Yarn Along 6/15/2011

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this up. My internet connection has been so slow this evening. It is that time again! Yarn Along @ Small Things I love Wednesdays! It is a time to catch up on what everyone is knitting and reading! Today was the first day we started our summer bridge work. Cooper and I started off on the assessment tests...just to see what we needed to work on. I was surprised that there is much we (Cooper's teacher and myself) haven't touched on this past school year. BUT, as my husband reminded me tonight--- I have all summer long! I just wish everything I needed wasn't in our storage unit. Mason and I read and worked on counting to 5. He counts really well and seems to know how may are in each set just by looking but I really want him to learn number recognition at this point-- not just the order that he repeats them. Mason and I used some super cute math manipulatives --matching the number on the picture to the amount of items needed to match. Cooper joined in with using dice and some paperclips-- very inventive!
I have finished reading The Kitchen House. It was a great read-- a little more vivid then I am use to but gosh it was a page turner! Now I have to start a new book! I am at odds this time around. I was able to snag so many good books I have no idea where to start! I have been picking up and laying down books for the better part of the evening.
My knitting, oh my knitting... I have been madly knitting away... in wonderfully (in the round) stockinette! I have much to knit in terms of the body of the sweater but it is coming along! I hope the measurements aren't off-- I am getting gauge so we will see where I am at next week.
As for crafting-- the quilting bug has hit and I have printed off numerous patterns to quilt some coasters. And I have unearthed some wonderful pillowcases to try my hand at sewing some pillowcase dresses. If only I had a little girl to dress up! But it seems such a waste not to use the pillowcases! I want to get started on all of this but I will finish Mason's sweater first!
I am trying to grow a hydrangea from a trimming! If I haven't said this before-- I have the brownest thumb this side of the Rappahannock River! But I really wanted to bring a part of my husband's family with us when we returned from our visit this past weekend. I think it would just be wonderful to have one of the best parts of Maryland in Virginia. It may not work. But I have my husband (who is the most wonderful landscaper) to help me.
I, also, have a book on hold at our library and have bought some canning jars to try my hand at canning-- my husband thought that was terribly funny when I brought it up! I think what made me decide to jump into and educate myself more about canning is that I visited Fredericksburg this week(all on my own for 1.5 hours!) and walked through the historic part of town and fell in love! I visited Dr Hugh Mercer's Apothecary shoppe  and window shopped at many antique shops! I also visited the Fredericksburg muesum-- both of them!
Just being there that day, I could feel the history! I longed to learn "older ways" of homemaking so that I may teach and pass it on to my little family. I think it would be wonderful to create traditions of "old ways" in our family and as I keep reminding my family--we are pioneers. None of my husband's side of the family have ever lived in Virginia! We are making a fresh start in a place where this place just oozes old world charm and traditions!
I think in Maryland we were "just a family"-- here we have a chance to learn and grow and become closer with each other and our community and with our God.