Homemade Bookshelves and an Organized Library

Instant gratification: this is the "after."

Kitchen cleaning so far.

I thought you might like a recap of the kitchen portion of The Reasonably Clean House series.

Of course, you can always go to the categories to see what's been posted. I'm not done quite yet, but we've covered a lot already, haven't we?

Patching jeans, a tutorial.

So I have been a mother for 30 years. I have three of the male sex and four of the female. Can you imagine how many jeans we have had? Can you further imagine how many holes-in-the-knees we have had?

Many, and many.

Counting the utensils, or, clean as you go.

When we were first married, my husband went into work every day to regale his colleagues with the "utensil count" from the previous night.

You see, I had joined the Cooking and Crafts Book-of-the-Month club, and new members got four books for a dollar. I got Joy of Cooking, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and another Julia Child cookbook -- I can't remember if there was a fourth book or if the two volumes of Mastering took up two credits.

This is not a cookbook I got back then: I don't know where I got it, but it's really cute. I might have shown you before, but I was using it yesterday, so I wanted to share again!

Baby booties and such.

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along to say that this Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino gladdens not only the eye but also the hand that fashions it.

For some reason I am very attracted to yarn that I think of as soft yet crisp, if that doesn't seem like a contradiction on the face of it.

I confess that one reason I never took up knitting before is that I'm not a fan of some knitted objects or the yarn used to make them. I hope no one is offended by this.

Tuesday Links: Boy saves choking friend.

You know that I don't usually get into news here. I don't even watch the news on TV. It just happened one night a while ago that I was searching for updates about the storm we were in for, that I came across this story.

I just had to share this with you, because we were talking about boys and I just love these boys.

Act, don't React

I finally got my projects on Ravelry. You can find me there as leilamarie!

I know from comments and emails I get that some of you aren't quite sure what I mean by my first golden rule of parenting: Act, don't React.

I get the feeling that some of you are dazedly wondering, "Who are these children, and how did they get to be so ill behaved?

Smile Practice!

We've had a few weeks now on our own with the new baby, after a delightful string of visitors, including two grandmothers, three aunts (one twice!), an uncle (again, twice!), and a cousin. That's not too bad for a little boy who was born 3000 miles from his nearest relatives! 

Enjoying some time with his self-proclaimed "Youngest, Funnest Aunt," (aka, the Lt's 8-year-old sister, Sarah).

That many visitors in the first month of being parents could easily have been stressful, but everyone was so helpful that we were able to have fun, instead. (Not to mention soak up as much as we could of the 60+ years of collective mothering experience that came across the country with our mothers and the Lt's sister!) We are well aware of how blessed we are to both have such wonderful families.

And now that they're all gone, we have been keeping ourselves busy with...

Smile Practice!

Ask Auntie Leila: 10 Rules for Mothering a 13-year-old Boy.

{May I encourage you to read my girl post as well? Both these posts have something for mothers of either sex.}


Dear Carlyn has a simple question:

I surely would appreciate your input about parenting teenage boys. My son will be turning 13 this summer and I need some wise counsel about navigating these strange seas. Would you please consider writing a blog post about your own experiences and any advice you may have? 

Thanks so very much!

Love,

Carlyn

Can you see why this question is so hard?

Work avoidance: More finished objects.

In which I don't tackle a simple question, or even tell you what it is.

I have so much to say that I can't say any of it.

Someone sent me a simple question that has me suffering from advice gridlock.

You know, where you just don't know where you would begin, and seriously consider starting a blog.

Oh, wait.

I will post on it very soon.

Meanwhile I'm trying to untangle all the threads of things I want to say. And fit them into an answer that could possibly be the length of a reasonable post.