Saturday, December 18, 2010

Christmas came a little early this year

While I was desperately trying to knit my hand spun merino and silk into something resembling a scarf for my dad for Christmas

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The box from Homestead wool and gift farm arrived.
My sister and her family gifted me wool this year.

washed Christmas
6oz Scottish Blackface, 6oz Corriedale, small bag of Suri Alpaca, 4oz ivory Coopworth, 6oz dyed blue Romney, 4oz silvery Coopworth, all washed.

Raw Christmas
8oz white Coopworth, 8oz East Fresian, 8oz silvery Coopworth, all raw.

I am beside myself with glee. I haven't worked with any of these breeds before so some I ordered raw as well as washed so I could practice washing more delicate fibers without too much worry or wandering if I was felting them or not. I love to work with raw wool, but that may just be because I've only washed hard to felt wools so far.

My husband is giving me a set of wool combs as well, so once those have arrived I will take the plunge into a bag of this stuff. I can't wait. I like the Cheviot that I've been working with, but frankly I needed a break. That's why I went for the merino/silk scarves. Unfortunately I can't knit well enough to show off the beauty of the yarn.

No matter. I have lots more fiber to play with. Even Kenshin thinks it yummy stuff.
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

I have fallen

Oh the shame. I was doing so well too, but that wool was whispering so loudly that I had no choice but to give in. Yes, I have set aside the fugglienes for wool.

I still have several fleeces that need washed. It takes forever to wash an entire fleece. Picking out the icky bits, washing handfuls at a time in the kitchen sink, letting it dry on the electric sweater dryer for a day or two, picking out the smaller bits.... you get the picture. It takes forever, it's smelly, dirty work, and I love every bit of it. Raw (unwashed) wool is stinky but it's a good stinky. It means I'm being creative and doing something I love. There's just so much potential in raw wool. The family has other ideas about the mess and smell though, so I have to get up very early to do it before it bothers the others.

The wool I'm washing now will be died and spun to make area rugs for the house. We have all wooden floors and no area rugs so it's going to take a lot of spinning before this project is finished. The wool isn't next-to-the-skin-soft so every once in a while I'll hit up Etsy and see what nice things are out there to spin. THAT was my real downfall yesterday. I found some yummy merino and silk that would make beautiful scarves for my dad and his wife. (Yes I promised myself that I wouldn't make handmade gifts this year. Yes I realize it's only 4 weeks until Christmas and the wool hasn't even shipped yet, let alone been spun, knitted, and mailed out. Yes I realize I'm crazy for even thinking I can get these done in time), then I found some really pretty merino and tencel and..... I think you see where this is going.

It's all the wools fault I tell you. If it would only stop asking to be washed.

Friday, November 19, 2010

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This thing is getting to large to manage. It's 73 rows (so far), nearly 7 feet long, and still fuggly. But I knew that wasn't going to change. So far I've been a good girl and have only worked on this afghan since I started it. I'm still itching to get the loom warped, and there's the counted cross stitch wolves I've got going, the card woven straps I want to weave, and the table top covers I want to embroider, not to mention all the wool that still needs washed and carded before I can spin it.... heavy sigh.

I've taught my daughter how to crochet now. I tried last year but she wasn't interested. Now I've given her a skein of very fuzzy soft-as-a-bunnies-butt yarn and she's working on her own scarf. Maybe I can talk her into crocheting her own afghan too. That would be one less for me to do.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Making progress. Fugly progress.

fugly afghan 2

fugly afghan 3

Slowly but surely. There were at least two nights when I was too tired to even crochet. It takes me about 40 minutes to crochet one row I think. I haven't really timed it except that it takes longer than an half hour tv show, and even longer if one of the cats is "helping" me.

I do a lot of flittering between projects and one of my looms has been whispering to me. I'm trying to be good and get at least this afghan finished before I start something else. I still have my son's afghan that I'm knitting. I'm still not happy with it, but I've started that thing over so many times I think he's afraid he'll never be warm this winter if I don't just go ahead with it.

