Knitting Doll

We just got another 18" of snow last night.  I am amazed at the amount of snow that we are being gifted this year.

I had a moment of synchronicity today.  I was just introduced to knitting dolls through a blog I was reading and I thought to myself "I have to have one".  I had never heard of a knitting doll.  I went over a friends house for dinner tonight and she said that she had something for me.  It was a knitting doll from another friend.  How do moments like this happen?  You go from, what is that, to I must have one, to hey how did the univerise make this happen.


I can't wait to learn how it works so I can find some more and bring it to my classroom.

This Moment- Eggs

(This moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. An idea from Soulmama.

I love my hipstamatic app.

Yarn A Long

I "got it" yesterday.  The high that I could not understand from knitting.  I equated it to a runner who reaches the positive addiction stage.  If you are a non-runner you can't just go out and run a mile and be hooked.  You have to practice and eventually you take a run that feels different and you are in the zone.  I feel the same way about my knitting experience.  I did not get it at all until yesterday when I knit away with a different feeling.

I am still knitting the same sweater for my son which will hopefully be done before he grows anymore.  Working full time and mommying leaves me about 1 hour a day to knit.  I am loving the Rick Bass book The Lives of Rocks. It is a series of very moving short storries, and I am browsing A Rainbow of Stitches to find my next embroidery project.  What are you reading?

3 Sides of Life (oh I mean 4)

This year has left me a bit scattered.  I have 3 jobs combined into 1, classroom teacher, homeschool coordinator and working with our pre-k teachers.  Then there is family.  This blog kind of represents that scattered feeling. One day I write about knitting, the next about teaching art in the classroom.  Who am I today.

Today we are hunkering indoors as the little guy tries life without a diaper.  I have a late potty trainer, which is no surprise to me since he spent the first 18 months of his life lying on his back in an orphanage.  He is very excited about the big boy underwear he is wearing today.  I am using a timer to remind me to check in and have him sit on the potty.

I am also planning for next week in the classroom.  We do have school on Monday which is Martin Luther King Day.  It allows me the opportunity to do a one day mini theme on this amazing man.  I recently discovered Teachers Pay Teachers.  It is a great place for both teachers and homeschool moms to find mini units.  I am going to use the ideas from this Martin Luther King Activity Packet tomorrow.  Many of the resources have fees, but for me, as a classroom teacher, I can use this for years to come.  I will post some photos of the results.  I have an amazing K-2 this year filled with peace makers.

My art class is moving forward with the book Drawing With Children.  Art was put on the back burner as we prepared for the holiday program so we are back at it once again.  This is another lesson on using different types of lines, circles, and dots in drawing.  I am finding the 3-5th far more confident than the highschoolers.  I did not expect that.

Let It Snow, Let it Snow......

I started off for work at 7am and by 7:15am my hands were shaking like a leaf, as I found myself in a whiteout blizzard with winds up to 60mph.  It was dark, NOAA (weather) was predicting avalanches.  Can you feel the stress?   So I did something I had never done before in my 8 years on this commute.  I turned around and went home.  I called the principal and in a shaky voice said "I am turning around it is crazy scary."

We have snow, lots and lots of snow.  Our 720 square feet is buried in snow.

Which brings me to a few of my favorite things for winter.

Every girl needs a Skhoop Skirt and gators to shovel snow now doesn't she.  I love my quilted skirt that goes so nicely over my fleech pants.  I love my gators that remind me of old timey shoes (strong imagination).  I could go on and on about my Vasque hiking boots, but won't.

I love our big black shovel.  Well love/hate.  I would almost consider these accessories as women might consider a necklace for the amount of times they are part of my attire.  The black push shovel is the most incredible shovel we have ever had.  If you live in a place with snow, and you find yourself shoveling a lot it is a must have.  The red sled, thank you Target.

Little Man in Nature

Grandad came for the holidays and the little guy got some snowshoes.  He always treks farther than expected and has been expressing his love of nature with the words "beautiful" and "pretty".  He is so incredibly fun!

We are getting an amazing amount of snow here in Alaska.  An amount that would shut other states down.  Tomorrow the report is for 18-28" of snow with up to 60mph winds.  All I can think about is my drive to work being difficult, but I never think of staying home.  Does that make me just a little twisted?

Yarn Along

I decided to join in on the Yarn Along that Ginny of Small Things started.  I am knitting the little guy an English Rib Pullover sweater.  This is the  first sweater ( not countining the one I started last year and ripped out because it was too difficult) I have tried.  It is rewarding and frustrating.  Being a beginner means knitting a bunch, then waiting for a friend to teach me how to undo and redo errors.  It is a lesson in patience for sure.

In my bedside table sits The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which so far has been captivating.  Please excuse the poor quality photo.   I knit when my son is in the bathtub and the lighting is impossible.   We are,  that is my son and I,  finally at the point where I can take on a non-fiction.  For the first 2 years I could only read mindless fiction.   I was just too tired to concentrate.  My brain is breathing a sigh of relief to be learning something rather than just tolerating what I read.