The PE Edition

We started tennis lessons today.  The boys were excited: they got new shoes and shorts.  I decided to take Jean with us, as the tennis court is next to a playground and a half mile running track. While the boys were playing tennis, he was playing on the playground, and while Melva played, I started the couch to 5K program with him.  Today we walked briskly for five minutes, and then jogged for 60 seconds, walked for 90, eight times.

He was more excited about running than this.  I am not sure he knew I was taking a picture.

He loved it.  He was not as tired as I was, I am sure he will soon want to run faster than I can, but running is the one sport that he really can do with us.  Just getting out in the fresh air and sunshine is good for him.   Sometimes he struggles to sleep and I think it might be because he avoids the bright sunlight during the day. He still prefers to go outside when it is dusk, just as he did when he was a baby.

Christian is just so adorable, especially in his white shoes.  He vowed to never ever get them dirty.

They got to play with their best friend.

Just before his mini breakdown.

The boys enjoyed their lesson. Martinus got frustrated because he could not bounce the ball with his racket, but the instructor was firm and just ignored him when he started whimpering.  No one gets his name right, today he was Martin, with the short i sound in the last syllable.  I liked it, maybe we should call him that.  At choir a week ago Miss Cathy called him Marcelo, and he responded without any objection.  We called him that for a little while at home too, just for laughs.  You cannot take your name too seriously if you move to America.

They are growing fast.  Christian lost both of his lower incisors a week ago.  He is picking up books to read by himself, and while they cannot read fluently, we are working through McGuffey's Eclectic Readers at a steady pace, and I am sure they will be strong readers by the time we start first grade.  Having had two children who could not read before the age of seven (Jean only started to read chapter books when he was eight) I am grateful.  As I grow older, I realize more and more that we really have nothing that was not given to us. (1 Corinthians 4:7)  I did not pay more attention to them, I did not try to teach them much when they were younger, I waited for them to show an interest and they simply showed an interest sooner than the other two did. It is a wonderful gift.

The weather is starting to cool down, with highs in the low 90's and lows in the low 70's all of this week. Over the weekend a cold front is suppose to hit Central Texas; the maximum forecast for Sunday is 28 degrees Celsius and the minimum will be 11 degrees Celsius! My heart beat a little faster when I read that.  Summer wasn't too bad, but it is time for a change in the seasons.  Fall is my favorite season.  Apparently in every hemisphere.

Nature study: Pond life (and death)

Yesterday we went to the park, and saw a Great Egret.  It stood in the pond on one leg, and I made the very old joke: "Look, it has only one leg!"  Then it flew out of the water onto the bank, and we saw that it had only one leg.  For several minutes it sat motionless, staring intently at the water.  My friend did some quick research on her iPhone, and read in a hushed tone that they catch fish by spearing them with their bills.  The Egret then proceeded to spear a fish, about 6 inches long, with its bill. After shaking the fish, it swallowed it whole.  Moments later it flew to the other side of the pond, leaving a single feather floating in the water.

All downhill, so far

 I am so glad to say that the Park Street Cardi is a dream to knit.  The yarn is lovely, the instructions are clear and it will be flying off my needles - I have almost finished the pockets, not hard at all! (I will be on the lookout for closeout sales on bulky yarn, I'd like one for me, too.  We are saving for a deposit on a house, so I have to mend my spendthrift ways.)

 

 

To offset my spending on yarn, I am making my own project bags.  I saw bags far less fancy than this one for $12 at the local yarn store.  I bought the fabric at a discount for $1.20, and I could make two, so one really only costs me 60 cents, which means I now have $22.80 to spend on yarn. What a bargain.

  

 Melva's Pi Shawl / blanket is steadily growing.  (If there is no lace, it is a blanket.  A round blanket. Or a tablecloth, actually. Melva insists that the eyelets count for lace and that it is therefore a shawl.  But it is just a blanket. Really.  Unless she adds a lace edge, that might redeem it, of course.  Can you guess it drives her crazy when I call it a blanket?)

She took the shawl with her to a math competition in San Antonio this weekend, and enjoyed all the comments by security guards discovering the huge ball of yarn in her bag.  (I think it was the highlight of her trip, to be honest!)

I know I should be reading a bit faster to qualify as a reader, honestly, if I knit as slowly as I read I would have been stalking Ginny's yarn along, not joining in.  Yet, I am making progress in Herzog, wondering all the while if other people are really that complicated.  And since I know, from knowing the people that I know, that they are, I am a bit uneasy thinking about everything that must be going on under the calm surface of everyday life...

We also listened to Tom Sawyer, the audiobook version, and it was delightful.  I love hearing about boys living in a different time, they make my bunch seem very tame.  I have been told that I raise feral children, but by comparison I am overprotective.

We are savoring the autumn days.  I cannot believe that we are actually fossil hunting - the banks of Shoal Creek consists of Cretaceous Era mud, and we found several prehistoric seashells, some perfectly preserved in the prehistoric mud. (If you look closely, you can see their knit pockets, very handy for collecting fossils.)

 Christian slid down that bank and ended in the shallow creek, very dirty and sore.  The late afternoon sun was a perfect towel and blanket.

 A bit later we discovered this hill.  Glorious late afternoons in central Austin, with sweet friends to celebrate with us. Nothing in particular, and everything, in general.

Update: 52 projects, and The Weather

I am still making things.  I have lost count, I think I may finish 52 objects this year, and I am failing at taking a picture every week and posting about it, but at least I am still making things.

The nesting baskets were inspired by this post over at "Rhythm of the Home".

Upside down

They are very pretty, made out of left over pieces of fabric that I cut into 1 inch wide strips with a rotary cutter.

I also needed a place to store the millions of cheap-ish double pointed needles that I have bought on Amazon.  They do the job well enough, and I do not feel so desperate when I lose one of them.  But I do not plan to lose any more, hence the neat case to store them in:

I made this pattern up, it was really easy once I sat down and fiddled with the actual needles and fabric.  That is fortunate, since I will need a couple more cases before all the needles are organized...

And since I am writing, I might add that the weather in Central Texas has definitely turned.  This summer wasn't that bad, but when I went outside yesterday and suddenly felt as if I could breathe the air, I remembered how much I actually dislike this climate.  I guess it is a good sign if you start to notice something only in its absence?

When it was over 95 (35) degrees, I did what I had to and really felt as if it was not that bad.  But the moment it dropped below 88 (31) degrees, I felt at home.  It is going to be a good three months.