The plan is to finish the fugly afghan by the end of November ('m not making Christmas presents this year), then get a warp on the loom while working on the knitted afghan, as well as starting another afghan with different yarn and a real pattern this time. I have a lot of baby sport and fingering weight yarn that I want to use up. It's very soft and pastel so I'll have to come up with something that suites it.

Wish me luck.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

I'm still here

Phew what a busy summer I had. I wish I could say that I have a lot of free time to blog now, but alas, school started again so I'm still without blogging time. I'll still blog when I can and as things start clearing up around here (life wise I mean) I'll be able to blog more often.

In the mean time.

What do you do when you have been given 5 totes full of yarn? Well, it wasn't really "given" since my husband paid her for them but I feel like they were given. Hubby picked up a load of unknown craft items (I think there were 7 black garbage bags full) of stuff and brought it home for me. There was a lot of stuff in there that I will never use so we added it to a bunch of our other stuff and had a humongous yard sale.

Back to the yarn though. I love some of it. It's soft and silky and high quality and cost more than I would be willing to shell out for yarn. Yes I'm cheap. I pulled out what I wanted to keep for knitting, crocheting, and weaving and put the rest up for sale. After the sale I still had tons of yarn I don't want. They are colors that I wouldn't normally work with, or pretty colors I love but there's not enough to make what I want, or colors that don't go with each other well.

So, what do you do when you have scads of ugly yarn and left overs? You make a fugly afghan of course.

fiber,crochet

24 colors, most of them are full skeins, so I will be making more than one of these things. Just a simple crochet stitch so I don't have to think while I'm working on it, and with six people living in a cold drafty old house we don't care if it's pretty as long as it keeps us warm. This one is nearly 7 feet long because we have giants living among us.

I'll be back when I can. This was a rushed post as it's our anniversary and I need to get ready to go out for an early dinner and movie.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I think I may have overdone it a little with buying fleece, but the smell of sheep in my house again makes me happy.

Pictures to come as soon as I figure out what the kids did with my camera.

Friday, April 30, 2010

I wasn't happy at all with the way my son's afghan was turning out, so I scrapped it for another design. This time I'm weaving it on my little 4 inch loom.

fiber

I'm not really wild about the colors he chose (red, black, and gray), but it's his afghan and he's the one who has to live with it.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Decorating the craft room

... with wooden spools and loom parts

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Planning more projects

I should be banned from craft stores. Really I should be.

sewing,embroidery

Monday, April 19, 2010

I am very good at planning projects. I love to go through patterns, get creative, make ideas, chose the materials I want to work with....

I am, however, terrible at actually doing the 'making' of said projects. I have lists and lists of things I want to make. Unfortunately LIFE keeps getting in the way.

For instance. I was all set to start on some sewing projects. Both my daughter and I have plans for skirts, quilts, and cloth dolls. I got my sewing area cleaned up and was ready to start the next day, but, the next day turned into an unexpected event. The mother of my son's friend is dieing while she's out of town. We have all known this was happening, but she left town in such a condition that she wouldn't be coming back. This left all of her 'stuff' to be dealt with by her 3 kids (the oldest is only 21.) My son's friend called me over and said I could have whatever I wanted. Well..... Aside from the numerous cats and dog (which my husband would not be very happy with) I decided to tackle her mountain of clothes. Most of them were dirty and laying all over her bedroom. Something these kids shouldn't have had to deal with on top of losing their mother and all of the crap she left behind for them to clean up. I bagged all the clothes/towels/sheets up and took them home. 30 loads of laundry later (Yes, I did say 30. I have never seen so many clothes owned by one person in my life.) my sewing area was crammed full of clothes. No room to sew anymore until we sort through all of these. There is something everyone can wear, plus clothes and sheets to tear up for craft projects and still have plenty left over to donate. I mean, who really needs 75 T-shirts, 15 sweat shirts, and 30+ tank and dress tops?! I don't think she ever did laundry. She just bought more clothes when she ran out of clean ones.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sorry that she is dieing. I have known her for 15 years and our oldest kids have been friends for that long. I am sorry for the kids. She is dieing because of something she has done to herself since before I knew her, and it's her kids who have had to pay the price all of their lives. Call me heartless, but it's them who I feel sorry for.

