Jenn's Spot

This is not the post I envisioned writing to celebrate 500. But to be quite honest, life is a little crazy around here right now. If I waited to write this post until I had everything in proper party form you might not hear from me again until July! So I've decided to celebrate with TWO posts. (My blog, my rules.)

Part 1: Reflections...

It's hard for me to believe that this blog has made it to its 500th post! Reading the words of my first post I am amazed at how similar they are to what I might write today if THIS was my first post. Simply a wondering at how this journaling experiment might look in the days to come. I still wonder that at times...5 years later.

Over the years I've often wondered just what the purpose of this little spot should be. A mommy blog? A crafty blog? A place simply to share a bit of our lives with family and friends near and far? A place to share my personal thoughts, dreams, worries, rants? After all, shouldn't a blog have a specific purpose to…

I just finished my first of 9 weekends of a yoga teacher training program. It was grand. You can read more in my TT Diary here.We ordered the girls bunk beds for their room. They arrived on Friday. The girls are sooOOoo excited. They have more room to play, spaces to call their own, and plenty of room under the frame for totes of books and Barbies. (The last detail mostly makes Mom excited.)I won a blog give-a-way!!! I'm really looking forward petting my handspun yarn from Kate. She makes LOVELY yarn...and knitted things. Thanks Kate!!!Yarnica came while I was gone this weekend! I realize I need to finish my lace scarf(soon...I only have enough yarn for 1 or 2 more pattern repeats), and continue working on my sweater, but I don't think I can resist casting on my mobius project today. I can't tell you anything more about it until later because it's a surprise for a reader of this here blog.This here is my 499th post. Can you believe that? Seems crazy that I've rambl…

For those of you who don't know me in "real life", let me start this post by telling you I have a bit of an obsession with all things Italian. My Great Grandmother (who is now in her late 90s and as sweet as sweet can be) immigrated to the US from Italy with her parents when she was a kid. And even though by blood my heritage is roughly 75% German and only 25% Italian, it is that Italian heritage with which I identify most. Probably because my Great Grandma Mary married an Italian, my Great Grandpa Pete who passed away when I was a tween, and many of our family traditions stem from their families. I'm sure it helps that my Great Grandma is the mother of my mother's mother...and us ladies if we are good at anything are good at carrying on with family traditions through the generations.

I love to hear my Mom talk about how when she was a kid she always knew when GG Pete was cursing or when he and GG Mary were having a discussion they didn't want the grand kids t…

It happens often when I'm knitting. I get lost in the simply rhythm of working the needles. Of wrapping the yarn. Of adding to the fabric one stitch at a time. There is this magical moment when there are just enough stitched on the left needle waiting to be worked, and just the right about of space on the right needle into which you can slide new stitches that the process becomes totally free and natural and dreamy. An easy kind of mindfulness washes over me and at that time there exists nothing by the rhythm of the work. It's blissful...much like practicing yoga really.

Last night I was knitting along on my sweater (I know...I need to show you some pictures...soon, I promise) with the Olympics playing in the background. The girls and the hubby had been put to bed. In the quiet of the night I found myself totally lost in that magical rhythm. Then suddenly I "awoke" and I honestly had to remind myself that the events and conversations of the past few days were in fact …

A number of factors canceled Scott and I's date night last night. We really didn't have big plans anyway, not really being huge Valentine's Day celebrants. Instead of going out I enjoyed a special home cooked meal...


with my 3 loves...




(I'm so glad Lexi's upset tummy only resulted in the need to clean up puke ONCE during the morning and that she was well enough to eat a little something with us for dinner. And yes, the girls did still have their PJs on. Gotta love lazy Saturdays.)

Life is good.

Go hug somebody you love!


peace

Winter in Iowa has been a bitch. Needless to say as a result Scott's commute has also been a bitch. That combined with the fact he's found a position that he enjoys, that both takes advantage of his past experience and provides opportunity for new growth, in which he feels appreciated, and which has promise to be very long term, we have once again been visiting the idea of relocating closer to his office. A subject we have discussed on and off for the past 3 years through all the ups and downs of job losses, job searching, and new job starts.

This time the scales are starting to tip in a new direction. For once instead of feeling overwhelmed by the possibility of change, of starting over in a new community, of thinking how the move would change my professional endeavors, I'm feeling hopeful for the opportunities that could be presented by exploring a new adventure. We've started looking at potential communities online until the weather the weather clears up so we can go…

You know how I love talking about the cool connections I've made with other bloggers through the years?

Well today Marie over at Permission to Unwind is hosting a blog party for her BIRTHDAY! (I think it's cool she shares her birthday month with another of my very favorite crafty ladies...my Mom.) Stop over and wish her a fantabulous day. (You really should...she's serving cupcakes.)

PTU was one of the very first knitting focused blogs I started to follow. I pretty much think it was fate that brought me to Marie's URL. Without going into all the fascinating boring details, let me just give you a few examples of how alike Marie and I have discovered we are:
We're both in our mid-thirties.We both married our high school sweet hearts when we were pretty young as far as today's average marriage age goes. Both our husband's names are Scott.We both practice yoga, like talking about healthy foods, and dabble in crazy things like aromatherapy and the power of energie…

Have you ever felt like maybe your not living up to your potential...and that your not even sure what the potential is? That for some reason you're having a hard time figuring out why finding long term contentment in life seems to be such a hard task?

The weather has turned frightful again and Scott decided to stay in DSM tonight rather than chance the snowy roads. This had been a LONG, snowy winter and being that it's only February 8th I know we have a few more weeks before we can breathe easy. I'm sure the stress of his commuting through it all has contributed greatly to my unease as of late. I often wonder WHY we don't just move closer to his job...after all, what the heck am I doing that is worth us staying here while he commutes? And for that matter I'm questioning WHAT I'm doing with my life.

Sometimes I think not really following "traditional" means to define the successfulness of our lives makes it hard to know what direction is the right direct…

After a somewhat rocky start (it took 4 COs to get things headed in the right direction) progress is being made on my lace scarf that I'm knitting for the Adventures in Lace KAL.


I was a bit worried as I got started how the design would present itself as the hand-spun yarn is pretty irregular. I've come across some VERY thin spots and have a bit of worry that they will be weak links in the finished project. Fingers crossed that's not the case!

My favorite feature of the design is the side with the "pointy things".


Actually one of the reason I love this pattern is that it's not symmetrical across the width of the scarf.

Last night, after a few busy knitless days, I sat down with Scott to watch a movie and knit only to discover I had 1 too few stitches on my needle. Come to find out I had mistakenly repeated two rows and in the process somehow dropped a stitch...I think. It took me 2 hours to tink-knit-tink-knit-scratch my head and have anxiety filled flashes of fr…

I thought maybe it would be nice to update you all on how things are going with my crafty shop project. Partially because I've received so many encouraging words since I let known my intentions and I've not been able to respond to everyone individually. (Sorry!!!) Partially because blogging about new adventures helps keep me accountable and make sense of all the random information flying through my head. (Didn't know your readership had such an important role in life, did ya?)

Where to begin?

As with any new undertaking, first things were all exciting and dreamy. I pictured myself dropping the kids off at school, grabbing a coffee at my favorite coffee shop, and spending my day at the shop surrounded by all things and people creatively inspiring. Quite a lovely picture of small town America bliss.

Then the reality of what it would REALLY take to get this adventure rolling set in and I started to feel MAJORLY overwhelmed. I've been up. I've been down. I've talked …