A(nother) Baby Blanket

Last year I made the resolution to crochet a blanket for each of my friends' new babies throughout the year. I decided to continue on with that this year and because I know such fertile myrtles there is already one done and dusted and being mailed off tomorrow.

Here's a problem I run into literally every time I go to make something. Color. I love color, I think I'm quite good at matching color, but it mostly gives me a hardcore panic attack in the moment and I have a VERY hard time choosing. Most of the time I just ask someone what they want or I'll make a blanket based on what I know they like. Like the Jets color blanket I made for my friend's baby last year. Easy enough! This friend had no idea what colors she wanted, though, and only mentioned something about probably going with a very bright scheme of pink and blue so I went to the store unarmed and ultimately had an anxiety attack over what colors to choose. But then I thought why choose any colors at all? Why not let the yarn do all the work for me? And ta-da, a variegated blanket was born and in the perfect colors, I think!

The color is Bon Bon by Red Heart. I used nearly 3 skeins to get this size, which is about 37 inches from corner to corner. I had enough left over to make a headband to go with it and some more after that (enough perhaps to make some granny squares for my Weasley Blanket). I used this ripple blanket pattern which I highly recommend. Super easy to follow, fast and pretty. I've used it at least twice in the past.

I'm pretty obsessed with this blanket. I love the colors. I love the feel of it and the size and the shape and all of the pointy, flower like goodness. It leaves for it's new home tomorrow and I can't wait to see the little miss all wrapped up in it when she arrives soon.

January Reads

Hard to believe January is already done and over with and in the bag. The Winter months always seem to be good for my reading. All of that snuggling under blankets and trying to cuddle up and stay warm means more reading. Here's what we started our year off with-

The Mouse and the Motorcycle (Beverly Cleary)- Ralph the mouse lives in the knothole of a hotel room. When he makes friends with a little boy who comes to stay, the boy lets him borrow his toy motorcycle and makes little Ralph's dreams come true. Starting off strong with some Cleary. Always good for the soul. I had so much fun reading this book with the kids and they enjoyed it as well. One of those books that they begged for more than one chapter at a time. It was a quick read for us and such a sweet book to cuddle up to.

The Reapers are the Angels (Alden Bell)- Temple is a young girl wandering on her own in a fallen world where a plague of the dead haunts everyone. I picked up this book because I'd heard a few people talk it up. I wasn't hugely impressed. The writing style is lovely and the characters are really well developed and full but something was just missing for me. Maybe it was reading it so close to The Girl with All the Gifts that did it in for me because that book was so devastatingly good but although I enjoyed this book as a whole, it didn't ring any bells for me. It had some really interesting differences to other books in the zombie genre so I'd definitely recommend anyone interested in that genre to check it out. I enjoyed that in general the book had little to do with the zombies and more to do with what life for people living in a world like that would be like.

 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)- The final chapter of the Harry Potter series. I hadn't read this book since it's release date however many years ago and I remember being disappointed with it. I think it was mostly that I was disappointed that the books were coming to a close or maybe 20 year old April was just too young to appreciate it. For whatever reason, I enjoyed it so much more this time around. And now that I've finished reading the entire series again (many of those books for the 5th or 6th time) I get to start it all over again with my kids which is actually kind of exciting.

The Last Olympian (Rick Riordan)- The campers of Camp Half-Blood have been preparing for a full year to battle against the newly risen Titan lord Kronos. Percy Jackson must face the unfolding of the long awaited prophecy as a battle for Western civilization plays out in the streets of New York City. Another last for us. The first born and I were so sad to be done and we sped through it much faster than usual, reading multiple chapters after school as well as before bed time. I think this book was definitely the best of them all and it was very fulfilling to see the character bloom and come into their own. We're reading The Lost Hero now, which still has some of our Olympus friends in it, which dulls the blow of goodbye a little bit.

Tuck Everlasting (Natalie Babbitt)- Winnie Foster stumbles upon the Tucks quite by accident while attempting to run away from her stuffy home. Once she learns their secret, events unfold that will tie the family to her forever, quite literally. I had never read this and was looking for an easy read. It's a charming book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A very quick read if you're looking for one but definitely full of enough action and pretty words to keep you interested.

 

Autobiography of Red (Anne Carson)- A book in verse, Carson re-imagines the Greek myth of the red winged monster Geryon. It was wholly beautiful and heavy and tender. The writing style was perfectly unique and the story was gripping and heart breaking. I can't wait to read more by Anne Carson now that I've discovered her.

The Selection (Kiera Cass)- A selection of 35 young women is chosen from the country to attempt to win the heart of Prince Maxon. It's a chance to change their lives and take them out of the caste they were born into. I started this book not entirely sure what I'd think. I'd seen it on a few book lists and had some friends recommend it to me. I did enjoy it. It's definitely fluff reading but there's nothing wrong with some fluff in your life. It took me about half the book to really get into it but once I did I was hooked. I'd describe as being like Cinderella entering The Hunger Games. There's a little danger, a lot of pretty dresses, some love triangle action. A good read for when you don't want to ponder things too hard.

