My kids didn’t actually do a great job of adding “straw” to the manger during Advent. So, I added a little extra before I took the photos today to show you the doll I made. Beatrix did share lots of clementine segments with her siblings though, so that she could add a “piece of straw” to the manger for baby Jesus. If the segment was refused, she would insist, because she really wanted to add a piece. Forcing food on people counts as sharing, right?
On Christmas Eve I had a choice between sewing cloth diapers for the girls’ dolls or making a baby Jesus for the manger that Jonny created at the beginning of Advent. I am so glad that I made the obviously right choice. Who really knows why I put things off to the very last minute. I had been planning on making the doll for weeks. The girls are taking turns sleeping with baby Jesus at night (who by the way is just a simple waldorf style swaddled doll. The swaddling clothes, which I made from a muslin dish towel, are stitched in place.)
Christmas felt simpler this year, and I am encouraged to keep things simple in years to come. The manger and jar of “straw” will definitely be added to our tradition, but I am realizing that less can be more. On Christmas Eve our kids did all the decorating, and after they were in bed Jonny and I filled stockings and set up the nativity. Christmas Day we went to Mass, and I met my two goals: haircuts for Seth and Keats, and being early enough for Mass to get seats. I made a “special” Christmas dinner that included a small, fresh local ham that ended up being fed to Trudy. I don’t know how to cook a ham.
As we are heading into the new year, I am of course thinking, planning, and hoping for a wonderfully organized new year. Considering the fact that I lost the library book on organizing solutions for people with ADD, I am not sure that there is much hope. I was organized before I had children, so I know I have it in me, but there is just too much to distract. I do hope I can find that book. The irony won’t be lost on me if I end up having to pay for it.
Today was super rainy and gray. Seth, Gabe, and I went out for a little while so they could have their piano lessons and I could knit with my little students. I skipped my lesson because I haven’t practiced. I was busy with this blog all week. I know that’s sad, but it was time consuming to make the move from Blogger to (self hosted) WordPress despite the fact that a very generous friend did 99% of the work for me. I like this new blog. I think it’s pretty. Pretty is important to me. More importantly, I hope that all of you who emailed over the past couple of weeks to let me know you were unable to see my blog, now have your problem solved. Also, I am not using Intense Debate for comments right now, I think that the basic WordPress comment system is simpler and quicker. Well, I hope it is. You guys all made my day with your comments on my last post. I haven’t yet been able to get the comments uploaded from my old blog, and may not ever be able to. It was feeling lonely here. Thank you.
Friday is my birthday. I already know what Jonny is getting me, because I ordered it today. It was his idea though.
The cat in the photo is one of the three whom I catsit when my friend Mike travels. His name is Sanders. He’s mostly scared of me.
My mom had a talk with me about how most people probably don’t want to see knitting on my blog, that it’s boring. She’d rather see more photos of my kids. I tried to explain…..
Don’t worry, we’ll carry on with the Yarn Along, and hopefully my mom will understand. (She’s not a knitter.)
I love your blog and all the knitting! My 8 yr old daughter also loves to look at all your pictures, including the knitting. You have inspired both of us to learn how to knit and we are loving it!
I LOVE the knitting part! The kids too, of course, but you have inspired me (a mom of 5 young children) to get back to what I love…..knitting a little every day! I am also glad that I am not the only one to lose a book on organizing in my own mess:). Thankfully it was my mom’s and she felt so bad for me she bought me my own copy!
Oh, and I’m not at all a knitter, but I still like to see pictures of what other people are knitting. So, carry on. 😉
Congrats on the move to WordPress! I heart WordPress SO much.
One small note…your email feed currently is only showing snippets of the post instead of the whole thing. Any chance you could change it back to the way it used to be?
Happy birthday on Friday!
I said, “Oooooh” out loud when I saw your gift. My guys looked over the game that they are playing and inquired about the “Oooh-ing”.
Yes, please continue the Yarn Along! I think if your mother sees the amount of participation and how far it has spread that she may be convinced that it is a good good thing for the fiber community. I may be biased though 😉
I hope you don’t mind that I felt bad for you while snickering at the prospect of losing the organization book (and I hope you are able to find it soon). While laughing at the ironic aspect of the whole thing I know the pains of losing a library book. I held my head in shame the one and only time that I lost a book (knock on proverbial wood). And it was me! Not the kids, not my husband, and a friend over for a playdate. Ugh!
We love our library and I didn’t want that to be a reflection of how I feel about them. I think I even told the library assistant something to this affect when I paid our $45 for a $16 book.
Your new blog look is great and I’m happy that I can leave a comment now.
Blessings!
