Lydia J Will: Home Both Ways

This week we were blessed to take a trip "home" to Virginia...the beautiful Shenandoah Valley where my husband hails from and our kids' beloved Grandparents and Great Grandparents still live. While so many families drift apart, we grow closer together each year. It is so wonderful to really feel like you are going "home" on both legs of the trip! We spent three wonderful days down there full of fun activities. Unfortunately my camera batteries (and the replacements!) died on our first excursion, so I didn't end up with many photos.

We went to the Frontier Museum on Thursday and I loved it so much! I would have been able to spend hours there. I especially loved the German and English houses. They shipped them over from Germany and the UK to showcase the kind of homes people left behind when they came to America - and then also how many of their techniques were integrated with those of other countries to become the American way of farming and living. Of course I just wanted to move right into these sweet, simple homes! There is just something so refreshing about these small, organized homes where the ordinary and useful are also what is so charming and beautiful about them. I was very inspired to go home and continue in my decluttering challenge!

I wish we had a loom like this at home...this is Big J making linen! Apparently the weaving was the husband's job. I like that idea!

3 kids checking out a new calf!

During the 9.5 hour drive down and back, I managed to get a bit of knitting done. I made a cabled sweater for Jonah's first birthday and bought the celtic inspired buttons at a small shop in town. He wore it out to dinner our last night.

On the way home I made a 0-3 month sized baby sweater. Initially it was intended for my cousin who is visiting with her little one in a few weeks, but from what I hear he is a big boy! I have another baby in mind who may fit it...I'm reminded of Elizabeth Zimmerman saying "find a baby to fit the sweater!"

Just needs some buttons!

Before we left I made these sweet little guys. They took all of maybe 20 minutes a piece. I just used yarn I had laying around in tiny balls that I couldn't bear to throw away.

Mr. Snail

little mushroom

My littlest J bean turned 1 during our long trek back to the Midwest. We sang "Happy Birthday!" in a gas station parking lot and I snapped some pictures during a much needed nursie-break. 1 year previous he was born into our snug little bedroom at home. Amazing the difference a year makes. Here he is in his crown and (unblocked) birthday sweater.