Thank you all so much for your kind words about our new baby! You guys helped me to start getting excited (vs. worried) and all of you who have had babies in your forties and shared your stories with me gave me so much encouragement! Thank you!
January is feeling pretty blah. I think I’ve got a bit of depression going on. Low energy tends to do that to me, as do gray skies and cold weather. I am so looking forward to spring with daffodils and crocuses poking their heads out of the ground. Violets blooming. Sun shining. We’ll have strawberries this year because I planted two beds of them last year. And also foxgloves! I started a few different varieties from seed last year and those should bloom this year. I’m excited! I’ve ordered my seeds for this year’s garden. Mostly flowers but also peas, lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I’ll be starting lettuce soon under grow lights. I almost ordered seed potatoes but couldn’t stomach the shipping fees. Before our local farm store closed I bought seed potatoes there every year for cheap. I’m hoping to find another local option.
My energy is returning, but I’m still tired. And it’s cold. I hate the cold this winter more than usual. I really look forward each day to getting in bed under the covers and reading. I’ve read a couple of good books this year already. The first was 84, Charing Cross Road, a birthday gift from a friend. I loved it. I read it in less than 24 hours, finishing on New Year’s Day. Then I packaged it up and mailed it to someone I love who I think will like it as well. There’s a movie with Anthony Hopkins. I watched that too. Actually, I watched it while working on that little puzzle in my photo above. I want more small puzzles like that! My next book was also a gift, this one from my sister, Abby. She visited Carl Sandburg’s Connemara last summer and bought a copy of My Connemara, written by Sandburg’s granddaughter. It’s a lovely book. Abby mailed it to me along with a pair of cute socks with goats on them from the gift shop there. I want to visit someday. Now I’m reading Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. I love it! I’ve been meaning to read it for years. One of you must have recommended it to me at some point.
I’ve started a huge project. I want to fill albums with my photos from the past however many years I can find them. I so want a visual record of our days that we can hold in our hands. I’ve been meaning to do it for years. I remember Amanda Soule posting about doing this, and thinking that I definitely needed to do the same, only I didn’t.
I ordered 2 12 by 12 photo albums from scrapbook.com to start (obsessed over color and ended up going with the dark gray because the dark brown was out of stock) along with page protectors to hold 4 by 6 photos. This isn’t a project I can afford to do in a short amount of time. I’m thinking maybe one every month or two after the initial two are filled. I am ordering my prints from Costco. They don’t charge shipping! My plan is to fit two years of photos into each album. Hopefully, I can be conservative with what I print and make that happen. I think you can fit 600 photos per album. Surely I don’t need to print more than 300 photos per year! Last weekend I completed 2020. I’ll work backward from there. The further back I get in time, the fewer photos I will have and will probably be able to fit more than two years per album so I am okay printing more from recent years. I didn’t mean to finish 2020 so quickly. I was actually supposed to work on taxes over the weekend. I suspect that is what fueled my intense focus on pouring through every single photo I took last year! Seth has been moving photos from old hard drives onto an external drive for me so they are easy to access. It will be fun to revisit the past. I sure hope I can stick with this project. At the very least, we will have a 2020 album!
I’ve been knitting a bit and have finished a couple of projects. I gifted my most recent Antarktis recently. I forgot to get photos of it until the evening before I sent it to its recipient. It was getting dark when Beatrix took the photos for me so the color isn’t quite accurate in them. I also finished my Heartwood cape but haven’t gotten photos of that one yet. I love it! I’ve wanted one ever since I knit one for Beatrix years ago. I started a new shawl, but have set it aside for quicker projects. Right now I’m knitting a little red neck kerchief for Mabel. Regarding Yarn Along, I’m so sorry but I’ve decided to discontinue it this year. It must seem like such a little thing, but having to remember to put it together for a certain day each month is just one more thing on my already full plate. I’m planning to work hard to take it easy this year. That must sound funny, but taking it easy doesn’t come naturally for me! There will also be less in my shop this year. I’m simply spread too thin on top of being 43 and pregnant. There will be goat’s milk soap for sure, and Keats will still be making things to sell there. I will probably sew up some sachets at some point and I really hope to dye playsilks before spring. I so appreciate all of your support over the years!
p.s. I was asked what patterns I used for the doll clothes I made for Mabel’s doll Bridget (from my last post.) This is the cardigan pattern. As for the clothing I sewed, I can’t be of much help. Most of the patterns came from a book called Kinder Dolls that I have had for nearly twenty years. It appears to be out of print. The patterns are very simple and I bet there is a newer resource out there now.