So anyway, several projects planned (and ever more planned now that I have tons of material).... but nothing creative accomplished. And now my house is a disaster area once again. Ho-hum.

Monday, April 5, 2010

card weaving

I guess "Herald" is good for something while we try to find the parts to get him working. Here he is modeling a card woven strap I made last night. I was bored so I really didn't have anything in mind when I measured the warp. It ended up being to short to use on the table loom, so I tied it onto the front beam and roller of Herald. This left me little room to manipulate the cards, so it's not the best weaving job I've ever done, but it did keep me occupied for an evening.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I'm still getting the loom set up. What started as a "Hey let's move this piece of furniture over here..." has turned into a house that's turned upside down. The kids and I have almost gotten things where we want them, and then I can get my hands back at the loom and see how well she/he works. It's a Herald loom, but I just can't bring myself to call it that. I'll have to come up with a name after I've used her/him a little bit.

I've also been thinking again about making things for an etsy shop. I have a few ideas, but it's scary thinking about starting something like that.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

I own a what?!

fiber

How do I show extreme excitement without sounding like I'm 10 years old?

OMG!!!!!XXX27!!!!!!!!!!!

Nope, I can't do it. I have become a little kid and it's all thanks to my new 45" 8 shaft - 10 treadle floor loom.

Found on Craig's list, it was a deal I couldn't pass up. This loom came with 7 reeds (some have a little rust but should clean up), lease sticks, 2 cone holders, 4 boat shuttles (1 is a double), 2 ski shuttles, 2 net shuttles, a 14 1/2 yard warping board, a sectional warp beam (needs the mounting bars) extra heddles, and 53 cones of yarn. If I had bought all the extras through normal means (and it was all stuff I needed anyway except maybe the net shuttles and the sectional warp apparatus which is nice but not necessary), it would have come to a hell of a lot more than what I actually paid. It's kind of like getting the loom for free! As an added bonus she threw in 31 Handwoven magazines and 16 Weavers Craft magazines. The Weavers Craft are old editions that I was wishing I could afford months ago.


53 cones of yarn
This picture came out too small to really see but, the cones are two deep in almost all the cubbies.

The yarn is all 1 to 31/2 pound cones of linen, chenille, wool, oodles of cotton, and 7 cones of perle cotton which I can't wait to start card weaving with. Please excuse the painting that needs done in this picture. Anyone want to lug a 7'x 4' solid hardwood bookcase outside so that I can paint it and the wall? No I didn't think so. My husband won't either.

The only problem with the loom so far, is that I'm missing one 3/8"x9" hex bolt, and 4 hex nuts. No one around here has ever heard of a 9" hex bolt it seems, so I had to order one online. It comes tomorrow, and then I can start weaving my little heart out. There is plenty of yarn to play with, so I won't feel guilty 'wasting' expensive yarn while I learn.


OMG!!! I own a floor loom!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

WIPS

... or at least on the list of 'to get started'.

SPIN
- Dad's birthday scarf.
*Needs to be finished before 3-20-10.*
Progress – choose fiber, Make swatches, comb, card, spin yarn, ply yarn, knit scarf
.... update: There was no way I could get this all spun and knitted up in time. Instead I spun/knit a swatch (finished the morning before we left to visit him) and my daughter sewed it onto the back of a little stuffed lamb as we were driving to the hotel. It turned out kind of like a saddle blanket. It was a weird gift but kind of cute. I promissed him I'd have a real scarf ready for his 80th birthday. I should probably get started on that now. I only have 10 years to finish it.

- yarn for rugs
Progress - choose fiber, comb, card, spin.

CARDWEAVE

- 6- card woven dog leashes for mom.
*Needs to be finished by 12-25-11.*
Progress – make patterns, choose colors, buy yarn, weave leashes : Alfie, Pippin, Casey, Maggie, Bridget, Bailey, buy clasps, sew clasps and handles.

