I knit a sock and 47 days left

I've just started to realize how soon we're leaving Texas. A dear friend told me yesterday that we only have 48 days left.... today it's 47. I have very mixed feelings- on the one hand I'm so excited to move home and start our next phase of life. On the other I just hate the thought of leaving all our friends here. I don't think I've ever been surrounded by so many good people that I just plain like, and deeply love. We've been blessed with many wonderful friendships and a strong sense of community here, and I'm sad to leave these people behind. I feel like I need to squeeze in as much time with everyone as possible before we go. I so highly value all these good people in my life! God is so good to us that he gives us each other to love.

One thing I will miss about Texas is the lovely winter weather. Except for a couple weeks of weather in the 30's, we've enjoyed a very mild winter this year (and every year, really)- most days it's in the 50's or 60's, which is perfect for life in the bungalow. The windows are almost always open, and we can spend time outside.

Today I'm finishing a batch of chicken stock. I need to finish the dishes. Zeke should be napping but instead he's crying in protest, even though he can barely keep his eyes open. A big Rottweiler keeps coming around our yard because our dog Sadie is in heat. I keep running outside with a big stick to chase him off. He seems like a nice enough dog I suppose, but I am seriously ready to shoot him. I'm supposed to be visiting my darling friend Natasha right now but Zeke's car seat is in Daniel's car. I've got a mild caffeine headache. Been listening to the Beatles lately... haven't gotten those cd's out in years. It just started raining! It smells like chicken soup and rainy weather today.

I've got a huge itch to start sewing again... but my sewing machine is still broken. Daniel said he wants to get an ipod touch and I told him that's fine with me if he gets my sewing machine fixed. I'll let you know if he goes for it!

For the knitters out there: Here's my sock!
Overall I am utterly pleased with how this turned out, especially since I learned from a book which is always more difficult than having someone show me. My only disappointments are:

-There is a small hole where I joined the heel back to the main sock. The book said this would happen, and to knit in the back of the stitch to avoid it. I thought i did so-- apparently I did something wrong because it's still there.
-The book didn't give any instructions for the bind off at the toe-- so I used a three needle bind off. I realized afterwards that I should have turned it inside out and then bound off-- so the bind off seam kind of sticks out on the toe instead of being on the inside where it should be.
-I made a few small mistakes (like decreasing in the wrong spot for the toe, and dropping a stitch then proceeding to pick it back up backwards) that i typically don't make, but decided not to fix them. It somehow seems more romantic that my first ever sock should have a couple flaws. In my opinion they add to the character of the thing :)
I used "Knitting Without Tears" by Elizabeth Zimmerman to learn how to make this sock. This is just a wonderful book on knitting and if you are often a frustrated knitter you must add it to your collection.
Oh I failed to mention that during this sock-knitting escapade I broke one of my lovely rosewood double point needles! It was so sad!!! Those suckers were $22 for a set of 5! And I'm not the type to spend that much on needles... but I totally splurged one day in my excitement to make socks. It appears that it could possibly be repaired-- I think Daniel could glue it back together and sand it down a bit for me. We'll see.
Future sock knitting goals: I used the german heel, but I really want to learn to do short-row heels- I think they look so much nicer. I want to make a pair of lace socks, or cabled, or whatever. Just something more fun than stockinette stitch. I want to make some knee-high socks. I want to make toe-less, flip-flop socks. I want to make everyone a pair of socks for Christmas next year. I have lots of sock goals. I think I like socks.

Saturday at the park

Today the weather is beautiful and Ezekiel and I spend the morning at the park with some dear friends. Zeke got to try the swing for the first time and he loved it! We also went down the slide together and played by a stream. It's so nice outside- one of those days where you just can't be in a bad mood. Unfortunately for Daniel, he had a migraine today. He and Zeke are napping right now



I previously mentioned my friend Kennedy and her adopted daughters in Haiti; well they made it onto CNN when they got home! Here's the link to watch it (excuse the random guys exclamations- I guess one of Justin's friends recorded the clip on his cell phone). Here are a couple other links-- their interview on Fox news, and then the article from a local paper. It really is an exciting story, and I'm so glad the girls made it here safely. God really has done all sorts of amazing things lately! (By the way, these are the people who are renting our house.)

I finnished knitting my first SOCK!! Yes, a SOCK!!! I am so excited about it! It isn't perfect (unfortunately) and I am sort of a type-A knitter (although not much of a type-A anything else) but I am pleased none the less. Now time for sock number two.

This is a picture Daniel's Aunt Jacque took of our family when we visited her for New Years. Daniel is so handsome!

