because the pilot was about the hurt the other cub. I loved it especially when the Captain called him in and actually encouraged him about it (off the record, of course). Now I can really relate to Mr. Twain and I find the book easier to read. He became real - genuine to me. Touchable. Approachable.

I requested our next book, and it is available from Enoch Pratt. I hope to have it within a week, but it gives me no indication of when to expect it's arrival. I am looking forward to it. We should pick our next two books. I love to look forward to them!

By Monday, I hope to add my WIPs.

Maybe??

2007-01-19T15:24:00.000-06:00

I think I posted a picture!

Resolutions - Week 3

2007-01-19T11:13:00.000-06:00

I read in a local paper that very few people make New Year's Resolutions anymore and even fewer people make an effort to keep them. This seemed odd to me because I have always made them, enjoyed making them and enjoyed the challenge of making them work or discovering how ridiculous they were in the first place. I try not to make too many at once and I try to work toward them carefully. Sometimes I plan too much and make no real progress at all. Sometimes I find out it wasn't really that important to achieve. Sometimes I pick the perfect goal, have the perfect amount of motivation, and really learn things about myself.

This year my resolutions are:

-To establish a daily habit of prayer and meditation. More than "Help me God!" when changing lanes on the freeway.

-Work diligently on my 30x30 list. This has been a resolution for the past few years and is going well. Only ten months to go!!

-Organise my children's toys. I think the first step here is to PURGE.

-Establish regular writing habits esp. correspondence and journaling.

-Learn more about food. Like the difference between a carbohydrate and a protein and how explain to my daughter why the all potato chips all the time diet is not a good idea. Also to make more environmentally responsible food choices.

-Continue to improve as a housekeeper. I do not want to be neurotic about this, I just don't want my feet to stick to the kitchen floor. At least not very often. Also I don't think using my ten month old as a vacuum cleaner is the best use of her potential.

Catch Up

2007-01-17T14:13:00.000-06:00

Christmas, New Year's, one birthday, and a good long visit later...

Have you finished Mark Twain yet? I am sooo close to being done. My January/February book came in at the library so I really need to get reading.

In the meantime, I've been playing with that sewing machine. I finished one of the brown napkins and am working on binding the second one. I switched to the narrower binding to see if I liked the look better and only managed to burn my finger on the iron and not catch the fabric about 1/3 of the time. I'll rip it out and try again.

CAP was home from school yesterday with a cold. I interviewed her to find out what her current likes and dislikes are. There were some surprises, namely that she finds Bob Dylan scary. When I asked her why, she said it was because of that song she heard on the way to Grammy's house. It was the one where the dad shot his family and himself. Yup, we should have picked something different to listen to.

In other exciting news the miniswap I signed up for is going to be very fun. CAP will be excited to see that our partner is from another country.

Hope things go well with Grampy at the doctor today.

Christmas Question

2006-11-26T18:58:00.000-06:00

MAP and I are wondering about a larger family gift for Grammy and Grampy this year. Is it too late to plan? Mary A. says that their refrigerator could use replacing - the door does not shut properly. Another idea is something Grammy mentioned to Mary A. about getting a new dining room set. (I think that would be great because we could pick something smaller and more appropriate to the room.) We thought the refrigerator would probably cost less than a dining room set. What do you think?

Blog Blog Blog

2006-11-08T08:38:00.001-06:00

Well, here I am - blogging. I am full of blogging thoughts. I am overwhelmed with creative thoughts about weaving, spinning, and knitting. I need to practice flute for a gig coming up on the 17th and a wedding on Dec. 9. Ahhhh. I need to clean house. My plants are dying. dieing. dead.

Anyway... last night's guild meeting hosted a speaker on Norwegian Tapestry Weaving. Dovetails, slits, cartoons, wise and foolish virgins, Norwegian ponies, dyes, Medieval Times, weaving horizontally versus vertically, sideways vs. something else. This speaker translated an authoritative Norwegian work about Norwegian Tapestry Weaving into English. I did not purchase her book - it did not look like too many did - because I am not in that place, yet.