- swatches for notebook
Progress - buy yarn, weave, attach to patterns.

Fix loom
- make raddle
Progress - cut wood, sand wood, hammer nails.
- Add heddles
Progress - buy heddles, add heddles

Weave
- waffle weave dish towels for myself.
Progress - buy yarn, warp loom, weave, full.

- dishcloths for mom
Progress - buy yarn, warp loom, weave, full.

- start on weaving book projects.
Progress - choose yarn, choose colors, buy yarn, warp loom, weave, full.

Knit
- 2 1 more dishcloths for mom.
Progress - choose patterns, buy yarn, knit, block

- A's afghan
Progress - choose colors, choose pattern, buy yarn, knit, block.

- C's afghan
Progress - chose colors, choose yarn, choose pattern, knit, block.

SEW

- Purple quilt
Progress - cut material, wash blocks after cats peed on them GRR!, layout and re-cut what was damaged, piece, sew, quilt.

- Brown quilt
Progress - finish cutting, piece, sew quilt.

- C's skirt
Progress - choose pattern, buy material, sew.

- Sewing machine cover
Progress – make pattern, choose material, cut, sew.

- Printer cover
Progress - choose material, make pattern, cut, sew, embroider.

- Rag doll
Progress - make pattern, cut, sew, make pattern for clothes, choose clothes material, cut clothes, sew clothes, embroider face, sew hair.

Learn to clone myself so I can get all of this done.

progress - *************

Thursday, February 25, 2010

My problem with hobbies/crafts

Where does everyone get their energy to do everything AND crafts? By the time I’ve done some laundry, the kids and I are finished with school, I’ve made dinner and cleaned up, I’m so tired it’s all I can do to make it into bed, let alone spend the hours it takes to warp the loom.

This is certainly not worth getting upset over. I just don’t understand how so many of you manage it.

Because I said I'd post it back with my pea soup: My favorite bread recipe. This recipe is very easy and forgiving and comes from an Amish lady.

6-7 Cups flour
1/3 Cup sugar
2 ½ TBs vegetable shortening
2 tsp salt.
2 ¼ tsp (or 1 envelope) yeast.
½ Cup warm water
2 Cups warm water


Melt shortening. Dissolve yeast in ½ C water and set aside.

Measure out flour by scooping from the bag. Yes you heard me right. Do not do the proper spoon and measure, but scoop with a big ole’ measuring cup and level with your hand.

Add melted shortening, sugar, salt, and yeast water together in bowl with 2 cups warm water.

Here I use my Kitchenaid mixer (it’s old and cranky but still does a great job) Mix until you can no longer hear the sugar scraping in the bottom of the bowl.

Slowly add the flour. Start with 3 cups and mix thoroughly. Then add by 1 cup increments, allowing the mixer to completely mix between additions.

Once the mixer can’t mix anymore, plop the dough out onto a floured board and continue to add flour as you need. Add only enough flour to give you the right consistency. Here I’m hoping you already know how to make bread because bread making, for me anyway, is all about looks and feel, not hard recipe facts.
Kneed until dough is smooth (no longer looks like it has cellulite) and place in a greased bowl. Dampen a dish towel and place it over the bowl. Place dough in a warm, draft free place. Let it rise until doubled. This will depend on how warm your kitchen is. It can take my dough up to 4 hours to double sometimes.

Punch down the dough and plop out onto floured board. Divide in half and shape into 2 loaves. Place each loaf into a greased bread pan. Prick the tops with a fork, cover with damp towel and let rise again.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes. My new oven element takes a while longer to cook things so I just estimate and keep watching. Once it’s nicely browned on top and sounds hollow when you knock on it, it’s done.

Place on metal cooling rack, lightly butter tops and turn out of pans, setting top side up again. Try to keep everyone out of it until it’s cooled enough to cut.

We go through about 10 loaves of bread a week around here, so I’m ALWAYS baking bread. I just wrote this out from memory so if you try it and something doesn’t seem right you can blame me.

