Back

Since the kids took my camera battery charger and placed it somewhere in the house, I’ve been aching to take some pictures.  It’s so addicting.  It’s fun to see the world through a lens, and somehow helps your mind focus on the beauty, and less on the noise.  We searched awhile, and then I offered a reward to whoever could find it.  After about a week of that, I searched online, and found a used charger for $10.  That will do.

So today if finally came in the mail, and I’ve been taking pictures like an addict.  So here’s what’s going on around here.

Ingrid is into everything.  She’s this squishy, smiley baby that is determined to move and stand and crawl.  She has no fear like her big sister, Solveig, and charms her way into everything as well.  She’s also starting to tell us stories in her own language.  I love baby stories.

School is going on about 3 days a week.  My aim is to work up to 4 as we get into Fall.  The more I think about it, the more I see that we like routine, but we also like to get out of the house and do lots of stuff.  It’s been hard to have a whole summer of doing stuff without routine, but it’s hard to say no constantly during the school year.  I’m wondering if we should move to what many homeschooling families do, and that’s 4 day weeks year round.  That would allow for routine, but also planned interruptions to those routines.  We’ll see.

I have this whole notebook of knitting designs to tackle, but with the trauma of the accident I’ve really had a hard time working on them.  I’ve started 3 designs, and all 3 of them need to be ripped back and adjusted.  My brain could not handle that.  I was aching for some mental clarity and focus, so I started this cross stitch that I got for Christmas last year.  It’s been going really fast, and as I expect it to be done this next week, I just go a frame for it.  I love it so much.

Still, my hands ached to knit, but my brain was stuttering on the design front.  So I decided I should make something from someone else’s pattern so my brain could rest, but my hands could do their fidgety thing.  So I finally broke down and took this autumn orange yarn that I had intended for one of my own designs in the stash, and I cast on a pattern that I’ve wanted to make for myself since about the second it came out.  Heidi Kirrmaier might be one of my favorite designers.  Her designs are everything I strive for: simplicity, easy, yet interesting.  It’s a hard line to find, yet she nails it time after time.

The pattern is called Nanook, and it’s going really well.  I’m nearly done with the yoke already, and it’ll be pretty fast after that.  I picked a size with a bit more ease than I usually do, which I think would make the designer happy.  Plus I just want a Fall sweater that feels so cozy.

I cannot tell you how good this project has been for me mentally.  Just the rhythm of being back in knitting.  My hands working together with such speed and efficiency.  I was trying to explain to Knut, that when I’m knitting this sweater, my brain is starting to focus better since the trauma of the accident.

Instead of starting one thought and having it trail off 1-2 minutes later, just to be invaded by another thought that trails off, when I am knitting this I can hold onto a thought for 15 minutes, and just think critically about what needs to be done, etc.

It reminds me that I used to get up in the morning and knit for about 15 minutes before starting school for the kids because I could organize their day better in my head when my hands were knitting.

When I say knitting is my therapy, I’m not joking.

Slowly but surely, we’re all getting put back together.