I’m currently reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes.  A dear friend gave us some very special books from her own collection and this was among them.  They were ostensibly a gift for the children, who are greatly enjoying most of the volumes, but I pulled this one aside, as I realized I had never read it (no, I don’t count enjoying the show Sherlock, though enjoy it I do).  There is this great kind of undercurrent of humor in the writing.  I was considering having the older boys read it.  We recently did a block on the Victorian and Edwardian eras.  Whenever we work with a certain time period I like to expose them to music, art and literature of the time.  As I’m reading it, it’s brought up all of these questions in my mind about whether I’m ok with endorsing murder stories as a form of entertainment (do as I say, not as I do!).  I admittedly watch some shows and read some books that are essentially murder mysteries and yet the idea of my children doing the same thing makes me uneasy.  Also some of it is gruesome, too much so for a sensitive 12 year old, at least.  Thirdly, it is extremely, wildly offensive to basically all non-Caucasian peoples.  And while I as an adult recognize it as a product of the time period, I try to keep the bigotry the kids are exposed to at a minimum.  It’s just one of my little quirks.  I think I’m going to hold on to this one a little longer, until I know that they can read it with full understanding of what’s going on.

I did read an excerpt aloud to them last week.  We were working on a creative writing project with emphasis on using descriptive words to really paint a picture for the reader and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is pretty much unparallelled on that front.

The knitting- I’m back to working on Iain’s birthday sweater.  And by that I mean that I’m hoping that posting about it will motivate me to pick it back up again.  This pullover has a serious case of Second-Sleeveitis.  I’m looking forward to knitting the yoke, but I just can’t seem to convince myself to cast on for that second sleeve that needs to be knitted beforehand.  Will you judge me if I confess that the only reason I’m even considering going back to it now is that I really want the needles it’s on for an entirely different project?

Remember this little set?  She outgrew the longies ages ago, but this wee sweater has seen a lot of wear.  She wore it at less then a week old and she’s still wearing it now.  I think this will be one of the last times though.  I’m considering a new vest or short sleeved sweater for layering in wintertime.

And some pictures of this year’s dragon bread….

All of the photos were taken prior to baking.  Everyone made their own loaf this year.