I’m so glad to see you are keeping your yarn along! I’ve missed posting to it for the last six months and now I’m getting back into it 🙂 Non-knitters are always puzzled at the insane interest we have in all things fiber!
Love your blog 🙂
i’m so loving your blog. i rarely check other blogs because i’m so busy with my life and my blog. but, i can now say that i visit you regularly. we have a lot in common!
much love,
nicole
The baby Jesus is so sweet! I just may have to make one for our manger next year. Honestly I didn’t even get round to putting up a manger for sacrifice straw this year. I was so tired I really stuck to the bare minimum. But perhaps if I make one of these adorable baby Jesus’ I’ll have to put up a manger next Advent. I may even have to do something prettier then a kid decorated cardboard box…..
I love seeing your knitting. Even when I wasn’t a knitter it was fun to see all your beautiful projects. I’d ohh and ahh and wish I could knit. Then one day I saw a really cute doll sweater you made and doll shoes too and decided I just had to learn. Thank you for inspiring me because I am having so much fun learning!
Glad you like your new blog home. I think it looks quite pretty. I chuckled about your mom’s comment about the yarn. My favorite aunt asked me why would anyone want to read about what I am knitting……I am assuming she does not read my blog.
I am not a knitter, tho’ I’ve tried, and I love to see the knitting on your pages…..the sweaters, the needles in little hands, the skeins…everything. So please continue. It seems to me that you are generous with photos of the children and the knitting and so much more, so we are all content.
With gratitude,
Lesley
Don’t stop posting your knitting!! (Or anything else, for that matter!) I love stopping by and reading about all the fun stuff you and your family do.
Ginny, you are so funny. And your knitting children are beautiful. 🙂
Love this new space-beautiful indeed.
I love the new site and knitting is never boring!
I totally want to see pictures of knitting! And the kids and animals and your garden and everything you post about!
Hey, we almost share a birthday… mine is Thursday! We must do something special for ourselves… us holiday babies have to stick together! 🙂
I love seeing photos of your family and reading about your precious children and your life, I would be happy if you blogged every single day. But please don’t leave out the knitting! Knitting is what brought me here!
Love the Christmas doll! I had planned on doing some downtown errands yesterday but with the yucky rain I pretty much stuck to Wegman’s. And my blog reader made the transition to your new site without any problems. Merry Christmas! 🙂
I love seeing knitting AND photo’s of your kids on your blog!
Your birthday is the day after mine! 🙂
Oh, I’m not a knitter and I LOVE seeing your knitting. I imagine that some day I’ll be able to knit like you do. 🙂 Please ignore your mother and keep showing us your knitting and your children. There’s plenty of room for both!
Maybe your mom will become a knitter! New things to learn. It’s been rainy and gray and chilly here today too and I’ve moped about in the same clothes I had on yesterday and got nothing done. (unless loads of laundry count). Your birthday present looks great – I’m sure the kids will love winding your skeins for you. My boys love playing with (oops! winding!) skeins on the swift.
Ginny, I just wanted to thank you for hosting the yarn along every week. It has become somethign I really look forward to and it really inspires me to keep at learning how to knit. Thank you for your beautiful blog. You inspire me to simplicity and and creativity.
Love it all the way it is!
I love your blog. I admire your kids photos and your nature photos but I admit I love the Yarn along and the books you share with us, some of which I invariably end up getting. Thanks so much about sharing your Christmas traditions too, i love the baby Jesus…. I am a born shopper and I have been after the Ostheimer wooden baby Jesus. It’s over 28 dollars plus shipping . i am trying to convince myself that I don’t need it. I can make a simple one with wool . I loved seeing yours. Great inspiration
We have to have empathy for the nonknitters. lol Just kidding, Grandma.
I love your yarn along. Maybe one day I will even motivate to take pics and link up.
Your new space looks great, and I think you have a fine balance of knitting vs. kid pictures!–I love all of your pictures! That lamp is something else!
People probably don’t want to see the knitting?!? I LOVE seeing all of your knitting projects–they are so inspiring and beautiful! And I love all the gorgeous and artful photos you take of your family and just everyday life. Lovely. 🙂
Love the new blog (really love the new banner picture!!!)
Simplicity is my goal this year, too! (and last year, and the year before….I’m a work in progress)
Love the knitting!!! Love the reading/books!!! Non-knitters just don’t get it.
Oh, my goodness – don’t leave out the knitting! ha ha Mothers.
Keep the yarn coming! The kids are gorgeous, but if I can’t read about some yarny goodness once in a while too, I will die! Much love… enjoy your present!
Moving… I ment MOVING on my own knitting. Ugh. I should read my comment before hitting submit. 🙂
loving it is good too!!
No! I love love LOVE the pictures of your knitting. It puts a pep in my step to get loving on my own knitting.
