Recalibrating

I recently had an article run that explained more about where I've been.  As the pandemic has been a constant, (nothing's back to "normal" for us yet)  I've worked and written at night when I can, but there's been a lot of time spent on other things.  Here is a link to the article: Recalibrating our life route 

This summer is another freeform one, where twins spend a lot of time on creative play in the yard, reading, making stuff and even doing a little learning...with outings to pick berries, swim at a lake for a day trip, etc. I mostly have stayed home with Sadie the dog while the professor does the out of town offerings.  I seem to be Mom in charge of playgrounds, farmer's market, wading pools, and long dog walks.

I've done some spinning, knitting, and lots of sewing....made my own version of MC Hammer pants...and even a brand new bag, with zippers... for taking care of business on those dog walks.

I've canned some jam (natural outcome after all that berry picking!) and, despite our hot summer, managed to make a pie recently after a kind neighbour gifted us with an entire quart bag of pitted sour cherries.  She pitted them for us!  This, of course, is neighbourliness and treasure beyond measure in our household...local fresh fruit and the gift of her time!

The tricky bit? We love many of our longtime neighbours but the infill and a recent construction in our area - also more generally targeted as part of Winnipeg's densification efforts- has caused our house's walls to be damaged. The noise and construction is hard to live through.  We also live along a very busy road. The increased traffic that returns, post-pandemic, from the nearby restaurant patios and their drunk clientele, the high schoolers going out for lunch, increased bus traffic, etc. - it gets to be a lot of noise. 

Anyway, due to the disruptions near us and the third wave of the pandemic in Manitoba... (and likely, a fourth wave coming for those who aren't vaccinated...)

--this summer has been different than planned. Whew.  Now, the professor has a grant due, our kids are too young to get vaccinated yet, and we still can't see any of our relatives across the border.  (They're vaccinated, we're vaccinated, but the delta variant, the travelling, health issues, and kids too young to be vaccinated yet--make this too complicated at present.)

So, in the meanwhile, here are some lightweight organic crinkle cotton pants that I made!  Here are some jars of jam!

Here's to the summer that got away from me.  Now, like those GPS things in the car, we're recalibrating--and readjusting our summer route.

Manitoba women's health just got worse

Here's a link to my CBC opinion piece, which ran this morning.  You may recognize the photo if you are a long-time blog reader.  (That's the Professor's finger, he took the photo, he held the twin, and no, I did not get to do that more than once in the NICU)

If you don't recognize the photo, click on June 2011 to learn a little more.  The details I wrote about for this essay are perhaps more graphic than I've ever shared in a published piece before, but it was worth it. 

Many women in Manitoba have gone through similar things, and based on proposed changes to our health care system, it could just get worse.  Here's hoping others are concerned, too.  (Based on the CBC-Manitoba Facebook page and the number of times this article has already been shared, my guess is that others may agree and are plenty worried.)

Manitoba women's health just got worse

childcare in Manitoba

My CBC opinion piece on childcare in Manitoba came out yesterday evening.  Here's the link:
Manitobans want more child-care and we want it now

This time, I love the title. :)

One of my goals is to try to make a positive difference in the world, and of course, that can feel daunting.  For many years, I taught...religious school, adult ed., high school, community college, even grad. school seminars.  Recently, while I've been corralling twins, I haven't had much of an opportunity for teaching, although I occasionally manage to offer a fiber arts class.   When I did teach, I felt that helping students, one person at a time, was really meaningful.  I struggle sometimes to find that same meaning when I am exclusively writing and designing...sometimes the topics aren't life-changing--but occasionally, things work out.

It's been great to get a chance every now and then to comment on something that I hope might affect change.  I sometimes write on religious issues. At times, much of my work is in the knitwear design/hand spinning world. Yet, it has been really exciting lately to have these pieces on the CBC online.  Many times, I don't get much response from what I've written, but at least it is a soapbox to describe what I hear from other parents of young children, new moms, etc.  I love that part of what I do.

