Back to Blogging

Part of the problem with getting back to blogging when you have been absent for a while is trying to remember your login info. Sheesh. Ok so I am going to try reeeaaally hard this time to make frequent posts.

Hmm... how many times to post a month... or a week? Not sure exactly what my new commitment should be. I will see how things go I guess.

Meanwhile I will give a snapshot of some things that have been going on around here. Kind of a recap of the past two years.

Well, it has been a year since my last post. Sorry.. I haven't been doing a lot of super creative stuff lately mostly because of being busy at school and we had our big trip to Washington and Slovakia last summer and then the kids and I were all back at school again right away when we got back. Susanna just finished her first grade year at L'Etoile du Nord French Immersion school and Jonah just finished Kindergarten there as well. It is so cute to hear them speaking French to each other. The have little differences in how they speak it but one thing is for sure, that they are both adorable. Minka is a little nervous to start there in the fall this year but I think that she will quickly get into and be excited too. We are signing them up for the French Immersion day camp this summer which is a nice introduction to getting ready for school there, as well as a nice bridge for the older kids to keep them brushed up for when they go back in the fall.
Lately I have been having lots of mom problems. I wanted this blog to be mostly upbeat and about lots of crafty cool stuff and mom and kids stuff too so I will share a little. Plus my counselor thinks that I should be journaling how I am doing sometimes so this is probably a good way to do both and keep this blog a little more updated.
I actually quit school in the middle of the semester during the spring semester because I was really struggling with the double life of mom and student. Sometimes I feel like a failure at both but I know that the truth is that I need to be realistic about what is healthy for me to be doing at each point in my life... and at that point it was either schoolwork suffers, or my relationship and effective caregiving of my children suffers. I chose the kids to not suffer of course. It has been really good for me to have a slight break during the rest of the spring and now I am back at classes again for this summer. After the anxiety I had been having it was a really difficult choice for me to start up school again but I believe that it was just the challenge that I needed to push myself with and I am glad I did. SSSOooooo close to the finish line..... Hopefully I will graduate this winter or next spring. Then, I'm not sure yet what comes next. I probably should start looking for that job, or ... am I crazy to think about starting on a Master's right away? I do have some goals and does waiting really make a helpful step towards those goals? It will mostly have to depend on my family life. I will not sacrifice their needs above my own personal goals. Their lives mean so much to me and I want to always be there for them when they need me and when I can be. My mom started her own business so that she could support us and be at home for us when we needed her. I admire her strength so much. One of my goals for this week was to call a friend I don't contact enough and go out with her. We had a great time today. Simple but beautiful. I felt like when we were young wild ones again, except a tamer, mom-type version.

Here's our babies at Lego Land, MN. What a blast!

Back to Business

Ahhh, alas play time is over and back to being busy with school again. And just when things were starting to get a little crazy anyways, getting ready for our big trip and all. I am taking two classes online over this summer semester. That means I have to tuck away my little lappy into my luggage when we leave for Slovakia so that I can make sure to get my homework assignments in. Now I am also trying to keep our other blog updated with news about our preparations, collecting donations, filing for passports, packing and such. I still have big plans for our garden before we leave too! Last two nights I posted up some comics on eBay to make some money for our trip. I hope to get up some of my jewelry and yarn also and hopefully I will actually sell something.

Today I was productive, yay. I got outside and enjoyed the warmth and sun while repotting my humble collection of orchids. I have a Dendrobium, Catalaya (with lots of new plants on it), two phaeleonopsis, a paphopedelum, and an oncindium. Whew that was a mouthful! I love orchids. Although I am not the greatest at keeping them properly humid like. Did you know that orchids (family Orchidaceaeare) are the largest family of flowers in the world. It's true, check it out sometime. There are even tons native to North America!

Okay so I have a tendency to ramble on sometimes... I also checked on the garden, things are sprouting up nicely, then my sister-in-law came over and we beaded. Fun. The kids all played out in the back yard, all seven of them. We made a really cute hair clip for her neice and then had to make up another one when she sent us a picture of the prom dress and it was a different color than we anticipated. So two nice hair clips actually. Here is my conception of Cobalt Blue, which is apparently different from the dress designers envisioning of the color: mine theirs

and here is the end result after remaking:

modeled by my lovely Susanna.

