Zatera Ul

Last week we took a whirlwind tour around to see various friends and relatives. We stayed four different places in the course of a week. I am glad that I got the apartment relatively clean before we left, it was nice to come home to our own space. The roads were great the whole way, and the children did well in the car for the most part. We came back just as a big snowstorm started.

We managed to cloth diaper TLG the whole time, with no problems. Beforehand, I cut up an old T-shirt and made some throw-away diaper liners. The liners worked well, but the plastic bags that I put the dirty ones in didn’t contain odors well.

When we got back, I felt like sewing, so I finished up a few more cloth diapers that I had started a long time ago. Which he needed right away, until I got caught up on washing diapers from the trip.

I also finished making over a corduroy hat that I liked, but was just too small. I took out the sides of the hat, and put in bigger ones, and a new lining. I kept the top of the hat and the brim.

Finally, I whipped out a couple of cloth bags, since MFH wants some for storing produce without using plastic bags. I made them with French seams, which I am learning about for a future blouse project.

Today we put together a gingerbread house kit; a “party house cake” according to OLC. We’ve known for a while that artificial colors make her bounce off all four walls and the ceiling as well, so the rest of today should be interesting. (We’ve discovered artificial colors in children’s vitamins and in toothpaste, too.) Usually the first thing she does when she has had some artificial colors is to get into something that has some more.

TLG is walking better, but he still has a whole line of bruises on his forehead from falling down. He has been learning how to put things into containers, and how to blow a kazoo.

OLC’s number sense is improving. She used to ask for two of something that she really wanted, then three; now she asks for five.

MFH and I did a lot of talking and thinking about subcultures, and where we want to live when we escape from the big city. It’s not an easy question, because we belong to several distinct (and non-adjacent) subcultures, and one of our God-ordained roles seems to be to carry good ideas across subcultural boundaries.