waiting for the dust to settle.

hi, dear readers.

just wanted to let you know i'm taking a little bloggy break until the latest moving dust settles. oh, i'm still in louisville, just moved out of a temporary situation into a more permanent one. also have parent-teacher conferences coming up, and trying to spend more quality time with the special guy in my life. life's busy but good!

can't wait to share my new tiny workspace (crafts!!) with you!

till then,

k.

hope you're all well and i'm still reading your blogs!

daybook.

Today's Simple Thoughts:
Outside my window... were flowers.
I am thinking... about the family i want to start and why it hasn't happened yet. maybe so i can take my time and learn how to do it right?
I am thankful for...my best friend and my parents.
From the learning rooms.. I am learning to find life's joy in children, even when they are being irritating. that's when we must dig deep and learn to love them more. and express, outwardly, that we're loving them more. it will change our insides!
From the kitchen... just took vegan hawaiian pizza out of the oven.
for Lunch:leftover eggplant stew and polenta, and some roasted potatoes with pesto. didn't eat much, though. weird stomach thing going on today.
I am wearing... old-fashioned nightgown.
I am creating... a knitted birthday surprise, and some baby hats. and a simpler life ...
I am going... to move again in 10 days. i don't like this idea, but i do like shedding even more stuff (is it really possible? yes, it is!)
I am reading... Crime and Punishment, and Ethics into Action and about six other books with the bookmark stuck halfway through.
I am hearing... The radio and the dishwasher
A few plans for the rest of the week: pack stuf for moving, yoga classes, walks in the park, bout it, that.

nesting saturday

here's another quick picture post.

i am really, really craving, and settling into, fall nesting. in fact, i had the light bulb idea just today to spend every afternoon and evening of one whole week at home. no errands running at all, nothing. i think i can do it ... i just want to be home pretty much all the time, interspersed with yoga classes and walks in the park. it's going to be a wonderfully relaxing fall and winter.

i've just sat and knitted for an hour, listening to this american life/moth radio hour on NPR. wonderful. soon, i'll cook up the vegan cheddar bake for my monthly earthsave potluck dinner. tonight, i'm looking forward to curling up with more Crime and Punishment. Maybe a bit more knitting. On deck are baby hats, a scarf, waffle-knit dishcloths, and perhaps something for myself (??) out of two skeins of gorgeous green yarns in two colors that i purchased in chicago over the labor day weekend.

i wonder when i will sew the rest of the cloths needed for my classroom, then move into my own experiments, for fun. i'd like to try the cloth napkin holder/roll i blogged about earlier. oh, and did i mention knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann's baby surprise jacket? we shall see ...

until my next update, please enjoy the pictures, and thanks for the continual incredible inspiration your own blogs provide me!

recent pictures:

http://www.syvum.com/cgi/online/serve.cgi/recipes/srcpv25.tdf?0">this awesome recipe ...

some solitude in the park ...


late summer farmer's market bounty (yes i am one person! with a veg addiction! lol)


fridays we do "picnic lunch":

i can sort of sew! here is a wood polishing cloth i made for the classroom, sorry for the picture quality. i really would love to take a photography skills workshop!


love and light,

karen

one-sentence journal.

just wanted to share a little love from the long weekend....away ... in ....




that's right, Chicago.

i still have more of the late summer pics i promised you, coming soon.

nesting already. on my list currently:

red wine
knitting
reading
learning new children's songs to sing with my classroom.

which all reminds me, thanks to gretchen rubin's idea i have started a one-sentence gratitude journal. picked it up tonight, for the low cost of $10 at my locally-owned bookshop (where I was picking up another book for my bi-monthly vegetarian book club, Ethics into Action by Peter Singer).

so i wrote:

"Today, I sang with the children as they cleaned their shelves in the afternoon. It was so joyful, for all of us. Singing while we moved through the ordinary tasks of life."

okay, so it was three sentences. you get the point. how wonderful it shall be to fill it up with all the moments we might otherwise forget in the daily grind of things.

tonight i made the best vegan hawaaian pizza ever. tomorrow night, out for vegan sushi with some like-minded friends. next week: eggplant, tomato, and chickpea stew from Veganomicon, celebrating the last sweet fruits of summer.

welcome, september, my favorite month of all, and your cool breezes.

settling into fall.

just got back from a very romantic, sweet weekend in Chicago. sorry as a result i haven't been around much. i am also trying to set limits on my online time. i plan to spend the next six months or so nesting - cooking, baking, getting through the last small piles of unorganized junk from the move here, knitting, reading, sewing, listening to NPR and my Pandora music stations. lots of time at home, and also getting out to do long walks and yoga classes.

i've been catching up on all of your blogs and i'm so glad you are a continual inspiration to me.

tomorrow night, i'm making vegan red lentil tacos. i've made them before, they are delicious! cooking truly makes me feel wonderful. i like knowing that i can sustain myself, and it's not some big, irresponsible company doing it.

here is the batter for some recent vegan blueberry cornmeal muffins. i love that vintage pyrex mixing bowl.


starting to think about holiday gifts: homemade peppermint bark (i think soulemama has a good recipe?), dishcloths, scarves, local and fair trade bits and bobs and sweet smelling soaps to fill packages with yum.

love and light to you this week. can't believe i'm already nearly a MONTH into the school year! oh me oh my!!

classroom fish, a betta!