Yarn Along

I am joining Ginny at Small Things this week for the yarn along.
I have just pages to go in The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. This was a pick from my book club, very imaginative and well written. I have so much on my mind these days that I had a bit of trouble escaping into the book as much as I would have liked too.
I also have been browsing through The Rhythm of Family by Amanda Soule.

I am currently knitting a Kicking Bag for our baby that is soon to arrive. It is a slow going mindless knit on tiny size 2 needles in sock yarn, ahh just what I needed. I love having a project I can knit while not looking at my hands. This has been a fantastic portable project, I have taken it in the car, to the park, knit while while making french toast and and I got several inches done this morning at the Science Museum.
I love the colorway, gender neutral enough I think. It reminds me very much of my Grandpa Clarence, my Father's Father who passed away when I was a child. I should knit my Dad a pair of socks in this yarn for Father's Day.

New Fleece Gnome Hats

I have added yet some more new items to my Etsy shop and though I would share them here as well. I designed these gnome hats a long time ago but have just got around to getting pictures of them and posting them on my shop.
It is time to pay the Midwives so I am shamelessly promoting my shop until I can do so, hope you understand. Please tell your friends about Humble Luna!
I am always happy to take custom orders. If you would like a particular color or size I would be happy to accommodate.
More info on the gnome hats here.

Winter Green....

New items on Humble Luna!

I have added a few new items to my shop including Love Dragon costumes just in time for Valentine's Day. Also some new hand knits in baby sizes. I also have few items featured that would make great unique gifts for Valentine's Day.
Any business I receive from Humble Luna is a major blessing to my family and is extremely appreciated.
Please take a look.....
Humble Luna

There is so much to explore....

We have been blessed with a very mild winter so far with warm days perfect for spending some time outside and ridding ourselves of that yucky trapped inside cabin fever feeling. We spent some time at a local garden, exploring and wandering and just enjoying the day. We let Solomon lead the way with his magnifying glass in hand. He ran the whole time. He was so happy having the freedom to just run where he wanted to, he had a great time. Living in a city I don't often feel comfortable to just let him explore freely very often. Although I did get a little worried when he got too far ahead since his outfit was perfect camouflage . In fact I just had a nightmare last night that we were at a park in the city and he was climbing huge ladders several stories high to go down very large slides, all the other parents at the park were calm watching their children climb but I was terrified. The after he made it safely down the huge slide we were caught in a police shoot out right there in the park. yikes! Maybe it is a hormonal thing I am going through right now.

My kids are my life and it is slightly terrifying to love them so incredibly much. I am looking forward to having our new babe safely earthside in a few weeks but also enjoying the peace of carry him or her inside, where they are safe. But I know as a mama letting go is part of it, letting our children explore and discover the world on their own is a beautiful natural thing. I am still learning to let them little by little, hoping that by the time they are college aged I will be able to deal with it just fine. Thank goodness I have several more years to practice.

Discovering new friends as well....




I love how chubby squirrels get in the winter, I just want to squeeze this little guy..


Sollie thought he was pretty cute too...


Are you coming, Mama?

This Moment..a right of passage.

Notice anything different?

Here is a clue..


Did you figure it out?


I am breaking the rules a bit but still wanted to join in for This Moment.
A special moment from our week to cherish and remember, inspired by Soulemama.

Yarn Along...and kind of a long rant.

Joining Ginny this week for the knit along since I have been somewhat productive and motivated the last few weeks. All I needed was some rainbow yarn to motivate me to create some new baby hats for some of the new babies that are coming into the world in my circle of friends and neighbors. I am tempted to keep them for my babe as well, but it will be more fun to knit for him or her once I know if baby is a him or her. Any baby can wear a rainbow though, right. Knitting without patterns and with happy yarn boosted my spirits.