Now it’s 9:30pm and while I’m dying to get my hands into some wool and do more carding and spinning tonight, I think I’ll just go to bed. Tomorrow it’s more laundry, a huge lesson in American History (which I am having a blast teaching) and more bread baking before an even earlier bed time so I can get up at 4am on Saturday to help my oldest get his car to his mechanic.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Because someone had to do it

The baking element of my oven burned a hole through itself (never had that happen before) and since we live on home cooked meals, no oven is a terrible thing in this house. I couldn’t even use the stove top because every time I plugged the stove back in, the oven element started glowing and sparking again. Even after I unplugged the wires that should have gone to the oven (see post below)

I don’t know the actual dimensions of our sad little microwave, but it will hold a coffee cup and that’s about it. If you put a dinner plate in there it will not turn, and turning is what a microwave is meant to do, right? It also has just two settings, on or off. Heating up a cup of water for tea takes 7 minutes if you’re lucky, so even if we had the money to run out and buy enough microwavable dinners to feed the 6 of us for the time it would take for the replacement part to show up, we wouldn’t have any way to cook those expensive cardboard meals.

So what does a family eat when there’s no way to cook and the pantry is full of things like flour, eggs, raw veggies, and raw meat? Why you survive on cold ham sandwiches and microwaved hot dogs of course.

I get giddy when we occasionally buy a loaf of bread instead of me baking it. We just so happened to have 4 loaves of store bought bread (.74 a loaf so why not?), and two bags of hotdog buns (.48 each), so, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (we don’t buy cereal) we lived on ham and cheese sandwiches or hot dogs for 4 days. I tried to eat a hot dog, really I did, but, although I’m really not a picky eater, there are just some foods I can’t force down. Hot dogs being one of them. If they’re grilled I can handle one, but nuked and oozing smelly water?... no.

Luckily the replacement part arrived early, and while the kids dreamed of eating real food again, I did the dirty job of fixing the oven. They were all convinced I was going to blow us up in the process. They’re such nice children.

Ok, so for anyone who has to replace their baking element, and can’t afford a repair man, I have written a helpful repair guide.

How to change your ovens baking element……my way.

First you will need the following supplies:
Lots and lots of paper towels
Water
Bandanna or face mask
Crescent wrench
Replacement element
Oven cleaner
Electrical tape, or some other tape that won’t leave any stickiness behind.
Band-Aids and Neosporin

Make sure your oven is unplugged. You can tell it is because it isn’t trying to burn your house down.

Cover your nose and mouth with the bandanna or face mask. Make sure that all asthmatics are out of the house. They may still be cowering in the bushes from when you went a little crazy with the fire extinguisher in the first place. Open the oven and estimate how many wet paper towels it will take to clean up the 3 inches of powder residue that the fire extinguisher left behind. Take this number and multiply by 4. This is the number of paper towels you will actually use. Might as well get them wet and waiting for you so you don’t have to pull them off the roll with icky fingers.

Remove the oven door. Clean up all the fire extinguisher residue, making sure to wipe out all nooks, crannies, and corners very well. Once the majority of the mess is gone you will be able to remove your face mask and use the crescent wrench to loosen the two bolts in the back that are holding the element in place. You will need to stick your entire upper body inside the oven in order to reach them. This is why you cleaned up the residue first. It would not be good if you climbed out of the oven looking like a yeti. While you’re in there trying to get these bolts to turn, your voice will be muffled somewhat so don’t worry, the kids won’t hear you swearing like a sailor when the wrench slips and you cut your knuckles on the sharp bits.

Take a moment to stop the bleeding.

Remove the bolts and put them somewhere you will remember where they are. Dive back in. Stop what you're doing and fight the cat for the bolts that he is now pawing all around the kitchen. Place said bolts in a zip lock bag and zip it closed. Dare the cat to lose them now, then dive back in.

