Thursday, June 21, 2012

Changing Rhythms {And Some Knitting}

It's summer. Rhythms are changing. All my kids are home--hurrah!--and we sat down to brainstorm what we might like to do this summer. We engage in cooperative list-making twice a year, for the summer and for the Christmas holidays. It was a suggestion I saw in a book on simplifying Christmas, the idea being that if you don't sit down as a family and talk about what you want to do, the family planner (me, in this family) might end up doing a lot of unnecessary work planning things that nobody would miss. Better to put the effort into activities everybody really wants to do. So together, the kids and I talk about where we want to visit, what we want to make, and what we want to do over the summer. This year, I decided to make the list a little prettier.


As you can see, there is room to add more as we think of it (we already have!). It's okay if we don't do all of this. Sturbridge Village is a carryover from last summer; we still haven't made it there. And we already have circus tickets. Not everything is big, either, or costs money. Some things are hopeful thinkings out loud. Everybody's ideas are on here.

We've already had our first of many beach visits--that's where we decided to spend a goodly part of the solstice, since it was predicted to be quite hot. We visited the barrier beach that has a salt pond side, too. The pond is shallow, with no waves, and I felt comfortable, this year, knitting a little bit while the kids played in the pond. My youngest is old enough for that now. (Still no knitting on the beach side, though.)


This is my take-along knitting, a second long, skinny Saroyan (since I liked the first one I made so much). I bought the yarn in December as a pick-me-up, the week my husband was away and the cat killed the TV and I finally went to the doctor and ended up diagnosed with Lyme. The colors reminded me of the ocean. It doesn't get serious attention, this knitting. I rarely work on it at home. It's the knitting I bring with me, mostly stockinette so I can hold a conversation, with just that bit of lace edging, and I can usually figure out where I left off in the repeat even if I forget to mark it down. I think it's entirely perfect that I was able to knit a few rows on a saltwater shore.

I'm linking up with my creative space, even though my creative space feels a bit sparse this week. It's all about (happily! so happily!) adjusting to new rhythms.

5 comments:

Michelle said...

Doesn't it feel like your whole world is sort of opening up again as she gets a bit older??? And then there are days when it's 8:18 and I'm still sitting in the dark waiting for a four and a half yr old to fall asleep and I want to pull out my hair and scream.

Gosh that was all the same week wasn't it? That seems so long ago now.

Suburban Correspondent said...

I don't see Del's frozen lemonade on that list. And let me know about your travel plans!

We love Sturbridge Village - we made it there several times the year we lived in Newport. I much prefer it to the shiny, packaged, overwhelming Williamsburg.

Donna Lee said...

I love the relatively slower pace of the summer. I could do without the humidity (like today!)

Rose Red said...

I love the idea of the family list, I will have to remember that.

The yarn and pattern is the perfect summer knitting. Hopefully it will pick up a bit of salt and sea scent, to remind you of the pleasant times knitting it.

bells said...

making lists together, even when there's just two of you, is so good. It's about focus. We have a week in Melbourne coming up in July and we've been making lists of things we want to do. The list may be thrown out, in part or in full, but the fact that it's there at all has opened our minds to what's possible!