Divergent (Veronica Roth)- A dystopian world where the people are divided into factions dedicated to a specific virtue. Sixteen year old Beatrice must choose a faction to dedicate her life to on the appointed day. Can she choose what she feels is right for her or will she stay in the comfort of her family's faction? I don't know why I haven't read these before. It's right up my alley. I just kept forgetting about them, to be honest. I've even made myself stay away from the movies all this time because I prefer to read the books before I see the movie. I picked it up on a whim simply because I saw it at the library and was like why not and I'm hooked. Hooked I tell you. I stayed up way later than I should  have reading this book and I had to text my sister the next morning and bed her for the next book (knowing she owns them) so that I wouldn't have to wait on the library to mail it to us here in the boondocks. I'm sure most people have read this by now so I don't really have to talk it up but if you like dystopian YA, like The Hunger Games for instance, you'll probably like this. A lot. BRB, gotta go finish these books.


That's a wrap for the first month of 2016. I hope you're reading something good and staying warm. xx

Friday Five

Phew. That week went by fast. I'm not complaining. It's hard to believe this is the last weekend of January though. How does time do that? Here's 5 things occupying my time and mind this week-

1. It snowed! A little.  Saturday we woke up to a very light dusting of snow but it was our first snow in a whole year so we got out of bed early and put on our warm clothes over our PJs and went to play. Five minutes in Miss Mae remembered she hates the snow and went back inside because she was miserable but the first born was all about it. If we didn't have somewhere to be he could have stayed out there until it melted. Definitely his daddy's yankee son. Al is my southern belle.

2. The Circus. Tickets to the circus were a gift to our kids from my MIL this past Christmas. It's not something that I'd personally buy tickets for because the animals make me sad and I don't want to put my money into supporting that kind of thing, but the people parts of the circus are rad. It would be cool if they'd just get rid of the animal parts and have it be all people doing cool stuff. The kids had a good time and I hope they enjoyed it because we are never taking them back to a place where cotton candy costs 14 dollars and a snow cone costs 12. Seriously.

3. Alice is turning 5 soon. In 3 months my baby turns 5. I don't know how that happened. I don't know how I blinked and she grew up. She's the sassiest thing I've ever seen and I could just spread her on a cracker and eat her. I will be counting down the days to her birthday very bitter sweetly. I'm so excited for year 5. She gets to go to school for the first time! But 5 has always seemed like a big deal to me and she's leaving the baby years.

4. What we're reading. My latest book is Divergent, which I've been meaning to read for ages. I happened to see it sitting on a shelf at the library so I grabbed it up before I could forget about it again. I've even kept myself away from the movies so that I could do the books first, because that's what I prefer. Al and I are still deep into some Mercy Watson books and Junie B. Jones and Ollie and I have started with a new Rick Riordan series now that we're done with Percy Jackson. We've got The Lost Hero and we're enjoying it. I like his love of Greek mythology. It's pretty cool.

5. Weekend plans. This weekend we're gonna party so hard. We're gonna get wild and crazy. We're gonna turn up that music so loud. We're gonna get crunk. No but really... we're going to clean a lot and maybe go to the library in the morning. The house is a wreck and both kids need to clean their bedrooms and I have like 5 loads of laundry to do so we'll be staying in. We really turn up the music super loud though because that's how I like to clean. While dancing and singing.

Cheers to the freakin' weekend!

Friday Five

 T.G.I.F ammirite?

Some going ons around the Kairos household.

1. What We're Reading- I just finished up The Deathly Hallows, which was magical (get it... get it??? but seriously) and started Tuck Everlasting. The first born is obsessed with Percy Jackson still but sadly we are nearly finished with the final book. It will be so sad when we're done.

2. Severe Winter Weather Warning- The South is in for it, y'all. So far in our area we've only had a lot of rain overnight and no freezing as of yet but I'm not holding out hope that we'll be passed by entirely. It's always a little scary when we have ice storms because of how many huge power outages even us younguns have been through due to winter weather. Hoping to keep the power on! Because heat is really nice in 20 degree weather.

3. Speaking of Deathly Hallows- I happened to have just started DH when the news of Allan Rickman's death broke. It was really heartbreaking for me. I am not a huge Snape fan (touchy subject since a lot of HP fans seem to worship Snape) but Rickman was the perfect Half-Blood Prince. Perfect. And he was so perfect in so many other notable roles, one of my favorites being Dr. Lazarus in Galaxy quest. I couldn't just let my book go back to the library without a nod to the beautiful bastard so I snuck a little sketch into the last chapter of Snape.

4. Looking for Valentine's Ideas- It's only a few weeks away! Husband and I already have plans for a hot date to see Deadpool (anyone else wickedly excited for that movie?) and a dinner out the night before but I want to spend the actual day with the babes and have a little Valentine's party! Pinterest to the rescue! I already have some fun pink straws and heart pattern cups and a so cute tablecloth with doodles for the kids to color. All bought at Wal Mart for a total of about 4 bucks. Now to plan the food and games and maybe a cute movie?

