Today’s agenda….

…in no particular order.

wash dishes (again, and again)
throw in laundry (underwear!!)
plant cucumber seeds (yes I know it’s getting late)
clean out fridge to make room for CSA veggies
make a yummy dessert that involves strawberries before they go bad on me
figure out what that ruckus is upstairs
GET DRESSED
play with friends, including my own
pay a few bills
get boys to try to clean at least enough of their room that I can walk in it
make supper
at least ten minutes of yoga so I can stand up straight
make three appointments
pick up CSA veggies
QUIET TIME

and I know there is more…..why do my feet hurt again?

2 Comments

Filed under family

Post A Week?

So obviously I forgot about my Post-A-Week goal. I have been sidelined by:

1. The end of the school year kicking my butt.

2. No one going to bed until 10pm.

3. An odd revulsion to my computer. (I think I’m just on information overload, I can’t read it all therefore I will not read anything).

4. A renewed obsession with reading actual books rather than lots of random internet crafty stuff.

5. My extreme tiredness and feeling like I ran a marathon at the end of each day, so much that even clicking on things or holding a knitting needle is too hard. All I can do is drag myself into bed with a book until I fall asleep. (My favorite rant these days: “Have you seen me sit down today? Have you? Have you? NO. So, don’t complain to me that your life is miserable and I’m a big poop head meany because I asked you to put down whatever is so important and take out the stinky compost pail. Am I knitting? Am I reading? Am I relaxing? Noooooo! Because I am working to make you food and supply clean underwear and keep your Pokemon cards away from your little brother!” This rant usually happens on my not-so-great days. Amazingly, it usually works.

6. My obesssion with Dr. Who Season Six. Did you see the last episode? Did you? Because oh my, I nearly fell off my chair. It’s even more fun this year because Math Boy is old enough to watch some of them with me. But not the Silence. They scare ME.

7. Gardening. Lots and lots of gardening.

 

OK, enough excuses for now. I do have knitting to share, but no pictures yet.  And I bought YARN!! New yarn. It’s been ages since I did that but I sold off the piles of size 2T clothing we had and got a handful of cash for it. So, yarn for me. We’ll see if I can get to the camera to share…..

 

Hope your summer is off to a fab start. Despite my rant and tiredness, we’re having a blast!

7 Comments

Filed under random

I must remind myself….

My scarf sits waiting to be finished, once again, as I’m stuck spending the evening paying bills and making meal plans for the week because the boys were not asleep until 9:30 tonight. So instead of feeling sorry for myself (which I’ve done the past hour now) I remind myself:

I will miss it when they no longer say “Mama, stay with me….”

I will miss it when Spinner won’t go to sleep because he’s too busy looking for the moon and wanting it to say goodnight to him.

I will miss it when Knittykid no longer follows me from room to room, trying to fall asleep wherever I might be.

I will miss it when Math Boy finally decides he’s too old to fall asleep holding his mama’s hand.

I will miss it when they no longer ask me to read them a book. Although I will not miss it when they all want three different books at the same time and spend half of bedtime fighting about who gets what book and when and who needs to “JUST BE QUIET AND LET MOM READ!!” (push shove push shove scream bite, etc)

I will miss it when I come downstairs late at night and the floor is clean and the dishes have been done and it is quiet, and tidy and a good evening for knitting.

I will miss this crazy, hectic, loud and messy life. And I’ll have plenty of time to knit then…..

6 Comments

Filed under family, home

Red

DSC08939

So I’m sitting in the coffeeshop today, knitting. (Herbivore, if you must know, and no, I still have no picture). And I can’t help but be completely taken in by the conversation at the table next to me. There was a man and woman, and the woman was frantically taking notes and saying “yeah” in a way that meant she either thought he was super smart and was completely taken in by him, or in a way that an employee agrees when they just need to make their employer feel smart.

DSC08944

The man was very loud, and animated and excited. He was talking about how people go up to the cabin, and then they work because they have to maintain the cabin. He was very upset by this and brought it up   at least three times. His book by Wayne Dyer sat on the table, and he kept on about his “product” which I think was either yoga classes, or maybe something of the type. I kept wondering why he was so worked up about the cabin thing. Did he buy a cabin once? Does he get dragged up there with the in-laws all the time and get stuck painting the boathouse? I really just wanted to pull up to the table and just ask.

He went back and forth from being a bit too much to sounding very smart. For a while he was going on about about Americans and drama, and how much we love drama and how bad it is for our health. Which I thought was clever and true. My household is all drama all the time (myself and Math Boy being the biggest culprits) and it does wear you down. So maybe the Skeptic’s chilled out attitude is smarter than I give him credit for.

