New Generation

I was reading an article in Tuesday's newspaper that was talking about today's young people.  They were mostly quoting a woman who has just written a book called The Winter of Our Disconnect, about her efforts to wean her family from its dependence on technology.  I was shocked by the things the woman mentioned.  The fact that teens can be befuddled by can openers and ice cube trays.  By college kids who've never done laundry, or even addressed an envelope.  The article was asking if we are raising a generation of nincompoops?  I want to know what kind of parents we think we are if our kids grow up unable to address an envelope, write a check, open a can with a can opener, or ride a bus.  If we've made it so easy for them that they can't do their own laundry, cook a meal, or mow the lawn.  The woman writing the book said her kids can't even figure out how to hang up their clothes on a hanger.  What planet does this woman live on and why is she so willing to let us know what a poor job she has done of preparing her children for real life?


My daughter could do the laundry by the age of ten and was ironing the pillowcases before that.  Why?  Because we needed ironed pillowcases?  No, because she learned how to handle a hot iron and later graduated on to ironing her dad's shirts on occasion.  She learned to set a table (including which way the blade of the knife should face), and load a dishwasher, and run the vacuum.  By the time she was a teen, she knew how to clean a bathroom.  Why?  Because some day she was going to need to know how.  She learned how to weed, garden, and mow a lawn with us.  She learned to cook and bake, sew and mend.  Did she like doing all these things?  Probably not.  But that wasn't the point.  I wanted her to be prepared for the future.


It's not our young people's fault.  It's not the fact that they have computers and cell phones.  It's the fault of their parents for failing to purposefully train their children in the life skills they're going to need some day.  Especially in today's economy when you might not be able to hire someone in to mow your yard or clean your house.  When you might need to start preparing food at home, instead of take out or eating at a restaurant.  When you might need to sew that button back on your coat, instead of running out and buying a new one.  Parents need to get real and start being parents.


~Jane

Knitting Unraveled

I was spending last night with a friend.  Her husband passed away last week and she wanted someone to keep her company.  We were watching "Dancing with the Stars" and knitting.  All of a sudden I looked at my knitting. I mean, really looked.  I dug out a tape measure and started measuring the sweater, and then I measured myself. I carefully examined the instructions, checked my gauge (which was a little off, but in the direction that the sweater should have been a tiny bit smaller than written), and had the horrible realization that the sweater was too big.  I mean really too big!  I pulled it off the needles so that it was its full width, not scrunched up on the needles, and wrapped it around me.  It was at least 10 inches too big, maybe a foot.  Ack!  I spent the rest of the evening unraveling so I could start again, this  time about two sizes smaller.  So now my post matches my blog title - Unraveled.  Here is the new picture of my sweater.

~Jane

October Challenge Update - Ironed a couple more aprons to list on the etsy site for sale.

Updates

Here is a picture of my knitting...just to show how far I've gone.  It's looking pretty good and the yarn is very soft and nice to work with.  Each row seems to take forever, but that's because I'm knitting the fronts and the back all together at once.  I'm probably about half way up the stockinette section.

I was looking at the pictures from our Mt. Rainier outing last week and couldn't resist this one.  My three most favorite people in the whole world - my husband, grandson, and daughter.  I love it!

October Challenge (even though it's still September):  Managed to clean the guest bedroom, did six million loads of laundry and folded them, and vacuumed the entire house.  Making progress on getting caught up.

October Challenge

Life seems to be so busy lately.  Between work and family, I seem to be stretched pretty thin.  Of course, I am still working on my mom's house, trying to sort it all out, and my friend's husband passed away this week so I've been trying to spend some extra time with her also.  Consequently my house has been sorely neglected and please don't even ask if I've really planned a meal recently.

