Hobbies, or ways that our children are allowed to reach maturity

So first of all, it occurred to me that I have not taken pictures of knitting for a while. I do not want to misled anyone into thinking that just because I have started to torture my children with my violin practice, that I have stopped playing with yarn... it just ain't so. (I would never say the word ain't, but it looks so right there in that sentence.) Anywho, so remember when I said last summer that my goal was to wear only my own knitted socks this winter? Well, I was successful. I had the most comfortably warm feet all winter long. I have more than enough pairs, but I cannot stop. I have a red "flame" pair that I'm working on now.. Here are some of the newer socks..


It's hard to see the colors as they are on the computer, but you get the idea.

I'm going to have to do a pink pair after the red, or repair the pink pair I have (or both) as the cabled pair that I did 2 years ago is starting to wear thin. Now think about that for a moment. This is one of my favorite pair of socks, and I've worn them a lot. I knit them the summer I broke my shoulder, which was 2008. These socks are just starting to wear thin. That means that these socks were built to last sister!

Now I count 15 pair here, and I have one on the needles now. The two on the bottom I don't wear much, the blue and red pair is a really thick boot sock (I need to make more of these, I have the yarn, I'll do them before winter this year to wear with my boots....of course!)
It's a crazy obsession... I just can't stop. Luckily, I don't have to.

Now I'm not just knitting socks, I have a cotton hoodie sweater that I'm knitting/designing and I have just one sleeve and the hood to go. Then I have another summer sweater to make. THEN, I have the perfect pattern for a darling winter hoodie that is just all classic lines. My neighbor, Marla and I are both going to make this one. We went to the yarn store, saw it on display, and Oh Boy!!

But a lot of the time that I would be spending knitting has gone into violin practice, so the projects are moving slower than they normally would. On the other hand I can actually play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and This Old Man on the violin, and scales.. lots and lots and lots of scales. I play scales so often apparently, that Sam said to me yesterday while I was playing them, "Hey mom, I recognize that song." geesh.

Don't get the idea that I play them well yet, they sound as laborious as they are played but I am loving every (nearly) minute of the time I spend trying.

Just as an aside, Pam, if you haven't already seen the show, you really need to check out "Big Bang Theory" this is like having a camera in my house 10 years from now, except that the exclamatoins of "My Seat!" happen now. This is Asperger's 101, in it's funniest form. We have the 1st two seasons on DVD and have been watching marathons of the show...

Wolverine's Birthday

So today at 1:12 pm, that is 13:12 for you military people, 10 years ago I gave birth to my youngest son, Ben. He has always been my sober child, but he still knows how to laugh. Actually both of my children could tend toward the brooding side of life, but my husband and I are too full of mischief and humor to let that happen overmuch. But when I say that my Ben is wolverine, what I mean is that he seems to have been re-incarnated from an old 1940's movie. The strong silent type that all the women wanted and the other men wish they could be.. you know. He is, even at 10, the one who prefers to be working with his hands, doing a job, outside if he can manage. I wish, often, that we were living in eastern Oregon with my family, as he would have so much more to be doing everyday, He would love it.



Ben's grin is infectious, really downright impish, irresistible. And, because he is surrounded by his slightly insane parents (actually just me on that one, John is very sane) his sense of humor is developing quite nicely. I think that he will be just as perfect a deadpan humorist as his father.. they both just have me rolling all of the time. (Sam is more like me, we're apt to howl at the moon as not. Good thing we have them to round us out. )

I have to work today, one of the draw backs to Ben having a birthday on July the 3rd, is that work does not want to give me time off the day before the holiday... no matter how long I've worked there, so .. I have to see him after his exact time of birth. Dang it.

Happy Birthday Ben, I was determined to have you, even right after Sam was born, not even an hour after, I told your father.. We're having one more! I knew you would be ours even then. Life would not be right without you!

A short trip to the coast, a missed birthday party, and the violin

Today the family and I hopped into the Subaru Forrester and heading for the coast. This is an easy day trip for us, maybe an hour, maybe more depending on your shore of choice. This is the Pacific Northwest.. pick one. We normally head over to Seaside, which is the tourist trap beach, but it also happens to be the city that is home to many of our close friends, so we usually get to visit them when we go there. Today they were taking a art class final. Oh well.. I spent my time wading and looking out into the vastness of the Pacific Ocean (when I wasn't neurotically watching my boys to make sure that said ocean did not drag them away)

Where I really wanted to be today was my brother's surprise, but not anymore surprise Birthday party in Washington. There are several reasons that I couldn't be there, but it still sucked that I wasn't there. Ultimately I know that I would have been able to actually see him for all of like, 5 minutes, and then he would have had to entertain some more of the other people that had come to the party, and 4 hours up and 4 hours back with irritated children in the car would have been a drag, but if I had a transporter, I so would have shown up. I miss my little brother, and I love his little family, and sometimes it bugs me that my brothers and I are so far apart. Really we are all so busy with work and kids and everyday life that we almost never see each other. I miss them. (Except those times when my brothers are bratty! They can still be bratty in their 40's!)

I had some more practice time with my violin today, I'm getting better, the cats were in the room and NOT slinking. Even the darling husband said (with no little surprise, I might add)

"You don't sound bad!"

That really was nice. I was telling my friend, Heather, that I noticed as I was playing the last couple of days that I find myself pacing with the violin as I play, walking back and forth in the house, as if I was quieting an infant. It feels that familiar to me. Today while I was doing the open string exercises I found myself looking at the sheet music and not looking at the strings, and I was hitting all of the right notes. Of course, as soon as I realized that I was doing that, I got that 'Holy Crap, look at me!' thought, and I completely fumbled. Go figure.