The eavesdropping made me miss the days when the Skeptic and I would spend hours at the same coffee shop, reading the paper and listening in around us, trying to piece together the stories of the people we shared a cuppa with on a regular basis. People we never knew, but people we had nicknames for, people we made up imaginary stories up about because they seemed so darn interesting. This guy was like that. I just wanted to know his story, despite the odd cabin fixation.

DSC08942

Coffee knitting nosiness aside, it is Project Spectrum and I don’t want to drivel on like I did last post (that was a read, huh?) Hence the reds. Any guesses as to what I’ll make of it all?

DSC08931

4 Comments

Filed under Project Spectrum, random

Spring in Minnesota makes me feel all rambly…..

Edited to add: Boy, did I ramble. Anyone who actually reads through this entire post truly deserves some sort of prize, like having your favorite incredibly gorgeous actor/ress showing up on your doorstep with a case of wine and extra large box of chocolates. And yarn and fabric.

There is something about the springs rains in Minnesota. The sky is still the same gray you’ve been looking at all winter but suddenly there is green everywhere. Looking at all that green makes me realize what is just around the corner, if only I can make it through the mud, muck and cold wet jackets. It makes me unfocused and wandering around from task to task, a little of this, a little of that. So that’s the sort of blog post you’ll be getting from me today. A summary of sorts, since I haven’t done that in awhile anyway. I’ll even do bullets, just for kicks.

  • My screen free week was not as productive as I’d hoped. The combination of extreme sleepiness along with my discovery of  Patrick Rothfuss meant that I was either reading, falling asleep while reading, (terrible when all you want to do is read the book!), falling asleep while putting the boys to bed, or sleeping. Very little crafting happened, if any.
  • Speaking of Patrick Rothufss, I started his second book yesterday, and while looking at his blog today figured out that we both went to UWSP (where he now teaches and lives) at the same time. Not only that, but we studied some of the same subjects and more than likely crossed paths quite often, maybe even had a class together, as it’s a small school. This made me feel like I was about thirteen and had temptations to go to his Facebook page and say something dorky and stupid about going to school together.  I resisted. However it’s driving me nuts because I can’t remember if I knew him for sure. In fact, I realized that although I majored in history I can’t remember the name of one friend in the history department (despite being treasurer of the History Club and attending many pizza nights) and the names of only two professors. Do we really start to forget this stuff this young? Sheesh, I’m only thirty-seven!
  • Speaking of crafting, I do have pictures to share. I managed to squeak out four quilt blocks for Annik’s Log Cabin’s for Japan project. I pieced together one quilt and although I tried, fell asleep with the boys both nights that I had planned on quilting and binding it. Luckily Annik is a quilting maniac and finished it up. Be sure to look at the Flickr group to see them. How amazing to have all these beautiful squares from all over the country put together like this! Annik did a wonderful job organizing; I’m lucky to have her as a friend.
  • Because every blog post deserves pictures, we’ll have an interlude with my blocks….

DSC08887

DSC08888

DSC08889

DSC08890

  • Making log cabin blocks is very, very addicting. I had to make myself stop at 1:30am.
  • So here’s more random…..I had a very nice and interestingcomment from a new reader. She said she’d really like to follow my blog, but wished I allowed the full post in my RSS feed. Now I also agree how annoying it is when you subscribe to everything in a reader but still have to click on the blogs to go and read the full post, so I understand how she feels. But, I know when I changed it to a short feed a few years ago it was because someone told me my blog was being reprinted in some sort of other feed, without my name/consent and that a shortened feed was the only was to stop it. Honestly, I can barely even remember the details. It seems half the bloggers out there these days have shortened feeds and half do not. Anyone know the latest these days? Anyone have a preference? I’m considering making it a full feed again but don’t want to if it means all my work is ripped off….
  • Onto more crafting, Project Spectrum starts this weekend!! And this year, I am determined to do the whole darn thing.
  • Lolly’s suggestions made me sign up for Tumblr although I’m not quite sure that I need more sites to clog my brain. Maybe I don’t quite get the draw yet. Anyway, if you’re on there come and find me. I’m Knittymama, as usual!
  • Speaking of technology, I broke my Nook. And no, I didn’t buy the extended warranty even though I have three small people in my house. Because my brain is on such massive overload I seriously can’t keep anything else in it, like remembering to buy a warranty. Let’s hope the Skeptic’s extreme tech skills will allow him to replace the screen successfully.
  • Speaking of my small people, I have to report that Spinner is finally talking away. I can’t remember how much I blogged about this, but last November, when he was about 26 months, he had a vocabulary of about 10 words, all which pretty much sounded the same. After a few months of speech therapy he’s talking all the time, which is a joy to hear. He’s got a lot of work left yet, as his articulation is pretty bad, but just the fact that he’s talking now is awesome; he’s come a log way already.  Sentences are hard for him, and he says them in a very cute way that makes it sound like he puts a period after each word. So today when I brought home a giant bag of cat food (which I guess was exciting for some reason) he said, “Big. Cat. Food. Mama?” So sweet, and so nice to hear.
  • And although I could probably do ten more bullets (spinning! red stuff! my newly finished vest! pants for boys! food allergies! kids and mud and worms! Dr. Who!) I’ll spare you the rest, for today, and save it for a later date.

