Confessions of a Domestic Failure book

I borrowed the audio book Confessions of A Domestic Failure by Bunmi Laditan from the library. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this book.  It kind of made me feel like I was doing just a tad bit better than Ashley, the main character in the story.  I’ve been working at this whole stay at home mom thing for almost 2 years.  Yes, the dishes get done every day.  No, my children do not get baths every night.  No, I don’t order out every night, I do make dinner almost every night.  No, the laundry isn’t always put away.  Yes, I have dust and little finger prints on my end and coffee table.

But the one part of the story that really hit me was the character of Emily.  She is who Ashley looks up to.  She’s the “Picture Perfect” online mom who does everything perfectly.  When you get further into the book you see that she has the village to help her take care of her family.  But for those of us that don’t, that only have our selves, being that perfect is hard.  I know I get distracted easily.  My phone is a horrible distraction for me.  The TV isn’t much better.  When it comes to getting things done around the house I already know I’d much rather peruse Pintrest, Instagram, Facebook, or Ravelry.

Right now, I have a sink full of dishes, a dryer full of my husbands clothes, 3 bathrooms that need to be cleaned, I need to vacuum, and mop.  It’s after 10 pm here, and I’m thinking of putting some of that off until tomorrow.  I know I can’t put it off for too long since my husband needs clothes, we need the dishes to eat off of, I like sitting on a clean toilet, I don’t like my son’s hands turning black while scooting across the floor, and I have family coming for Thanksgiving on Thursday.   All of this will be done by then, but I know more will crop up by then.  I’ll have to wash both of my kids clothes, I’ll have to clean up some bodily fluid from one of three dogs, I’ll have toys to pick up, a kitchen to constantly clean.  It never ends.

Either way, I enjoyed the book.  I’ve read a few of the reviews on Goodreads and they aren’t very nice.  One woman says basically any woman who is like the main character isn’t worth being friends with and should delete her from her friends list.  Harsh.  I’m sorry, but some people do struggle with the transition to full time domestic life.  I know I do!!

Putting It Off

Things have been busy and I’ve been slowly knitting up my daughters Sylvi Sweater.  I’ve finished both sleeves and both front panels.  I need to work up the back, stitch the pieces together, do the hood, knit up the flower petals and so on.  I’ve just been putting it off, its not that I’m not enjoying knitting it, I am.  I think its that I’ve already started knitting the back once and had to frog it.  The excuse I was originally going with because I haven’t started on it was that I didn’t know if I had enough yarn to finish it.  Now I know I do since I just got a little more black, 2 7oz skeins, I should stop putting it off.  Only thing is, I’ve started knitting the Lady Eleanor shawl.  I’m using the Lion Brand Shawl in a Ball in the Lotus Blossom color way.  I love the way the colors transition and how they don’t go too fast.  But I’ll put it down for a little bit to get the Sylvi Sweater done.  I wanna finish it before my daughter, who is 9, grows too big to wear an adult XS.  That should be at least another year or two, but you never know.

Now, my son has just turned 2.  And I’m pretty happy with what I was able to get done for him and my daughter before Christmas.  I made them both fleece blankets.  My daughters was a no sew double sided blanket with quilt batting in the center.  My sons I had to sew around the edges, but his is also double sided with quilt batting in the center.  I love my kiddos, and I’ll make them just about anything I can.

New Project – Sylvi and The End of Another

Well, I have finally started my daughters new sweater!!!  I know, it’s about damn time right?  That’s exactly how I feel. My daughter had out grown the sweater I had made for her 5 years ago almost 2 years ago…  I’m a little late on the uptake, but I’m getting there.  I had wanted to start this sweater for her last year, but was unable to do it since I was still getting the hang of being a stay at home mom.  I’m still trying to get the hang of it.

I’m working on sleeve number two at the moment for the Sylvi sweater.

It is an awesome looking sweater and I cannot wait to finish it for her.  I’m making hers in black with purple flowers and cuffs.  I finished sleeve number one and started sleeve number two while watching the first episode of season 8 of TWD on Sunday.  I love all the seed stitch and cables.  I really can’t wait to see how this comes out.