5. And that's it- Other than some crochet projects that I don't feel like getting up to take photos of and some books I'm excited to read, I don't have anything to talk about! Stay warm! Get your weekend on. I'm going to use up every second of mine.

A Book Challenge!

I like lists. It's a thing about me. I make lists all the time. Checking things off of lists? Best. Thing. Ever. So satisfying. I'm a fan of book challenges because it gives me things to focus on when trying to pick my next book. I thought, why not challenge my kiddo this year as well? Give him his own reading challenge to complete? And so, this short list was born.

The 2016 Reading Challenge! Really, this could be for any age or grade or reading level. Adults, preschoolers, young adult, elementary aged, whatever! (Maybe as an adult you don't have a teacher or teacher friend to recommend a book, you could ask your favorite librarian instead!) I made it specifically for my 8 year old to keep him interested and challenged and looking for new and different things. If this goes well we might add to it through the year. The possibilities for a reading challenge are really endless! You can totally freestyle it and do your own thang. Hopefully this gives you a nice jumping off point though!

We'll be utilizing our challenge list by printing it and taping it to the wall next to our book log so that we can cross off challenges as we complete them and add them to our book list. I'm excited to see what will be chosen to fit each category!

Happy reading! 

Friday Five

We've survived the first week of the new year! And it was a pretty good one for us.

1. Yoga- I'm challenging myself to complete the 30 days of yoga camp from Yoga with Adriene. I just completed day 7 and I'm so proud of myself! It has been a struggle some days but overall I definitely feel a difference. My body doesn't hurt these days! I feel some soreness from using muscles that have been overlooked for a while, but I don't feel the back pain and joint pain that I'm accustomed to. Bonus- Alice has seen me doing this and she has started her own morning yoga routine as well. If you aren't familiar with yoga for kids, it's SO healthy for them and has so many physical and mental benefits. Cosmic Kids Yoga is amazing and I highly recommend. My kids love it.

2. Making All the Blankets- I started making a granny square and somehow that turned into me making myself a blanket. Then I joined a CAL for a penguin blanket (because PENGUINS!!!!) and so now I am covered in blanket squares. I ain't even mad. I am loving my penguin.

3. Walks- I'm trying to work on my anxiety and get out of the house more. First step has been trying to make a weekly date of walking to the library with the kids. So far so good. We finally had some days with no rain this week and although it was chilly the sun felt so nice.

4. My Favorite Christmas Gift- Percival the Penguin. A painted masterpiece from husband that now sits at home right above my yarn shelves. I love him so much. He is my favorite thing ever.

5. 365- This year I am trying to remember to take a picture of myself every day. For a few reasons. One being I think it will be really cool to see the changes in myself from day 1 to day 365. I'm not stressing about when or where. Usually they are at the end of the day and I look tired and ready for bed, which I am. And that's cool. That's what my life is like and I'm trying to document that in as many ways as possible.

That sums up our first week of 2016. Almost typed 2015. That's gonna happen for another 7 months.


Head on over to September Farm to see more Friday goodness!

Why Not?

Husband and I have been talking about this new year we find ourselves in and all of the possibilities. We are blessed every January with a new beginning. The Earth begins another rotation. We can step over the threshold and onto a clean slate. What will we choose to do with this new chapter? What choices can we make to feel better, do better, love better. How can we live our best lives and be our best selves. We've talked out our goals, both individually and as a family, and we've talked about having a special motto or word to help motivate us.

He has decided his motto will be JUST DO IT and let Shia Labeouf be his spirit guide for the year and although we are only 4 days into this new year, it's working for him! When he finds himself unable to make a decision or doubting himself he just says JUST DO IT and goes for it and it's helping him. I think that's pretty neat! And it gives us endless opportunities to do our Shia impressions.

I've just this morning decided on mine. Why not? To everything I will reply 'why not'. I want to fall in love with my life. Why not read all children's literature all day, every day? Why not go for a walk every day? Why not do yoga every day? Why not have a Harry Potter marathon and eat only Harry Potter recipes for a week straight? Why not do the things that make me happy and healthy whenever I feel like doing them. I don't want to regret anything. So WHY NOT.

We've just stepped into this brand new, shiny new year that is bubbling over with possibility. Another 12 months of blissful chaos. Why not try to make every day count and make everything as happy and full of love and light as possible. There are things I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to run a 5K but I kept holding back waiting to be in better shape. But WHY NOT run a 5K NOW? I've always wanted to make a yoga a daily practice but I keep putting it off out of total laziness and feeling like there isn't enough time in my day. Why not go for it and make it a habit and carve out some time for myself? I always want to make library trips with my girl a weekly tradition so that we have something fun to do when our boys are away but I always hold back from it because of my anxiety and just end up going on Saturdays with Husband. But why not go and do it and have those fun memories to look back on with Alice when she's grown up?

So maybe this year we all ask ourselves why not or we find our inner Shia and just do it. Go for it. Live the life you want. What's stopping you? What holds you back? If the answer is yourself, maybe you can change that. That's my hope for this year. I want to go for it every day. Because why the hell not.