So This Is Lyme's Disease. Hunh.

I've never felt quite like this. First it was just crashing, crashing fatigue and dizziness and nausea, then the other symptoms began. I sure do hope the treatment works. And I sure do hope I'm the only one in the family who has the disease. We all go outside a lot, and like I mentioned, I saw two deer ticks on Sunshine.

Facts I've heard and read (a google search turns up loads of info): Deer ticks spread Lyme's. They are much smaller than dog ticks, and around half the people diagnosed with the disease don't even know they were bitten. The symptoms are vague and can go into remission, leading you to think you're better, when really you're not. Between 30% and 70% of people with the disease do NOT develop the characteristic bulls-eye rash. The Mid-Atlantic area and the northeast are hotbeds in the U.S. for Lyme's. Rodents can be carriers, not just deer. The bacteria that cause Lyme's are spiral-shaped, and they are parasitic. Once they bore too far into your organs, it can be impossible to treat the disease, and the bacteria can cause permanent damage before they are eliminated. The bacteria can be transmitted through skin contact with a deer tick, that is to say, they don't even have to bite you.

That, in a nutshell, is why I am leery of meadows.

The Centerpiece

"Give your child a single valuable idea..."

"Fairly implant an idea in the child's mind, and it will secrete its own food, grow, and bear fruit in the form of a succession of kindred ideas... Give your child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information; for the child who grows up with a few dominant ideas has his self-education provided for, his career marked out." ~Charlotte Mason, Home Education

Lavender Rose Baby Girl Kimono

One more baby girl "Lucy's Kimono" is in my etsy shop tonight.

My Favorite Way to Hard-Boil Eggs

Is to poach them. Here are the instructions, as given to my husband. They're nice and tender and perfectly cooked every time.

Sweet Strawberry Baby Girl Kimono

This version of "Lucy's Kimono" is in my etsy shop tonight. I made it with French seams this time.

One Daylily, Every Day

This is getting to be "Beth's Flower Blog". Hm, catchy.

Time management thoughts from Charlotte Mason.

In the first place, there is a time-table, written out fairly, so that the child knows what he has to do and how long each lesson is to last. The idea of definite work to be finished in a given time is valuable to the child, not only as training him in habits of order, but in diligence; he learns that one time is not 'as good as another'; that there is no right time left for what is not done in its own time; and this knowledge alone does a great deal to secure the child's attention to his work.

...I suppose we are all ready to admit that it is not the things we do, but the things we fail to do, which fatigue us, with the sense of omission, with the worry of hurry in overtaking our tasks.

~Charlotte Mason, Home Education

Wednesday Park Day

Their favorite part of the park is the berries: mulberries,

abundant black rasperries. We saw blackberries coming, too.

I'm partial to the flowers.

I was surprised to find a magnolia tree. I didn't realize they grew this far north.


We discovered new things today, going deeper than usual... fallen logs that were poems in and of themselves, native stone put to awesome use.

Sadly, Sunshine got not one, but two deer ticks on her, and I don't know if I'll have the fortitude to venture out to this particular park again. Lyme's disease scares the livin' daylights out of me.

Teething... with a hat on.

We value our Hyland's intensely. Intensely.

I'm impressed with Twinkle's good attitude. True, she rarely naps. True, she wants to be held most of the day or she wails miserably. But she tries so hard to be sweet, and she always has a smile for her family.

Lavender Drying

My mom has a huge sprawling bush of lavender that I have to brush past to get to her front door. Whenever I do so, I am filled with deep envy. Very un-Christian, I know. Fortunately, she shares. Some of this is mine, but it languishes in the shade; most is hers.

Ten Years, Twelve Roses

We have had an anniversary, the tin or aluminum anniversary. How time does fly.

Watermelon Days

Some days, it is a good idea to eat watermelon in defiance of set mealtimes and the concept of moderation.

They keep me in clover.

I have fresh blossoms daily, thanks to my beautiful Honeybear and Sunshine.

"Daydreaming is its own reward."

Daydreaming does not enjoy tremendous prestige in our culture, which tends to regard it as unproductive thought. Writers perhaps appreciate its importance better than most, since a fair amount of what they call work consists of little more than daydreaming edited. Yet anyone who reads for pleasure should prize it too, for what is reading a good book but a daydream at second hand? Unlike any other form of thought, daydreaming is its own reward. For regardless of the result (if any), the very process of daydreaming is pleasurable.

~Michael Pollan, A Place of My Own

"Joel's" Kimono

This is Lucy's Kimono from Weekend Sewing. It's for my eight-week-old nephew, Joel, but he's as big as Twinkle, so she's trying it on to make sure it fits.

