This week brought a realization that the times they are a-changin. (Sincerest apologies to Bob Dylan.) A month or so ago, my middle son, the naturalist, was accepted into the Beach Watcher Program. Because said son is too young to drive and I’m passingly fond of him, I applied and was accepted along with him. Our 10-weeks training consisting of “80 hours of university-caliber training involving field trips and lectures from over 35 local experts on topics like salmon, water quality, ocean acidification, intertidal life history, coastal processes, native plants, youth education techniques, and so much more” begins this week. The course comes complete with heavy reading assignments, group projects, and tests. After we complete our training in May, however, we will volunteer 80 hours over the next two years on various citizen science projects in our area.

Of course, all of this occurs in the midst of an otherwise full life of homeschooling and hobby farming. Spring has sprung here in the Pacific Northwet, and with it comes an onslaught of necessary house and property projects, which blossom as fast at the ever-encroaching blackberry canes in spring light. Furthermore, fate has deigned to flood all three boys with wonderful opportunities of late, all of which seem to involve applications, deadlines, and interviews over and above their normally, mildly chaotic schedules. At the same time, my spouse has been busy planning several family vacations this summer (thanks in part to expiring frequent flier miles and companion fares), both in and out of the country. His itineraries have given rise to a need (read: mild panic) to get in shape so I can keep up with him and the boys this summer. Last of all, before all of this came to its full, glorious fruition, I registered to take a poetry class from the wonderful instructor and poet, Kevin J. Craft, which starts in two weeks and runs through mid-June.

Suffice it to say, quiet hours hibernating in my office out of the cold, wet winter are long gone. And yet, I want to keep going with my 365 Something Project, in some form. Clearly, writing new poems will be creative, but I’m never willing to post those here. Also, I want to continue working through the stash of projects in my office. Now, however, they are going to have to be portable and easily accomplished. So, I think I will focus for the next couple of months on smaller knitting projects, A Writer’s Book of Days journal writing prompts, and Danny Gregory’s The Creative License art prompts, all of which can be easily stuffed in a bag and taken with me to use in those brief moments of opportunity.

Planning completed, I turn to this weeks’ progress. Between the dawning realization about the coming weeks (which resulted in a flood of book review posts to clear my shelves) and another son’s bout of pneumonia, all I wanted to do was curl up and knit. So, I did exactly that. Mom’s scarf is turning out nicely. I think I’ll repeat the pattern at least once more and possibly twice.

Mom’s scarf, part 2

Until next week!