Right now I am reading positive birthing stories from Ina May's Spiritual Midwifery and Ina May's Guide To Childbirth to get my mind prepared for giving birth again in about 6 weeks from now. Spiritual Midwifery was the first book I bought when I found out I was pregnant with my eldest. I was only 19 at the time and was very scared and wasn't getting any positive energy from anyone at the time about the baby. Spiritual Midwifery was like water to my thirsty spirit, it made me feel positive and excited for motherhood and happy to be pregnant. I know the language and ideas are very hippie and out there, but so are my current midwives and I love them. They give me nothing but positive thoughts and energy despite the difficult pregnancy I have had this time around. I will hold onto this book until I am a grandmother, it is beautiful and positive like a good friend.
I am trying to feel positive about the birth. Trying to get my body out of anemia before the birth and trying to savor the last few weeks of this pregnancy which will be my last,and looking forward to the future instead of struggling through the moment.

Speaking of the future... I am also reading a book by a local Oregon woman called To The Woods: Sinking Roots, Living Lightly, and Finding True Home by Evelyn Searle Hess. Is about a woman and her husband who leave city life to live in the woods starting pretty much from scratch, renting out their home in the city to live in a run down trailer on the nursery that they own.
Ben and I have had this same dream for years. To own land and start small with a trailer and eventually build a simple home. It is very inspiring. Evelyn was in her 50's when she moved out to the woods, so that gives me comfort that it isn't too late for us to still fulfill that dream.
We are hoping to relocate in the very near future. Due to financial hardship and absolutely no savings, and our 3rd child to be born in the next month owning land and building a home is a far away dream. But we would like to get out of the city and find a house to rent, some where the kids could play outside and we could see the stars at night. Our daughter hits the gap between Elementary School and Middle School this summer and I think it would be an ideal time for us to relocate. I am so in a nesting phase where I just wish we had a home where our children can grow up, a place to call our own, no matter how humble it may be. We are used to living on very little, and we take pleasure in being outdoors in this beautiful state. Oh to be able to hike in one's own back yard.... but I will miss bagpipe playing unicyclists riding by my window,electric bike parades and mobs of drunken folk dressed like Santa running down the street.

This Moment...first time bowling

(I cant get over how stinking cute he looked in thoes tiny bowling shoes.)

A special moment from our week to cherish and remember.
Inspired by Soulemama.

A kitty hat for my cat lover girl

I only knit one gift for Christmas this year, a cat hat for Sophie my little cat lover. She loves her cat Lola so much when she came home from visiting her Grandparents for a month( and not seeing her mom for that long) this summer the first thing she did was find her cat and give her a hug. Lola has pretty much been tucked under her arm since we got her when Sophie was 4 years old. When I was thinking of gifts for her for the holidays I thought she would like a pattern that I found in my very old and well loved copy of Stitch and Bitch, also found here.
She really likes her hat and it has already been rescued from the lost and found of her school once(after only two days back at school). It is nice finally knitting her something she will actually wear and she genuinely likes.

Homemade Monkey Birthday!

Solomon has always picked his Birthday cake every year. This year he said monkey and I went a little nuts with the monkey theme. I found a monkey finger puppet pattern on Ravelry and decided to make monkey puppets and masks for Solomon and his buddies. Although it turns out only half the kids showed up for the party so I could have saved myself a lot of time had I known, lesson learned.

So not only did we have monkey cake we had monkey puppets, monkey masks, monkey paper chains, monkey balloon animals and by the time it came to make monkey face shaped pizzas I was just too tired, and the kids could have really cared less about the shape of their pizza. I think they were more focused on the monkey cake.

My sweet little monkey loving 4 year old was quite the happy boy!

Happiest of Birthdays.... my sweet boy

I almost can't believe it has been 4 years already. But I can't imagine life without you my sweet boy. You are such a wonderful guy who fills my life with sunshine and joy. You are thoughtful and so clever, you like to sing and wake up singing on a daily basis. You like yellow and bubbles and monkeys and trucks. You tell me you love me and give me kisses randomly all the time.You don't like taking baths and throw a fit when it's bath time only to remember it's " not so bad" once your in it. You also tell us often that "You don't like to do stuff, you don't like to do." I love you so much. I love making your cake and decorating the house late on New Years eve for your party the next day. In my opinion New Years 2008 was the best one ever. I love watching you grow I am so lucky to be your mama! I love how you told everyone you were tuning 12. Happy 4th Birthday Sweet Boy!