Intentional Weekend: Going Home

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We took a quick trip to Charlottesville this weekend. Yesterday, Mike, Patrick, and I toured the University of Virginia and spent a good deal of time with the soccer coaching staff. Awesome place; I'd go there in a heartbeat;-). Paddy spent the night in the dorms. Mike and I went back to my dad's and Barbara's to hang out with them and the little siblings. We actually kicked back for awhile. I left the camera home and almost instantly regretted it. Katie captured these shots on Mike's cell phone.

 

MikeCville
 ~ a little surfing~

Knitcville

~a little knitting~

Girlscville

~we have the same toys at home but they seem better here, somehow~

 

Birthdaycville

~a birthday celebration for the 6 kids who have birthdays this month~

Tablecville
~ a yummy dinner (and leftovers for breakfast)~

 

We're heading home, all our ACC visits finished now. Paddy has some prayerful discerning to do. But, oh, how amazing, the opportunities this sport continues to offer him!

Bully Reading and Ruffle Bumps

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I used to think that bullying was not a concern of mine. My image of a bully was one of a big guy on the blacktop during recess, picking on the little guy with glasses. Since there was no blacktop recess in the lives of my children, I didn't worry too much about bullying. I was so wrong.

In the last two months, I've learned quite a bit about bullying. I've learned that the more likely vehicle in my children's lives is not a basketball thrown at them, but a cell phone heavily armed with foul language and pointed mean messages. I've learned that the bully isn't necessarily a big grade school boy, but may be a teenaged girl. Not that boys are immune; they are bullies, too, and bullying is just as likely to happen at soccer practice in a pleasant suburban neighborhood with private school and homeschool boys as on the public school blacktop. Oh yes, we are learning about bullies in lots of venues and from several angles.

Most of all,  I've learned that homeschooling doesn't matter one whit when it comes to bullying. To say this surprised me is an understatement. The things I'm learning! Homeschooled kids are bullied and homeschooled kids are bullies. All of a sudden, it's very much my business.

So, I'm reading Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories. It's an anthology of essays written by accomplished authors, mostly authors for teens. Every perspective is represented here: the bully, the bullied, the bystander. So far, it's an interesting read, but not something I'd hand to tweens and definitely something that I'd read with teens.

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In the knitting department, I planned to knit for hours as I waited for soccer games on Sunday and finish this scarf at last. But I got stuck on picking up the wrapped stitches (can you see them there?). I have some different directions and I'm hoping to conquer them tonight and then just cruise to the end. Once the wrapped ones are all picked up, I have to knit front, back, and front again in all two hundred stitches, to give me a three hundred stitch ruffle. That's a very long stretch of ruffly happy. I'm very eager to get there.

{Good news: I think the comments are working again. Yay!}

Go visit Ginny for more reading and knitting.

First Quilting Class

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Nick has been begging to make a quilt since last summer. Nicky loves numbers and order and I think he might just have a bit of a crush on fabric, too. And, then, there's the whole competition thing. He's out to prove that anything Katie can do, he can do better. 

I managed to hold him off until Deborah launched her e-course. I know Nicky. And I know me. We both need Deborah--because we want to do it right. This course will step us through it. I'm going to make a sampler quilt of nine classic quilt blocks. I fully admit to having to overcome my desire for tidy and matchy-matchy and embrace the idea of a sampler. It helped tremendously to know that I have some very delicious Kate Spain Flurry set aside for the just such an opportunity.

When I watched the first video, when Deborah introduced all nine blocks, I also knew that there is no way I'm going to relinquish control over my seams and let Nicky sew. It would make me crazy. Also, I think he'd be frustrated. So, Nicky will be sewing a Layer Cake quilt, just piecing those 10X10 squares together and then backing and binding. After we both learn how to back and bind:-). He's all into Flurry, too. Of course, this fabric choice backs us into a corner and we need to have these finished in time for Christmas decorating.

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Today's homework was practicing 1/4" seams. So, Nicky and I put the new presser foot on and we pieced together a playmat for the NICU. Every year, on Sarah's birthday (or roundabouts), we go back to the NICU and give them a handmade blanket. We were so grateful for the gift of a hand-crocheted blanket the day they unexpectedly told us we could take our baby home. The seasons had changed while we were incubating in that hospital and the blanket was a blessing.

Nicky and I took Sweet Nothings fat quarters (not many left) that I'd bought to applique curtains and used them instead as blocks on a playmat. We stitched the rectangles together (all seams are /14") and then followed these instructions for sandwiching the batting and and sewing the backing. The tutorial calls for actually quilting the playmat, but I wasn't brave enough. 

My girls love a blanket that Charlotte (just visited that link--you want to click; beautiful baby) made for Sarah and Charlotte didn't quilt. It's still perfect. We just edge-stitched all around our NICU blanket.  And I do kind of love the result. Nick is pleased. All is good.

There is still room in the e-course and Deborah is taking registrations through Friday. It would be totally easy for you to catch up now. I'd love to see you there!