The Apprentice Weaver's Group met before the meeting - there are 7-9 of us. Next month we will meet and discuss the color wheel we have to make. It's recommended that we make it on plastic canvas and someone else has already all of the yarns that we will need, so we will bring her some money if she can bring the goods. What is the purpose of making a color wheel when we can purchase them easily? Is it so we become more familiar with colors - complementary, tertiary, secondary, etc. with first hand - hands on experience? I suspect that's so. We will have a drafting workshop in late January with Virginia West - a great weaving teacher, author, designer of clothes, etc. I am looking forwar to that. Hopefully on Jan. 21.

Which brings me to blogging about coming to Illinois/ Wis. I can come after Dec. 18th and stay until Jan. 20. Dad says fares are good right now and we were going to work on that tonight, until he was reminded that the Wharf Rat chantey sing is tonight. Ah.

I am going to the dentist at 11:45 to see why I am bleeding between my two front teeth. Blogging is not on my list to do today, but here I am. Unloading my mind. I have a friend at Guild now. Susan Cleveland. She even invited me to sit with her last night. I feel like a school girl. She spins like crazy. She wovethis beautiful scarf made from the hair of her bunnies, her dog, her friend's dog, silk she spun, wool she spun, yarn she dyed. And ribbon. It is really pretty. And soft. She still fondles it a lot. The cream colored bunny is dead. She has a white one now. This was her first woven project. Man. She is very sweet. She lives in the Havre de Grace area, I think. Not close enough to run to for a cup of tea.

I order the Complete Book of Drafting by Madelyn Vanderhoot - probably spelled her name wrong. Looking forward to receiving that. I want to try to read it before the drafting workshop. Hopefully some of it will sink in. I have made a draft already so I am familiar with some of the concepts. Ok. enough of blogging for today. Blog, Eva, blog!!

Contemplate Me Through Leather

2006-11-03T12:24:00.000-06:00

My copy of Life on The Mississippi is 552 pages long. Last night, I read sixty some odd pages. I figured out (using those fourth grade math skills Mrs. Aquino taught me) that if I kept up at that rate I would finish the book in ten days. Ten days??? I have two months to finish a book that should really only take ten days? We'll see how long it actually takes.

Did you have to look up what a tontine was? I did.

More thoughts on this later when I am not so dreadfully exhausted. (And hopefully after I've figured out what is the matter with my space bar.) I leave you with this funny: More than once, I've typed "Leif on the Mississippi" instead of the actual title. Methinks that may be a different book.

On Your Mark, Get Set...

2006-10-26T10:03:00.000-06:00

Only six more days until we start reading! I am very excited that we are starting up again. For me, this is the perfect time of year to start something new. Even though it is gray and cloudy a lot of the time, I have more drive to get things done in the fall and winter than in the hot stickiness of June and July. Do you have your book yet?

Also, there are only six days until the beginning of National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO for shorter). I have participated before, but mostly just like to check in now and see what others are up to and be encouraged by all the WRITING going on out there.

Two more fun things I've been peeking at this week:
Slate Green Challenge
Posie Gets Cozy

Enjoy! And get your book already!

Spikes and Plateaux

2006-10-18T08:58:00.000-06:00

In the spike column:
CAP's piano skills are taking off by leaps and bounds. She is working on her first Christmas songs and is really enjoying sight reading ahead in her books as well as playing songs she has already completed.
Moving toward hemming Jeff's pants. My sewing machine manual arrived in the mail last week and I've taken the machine to the shop to be cleaned and serviced. My friend and I took inventory of the accessories and decided I was missing a piece, but then read a little more of the manual and discovered I wasn't really.
Sewing in general. Am nearly finished making an Advent wall hanging for the UMW craft window. I stitched the top to the backing and machine quilted around the design, fused the ornaments to felt and cut them out and now am sewing the 26 buttons on (24 for the ornaments and 2 for Santa's eyes).
My blue boat neck sweater. Am working on the last sleeve!!
Baby's teeth. Very, very spiky. One of the top teeth broke through yesterday. This may explain recent sleep-deprived nights.

And for the plateau side:
Housekeeping. If I had a digital camera we could insert a photo of any room in the house. They are not awful, but certainly not improving lately. Maybe after this weekend.
Reading. Well, it's hard to read whilst one is knitting/sewing/nursing a biting baby now isn't it?
Making decisions about jobs and school. This is the waiting stage for those things. Even though it is planned, sometimes it is frustrating not to know what comes next. But I am working hard at living in the now and soaking up all these precious moments with my small ones.

How about you?