I'm reposting the links here so that if you're interested, you can be part of the conversation.
Thanks for joining in!
Joanne    

A little Sumpin Sumpin

I have finally found summer.  Here.  In Winnipeg.  A couple of days ago, we could even shut our tap off and it isn't dripping anymore.  (yes, frozen pipes were still a concern until after Canada Day.  Oy.)  Even though I am thrilled to see flowers, greenery, heat, all of it...we're still very covered up here.  You see, we've had torrential rains, massive flooding in the Province (but not in my basement, thank goodness...) and now--MOSQUITOES.  One of my 3 year old boys (the smaller twin, for those who know us in person) has a terrible allergic sensitivity to the bites, which is not surprising, given that the Professor and I are both allergy-prone.

Well, he has had three bad bites near his eyes since the beginning of June.  Yucko.  This requires lots of "loopy sleepy medicine"(kid Benadryl) as well as "sauce"(cortisone cream) in order to keep from having the yucky antibiotics, which he had the first time he got a bite.  Anyhow, the boys wear long pants, socks, shoes, button down long sleeved shirts sprayed heavily with bug spray, and Tilley sun hats, also perfumed with bug spray...and even so, they get bitten on their hands, their wrists, their faces...it's bad.  The city will start spraying tonight and to be honest, I am just grateful.  It is terrible when you can't play in the sandbox, enjoy a slide, or try out your new tricycle because of bugs.

Also, morning preschool ended...camp (mornings) doesn't start 'til Monday, and our mother's helper went away to visit her family.  So, we are having 10 days without any childcare.  In order to sell this to the boys as something fun and not an alarming sentence (which is what it sometimes seems to us--3 year old twins, without any help or breaks or anyone willing to watch both of them while they are awake but us...and oh, did I mention they still don't sleep through the night too often?!)...anyhow, I sold it as a "Holiday with Mommy."  Every day, we tried to do something fun together and I tried to tire them out.

Meanwhile, I relied heavily on precooked food from the freezer, the slow cooker, and deep calming breaths to get through all the potty breaks, accidents, tantrums, and random assaults on one's brother...

OK, on to the good stuff.  At night, when I should be sleeping, I was working on this.  As one of my brothers would say, with a sort of mischievous smirk, a little sumpin sumpin.  Here's a link to Sumpin, my latest knitting design.



It's an easy cellular lace pattern, only 4 rows long, and absolutely lightweight and airy in something like silk.  (This is Handmaiden Sea Silk, in Ivory)  It's meant to dress up a t-shirt, or, in my case, to cover up stains!  If I ever have to look nice again, I might want to wear/knit/own something like this.

The Professor shot these photos of me outdoors one evening after the twins were finally asleep.  It is light here until 10 or 11 pm this time of year and our twilight lasts a long time.  However, the mosquitoes were also thinking that this scarf was "sumpin" and our photo shoot was actually very fast.

This shot of me with my face all crinkled up and laughing was really like "Get on with it!  Hurry up!  Do you want to be eaten alive?!"

If you're curious about how I could possibly be designing or knitting now, well, I wonder that too.  I shot a photo of a chair in my bedroom...stacked with my knitting bag, a copy of Knit Green so I could answer somebody's question, and this last project, this silk scarf.  Knitting gets done in the tiny windows of space when I'm a passenger in a car, when the boys are drinking their milk before bed, and in the few minutes during naptime or before bed when I am trying to calm down and stealing sleep time to do it.

It is a time that is hazy around the edges, just like these shots...but a few minutes of knitting (or spinning) a day really keeps me feeling just a little bit sane when trying to sell 10 days without childcare or playdates or any local family or even any babysitting while someone is awake as...umm, a holiday with Mommy. :) 

I am mother, hear me roar

I am mother, hear me roar

This is my newest op-ed, published today in the Free Press.  In general, I am proud of it-the editing was fine and I believe in what I said.  I love that it ran in the weekend paper, so more people might see it. However, writers never get to choose the headline.  I am upset about this one.  If a man wrote about getting good and equal access to healthcare, childcare, job equality and its effects on the tax base...everyone would say, "oh, right, of course, that is entirely reasonable and logical."  If I write about it, as a woman, as a mother, as a (gasp) feminist, I am roaring.   I am somehow making an (implied inappropriate?) loud noise and by implication, a statement about what women have to do to request a fair and equal status.

Really?  That makes me sad.  Not as sad, of course, as the struggle to get a fair wage, to have good access to the kind of healthcare I'd like, or to have decent and affordable childcare....but sad that the editors decided that what I wrote was somehow full of lioness rage, rather than full of a sort of legitimate frustration and an obvious logic about how to boost the tax base.  Boo.