Sunday, February 26, 2012

Blessingways

Is it possible to become addicted to pineapple juice? If so, I'm an addict. Completely and totally.
 An interesting thing has happened here in the past week.  The girls have begun drawing, and drawing pretty well! When Anja was really little (about one or two) if you gave her a piece of paper and a pen she was happy for a very, very long time, just making all sorts of little doodles.  And then she suddenly stopped.  For no apparent reason, she started saying she didn't want to draw because she didn't know how.  I tried and tried to encourage her, but she never wanted to draw.  Ever.  And then suddenly about a week ago, she started drawing again--bubble heads with faces and loooooooong legs and more normal sized arms with hands and fingers and hair and ears.  It's beautiful!  But it's so bizarre... it's like she had to figure out in her head the "right way" to draw, and then once she knew she could do it "right" she dove right in.  And she's been drawing constantly all week.

Meanwhile, Greta (who has never had a problem with doing anything "wrong" and has always loved drawing and coloring) just this week began putting big smiles on her drawings.  And it makes me so happy.  She fills up pages and pages of just smiling faces.  Sometimes they have arms and legs too, but it's the smile she likes best.

I really like it when I'm able to think that I have happy kids.  (Go ahead and think they're happy all the time... don't ask me about last Monday and how NOBODY was happy last Monday. At all.)  One day this week for lunch I gave the girls cherry tomatoes, crackers with cream cheese and something else... maybe sliced banana or apple or something.  I don't remember.  In any case, I put it on the table and Anja told me it was a "happy lunch" and that it made her happy to eat it.  How sweet is that!?  However, I'm seriously looking foward to some good Farmers Market produce for our summertime lunches.  I'm getting tired of the tasteless grocery store vegetables.  Oh, Winter. 

Speaking of Winter, I really like Winter and I like snow.  We have not had a snowy winter and we've definitely had more warm days than usual throughout this season (although we always get a couple of those random springlike days in January) but overall it seems like we have not had quite the tropical winter that other places have.  It's still been cold.  At times really cold.  So even though I know I SHOULD take down the evergreen and Christmas lights garland around our inside doorway (because March begins this Thursday, after all,) I just can't bring myself to do it as long as I still feel so cold.

Funnily enough, as I wrote that, Martin interrupted me to tell me that he gauges how close it is to spring by the number of below freezing low temperatures in the extended forecast.  He said tonight for the first time the number is less than twelve!

This afternoon my sister and sister-in-law planned and put on a Blessingway for me and two other pregnant friends.  It was a really lovely experience!  Anna (sister-in-law) was given one before her fourth baby was born and she had told me then (a year ago) that she'd love to do the same for me the next time I was pregnant. I was so glad it got to happen!  And also really glad that we had pregnant friends to share the experience.


They made some really fabulous food and everyone got to take home a little sachet of herbal bath.  Yum.  And it was really fun to sit around with a group of girls who have all known each other for so long.  It was really a perfect group!  And a perfect afternoon.

So, after Anna told me about her blessingway I thought it sounded really cool.  But then I looked them up on the internet yesterday and got really freaked out by how much TOUCHING seemed to be involved in these ceremonies.  Oh my gosh.  I don't do well with touching.  I mean, I give people hugs when it's the expected thing to do, but I don't enjoy it.  I try to act busy with my kids during the sign of peace at church because I don't even really care to shake anyone else's hands.  Sometimes, if I really REALLY don't want to touch people, I'll pretend I dropped something and stoop down to look for it and not come back up until the Lamb of God has begun.  That's how much I don't like other people touching me.  So when I read about the part where you have to have a foot bath and have people brush your hair and do whatever other touchy things, I a little bit freaked out and started trying to think of reasons to not go... except I couldn't just not go because this was planned to take place at MY HOUSE.  So Martin, being the loving husband that he is, made me a shirt that said in big black permanent marker letters: DON'T TOUCH ME.  And that made me feel a little better... but what really made me feel better was when my sister assured me this morning that this was just a ceremony of prayer and food and there would be no touching at all.  Whew.  That was close. 

