Feb 28

On this day 86 years ago in a small town in Germany my Grandma Russell was born. I smile when I think about how excited I was when Grandma would come to visit her east coast grandchildren. She would make us bread and homemade jam during her visits to see us, that was one of my favorite things about her visit.

When Lilly was a new baby and Jim was gone every night waiting tables, I would call my Grandma regularly to find out more about her. I asked her questions about her life in Germany as a young girl, her ride across the ocean to the states, her courtship with my Grandpa during WWII, and her marriage that lasted over 60 years. She was still very lucid and told me great stories.

Here are my grandparents in Milwaukee
This is my grandma on her wedding day. She hated those flowers because they hid her beautiful dress and small waist.

Since my Grandpa died my Grandma has slowly deteriorated and is now living in a nursing home with alzheimer's. I used to be scared to talk to my Grandma for fear that she would not remember me. Now I realize that even though she doesn't remember me, I still remember her. I called her to say "Happy Birthday and I love you." That did my heart good. I also figured out if I say "Hi Grandma" really loud she knows enough not to say 'who are you.'

My Grandma was an avid knitter and loved to bake bread. We are connected through needles and dough - I love that.

My great-grandmother was a wonderful seamstress and supported her family by sewing when they immigrated to the U.S. from Germany. That talent skipped a generation and landed on my mom, who is also an incredible sewer. The knitting skipped my mom and hit me. I love that we're all connected through a craft that transcends the generations.

I think this picture is of my grandma's family 'along the way to the Salt Lake temple' before my grandparents got married. Is that true Russell family?

My Grandma still has some of her spunk left. She said "Yeah you knit, but not like me, you knit the American way." I just thought 'ok grandma, whatever you say.' Then when I got off the phone I remembered a German lady who came into my yarn shop to show us the German way of knitting which was much faster than the American way (according to her). I could hear in her voice over the phone that she also thought the American was inferior. That makes me smile.

Happy Birthday Grandma.

Snow Day = Project Overload

We have a snow day today and Lilly has a stomach bug, which means we are inside for the long haul. It's days like today that make me go crazy for projects. I think I subscribe to a few too many craft blogs because every day I find more and more projects I want to take on. Below are some of the latest projects I want to embark on (with links to the tutorials and website that I found them on). I also need to feed my children, clean my house, and finish all my other projects which include but are not limited to: mittens; owl paintings; hat for brian; other leg warmer; curtains for my room; repainting Lilly's room; corkboard for jewelery; and decorating Jackson's room.

Here are the projects that I want to add to that list:

These are crocheted garden tie-backs that I want to make for Lilly's curtains on her closet.

http://littlecherrytops.typepad.co.uk/files/garden-tie-backs.pdf

Cards made with leftover yarn, I definitely have that!

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/yarn-embellished-cards?xsc=eml_crd_2010_02_25

Fabric silhouette

http://curbly.com/tags/silhouettes

I will probably just stick with cleaning, eating, and napping today, and choose one project to work on. Paired with keeping sick Lilly away from healthy Jack and maybe some of this:

Day 23 - Don't give up now

I'm in the home stretch for February, almost done with the month and almost 30! I finished my mitten today and started working on the lining. The olympics are more than half done but my project is less than half finished. Oh well, that is what the Olympics are all about, right? Pushing yourself further than you thought you could go. Although since I am a mother of two I can't control the amount of time I get to devote to my project, not sure I can crank out that other mitten by Sunday. It's amazing the first one is finished. Maybe I can just wear this one and then put the other hand in my pocket. Maybe I will put this mitten in a frame and hang it on the wall.

Some other women at the knitting shop are working on these as well. We are all concerned about losing one or both of our handmade mittens. How many times have you lost a mitten or glove? I think if I do finish the other mitten I am going to sew them onto a shirt. Then whenever I want to wear them I will wear the shirt with the mittens sewn on, thus removing the risk of losing them.

In the world of children.....

I left the baby on a nice blanket while I went into the other room. I came back less than 2 minutes later to find them both watching TV.

Happy

Day 19 - An essay on Mom Guilt and Soup

I read a blog post today about my friend's bedtime routine for her children. It was a pretty great bedtime routine with singing, stories, laughter, and happiness. As I was reading it I was struck with MOM GUILT.

