This moment..

A moment from my week to cherish and remember. Join along and share your moment with Soulemama.

At the Fair....

Oh mama, I kind of know how you feel, I can't imagine all those babies at once?? Look at her cute face!

There just really isn't anything sweeter than a baby pig. (this one is 2 weeks old)

Any day where I get nibbled by a baby goat, is a good day.

 Alpacas are one of Nalahs' favorite animals, you should see her at the Flock and Fiber Festival!

Where is Solomon?

There he is!

The best part of the fair was that Solomon, my little engineer, the little guy in my house who has been taking apart flashlights and pens and vacuum cleaner for years just to see how they work got to control a robot.

He also got to make the robot shoot out frisbees.

I think he was pretty happy about that. His pin says" I drove a robot."

Not to bad for a mostly rainy day!

Please help me help them!

Sending prayers to the families of those lost in the storms.

 I am scared to death of tornadoes. I have had reoccurring nightmares where I am surrounded by them. The long, narrow, twisting ones. The sky is filled with them and I just watch them surround me. Often times I am in my childhood home and my parents are both outside doing mundane chores such as mowing the lawn and hanging laundry on the line to dry. I am desperate to get them to come inside and down into the basement but they just act like it is no big deal and continue on with their yard work. In my dreams the tornadoes never actually get me, it is just purely the horror of the anticipation.

I started having these dreams when I was teenager after I witnessed the tragic accidental death of a friend. I am sure it is just my brains way of processing death and the inescapable nature of it. I wish these dreams would resolve, but I still get them, weekly.

I grew up in the Midwest where tornadoes were a very real threat. I have never been in one or seen one in my real life. To me they are just a surreal nightmare. But unfortunately they are very real. I can't imagine having to go through what so many people are dealing with right now after the recent tornadoes that have ripped across middle part of our country. 

I really want to help them.

I pledge to donate 25% of my HumbleLuna sales for the rest of the month of May(at least) to help the victims of the tornado in Oklahoma. I don't have money to give but I am hoping to raise money the only way I can at the moment.  I really want to help. Please help me help them!!

     Humbleluna

On the river....... again

 

I have been blessed with a lot of rock hunting time in the past few weeks. It can be very addictive, once you find a treasure it is hard to stop. I was able to get back to my spot on the Sandy River this weekend, it couldn't have been better rock hunting weather..sunny and warm with bursts of clouds and showers. Just enough rain to get the rocks wet and then the sun would come out and make the agates and the jasper glow.

I also found some treasure here in the city along the Willamette River. We often visit a park along the river to get our dog fix(we don't have a dog but want one badly). Nalah loves to watch them swim and play. The water level is high and the beach is scarce, but small colorful bit of jasper and agate have washed up pretty much into the woods.

I need to take some more pictures of my treasures this week so I can show them off!

This Moment.....

A moment from my week to cherish and remember, inspired by Soulemama.

Yarn Along

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I am joining along with Ginny for the Yarn Along today.

  I started a pair of socks on a road trip a few weeks back, they are great for traveling with. I like to knit socks in the warmer months of the year since they are easy to stick in a bag and bring along in the car or anywhere a bit of knitting could be done. Although at this point in my life it is hard to get any knitting done until my kids are in bed.

I purchased the yarn during the Portland Yarn Crawl. It is Zauberball Crazy Sock Yarn,  it was hard to choose a colorway as they are all so beautiful. It would be fun to be rich and knit a pair of socks from all of them.

I am still reading The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. I just have a few pages to go. I wasn't sure I liked it at the beginning but I always finish a book I start no matter what. I am liking it more as I reach the end of it. It is well written, just uncomfortable subject matter. The book starts with the main character killing her elderly senile mother, pretty dark subject matter. Hoping I pick a happier read for next time.

What are you knitting and reading?

Over the River and through the woods

Well it is no secret I am a major rock hound and I took advantage of the Mother's Day weekend to get my family out of the house and into the woods and along some of our beautiful Oregon rivers. On Saturday we went out to the Sandy River near Troutdale,Oregon. There were so many rocks out there I could have spent all day but it was hot and there was no shade for the kids so we didn't stay very long. We go locked out of our van but Papa saved the day in record time, he is good at that, this is the second time I locked us out. We stopped for ice cream cones on the way home.

On Sunday we headed out along the Clackamas River out past Estacada, Oregon for a bit. I have read that this is a good spot for rock hunting, but I have never found anything out there. No big loss it was a pleasure just to be out of the city in the forest for a while.

The best part of Mother's Day was that all of my kids were pretty well behaved and nice to me, ALL day!

Best gift ever!

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all the Mamas out there!

Mamas-only Yurt Trip

Does this little plant realize what an amazing view it has?

Looking for agates where the creek empties out into the ocean, buurr!

A few fossil treasures and driftwood for a craft project.

 

Well it only took me 12 years to do it, but this past weekend I went on a little overnight trip with some mama friends without our kids. We booked a yurt down on the coast and had some really relaxing beach time without having to keep a constant eagle eye out for children the whole time.
It was the longest time I have ever been away from Nalah and she is still a pretty big nurser(mostly for comfort at night). I tried pumping  a bunch so Nalah would be set, but doing so I ended up increasing my milk supply and getting really painfully engorged, like hard as a rock melon sized, super painful, engorged.
Despite the painful milk boob issue it was a nice little break, with  beautiful warm sunny weather.  The ocean was bluer than it has ever been.

This Moment

Joining with Soulemama to share a special moment from my week.

Yarn Along: A finished Sweater

I am joining Ginny today for the Yarn Along, follow the link to share what you are knitting and reading.

I finally finished my Aidez sweater that I started in January. I had to force myself to finish it, now that the weather is warm. It is supposed to be in the 80's this weekend, good thing I got my sweater done! ;)

I skipped the trellis pattern on the back because I though it was too busy and my hair is so long it would have covered it anyway, so I just knit the back plain and that was the last piece I did so it went much faster than any of the other pieces.

I see on Ravelry that most people call this a quick knit and whip it up in like two weeks, but not me, not even close. I had a hard time following the pattern and referring to all the cabled sections over and over again. It took all of my concentration and I could only knit late at night when my kids were in bed.

This will be a great sweater for the fall, the yarn colorway is called "pumpkin spice" yum! I have been craving pie the whole time I have been knitting this. I would be happy to skip summer this year and move onto fall when I can rock my sweater and eat pie....just kidding, sort of.

Autumn will come soon enough.

I feel like I should stick to smaller projects for a while but I am already thinking of starting another sweater, a long term no pressure knit slowly through the warmer months kind of thing. With less cables and chart reading so I can knit in the presence of my children.

I am currently reading the Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. Not the most uplifting book but an interesting story none the less.