My daughter has been working a lot of extra shifts the past two months and she is also behind with the housework.  So she's issued an October Challenge.  Her goals are to use the Flylady system to catch up her house before she leaves on vacation the end of October and to exercise every week day so she doesn't feel so sluggish and looks great in front of relatives she doesn't see oftener than once every couple of years.  I've decided to join her on her challenge.  These are my goals:

• Flylady cleaning, 
• One freezer meal each week to get ready for session - which will force me to plan meals,
• Get rid of a basket of ironing while keeping current ironing caught up, and 
• Paint the linen closet!  

I'll post my progress each day as a footnote to my blog.

~Jane

New Knitting Project

This is a picture of my new knitting project.  I'm actually knitting something for myself, other than socks!  I've decided with all the stress around here lately, I needed a new project to occupy my mind.  This is going to be a sweater.  Let's see how long it takes to actually finish it.  The last sweater I started for myself, about 20 years ago, is only half finished.  Needles are interchangeable Harmony wood.  Yarn is Comfy Worsted in the color Marlin.  Both yarn and needles are from www.knitpicks.com.

Meet Me on Monday #3

Java on Nevergrowingold.blogspot.com is having a blog hop to get to know the bloggers that follow her blog. Every Monday she posts five questions for people to answer so she can get to know you better.





Questions:

1. What is your favorite all time movie?  My favorite movie is probably "You've Got Mail" followed by "Sleepless in Seattle."

2. How often do you go over the speed limit?  Very rarely.  The one time I got a ticket was on my way to my mother's house and the cop stopped me in her driveway.

3. What really gives you the creeps?  Hmmm....lots of things but I can't think of one right now.

4. What is your favorite snack?  Hummus and crackers...sometimes just the hummus.

5. Would you rather be a dog named Killer or a cat named Fluffy?  Hey, Killer all the way.  Who wants to be a cat?

~Jane

Friendship

If you read my post the other day, you know that a good friend of mine's husband is in the hospital in a coma.  It's been 72 hours now and there has only been the slightest ray of hope.  It is very discouraging but we are continuing to pray.

One of the areas I want to improve myself is in the art of hospitality.  I guess because my parents very rarely entertained, and then it was only family, I never really learned how to entertain.  I've learned over the years how to be a pretty good hostess, and I can throw together a dinner for 16 at the drop of a hat, but usually my entertaining consists of cooking for family, small groups of ladies like a craft night or Bunco, or our Bible study group.  I know my husband wishes I would do more in the way of having other couples over.

Part of this area also involves developing friendships with other women.  I know that I've been very dependent upon my mother and my daughter for female friendship.  I have other friends, but I'm not very good at the lunch thing.  Part of it is my natural thriftiness at spending that much money for lunch, but a lot of it is that I just don't want to spend the time.  After losing my mother this spring, and watching her world shrink because she wasn't very good at the friendship thing, I decided that I don't want to put that much pressure on my daughter.  I don't want to end up with no friends outside of family. Recently I reconnected with several friends from high school through Facebook, and have gone out to lunch with them a couple times.  They are friendships that I'd like to continue to develop.

Circling back to the first paragraph of this post, in visiting the hospital to see my friend, I've come to know another lady from my church that I seem to click with.  She recognized it also and asked for my phone number so we can plan a get together.  I kind of feel like I'm making some progress.  Maybe, if I ever get my house organized, I'll even tackle inviting another couple or two over for dinner!

~Jane

Unexpected

My husband and I are friends with another couple.  We've known them since our grown daughter turned two and she graduated into their Sunday School class.  She was promptly nicknamed Elfy-Belfy and voted the best dressed toddler and we have been friends ever since.

The wife of this couple is one of my best friends.  We share interests in knitting and corgis.  They always dog-sit for us when we go out of town, even though I figured out finally she takes time off work to stay home with my dog and lets him sleep on the bed.  He comes home thoroughly spoiled.

We are part of a group of five couples that get together a couple times each month for food, fellowship, watching a video, or discussing a book.  Some of us have gone on trips together.  We pray for the others, support each other, enjoy one another.  We've been doing this for seven or eight years and we've become entwined in each other's lives.

