a new kid-bit already!

Thanks to Susanne, a new kid-bit:

Oh I have a "kid-bit" for you! My youngest DD is due in February and my oldest DD has been trying to explain to her 3 yr old (CM)that Auntie T. is having a baby. He doesn't seem to get it. The other day they were together at the pregnant one's home CM picked something up off a table and his cousin said "no don't that is for the baby". CM said "you don't have a baby here". His Mom overheard this exchange and said, "yes remember CM I told you that Auntie T is having a baby?". Then T piped up and rubbed her tummy saying.."see Auntie T has a baby in her tummy"...CM ..huge gasp..."YOU ATE a BABY?????". The girls collapsed and ran to respective bathrooms to recover..
Have a good rest and know that I will certainly provide you with "kid-bits" on occasion. With 8 grands I have lots!!!

a break

Well, with some mixed feelings on my part, my teaching career for this school year is over. The combination of my various health woes has been kicking my butt. The fatigue and pain have dictated that teaching is too difficult at this point. I will be on medical leave until the end of June. I will truly miss the children and the other staff members but I am relieved to have time to rest. Hopefully, the leave will allow me to get rested up so that I can resume living with some energy again.

Of course, being away from the kids will cut off my source for the kid-bits. I'd sure love to hear any that you can send my way.

I'm hoping that more time on my hands will translate into more fiber time. I have so many things that I want to do with my spinning, dyeing, and knitting!

Here's hoping that you all have a very Merry Christmas! Be safe and warm!

work it baby

Bentley received an early Christmas present from his breeder Daphne today so he and I attempted a photo shoot to show you. It's a beautiful coat with reflective trim and his own monogrammed initial!

At first, he wasn't too thrilled about wearing the new threads...

When rolling and turning around didn't dislodge it, he started to be resigned to his fate...

And finally, after a lot of dud shots, here is B and his new coat in a classic profile pose.

and another kid-bit...

This one comes courtesy of my sister and her two kids, ages 7 and 8.

Lately the kids have been rather fascinated with bad words. I regularly hear that "I know what the A word is." This morning they were doing it again trying to impress each other with knowing more than the other. Katie said that she knew what the F word was... fro up.

another little k-b

One of my colleagues, who teaches grade 2, shared this kid-bit with me yesterday. Her class was painting Christmas crafts when one of her boys came to her to complain that a girl had painted on his paint shirt. The teacher assumed that the girl had swiped her paintbrush on his shirt but discovered that she had done more than that. She had painted, "(boy's name) is a dork" on it but had misspelled dork as "dok". The teacher talked to the girl explaining that there was a problem in that she had ruined the other student's shirt and she had no money to buy him a new one so how was she going to solve the problem? The girl decided that she would trade paint shirts with the boy so that he would have her clean one. Good solution except that now the perpetrator is wearing the paint shirt that says "(boy's name) is a dok" every time they're painting. Both of the kids seem quite satisfied with the arrangement but it's going to be very hard for the teachers to keep a straight face when we see them.

a little kid-bit

I started reading "chapter books" to my grade ones in story time a few weeks ago. Up until then I had read them picture books. Chapter books, where you have to imagine most of the pictures, are a big deal to these six year olds, almost a graduation of sorts. Since then I have seen several of them toting around junior novels (Junie B. Jones series, etc.) that they had persuaded mom and dad to buy for them at the school book fair at the end of November. Most kids can't read them yet but carry them around, almost like status symbols, until evening when the folks at home read a chapter to them.

Yesterday I noticed a John Grisham novel on the desk of one of my sweetest little girls. When I asked her why she had it she replied, "I'm reading it."

pa thrum-pum-pum pum...

With the cold, cold weather here, I decided to knit some thrummed mittens for myself. I bought the Noro wool because it matches my coat and I was going to use strips of roving from my stash for the thrums. I happened to be shopping at Zeller's one day and spied this Bernat felting wool that matches the Noro pretty well so I bought it to use instead of the roving.

I had never knit thrums before so I bought this Briggs and Little pattern leaflet to learn how.

I couldn't figure out how to do it from these directions at all. It said something about passing the thrum over the stitch but it wasn't working for me. I was about to chuck the whole notion when I did an internet search and found Yarn Harlot's blog about thrums. Turns out it's really easy! You just knit the stitch and the thrum together and then knit them through the back loop on the next round. My advice if you're trying to learn to knit thrums: skip the Briggs and Little pattern. It's very confusing.

Now that I have it all figured out, I'm not sure I'll be able to finish this project. My wrists are sore. Whenever I try to knit some bulky yarn I end up with this problem. The Noro yarn on its own isn't a problem but adding the thrums is just too difficult for my hands. I ran into the same problem last winter when I started knitting warm things. Maybe if I just do a few rows at a time I can eventually finish the mitts. I'm sure that I would appreciate their warmth.

A kid-bit for you:
The morning teacher in my classroom teaches the language arts. They have been learning the letter sounds and listing words that begin with the letter of the day. Last week one of the kids excitedly told me that they were learning f words that day. There was a slight pause and another kid chimed in, "not the bad words though".