Lest I Forget

I hope Ginny doesn't mind my lateness to the yarn along. Here is the first fingerless glove for Olivia, minus the ends being woven in. I am pleased with how it turned out, for there were some moments of sheer panic involved! There are twist stitches that require some tricky maneuvering and several times I either dropped the stitches off the needle or twisted too soon in the chart. That left me trying to figure out how to back up or pick up stitches. I googled how to repair mistakes and found out there is something you can do called a lifeline. Why had no one told me about this before? For goodness sake, I have panic attacks over much lesser things than knitting mistakes.  I have only read the first few pages. I already find myself liking the characters very much. While knitting with such tiny needles and dark yarn, I was having trouble seeing my work clearly. I would ask Tony to turn on more lights, I would hold the knitting closer, yet nothing seemed to help. Then one...

Outside my window... ... a hazy sky that is thick with the possibility of more rain. It has rained so much lately that my garden that had been burned to a crisp in August now is lush and full and bearing tomatoes again! The kid's flowers out by the mailbox are growing splendidly. I am thinking... ...about how I am going to teach school today in such a sleep-deprived state. Poor Therese, we tried starting her on goat milk and it did not go well. We have gone back to the formula for now to allow her system to return to normal. I have bought some disposable diapers until "normal" returns! She was up twice last night, the second time from 3:00 until 4:30. This mama is getting too old to be pulling all-nighters! I am thankful for... ...hot, delicious, coffee! ...pretty new plants from the local nursery to brighten the front of the house and my mood every time I look out the window. ...kids that entertain each other. From the lesson plans... ...we have a few loose ...

Earlier this week, our computer started having some issues. My husband decided to back up everything onto the external hard drive and clean up the computer. Well, the computer is now working. BUT....not everything was saved. As in, all my lists and folders of websites for homeschool, knitting, blogs, Church, etc. all gone! We have an Itunes account and my playlist and the kid's playlist no longer exist. Plus lots of music is gone too. I realize that in the grand scheme of things this is not even a blip on the radar. Yet, I feel so lost! I think about the time it will take to find and organize all my websites and I don't think there is enough coffee available to help me through this.

Two projects are in queue to begin as soon as the postal service kindly (and hopefully quickly) delivers my order from Knitpicks. One is for Olivia, who rarely is the recipient of my knitting. She wants a pair of fingerless gloves. Here is the pattern she picked . She also picked this yarn  in aurora heather, though for the life of me I can't figure out how to link you straight to the color! It looks like I will be knitting on the equivalent of toothpicks! Size 1.5. Yikes! My most fervent wish is that I will have them done before the cold really sets in. The second project is to make two new wool covers for Therese. One of them will be a regular cover. The other one will be my first attempt at longies. I will be using this pattern . I was just going to make the longies until I accidentally felted one of her covers a couple of weeks ago. It inadvertantly got thrown in the hot white load. Note to self: be more careful when sorting laundry. I have been disappointed in my library f...

Yesterday, as part of Anna's First Communion preparation, we started reading "Little Acts of Grace". It is simply written and the illustrations are so sweet. As I read the ideas about the little things we can do to make Jesus happy, I realized that I have fallen short in taking those little opportunities that arise each day that can make my husband, my children, or others around me a little happier. It is amazing how easily your sleep deprived body (because someone has been waking. every. night.) can forget that a simple thing like a lunch packed and waiting can brighten someone's morning. The proof was in the huge hug I received from a certain teenager as she left the house with a noticable spring in her step.

Our lives are obviously very full these days, for I don't seem to find time to write out any of the things I want to talk about. I guess that is a good thing!  I find Therese here on the horsie all day long, or trying to get on the horsie.  Our first week of homeschooling went well, even with lots of interruptions. Here we have a spelling test and preschool art class!  With Sophie back at college, we did some rearranging this weekend. Anna now has Sophie's room (they will share the room in the summer). Jack now has a new roommate: Therese! It was so weird last night not having her in our room. It looked so empty.  I will hopefully be painting soon. Maybe green. What do you think?  Getting ready for Mass. Her new dress from her aunt!  Last week we planted a fall garden. Jack and Anna wanted to plant flowers, so I found some moonflower seeds among my stash. They have to be at least 10 years old and I had little hope of them actually sprouting, but I did no...

Today is Therese's first birthday! The dairy and soy free zucchini chocolate cake is in the oven. While it bakes, I thought I'd write up a quick recap of the past week. August 31 was Anna's 7th birthday. She is a girl with a love for one thing right now: Tangled. She received a Rapunzel's tower playset, a Flynn Rider doll, a Rapunzel costume, and some other things that were of a crafty nature. I will be honest and say that her turning 7 is very hard for me. I will be watching her closely, especially since we are beginning to wean her off the seizure medication. Prayers would be good! Labor Day weekend, we drove to Tennessee to celebrate quite a special occasion. My grandmother turns 100 next week. We threw her a party a little early so that everyone could come. And come they did! Everyone that was invited responded and said they would be there. We even had a couple of party crashers! I would be posting lots of pictures had I not lost my camera. It was found later th...