Crocheting the Auditory Way

I had a crochet/knitting get together last night at my house. It was wonderful just to have a get together, especially on a day that normally I am stuck at home with only my toddler to keep me company. It was also nice because I got the house cleaned despite being tired, in preparation for them and I even got my crocheting going.
I tired and failed at following a pattern for mittens for my toddler so I thought I would improvise one. I did, and made a cute looking, if not perfect looking mitten this afternoon. It did not, fit over my toddler's hand though. It was long enough, the thumb a little too long, but it was not wide enough.

Red Heart Yarn: Black Light

I think I need to try following a video. I do so much better with someone telling me what to do and showing me.
I know this, why I don't initially go for this method I don't know. Maybe because I am "supposed to" be able to just read the directions and do great. That is just plain silly, but that's what I have allowed myself to learn.
I have to say I am so glad I am an introspective person. I think being so allows me to grow more quickly if I don't get caught up in a destructive cycle. I would like to think I am out growing that but I can't say I am completely past it either.
Anyway way, I replaced my missing size G hook and got some neon colored yarn to make my big boy a pair of mittens as well. We were talking about making them alien mittens, where the thumb, first two, and second two fingers are each in their own spot. I have no desire to try to crochet gloves and I am thinking mittens might not be versatile enough for a rough and tumble ten year old boy.

LOOOK Muslim Homesteaders!

LOOK LOOK! There's a family, MUSLIM family doing what I would like to do one day, inshallah! http://www.thegomamas.com/2014/11/its-so-hard-to-say-good-bye.html Homesteading!

Thinking about how we eat.

This is a thinking out loud kind of post. This is what I am thinking, We eat lots of carrots, onion, and apples regardless of other factors. In part because they are cheap, in part because my big boy loves to eat carrots and apples and in part because they are nearly always available. Except for this pregnancy, and even still, tomatoes and cheese are the 2 major staples of our diet.
Meats are eaten more in colder weather and beans in warmer weather. I bake more in cool weather, serve many more salads in warmer weather and cook Indian recipes more frequently in hot weather. I make candies around Ramadan and in the fall.
Typically we don't each much citrus fruit, given we live in mountainous desert the quality isn't usually that good for what I buy anyway. We eat more fish in warm weather but not very frequently. We nearly only drink water and milk with hot beverages on occasion and juice slightly more frequently. We also do drink pop rarely.
I much prefer, since my pregnancy with my 1 y old, meals that take less than 20 minutes to prepare, or at least 20 minutes or less of my standing at the counter or stove. I don't mind a meal that took 6 hours to cook, I just don't want to be in the kitchen the whole time.
I'd rather serve rice than potatoes because they require less attention and bread over rice as once baked bread requires nearly no attention at all.
As far as meats go I would rather touch a red meat than poultry or fish. I would rather toss a hunk of meat in a pot or in the oven than any other method and I would rather eat ground beef than any other meat.
I love the taste of berries but they are more expensive than apples or even grapes. I love trying exotic fruits but again the price is a big factor, as well as questionable ethically. That is to say, is it really justifiable that I spend my limited dollars on a piece of fruit that was definitely grow many hundreds of miles away, probably under conditions bad for the environment and bad for the farm workers? For most likely very little pay, if any?
I buy very little candy in a given year, buy dried goods in bulk generally and do buy frozen dinners occasionally.I justify the frozen lasagna or whatever in that I am not spending as much money as I would if we ate out.

SO given all that how can I make meals easier, cheaper and faster?

My thoughts are making freezer meals, freeze leftovers, make simpler recipes and get others to share the burden of cooking.

I post on those ideas in the future, inshallah.

