…hoping to get you a post about the joy of change from the last year and then all plans changed when I said “Yes” to working a double (day and evening) today and then all changed again when I woke up at 5am with a heaving stomach, had to call in and only just now, 9 hours from the first heave, have been able to move from the bed without reaching for my trusty bucket. We will have a review in later days…I think…or maybe I’ll just look to the fore and we’ll discuss my dreams for the future year. Yeah. That sounds good.
On the first day of Christmas I was given the reminder that its the little things that you do that matter the most. A gift from a residents daughter made me smile and remember that, while frustrating and exasperating some times, my residents are someones mother/father/sister/brother and, since family are unable to take care of them themselves, they are grateful to my co-workers and myself for doing so. Gifts of sweets have covered the break room table since mid-month and this scarf was completely unexpected AND from a woman that I’ve never met! I know her only as a signature on a calender on her mothers wall and I would bet a lot that she only knows me as “Pasta”, the name that her hard of hearing and highly forgetful mother calls me when she doesn’t quite remember or hear that my name is “Tasha”.
This second day of Christmas I am reminded of how grateful I am to have a little corner of the apartment as “mine”. I have my chair set in the corner of the dining room next to my desk, shelves filled with yarn and inspiration, books, plants and hedgehogs to snuggle with. It is a place where I feel secure and confident and can watch the birds and the rain from a safe, warm place. Its a hug and it is what I make of it and I’m so glad I’ve got it.
I know mine…whats yours?
Lucky me, I had to pick M up from the airport on the 30th and since we were so close to Seattle, and niece S wanted to go in anyway, we went to Uwajimaya, a HUGE asian supermarket. I found so many yummy things, a very cute present for M for Christmas and had a fun ferry trip back across towards home.
I have a few fond memories that many would call…odd…to say the least. One of my most treasured memories is making calamari with my mum. Now, I’m sure that some of you may have bought the pre-breaded calamari rings and either fried or baked them yourself but I am talking about making-from-scratch-including-the-dissection.
For some reason we had bought a box of squid (I’m sure I saw it and begged for it because it would be ‘fun’ to make it ourselves) and spent an afternoon cleaning, de-quilling, de-beaking, creating rings and making a squiddy feast. I remember how she showed me how to do the cleaning so I would not burst the ink sacs and my curious mind actually focused on looking at the entrails and I won’t even talk about how excited I got when I cleaned a female squid full of eggs! We made two different dishes and they tasted all the better because it was the whole experience that was savored.
Trust me, I do have a point here and it all links together:
This Holiday season, make a savory food memory with your kids.
Make a savory dish together that is partly fiddly, possibly hard to gather the ingredients for and required steps to make. Include them in all the steps and take your time.
Do they like calamari? Trust me, making your own from scratch is a fantastic memory.
Someday, when they are older, they might buy their own squid so they can repeat the experience themselves. 
I know I did.
Did you know that there are only 24 more shopping days until Christmas? 20 if you are Hanukkah shopping. Didja? Didja? Didja?
Oh yes, it is that time of year again. What am I saying? Its been “that time of year” since October but the insanity and pressure of “Holiday Shopping” has and will only get worse. I’ve been grateful for the past 3 years NOT to have cable service because I was spared the incessant jingles, scare tactics and pressure to buy, Buy, BUY! However, I am noticing something as a childless adult…I’m not feeling the pressure, only the disgust at our completely commercialised western culture.
Want her love? Remember what kiss begins with or what store to shop in to make the burly football player smile.
Want to make him cheer? Buy tools or a red metal toolbox.
Want the kids to be happy? Buy one of a zillion and a half toys. Better yet, buy lots.
Despite the ABC World News push to have a “Made in America” holiday, ITS STILL ABOUT BUYING! Now, I am in favor of creating jobs as much as the next person but really, I would rather save my money entirely, have a handmade holiday or give a family gift.
Here is my plan for a revolutionary holiday:
A) If you feel like you MUST shop:
#1: Before you shop for anything, purge your closets. Go thru and clean out the clothes you don’t wear, the toys your kids don’t play with and the ‘things’ that you have around that are just gathering dust. Give away to your local charity shop.
#2: Make a list of your NEEDS. Do you/your partner/the kids in your life NEED a new winter coat? How about boots? How about underwear or socks? How about diapers? How about crayons or paper? Parents, be honest, wouldn’t you rather your kid have new socks or snow boots that they can actually USE or a beeping, flashing, noisy toy that will drive you batty and run on hellishly expensive batteries? I thought so.