I had my first baby at 30 and my fourth at 40 and I called him my dessert baby because he was the extra treat at the end. He was my extra chance to re-enjoy all those precious moments. At 4 years younger than my third, he has enabled me to enjoy the gift of mothering just that bit longer and to do so without so much of the hectic stress. The loveliest thing, though, was seeing how much his older siblings enjoyed him, and homeschooling meant that they were all closely bonded, despite the age span. He is now, at 6 foot four, the tallest of all the siblings and just started university. You will enjoy this time around so much more because you will know what not to stress about and what to relish and cherish for one last precious time. I hope you enjoy health and a smooth experience. Warmest good wishes from Western Australia
Clare
Hi there, I used to comment occasionally and then life became busy and hectic. In June of 2020 I lost my husband unexpectedly and tragically. 23 days later I lost my dad to Alzheimer’s disease. I have two little girls and our world has changed dramatically. I say this not for sympathy but wanted you to know how much I’ve enjoyed coming back to your blog. The familiarity, the coziness and even simple nature of your lives has brought me comfort. So…when you feel down or depressed please think of your readers. And realize how much you and your family mean to so many. I can say you have been a help to me recently! Thank you.
I loved Major Pettigrew!! Her other book is good too. Highly suggest you read House Lessons by Erika Bauermeister. Such a gorgeous book. Congratulations on your baby news!!
I probably should print out all those digital photos and make some books too! Maybe. Loved seeing your January days.
Dear Ginny,
thank you for sharing your life with us. I have been reading your blog for a number of years now and it has inriched my life. Thank you.
Congratulations on your new baby, how wonderful!
I can relate a little bit to the age concerns, since our children were born when I was 39 and 41. I actually gave birth to our daughter on my 41rst birthday.
What a miracle that was.
I felt God was showering me with blessings and the most beautiful gift anyone could get on a birthday… I hope you can enjoy the pregnancy and feel peace in your heart
I’m so glad you mentioned watching the 84 Charing Cross movie. I’d never watched it until tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I’m so glad!
Ginny,
Since I sent my comment, my Google feed which listens to me (lol) sent me an article about the downside of planting store potatoes for seed.
We mostly container garden on the deck. My potatoes are planted in a bank in the ground. So I never worried about contamination. Since we are beekeepers, we don’t even use diatoms on the garden, just some soapy water. Every year we go through the heartache of cutworms with our Cherokee purples.
Anyway, I did not mean to suggest something dangerous to the soil or other garden. Ours has been good.
Sorry
No worries, Kelli! I haven’t researched it before. Thanks for letting me know!
Thank you so much, Ginny, for your post. I was just thinking of you yesterday, wondering how your pregnancy is progressing. Also thanks very much for the link to the precious little doll sweater pattern on Ravelry! I’ve downloaded it, and want to get started later today because my granddaughter will turn four in a couple of weeks, and sewing and/or knitting her some doll clothes has been on my to do list for ever so long. How is it that our lists get ever longer, especially during this season of COVID-19 isolation???
I did find another Waldorf doll clothes pattern on Amazon, which is more reasonably priced at $8.95 plus shipping. I haven’t ordered it yet, simply because it will depress me if I order it and then don’t get any clothes made for that upcoming birthday! I think we all struggle with depression during the winter to some degree, and the fact that your hormones are crazy busy now with pregnancy makes it understandable that some depression would hit. Take care of yourself; I’m proud of you for being honest with yourself and deciding that KAL will have to be postponed. You’re doing great!
I find it harder to complete projects in the winter, even though I seem to have more time! Less motivation. I hope you get the sweater finished!
I will pray for you and your baby, congratulations. I am knitting an Antarktis at the moment!
I just wanted you to know that I got KRITSTEN LAVRANSDATTER for Christmas ( a friend had said I would love it and the I read that it had been your favourite so I decided I couldn’t go far wrong!) I really love it so far!
with love,
Victoria
I’m so glad you are loving it! I am always thinking that I need to reread it. It’s been twelve years now since I read it!
Shipping costs are a little much but the best price I’ve found on seed potatoes is from Fedco (including shipping), and they have onion sets as well—you can also just go the grocery store route but I always worry about disease vulnerability in that case… I have probably ordered too many for this coming year, but I always get so excited, and then carried away, and my poor husband is the one who has to do all the planting and harvesting!!
Thanks, Rosie! I looked at Fedco (after seeing your FB post in the homesteader’s group) but couldn’t handle paying more for shipping than the potatoes themselves! I was spoiled being able to buy 50 lb bags locally!
Oh, another person that loved Amanda’s photo album storage post! I’ve been doing that for years, printing out the photos and putting them in albums. I originally started out with whatever was on sale, so now I have about 20 odd colored albums, not as pretty on the outside, but at least all the photos are in an album. I started to find one 12 x 12 that was a very good price for $10.00 at the Christmas Tree Shops, but they’ve discontinued those now. It’s only scrapbooking things now. I do like the photos pages from Michaels’ Crafts that have both the horizontal and vertical sizes for the photos, but it only comes in a black background, while I prefer the clear. I do need to go through all of our photos again, and purge them out. I have way too many albums!!!
Thank you for sharing.