Violin Lesson

So I got the violin back from the very talented instrument doctor, and I was ready to start playing, except that I had no idea how. I have no time to leave the house after work, as I have 4 kiddos to look after and dinner to put on, and mounds... really MOUNDS of laundry at anytime, but I'm a determined lady.

So I hopped onto the Internet, and (although it goes against my principles, because it takes away money from local music teachers) I down loaded a basic program to learn the violin. Yesterday was the first lessons. How to hold the bow, the violin, and how to start to practice going from one string to another without sounding like a unrehearsed cat fight.

I didn't do too badly, the dog stayed in the room, and the kids all said it was cool, if uninteresting. When I started to explain "the seven plains of music" their eyes glazed over and they retreated to the garage to watch TV.

The cats however, kept slinking around the room in a crouched position looking back and forth wearily.

I'll be practicing this lesson again today, I think I need more clarity in my transition. Cool Huh?

Freaky Weather girl.

Yesterday was beautiful, I think it hit 70 degrees. The kids were out playing in the sprinkler, all four of them, running in the yard.

And just as an aside, can I just say, that you know children feel like they are in their own home when you walk into your bathroom and find a pile of completely soaked clothes that were peeled off a body and left on the floor, pooling water around them. These were girly clothes... I really AM the 2nd mom.

Anywho, there has been this freaky stomach flu going around, and yesterday it was my turn...cool huh? Sunny, beautiful day, I'm inside wrapped in a blanket, shivering. Go figure. The point of all of this gibber-jabber is that about 3:00 pm, at the height of the wonder day we were having, my shoulder goes all wonky.. and I KNOW! I said to Asha as she walks in,

"Well, It's going to be raining tonight"

She looked back at the front door, saw no clouds at all and raised one eyebrow, (she does this so well... I'm so proud!) saying nothing, but her meaning was clear.

Well I was awoken several times last night to a raging, pouring maelstrom. It has got to be raining very hard to wake me, I've lived in Northwest Oregon all my life, rain is nothing to us. You can tell a tourist by their use of an umbrella. We all just wear hoods, or get wet.

So, I say that I have arrived, nearly two years since the shoulder incident, and I can tell you if rain is coming better than the professionals.. I can tell you if it is a cold snap, snow, giant storm, there is a difference.

A couple of weeks ago it felt like someone had re broken my shoulder, and I found out there was a tornado warning off the coast of Washington... I think that I should start looking for new job.

What in the world are you doing?

Just in case you are all wondering.. My world changed a bit this spring. I have 4 children in the evening not 2. This tends to stir up your life a bit.

My best friend is now working a swing shift at the local hospital, and there was no better choice for the girls, but to be here. Trust me, this is not a hardship. These are my girls.. my adopted daughters. The daughters of my heart, if not my body.

The girls change the dynamics of the entire household. (This is a good thing)
My boys spend like 80-90 percent of their time outside playing now, not on the computer, or on video games.

Of course, I need to get used to comments like..

"I don't mean to tattle, but...."

followed with things like..

"Ben is running on the shed roof, and it's raining outside" , or "Sam just head butted Ben for no reason that I could understand" or
"Asha just laughed at me because I kept missing baskets, and it makes me really SAD!"

These are just not comments that come out of my son's mouths. Not ever.

But I also now have built in dancing partners. Throw on the new Miley Cyrus music on the Ipod, and we have a house full of dancing bodies.. (The boys shook their heads at us girls the first day we danced, but decided soon after that this was not so odious.)
Every now and then I get to sneak in some Beatles, or Santana..

The girls, Asha, who is 10 soon 11, and Given, who is 8 soon 9, have been a part of the family all of their lives, but it has been wonderful to give them all the time together, past just the couple of hours of visitation. They are all getting the full on Brother-Sister experience... I know all about this, I have 4 brothers.. grew up with 3. I'm starting to see the torture occur.

Here they are all together..Fish kisses and all.. looking at the front row, they look as if they are all genetically related.. They act like it, believe me.

Also for those who are curious, I have my violin at the violin doctors office, and should get it back in the next week or so. I'm looking forward to starting to learn. Even with the insanity that is the Kafooster household....

Wonderful, in a depressing sort of way.

I have a long standing friend that has recently become a grandmother.. She is so very excited, and her new granddaughter is truly a real beauty. I love seeing the pictures of her, and of course, having watched her son grow, through all of his pictures, I can see how much this pretty little girl takes after her father.

Of course, grandchildren require knitting, I cannot let such a momentous occasion slip by without acknowledgement.. And frankly, I've know Ada for nearly 20 years now, and if I were going to knit for any child outside my immediate family, it would be a grandchild of hers.

SO.. here it is, bonnet and sweater. Now, I have to give out that I did not design this sweater, this was on the online mag "knitty". Add a dot com to that name, the design is called "Helena" and designed by Alison Green Will. I have knit it several times for very special little girls.. I did change this up by using ribbon instead of I cords, and I "laced" the ribbon through little button hole for finishing. (I thought I was rather clever doing that.. I'm pretty proud of that detail)



Ada recently told me that she reads the blog sometimes, I had no idea.. anywho, if she's milling about this weekend, she is going to get a sneak peek at what is coming into her hands on Monday morning..

Here's the detail I was talking about... see how the little ribbon goes through the edging.. I did that last night and was so engrossed in the process that I looked up and it was after midnight, (I got up at 4:00 am, so I was really into this project, ya know?)

So here is the kind of depressing thing about all of this, my friends, and they are my age, are having grand kids. I don't begrudge them this joy. I know that I was nearly 30 before I had my first child, and this will slow down my own grand parentage, however, I just don't feel old enough to be a grandma, but clearly.. I am. All I can say to that is ... wow. Clearly though, (at least from the shining joy on the face of my friend Ada) the child itself erases the trepidation felt from the grandmother status.