Here kitty, kitty...

Middle son brought his two kitties by for a visit over the Thanksgiving holiday.

A female he named Starbuck

And her brother named, Apollo

The lighting of the pictures doesn't help one see how nearly identical these two cats appear.  Starbuck is a little tanner, and Apollo is a little grayer, but unless they were in the same room I couldn't tell which one I was looking at.

So sweet.  Both the kitties and my grown son who is so gentle with them.  

It was a lot of fun watching them explore our house.  We haven't had a cat in nearly 30 years, but I sure have a hankering for another one now...

Simple gifts...

I mentioned back in August that I said goodbye to Yuko, a young Japanese woman I was serving as an ESL tutor for.  Well, it's happened again.  Having such a good experience the first time, I jumped back into being matched with someone new.  And today we said good-bye.  

In late September I was given a few choices of adults who wanted to practice speaking English, I readily picked a young Chinese woman (named Jie) - who was hoping to soon find employment as a hospital nurse.   Having one ESL experience under my belt, I now knew that the arrangement could be short lived, but I wasn't quite prepared for it to end so soon.

But my new young friend has found employment - actually was offered two positions, I think quicker than even she expected.  So, while I'm sorry to lose another ESL conversation partner, I'm so very happy for her.  Her family is also moving to a new home, soon - about an hour away, and while we may occasionally connect via text or e-mail, I know her life will soon be very busy and full of the excitement of new things.  I'm glad to have been even just a small part in this time of transition for her.

Before we ended our time today, I asked Jie if she would write something in Chinese down for me.  I told her to write anything.  And she wrote this:

I asked her to translate and she said it means "be grateful".  And said that is what she feels toward me and our time together speaking English.    

As further explanation of the characters, she wrote this:

I have only a tiny bit of understanding that Chinese characters not only represents words, but that the characters also represent ideas.  So, while I don't quite understand how these words form the idea of being grateful, they are all very nice words, I'm thinking.  Not wanting to parse out what was clearly a compliment, I decided to just receive it and could easily return the kind words.  I could honestly tell Jie I was grateful for her and the experience, too.

I have found both experiences of being an ESL conversation partner with two young Asian women to be a gift I am very grateful for.  I am impressed by their intelligence, yet at the same time their humbleness in putting themselves in the hands of a stranger to practice speaking a language that doesn't in any way resemble their native tongue.  I'm impressed by their bravery - to live in a foreign country and learn how to maneuver.  To drive, to travel and do exciting things, in Jie's case to get a job.   Getting to know these young women has been a gift I am very grateful for.    And while I can't imagine being matched up with anyone as pleasant as Yuko and Jie, these two women have also given me the courage to see if it can happen again.  

So, while I think I will wait until after the holidays to begin another match, I'm looking forward to the new year, and hopefully another pleasant ESL experience.

Thank you, Jie and Yuko!  😊 

Short & sweet...

It's been a good week, and we had a very happy Thanksgiving, but I don't have much to show in the knitting or crocheting departments. 

Not feeling like I had enough WIPs, I started a scarf with this beautiful Lion Brand Unique yarn in the colorway, Harvest.   

And I finished this washcloth, which is one of 12 squares in the 12 Blocks for Xmas KAL blanket (only mine is just a washcloth - I'm not making a blanket):

This square is the block called Triangles

And that's truly all the playing with yarn I've done all week.  Someday later this coming week, I'll post a picture of the finished magnets and bookmarks I started last Sunday.  A few of you asked to see them. I have not forgotten. 

My goal from now through the end of the year is to finish or frog projects I currently have on hooks or needles, and to burn through as many skeins of yarns as I can.  As you can see from my notation at the end of this post, I have a long ways to go toward my goal of using up 100-skeins this year, but I'm pretty sure I can get significantly closer if I apply myself.

To see what other YOPers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry!

2018 Yarn Stash-Down:  59.29/100 Skeins

Moments with Ruth...

I spent a few hours with Ruth this afternoon.  Today  I brought some pictures that are printed on watercolor paper and we "painted".  The book pictured below is Kristy's Summer Cutting Garden: A Watercoloring Book.  Kristy's books are gorgeous and printed on watercolor paper, so the pictures can be painted on the book pages themselves and the book left intact if a person so chooses.

It's a simple activity that we sometimes do with watercolor pencils and water brushes.  The brushes can be used with regular watercolor paints, but used with water color pencils makes for a more controlled activity.  It takes adult coloring to a new level.  

Advent gifts...

Earlier this year, I got an idea from this webpage to do some sort of advent calendar for each of my adult sons.   This isn't something we did as they were growing up, but I thought it would be fun to make something like this for my sons who've all flown the coop finally.  

Now, my guys probably wouldn't be as into the fun scrappy "ornaments" that make up the advent calendar linked to above, but it gave me the idea and impetus to try to put something together.

I decided to go with something that would be more my guys' style - something that could just sit on a counter or table and still look kind of fun.   Yesterday I ventured back into Hobby Lobby (the second, or maybe it was the third, time this year),  and I found some cute and inexpensive little paper gift bags that were perfect for this.  And I used some wire baskets I bought last year at Walmart to corral all the gift bags.

After searching online for some pre-made printables, I finally settled on this set of scripture cards - one for each day of December leading up to Christmas day.    And I found some cute numbers to use (I'm sorry I didn't keep track of my source for the numbers), but there are bunches of free printable options online to choose from.  Knock yourself out trying to choose a favorite.  😉

Originally (like back in the spring), I thought it would be fun to hand-make every single gift,  but by late October I eventually realized that wasn't going to happen.   So...  I finally decided on a combination of some hand-made items, some small inexpensive store bought gifts, some candy and other snacks to fill the bags - along with a scripture card each day.

I gave them to my sons on Thanksgiving day and I was surprised at how interested they seemed to be.  Or maybe they were just humoring me.  I don't know.  I just wanted to do something to maybe help them keep in mind the season we're entering, and also to think of home.  And mom.  Maybe that last thing misses the point of Advent, but I'm being completely honest, here.  😊

One of these days, though, I really want to make a scrappy advent calendar (like the one linked to at the beginning of this post).  I think it would be fun to give someone.   Or to maybe just use myself.  

I'm curious if others of you do advent calendars.   They seem so popular now.  I know bunches of my fellow yarn crafters are into doing advent projects - and that seems like such a fun idea, but I can't decide, or discipline myself to stick with such a project (or projects) for every day for nearly a whole month.

The fact that I've been disciplined to post to my blog daily for the last 23 days amazes me!

I'll plan to be back here tomorrow!