Funny video and other stuff

Well here I am, writing for my blog again. At first I was daunted by the idea of catching you all up on the last few months, but I decided to skip ahead to now and write about any significant events from the past months as I think of them. I am no longer daunted, and ready to start writing again. I have never really enjoyed writing until I started a blog- I definitely don't consider myself any sort of writer. But I like keeping a general record of my life, and since I hate scrapbooking this is a great option for me!

Today Ezekiel and I are both sick. Actually I've been sick since Sunday, and he since Tuesday. It appears that we have RSV which is a pretty nasty thing to have. Fortunately Ezekiel has not needed to be hospitalized despite his prematurity. He had a doctors appointment yesterday and he has another one today just to make sure he's still doing ok. He's a tough little guy, and I think he'll get through it unscathed.

Today I am collecting money and supplies for a friend from Haiti. She lives here (actually she and her husband are renting our house) but has family still in Haiti. She and 3 others are getting ready to go back there tomorrow and stay for 10 days to help her town recover from the earthquake. Tonight I am going shopping with all the money I collect to get her as much stuff as I can-- first aid stuff, candles, matches, tents, blankets, etc. I have a few girl friends going with me and I think we'll have fun. So far we have $300 but I have a feeling we'll end up with a lot more. I am really excited to be able to help directly-- it is much more gratifying to help her than to just give some money to the red cross. I feel very blessed to be able to help in some small way!

Today it is raining and Zeke is crawling around the bungalow playing with the dogs. Snot running down his face, of course. This is his new favorite thing to do- he came up with it on his own, and as you can see he thinks it's hilarious. He's feeding raisins to the dogs.

I forgot to mention the main reason I started keeping a blog again! We got a laptop!! Woo hoo! A friend found us a good deal on craigslist, so we paid a little over $300 for a $600+ computer. I am so excited- been trying to convice Daniel to get one for months. I guess he finally caved (but I swear I'm not a nagging wife!) So although we still don't have internet in the bungalow, we can obviously now use wireless networks which will be nice. Our church's school has a wireless network, so we can just go sit on the playground and use it (it doesn't quite reach to the bungalow).

So the lack of internet the last few months was rough at first. I really like googling things that I'm curious about, and I like facebook, and I like blogs, I like checking the weather forecast. But in reality, once I was unaddicted, life was much nicer. Very slow-paced (especially when we only had one cell phone for a stint) and relaxed. I knitted up a massive storm of things--- the last few months have probably been my most productive knitting months ever! I learned to knit socks from a book (knitting without tears by elizabeth zimmerman- a great book!) and I made various things for people. I've read piles and piles of books. I've kept my house much more tidy and organized. I feel a strong sense of inner calm and stillness and quiet in my soul which I know has everything to do with our new simpler, "unplugged" lifestyle. (Zeke just knocked over the trash.) I just love it. I have more energy for important things and more time for people. I no longer have crabby days because I know I wasted too many hours doing nothing on the internet. So I am grateful that we don't have internet in our house, and I'm not sure I ever want it in my house again. At least if I do have it again someday I plan to strictly enforce time limits and have internet "vacations" where we just turn the stinky computer off for a couple months at a time. I know they say technology is supposed to make life so much better, but at least in my experience, it seemed to numb a part of my soul. What do you think? What have you experienced?? (said one internet junkie to another internet junkie!)

Daniel was accepted for the Polyface farm 4-month internship! We leave for that in May. Meanwhile we will live in Texas until March 15th, at which point we will move home to Kentucky. So the time line is: 2 more months in Texas, then about 6 weeks in Kentucky, then four months in Virginia at Polyface, then the rest of our lives back in Kentucky! It's gonna be awesome.

I love this song

I guess I'm posting about once a month now... no more pictures for a while because Sadie our newer dog chewed up our flash drive. It was sad.

But I am LOVING this song so much. Just heard it the other day on the radio. You really must listen, it's beautiful!

just some pictures

As you can see from the first picture, we found another dog. Her name is Sadie, and she's a doll. Life in the bungalow is going very well! Plenty to adjust to, but we're really enjoying it. I have a lot more free time on my hands with such a small house to clean and NO INTERNET!! (still missing it, I have to say!) Hopefully soon we'll be back online...

Daniel leaves next week for his tryout at the Salatin's farm... I will miss him, but we're both really excited about it.

Alright I would love to write more but I'm mooching off a friend's internet... talk to you all later!!

Life in the Bungalow

Oh my blog, I miss you! I'm so glad to be writing right now!