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Sweaters, Sweaters, Everywhere

I currently have two sweater projects in the works; the orange one for me, and this red and grey hoodie (well, it will be a hoodie, hopefully) for the bouncy little baby who surely--SURELY--won't make me wait until the middle of June to make his/her entrance.  Have I mentioned on here how huge I am? Even my sister acknowledged it.  And this baby--if I sit down it just starts rolling all over the place and it's already putting on shows of that sort for the outside world to see.  Last Sunday we sat at the dining table at my parents house and my sister, sister-in-law and I watched it punch me from the inside and roll around.  Today I took a video. So far, in looks (judging by the ultrasound) and in activity level, this baby is reminding me a lot of Anja.  Anyway, here's the back of the hoodie that isn't done:
 I'm only to the sleeves, but I got the rest of the yarn I needed to finish it the other night.  I'm just using Wool-Ease because it's cheap and washable.  And because except for the one extra red skein, it's the leftovers from the scarf I made my nephew for Christmas.

But here is my new best friend:
 This sweater.  A few weeks ago I went looking for a maternity coat at Once Upon a Child, and the best I found was this maternity sweater. It's kind of coat-ish, I guess.... which is kind of unfortunate, since I'm wearing it ALL THE TIME.  It's so snuggly and roomy and it covers up what I'm wearing so it doesn't have to "go" with anything that's hiding underneath.  In other words, it's perfect.  Last night I even wore it to bed!
 Martin might've mentioned once on the way to church that it was "sad" that it is my coat.  What exactly does that mean?  That I look like a bag lady?  That I look like I don't know what a coat is, or that cold weather usually requires more than just a layer of yarn?  I don't care what he says.  I love my sweater coat.  And my sweater coat loves me. (I included two pictures because I really only like the second picture, but the first one makes my house look slightly less trashy and dirty, I think.)

And here are my first double-pointed-needle knitting projects:
They are little bowls!  The pattern for them came from Amanda Blake Soule's most recent book, The Rhythm of the Family, which I'm enjoying a lot more now that I've had it for awhile.  As long as I don't read the essays, it has a lot of fun little ideas in it.  So I knit up the purple and green one last night for Anja to felt today, but then when it came felting time I realized that the idea of sharing one felting piece probably wasn't going to go over very well... so I knit up the little grey one for Greta.  Sadly, the purple one didn't felt up as nicely!  I don't know why--it's all Lanaloft yarn.  Hm.  Anyway, they are cute little bowls--tinier than they are supposed to be according to the pattern, but I only have one set of double pointed needles and they are size 4 or 5, not the 10.5 that the pattern calls for.  Oops.  Oh well, they are really perfect!  I can't wait to see what the girls do with them, once they are all the way dry.  (I might throw the purple one in the washer and see if I can get it to look more felted.)

So that's what we did today. And now it's nighttime and I've got two loaves of bread ready to go into the oven so Martin and I will get a little snack of warm bread and butter and tea before bed.  And I'm wearing my brown sweater.

Oh!  And I found a couple of new blogs that I thought were sweet... one is called Juniper Moon Farm (I don't remember the website, but I'll try to find it and add it to my list on the sidebar) and the other one is called Merry Magpie Farm (same deal) and they just seem like happy little blogs. I don't even remember how I found them now.  I think I was looking for a sweater pattern and they came up in the Google results.

And thanks to Ann in LA for suggesting that I move my Etsy link to the top of the page!!  (And for the kind words via facebook message, which doesn't always cooperate for me, which is why I didn't reply. But thank you!!)

Oven's ready!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Lent is Coming


Ok, it’s not just coming…. It’s practically started. 

So, I am a firm believer in the season of Lent being a very private time.  I don’t think people should really talk about what they are “doing” for Lent, or what they are giving up, or what sacrifices they are making… I mostly think it should be a private, internal thing.  This year I’ve done a lot of thinking about different ways to better myself/sacrifice during the season of Lent, and I’ve had kind of a difficult time of it this year.  All the typical things—especially dietary sacrifices—seem to give me some kind of hidden benefit… like I’m just doing it because it’s lent, but I know I should be doing it all the time.  This is especially true this year as I’m pretty unhappy with my weight gain so far in this pregnancy and I know I need to better my diet in a lot of ways.  So dietary sacrifices are out.  Then there’s the other obvious—the internet.  Except I’m pretty out of practice on the internet in the first place, so that seems just like something typical to do, which wouldn’t really be THAT much of a sacrifice, though it would be a little bit hard.  And giving up coffee is simply not an option.  And if I gave up something like tea, I’d just drink more coffee.  Lame.

