I read Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter last week. It was so wholesome and lovely and uplifting. It filled me with graditude for my family—my exemplary husband, my creative children, and my dream to educate them and grow with them. The Stratton family is my model. We will be like them, and someday Barry and I will stand in the place where we started and look out over what we’ve created and be overcome and overjoyed. It is a book I will read over and over—by myself and with my family.

His entry today will be much more exciting than mine. We went in the back yard and tried out the kids new sleds. They’re just pieces of foam laminated to slippery plastic and they go fast! It was a beautiful winter day.

Here are some pictures from last week, or I guess the week before last:

(The first picture is bigger because the lighting is so much better. The second one kind of gives you an idea what the finished product looks like.)

“Wooly” is knit with my handspun French Angora yarn and stuffed with clean, but unspinnable angora fluff. She now has a little red scarf and a teddy bear buddy named “Gordon”– I guess pictures for another time.

I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, but just can’t figure out how to write about it. I feel this urgency, need, drive, desire–something like that, I don’t know what word to use–to make art.

“One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it.”

That’s a quote from Oliver Stone’s The Agony and the Ecstacy, and it’s been going through my head today. The problem is–I feel the must, but I can’t!!! I can’t draw!! It is overwhelmingly frusterating. I am so out of practice…

Anyway, knitting and spinning just aren’t doing it for me.

I’ve been really out of the habbit of writing. We had a good week last week. Brenna’s reading has really taken off and we’ve started to practice writing letters the right way. Logan is pretty self entertained lately–so I got two stuffed animals knit last week. One is a bunny out of my handspun angora yarn and the other is a brown teddy bear out of the wool from my learn to spin kits. (I probably should have been working on something else, but once I start, I just can’t stop until I see what it’s going to look like.) We’ve also been furniture shopping to fill our empty living room–which is exciting. I’ll try to get back in the habbit of writing so that I can elaborate on all this stuff–and post picutres.

Once upon a time I wrote here. It seems like it’s been forever…but I don’t really have much to say. Life has been pretty uneventful, which is good. I’m in control. I am the boss of myself… mostly because Barry has taken a quasi-vacation and stayed home in the mornings. He’s done spectacular things like clean out closets and throw out old toys and rearrange the family room furniture. You know, stuff I only dream about. He does it. I married a doer. (or should I write do-er or dooer–you know, one that does things) I’ve done things too, like cook dinner every night and fold laundry. The toilets need scrubbed, have needed scrubbed, and are in dire need of attention now because Jonah has decided that he can go potty ALL BY HIMSELF, which is a blessing when I’m in the middle of cutting raw chicken or nursing Logan–but he needs to work on the aim. It takes me back to the days of living in a house with 4 younger brothers who peed in the dark when they got up at night. So, I guess scrubb the toilets and surrounding floors is something I should add on to the list of things I should do… But, I have been doing. I took the kids to the library and even braved the fabric store! I embroidered and sewed two baby blankets (which I should have taken pictures of) for friends that have had babies. I bought new pants for my shrinking body because my humungous baby thinks he is starving to death and is sucking me away (which I shouldn’t complain about–I mean, I’m fitting into size 2 pants, which feels good–it just entails shopping which I really detest because I’m slow and indecisive and have major anxiety issues with spending money). We’ve had family prayer morning AND night everyday! I’ve done school everyday! I have a routine and in the afternoons I get my kids to do a “ten minute program” in which I set the timer for ten minutes and if all the toys are picked up and put away when it beeps they get to watch a TV show–and so I don’t have to pick up toys!!!

Anyway, this has turned into a long bit of rambling. I wish Barry could always work from noon to five…

Back from my trip. Tons to do. Wish I had a couple hours to write all about it. Check out Barry’s blog for details.

Here are a couple things I don’t want to forget to write:

Logan has his two bottom teeth. They sprouted up on Tuesday, December 28th. He’s only 5 months old! My other kids got teeth later. Brenna at about 10 months and Jonah at 8. So, I was in denial that his drooling and screaming meant he was getting teeth. My mom discovered them.

One night while we were in Idaho Brenna was feeling a little under the weather and kept complaining. She said things like, “The white blood cells in my body are just battling and fighting with the germs all around my body and I’m bursting with pain.” And, “Oh, I’m so tired (fake yawn) and my ears just don’t work anymore, and I think my brain is going to break!!” Fortunately the white blood cells won their battle and she feels fine now.