Precarious Stairs and Sleeping Arrangements

I have a list of projects that I would like to complete in the near future, including making the stairs safer. Because we rent there are limitation in how much I am willing to invest and limitations in how much we an afford anyway.
Ever sine I fell on my back on the stairs I have been leery going up and down the stairs. I turn, taking one step cautiously at a time, while having a death grip on the rail. It's not so much that I am worried about pain as I am worried I will fall bad enough to kill the baby. That and if I were holding my toddler would he get her if I had even a little fall?
So I have been avoiding the stairs. This means I have been making myself a bed on the couch as my bedroom is down the perilous stairs, through the dungeon other wise known as the store room and into the bedroom.
I don't mind sleeping on the couch that much because for one it's much closer to the bathroom, the boys room, far from the chainsaw that fidgets (aka my sleeping husband) and warmer. The part I don't like is not being in the same room as my husband and that I am sleeping on the couch. I tried sleeping on the floor but that was too hard and cold. I tried dragging our futon matrice up to the office and sleeping in there but that was so lumpy it was terrible. I even tried making a bed on the floor with all the couch cushions but that was no good as well because my bed had to be disassembled each day, reassembled at night and there was a big hole in the middle because the cushions are rounded. It's funny but true.
I think possibly investing in a cot would be a good idea. Something like this

The type seems to range from $70 up. If we had one of these I could just fold it up and put it in the office closet. Cleaning that out is yet another project. 

My Boy Shined Mashallah

My 10 y old son preformed Boa Constrictor by Shel Silverstien at our local homeschool co-op fundraiser tonight. He did a great job, mashallah. He had practiced for a month and we both were so excited. The fundraiser was a success as well alhumdulillah. We now have more than enough money to do what we were aiming for, register as a non-profit with the IRS so we can use a building that we would like and have a wonderful co-op.

Giving Myself Credit

Let's face it, unless I congratulate myself or ask my 10 year old to, I wont get any at home. I have social media accounts so I can put, "I put my socks on." up and solicit accolades but I'd really like someone, especially my family to say to me on their own "Wow! I really see you have made a difference!" Since that's not going to happen and I would like actual sincerity it was a pleasant feeling to open my long neglected household notebook and feel pride, May Allah guide me ameen, in my work.

I had made the thing, when my oldest son was off to his dad's house for about a month in December. At first I spent my time sleeping in, watching TV, lazing about. Then I began to get busy. I got the house clean and amazingly it stayed pretty much clean. I tackled long over due projects like washing the curtains, dusting the laundry room. Well, I don't remember if I did the latter during that time but I found I was increasingly happy. I decided redoing my household notebook and making it very attractive me pursued my to use it more often. I bought a large photo album and crafting supplies.
I should tell you I am of the "good enough is good and done" camp and so it was unusual for me to be so meticulous in doing something.
I made minute details on things like a 2 inch cut out of an oven, a 1 inch cut out of grapes, and lettering using tiny silver beads to imitate bullets for the finances heading. My divider pages have texture and color schemes.
I was so refreshed that when my son came home, schooling was much better. I also got pregnant, I remember conceiving my 1 year old, with in a week of my son coming home.
And really, it is such a good thing because I got back to who I was, not just the wife and mom but the other part of myself.
Now, with a toddler and pregnant again I am very much absorbed in the demands of babyhood. I look forward to when I can start and finish a project in a day, focus uninterrupted for hours on a task and clean house and even if it doesn't stay that way, all I have to do is supervise to get it back to order.
I do enjoy the phase I am in, watching my abdomen grow, celebrating my toddlers accomplishments but I know that this is temporary. That one day there will be just me.

Realistic Expectations

Realistic expectations may or may not be easy for you. For my ten year old it seems to be very challenging when he wants to make plans. I don't want to be a nay sayer and crush his dreams but when asked to make a list of goals ending all wars was very close to the top of the list. Yes that is a great and lofty goal but you are setting your self up for failure if you think that you are personally going to do that in the near future.
There are lots of places to go to learn about goal setting as an adult but I have a feeling much of it will come from experience. My 10 year old just has very little experience in setting and meeting goals. On top of being very young he is a very live in the moment kind of guy. He would rather eat the icecream now than wait half an hour and take the chance that something will happen and he wont get to have it after all.
Maybe I have contributed to that. Weather or not I have, giving him opportunities to set goals and learn, by experience what a realistic goal is for him, personally, will, inshallah, help him to thrive.

His first time making mac and cheese without any help.