So I finally came up with an idea, but then it led to another dilemma.  The dilemma is whether I would advertise what I’m doing—as I said, something I’m very much against—but the thing is, if I didn’t tell, I’m afraid it wouldn’t work at all.  So I’m going to tell what I’m going to do for Lent, right now.  And I have looked at it from many angles and I know that there is one way of looking at it that would give me long-term benefit, but I hope that you all believe that I don’t expect that from it, and that I think the good outweighs the bad when it comes to advertising this idea.

So what I’m DOING is re-starting my Etsy store and keeping it going.  (This is NOT something I am eager to do, as I’ve said in a previous post or two.)  But, the catch is—and this is the reason I feel like I need to tell that I’m doing it—is that any money I make during the Lenten season will all be given to Matrix Lifeline.  After going over and over it in my mind, I realized that if I just did it without saying anything on here or anywhere else, I would make no sales and would know I had no hope of making sales, and then I would not keep up with it and then the whole thing would just be worthless.  But if I spread the word without expectation, maybe I could do a little good in the world!  Let me be clear: I don’t expect ANY of my readers to feel obligated to buy anything from my etsy shop.  Please, please, please, PLEEEAAASEE don’t think this is in any way meant to pressure anyone to do that.  But maybe if people are aware that money spent at my shop is going to a specific good cause, even if they didn’t buy anything, they might have the opportunity to tell someone else about it.  Or something.

I hope this makes sense and doesn’t sound selfish.

So, the shop with be stocked with stuff that has never sold at the craft fairs, along with some new stuff that is  fitting for Easter baskets, like these knitted kitties.  And possibly a few baby hats and baby legwarmers and other small things.  Basically whatever I feel like making that can be made and put up for sale within these six weeks. I’ll start stocking it up tomorrow and am determined to keep it up.  And if I make a sale or two—yay!  And if I don’t, then at least I won’t feel like it’s because I didn’t advertise and feel like if I’d said something I would’ve sold something.

So, I’ll still be on this blog throughout Lent.  (Not that I’m really on it all that much.)  And all other parts of my Lenten life will remain secret.  J

In other news, for Valentine’s Day Martin gave me our traditional Valentine’s Day gift—the most recent cupcake decorating book by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson!  It’s more than cupcakes and it has some seriously cute stuff in it.  And since Valentine’s Day is conveniently near Greta’s birthday, that is always the first thing I have to plan for!  In this book there are gnome cupcakes with little gumdrop mushroom decorations and green coconut grass.  The cupcakes, while freaking adorable, look a little involved (and expensive when you break it down) so Anja had the idea to make a cake decorated with the gumdrop mushrooms.  Brilliant!  So I believe Greta’s birthday cake will be a carrot cake with green coconut grass and gumdrop toadstools and gnomie and fairy decorations.

And while we were talking about gnomes and birthdays, Anja ran and got her book of Gnomes that Ooma gave her for Christmas this year, which she LOVES.  It is such a fabulous book!  Our whole family has really been enjoying it.

So a happy Fat Tuesday to all my readers.  If you’re signing off of the internets for the season… see you at Easter!






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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Crafting By Hand


While I'm busy NOT painting the floors of my craft area, I've been doing a lot of non-machine-sewing projects.  Mostly knitting, but also giving this *free* bag from Michael's a foxy little makeover. I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I got the idea from a 2007 Soulemama post, where she had put on a cute tree applique to an old, worn out--but still fully functional--tote bag.  This bag came sporting a huge Paton's logo on the side, which is fine, but Paton's doesn't have the cutest logo in the world, and it's printed on both sides.  So I covered up one side.  I'm thinking of using this as our "diaper bag" for the new baby, because it's the perfect size--MUCH smaller than a normal diaper bag, but one of those bottomeless pit type things with inside pockets and everything.  I'm thinking it'll be perfect for summer outings with three (THREE!) little children.

I know the picture is not great quality... it's a phone picture because I don't have my camera with me.

Various knitting projects include a blue wool diaper cover, which I may or may not have enough yarn to finish, my orange sweater which now has two front pieces and a good chunk of back, and a newly started red and grey sweater for new baby, which, if it turns out, promises to be a cute little fall jacket with toggle closures. I loooove knitting baby sweaters because they whip up so quickly!

