Sanguine

I heard a rumor that my fan base often worries about whether or not I've fallen off the planet, so I thought I'd make a post even though I don't have a subject matter that is genuinely particular to write about.

I've been embroidering. Weird, right? I know. I don't embroider, it requires patience. Guess what I don't have a lot of? Anyway, I took it upon myself to start a project simply chock full of patience-trying needlework. (It's my intention to enter it into the Arts and Sciences competition at a future SCA event.) It's a heraldic belt purse with my house device on it, which is, incidentally, a medievally-stylized version of a dancing bear with a flower garland; a la the Russian Tea Room.

I've also been sewing, working on a court-formal cotehardie, but the fabric I chose is driving me crazy. Velvet is very unpredictable in that way.

Amidst all this craftiness I've been thinking a lot about gardening- Ro and I have a small container garden that's slowly squeaking up- we're currently growing garlic, basil, cilantro, thyme, chives, parsley, lemon balm, cosmos and daisies. I have a bunch of other things up my sleeve for the future- maybe next year if I have success this year. I'm kind of still learning the ins and outs of gardening. I'm trying to map a garden that would feed a family of two for a year- Zack, after all, has no interest in fruits and vegetables.

I'm also considering what is and is not practical to grow in a container- blackberries, for example, are wild and sprawling and perhaps not a good idea to try and confine to a pot, whereas blueberries stay (mostly) in one place. =) All this leads to the ideas of learning to can so that I can store things like jams and pickles all winter long, and making dandelion wine, or may wine, or mead to enjoy throughout the snowy season.

Another thing that's been on my mind is schooling. As everyone well knows by now it's long been my intention to send Ro to a Waldorf school, though it seems unless something really changes sometime soon, it might be financially impossible. Between being a one-income household and buying our first home, we're simply not sure how we're going to afford it. This is in conjuncture with the idea of having a second child and having to find a way to make a second income from home (still working on that YA novel...)

So that brought me to considering homeschooling which is wonderful, but I so want Ro to get to have the experience of Waldorf, the home-away-from-home, surrogate family that she'd find there, the wonderful learning experiences and friends she'd make. I want that for her, so here I am, in a mental knot that currently seems immovable.

Other than the little fretful things, life is good. We're wrestling through potty learning, but coming along fine, we're spending every day outside, swimming in the pond, and drinking a lot of lemonade. Not to mention all the Oswald and Toot & Puddle that gets watched around here on rainy days, and all the toys that exist in the world...

...I love toys.