I like the kimono style very much for babies. I made the top with M'Liss Blue Net cotton. It's from a nautical collection. My brother loves sailing, as any sensible man should, so this fabric is apropos for his son.

I wasn't really thrilled with the pattern itself. If I weren't late with this "new baby gift" and crunching to make Sewing Seeds skirts, I would have done French seams, as there were a lot of raw edges. Also, some of the instructions were confusing. I found, as with the Everything Tote, that I needed more bias binding than the pattern called for (although in that case it was fabric). I would like to try the baby kimono pattern in Amy Butler's book, next time.

I ♥ My Dad

We went to visit my dad yesterday. We took him a box of Ferrero Rocher, one of the few things I miss about not eating sweets. (photo by my Artist - in his defense, he took a better one, but in that one, I didn't look so great...)

At home, in the morning, our resident Daddy got waffles, cards, colored pictures, and a copy of A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams. Also Sunshine sang "Happy Birthday to You" several times at the top of her voice.

Sassafras Tree

This is our sassafras tree. It graces a steep bank next to our driveway.

Note its three-pronged leaves.

And its striped bark.

If you scratch the green stems with a fingernail, or break off a leaf, the most delicious gingery scent is released.

Have a lovely weekend.

Boppy Plays In the Baby Gym

Allow me to explain. I never meant for Sunshine to imprint on the Boppy. It happened without my knowledge or consent. She used to reach back and stroke it while she nursed. By the time I figured out what was going on, it was too late.

So I got rid of the nasty stretch polyester cover and sewed one of cotton receiving blankets. After she got used to that, I started cutting Boppy down, a few inches at a time. The intention was to eventually get it to dolly-torso size, then start adding limbs. A leg here, a head there, till it was a real baby dolly for her. Is this sounding crazy yet? Then bedrest hit, and Boppy was forgotten (by me, anyway), especially as Sunshine now was big enough to actually carry the thing around without falling over its bulk.

But she's getting more and more pathetic. She wants it to be a dolly. She gets a certain look in her eye, sometimes, when Honeybear plays with Lamby. I think it's time to re-commence the campaign.

Kneading the Bread Dough

Rainy days. Such a challenge to find things to keep energetic babies happy, but this worked for about two minutes till they ate it.

"Sunshine, children's laughter, hum of bees..."

Besides the gain of an hour or two in the open air, there is this to be considered: meals taken al fresco are usually joyous, and there is nothing like gladness for converting meat and drink into healthy blood and tissue. All the time, too, the children are storing up memories of a happy childhood. Fifty years hence they will see the shadows of the boughs making patterns on the white tablecloth; and sunshine, children's laughter, hum of bees, and scent of flowers are being bottled up for after refreshment.

~Charlotte Mason, Home Education

Eyelet Hat

Reminds me of the last photo on this post, when she was seven months old. That was such a happy day. This is a happy day, too.

Miniature Foxgloves

First there was one. Now there are eight.

Trailing Clouds of Glory

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

~William Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality, 60-67

Have a beautiful weekend.

The Finished Blush Plush Blankie

The pattern: Basket Weave Blanket from Knitting for Baby by Melanie Falick.

The yarn: Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille in "Blush".

The baby: My very, very own.

Baby Reaches

This baby gym arrived today via UPS from Moolka. I always want to give the UPS man a cookie after he trudges up our truck-unfriendly driveway with a box.

Wasn't I pleased when Twinkle started reaching right away. Anything to take her mind off it.

Come, Teeth, Come

The Big Girls' Room

The weekends kept going by, with one activity and another, and Twinkle getting a week older every time, without being situated in the nursery where she belonged. In the end, I decided to move the furniture "all by my very ownself", as Honeybear would say. It turned out the crib didn't fit through the door, so I had to take it apart and put it back together in the sewing room, now the Big Girls' Room. In the process I took off the bars and made it a daybed.

This is just their favorite place to play now.

Mouths

I came home from the library and found this, preserved in notepad on my pc desktop.

Daddy: What sound does lamby make? Does he say baaah?

[Honeybear]: lamby doesn't say anything, daddy....He doesn't have a mouth.

[Sunshine]: Boppy will have a mouth someday...when she gets bigger.

Local Summer Fun

Hurrah! The first day of our eensy local farmer's market.

Came home with plants to plant. Also saw a miniature collie and a baby brindle bulldog.

Thank you, Linda, for your comment on yesterday's post. Linda mentioned Zechariah 4:10a in the New Living Translation. I'm thinking of writing it on a card. I think it applies wonderfully to mothers, and God's heart for our lovelings.

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin."

Have a happy weekend.