DOT - The importance of Recall!

A little bit of housekeeping to start off with.  When I posted yesterday's post, I originally misspelled Coma...I said I had a Baby Comma.  Comma is a punctuation and not what I was initially intending to say. However, comma as defined by dictionary.com is the sign (,), a mark of punctuation used for indicating a division in a sentence, as in setting off a word, phrase, or clause, especially when such a division is accompanied by a slight pause or is to be noted in order to give order to the sequential elements of the sentence.  If I think about it, Comma makes sense too if we think of my life as a long run on sentence.  Those weeks were a pause in most activity in my life and was a division in my life between my life before Carmen and my life with her in it.  I edited the post and changed the spelling but in the end I think it worked either way.

I've gotten a lot of feedback about yesterday's post already, both private and public.  I'm glad I posted what I was thinking.  Thank you to those who have sent me messages and comments for your support and feedback.  I appreciate that you took the time to let me know what you thought. 

Today is Thursday, which in this blog space was always Dogs on Thursday!  It's the day that Abigail Grace and Jackjack take center stage.  When I first started blogging, I thought maybe they needed their own blog but in the end it was hard keeping up with two so stories about them were just added here.  
I love my puppies.  They have their faults like I do and well, we all do but in the end they are my dogs and their faults are part of who they are.  I've worked hard to train them so that they are safe just as you discipline a child you need to make sure to train your pups.  The training is not only for your sanity but also because with training you bring safety.  

A very good example of this happened the other day.  Our backyard has a chain linked fence with two regular gates and a bigger gate for a car or boat to go through.  Usually our gates are all padlocked so no one can open them and us not know they are opened.  We've always been really good about keeping the gates closed and if you've read my blog or listened to old podcasts, you know that Jackjack has not always been good with recall.  Special K has been doing a lot of improvements to our yard and has been opening and closing the gates a lot.  The locks we originally put on there have rusted so we weren't keeping them locked either.  Well, one morning as we often do, Little Miss Carmen and I went to let them out.  The dogs went out to go potty and I was standing in our screened in fence with Carmen when I looked out into the backyard.  I saw my two dogs between us and the open gate!  I stayed as calm as possible because they weren't running out it but sniffing around the grass.  I quickly called for them. I had to call several times and get really excited but they looked at me and ran into the house without having time to go potty.  I put Carmen in her excersaucer and went out to check the gates.  Not only was that one open but the OTHER one as well.  I was so grateful that there were no dogs or humans walking by during the moments before I realized the gates were open!  I was also so thankful of all the hard work training them to come when called.  


After I calmed down and went back into the house, I told Special K what had happened and we both recall that the gates where closed the night before.  Freaked me out a little bit because even though we had some serious rain and wind the night before, that could not have opened both gates.  That day, Special K went and replaced the locks and it has made me feel much better since.  


As the lesson today...practice your recall...ALL the time!! Recall is one of the most important things your dog can learn and will keep both your pups and you safe.  A good way to practice is to play the recall game.  You can do this by getting a partner and having them sit or stand in another room or area and then calling your dog excitedly, have treats so you can give them to your dog when they get there, then you call your pups over to you.  You can play this at any time and in anyway you want but just practice it!  Always and I mean ALWAYS be happy when they get to you!  Hope this helps you!  It took us a long time but by golly I think my pups got it!  Deep down I just hope we don't have to test it much.


Happy Dogs on Thursday

PS...yes, you will notice both pictures are old.  Will work on getting new pictures of the pups for next week's post.

Baby Coma...and the birth of Mama Barknknit

I've talked a little about what I now call my baby coma before but when Carmen was born, I swear it took all my brain power to just take care of her and heal that I feel now that I was in a daze most of those first couple weeks.  We were nursing around the clock, changing diapers I felt every hour but I'm sure it wasn't, rarely getting more than 15-30 mins of sleep at a stretch an hour or two were amazing times and also getting to know this little girl who had joined our life...as well as letting others get to know her.  This took up a lot of time and mental energy.  I look back on this time, which was most of my maternity leave and was like why wasn't I doing this or this...but in the end I just know I was learning to be a mom and that was the most important thing I could have been doing with my time. 

Now, almost 7 months later, I've been regaining my identity and it has also forever changed as well.  Sadly, I have lost friends in my journey to motherhood and I've come to grips with that.  I realized that I am who I am and I happen to like myself.  I know not everyone will like me and life is too short to worry about those who just don't get me.  There are plenty of people out there for them to be friends with as well as plenty of others for me to be friends with as well.   I've said sorry for anything I did that was unintentionally mean and slowly working on righting my "wrongs" but I not going to say sorry for being me and for putting myself and my family first and why should I.  They are not saying sorry for being intentionally or unintentionally mean to me.  If they can be who they want to be and be rude, mean, sneaky, and just plan unfriendly, then why should I have to say sorry for being myself.  Anyway...I'm getting WAY off topic here. I didn't plan this post to go into this but anyway...it's there and I'm not deleting it.  This is my space...if you don't like it as I say about my podcast...there are other blogs you can read.