If Wishes Were Horses

2006-10-06T15:07:00.000-06:00

I wanted to write down some of what we talked about earlier. Hopefully, that will make it easier for us to keep track of our progress.

You said the horse you had to give up was named Candy (show name Jean's Estrellita). What year did you sell her? She was half Arabian and half what? She was sold to another 4H-er in Boone County, Illinois. She would be nearly 37 years old now.

I looked up some Animal Rescue places in and near Boone County and came up with a few with websites:
Fur Keeps Animal Rescue, Inc. in Barrington, IL
Winnebago County Animal Services in Rockford, IL
Hooved Animal Humane Society in Woodstock, IL
Northern Illinois Horse Fest (not a rescue, but maybe a place to contact)
Petfinder.com
How's that for a beginning?

Ignorance Is Bliss

2006-10-05T11:24:00.000-06:00

At our house, we are trying extra-hard to be responsible citizens, but I am overwhelmed and confused about where to focus. There are so many areas of our lives we are wasteful and lazy. It is easier to pretend that our choices have no consequences.

We have been composting fairly regularly. This is especially easy because all we have to do is collect it and dump it in the compost bin out back. Then our landlord does the rest. We are not so good about the paper products. We use A LOT of paper towels. Not to mention diapers. And tissues. We are not too good about the recycling either.

So this week we reprinted the city's recycling guidelines and are evaluating each piece of garbage before it goes in the can. And I went to the store and bought handkerchiefs. So far we figure I've kept 25 tissues out of the trash. And that was just in one day!

I just read in The Simple Living Guide that most wrapping paper is not recyclable. What is that all about? We use for such a short amount of time!

Also on my mind, at the UMW cluster meeting on Tuesday we talked a bit about globalization and its positive and negative effects. We looked at where our clothes were made, where are food comes from and talked about making choices, but I was busy with the baby and didn't get to hear as much of it as I would have liked. I'm thinking of ordering this book from the Service Center so I can learn more and make more informed choices. What would you think about reading it with me sometime next year? Is this something you are interested in?

November Book

2006-10-02T19:42:00.000-06:00

Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

For January, I like choice #2.

Momma Bunny's Possible January Titles

2006-10-02T13:19:00.000-06:00

Well, I love that reading list. Thanks for the link. Here are my 3 possibilities for January - all from the Education for Mission Category:
1. Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace by Peggy Faw Gish (319 pp)
2. The Hospital by the River: A Story of Hope by Dr. Catherine Hamlin (308pp)
3. The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners by Jack Hawley (194pp)
I'm not absolutely sure what #3 is, but I'm willing to give it a go. Do you want me to include a brief synopsis of each book here or will you look them up on the UMW website?

A Good Start

2006-10-02T12:35:00.000-06:00

Ok, I'm still working on the template thing. Let me know what else you want in the sidebars and I think I can get it in there now. I found a link for the UMW Reading Program.

I want to share my good chicken recipe from the other night.

Chicken with Chickpeas
3 1/2 - 4 lbs chicken parts (we used 5 thighs)
2 T unsalted butter
2 C chopped onions
1/2 C chopped scallions
1 19oz can chickpeas, drained and lightly rinsed
1 C water
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp salt (leave it out, I think it will be fine!)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
a dash of cayenne pepper

Remove the skin from the chicken.
Heat butter in a large pan (with a lid!). Lightly brown the chicken and remove to a plate. Add the onions and scallions to the pan. Cook, stirring often, about 6 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Return chicken and juices to the pan and turn to coat. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a bare simmer. Cover tightly and cook, turning the chicken once or twice until cooked through, 35-45 minutes.

The chickpeas were mushy and marvelous. In fact, we liked it so much, we're having it again this week.

Oh, was I supposed to be picking a book?

To Miss Militant!

2006-10-02T11:23:00.000-06:00

That sounds fine with me. So, when do we begin? Will we use the Methodist Women's guide?

The Rules

2006-10-02T10:51:00.000-06:00

1. Book choices will alternate between members.
2. Book choices (a title and an alternate) should be posted by the 15th of the month prior to the month in which they will be read.
3. Book choices should be no more than 300 pages in length...
4. Except for in November and January when longer books may be selected and we will take two months to read each one.
5. Each member gets one veto per calendar year.
6. New members will be considered beginning January 2008.
7. Rules are open to discussion!

How does that sound for a beginning? A little militant? Let me know what you think. Thanks for doing this with me.