I'm sitting here with my coffee and contemplating my day. It started with driving the teens to school: they were running a little late, and Patrick has all his bowling things he brings back and forth (Aurora and Rei leave their's at the bowling alley--both for bowling for gym daily, and for high school bowling practice; Patrick and Aurora are on the respective varsity teams). I've been doing better again about going to bed at a reasonable time, so I just stay up after I drop them off. Eric is at work, as is Brianne, and Cliff, I believe, is sleeping, after working 'til close last night. I'm feeling less frazzled today than I have been the past few days, and it helped to talk it out with Eric. He understands completely how torn I feel about wishing I were closer to everyone while things have been chaotic, and he told me in no uncertain terms that if I was needed in MN I could go with his blessing and he'd man the fort here. For whatever reason, that just set my heart at ease, and I could honestly say I am fine with being here and waiting things out. Maybe it's just the knowing that I could go if it were necessary that makes it easier. Regardless, I feel more at peace again today than I had the last few days.
Last night was my spinning class, and I actually used the spinning wheel. Let me tell you here and now, it is NOT as easy as the instructor makes it look. I felt like I had three hands and no coordination what-so-ever as I tried to make thread, and easily lost the beat of what I was doing. Gary, the instructor, said it needs to be a mindless coordination of foot, hands, and eyes, and if you try to overthink it, it doesn't work at all. I found myself easily flustered, and rather than frustrated, just laughed at myself, and had a ball. As odd as it sounds, it was fun to feel "inept" at something, because I had glimmers that I can do it correctly--I just need to find the rhythm--and I was totally learning something that I have wanted to know how to do since "forever"! (Some of my favorite fairy tales are Sleeping Beauty and Rumplestiltskin). I was given a plastic grocer's bag worth of roving (cleaned, combed, fleece, ready for spinning) and was told my "homework" is to go into the art's and craft center as close to daily as I can and "spin" for up to 30 minutes each day, to practice. I think the hardest part for me is combining the skill sets. "Treadling", or keeping the wheel turning at a constant rate of speed, is easy, until you add in feeding the fleece into the orifice and onto the spool (for sewers, think of winding a bobbin) at a nice, steady pace, and in nice managable amounts. My problem is I have a good beat going, then I stop treadling as I focus on what my hands are doing, or I hold too tightly on the fleece and don't feed out enough fiber to spin, or I allow the twist to get between my hands instead of keeping it in front of my left hand... I know this makes little to no sense to any of you, but it is helping me to process it through mentally. Gary says that spinning is 90% the spinner, and 10% the actual wheel used... I see what he means. I think I get it on an intuitive level--I can "feel" it when it is flowing right, as well as when there is a problem, and as I said, I had moments where it all clicked... They just didn't last long! I will perservere though, and Eric is completely supportive of my interest in this. I would love to someday make a sweater that I totally made from beginning to end (short of shearing the fleece myself), and with the opportunity to use the spinning wheels when I want to (you rent "studio time") there really is a chance to see if this is a hobby worth investing in (as if I need another hobby--although it has been pointed out to me that this is just a natural extension of one I already love and am engaged in). So I came home last night feeling like I was all thumbs and fumble-footed, but happy and determined as well. I am loving every minute of it!
On a totally different subject, I wanted to share that Reimond has now found a group of friends here in the "addition" we live in ("Timberbrook") that he is really enjoying, and he and Aurora are becoming quite the social butterflies. They spent Tuesday afternoon at the mall with their friends, and are spending less time in the house, or getting into arguements with each other. It's really nice to see both of them coming out of their shells, even if Eric and I are now on the opposite side of the fence from before ("go find something to do") to setting limits on "no, you really need to be home tonight" as they try to wheedle their way into going out and about at their pleasure... As we told Patrick too, it isn't that they aren't allowed to have the freedom they desire, it's just that we need to know where they are, what they are up to, and they have to check in... If it doesn't happen, then their wings get clipped a bit! Rei and Aurora are good at the former, whereas Patrick struggles a bit with that (especially the checking in part), but Patrick seems to handle "no" better than the younger two... Last night it was "no, you cannot hang at the bowling alley on base because no adult will be there to supervise you, you have NO money to bowl or play games with/eat at the snack bar, and you cannot just "loiter" there" and they tried to split Eric and I by seeing if Eric would overrule my "no" after I was very clear in why I said it... Little Brats! It is nice to see them getting along so well though.
I haven't heard anything new today on Andrea or Erika, so I guess they are both doing fine and feeling better. I'm sure I will talk to both of them later today. Again, thanks for the continued prayers and good thoughts!
No comments:
Post a Comment