Team Gray!

I don’t know if I’ve shared here before how hysterical crafting makes me. Kind of like Scrabble. I had a mother who was really into crafts, and really quick to call my feeble efforts crap. I also have a father who takes Scrabble very seriously, who’s quick to tell me, “you don’t understand the game.”

So I don’t dig either activity particularly.

But I have one daughter who really needs to do crafts. She is restless to learn knitting, crocheting, origami, whatever craft you can put in front of her. She got an Indian bead loom for her birthday, and innocently asked if we could work with it this summer. I panicked inside, but I opened it up and dove in. Have you ever seen how tiny those beads are? I began to break out in a sweat. I suddenly lost patience for anyone small as I concentrated on reading the instructions.

Trying to get the tension just right on the loom nearly drove me crazy, not to mention trying to actually weave beads with it. This thing was made for 8 year olds? She kept saying things like, “This is way too hard for me. . .” Hours later, my daughter had long since moved onto another activity, I managed to finish her 4 bead pattern bracelet. The moment had come to remove it from the loom.

The design I’d precariously woven on the loom fell apart in my hands. It was a loopy, stringy tangle of beads. My daughter donned a lopsided smile and tried to wear it anyway. She told me that it was ok, Mommy, it’s still pretty.

It would be weeks before I attempted the bead loom again. This time we tried a more complicated design–I thought I’d try to write her name with beads. I drew the design on the graph paper myself. (The first time, I’d had her design the bracelet).

I carefully measured the elastic and strung the loom. I wove the needle and thread over the elastic for every row of beads. Her wrist is so tiny, I only had room for her nickname (3 letters) and a couple stars on the bracelet. It was a thing of beauty. I was proud of myself. Then I tried to take it off the loom. The same result as the same bracelet. We both agreed to leave the bead loom alone indefinitely.

What did we learn from this experience? Maybe I should google bead weaving?

Next craft: origami–can you say confusing?

Wedding Day

Originally uploaded by kzoomoo

My thoughts turn romantic this time of the year. I remember getting married 19 years ago, and I swoon. I watch episode after episode of ‘Say Yes to the Dress.”

I swoon over wedding pictures on Facebook. Yes, I am a hopeless romantic. Yes, I am very happily married. Yes, I would recommend it to everyone.

I signed myself up for the Library Summer Reading program again. This year, just to turn the screws a bit more, I signed the children and myself up for reading programs at both local libraries. I then proceeded to read through several American Girl books along with my 10 year old.

But I have some serious adult books I’m consuming simultaneously. I’ll list them here.

1. Book #2 from the Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series, called Parents and Children. The 19th Century educator, sometimes called the founder of the Homeschool movement, is very heavy reading. I’ve read the first book in the series, and started the fourth book as well. I’m determined to finish book two before summer’s end.

2. Pilgrim’s Progress . After Charlotte Mason, this is such a refreshing change of pace. It is light reading, by comparison, but still no day in the park. I read the children’s version years ago to the kids; I hope to finish the adult version this summer.

3. The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling. I just got this one in the mail, and I can’t put it down. I like author Barbara Frank’s writing style; I want to read her book, Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers. Frank is a 20 year veteran homeschooler with a sense of humility and humor. Nice combination.

4. Mansfield Park , by Jane Austin. Because I didn’t have enough to read already, I found myself checking this book out yesterday. There is something so accessible about Jane Austin. Her 19th century British prose is so much easier for me to grasp than Charlotte Mason’s. Maybe because it’s fiction?

5. Winning by Losing, by Jillian Michaels. I got this book a while back, and I put it down for a while. I might as well finish it up; after all, I’m in a couple reading games! Don’t get me wrong; this is a good book. It’s also a reference book, and I find it hard to read about various exercises without actually trying them out. First things first, I guess.

6. The New Rules of Marketing and PR. This is an interesting read. It goes along with a couple of others I recently finished.

7. When I finish Barbara Frank’s book, I will read another new book I just bought: Homeschooling at the Speed of Life: Balancing Home, School, and Family in the Real World . I look forward to sinking my teeth into this one.

What’s on your summer reading list?