My sister-in-law told me the other night about "the drive-thru sweater" which is supposedly super fast to knit, but is made on circular needles.  I haven't seen a picture of it... but I'm thinking I might have to learn how to do that circular knitting. And double pointed needles too, because I'd like to make socks for this new baby.  (If I ever attempted socks for myself, I know I would quickly become a member of the One Sock Club. I'll stick to baby-sized.)

In other baby news, I am--what--23 weeks along?  Essentially, I'm not very pregnant.  A little more than halfway. But I. AM. HUGE. And this baby is riding so high... it's already kicking my rib cage. And I have heartburn all the time. It's unfortunate.  I'm not ready to wear tent clothes yet.

Oh, and speaking of clothes... Martin and I had an in-depth conversation about personal style last night.  We both mentioned those days when we put on something and we just don't feel like ourselves and it kind of bothers us all day.  And I realized, maybe that's part of the reason I feel so self-conscious when I'm pregnant... half the maternity clothes in my collection are not really mine, the whole box is a collection of four women over the course of nine years. A lot of the clothes I wear while I'm pregnant are not really "me."  Not to mention selection in general is more limited and generally less my style. Funny! 

I have more ideas for little non-sewing projects for this time while my floors are remaining unpainted. But while I'm working on those, the collection in my brain of things I want to sew is definitely growing!  I am wanting to make a non-padded mei-tai for this baby for when it's tiny.  The one I have is heavily padded, which is awesome for when the baby is just a little bigger--but I want something slightly different for the newborn days. Can anyone tell me, does the Beco(sp?) carrier work well for newborns?  The Ergo is my all-time favorite for big babies and toddlers, but I've never wanted to get the "newborn insert" because it just seems kind of weird.

Ugh! I ate some string cheese! HEARTBURN!!


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Saturday, February 18, 2012

One More Love Picture

I meant to post this on the last post and forgot! BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop

Friday, February 17, 2012

Giving Valentine's Day a Piece of my Mind

My brother and his family are visiting and to welcome them yesterday my mom made a big spaghetti and meatball dinner up at her house for everyone. I told my girls early in the day that we'd be going up there for dinner (it's been a restless week around here... I think we need to get out; today should be a good day for that, with a sunshiney high temperature of 48!) and they got pretty excited about the part about spaghetti and meatballs.  And awhile later, I found this:
 And then they showed me this:
 Turns out they'd though the entire roll of toilet paper would make an excellent pile of their own pretend spaghetti and meatball dinner.  On the one hand, how can you argue creativity? On the other hand, do they realize that shredded up "spaghetti" toilet paper doesn't do the job nearly as well as when it is in its complete form on and on the roll? (and actually in the bathroom...)

Hahaha.  Silly girls!

Our Valentine's Day this year was unlike any other, to say the least.  At first we had planned to have a "big party" for all of our "friends."  One problem: we have no friends.  Anja thought the idea of a party was great, but when she realized that meant having people to our house, she immediately changed her mind.  SO we pared it down to be just a party with the cousins, which was great.  We made little heart-and-doily decorations and strung them up from all the doorways and windows.  I found some cute little wooden birdhouses and glitter paint on sale and the kids painted birdhouses.  They thought that was cool.  And then they just played and my mom and sister and I knitted the afternoon away and it was very nice.  Oh, and we all gorged on chocolate.

 Then after everyone was gone and Martin got home, we thought we'd go out to dinner, just to be festive.  We hadn't made reservations anywhere, so we drove by O'Charley's but it was PACKED... and we ended up going to Panera, where we had a nice little dinner and Greta and I shared a sandwich.

....and then about an hour later we came home and started throwing up! Gross!  Usually when I get sick, it's a few hours of grossness,then it's over and I get back to normal immediately. I try to make it a non-issue as fast as possible.  This was really different. Now, I have never had food poisoning before, and I'm still reluctant to place the blame on that, mostly because I always make fun of people who chalk every stomach bug up to food poising, when there's no way it's THAT common.  I thought we just had a bug.  But then nobody else got it, and when I was telling the rest of my family about it last night they all said it was food poising.  Weird!  So I guess now Greta and I have had food poisoning and it was quite unpleasant.
And while it was not the most romantic of Valentine's Days, it was one to remember.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Homeless or Hip?