Now that the bolts are removed, gently slide the element towards you. They say you should have about 5 inches of wire follow you out into your workspace. I had less then two to work with. This is where you get your tape ready. Pull off several 4 inch pieces before gently pulling one wire off your element. Be sure to hold on to that wire so it doesn’t suck itself back into the abyss that is the inside panel of your oven. Carefully tape the end of the wire with tape to protect it, then tape the wire somewhere to the inside of the oven so it doesn’t slip back inside when you let go of it. Do the same thing to the other wire. Marvel at the mess that is your old element before throwing it away.

Wash your hands and make a pot of coffee.

You might as well clean your oven while you’re doing all this. After all, when will you have the opportunity to clean it without having to fight that stupid piece of metal again? Use an oven cleaner that doesn’t require your oven to be functional. I used a slightly abrasive stove top cleaner that just wipes off with, yes more wet paper towels. It’s like soft soap only more gentle. Scrub scrub scrub, then wipe clean.

Take a break. Your coffee should be ready by now. Enjoy it while you look up chiropractors in your neighborhood. You will need one after all of this is over and your back will thank you.

By the time you’ve enjoyed half a pot of coffee your oven should have dried out some. Go back and check. Are there any white spots of cleaner left? Of course there are. More wet paper towels and the rest of the coffee are in order. Also, ask if they can move you up on the list at the chiropractors office because your knees have just given out.

After you are sure that all the cleaner has been removed, take one wire at a time, untape it, and shove it onto the end of the new element. Do the same with the other side, again being careful not to lose the wire into the back of the oven. Push the wires back into the abyss, fight the cat for the zip lock bag containing the bolts, and screw those back in place.

Reattach the wires in the panel that should have allowed you to use your stove top, making sure you have remembered which ones go on which side. Reattach your oven door.

Plug your oven in, touch it to make sure you aren’t going to shock the crap out of anyone, then turn on your oven and marvel at the fresh new glowing element. Quickly chase your asthmatic child (how did she get back in the house?) out of the room as the new element burns off the oil it was covered with. Use this time to bandage up our knuckles.

Once it’s safe, call the family into the kitchen to do the dance of joy. You will once again have real food to eat. Quickly make a huge spaghetti dinner, and while everyone is marveling at your handyman skills and digesting, make a batch of cookies.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

I miss my oven

trying to fix the stove

Well that didn't work, so up from the basement comes the spare stove. Yes, I have an extra stove. When you are given a free stove just because two of your top elements have gone out on your old stove you don't ask questions. You just say thank you and put the old one away for emergencies. Like now.

We've already gone 3 days without the use of an oven/stove and it will be another 6 days before the replacement part arrives. If I have to live off of ham sandwiches and microwaved hot dogs until then I will kill someone. Hence the moving of the old stove back in place. The first thing I will bake is cookies. Mmm cookies.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

From last December

This is what happens when you get in the way of my daughter's mad decorating skills.
"gingerbread house" decorating


gingerbread house 2009
Decorated by my two youngest and the wife of my oldest.
Tablet weaving

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The Price of Children

While I don't normally pay much attention to forwards that just end up being junk filling my mailbox, I thought this one was worth reading. It's also a good reminder of why I decided to have three of the little things in my life.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from
birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family.. Talk
about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition ..

$160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.

* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children
if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you get for your $160,140?

Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or
how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:
*fingerpaint
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs, and
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watching Saturday morning cartoons,
* going to Disney movies, and
* wishing on stars.

* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator
magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand
prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for
Father's Day.

So for $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be
a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that
never wins but always gets treated to ice cream or pizza regardless.

You get a front row seat to history, to witness the:
* first step,
* first word,
* first bra,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family
tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called
grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in
psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human
sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all
the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed,
patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and
love them without limits. So, one day they will, like you, love without
counting the cost.

That is quite a deal for the price!

----------------------------------------------------------------

With a 13, 14, (and 23 year old still living at home), I seem to be perpetually stuck in the 'grounded for life' line of this letter. It's nice to be reminded of all the benefits. Enjoy your kids everyone. They grow up way too fast.