While my friend has some health issues, her husband is always the picture of health, a hiker and jogger.  They are both intelligent, articulate, and interesting to be around.  Yesterday the husband, a teacher and coach bringing a van full of students back to school after a sporting event, stopped at a stoplight and also had his heart stop.  Due to the quick actions of a man in the car behind the van, his heart was restarted.  Now he lies in a coma in the ICU at our local hospital and we wonder if he will come back to us or continue on to heaven.

This man is in his fifties with a lot of life ahead of him.  We are all in shock that such an unthinkable thing has happened.  And there is nothing we can do but comfort his wife, my friend, and pray and wait and cry and wonder what tomorrow holds.

~Jane

Meet Me on Monday - #2

Java on Nevergrowingold.blogspot.com is having a blog hop to get to know the bloggers that follow her blog.  Every Monday she posts five questions for people to answer so she can get to know you better.
Questions: 

1. What is your favorite pasta dish?  How do you pick?  Lasagna or Ravioli or Tortellini or Mac and Cheese or Pasta Salad or anything with Alfredo sauce.......
2. What is the last thing you do before going to bed?  Let the dog out and in.  Once in bed, I read for a few minutes.
3. How many nights a week do you go out to eat?  Hardly ever.
4. Are you an avid book reader?  Yes, I usually have more than one going at a time.
5. Would you rather have x-ray vision or bionic hearing?  Since I'm rather hard of hearing - bionic hearing.  I hate when I miss what people are saying.

Port Townsend Wooden Boats Festival

The Little Guy ready to roll.

Don't you love the old buildings?

My husband, I, and the Little Guy along with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law took off today for a day trip to Port Townsend.  We didn't know until we got there that this weekend is the Wooden Boats Festival.  We put the Little Guy in the stroller and took off.  I marveled at all the old buildings.  Most of them seemed to date from about 1889 although a few were earlier.  We checked out all the bookstores.  We had lunch at a nice outdoor cafe with wonderful homemade bread and soup.  I bought yarn from a wonderful yarn store.  Wish I could have spent more time there!  My sister-in-law found an old book.  My husband bought a mug.  We stopped and looked at all the boats.  On the way home we stopped along the way to get coffee and some ice cream. We had a blast.  The Little Guy did great!

I loved the widow's walk on the top.

There was the best yarn store here.

The Boats.

Grandpa and the Little Guy

Charting New Territory

This weekend is Twilight's Bella's birthday and the city of Forks is having a big birthday celebration.  It is also the first weekend of the elk hunting season.  My daughter and her in-laws are headed off to Forks for the weekend since they are big Twilight fans, and my son-in-law is headed for the woods.  Because of these two events, I get the Little Guy for the weekend.  This is the first time that we've had him overnight at our house.  I've really been looking forward to it and its been planned since the beginning of summer.  About a month ago, my brother-in-law started talking about coming to visit.  My sister-in-law has moved back to the area and now he can visit with both siblings and a couple cousins all at the same time.  Well, guess what weekend he picked to come?  Of course, this weekend.  Now I am trying to coordinate my husband's visiting plans with the Little Guy's schedule and all of a sudden the weekend has become much more complicated.  Now I'm going to be juggling sightseeing with nap time and diaper bags and strollers.  Well, my focus is going to be on the Little Guy.  The adults can take care of themselves.  I'm sure it will turn out to be a really fun weekend even if it's going to be a little crazy!  Wish me luck! 