Quite some time ago Martin told me about an article in a magazine that had all these pictures of men and the big question was "Homeless? Or hip?" It was pointing out the fact that evidently it's pretty hip to look like you live in a cardboard box and have to steal your clothes from strangers.  So we went on a date a couple weeks ago because it was a lovely cold, rainy night; my parents came and played with the girls for a bit and we walked over the bridge to Starbucks for coffee.  We weren't TRYING to look like so bad... but it kind of turned out that we did look a little bit dumpy. So I ask you....
 Homeless??
Or hip??

Churches. Floors. Deals.

Let me warn you... this is going to be a really boring post.  So to offset the boringness of it, here are some slightly out-of-date pictures.
 A few weeks ago we got a good amount of snow and while it was REALLY cold the first few days, it was still there on Saturday when we were able to play outside as a family and then walk down for chocolates at Kathy's Kandies.  This is Greta during the outing.
 The girls and me, back in January, on our way to see The Nutcracker.
 Anja at Kathy's Kandies
Martin and the girls building a funny little snowman.
And now, on to the post.

Last Monday I woke up with the need for some change.  So I hauled all my craft stuff out of the landing area and started ripping up carpet.  Underneath was some good, but dirty, hardwood floor.  It will take some sanding, but we got paint for it today and soon I hope to have a sunny, fresh look in my craft area.  I’m really excited for the finished product!  I plan to change things around a bit too, in terms of what furniture is up there.  That probably means I’m in the market for another bookshelf…. We’ll see.
But what I’m most excited about is that I’ve done it ALL myself!  I ripped up the carpet and hauled it to the curb, worked up the tack boards, pulled up the staples…. I did it all!  I am so proud of myself. 
So this morning we went to St. Ann’s for church again.  I think I’ve mentioned on here that we started going there when Martin took his second job, and now it’s become a habit.  But the thing is, we LIKE St. Ann’s.  We like St. Boniface too, and there are definitely things I miss about it, but you know what?  I didn’t realize how much I missed BEING MENTALLY PRESENT AT MASS.  Which, at St. Boniface, happens approximately NEVER.  I don’t know what it is about the place… is it just too big?  Too echoey?  Whatever the reason, my kids behave like monsters at St. Boniface and always have.  Usually, in my days since having children, I have spent the second half of every Mass at St. Boniface OUTSIDE.  Not even in the back, but outside the building.  At St. Ann’s?  My kids are PERFECT.  We sit up in the front row and they aren’t just well behaved, they pay attention!  Anja sits there, facing the front, paying attention to the entire Mass.  It’s incredible!  It’s WONDERFUL!  We haven’t even had to take Greta to the back since the summer, and even then, it’s better because the speakers are better and I can still hear what’s going on, and see, and there’s just not so much empty space so the kids don’t feel the need to just run around like crazy people.
Has anyone else had an experience like this?  I know it’s not our home parish, but it feels so nice to be paying attention during mass again.  To be able to listen to every reading, the gospel, and the consecration!  THE WHOLE ENTIRE THING!!! 
Maybe it’s just coincidence that my kids are older now and just happened to hit the “we can sit through church quietly now” phase while we were going to St. Ann’s.  But we’ve been to St. Boniface recently, and Greta in particular, has been awful.  And I don’t just mean loud… I mean crawling under the pews to get away from us and run up the middle aisle.
It makes me a little sad because I love St. Boniface, and I love its bigness and oldness and the fact that it’s not completely covered in ugly carpet.  And I hope that we can start going back there soon.  Maybe this spring or summer.  But right now, St. Ann’s is the perfect place for us.  And people are so nice to us!  Families have been introducing themselves to us and being all friendly and stuff.  Isn’t that nice? 
Anyway.  Moving on.
I went to Once Upon a Child today and got a pair of maternity pants, shirt and an pretty spring dress all for just $16.  Not bad.  All their maternity stuff is 30% off and will eventually be marked down farther because they aren’t going to carry maternity anymore.  Too bad!  But at least I can score some good deals in the meantime.
Tonight I finished knitting a cute little hat and matching leg warmers for the new baby.  They are in a natural color organic cotton (I think it’s Lions Brand—whatever it is, they sell it at JoAnn’s and Michael’s) and it’s such a cute little set that I’m thinking about knitting some up for my etsy store that Martin keeps telling me to re-open.  It’s just such a commitment.  I’d have to keep up with it on this silly computer.  I’d have to take pictures and upload them and be all organized.  I’m just not good at being organized.  And I’m not good with the computer.  But maybe I can just do the crafting and make Martin run the store.  He’s better with computers.  That’s a good plan.  I’ll tell him that’s what we’ll do.  He’s walking the dogs right now.
Geez, I am so boring.  I really have nothing to say!  I only talked about the church thing because I felt like I needed to make a new blog post.  Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll have the upstairs done and will be able to talk about that a little bit.  I have some big plans for decorating that little space.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Theodore

