Scenes from our lives

This is what our days look like. Olive dragging around her wad of yarn (once it was seperate balls - now it is her yarn wad. I don't care as long as she a) doesn't accidently throttle herself & b) doesn't unravel my current projects). Me stuck in my pjs for much of the morning. Showering is tough with 2. They like to eat the soap. (We're changing Baby DeeDee's diaper. Baby DeeDee is from Bamboletta - such a beautiful birthday present!). Olive's crazy awesome hair. Etta Mae, constantly looking at books (I love this picture so much). These girls are big into books - hmmm, does that make me feel good Ms. Children's Librarian? Olive sifting through her clean, folded laundry. Because what else are neatly folded piles for? And finally, lounging in the bedroom. Whenever I can't immediately find one of the girls, I know where they'll be - laying around on the beds, looking at books. And yes, that is a non-homemade stuffy. One. That she, of course, LOVES.

Wishin'

Fall Make-it List:
- mobile for our room (handsewn? felt? birds & trees & leaves & butterflies?)
- Olive & Etta cloth bags for taking their diapers etc. to each others houses
- leg warmers for Olive
- leg warmers for mama (black wool & grey kidsilk haze)
- finish Olive's fall cardigan
- matching bonnet?
- cashmere toque for O.
- yoda sweater & scrum helmet for a new wee babby coming soon to a friend near us
- mama sweaters x 3

chuckle heartily.

Knitting, striking, up to my neck in babies

I am she of the irregular posts. Somedays I feel inspired to share & sometimes it just feels like there are too many other things to do.

Caring for two babes has been a challenging shift, but luckily we've had the big daddy around to share in the caring. Unfortunately big daddy has to go back to work tomorrow & we are going to miss him like crazy. It sets us to dreaming about ways to not have to go to work. Then I start thinking about this insane strike. 7 weeks. No deal. No bargaining. We aren't asking for anything crazy, in fact we would accept the deal that all of the municipalities around us have received, but these f*&kers aren't offering. Are they trying to break the unions? Are they setting the stage for contracting out during the Olympics? Are they totally inhuman greedy robots who don't care about what this is doing to people both financially & emotionally? I know that we are in the right, that asking for the reasonable introduction of pay equity is a human right & that we are righteous. But it's getting harder & harder to pump up my sweet, lovely, brilliant brothers & sisters who are feeling crushed by this show of complete disrespect by our employers. I love my job. I can't wait to go back. But I won't give in.

So life is a blur of babies & striking & loving my co-workers. And knitting! These clever strikers are knitting up a storm, mostly toques for folks on the lower east side (acrylic - some insanely hideous, but you know, their hearts are in the right place - too bad acrylic going to stink in no time). Anyways, I'm working on a Scrum Helmet, as well as a cardigan & sweater vest for Miss O. Pictures to come.

Oy.

Excuses, excuses

My intention is to shift this blog from an angsty mummy blog to more of a crafty blog. Or perhaps a happy blend of the two. I'm constantly being inspired by the amazing work I see around me, and I think, hey gal, what's stopping you? In part it is the teeny tiny house - no room to leave the sewing machine set up, plus marauding toddlers who would love nothing more than to scatter buttons & needles to the four winds. Choking? Punctured internal organs? Oy. Perhaps I should stick to knitting (they only occasionally poke each other in the eye & let's face it, knitting needles are relatively blunt), embroidery & handsewing.

Other obstacles to my desire to craft/craft-blog? Caring for two babies/toddlers all day, followed by Olive deciding that bedtime only happens around 9pm these days. Oh yeah, & they're only napping when I push them around the neighbourhood, often for hours. Do you know how much it rains here in the winter? A husband I'd actually like to spend alone time with before we're in our eighties. Picket duty. Maybe one day my real job again (I miss you real job! I can't wait to see you again!). A rusty ol' computer (you've been so good to us, but the time is fast approaching for a new, zippier friend) that takes FOREVER to upload photos. A need to upgrade my flickr account.

I think that is the extent of my current excuses. Feels good to get it off my chest.

And so I bring you an image of Olive & her daddy at the lake on her birthday. No crafting, just a beautiful stormy sky.

Class war, grrrr!

Equal pay, yo.

Hi, my name is Kristy & I'm crazy. Why? I'm up before Olive is awake. Huh? Ya, I got up earlier than I had to - it's official, I'm crazy. (One good thing about this particular choice is I got to hear Olive giggling madly in her sleep and watch her sleep with her bum in the air. Normally the morning begins with Olive prying my eyelids apart with her tiny razor sharp finger nails).

Also, this morning marks the beginning of Olive's indoctrination into trade unionism - little baby is going to be walking the picket line with mama. She'll be wearing her "Equal Pay for Equal Work" plaquard and charming my fellow library workers with her sparkle. I'm pretty sure there will be a great deal of singing, finger plays & rhyming, as well as a little accordion & guitar for spice. Oh, & dogs & knitting. Yee haw. Pictures to follow!

My sweet sisters Liza, Dana & Sharkey (& ?) rallying in front of city hall.

Back to life

Ahh, the return. We spent a glorious month away from home - just long enough to really, really unwind & when the end came, to feel very happy to be back in our own beds.

We ate delicious local food (Olive gorged on raspberries, cherries & trout), drank delicious beverages, played games, ate sand, swam, cooked (40 degrees celsius, oh my!), watched loons, robins, otters, ducks, pelicans, sparrows, snakes & hundreds of butterflies, hung out naked (Olive actually, not the grown-ups - too many neighbours). We made jam. We made friends. We celebrated the big birthday with salmon, cake, funny hats & a campfire. We spent lots of time with family. We rested. We contemplated the future (move? stay? babies? jobs? homesteading?).

We returned to a mama on strike. And a baby who still doesn't sleep.

And I'm wondering, should I continue the blog? I'm not so sure. I guess we'll see how it feels as things get cookin' busy around here (picket duty, taking care of 2 one year olds, daddy returning to work)... Life.

Somebody sticking sticky fingers into her first taste of chocolate. It was a hit.