#3: Make a list of your WANTS. For me, I REALLY WANT a kitchen aid mixer, like really, really badly. Mike really, really wants an Xbox with Kinect. Keep it simple and keep it to the “Really, Really” wants.
#4: Make a list of your likes. Do you like yarn, non-food or floral scents and the colour blue and red? How about yellows and greens, fruity smells and hair products? War games? Chocolate? Car toys? Bicycles? Horses? BE SPECIFIC!!! You can also make a very specific dislikes list but its easier to shop for someone when you know what they really like.
#5: Share those lists with your family.
#6: Buy accordingly. Needs come first, then wants. Consider buying only gifts that can be for the whole family instead of person specific. The mixer will provide hours of kitchen fun and the Xbox hours of playing together. We both win.
#7: Go volunteer for at least 1 hour for every ‘thing’ you buy. Trust me, if you have time to battle the stores or search the ‘net for the best deals, you have time to help someone in need.
B) If you feel crafty:
#1: Make nearly identical gifts for everyone. I still think that the best year of my giving was when I made stained glass angels for everyone. Using scraps and leftovers from my Mums projects, I changed the colour of the dresses, made some look left, others look right but made a bunch for family and friends.
#2 Knit/Make slippers. Everyone needs slippers and wearing them in the house cuts down on the vacuuming. Win-Win for everyone!
#3 Recycle containers and fill with other goodies. I know I plan to make snowmen like Kristy did and fill them with mint hot chocolate or russian tea.
#4 Should time run out, give IOU’s! Adults understand this more than kids so try your best to complete the kids gifts first.
C) Give
#1: Give of your time and skills. Not only am I advocating volunteering but also giving of yourself to your family. Offer to babysit the niece/nephew(s) while the parents go out. Offer to do the laundry while your partner has some alone time. Offer to make their favourite snack during Sunday football. Give coupons and follow thru and all will be happy.
#2: Give to your favourite charity. Heifer International is mine and, like always, I am giving a Knitters Gift Basket to a needy family in honour of my Nana. What better way to share the holiday season than giving to people who are in true need?
D) Create traditions NOT around gifts.
Mike and I are really looking forward to having a feast like we did last year:
and watching Christmas specials. I’ve got to work on Christmas day so nothing fancy for us but really, we don’t need it.
What are your non-commercial holiday ideas?
My friend C posted this today on Facebook and I thought I would share it here with a bit of my own comments after:
{Here is a nice piece written by Andy Rooney
As I grow in age, I value women who are over 50 most of all. Here are just a few reasons why:
A woman over 50 will not lay next to you in bed and ask, “What are you thinking?” She doesn’t care what you think.
If a woman over 50 doesn’t want to watch the game, she doesn’t sit around whining about it. She does something she wants to do. And, it’s usually something more interesting.
A woman over 50 knows herself well enough to be assured in who she is, what she is, what she wants and from whomever.
Few women past the age of 50 give a damn what you might think about her or what she’s doing.
Women over 50 are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, they won’t hesitate to shoot you, if they think they can get away with it.
Older women are generous with praise, often undeserved. They know what it’s like to be unappreciated.
A woman over 50 has the self-assurance to introduce you to her women friends. A younger woman with a man will often ignore even her best friend because she doesn’t trust the guy with other women. Women over 50 couldn’t care less if you’re attracted to her friends because she knows her friends won’t betray her.
Women get psychic as they age. You never have to confess your sins to a woman over 50. They always know.
A woman over 50 looks good wearing bright red lipstick. This is not true of younger women or drag queens.
Once you get past a wrinkle or two, a woman over 50 is far sexier than her younger counterpart.
Older women are forthright and honest. They’ll tell you right off if you are a jerk if you are acting like one! You don’t ever have to wonder where you stand with her.
Yes, we praise women over 50 for a multitude of reasons.
Unfortunately, it’s not reciprocal. For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed hot woman of 50+, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some 18-year-old waitress.
Ladies, I apologize.
For all those men who say, “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, ” here’s an update for you: Nowadays 80% of women are against marriage. Why? Because women realize it’s not worth buying an entire Pig, just to get a little sausage.}
I’ve always known that I felt older than I am…’an old soul’ as a friend at work pointed out to me the other day while we were talking about taking the time to watch the ducks dabbling about on the small lake outside her window…but reading this really made me feel like I had indeed hit the “50″ mark.
#1) I rarely ask M what he is thinking about…I just answer the question or offer a solution to the problem that he hasn’t voiced but is pondering.