Today we followed through with the decision we made awhile back to finally put Theodore down.  It wasn't really a difficult decision... when the cat starts using the whole house as his litterbox, you know The Time Has Come.  But it was still kind of hard to do.  And even though I will not miss cleaning up poo-poo from all over the house, I will miss my Lovey Boy.  So, here's a little tribute to him.

Once upon a time, there was this tiny little kitten named Theodore.  He was a grey stripey cat in a crate at Petsmart, beside a crate of orange stripey kittens, which Martin and I spotted one day while we were there.  Later that night Martin went back to get me one of the orange stripey kittens--but they were gone! And from the crate next door, this one stole his heart.
 He brought me Theodore in a picnic basket, after inviting me out for a picnic dinner. He was so tiny and scrawny, but very playful and curious. His name was Theodore Wonderful.
 During our first few months together, Theodore and I saw many adventures. I dragged him out from his hiding place under my bed when my stove was on fire.  He helped me finish a quilt, helped me plan my wedding, and was always glad to finish off my leftover dinner. 
He was also a little bit violent, and a scratch on my face a week before our wedding meant he had to pack his bags and live with Martin for the last few days before we were a family.
 When Martin and I got married Theodore gave one of the groomsmen staying with us a vicious allergy attack, which required my first wifely/motherly action of opening a package of benedryl.

For two months, Martin, Theodore and I lived in a "rental" house, which we didn't actually rent because my parents owned it!  During those two months, Theodore had a few fun games he would play.  One of them was "hide the toilet paper."  Another was "shred the hidden rolls of toilet paper until they are barely useable."  A popular game was "chew a hole in the bag of cat food and drag it across the living room so it makes a big mess," but the best game he played was the classic "fetch." He had his own little tennis ball and we could sit in the bedroom and throw the ball out the door and down the hallway into the living room and he'd fetch it.  He always came back a little bit wheezy, but we figured it was good for him.  Maybe if we'd stayed in that house and kept up our games of fetch he wouldn't have become so obese that he was unable to clean himself. Hm.

When we moved from the tiny rental into this sizeable house, Theodore got a lot less mean.  I think he had a bit of cabin fever living among boxes at the other place.  Suddenly he had room to explore and he stopped biting us for no reason and scratching at my face.  And it was a good thing too, because it wasn't long before little baby Anja arrived.
By this time, Theodore was a "big" cat. Much bigger than two week old Anja.  Maybe even bigger than two month old Anja.  But still growing!
This is what he became:
 Theodore's heaviest recorded weight was 31 pounds. Today he was only 27.  He was so, so fat.  Which, for awhile was charming and comical, but then it got to be kind of extreme.  I think probably when he topped 30 pounds was when he stopped taking care of himself and really getting gross.  And pooping everywhere.  That was over the summer, so he became an indoor/outdoor cat for the first time, and he really loved it!  He was a jungle king!
And always so patient with everyone, even when he was made to wear acorn hats or dress up in many, many strands of mardi gras beads. (And before Anja was born, he was my tester for our baby wraps... but I couldn't find any of those pictures.)

 But the outside life wasn't any  better; he kept coming back in with scratches and I knew if he ever were attacked by an animal, he'd just as soon let it eat him than exert the energy to fight back. So we brought him back in to be a fully indoor cat, and we started him on a new diet in an effort to help him lose a few pounds so he could be a normal, clean cat again, but it didn't work.  He couldn't even jump from the floor to the bathroom counter to drink from the sink.  In fact... he could barely jump at all.  He was just too big.  And too poopy.