~Jane

Do the Shuffle

As you all know, I've been going through my mother's things - sorting out her estate.  Of course, in the process I've found things I want - some linens, some material, and family heirlooms like pictures, etc.  There are the linens and aprons that I've been bringing home to wash and iron before my daughter puts them in her etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/littlesproutbasics.  My car's trunk has been pretty full lately, as I take some things out to launder or store, and then collect more things the next time I go over.  This has been  a source of contention between my husband and I as he prefers the trunk to be empty and isn't impressed with my treasures riding around in it.  I woke up this morning with the realization that my brother-in-law is arriving tomorrow for a one-week visit and my husband is going to want the trunk to be empty.  So tonight when I get home from work, I'm going to have to clean it out.  The question is where am I going to put a trunkful of stuff?  Where I'd like to store it is in a spare shower off the utility room, close to the washing machine, but the shower already is full with the stuff I've been sorting out of my own house that is going to the Goodwill.  Tonight I'm going to have to bag all the donation stuff for the Goodwill and move the bags to the garage.  Then I'll store the stuff from the trunk in the shower.  As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that this whole plan sounds alot like something my mother would have done.  Except that the stuff in the shower wouldn't have been on its way to the thrift store...she would just have added the stuff from the trunk to the top of the pile.  But hiding stuff in the shower?  Definitely my mother!  :)

~Jane

Meet Me on Monday

Java on Nevergrowingold.blogspot.com is having a blog hop to get to know the bloggers that follow her blog.  Every Monday she posts five questions for people to answer so she can get to know you.  I've never attempted to follow a blog hop before, so here goes......

Questions: 

1. Do you wear socks to bed?  I'd like to say never, but I have on occasion when my feet are really cold.  I find that at some point during the night though, I manage to kick them off.  My feet really feel constrained wearing socks at night.  My feet don't slide on the sheets.  I'd rather use a rice bag to warm up my feet.

2. Do you have any pets?  I have one dog and five chickens, although I can't really call the chickens pets.  They live their life, I live mine.  The only time we meet is through the eggs.  My dog's name is Carson. I've had him for about nine years.  He's a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and we got him through a rescue organization.  He has a long story behind him which I might blog about some day. 

3. What topping(s) do you like on your pizza?  Anything and everything except anchovies.  My favorites are pepperoni, pineapple, and olives.

4. What time do you go to bed?  Much later than I should.  Usually around midnight, which is too late when I have to get up at 6 a.m.  My husband leaves at 6 a.m. and I like to get up to talk a couple minutes, pray with him, and kiss him goodbye.  Then I set the oven timer for 30-45 minutes and sit down in the living room chair, pull a blanket over me, and sleep until the timer goes off and I have to get serious about getting ready.  If I got to bed earlier, I could skip the morning nap and actually arrive at work in a leisurely manner and not have forgotten anything.  If my husband had a different job, I'd probably sleep in until 6:30 a.m. and not have to worry about the nap.

5. Would you rather get free chocolate for one year or free potatoes forever?  Obviously...free chocolate.  Potatoes are great, but who ever has enough chocolate?  My husband now, he'd take the free potatoes for life.


~Jane

Questions

I posted earlier this week about my mom's scrapbooks and someone made the comment that I am still learning about her even though she is gone.  That is so true.  There are a lot of things I have been wondering about as I've been going through her things.  I wonder why she felt the need to collect all this stuff - way beyond a normal accumulation.  I know I've heard various stories as to the collection, but I just wish I really knew why!  Was it to get back at my dad for being a less-than-perfect husband on occasion...one story I've heard.  Is it because she was the only sibling to move away from the home area and so missed out on the items from the old family farm, and she was upset with her family and purchased items that were similar to things she remembered.  She never worked outside the home, so did shopping help fill the empty nest once we all moved out?  I know my grandfather was a collector, so did she inherit or acquire the habit from him?  When we finally settled down after years of moving all the time as an Army wife, and she no longer had to limit the amount of possessions we had, was it just natural to make up for lost time?  Was it because she grew up in the Depression?  I know she had plans for some of the stuff.  She collected dolls and planned on sewing clothing for them.  But then the stuff took over and there wasn't any place to work on anything and the items acquired a life of their own.  I guess my biggest question of all is why was the stuff more important than the people in her life, because eventually the stuff crowded out any ability to stop in and visit unless the weather was nice enough to sit outside.  In Washington, that isn't very often.

~Jane