Kid logic

So, Noah has this thing for Iron Man. He's got a costume, plus a couple shirts handed down to him, so he's curious this intimidating-looking superhero. He asks, "Who is Iron Man? Is he a bad guy?" (He's also got a different thing about "bad guys".) His sisters assure him that Iron Man's not real, but just a machine. I mention that no, in the story, the Iron Man costume is made by a man named Tony Stark, but it's all make-believe.

At this point, they were surprisingly excited at the idea that this character should have a normal, real name. Then one of them remembers that our mailman's name is Tony. "Wow! Our mailman's Tony and Iron Man is Tony! I think our mailman is Iron Man!!"

Makes sense to me. I mean, how many men could possibly be called Tony and have the second word of their job title be "Man"?

Urg.

I'm sick. Not dreadfully, just a bit of a head cold. That said, I am not a good sick person. I'm rather impatient at the best of times, and when I'm sick...ahem. Let's just say that I predict no more than 1 more day of feeling poorly before I've had enough and get over it.

Not a great deal going on recently, and few photos being taken. We're looking forward to a vacation in about a week, though. And I have an about-to-be-8-years-old daughter on my hands. Tuesday is the big day. She's been counting down for a month. I hope the big day lives up to her expectations - no pressure!
My neighbor-across-the-street had a beautiful little girl a couple weeks ago. She had a very excited older sister to welcome her home, and both girls needed some coordinating fashions. So the revered pattern served us again. Big sisters need to look just as sweet as their new siblings, right?

When I first started these longies for Dan, it did everything according to the pattern, but it wasn't long before I realized they were going to be way too small. After some ripping out and modifications (on my page), they are now finished and fit perfectly.

Now we just need some sensible autumn weather to give them a good test run...

Baby knitter

That's me, I'm a baby knitter. I knit for babies, that is. There have been so many new babies being born or about to be, I've been pretty busy.

I made this one for Daniel recently, though he'll not be wearing it for a while, given the heat (oh, the heat!). It had better fit him when it's cool enough to wear, that's all I gotta say.

Pattern and yarn info is on my Ravelry page.

Here's another sweater of the same pattern, but smaller. For a newbie. Hope mommy and daddy like it!

I can't remember if I posted this before, but we have another boy sweater (details here). This one is for the very sweet Isaac Henry, who's presence in the Wilson is very much appreciated.

I'm almost finished seaming another pair of these booties, which are looking really cute.

I'm now working on these for Dan. I got a good couple inches into it before realizing that he would be rather too big for them by the time they were finished, so I ripped it all out to start again with a larger needle. We'll see how that progresses...

I still need to put together my Salina, and I'm still dreaming of the Tea Leaves. Is it wrong to hope for yarn money for my birthday?

A Proper Education

"We are...commanded to prepare each child to walk as a faithful Christian in all areas of life. An arrow has two ends. On one end is the arrow head. We want sharp arrows, academically speaking. But on the other end of the arrow we find a delicate guidance system, feathers to be exact. We want our arrows to travel toward their target without deviation. This corresponds to the development of moral character. A proper education will work on both ends of the arrow (i.e both ends of the child) at the same time. Although scholarship is obviously important, a sharp arrow is worthless without direction. And a blunt arrow, even if it hits its target, will have very little effect."

~The Christian Homeschool by Gregg Harris

Yum

Some recipe links, from me to you:

Cheesy Kielbasa Bake

Baked Ziti

Quick Chicken Divan

Slow-Cooked Chili

Also, for using up leftovers:

Fry an onion in some butter. Add 3 tbsp of flour, then slowly add half a pint of milk (I think) to make a roux. Add a "cream of" soup (chicken, mushroom, celery, etc). Then add your left over meat and veg (about half a pound or so). Put it in a pie plate and top with mashed potato, biscuits or (our favorite) a puff pastry sheet. Bake on 400 for half an hour.

Your welcome.

Laughter

It's good for the soul. After all, how could this laugh not make your day a little brighter?

Take Them a Meal

Shortly before Daniel was born, we heard about this website, takethemameal.com. What a nifty thing!

Take Them a Meal is basically an online meal organizing tool. Someone just had a new baby or coming home from the hospital? Wanna take them food but don't want 12 casseroles to show up on the same day? No problem - once you sign in, you invite anyone you think would like to be involved in making and taking food. They decide what available days they would like deliver the food and fill in their details (name, number and what they'd like to bring). The system will then email the meal-deliverer on their delivery day to remind them, and email the meal receiver, so that they know who's bringing them what food and when.

The lovely Marie set one up for us (thanks again, Marie!) when Dan was born. I had 2 weeks of meals delivered hot and delicious. We even had the facility to say what time we'd like to eat and if there were any allergies or food preferences. When we signed up to take a meal to someone else, it was a major help knowing what others were bringing, so there were no duplicate meals.

The website even has some suggested recipes and other little hints and tips to make life easier.

It really is a cool little tool. If you get the opportunity to check it out, I highly recommend it.

If anyone else has used it, what is your verdict?

A quick parenting lesson

More parenting instructions here

Homeschool Top Tip

For the families that use paper-bound workbooks or worktexts, try this:

Go to your local copy place and politely ask them to cut the binding off the book and either rebind the book with a spiral binding or three-hole punch it. Avoid comb binding if possible, since the combs always seem to pop out. If you choose spiral binding, take your newly bound book home to enjoy. If you've had it three-hole punched (as I have), ask for the spine back and get yourself a big enough three-ring binder.

I didn't think to ask for the spine, so made due with an index card. I'll be asking for the spine next time!

Put the front and back covers in the sleeves and the binding in the spine. Load your pages into the book and enjoy the flexibility that comes of being able to remove pages from workbooks while still having a home for them and, best of all, avoid all the sin issues that come from an open book not lying flat!

Just read

"Read great Christian writers who know God deeply and saturate their writing with the Bible and take you deep into its spirit.
They are like reading the Bible through the mind and heart of great knowers and lovers of God. Don't let long books daunt you. Finishing the book does not matter. Growing by it matters. But finishing is not as hard as you might think.
Suppose you read slowly like I do—about the same speed as you speak—200 words a minute. If you read 15 minutes a day for one year (just 15 minutes, say just before supper, or just before bed), you will read 5,475 minutes in the year. Multiply that by 200 words a minute and you get 1,095,000 words that you would read in a year. Now the average book has about 360 words per page (that's what Carson's book has). So you would have read 360 words into 1,095,000, or 3,041 pages in one year. That's 13 books the size of Carson's book, or reading his in 21 days. All that in 15 minutes a day.
The point is: the words of Jesus will abide in you more deeply and more powerfully if you give yourself to some serious reading of great books that are saturated with Scripture. "

-John Piper

Check out the full message here.