Archive - October 2007

Finally Finished!

I finally finished this sweater vest for Boo.  He picked out the color himself, it’s more of a maroon than a red.  I think he may have a  genetic predisposition towards USC.  It’s a pretty simple and therefore kind of boring pattern, which is why it’s taken me something like 9 months to make it.  I think I shaped the back of the next incorrectly, but it got hidden in the seam.  Have I mentioned that I really hate picking up stitches around a collar?  Almost as much as I hate casting off in pattern. But it’s done and it’s cute and both Boo and I are pretty happy with the results.

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It’s made from Rowan Wool Cotton and it’s soft and yummy.  My next project will be a hat for Bip.  I’m hoping to take only a couple of weeks at the most on that one.

The Blessing of the Pets

…or Why It’s Fun to Be Catholic.

st-francis.gifToday, October 4th, is the Feast of St. Francis.  It is a tradition in many parishes to have a blessing of the pets on this day.  Last year we dragged the whole hermit crab terrarium to church to have all the crabs blessed.  Now we’re down to only one crab, but Boo and Pumpkin Girl were anxious to have her blessed.

We almost didn’t make it, as Swirly the Crab was trying to dig herself into the sand and one should really leave burrowing crabs alone.  It makes them crabby if you don’t. I checked her again right before we would have needed to leave and she was out, cruising around the tank.  So I rounded up the children, put the crab into a plastic bowl and out the door we went.

Except for Swirly, all the other pets were dogs.  Last year there were a couple of cats and a rabbit, too.  Anyway, we said St. Francis’ prayer and listened to a reading from Genesis about God creating the animals.  I had to smile at the mention of the “crawling things” as Swirly tried to get out of the bowl.

A little sprinkling of holy water and a quick prayer over each pet and we were done.  They had treats for the dogs, but of course, they didn’t have any hermit crab snacks.  Swirly was treated to some coconut when we got home.

As for why I refer to Swirly as a “she” – well, she’s the crab Pumpkin Girl picked out and everything Pumpkin owns is a girl.  Of course.

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Picture of the Week

My actual life has been getting in the way of my blogging lately, so in an effort to post anything this week, I’ll share with you Bip’s latest creation. It’s a little piece that he calls “Car-Car Choo Choo.”

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 He also wants me to point out to you that he is wearing his “Car-Car Moozy” shirt (that’s “Car Movie”, for those of you that don’t speak Bip) and that he’s been carrying that shirt around like a security blanket for two days.

And since we’re speaking of Bip,  if you ask him what his name is, he’ll happily tell you, “Me!”  How cute is that?

Folklorico Lessons

folklorico.jpgOk, so Boo and Pumpkin Girl are both taking ballet folklorico lessons. I’m sure you’ve seen Mexican folk dancing before, at least on TV. I grew up enjoying various folklorico companies perform at the fiesta in Santa Barbara. I was even a flower girl. But somehow, it never occurred to me or my parents to have me take folklorico lessons.

So all these years later, I have children who are at the right age to start lessons AND we live in a city large enough to actually have folklorico companies. Late last summer I sent out a couple of emails, asking about lessons for Pumpkin Girl. Neither company responded to me, so she started ballet classes instead, which is what she really wanted.

Then out of the blue, last August, I got an email informing me of the upcoming annual auditions for one of the company. Pumpkin Girl was excited to go, especially when I reminded her of the big beautiful dresses that the girls wear. The email encouraged boys to come along, too. Just for fun, I asked Boo if he wanted to go to the audition. Surprisingly, he said yes! He was hoping to learn the dance with the machetes.

Off to the auditions we went. It was less an audition than it was a “try it” class, and both children had a great time. One of the moms there sold me some new folklorico shoes for Pumpkin. If you’ve seen any folklorico performances, you’ll notice that they seem to do a lot of stomping. Part of that is the wooden stage they perform on, part of if is that that toes and heels of the shoes are embedded with a ton of nail heads.

Boo’s shoes took a little longer to get. First of all, we can’t buy them locally. Second, he’s got a very small foot and most of the places would have had to special order his size. Poor Boo was feeling very self-conscious not having the right shoes and not being able to make any noise while dancing in his tennis shoes. He would come home complaining of sore feet because he’d been stomping. But the correct boots have been obtained and in his words, he’s “gone from not making any noise at all to being the loudest!”

I searched around the internet looking for folklorico videos to share with the children. They particularly liked this one, which you will know as the Mexican hat dance.

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