So...as I've been getting back to: Knitting: which I've managed to do a lot of lately; Podcasting, which I've gotten 3 episodes up in the month of June! Dog training/walking: which I never really stopped doing but have started trying to run with Abby and generally doing the things that I enjoy.  I haven't given my wheel Pilar much love lately but hoping that the Tour de Fleece fixes that.  You can also join me and other podcasters and podcast listeners in the Team Sasquatch group on Raverly for Tour de Fleece!  My goal this year is to spin a min of 5 mins a day during the Tour.  Wish me luck!  I just hope I can finish some of the project on the needles before the start of it.

Back to the topic at hand, as I begin to plan out this blog and my podcast and figure out what I want to do, I realize that Barknknit doesn't really cover everything anymore.  I used to be all dogs and knitting.  Then I started spinning but that still fits and now I'm a mom.  A mom who just wants to be the best mom I can be.  I also want to be more of a natural momma than I thought I would be.  I am into breastfeeding, babywearing, and I'm not against co-sleeping and now I'm diving into the cloth diapering world.  As I learn more, I want to share more and so where does that fit in.  I'm really not sure who all reads the blog, I know tons of people listen to the podcast and I've gotten good feedback about adding the Carmen's Corner, but I think I need to add more.  I haven't decided exactly what that will look like but you will find out when I figure it out.  In the meanwhile, my name went from just plain ole Barknknit to Mama Barknknit as being a mom is a huge part of who I am now.  I was always a mom to my furbabies but that role has grown and I'm very excited about what life still has in store for me.

Hope you enjoy my thoughts as I really do plan to use this blog space for more than just pictures and incorporate more of my thoughts and ramblings that exist in my head, which is a bit crazy and I'm ok with that!  I love who I am.  I hope that you love who you are!  How can you expect others to like you when you don't like yourself?

Happy Day!

Wordless Wednesday - The perfect teether for my baby.

Journal Day #1: Firsts

As I find a way to make more of this blog, I have found a solution! I was just yesterday thinking I'd like to make it more of my journal again. When I started this blog back in April 2007...wow, this blog is 4 years and 2 months old...my first post said it all!

This blogging thing is harder than it looks. I've always loved to journal but what craziness that I write do I really want others to read. :) I don't always make sense to others but when you keep reading it might in the end. I plan to post videos, pictures and what I can share of me. Hope you enjoy. :)

Crazy that this thought has come full circle.  Fast Forward to present day, and I've been knitting for almost 4 years, this blog turned into a podcast, and now facebook, twitter, and plurk exist!  So many outlets to post random things about yourself but what I really want again is my journalling blog where I posted my thoughts and just let people either read them or move on! :)  I say this often about my podcast, but not everyone enjoys every blog or ever podcast.  The blog and podcast is part of that person and let's be honest...not everyone likes each other and that is FINE by me.  So, if you don't want to read my ramblings or like my writing style and you liked the format of this blog lately...very little posts and mostly pictures...then you might not want to keep reading because I think it's about to get wordy in here.  For those of you willing to stick around....ENJOY!

Danielle over at Sometimes Sweet is starting a community blog project called Journal Day! Weekly, she’ll be sharing a writing prompt to spur your creativity.

This week’s prompt is:

Describe a “first” (first date, first lie, the first time you experienced something, first time in a particular setting, etc). Include as many details as possible to paint a picture

I bet most of you will not have to even read further to know what I'm going to talk about. :) I'm pretty predictable in the fact that when I start thinking about something...if it's something I become passionate about...I get a little obsessed.  At first I was trying to think of a different first so that most of my family wouldn't just let out a collective groan but honestly...whatever!!  You will all love me anyway and it's on my mind and so here it is.  For my first journal entry I want to share my first cloth diaper weekend trial with you.  It's the first time I've ever tried cloth diapers and so there were a TON of firsts.  I'll go into more details in another post about the types and such but for now we'll just talk cloth diapers.

I had been so excited to try cloth diapers after all my researching and waiting for the diapers to get here from my cousin that I wanted to slap on a cloth diaper on her Friday night after work but we were going over to my father-in-law's house for a birthday party so Special K kindly asked that we wait until Saturday morning.

For a little background, he is not as excited about this, what he really hopes stays as just a trial, cloth diapering experience.  He is happy with using disposables, however, he only changes about one diaper a week so in all honestly I don't think using cloth is going to effect him much.  The only way he even agreed to the weekend trial was that there was NO initial cost.  Our cloth diapers were purchased or gifted to my sister in CA and never used, then were passed on to my cousin in TX and never used, and now they live with us and other than two of them have now been used. :)  Those two will get some use this week I promise!

