Together on path to freedom-& cleaning

My piece on Passover and Reconciliation came out on the Jewish Independent's website on Friday.  Please read it! 
Together on path to freedom

On household topics:
So, I wanted to post a cheerful photo here or some knitting, but honestly, it is snowing here today, right around freezing, and very mucky. (we had bright sunshine and lots of playtime on the weekend though I forgot to shoot photos then.  Oops)  I could see nothing outside today that would be inspirational.  Inside, well, I have been very busy with kids and Passover/spring cleaning preparations.  Knitting opportunities have been limited.  With the springtime muck outside, it does feel like two steps forward, one step back.  Or in more specific terms, I clean up the muddy paw prints from the hallway, and then someone goes outside (kid or dog) and I have to do it all over again!

One thing that has helped?  OK, this is a little strange, but I'm just going with it.  A very small, portable vacuum.  I think ours looks most like the photo here, but here's a cheaper option, if you're shopping.  I believe ours is a Bissell. (Note, ours is a different color, but I am really not sure that matters in terms of function!) We have always had an old style, heavy duty Hoover which really works...but it is heavy and big.  This little stick vacuum doesn't clean up everything, but it sure has helped with the endless dog fluff and kid detritus that seems to accumulate.  Best yet, it is very lightweight and one of my twins likes to use it.

In the middle of this, we have quietly celebrated Sadie the dog's one year anniversary with us.  She has added such joy into our lives...along with a lot of muddy paws!

I'm not into cleaning as a rule, but it does has to be done to stay healthy and I feel calmer when things are not totally chaotic.  I'm making slow inroads into cleaning up at home, but the emphasis is on slow since I am fitting it around taking care of kids, dogs, and my work life.  I think the key is to get buy in from everyone in the family to help. (...and when the Professor is away for a work trip right before a holiday, it means everyone else needs to help.)  As soon as I figure out how to get the dogs to help out more, I'll be sure to let you know!

the Cubby Imp

On Sesame Street, there is a segment called Abby's Flying Fairy School.  The one I can't get out of my head is called "the Cubby Imp."  Essentially, there is this lonely guy who lives beneath the cubbies at school, and he steals people's stuff.  The characters at the fairy school have to get into his little lair and retrieve all their belongings.

The thing is, our household is usually pretty good at keeping track of our stuff.  I have the same keys my parents gave me to their front door when I was eight.  I hate losing things.

When I was pregnant, over five years ago, we did a bunch of painting and moving stuff around.  Substantial parts of my fiber arts life got moved around, including my floor loom, and I was just not physically able to sort it out then.  Plus, a lot of it was still in boxes from when we'd moved the year before, because that was how I'd stored it in my office.  It's a pretty easy leap from there to conclude that I have not had loads of time to tidy since having my twins, either. :)

Since then, things have been shifted and reshifted.  I am preparing to teach at the Manitoba Fibre Festival next week.  (Please come!  It will be super!)  I have all my students' bags stuffed with goodies, and all is well except for one thing.  I cannot find my tahkli spindle.  Now, you can teach about support spindles and cotton spinning without this spindle, but I just don't wanna.  I have this spindle and its little bowl, dang it.  I do.

I think the Cubby Imp took it.  AHHHH!  Actually though, I know that I have brought it as a demo spindle to other classes I've taught.  I wonder if it got left somewhere, like at a spindling class I did last winter.  Or, more likely, I brought home everything after the workshop and dumped it in my office and thought...I'll just sort this out later.  The thing is, I am exhausted after my workshops are over, and then I have to jump right into Mommy gear, and I lose track of things.

This never happened before I had twins!  

(Clarification...I was tired after teaching workshops. I had clutter... but I cleaned up and knew where things were...nearly all the time.)

A kind friend (the one that reviewed the spindle, above) is going to bring hers so I can show everybody what one looks like at my class.  AND, I still have a week to look for the darn thing.  However, it seemed like a good opportunity to start cleaning up.  I am trying.  Still, I am plagued by feeling like this darn spindle has disappeared because of fairies, or cubby imps or something.  It kills me that I have lost MY tahkli.  I don't even want to buy another.  I want to find the one I misplaced, you know?

--If you were a student in one of my spindling classes recently and read this blog (like, in the last few years...), did you see my brass tahkli spindle with the little brown pottery bowl it spins in?  When did I last have it!?

Preparing for Purim

In our house, we have twin three year olds who are bursting with excitement because Purim is coming... before I forget, here's a link to my latest article if you are a grown up:
 Reading the Whole Megillah

Last week, I picked both boys up from preschool and they announced that we were making hamantaschen for Purim.  When I explained that it was too early to make these cookies for Purim and I wasn't ready yet, they said ok.  Then they decided that they could get ready for Purim anyway--by cleaning!  (this is not actually a Purim tradition that I had heard of, but I was good with it!)

I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth or a little boy who wants to clean-- so I handed both of them damp cloths and they raced around, dusting things.  Here are some funny shots of them hard at work.  They cleaned for a whole 15 minutes, so I was thrilled with the whole thing.   I'll take whatever I can get!

They are both sporting handknit sweaters made by their Didi (grandma).  Can you see that bright spot of green on the radiator?  That's my next design sample, drying after being blocked.  Coming soon: another Yarn Spinner Story + Pattern, hopefully in mid-March!

On Saturday night I made hamantaschen dough and we were ready to make cookies for Purim by 8:15 Sunday morning.  For those who like to cook, this is my personal observation: You can either have hamantaschen that look good, or that taste good.  I have never really experienced ones that both look good and taste good.  I don't know if my standards are too high or what--but I always try to go with "taste good" if I have a choice.

The last time I made these when I was pregnant in 2011, so it's been a while.  The short version is that we made hamantaschen with my homemade apricot jam, homemade strawberry jam, and chocolate chips.  I am not a traditionalist (prune, poppy seed, and apricot are often traditional fillings) in this regard..again, I am for tasting good first and maybe being sort of healthy second.  I used some spelt flour to make them more healthy...

In the end, our cookies turned out looking fairly rustic.  I am not sure I'd want to enter them in any competitions, but since the Professor and the boys shaped most of them, they are beautiful, right?  We ate some as soon as they came out of the oven, so we can vouch that tasted fine.  Now, we just have to wait patiently for Purim on Thursday. The boys won't have school!  They'll wear costumes! 

Translation: Lucky Daddy gets to go to the university and lecture as usual.  Mommy can't work on Thursday or Friday because she's on holiday twin duty.  We need play dates and lots of fun games!  We need Mommy to do lots of cooking ahead!  We are going to run around like wild beasts because we're so excited! :)