This is so cool, watch: Bruce Lee playing "Killer Ping Pong"

So here are the adorable dresses that I made for the girls, complete with their escorts.

We had a nice peaceful Easter with just one friend over with her 3 kids. Did I say peaceful? Ha.

So I realized a day ago that I do so many projects all the time that I never even remember them when I go to blog about stuff, also Rasty and I have been so busy with yard work that I think I raked up some of my brain dripping out of my ear... We are in the process of tearing out our old front sidewalk so that we can make a new one that curves around to our driveway. Imagine that, having a sidewalk and front door that we might actually use from time to time. This past weekend we also finally got Thunder (the rabbit) back outside where he belongs. He has been so much happier being able to get out in the yard and run around (except when Rasty let the dog out at the same time by accident. Poor thing couldn't catch his breath for a while but was otherwise unharmed). We even got some gardening done, turned up the soil, new seeds, and made space around the perennials.
Some projects that I have completed since the last ones that I posted: a green cloth doll for my adopted goddaughter, 2 Easter dresses, the hem on a skirt for a friend, a pair of baby booties, a scarf made from my hand spun yarn, and a new blog!!! http://www.petricslovakia.blogspot.com/ this is our official support site for our upcoming trip to Slovakia. Yes we are poor, and always trying to play catch up with our mortgage, and crazy for trying to attempt such a huge trip with the kids but hey, what can I say? Family is family after all and we love them. Check it out!

Some projects that I have started (or am still working on): Jen's purse (more about this later), Clapotis (more about this later), another free pattern thingy I found in the Knit picks catalog (mmm.. with yummy Casbah yarn), a cute baby sweater, and soon to start: some homey type projects for the in-laws in Slovakia. Ciao!

The thing with blogging

Hmm. Maybe it's me, or maybe it's because I am a mom with four little kids... does anyone else find it difficult to keep blogging? Okay I hope I can get better at this. For Easter this year I made two adorable dresses for my girls that I am very proud of. Susanna has the yellow one and Mariana, of course, has the purple one. She was a little disappointed that it didn't look like Cinderella's dress but was consoled with the fact that at least it was purple. They lookes fabulous with all the spring flowers at church and with their brothers both of whom had lovely ties on. Too Cute! Also I have been working on the infamous Clapotis pattern found on the knitty website and have big plans for a new knit along with my friend Amanda. Hahaha, can't wait.

Preoccupied blogger...

For those of you who don't know, not only do I have four kids now, but I also go to school full time now too. This is my response as you can imagine: "AAAHHHHHH!!!!" Yes, I am going insane. Yes, I am incredibly busy. And no, I don't always function correctly. I do manage to get homework done somehow and I do love my kids and spend lots of time with them when I am at home during the day. Plus now that three out of the four attend school at some point during the week I end up doing alot of driving around and sometimes end up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Thanks be to hubby though, I do get some time to get out of the house and do what I want to do... mmmm, knitting, my sweet sweet addiction... Every Monday night a couple of friends and I go to a local wine and dessert bar and knit and act like friend-sick gluttons for two hours. We chit-chat and click our sticks away, and show off our latest books and projects like good knitting friends do. It's nice to have a little sanity in an otherwise semi-chaotic week.
I haven't done any spinning lately but I have done lots of other types of projects; mostly knitting though. I've dyed some nice skeins which I will post as soon as my sister-in-law returns my camera. I am currently absorbed in knitting delicate lacy scarves with really fine yarns, oh and one thing I am excited about is that I am about to try painting with oil paints for the first time.
Painting is not new to me, but I have always been intrigued by the splooshy lusciousness of the glaze-like oil masters. Here is a great blog to check out if you appreciate art ;) http://midnightrelish.blogspot.com/(It's my secret blog!)

And here are some zen pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Me and my fluffy French Angora purebred:

A lovely fall sky:

The cutest baby EVer! (I might be a little biased):