{this moment}

{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.

Amanda Soule

A Little Making

When we first decided to homeschool, I was so excited be the prospect and couldn't wait to make for our classroom.  I was going to make a felt calender, a wall pocket organizer, a reusable schedule with velcro, not to mention a first day of school skirt and other lovelies.  But then I got bogged down and stumped by the lesson planning part and lost my steam.

I did get a chance to make a little pencil holder for my school girl though.  I used the pattern from The Creative Family and substituted fabric and batting for felt.  I also purchased a brand spanking new set of colored pencils (a set for her and one for me).  And it just feels so sweet and special.  This little girl, her colored pencils, and me.

Yarn Along: 14 September

Joining Ginny again this week...

Oh just how many pictures can one take of just one knitting project?  I really wish I had something else to offer on the knitting front, but.. well.. I don't.  It's not that I am not knitting.  I am.  It is the slow and methodical click clacking of needles, though, rather than a fast, more purposeful knitting.  This cowl will make its way off of my needles, maybe even by next week.  If it doesn't, I may just bow my head in [no-posting] shame and reappear when it is done.

Unlike my knitting, the reading has been quick, varied, and fun.  I Am Cute Dresses arrived at my doorstep a couple of days ago and it. has. the cutest.dresspatterns.EVER.  I am actually scared to make any of them for fear that the book will fall from grace.  They look so simple and so easy to put together, but I feel quite confident that I can find a way to complicate them.  I have nearly finished A Charlotte Mason Companion and I have found it tremendously helpful in developing a plan for our first year of homeschooling.

I missed all of you last week and can not wait to see how you and your knitting and reading are!

First Day of {Homeschool} Kindergarten

We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow, me and my little girl.  It is a start of a little (or long) journey together, one little step at a time (for me and for her).  Off to sleep now...

Nature Study Monday: Amanita

That was a completely unintended week-long blog vacation that proved to be much needed.  I am so happy to be back though!

Are you a forager?  With all of our walks in the woods, I have recently become very interested in the many different mushrooms that peek through or pop their heads out of the fallen leaves or that stand at attention on decaying logs in the forest.  Today on a walk in the Delaware Water Gap, we came across a couple foraging and learned a little about what they found.  I learned, for instance, that a toadstool is not a specific kind of mushroom, but a generic name for one.

I have much much more to learn about these forest creatures before I venture to eat one.  A friend walking with us pointed to this mushroom as Amania bisporigera (or the Eastern North American Destroying Angel--yikes!), a fungus so toxic that it accounts many or most of the mushroom fatalities worldwide.  Upon further investigation, I am no so sure that we classified it correctly.  Most of this classification evidently are found growing on the forest floor (this one is on a log) and are found in the spring. 

 Nevertheless, I will surely not be eating anything looking like it in the near future.

{this moment}

{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.

Amanda Soule