A Mindful Life

But I made this instead.

Claire is fascinated by buttons. If she’s crying and you show her buttons, she immediately stops and begins examining them. I have a collection of buttons (some inherited from my Mom), so I sorted through for interesting ones. Then I cadged an old shirt from Husband and constructed a pillow cover [...]

I inherited some odd bits of yarn when a relative decided she isn’t a knitter. The amounts are small, so I’m making the usual (scarves!).

This was made with 2 balls of Lion Brand Incredible yarn, 100% nylon, 110 yards per ball; colorway 208, on size 13 needles. It’s going to be donated as a prize [...]

Update at 6:42 p.m.: It’s 97.4F. I know, it’s not a cyclone or earthquake. Just plain HOT. And only mid-May.
Update at 4:17 p.m.: Am I in Texas again?! It’s 103.8F!
Update at 2:12 p.m.: Temperature is 100.6F. Whew!
Today the high will be near 100. Yesterday it was the mid-90s. Tomorrow is predicted to be near 100. [...]

She commando crawls to the bookshelves and pulls out whatever is in reach. There’s a video on my Flickr site for friends and family to watch if you want.

Yes, we’re terrible parents who applied some of Ferber’s concepts. Actually, the book has great information about the nature of sleep in children and adults. We’ve found [...]

This post has been updated with an extra link.
I’m not writing as much these days. Never in my life have I been so spent by the day’s end. Mothering has brought into focus for me what is real and what matters. It burns off all that is extraneous. Being used so completely simplifies my options. [...]

Perhaps I ought to follow her lead.

A couple of readers tell me they are having trouble viewing my blog. These folks seem to be using PCs and Internet Explorer. I’m not sure why it’s not showing up correctly anymore, but I’ve made no changes to the format or code.
If you’re experiencing problems, let me know. I don’t know that there’s [...]

I inherited a little bit of Crystal Palace Musique. Not enough to make a “summer shawl,” so I made a lightweight blanket for Claire to use in the summer when it’s chilly around the edges.

3 balls of Crystal Palace Musique, 45% acrylic, 40% wool, 15% cotton; 65 yds/50 gram skein, size 19 needles.

Claire can:

bear weight on her legs and stand while holding on to something and with light support around her middle.
feed herself Zwieback or cracker.
look for a dropped object.
rake objects with her fingers and pick them up in her fist.
hold a toy in each hand.
tap two objects together, such as a small ball held in each [...]