Our bedtime routine is occasionally happy but more often than not it is rather atrocious. Occasionally the night ends with me saying "Get in bed and I don't want to see you until morning!" Nothing says sweet dreams like "get out of my face because I will lose it if you don't." I don't ever say those words, but I feel that message comes across.

After I read my friends blog I sunk into mom guilt. Thinking about what a terrible mom I am and pondering the psychological damages of my lack of parenting skills, specifically at bed time.

Then I had a wonderful moment, I remembered earlier in the week a glimmer I had that confirmed to me that I am a good mom too.

The story goes like this: Jim was feeling sick and the only thing he wanted to eat was fast food or soup. Since it was 10pm and I didn't want to go find fast food I found a can of soup in the back of my cupboard. I warmed it in the microwave, and voila, soup from a can. Around the same time Lilly wandered out of her room with insomnia and hunger. She looked at Jim's soup and said "I want that soup that you made." I told her there was only one can of soup and her dad had taken it all. She looked at me again and said "No, I want the soup that you made, you know that you made."

The it dawned on me, she assumed that I had made the soup from scratch and that there was a big pot of it on the stove. She has never has soup from a can because I make homemade soup almost twice a week, with homemade bread.

This is a special mom thing I do and my daughter thinks its normal to have soup and bread from scratch.

I don't make soup and bread out of guilt. I make it because I like to eat it and so does my family. Period.

I then realized that the best things in my life happen when I do them out of desire and love, not out of mom/blog guilt.

Next time I am struck with the case of mom guilt, I am going to think about my soup. I am going to remember that when Lilly is grown with her own family she might think back on her mom who made soup from scratch, and maybe she will be impressed, and maybe not. It doesn't matter if she is or isn't because I do it for myself and that makes me happy.

Day 18 - Looking up

Well February is looking up, only because it is almost over. 10 days left! Which also means it's the final countdown to my birthday.

I called Jim and left him a message at work to remind him that my birthday is coming up and that I have really high expectations.

This week I am focusing on sprucing up our home. Jack has been living in squalor, a nursery/office/library is not the most welcoming space for him. My new project is to make his room HIS room. I am trying to get all the other junk out of there. This is proving to be rather challenging.

My sister helped me out by suggesting that I put the computer on my counter in the kitchen. This is where it now sits and so far I love it. Although it seems like it's opening Lilly up to constantly interrupt me when I am on the computer, maybe a good thing?

Mittens are coming along, I am still committed to my goal to finish them before the olympics are over.

Day 14-17 Half way there

Jack has decided he doesn't like to sleep, especially at night. Although he does like to grab onto things, a fact we discovered yesterday.

Day 11, 12, 13 - Over the crafting edge

Well, February is still a rather wretched month and the only thing getting me through it is project after project after project.

Below are the sail boats I painted for Jack's room. I saw the idea for coordinating sail boats at the pottery barn.

These mittens are my official Olympic project. If I am going to get them done before the Olympics are over I have to knit 18 rows a day, truly an olympic feat.

This is the leg warmer I finished for Lilly. When I showed it to her she said "Well, you have to make the other one now."

After the mittens I have more canvases and art to create for Lilly's room. 3 years ago I saw a flower art thing at the pottery barn kids that I have been wanting to make for her ever since.

I also found this cute baby project that I want to make one day. Free pattern here.

Day 10 - Cancelled

We finally got enough snow to justify cancelling stuff. Specifically, work for me. That was exciting, I love when things get cancelled. Since everything was cancelled today I cancelled my desire to be productive or get out of my PJs.

Lilly was in quite the mood today. She was completely hilarious, followed by long periods of unpleasantness. This morning she decided that she was going to pretend to be a visitor in our home and it went on for a good hour.

Lilly: Did you paint your kitchen blue yourself?

Me: No, it was actually painted before we moved in.

L: Oh, it's very lovely.

Me: Thank you.

L: Do you make a lot of macaroni and cheese in this kitchen?

Me: Yes, sometimes.

L: So, what does your husband do?

Me: Well he works at the hospital.

L: Oh, my husband is in the military.

Me: Oh really? What does he do in the military.

L: He does tricks.

Me: Tricks?

L: Yeah, like he can stand on his head and lift one leg in the air.

