Since Mikey and I still have some time before we have to decide what kind of “precedent” we’ll set in regards to an “Easter basket” for our children, and since Hazel’s first two Easters have come at a time of great discovery in her short little life, we’ve used it as an excuse to buy and make her things both years (i.e., totally spoil her with stuff, which we normally don’t do). Last year she had really just started playing with toys hardcore so she got a basket full of board books and little toys and her beloved silks. This year she is all of a sudden pretending and doing lots of outdoor things, so we filled her spring basket with outdoor toys and books and things for pretend. (Don’t worry, she’s not deprived of candy – she has lots of grandparents.)

I have had my eye on these eggs by Imagination Kids for awhile. I had a feeling she’d really like them. Whoa mama, did she like them. I didn’t think she’d ever get around to looking at the rest of what was in her basket. Can you tell she’s oozing excitement?

I made this little trio of bunnies from this free pattern on wee wonderfuls. They are made from fat quarters I received as part of a fabric exchange with friends, a remnant of fleece, and they are stuffed with bits of chopped up old tshirts (thus making them my new year’s resolution for the week, which I realize I’m WAY behind on). I’ll tell you, using a rotary cutter to, um, savagely destory several old tshirts was a very good release after WVU’s loss to Duke on Saturday night. My hands did not stop shaking the whole game so her bunnies are overall a little lumpy and imperfect, but the tshirt chopping – THAT I did very, very well. I love the weight the filling gives to them, too.

So, since I was getting caught up on resolutions, the other day it occurred to me to photograph this thing we do as I assembled one after putting away dry things from the kitchen drain basket. We got the idea from friends in Canada: we chop the tops off of soymilk / juice cartons as shown, scrub them out really well and then slide two together. They make perfect giant blocks like these, but not pretty. Hazel totally does not care that they aren’t pretty. I suppose someday she’ll make them pretty. You would not believe how sturdy these things are.

I get excited when I have a good repurposing resolution. I need to keep those going. I think that gets me caught up to the week before last. This whole week I’m playing catch-up with all kinds of stuff, so I’ll try to bring myself current. I do have a goodwill bag going but I haven’t dropped it off yet so it doesn’t count.

Listening: dog-scratching; husband-typing; CCR in my head; THUNDER!!! in my sky
(I am) Reading: The Poisonwood Bible
(Hazel is) Reading: Pond Circle
(Thinking about) working on: Hazel’s summer clothes – I should do this soon, right? All I’ve made are pajamas. She is living in skirts and capris from last year.

This week has been an absolute whirlwind, and I am about to embark on just a few days more before we get a small (very small) reprieve from the constant goinggoinggoing, from the flurry of flitting from one place to the next, one activity to the next, ever since the snow melted. These activities rarely include things like laundry and scrubbing the bathtub, however, so this will be my afternoon.

Janet is on her way here (!!!) and we’ll be spending a long Easter weekend with family here and in the MOV. Maybe we’ll find ourselves able to sit still for two seconds at some point over the next few days. That would be nice.

I’ll be back after the weekend with tales of sibling hangout (I really want to watch Fantastic Mr. Fox for the second time this week and there are rumors of crafting projects), reports on whether or not anyone under the age of ten actually eats the quinoa tabbouleh I plan to take to Easter dinner, some showing off of treats that are making their way into Hazel’s spring basket (made by me and by others), and whatever else.

April 2009

Happy Easter, friends!

. . . . .

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.”

-Wendell Berry

Listening: Gillian Welch
(Hazel is) Reading: Go Dog Go
(I am) Reading (slowly): The Poisonwood Bible
Working on: Hazel things; Etsy things; custom jewelry and paper things

Here’s some stuff I’ve been working on – or at least intending to work on – over the past week:

Bunnies for Hazel. As you can see, I got no further than printing out the free pattern and choosing fabrics before Hazel woke up. I love them but now that they’ve been sitting here for two days I’m starting to think maybe they are too drab… I might dive back into my stash for something more colorful.

Working on stuff for inclusion in April’s Spotted Box, which I agreed to on a whim and am very excited about – I did one in 2008 and kind of flipped out when my own box came in the mail!

The blue & gold blanket, which I only seem to work on when Hazel is teething. It’s always laying around in a heap somewhere, trailing its two balls of yarn, and when I want to work on it I have to hunt down my (gigantic, purple acrylic, very enticing) crochet hook because Hazel has always found and hoarded it away for her own crochet hook needs, which usually involves lots of waving it at the dog. I’ve lost count since January, but I’ve used a huge one pound ball and a half of the gold, and I think I’m on my sixth ball of homespun. I don’t really see an end in sight for this blanket.

And the work of raising little war resisters… I think a group reading of The Butter Battle Book is notable progress :)