Now, the sweater I had made for my daughter was the Three Flavor Delight By SweaterBabe.  She is an amazing designer and knitter.  I have a few of her designs and I haven’t knit them all.  I have done the Vine Lace Top Down Cardigan.  It took me a year to finish as I did have a new baby to care for, but it is done.  I gifted it to my husbands grandmother, but she has yet to wear it.  I guess New Mexico falls aren’t cold enough and the winters are too cold for her to wear it.  Oh well.  At least she uses the shawls and scarves I’ve knitted and given to her because she says they are so pretty.  3 shawls, 2 scarves, and 1 hat.  Ok, I’m not here to complain about a 91 year old woman.  I need to stop that!!

I did just finish a crocheted water bottle cozy.  It is called A Glamping We Will Go.  It was a fairly easy pattern, but it took longer than it should because my hand tends to cramp if I crochet for more than 30 minutes.  But I will persevere and get it done to make my family happy, even if it is family I haven’t met yet.

Time

A few weeks ago I had kept my daughter home from school because she had a stomach ache.  She had been pulling it a lot over the summer to try to get out of swim lessons.  Not to mention she did inherit her fathers nervous stomach.  She get stressed about anything and her stomach starts bothering her.  In the morning before her lessons she’d complain that her tummy was bothering her, it would get worse as we entered the parking lot, as soon as we got to the pool her tummy was fine.  Well, this day she was really nauseous and I figured it would be better for her to stay home than to possibly get her classmates sick.

I had put my son in his chair and had given him breakfast.  The LAST person I would expect to get after me about the time is my then 17 month old son.  How many children that age have a really good idea of time?  Apparently mine does.  I was going to take breakfast upstairs to my daughter when my son made a noise to get my attention.  Basic conversation goes as this:

“I have to take breakfast to your sister.”

He looks at me and shakes his head no.

“She needs to eat too.”

He shakes his head again and points at the clock there on the wall.

At this point I’m a bit dumbfounded because it was 7:30 am.  This is the time we are normally headed out the door to take my daughter to school.  After that I tell him that his sister isn’t feeling well and that she is staying home with us.  He seems ok with this and goes back to eating.

My son never stops amazing me.  We were afraid he would have some issues as he got older because he was unresponsive for 4 minutes at his time of birth, but it has not phased him one bit.  He is smart as a whip and never stops moving.

A New Stitch

I never relized how relaxing the act of knitting can be.  Its not really all about the project or the yarn, but dont get me wrong those aspects are nice too.

For about 6 months I wasn’t able to knit.  It wasn’t because I had hurt myself or anything, but it was because I had committed myself to a crochet project that I wasn’t a huge fan of.  I had to weave in SO many ends…  I just wanted to be done with it and ove on to something new.  But until I’d gotten all those ends in I couldn’t move on.

For me crochet is not as engaging or challenging as knitting.  I love the rhythm of wraping the yarn around the needle, pulling it through, and dripping the loop the yarn was just pulled through off the needle.  With crochet its put the hook through and pull it back out.  I have a blanket I made at 17 in crochet, but I just have a hard time doing it.  Even before I learned to knit I barely ever made anything in crochet.  My yarn stash had zilch in it.

I taught myself to knit.  I had told my hubby that it was something I’d like to learn.  For my next birthday what did he get me?  A teach yourself to knit kit.  I love him for that.

Well, now that I’m dome making that crochet blanket and I’ve woven in all those ends I have finally been able to pick up my needles.  The first thing on them?  A scarf pattern I’ve already made once with a yarn I would have NEVER picked and taken home on my own.  I inherited this yarn when my aunt died.  But to tell you the truth, I could not be happier.  I was finally able to get some knitting on my neddles!!

It was when I realized I was using a yarn I didn’t care for that I noticed that it wasn’t the yarn or pattern.  It was just the act of knitting that I had so dearly missed.  Never underestimate the act of a beloved hobby or craft, how it makes you feel, because when you really can’t do it is when you will miss it most.