Oh the Whims...

I love creating things. I love to draw, write, spin, take pictures, play music...
Lately I've taken to dyeing wool rovings and then spinning them with a drop spindle.
In this picture, the roving is supposed to be peach, but it came out more orange than peach.







This is the same peach colour that I had spun. I'm not sure what I am going to use it for yet. I'm thinking hair for one of the waldorf dolls that I am going to make. I have more of it sitting on my drop spindle.
I am dyeing more wool, but this time a pretty turquoise. I am not good at knitting yet. Oh so many things I want to try.
I have about 40 pounds of wool sitting in my garage that needs to be cleaned, carded, dyed and spun. Some of it will be used for felting, that I can do. I can also crochet although I haven't made anything spectacular.

I also make jewelry. Well, its more like stringing beads and stones together. I would love to learn how to do silver. One of these days...
I made a similar necklace, but I am sending it to my friend in Japan. Her name is Yukie. Yukie means snow in Japanese. Right now she is battling cancer and I'm not sure how she is doing. I think she does not want me to worry about her. She is so sweet. So please offer up thoughts about her so she can beat this.

Lunch

I love to cook and bake. We decided to have pizza today on this cold, rainy/hail day.
Doesn't it look yummy? It has a homemade basil/garlic tomato sauce and topped with red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, onions, and spinach.

Nature walk

Wouldn't you know my other post was eaten...Don't know what happened to it.

We are getting snow!!! Yea!!! I want it to keep going for at least another 24 hours. The weatherman said that we would get at least an inch an hour and it was supposed to go strong for 9 hours. As usual...they lied. Even though it is supposed to snow throughout the night, I seriously doubt we will get the 15 inches.

Our unschooling is going along right on schedule. (^_^)

We went to a nature center last week. We had so much fun. Rhett was fascinated with the baby snapping turtles they had. He spent a lot of time watching them. One boy came up and was looking at them. He made a comment about how ugly they were. Rhett turned around and said, "They aren't ugly. They are just fine."
He got to put on costumes and became a thistle. He went around showing off his "leaves". Dusty spent his time talking with other homeschoolers his age.
We then went for a walk along the trails. I thought we'd see more wildlife than we did, but it was a nice jaunt. It was such a beautiful day. Rhett made a friend his age and stuck by him almost the entire time on the walk.
It was fun watching the two interact, they kept watching out for each other and spent time trying to throw sticks into a small stream below.

We were there for over four hours, exploring, walking and talking. I can't wait to go there again. The boys and I usually go and explore the trails off of the main one. We try to identify all the tracks we see. There have been plenty of deer, raccoon, fox, coyote, and bird tracks. Once Rhett found a very tiny frog hoping along in the grass. He wanted to take it home, but we let him go closer to the water. He even spotted a praying mantis.

We ended the day with a supposed bookclub meeting, but the only other boy dropped out and Dusty was excluded as the girls went into the bedroom and shut the door. Oh well, its not like he wanted to read a girly book anyway. But it would have been nice for them to include him since he showed up.

Embracing oneself

The other day I got a little questionnaire and one of the things on it was: What do you like least about yourself?
My answer was, why do I have to not like something about myself? I'm sure there are things that I don't, but I never really thought about it. Things that I probably would change, maybe. Such as lose weight. Things I would adjust, like, not feel so much. But I don't think there is anything I don't like about myself.
I think people tend to dwell on the negative about themselves instead of the positive. I overhear conversations where someone will say that they hate "(insert something here) ." I rarely hear I really love "(insert)" about myself. If they did, I think there would be a lot more happiness around. If we look at the positive in ourselves, we notice the positive in others. If we are negative about ourselves, we see the negative in others.
In this society, it is difficult to do that since we are constantly bombarded by negative things. Pictures of skinny women who are airbrushed to look beautiful that makes people think they want to be like them...
The news with mostly negative things in it...death, destruction, someone hurting someone.
T.v. shows that usually portray the bad things in life. Even reality shows that pit one person against another.

Can you look at yourself and think, "I love myself just the way I am."?
If no, is it something you can change? If you cannot change it, can you find something good about it? If you cannot find anything good about it, can you overlook that one part and see yourself as a whole?

I love meeting people. I am usually viewed as stand offish and I suppose I am to an extent. Sometimes people overwhelm me so I have to adjust when I meet someone new especially in a crowd. I try to find something good in each person that I meet and I like that with each person, I take away something positive.