We've fully transitioned from suburbanites to urban homesteaders of sorts.... and we're loving it so far. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that we bought a 1984 travel trailer to live in for a while for many various reasons. Well we're now renting out our 1600sq.ft. house to some friends and living in our travel trailer in our church parking lot. We've named the travel trailer "the Bungalow". And life there is good. So much less space= so much less cleaning= more time for knitting/reading/family time/various projects/time with friends. There have been some challenges, including the air conditioner going out, the gray water tank leaking, a pipe bursting at one point, and no internet (yet), but my brave and ingenuitive husband has fixed all problems that have arisen. I'm getting used to cooking in a smaller kitchen, and actually enjoying it. We only took 4 cups, 4 plates, 4 sets of silverware, 2 bowls and 3 mugs.... so we hardly have any dishes. They can all be dirty at the same time and still fit in the sink! (Amazing for me, who isn't a huge fan of dishes). Honestly I don't even miss my dishwasher. I've been more creative with the crock-pot, for which I am imensely grateful. I do kind of miss the "mud room" entryway in our house where dirty muddy shoes can be left... but we're working out a good shoe system in the Bungalow, so I think I won't even miss that very soon. Our church has quite a few (completely paid-for) buildings which include a large nursery, a school, and a kitchen-- and they've given us keys to all these buildings. When we're feeling a little closterphobic in the bungalow and it's too hot to go outside, we go play in the nursery. We're also able to use the refridgerator in the kitchen (the bungalow fridge doesn't keep the milk cold enough and it spoils before we can pick up more from our co-op). Some of the ladies at the church have even started excercizing every morning in the nursery building which is literally 20 feet from the Bungalow, so I've been joining them and I'm happy about that-- I have no excuse not to be there! We've been spending a LOT of time outdoors. Zeke and Tula (our puppy) really enjoy that, and so do I. A few of my friends have children that attend the church's school, and so they stop by every once in a while to visit when they drop off/pick up their kids for school. Life is fun there! Living on the church grounds is really the PERFECT transition from suburban life to off-grid homesteading, farming life. We're currently living some sort of peculiar half-homesteading, half-normal life. And learning how to live in the bungalow with so much support from our church has made the transition so much easier. I can't even imagine moving straight from my nice big house in Texas to an off-grid travel trailer in rural Kentucky---I'm sure that would have been quite a shock. But the Lord has been gracious to us and has provided this smooth transition, the perfect time for learning and growing and preparing for the next phase of our life.

Speaking of the next phase of life, Daniel applied for a four month internship at Polyface Farms, the Salatin family's amazing sustainable farm. The internship would be starting in June 2010. Daniel made it through the first essay screening and has been invited to come to a two day "tryout" where he will be competing with other applicants for the few prized internship spots. We're hoping of course that he will get the internship! It looks like he will be going for the tryout in January, but we're not certain about that yet. I will let you all know what happens! :)

As we do not yet have internet in the Bungalow, I am writing this at a friend's house (actually at our house, as in the one we own-- our renters are out of town and we are cat-sitting). BUT my darling husband bought me something I've been wanting for a long time-- a flash drive!! So my plan is to write blog posts on our desktop in the bungalow, save the posts & pictures on the flash drive, and then upload my posts whenever we have internet access. That's the plan. I want to be diligent about this because I know in 20 years we will treasure all the memories and crazy stories from this time in our life. I have a really bad memory and if I don't write stuff down I just don't remember it later.

Did I ever mention that Daniel caught the kids who had been vandalizing our farm & garden project at the church?!! He DID!! It's a crazy story!!!! I'll let him tell you sometime. Since he caught them and they received a citation from the police we have had no more problems, which is a huge burden off our backs.

Speaking of the farm & garden project, it is going well. Now that the vandalism is stopped, we can start making progress again instead of just repairing all the damage that was done. We are providing eggs for a few families in the church, and we have a new batch of broilers that will be going out on the field this coming weekend. We're planning a work day to put in some winter gardens (I do love that you can garden all year in TX!), and quite a few families are contributing all their kitchen scraps to the compost pile. There seems to be a giant mountain of work in front of us, but I'm really excited to leave a "mini" sustainable farm on the church grounds for other people to benefit from when we leave.

What else is going on with us?? Zeke is doing great! He's huge, he's handsome, he's smart. I imagine he will be walking soon. He just started waving bye-bye this week! It's too cute.

Well I need to go give Daniel a haircut-- I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday afternoon!

The Bungalow

We are officially moved into our travel trailer, which I have named "the Bungalow"! We do not yet have internet there, so I am updating this from a friend's house. Once we're back online I will update this blog more regularly. Our renters moved into our house this past weekend. everything is going well! Our home phone is of course disconnected, so you'll have to reach us on our cell. E-mail me if you don't have that number!