Me: (endless laughing ensued)

A little later I found her in her pajamas with her jacket, snow boots, and umbrella ready to play in the snow.I made her put snow pants on and then she ran out the front door. I followed her and took a few pictures of her in the snow. The wind was blowing really hard and it was very cold, so I didn't last too long.

Day 7,8, & 9 - TREACHEROUS

It's not too often I get to use the word treacherous and really mean it, so here I go: This past Sunday we made the foolish journey to the DC area for a health conference and it was a truly treacherous journey. I have never been on such horrible snowy, icy roads in my life. It was as if the road crews and plows gave up on their jobs and just left the cars to flatten the snow piles on the interstate into slick dangerous death traps. As we drove in our tiny 98 honda civic, which is not exactly your 4-wheel-drive-all-terrain-vehicle, we passed accident after abandoned wreckage, after accident. We arrived, by a miracle, safely to our destination.

The babies and I spent a warm day inside my dads house while Jim ventured off to his conference. I might have mentioned 1 or 100 times that I was right about the roads and that it was mighty foolish to try them out (I don't get to say mighty foolish too often either).

However, I did get to spend the day watching movies and knitting. I designed my own pattern for leg warmers for Lilly. I decided that while I love leg warmers, I probably wont wear them. Although I can force Lilly to wear leg warmers to dance class. They are purple and white stripes, really cute. Pictures to come soon!

Olympic Project update: Jim has decided for his project he is going to read Anna Karenina and I am still going to work on the mittens. As you can see, you really can do whatever you want. Friday night is opening ceremonies so get your projects ready and post updates on your blog or leave comments on mine. It will really make my February a little happier.

P.S. I also want to make this dog. Free pattern here

Day 6 - SNOW

We got a few inches of snow today, nothing like the DC area. If we are going to get snow, I want enough snow to actually cancel something around here. Nonetheless we still had a pretty fun day, a first for this February.

Lilly and I did some sledding together and Jim did the polar bear plunge into the Susquehanna River with his friend Josh at the ice festival.

I agreed to the polar bear plunge under 2 conditions.

1. Pictures be taken
2. They be posted on my blog

He conceded, but under the conditions that the pictures only remain on my blog for 5 days and that I post his favorite quote about the Susquehanna.

Deal.

Click here to see video courtesy of Josh's wife Maddi.

"And when I had asked the name of a river from the brakesman, and heard that it was called the Susquehanna, the beauty of the name seemed to be part and parcel of the beauty of the land. As when Adam with divine fitness named the creatures, so this word Susquehanna was at once accepted by the fancy. That was the name, as no other could be, for that shining river and desirable valley."

-Robert Louis Stevenson from Across the Plains

Bright side

I forgot one major high point to this year's February: The Olympics! I really love to sit on my couch eating popcorn, while watching other people exert themselves physically.

I was perusing some knitting blogs when I came across an idea to have a knitting Olympics. In 2006 the yarn harlot hosted her own knitting olympics. What I got from the 2 minutes that I scanned the blog post was the vague idea that you start a really hard, but not impossible, knitting project at the opening ceremonies and finish it by the closing ceremonies.

Fun! I love self-imposed challenges that add unneeded extra pressure to my daily life. So I am starting my own 2010 project olympics. Don't you want to do it with me? All the nights you sit in front of the TV watching the olympics you can work on your own olympic project. There has to be someone who wants to join in the challenge with me. It doesn't have to be knitting, it can be anything. Sewing, painting, learning French...I really don't know what your hobbies are.

I am going to make Fiddlehead Mittens.

I actually started this project earlier in the month, got all the way to the thumb and had to undo it. I am cheating a little because I already started it, but it is slightly insane so I feel a head start is fair. These mittens are lined with mohair on the inside making them really warm and cozy.

Some other women from the local knitting shop are working on these mittens as well. I am only going to knit them in two colors and not the 6 that are shown in the picture.

I didn't think I would have them done before summer, but maybe with my new self-imposed stress maker I can!

I hope someone else out there wants to join me in my new February fun maker and start an olympic project!

Day 5

Congratulations February, you get worse by the day. You win.

Last night my sister called me to tell me that her husband is being sent to Iraq for a year, scheduled to leave this summer. We cried together for a minute and then sprung into action making plans on how to conquer this particular challenge.

