Tonight was one of the best nights of the month. It was Library Craft Night. Tonight I walked down to meet some friends at happy hour before heading across the street to the library to make a craft. This month the craft was candle making.
We were pumped and ready to craft!
We made soy candles in tins. We could pick our scents, ranging from beachy to rich lady smell. My candle scent was Cranberry Woods, which smells like walking into a cute store selling home decor in the mid-1990s. We were also able to add flower petals as decoration. I went with lavender because I’m not a huge fan of most dried floral scents (please don’t tell the potpourri community, as they would blacklist me).
As usual, the library class was wonderful. I’m thankful to live within walking distance of a library putting on such fun adult classes. Next month we’re working on book folding. I’m not sure what that means, but I know I’ll have a good time learning about it.
Today, after putting it off for over six months, I repotted some of my plants.
It was time.
After an hour or so they all looked much happier.
I’ve been feeling like a plant that needs to be repotted; I get comfortable doing what I’m doing and forget to try new things. I need to remember to make sure I have the space to grow. I don’t want to end up like my curly spider plant, squeezed into a spot it no longer fits into.
Don’t forget to repot your plants, or yourself, when it is needed.
Last week the kids and I piled into the car along with my friend and her two kids for an epic road trip. We headed up north through Minnesota and over to North Dakota where we crashed for the night in a hotel with a kid-approved hotel (Is this the first time a road trip described as epic included an overnight in Fargo? Perhaps). After our night in Fargo we were up early to drive across North Dakota to get to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park exceeded my expectations. We saw bison, prairie dogs, wild horses, a coyote, and a four-foot-long bull snake (which may have led to me screaming and high stepping away). The cannonball concretions were facinating.There was so much at this park to explore, and I hope to get back again someday.
After two days exploring Theodore Roosevelt we were ready for a new adventure. We headed over to Montana to explore Medicine Rocks State Park, then down to Wyoming to visit Devil’s Tower. We saw pronghorns on our drive, did a bit of hiking, and had ice cream before we headed over to South Dakota for the night. You can’t beat a day like that.
The next day we got up and headed to Mount Rushmore (where we saw a yellow-bellied marmot). Afterward, we headed to Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park for some amazing hiking. We ended the day at Wind Cave National Park. The cave is currently closed for tours, but the kids were able to complete a junior ranger badge, so it was still a win. We headed to Vickie Powers Memorial Park in Rapid City for some playground play to end our day (I mentally waved to Kathy while in her town).
Our last day we headed to Badlands National Park to hike and for the kids to complete their fifth Junior Ranger badge of the trip. The Junior Ranger program provides workbooks for kids at all National Parks and National Monuments. When they complete the required activities for their age group they are sworn in as Junior Rangers and given badges. It is a free program that helps kids (and their adults) learn about National Parks. After our Badlands adventure, we got in the car and drove eight hours home. We pulled into our driveway a little after nine, exhausted and ready for our own beds.
I had a wonderful time on our homeschool holiday. I’m thankful to have a mom friend with a similar sense of adventure. We had so much fun we’ve already started planning our next trip.
This spring has been crazy. I’ve been traveling (more on that later). I’ve been reading a lot. I have been recovering from a broken elbow (zero stars: do not recommend. You can neither knit nor spin with a broken elbow). I’m tempted to say things are going to slow down for me now, but that is a bold-faced lie, so I’m just going to say I’m going to try to be better about blogging and reading blogs because I miss this community.
I finished two objects recently out of handspun. I’m trying to knit more with my handspun, because I think working with the yarn will help me become a better spinner. Handspun also takes up a lot more room in the stash, so it feels like I’m really getting things out of my house when I knit with it.
I finished The Shift Cowl by Andrea Mowry in three natural colors. The fiber is from San Juan Woolworks and it was a delight to spin up. This cowl will be going to my sister in a couple of months for her birthday present.
I also made a striped hat out of smaller spins I had on hand. I used the Tin Can Knits Barley pattern as an inspiration. I made the hat for myself, but it will probably be used by the kids more than me.
I have several projects on the needles, but I don’t want to work on any of them. I’m looking for a new project to cast on to keep my hands busy. I used to worry about having too many projects on the needles, but not being able to knit for the first month of a broken elbow made me realize life is too short to work on projects I don’t want to work on.
mildlygranola 