Carmen in her very first cloth diaper

Back to my firsts...Saturday morning I finally got to put the cloth diaper on her!  We have 10 BumGenius 3.0s which are hook and loop closure aka Velcro. (did you know that Velcro is a brand and hence copyrighted?) We also have three Econobums prefold and covers. I started with the BumGenius because those were the ones I was most excited about.  They are bulkier than disposables so I had to use a onsie that was a bit bigger but they fit her pretty good on the medium setting.  She wore that during her first nap of the day and we went over to my sister's house and she was great.  I changed her and used another one and it was strange not really knowing when she is wet.  Usually you can tell because the gel in the disposable starts to feel a bit solid...now that I think about that...that just grosses me out so much but anyway.

When we got back to the house, I put a prefold and cover on her because we were just hanging around but she fell asleep for her nap and the prefold made her feel a bit wet so it didn't really let her sleep long.  I used two of them and they worked GREAT but I think I'll try to avoid using them for naptime.  At least until she is more comfortable in those.  I think the BumGenius's are much more comfortable for her even though they are bulkier.

At the end of Saturday, I had used 6 diapers.  One poop diaper which REALLY wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  However, using 6 out of my 13 made me nervous for Sunday so I did a wash that evening.  The washing was not nearly as bad as I had thought either!  I would love if I had a little more of an advanced washer that I could preset the extra rinse and set the temp more but they got clean using it and the Rockin' Green Soap (review and giveaway for this product to come).

Saturday evening, I added the infant insert alone with the regular insert for a night time diaper and she slept FANTASTIC!!  She was sleepy so I'm not sure if it was the diaper or the need for sleep but she did great!  I've already decided to use these for night time diapers during the week too. Sunday worked out pretty much the same but I skipped using the prefolds.  I had to change a poopy diaper at the restaurant Sunday night and again...not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  I just put it in the wetbag. That night I did another load of the ones I had used that day.  All the diapers were then clean but the one she was sleeping in.  I have to stuff the inserts into the diapers because we are using pocket diapers but other than that I'm set for next weekend!

In conclusion, my first weekend cloth diapering went great!  Lots of first and lots of learning.  I have a lot more to learn about cloth diapering but I'm very happy with how it went.  I promised myself that I would give them three honest weekends of trial before making any decision but with the fact that I'm already using them as night time diapers...I have a feeling that I'll be a convert.

This moment - love baby kisses!

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama.  A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find and see.

This moment - hanging at the park with my cousins (from last week)

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama.  A single photo (multiple this week) – no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find and see.

Progress on Barknknit Raising Quilt

When we first started thinking about trying to have a baby, I decided that I was going to knit a blanket with the intention of it being for my child.  I looked at all the sock yarn scraps I had in my stash and decided on the Barn Raising Quilt in the Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together book.  I bought the book because I just loved the concept and the patterns in it.  I started this blanket on Sept 23rd, 2009...yes that was awhile ago!  I just did a count of how many squares I've knit and I'm almost done with number 13!  That isn't very many in the time but I feel good that it's so many already!

My goal is to hopefully finish this by her 1st birthday!  That means Dec of this year.  I think it's a long shot because I think I want to make something like 42 of them!  So, I have to finish 29 more of them in 6 months when it took me almost 2 years to finish 13...umm...I'm probably crazy!  Ok...so I did the calculations and if I finish 1 a week then I will be done by Dec but then I still would need to sew it up so I hope I can knit them faster than that.  Anyway...if I don't it's ok...just hope to have it done sometime.  Poor Little Miss Carmen needs this quilt.

Ok...wish me luck!!  If you have some fun scraps of sock yarn that you don't know what to do with...let me know because I'll gladly take it off your hands!  I mainly want superwash yarn if possible.

Happy Knitting!!!  Hope you have a great night!

Wordless Wednesday - Carmen vs Green Bean

Summer Crafting Todo List

My crafting has forsaken me...or I have forsaken crafting.  Not sure what has happened but my creativity is all ideas and no action.  What to do about this but create a to do list!  Since I wasn't sure where to put this list and if I make it public maybe I'll be more motivated to finish more of it...here you go!

General Crafts:
1. Build three of these chairs for our porch. I know I definitely want to make one for Carmen and then 2 adult sized ones for SK and me.

Spinning:
1. finish the polwarth fiber that I have currently on the bobbins
2. spin up the black Corriedale locks that I cleaned before I had CGR into about 2000 yards of lace weight

Knitting:
1. Frog all project on the needles that I do not plan to finish or have not worked on in months!
2. Organize yarn stash
3. CO a project for CGR
4. CO a sock (believe it or not I do not have a sock on the needles!!)
5. CO a cardigan for me!
6. Finish at least 20 more squares for CGR's Barknknit Raising Quilt

I think this is all I have for now.  As I finish I'll cross it off and if I get so inspired I will add to this list in the coming weeks and months.  I would like to get most of the stuff on here done by the last day in August.

Happy Crafting!!

This moment - daddy and his little girl

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama.  A single photo (three this week)– no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find and see.