A Girl Can't Have Too Many Skirts.

I must stop coming across adorable skirt patterns. Since I I laid my eyes on a thinty a few days ago, my kids weren't fed, bathed or read to (well, not really thanks to Seth). But you get the idea. I couldn't put the needles down and two days later my girl was posing for the pictures in her new skirt.

And the reason I'm blogging instead of whipping 5 more of these skirts in the next 5 sizes (or helping Seth cook borcsh since it is 10 pm already)? David has been begging me to knit him a stuffed mouse which is not a fun project since a lot of sewing is involved. So, I'm delaying starting this project for as long as I can. But according to the kids, I should be knitting in a pattern -- first for Julia, then for David and then again for Julia and so forth. I'm already thinking of what to make David next. Maybe this shirt? Seth gave it two thumbs down. Personally, I think it's pretty cute since my boy is into ties. Maybe I'll let him decide.

Messages ... And Not All of Them Speak of Love.

Right now, I'm not sure what the kids were fighting over earlier today. But it ended up with David writing two notes to Julia. Here's the first one.

Dear Julia. I will hit you at 1 minute. Your pal Dave. P.S. I will hit you. P.P.S. I will call you names. P.P.P.S. Get away. Bad Julia.

As soon as he handed her the first note, he proceeded to writing the next one.

Dear Julia. I am saying I'm sorry, but I am not saying sorry 100 times. Your pal, Dave. P.S. I am wrong. Sorry!

I'm glad I stayed out of their argument. Sometimes, you just have to let it go and trust they will figure at least some things out by themselves. After all, according to David, Julia is his best friend.

Sunshine.

Enjoying a beautiful weather before another snow fall tomorrow.

Life.

My thoughts and feelings are scattered all over lately. There's fear, frustration, sadness and feeling of helplessness. Yet, at the end of the day I realize I have two healthy (still questionable about one of them) kids and life is really good.

Julia.... my Julia. I've been saying for years now that I should have studied child psychology before becoming a mother and more so now than ever. David has been reading Bible to us. Last night, Julia was woken up by a nightmare and later in a day she asked me: "Mommy, does God put bad dreams in our head while we are sleeping?". I'm not sure she was satisfied with my explanation though.

And then there are times when she talks back like a teenager. Her favorite phrase : "I don't care". It had been driving me nuts and after a few weeks of ignoring it, I finally snapped and asked her where she got it from and who in school talks this way (of course, I blame everything on school). She replied to me in a matter of fact voice "Dr. Seuss talks like that".

David now decided to go by Dave only on a paper though. Is it just sheer laziness of writing 5 letters? Who knows with him.

I've been knitting non-stop lately. The crazier my life gets, the more I knit, the less I sleep. I think I might have even found a knitting community in my town.

Julia has been begging me to teach her how to knit because according to her that's the only way she is going to get another knitted bunny.

David felt pity on me for carrying my yarn in my hands from one room to another, so he made me a "basket" just for my yarn.

And here are just some of the knits I've completed in the last few months:

I love to knit, but I despise sewing (if required) pieces together. So, I end up completing a project as I'm running out of the door with a wrapping paper in one hand. Thus, I don't get to photograph many of them.

My next few projects will be for my kids -- a mouse for David and a skirt for Julia.

I'll try my best to post more often, but honestly, I'd rather spend this time knitting. Thank you for stopping by here even though this place is not updated often.

Six.

David turned 6 years old last week. Six!

This is what six looks in our house....

Happy Birthday, my big boy! You are loved so very much.

Out of My Comfort Zone.

David and I made it back to Campgaw mountains for a second time. This kid ... he doesn't stop to amaze me. He is so different when it's just him and me. It seems as though he wants to take care of me and not the other way around.

Back to skiing. For every time I went down a hill, he made it 3 times. He had such a control of his body, that he would just zoom right back on line whereas it took me awhile to stop and then head back up to the back of the line. He was basically skiing by himself. I didn't mind as long as he didn't insist on going back to a ski lift.

No such luck. After thirty minutes skiing on a "bunny" slop, he insisted on going to a ski lift. He held my hand while we were up in the air, told me not to look down and insisted that a lift is really safe. He was cruising around the trees like a pro not falling down even once. He asked me to go all the way on the highest hill. No way. It's beyond going out of my comfort zone. It's stepping out of my body. I'll pay someone to take him there next year.

By the end he got bored a little bit. He needs to be challenged all the time and when he succeeds at something, it's not interesting for him anymore. Add to it waiting in line for 10-15 minutes and my 5 year old is ready to climb the highest mountains .... literally and figuratively.

A really good day indeed.

Happy Valentine's.

Children. They do change everything. In the past I used to buy a Valentine's card for my husband just right after the Christmas was over. Today I realized I had forgotten to purchase a card in spite of helping my kids make handmade cards for all of their friends and teachers and decorate every corner of our house with handmade hearts in the past month or so. The priorities have definitely changed.

I really didn't want to purchase any more chachkas, so instead I turned to this fun project -- melted crayon hearts. I remember seeing it many times on other blogs and no wonder, because it's so much fun to make with the kids (after we took all the paper off). My friend also blogged about it here . We ended up making about 45 of them using every single crayon in our house and still managed to run out of them.

This is what out table looked like on Saturday. David needed to take a lot of breaks since he was handwriting a lot of notes, cards and even a song. Breaks took a form of reading. He's into reading Magic Tree House series books right now. Eight done, forty more to go.

He wanted to write a poem for his speech therapist, but then changed his mind and decided to write a song. I just hope my card from him is as sweet.

The kids wrote cards to each other and their teachers. I knitted this dishcloth for David's teacher and yes, I realize she deserves a cashmere blanket instead, but that's all I had time for. It's being blocked right now, thus no picture.

Perhaps, being inspired by all this crafting and talks of Valentine's, Julia has been coming up with really hilarious sayings. She's been walking around the house saying to herself "Darth Vader is in love with me". The other day as we were in a car, in her whiny voice (it comes out whenever she really wants something) she tells me "Mommy, I like daddy, but I really really want Luke Skywalker to be my father". And that's when we realized the kids need to take a break from watching "Star Wars".

I hope to write more entries soon since we've been keeping ourselves very busy. Hope tomorrow everyone feels more loved and appreciated (I'll make it up to my husband for a forgotten card).