Brian is excited for this adventure. He has never been over seas and he is looking forward to serving our country. They are finding the silver lining on all the clouds.

We are so very proud of Brian. The Barnettes do not want pity, but pride in their soldier.

Jessamyn will hopefully come stay with me for awhile and finish decorating the rest of my house like the good Cinderella she is.

So today on my blog I salute Brian and all the other soldiers and I try once again to see the bright side of February.

(pictures from Jessamyn's blog)

Day 4

Well, February, you kind of suck, but it's only day 4, right? My friend Jocelyn has committed to a month of service in February. That's a pretty good idea, maybe that will help me achieve my resolution, which has now changed from "Make February fun" to "Make February suck less."

My keys and my salt and pepper are missing today. It is the first day this week that Lilly could even think about leaving the house and she was loosing it when she realized she might not get to pre-school. My friend graciously bundled her children up drove to my house and picked up Lilly and took her to pre-school for me. Thanks for saving the day Tina. I am still on the look out for my salt and pepper, because seriously, who looses salt and pepper? My soup was not as tasty today.

These adorable pictures that I lifted from sisters blog sure cheered me up. I wish he could come to my house and just be cute for me.

February (not really fun yet) month, Day 3

Well, I'll be perfectly honest. Yesterday sucked. I had my positive fun attitude until about 12:30 when exhuastion and sickness hit in and I realized I had only left my house twice since Saturday.

I did call Jim at 4pm and asked ever so kindly that he come straight home from work and rescue me so that I could escape my house and screaming children.

I went to a Zumba class at the gym and then hit the yarn shop for open knitting night. That was fun, so there was a highlight to the day.

When I got back Lilly was still awake sick and miserable and then the carbon monoxide monitor started making weird noises so we had to turn off the coal stove that heats our house. Oh that's right, we have a coal stove that heats our house. Coal. That we (jim) shovel in and out day and night. We'll be lucky if we don't get black lung and or carbon monoxide poisoning before winters end.

So I start day 3 of my resolution sick, exhausted from another night of taking care of children, and a little defeated.

As soon as the sun comes up we are going to the closest town for serious retail therapy.

February fun month, Day 2

Lilly is still very sick with ear infections, fever, and general nastiness. She woke up at 5am to tell me she was hungry for carrots, crackers with melted cheese, animal crackers, and a peanut butter sandwich with no peanut butter.

I went into the kitchen to find a pretty wretched smell similar to sewage..long story not so long....our dishwasher and garbage disposal drains backed up into our laundry sink down stairs, which in turn backed up all over the floor...again.

Now we have to stay home to wait for the drain man to come fix our really cold (open windows in an attempt to air out the house), smelly, sick house.

Any other February I would have thrown in the towel, crawled back into bed, and demanded Jim take a sick day to take care of us. However, since I knew this was my fun month, I decided to make the best of it.

After a lot of thought, I realized that these things are no big deal at all. There are so many worse things that go on in the world, we're actually really lucky. For my fun day today I am going to list all the things that I am grateful for...specifically today.

1. Beautiful babies to hold

2. Husband who let me go back to sleep for an hour before he left for work

3. A house

4. Dishwasher/garbage disposal that need fixing

5. Windows to open to air out the smell

6. Hot water

7. Sleeping babies who are taking naps at the same time!

8. Sick Lilly who still loves to cuddle her brother, no matter what.

After I decided to have a positive day, really great things happened. I had 2 high bank fees removed from my account and Lilly found a library book that has been missing for 3 months. Hurray!

My birthday present will probably end up being the fixed drains...but isn't that better? I know I would prefer to have working appliances and a clean house than anything else.

Jim taught Lilly about groundhogs day and she spent the morning looking out the window for the beaver to come and tell her about the sun and winter.

Even though the sun is not out and babies are sick, we are going to have a really fun day today.

My Birthday Wish List

1. Lap top.

2. Day at the spa

3. Scissors to keep in my knitting bag (I just always forget to buy these)

4. Apple's newest gadget: I-pad. (Although I would call it the I-Liz)

5. Subscription to Martha Stewarts Every day Living and Every day Food

6. Weekend Trip to NYC

7. Tights to go with my leg warmers that I am going to make

8. Maid service, because seriously I cleaned my bathtub last month.

That's it for now. I think it's completely reasonable.