Passing of a legacy

I often wonder what people will remember of me when I am gone. My mother was well remembered and at her memorial, people were able to comment of what they remembered of her. Most of it was that she was a hard worker, a good friend, humble...
She tried.
Another person I looked up to just passed away. His students remember him for being generous, full of knowledge and willing to help.
My mother passed on to me ideals that most mothers leave their children. She left me my heritage of being Japanese. To be proud of what I am. I remember growing up and being made fun of for being Japanese and having dark skin.
My mentor passed on a love of herbs and to be generous with my knowledge. What good is the knowledge of being able to help someone if it is not shared freely?
I want my children and friends to be able to have fond memories of me also. I want to impart my knowledge onto them if they so choose to accept.
I wonder if they will not only think good things of me...or bad...but also the things that I have shared with them?

Keeping Busy

Time has a way of getting away from me. Its already towards the end of February. In a little over a month, my oldest son will be moving away to the state of Washington. All I can hope is that I have taught him to be able to take care of himself well in any situation. I cannot think of this as a loss. I have lost too many thing in the past few months. Another chapter of my life. Like graduating high school, getting married...having my firstborn child and now watching him go off to start his own life.

Learning around here goes on all the time. We each have been doing different projects. Right now Rhett is learning the ins and outs of video games. It is really sad when a four year old can beat you in video games. But then they have never been my favourite things. I do better at puzzles than games that make you complete tasks and walk all over the place. I get bored very easily. They have also been playing with a race track that we got at a thrift store pretty cheap. Oh the endless possibilities with that one. They have also been on the look out for a train set.
Its been warming up here little by little. I was still hoping for the one big snowstorm so we could bring out the snowboards. We shall see. One more month.
We will start seeds buying seeds soon so we can start them in planters. I have plans for my garden, now only if it will cooperate. I really hate the soil out here as it is mostly clay. I am going to see if Dusty can build me a solar powered greenhouse. He is getting good at building things. I can't wait to pose the problem to him to see what he comes up with. I want to be able to have herbs all year round outdoors.
I am going to study to take the Japanese Proficiency test. I think it will be the Kanji recognition that will kill me. Over 2,000 characters. Kana is not so hard. I told Dusty that he has to study to take it also. He was not so thrilled. I told him after that, I will teach him Spanish and French.

Not much else has been going on. I have been missing my mother horribly, but I also know my boys miss her too.

Projects

I just replaced my drop spindle that my littlest one broke/misplaced. He was experimenting with it and it disappeared. Well I did find the bottom of it. They aren't hard to make, but I've been busy with so many other things like the death of my mother and my husband flaking out on me. It is going to be a long journey in the healing process for us.

I am trying to get back into the things that bring me joy. So I made another spindle, got out my big bag of wool, washed a bunch, carded it and am now spinning it. I still have to get better at knitting, my fingers just aren't that nimble. I can crochet though.
I've also been doing research for some articles I am writing plus a couple of manuscripts that have been collecting dust over time.

The boys each have been doing their own thing. My oldest, besides getting a job finally, has been writing non-stop. I wish he would try to publish some of his stuff, but he says that its just for fun. Dusty, my younger son, has been taking his little brother out to the park and flying a glider plane or playing with the neighbourhood kids. Its been rather warm here as of late. We have our days where it will be 60 one day and 30 the next. Man has been messing with Mother Nature for way too long.

Since the boys have found my stash of beeswax, we will be making candles this week. I am so glad that I bought 75 lbs of organic beeswax awhile ago. It has kept the kids busy in making crayons, candles, gum, lotions, salves, etc. I love the smell of pure beeswax.

I am patiently waiting for Spring. I do love winter. I love watching the snowflakes fall, watching the boys play in the snow and build snowmen, going sledding, the promise of hot cocoa with whipped cream and marshmallows. A nice warm fire in the fireplace and curling up with the boys and a book. But Spring...the birth of the new. I want to go foraging for yellow and curly dock. I want to eat fresh dandelion greens. I need to replenish my herb stash. I need to make my oils and tinctures.
I will be able to teach my boys about different herbs and how to make medicine to take care of themselves. Hopefully they will be able to pass it down to their children. I want them to know that they don't have to take all the junk that passes for medicine in the stores or pharmacies.

So as we sit here and rest as the Earth rests, we keep busy with little things. I am looking for work so I can support me and my children since I no longer have a spouse to help with the biggest of burdens. How lucky of him to call it quits and he gets off with little responsibility and I am going to have to try to keep the children in the only home they really know.