5 Comments

Filed under friends, giving, Project Spectrum, Quilting, random

Checking out

It’s Screen Free Week! While we don’t have a TV and keep a tight lid on how much screen time the kids get, honestly, my screen time is a little out of control. So aside from a daily check of my e-mail and getting a recipe or directions if I need it, this girl is taking a screen vacation. See you in a week!

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Eight

I’m not quite sure how these years went by so fast, but my Math Boy, my not-so-little anymore man turned eight this week.

I feel like this is the year that we’ve truly moved into new territory. I can look at him and start to see a vision of who he might be in five, ten years. I look into those beautiful brown eyes and see real glimpses of who he might become. It’s amazing to be at this point, to see where he might be headed, to watch his interests emerge, to watch him learn and grow in a way that is so different from watching him when he was younger. There is a young man emerging here.

DSC08854

And we love who we see….a little boy who feels things so deeply and imagines so much. A young man who one minute is deep into his Pokemon card collection and the next minute too engrossed in D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths to bother eating dinner. He’s my reader, my thinker, full of fire and ideas and spirit. And he teaches us something every single day.

We love you, my dear! Happy birthday!!

DSC08870

7 Comments

Filed under celebrations, family, kids

Welcome!

I’m so excited to have made it into  Whip Up this week! If this is your first visit over here, welcome!! Feel free to take a look around and say “hello!” And if you’re already a regular reader here but not familiar with Whip Up, I highly recommend you take a peek over there. It’s my favorite go-to site for news and ideas in the crafting world.

Just a quick sneak peek today at what I call The Drag Around Family Blanket. I’ll have a simple tutorial coming up for it next week sometime. If you have some basic sewing skills and have been wanting to try your hand at a bigger  but very doable project, this one is for you!
DSC08769

More important, I’m very, very remiss to not have mentioned this earlier, since it’s a project organized by one of my best friends. Annik over at Mini Mushrooms has organized Log Cabins for Japan. Make a log cabin block or two (or ten!) and mail them in by next week. She has a great tutorial up if you’ve never made one before. I know what I’ll be sewing this weekend!

Log Cabins for Japan

3 Comments

Filed under friends, giving, Quilting, sewing

Puddle Season

Don’t you know a toddler who needs a new hat?
Sprout

A nice cotton hat that is just enough to keep the ears warm?

DSC08795

Something bright and Springy to keep you focused on those tulips which are sure to be popping out at soon as the last piles of snow melt? (Yes, we still have some big piles!)

DSC08794

Something for jumping in puddles? Something you could go grab just two skeins for and cast on right now?

DSC08790
Go for it. All you need are two skeins of Mission Falls Cotton and a child to wear it.

I just put the pattern up:  Springtime Sprouts. No test knitting or tech knitting done here, no sir! This is pattern writing at it’s finest: at my parents’ dining room table while trying to keep three little boys somewhat in tow. But hey, I even made a chart!! So please, give it a whirl and tell me what you think. Any mistakes? Something not quite clear? A different yarn that worked well?

And if you’re for some reason not on Ravelry, leave a comment with your e-mail address and I will send you the PDF.

Hope you enjoy!

5 Comments

Filed under hats, kids, knitting, pattern

A little something extra….

I love dresses. I want to sew a ton of dresses, but have no time to actually do it, it seems. So my closet is lacking. And to buy some? Well, I never seem to find any that live up to what I’m wishing for.

Then I received an e-mail last week from Shabby Apple. Would my readers like a coupon? I visited the site and thought, oh yes, would they ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the dresses… beautiful, practical, vintage styling…gorgeous. I could wear these on a date night, I could wear them to the store. So, a little gift for you this weekend. Enter the coupon code knittymama10off by April 30th to receive 10% off your order. Enjoy!!

5 Comments

Filed under shopping, stuff to love