#2) Sundays are for football for M. I do anything else. And that is perfect the way it is.
#3) I am so my own person…hence the knitting in public, wearing the clothes I want and the interest and activity in things I want to do.
#4) I don’t scream or yell but am a good shot. You have been warned.
#5) Of course I praise for the little things because if I didn’t, you wouldn’t want to do the little things anymore and the little lead to the big!
#6) I’m not worried about my friends or about M. Not only would the women I call friends not betray me, I know he wouldn’t either.
#7) Why yes. See #1.
#8) Ok, so this is the only one not true but thats because a) I don’t wear lipstick and b) I haven’t found my ‘perfect’ red and c) I’m not willing to buy a bunch of red lipsticks to try.
#9) I’ve recently noticed some eye crinkles and yes, my silver hairs shine beautifully in my dark locks but, let me tell you, I feel much sexier now than I did 10 years ago.
#10) My time is worth so much more than wasting it being around someone who is being an ass. I tell.
As I tried to think of some witty way to end this post, I realised that everything that I typed sounded trite and twee and just wrong…but why does it need a snappy ending?
Be at peace, my friend, with your ages; real, imagined and soul are all YOU.
I’m knitting socks for M and these, these socks are flying thru my needles. Aran/Worsted yarn on 3′s…perfect for mens socks and I’m to the heel already.
This is my first ball. Now, as I started knitting these socks, I KNEW that there would be a yardage issue. KNEW IT. So, since there were not 2 skeins at the LYS that I visited, I bought the single skein, came home and promptly jumped on Ravelry to search for a second. Yes, the dye lots would be different but for two different socks, I wasn’t all that fussed and I knew that M wouldn’t be either. He has a second sock that is 1/3 another colourway for heavens sake…he loves them and its not a big deal.
I started my first sock toe-up so if I couldn’t find a second skein at the very least I would have two socks with matching toes and then switch at the same place for heels and legs. Brilliant plan.
However, I got very lucky right off the bat and the lovely Sarah came to my rescue and she sent me her leftover skein from a hat that she had crocheted in 2009 and it arrived yesterday and I squeed and M cheered (he was happy not to have oddly striping socks again) and we opened the box.
Look! Isn’t it lovely? Isn’t it perfect? Oh, I am so glad to have Ravelry and that Sarah was willing to part with her other skein!
But…take another look at those photos…do you see it?
Here, I’ll put them side by side:
See it now?
Yup, they are VERY different. The new skein is much more green than the first and no where near the brown and seems to have much longer colour repeats.
Is this a problem? Not at all. We knew that there would be a very good chance that the colours would be slightly different since, of course, I was buying a skein of yarn circa 2009 to match my skein circa 2011 and since they would be making two different socks and since fraternal sock twins are embraced in this house, both M and I are happy, very happy, to have that second skein.
Want to know the REALLY interesting part though? Take a look at the ball bands, particularly the part about colourway and dye lots:
2009 then 2011
Yup. Identical. Colour 1580, Dyelot* 38362
Curiouser and Curiouser.
*Interesting aside…”Parti” in Swedish = “Party” in English and I get this incredible visual of the hanks of yarn just having a party in their dye bath or the dyers just having the best time at work with music and dancing at the dye table. Run along now and leave me to my delusions.
Healing: Regeneration of the body, mind or spirit.
To risk a “Duh” statement; Healing is a part of growth.
Healing is necessary to…fix…whatever has been broken.
Make it, whatever ‘it’ may be, better, faster, stronger,
more resilient, educated, wiser,
practised, skilled, educated,
regenerated, restored, and meliorated.
Healing is as intentional as unintentional; more so, if you think about it.
People ‘fade’ pretty darn fast when they ‘have lost the will to live’.
Your body will fix itself if given the chance and the right medicines,
but no medicine in the world can really ‘fix’ your emotions and no time can heal your heart if you don’t let it.
If you chose to hold on to an emotional hurt it becomes a festering sore that will eventually seep into every pore of your life and poison all the good things.
An Intentional Healing as a part of life is not about “forgive and forget” because if to truly heal you must have learned and grown from the experience and gotten better because of it;
though the “better” part may be hard to see in your immediate healing aftermath.
Take the time to look at your own hurts and where you need to heal today.
In the spinning of Healing, I know that I did and I feel better because of it.
I’m healing too.
Intentions:
Fertility: Paving the way for new ideas, new life and new creation.
Started in April, Fertility seemed to have quite apropriate timing for its journey thru my fingers, wheel and mind.
Nelson Lagoon was starting to show signs of thawing as I finished and I was germinating ideas of my new life at the same time.