How lovely to visit with you via your post today. We live right by Carl Sandberg’s home and go for walks and hikes there regularly. The children especially love to go visit when the goats have kids, they let us roam among them and play with them. It’s a beautiful and peaceful place and now I’m interested in reading that book!
I will so miss your yarn along posts but you are absolutely right, you only have so much time and energy to spend and it must go to the most important places right in front of you. Seasons come + go, and pregnancy is truly such a long and taxing endeavor even though it is also one of the most special seasons ever. I will be thinking of you and praying for you and this new little one, and always will enjoy your blog and the bits of your life that you share!
Martha, I think you’d enjoy the book! Thank you for your prayers!
Congratulations, Ginny! So happy for you. You are all in my prayers. I am hoping to do photos sometime in the next couple of years. Been on my list forever but I don’t have a good plan. This post does help alot! Are you using sheet protectors that have slots for 4×6 photos? Do you just buy a variety of styles that have both horizontal and vertical on each page? I feel like I would get caught up on which photos go on which page and not get the project done so wondering how your 2020 album went with organizing photos in the album. Blessings to all! I will think of you when I am yearning for skies of blue!
Hi Jaime! These are the sheet protectors that I am using: https://www.scrapbook.com/store/uc-pp724348.html They have slots for 4 by 6 photos, but I chose pages that only have them oriented horizontally because that is how I take the majority of my photos. I won’t mind having the odd photo turned the wrong way for the few vertical shots I include. I haven’t filled my 2020 album yet because I am waiting for the prints to arrive (sorry, my post was misleading-I just meant that I had finished the work of selecting and ordering photos.) I placed a separate order for each month so I wouldn’t get the months mixed up and plan to place them in the album by month in the order that they come which should be chronological. I bet I will tweak the system as I go!
Congratulations on your pregnancy I am a grandma 9 times now very blessed May I ask what the gorgeous brown knitting is in your photo with 84 Charing Rd Thank you
That is the start of an Ardent shawl! Here’s the link to the pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ardent
and here’s a link to my notes so you can see what yarn I am using: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/GinnySheller/ardent
Thank you so much. Again, congratulations.
Ginny,
We just buy a few bags of organic potatoes…whatever variety at the grocery. If you store them, they will grow eyes. In the Spring, just cut up potatoes with at least one eye or sprout to the piece. Let them dry open air a few days to demold and voila seed potatoes.
Ginny,
So happy to hear about your baby. Happy to hear you are taking care of you. Putting a note in the mail to you. The shawl is so beautiful. Never got past the dishcloth stage of knitting, so wish my mom was alive to teach me again..does Bea have Skype. I will pay her to show me! Haha. Love you so much friend. Praying,
I’m always so excited when you have a new post! It’s like family visiting. (Which we haven’t had any of this year & it’s awful). Anyway, so excited for the new babe and you just try to rest as best you can. Love to all.
I sure miss my family too! Hoping that by late this summer we can safely visit our parents in Georgia.
Even when you describe your struggles it is uplifting! I guess it makes me feel not so very alone in mine. Thank you for your sweet honesty and your beautiful simplicity.
I love to read your posts Ginny, and see your beautiful photos, and am always amazed by how much you accomplish! Reading & knitting & homeschooling & cooking & housework & other creative endeavours…and so much more! I wish I had the kind of energy that you have, I can never seem to fit all I need to do into my days, let alone things I would like to do! I too struggle with mild depression at this time of year (West Coast of Canada…many, many grey & rainy days from Nov – March at least!) I have to MAKE myself go for daily walks…that generally helps. It is my daily medicine! Thinking of you & praying for you and baby …I think you are an incredible woman! Make sure you take time to get enough rest. Blessings xo
I made myself get out for a walk yesterday and think I am feeling better for it today. Thanks for the nudge!
I don’t mind the cold much but the gloomy days are getting me down. (I learned the first year here that “Ohio” stands for Oh Hell, It’s Overcast.) I think I may need more magnesium to help with sleep so I wake with more energy.
So true, from another Ohioan! Take heart…May and sunshine will come!
I agree that the gloom is worse than the cold. And, I never skip a night of magnesium!!!
I also read Charing Cross in a day this month – must be all the rage! Charming book. I just finished Even As We Breathe by Clapsaddle. If you have an interest in the NC Ashville area and Cherokee Native Americans this is a delightful tale about a part of history I didn’t know. The Grove Park was used to hold Axis diplomats during WWII. This story takes place during that time.
Thank you for the book recommendation! It does sound really fascinating!
Do you follow the Literary Life podcast!?! 84 Charing Cross Road has been all the rage there! I just finished it and loved it too! Someone said there is a sequel or two so I’m looking for those next. Thinking of you and your baby!
I don’t, but think I ought to! My friend who bought me the book does and I think that was her inspiration to get it for me.
Ginny I hope you will feel stronger and better soon. “My Connemara” sounds like a book we all would enjoy. You and the baby are in our prayers.
God Bless
Marilyn,Joan and Marion