So he was a really good cat.  A great cat!  And we will always miss him (except Greta, who ONE TIME was standing in his way when he was barrelling upstairs thinking it was mealtime and he accidentally scratched her toe and she hated him from then on and would SCREAM if ever they were caught on the stairs together.)  And our family (and our daily "shows" in which there is a full cast of characters) feels a little bit incomplete and I guess it will for awhile. But eventually there comes a time in an animal's life when it's just being kept around for the sake of sentiment by it's owners, when clearly it would be so much happier in The Happy Hunting Grounds.  So that's where Theodore is now.

Thanks for the good years, Geeg!  We love you!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Time, Time, Time

 This is what my sweater pattern currently looks like.  *sigh*

So after reading a recent post over at Dulce Domum, I seriously considered posting a picture of my own laundry room for all the wide web world to see.  Then I read her more recent post and saw that evidently her mom was less enthusiastic about the state of the laundry room than, say, I was… and I decided that if Mrs. W. didn’t approve of Jill’s laundry room, then there was no way my own mother would approve of a picture of my own.  It’s downright scary.  But just to make Jill feel better about her roasting pan, know that I keep my crock pot in my laundry room—snuggled into a box full of dirty clothes that may or may not EVER get washed!!  so instead of coming clean, I'm posting this cute picture of Greta, where the pan conveniently covers the disgusting grime that lives around my burner!

I’ve started another sweater for myself.  (Pattern pictured above.) It’s kind of an orangey-red, the yarn is Cascade Eco-Wool (or something like that).  I really like Cascade yarns… they are relatively cheap, good quality wools.  And you can get those huge, huge, huge skeins for $20 at our knitting store.  I think I’m going to be able to make all but the sleeves of this sweater with that one skein of yarn.  The unfortunate thing is that when I bought it, they didn’t have another of that same color…. Maybe I’ll be making a vest!  Haha!

Again, after thinking about how good we have it with our kids rarely getting sick, Greta got some sort of bug the other day.  Not a big deal… throwing up for a night and not herself off and on for the next two days.  No fever or anything—pretty mild.  But there I went, jinxing myself again!

So, back to the Disney Princess movies—as it turns out, I think Anja was more freaked out by Beauty & the Beast than she’d originally let on.  She’s dropped subtle hints (like covering her ears when we’re quoting the Beast) that she actually WAS scared by the Beast.  So I think we’ll cut out the Princess movies for now and stick with the old 70’s movies like Robin Hood and Aristocats.  Definitely no scary parts in those!

Along with the sweater, I’ve begun knitting a pair of baby leg warmers for the new baby.  I’m using a rainbow-y sock yarn by Patons…. For which I received a free tote bag upon purchase!!!!  I do love me some free stuff.  Especially when all I have to do to GET free stuff is buy some yarn!  I’m kind of dying to know the gender of this child.  I want so much to start making him/her stuff….. and I know I won’t have time to do it once he’s actually HERE, so I wish I could get started now!!!  But at least by the time it’s cool enough for knitted things, this baby will be 4+ months into his life, so I’ll have the time to make things for fall.  And if we’re being honest, the older the baby, the cuter it looks in handknits. 

I was taking a peek at Soulemama’s blog (like I say I never do—ha!) and she had some pictures of her baby in her new highchair.  Her little baby is SO round—it reminded me so much of Anja’s baby pictures!!!  Her baby resembles Anja at that age in just the tiniest way and it was so funny to remember that age.  Anja was so round and cute!  Gosh, time flies.

And speaking of time flying, I feel like I have zero time lately for anything other than washing dishes, cleaning up after people/animals (Theodore is working his way out, but he’s still here) and trying my best to keep up with the laundry.  Am I just noticing the mess more these days or are we really getting messier?  In any case,  my blogging and general correspondence with people is really suffering. It’s frustrating.  And in the little slots of free time that I have, I don’t feel like there’s enough to do something like write a blog post or write a letter to someone (and if I don’t finish a letter in one sitting, it’s a goner—Greta WILL find and destroy) so I just end up doing a little bit of knitting. Which is good… I’m not complaining about that.  I just wish I had more time for the other stuff too.

Geez, mostly it’s the dishes. I feel like we’ve been generating A LOT of dirty dishes lately.  And I just can’t keep up!

And on top of that we have a number of home improvement projects that are on the To-Do list.  Who knows when those will get done.  Ugh.
Speaking of time... it's up for blogging.  Now it's BEDtime.