After “resting” for nearly 4 months before plying since I ply when I only have one bobbin left so there is generally a few days of ‘plying party’ in Chez Sisu which, as it happens, also included a huge move, it seemed odd to be thinking again about fertility.
And then I remembered…growth is always. My growth is continual.
When I spun this yarn, I was living in my own house in Nelson Lagoon Alaska working as a Community Health Aide and it was April.
When I plied this yarn it was July, I was living in Hoquiam Washington with M and his mom and working at figuring out what the heck I was going to do next.
As I write this post it is November, I am living in our own apartment in Port Townsend Washington and I am working as a Certified Nurses Aide.
The only constant IS change and there will always be new ideas, new life and new creation…as long as we are willing to look for that other road…which may or may not be paved.
Not that that makes much difference in the end because there are always going to be bumps, wrong turns, U-Turns, stops, starts and going the wrong way on a one way, paving or no.
But the point is we have to be open to the idea for the newness of things,
for the possibility of change,
for the discovery of new passions and dislikes,
for life to stop being something that is happening and that we are living through and start being something that we are doing and that we are living.
For the growth that is essential to life itself to take place.
My hope for myself and for you?
Be ever changing.
Be growing.
Be fertile.
This whole ‘work hours warp’ is still getting the best of me. I work the evening shift, from 2-10pm and that means that 2 main things are out of whack for me.
#1: “Lunch is Dinner”
Since I only get half hour ‘lunch’ break while working and that generally comes between 4 and 6pm, if I get it at all, I don’t really have time to have a real meal. One of the most important parts of my day is having a meal with M, knowing that I’ve made this lovely, healthy, nutritious meal for us…so that means that I make our big meal lunch. Since its more healthy to have a large meal earlier in the day than later in the evening, this is a good thing.
#2: Time in general
General Poll: Who goes to bed within an hour of getting off of work? Yeah, me neither.
I get done with work and get home between 1030 and 11pm and then spend the next 2-3 hours decompressing and relaxing and chatting with M. That means that I don’t get to bed before midnight any night of the week because I have to TRY to keep some semblance of routine in my scheduled life. I also am a morning person so that means, being sick with a cold notwithstanding, I am fully awake and up by 830am. That would be the time for coffee and BBC world news podcast. And food needs to be on the table by 1230 so I can relax and eat and get out the door by 140 so I am planning a full dinner at the midnight previous and getting things moving by 10am, a scant 2-3 hours after getting up. Somewhere in there I also try to get in 30 minutes of running (though not as faithfully as I intend to), knitting on various projects and, oh yes, spinning time too. The best time for the knitting is in the mornings and the spinning is the evenings and in between cooking and laundry and cleaning, it all gets worked on. Except for the blog.
But here is a photo list of what I’m working on!
Socks for M. In Boy Colours. In Aran weight yarn. On 3′s. Because a knitters man always has substantially bigger feet than the knitter herself.
This first sock is toe up and the plan is for me to knit until there is 50g of yarn left and then do the second. Hopefully this works as a plan but I have a call out on Ravelry for a second skein of this colourway (Jarbo Garn Raggi in 1580) so hopefully the de-stasher will get back to me soon! In the meantime though, I bought some more boy colours too:
A vest for myself, which, despite making calculations to get the fit right, I totally made it too big. So it may be a Christmas gift so I shan’t give more detailed photos than this.
My second attempt at Nanny Ogg Mittens (real name: Hedgehog Mittens by Spilly Jane who blogs here) You can see my first attempt over here but, I’m warning you, it isn’t pretty.
I’m liking this second attempt much more than the first and I’m actually using two solid yarns and the pattern as written (to a point) this time. Not that those are connected at all. Ahem.
My Rimefrost socks using Fiesta Baby Boom in Arctic. Yes, I know they haven’t gotten very far yet but I can only do one charted knitting pattern at a time without madness ensuing and I need warm hands more than new socks so the mittens come first and the socks wait their turn. Not too long if last years attempt at the Nanny Mittens are anything to go by!
There also has been some spinning going on and I do promise that I will update you as to my progress thru the Intentions line. I bought some beautiful merino, alpaca, silk/bamboo blend on Friday that is singing its sirens song (along with much more of my other stash) and I want to move into a new project soon but I am dedicated to my Intentions and give that my focus.
I’m on to ‘Joy’ now and am remembering the joy that spinning gives me and being mindful of all the joy I have in my life.
I know that I am blessed and hope you feel the same way today and everyday.