This comment actually made me chuckle out loud…would that be C.O.L in computerease? Thanks for making me laugh
Knitting boring! Never!!!!!
Though your mom isn’t wrong that seeing your children is lovely.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. The new blog looks very pretty and thank you for blogging.
Gasp! The knitting is not boring! I love it. I always mean to do the Yarn Along, but I forget. And honestly, I’ve gotten super lazy about uploading pictures of my knitting anymore. I currently have a backlog of about a dozen projects to get up on Ravelry. Oh well!
I taught my eldest to knit yesterday. I could not believe how quickly she got it. She can’t remember how to wind the yarn through her fingers but she remembers how to make a stitch. 🙂
i love love love the knitting on your blog. please don’t change it!
the leg lamp! <3 my kids were cracking up.
I love your blog just the way it is! I start knitting again after a 20 year absence partly because of your blog, so please don’t stop the pictures… your mom will still love you anyway!!!
Nonknitters never do understand, do they?
Love the blog just as it is. A little of everything, I suspect, in your life. Don’t forget to keep practicing in the new year. Do it in the evening! I promise it will be okay.
Ginny, for a moment I was afraid you were going to stop the Yarn Along and I was ready to cry! It is so nice to have something, no matter how simple, to look forward to each week and the Yarn Along is something I do look forward to; it also motivates me to knit and read [like I really need an excuse] each day. I hope you continue to host it until when Beatrix gets married! 🙂
I love to see the pictures of the kids but the knitting is one of the reasons I visit this blog. I found you through Ravelry. Please don’t stop talking about knitting, or gardening, sewing, homeschooling, etc.
Happy Christmas. Your blog looks beautiful. Baby Jesus is perfect. Less *is* more. And 80% of the blogs I read are entirely knitting blogs — so count me in as one of the knitting content fans!
We’re struggling with a fairly new dyslexia diagnosis here, so if you have anything to share in that particular parenting journey, please do. I can’t even comprehend the language they are using to describe what my son is and isn’t struggling with. I know I have reading to do about it, and don’t even know where to start, what books to read. I’m experiencing conflicting information, my own fear, confusion, and jargon.
Have a blessed new year.
Did you use a pattern for the Baby Jesus doll? I don’t know how to knit or sew (yet) but I sure would like to learn how!
Fra gi lay…Cracks me up every time. Lame, I know.
I tell my husband all the time that I used to be organized. Now I just figure some of it doesn’t matter in the big picture. We are as organized as we can be. It may just be organized chaos. I giggled when you mentioned losing the book 🙂
Oh, I also used to be on time!
I think blogs are a way to use your voice. Just be true to you and it will show. Don’t worry what others think.
Just a little note to say that the new blog looks great! I always love visiting your blog; as Anneke said above, all the pictures of the kids make me feel like I know everyone, just a bit. Actually, it feels like you’re that family at church that we see every week and always wish that we were friends, but instead of a few pews away, we’re a few thousand miles away. The knitting posts are wonderful, too; you’ve inspired me to pick up my knitting needles again, and I finally finished my daughter’s baby blanket, just in time for her baby brother to use it (good thing I picked blue)!
Happy Christmas to you and your family!
Ginny your blog is fantastic as it is, I read blogs that were waldorfy and knitting heavy before I even made the leap over and learned how to kit and unplugged us . Even if people dont knit they can surely appreciate the beauty.Your blog brings me peace, i giggle whenever you talk about organization or lack thereof as I always find myself wanting to organize my life and home when I read your blog,I find the pictures you post very restful.
I don’t have kids yet and I’m not organised so I guess theres no hope for me when I do have them! I do however have a swift like that one and it is ridiculously life changing and awesome!
I love seeing your knitting, non knitters don’t know what they are missing out on.
I love your knitting pics – don’t stop! I love everything you write <3
I’m always enjoying the posts, and the knitting too, even when I’m not joining the Yarn Along. And there’re lots and lots of pictures of the kids, it’s like I know them a bit. You made a wonderful baby Jesus!
“I was organized before I had children” reminds of “I was patient before I had kids.” Having children really tests the strengths we think we have, and refines tendencies to virtues. Of course, if it was just my stuff I would be super organized or if everyone was on the same organization page and level as myself, I would be a regular Martha Stewart. Virtues aren’t made overnight – it takes a lifetime and is strengthened by being tested continually.
Kate,
I am a fan of Martha Stewart. I have learned a lot from her about baking, and crafting through the years but I have to remind myself that she was able to be the “domestic goddess” that she is because she sent her one child to boarding school. I would never be ready for an impromptu, elegant dinner party for eight, because I am busy raising children.
Knitting boring? Never!! :o)