Prayers for Boston

I am still reeling with the news of the explosions at the Boston Marathon yesterday afternoon.  I feel so blessed that my brother-in-law, who had crossed the finish line shortly beforehand, and my sister are both unharmed.  I am thankful for my father who had the sense to contact me and let me know that they were unharmed before I had a chance to read about the explosions online.  I may be living in Delaware now, but my heart is with Boston as I pray for all who were affected and continue to be affected. 

Turn from evil and do good;

seek peace and pursue it.

Psalm 34:14-15

A Morning at the Park

The kids and I have been spending a lot of time outside this week enjoying the springtime weather.  We have been passing the majority of the time playing at the playground and taking walks.  As a result of all of our time at the park, Lily and Ish have both become more proficient at climbing.  Liliana is working on mastering going down the steps without crawling, and Ish has figured out how to efficiently climb the slide.

Fearless

We spent Monday evening enjoying the warm weather by sharing a picnic with friends at the Kranz Hill Farm.  Liliana surprised me with how fearless she was around the chickens and the goats.  She stuck her fingers right through the chicken wire to poke at the chickens, and was not even fearful when they pecked at her.  When Ish took her into the goat pen to visit with the goats, she ran at them full force.   She was so very delighted by the animals and spent a good deal of time insisting that the chickens were dogs and that the goats were cows. 

Still Plugging Away

During Holy Week, I came to the sad realization that my gauge on my shawl was far tighter than what the pattern had prescribed.  This will not be a problem in the end, but it did throw off my plans to have a pretty new shawl for Easter Sunday.   I still have about 10 repeats of the lace pattern left and then the final border.  I am hoping to finish it sometime next week.

During my visit to Massachusetts, I made a pretty serious error in my shawl.  Note to self: Unless Lily is in immediate danger, push stitches down onto the needles before jumping up to remove her from whatever she is climbing on or swinging from.  I did manage to somewhat salvage my shawl but there is a very messy spot on one edge of the shawl.

I am still reading and enjoying The Art of Fermentation.  I am only reading a short bit each day, as I am more focused on finishing my shawl right now.  I am, however, planning on fermenting some lemons next week.  I am very excited to try this out and am fairly sure that it is impossible to cause myself any serious harm in the case of botched fermentation.

Hopefully by next week I will be showing you a finished shawl, and have a pair of longies for Lily started on my needles.  The yarn, pictured above, is so lovely that I have been tempted more than once to put down my shawl and preemptively start in on the longies.

For more yarn and reading, join Ginny for her Yarn Along!

A Few Easter Photos

We spent the majority of the octave of Easter in Massachusetts visiting with my family, and in true Siné fashion, I only took pictures on one day of our week long trip. Little Ish and Lily had a fun Easter morning searching for eggs.  Lily was surprisingly adept at finding them; Ish and I were both surprised at how interested she was in finding the eggs.

Easter Mass was a struggle this year.  Both kids were feeling under the weather.  Lily spent almost all of Mass screaming so Ish and I both spent a good amount of time in the vestibule of the church tending to her needs.  Little Ish, who pretty much only falls asleep in cars and cribs, fell asleep during Mass and continued to sleep for a few hours after. 

The visit overall was very pleasant.  I enjoyed getting to spend time with friends and family.  As per usual, I wish I could have visited with everyone I wanted to see, but that is never feasible with young children (unless of course I want miserable young children!)

I hope everyone is having a blessed and fruitful Easter season!

Triduum and Easter Blogging Break

 I am taking a planned blogging break from Holy Thursday through the end of the Octave of Easter. 

See you again soon!

Singing in the Rain the Lily Way

 

  

Lily, like her brother, likes listening to music.  It seems Little Ish has imparted some of his musical tastes to his little sister.  She has taken to requesting "Singing in the Rain" by grabbing a toy umbrella, putting it on her head like a hat, and saying "Rain?! Rain?!".  Once the music is playing she dances around trying to imitate her brother's imitation of Gene Kelly.