What I've Been Up To

...which clearly has not been updating my blog. Our family has been pretty busy, what with 1 year molars coming in, the last half marathon of the season to run, and pumpkin pies that don't bake themselves. (Luckily they don't eat themselves either. Because that would be weird.)

Knitting: Currently working on a reversible lion/elephant toy to put in Will's Christmas stocking. Almost done! It's a Susan B. Anderson pattern from Itty Bitty Toys, my favorite book of toy patterns.



UPDATE: Lion is done, putting finishing touches on the elephant!


How cute is that?!?!

Sewing: Just adventured into the world of sewing clothes and turned one of Greg's old flannel shirts into a pair of pajama pants for Will. It was pretty easy following the instructions on another blogsite for making my own pattern: here and then for sewing the pants: here. It was pretty easy, and I liked turning something old into something new with the help of a little thread and elastic. Environmental, economic, and creative.



Cooking: I made some fun mini pumpkin pies for a Halloween gathering with Will's playgroup friends. I used mini muffin tins, a circular pastry cutter just slightly larger than the top of the muffin tin, and my normal pie crust and pumpkin pie recipe. Cook for less than half the time (crusts brown, center no longer jiggly) and pop them out of the tins for toddler and party friendly munching.



Reading: I'm currently reading Living Simply With Children by Marie Sherlock, and I love it. It's been good inspiration for rethinking what's important in our lives and how we can raise healthier children in this media driven world with too much screen time and consumerism, too little exercise and creative play. It might take a while to convince Greg to move the television into the basement, but I'm incredibly lucky he's the supportive spouse he is who would also rather play a game of pool or sit and talk after dinner than watch tv anyway.


Watching: About that tv we're supposedly not watching - we just saw a documentary called "Consuming Kids" that a friend recommended about the lack of regulation for children's commercials and how that's affected everything from kid's television programming to what they eat in schools. It's a little depressing if you're a parent, but worth watching so you can think about what you're bringing into your home and how to talk to your children about media influences.