Living Outside the Box

2013 is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  To celebrate, our local library hosted a reading of her work.  Excerpts from Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion were read by a group of about 7-8 people. It was delightful fun!  The girls and I were, I'm quite certain, the youngest in age of anyone there, with Kyra and Maddy being the only teenagers in the audience.  :)

It makes me smile inside to have daughters who aren't typical teens.  Such a fun mixture of geeky, talented, beautiful, crafty, brilliant, and kind.  Some days they sit around drinking tea and knitting lovely things, usually watching something nerdly like the BBC's Sherlock or Merlin.  They are adept at channeling their inner old ladies, enjoying Shakespeare, reading at coffee shops while sipping snobby organic fair trade coffee (dark roast, of course), upcycling thrift store finds, hosting geeky parties for their friends (such a party is happening at our house tomorrow), reading and re-reading Harry Potter, baking, sewing, taking photos, or painting. Other days you might see them do something completely the opposite--like shooting a gun, riding a dirt bike, fishing with Jay, or hiking through the woods.  Ha!  I love them! 

Both of my girls have their own sense of style, not caring what the "normal" trends are for most girls their age. Naturally lovely, they don't care too much (or in Maddy's case, at all) about make-up.  It makes me happy.  Kyra is my little bohemian with a heart for the poor and downtrodden.  Maddy has a keen sense of justice and a wonderful heart free of judgement and condemnation.  It has been incredible to watch them as they are discovering who God created them to be and are seeking His path for them. These girls will do great things.

I suppose I should point out that they aren't perfect. Just in case you were wondering. :)  I am constantly giving them the Mom Lecture about their rooms, which seem to always look like something barfed yarn, clothing, books, water glasses, and who-knows-what-else, all over the place. Certainly there are days when they have to be reminded to get busy and do their schoolwork. Having three girls in the house, there are emotional days and grumpy days, days when we'd just as soon be 100 miles away from each other. You know how it goes.  I'm pretty sure it's just the same as any other family. Thankfully, those days are far outnumbered by good ones.

I am one blessed mama.  Thank you, Jesus, for granting me the honor of being mom to these amazing young women.

Knitting baskets and other stuff :-)

A few things Kyra and Maddy have been up to...

New knitting baskets.  My mom made them after her trip to Bozeman in December.  The girls picked out the fabric they wanted, Jay made the frames and Beebo (bless her heart) made the rest with no pattern.  I think it may have been a bit difficult, but they turned out to be so adorable!  They are quite handy...designed to just be picked up and taken with you. Perfect for a coffee shop knitting session.

We recently repainted Kyra's room.  She was tired of the bright green and wanted to make a few changes.  She decided to change her bedding as well and made decorative pillows to add to her bed. I think she did quite well!

Maddy took art classes this year from a local Bozeman artist, Loretta Domaszewski. http://www.lorettafineart.com/  Loretta is wonderful and Maddy learned so much about technique and color. Here are a couple of things from art class...

The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman has a really cool frog exhibit.  The class spent an afternoon there, drawing frogs. This watercolor was done by Maddy a couple of weeks later. We aren't sure why her tree frog is in the grass.  :-)

All in all, a great class.  Maddy learned a lot and had fun while doing it.  Perfect.

Maddy has a tiny house that she has created.  Every once in a while, I will find her in her room working on some teeny tiny thing to add to it.  Most things, she creates out of clay and then paints them.  It is just cute.

Maddy has always loved itty bitty things.  Perhaps it is because she has always been itty bitty :-)

This is a pic from the Frog exhibit at the museum.  Yes, all of the frogs are real and alive. I thought it was fun to see all of them.  Many are really colorful and interesting.