Who needs food when you have fleece?!?!

Wow. What a day. I have been so busy. Me and the kids started the day with breakfast and Jonah, a Veggie Tales movie. Great start. I usually don't eat early and so I only had toast at about 10am. Then, more testing. Ain't it grand. Mia is now doing the 1st grade test, just for my benefit.

Then, we had lunch outside. We bundled up. It was warmish, but still needed wool sweaters and hats to be comfortable. The kids had ham, cheese, and strawberries a al carte. I had strawberries with yogurt and 2 Godiva chocolates.

At 12:30ish it was off to a friends house in Salem to pick up something. We had a great visit and checked out her chickens. The kids were in love, so was I to tell you the truth. I WILL have chooks one of these days, as soon as we move out of Roanoke City.

As we were driving away....... I was telling my kids why we couldn't have chickens. Then, I saw him. The police officer. He started to pull out behind me. I didn't even wait. I just pulled over. Yes dear friends. I got a speeding ticket. What a thing to get in front of the kids. Naturally, since I am a homeschooler, we talked about what Mommy did wrong as I was getting a HUGE ticket. Yeesh.

Got home and husband promptly called and I got the great pleasure of telling him where the next $150 of our disposable income was going. Thankfully, he was understanding. But, we'll see after he writes the bills this pm if he is still so gracious. ha.

Kids played in the sandbox while I messed with a new toy. Drum carder. That thing is amazing. It picks out all kinds of tough stuff out of "Brother" , the fleece. 2 passes in that thing and it is like roving.

This is the highlight of my day!! My package from my Knit to Spin secret pal came. It is beautiful. I am pretty sure it is hand carded and hand dyed 2 ply yarn. It is destined to be a hat and I LOVE it. Thanx so much pal from Fort Worth, TX. Can't wait to make your acquaintance!!!! Notice the cute cards as well.

So..... why all the talk of food? Well, I am just wondering about all you other moms out there.

"Mommy, where is my drink?''

"OK, I'll get it."

"Mommy, my fork is dirty". "OK, I'll get you a new one". "Mommy, I'm all done". "OK, let me clean you up". "Mommy, I gotta go pee. " "ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT ALREADY, I'LL TAKE YOU!!!!!" Meanwhile, I have eaten 3 bites of food. Do you feel like a jack-in-the-box at meal time? I hate that so much. I NEVER get to eat in peace!!! During room time, I treated myself to an early dinner. Mind you, it is only 3 o'clock, but you read all that I had eaten before. I was STARVING!!!! I took my opportunity and made the most of it. Italian meatloaf, roast garlic potatoes, peas, and the smallest, sliver of Italian Creme cake. *sigh* It was delicious and the best part is I was undisturbed!!! My dh would ask, "Aren't you going to spoil your dinner?" (What a stupid questions, who asks a grown woman that?) My answer, "WHO CARES, I don't get to sit and eat anyway!!!!!"

There are so many things that I am learning these days. The older I get, the dumber I feel. Maybe not 'dumb', just feeling the weight of what I do not know. One example is processing fleece. Not harder than I thought, acually easier!!! The challenges are in producing the yarn that my minds eye envisioned. That's tough. So many steps in the process before you even get to the plying phase so you can see what you have got.

Brother is knitting up to about 3-4 st/in. That is a lot heavier than I had wanted. That's OK. I'm gonna finish plying the 2 bobbins I have (for 2 skeins) and make dh some Liz Zimmerman moc socks from Knitting Around. So, for my 2nd round in sampling, I am going to card with more particularity and spin MUCH finer. Also, I am going to separate the colors for different projects. I'll keep you posted.

Another example in what I am learning, is that I need lots of things to keep me stimulated. Why is that? Who knows. Anyway, I am now researching to find a pattern for a hooded pullover for my son. I'm gonna use that pound of Chestnut roving that I went on and on about a while back. Finished that up and just need the perfect pattern to set it off for my boy. That's all I need. Another project on the needles. I have been knitting like a fiend on the Koigu Keepsake shawl. I finally feel connected to it. I still might not finish it in 2 years.

I still haven't figured out what to make with some of my other stash yarn. I really don't like having yarn hanging around with no plan for it. For example, I have some GORGEOUS Noro Silk Garden. Luscious. If I had 10 skeins of it, I'd make a sweater. But, no. I only have 4. 2 in 2 different colors each. Maybe a tank top? I have more another huge batch of Noro somthing or other that I have had forever, and can't figure out what to do with it. It is cotton. Depressing. I like finished projects.

On the homeschooling front, I am doing the required standardized testing for Mia right now. I have her at the K level and am doing 1st grade work. The testing is going OK, but I am concerned. I hate that. She is the happiest kid around and I don't want her to feel my anxiety over HER performance. God is good. He has called us to this life. We will persevere. I sometimes get a wee bit discouraged when I see my childs special needs in living color.

That's the toughest thing I am learning right now. How to just 'go with' something. I want so much for my children (don't we all). I want to just enjoy the time I have with each of them. Not worry about it they will go to college or be a valeditorian in thier classes.

Well...... This all sounds 'gloomy' but I don't mean it to be. But, I am content. I will keep stitching and keep working on my school here. Pray for us. Gotta go feed the chitlins. The natives are starting to get restless!!! Cate

"Rats"

I plied some of Brother. Not what I was envisioning. I am going to give carding another try, pick more neps and coils and tvm out. Spin it finer. I am learning how to sample. Good thing that fleece is really big. The skein I made today *sorry, no pix*, will be suitable for some moccasin socks by Zimmerman. Not, repeat, not sweater yarn. yet.

Some people have described me as stubborn. They would be correct. The phrases "I can't" or "you can't" only make me try harder. I am stubborn in friendships and with family, and with something I am interested in. Once I am engaged, it takes a lot to back off. This is a great quality, but it has it's down points.

How I spend my time

Like I said the other day, "I can hardly wait to get cracking at 'Brother', my new fleece." Here is picture of me learning to card. It is not hard, but does require some skill, muscles too. I have found that I am really out of shape. My arms are sore from the carding. It must be a move that I ahve never really done before. How the mighty have fallen. Did I ever tell you that I was the captain of both the volleyball team and softball team in high school? My arms used to be ripped. Now they are like my grandmothers.

You can't see it in these pictures, but, there are a lot of neps and coils in the wool. I am sure that it is my inexperience, but it sure is gonna be a lumpy yarn. Fine with me. I like rustic looking stuff.

The problem with being at home mom, is that I always have access to my hobbies. Especially when I SHOULD be doing something else. Such as, making dinner. I love to cook, but, it is getting old. The endless menu planning and providing more fuel for growing munchkins. You should see the way my 5yo eats. She eats 3 solid meals and then all kinds of healthy snacks. She is a bottomless pit. She might even eat more than my husband. I love it when my kids eat.

So, I ahve been carding, spinning, and knitting for 2 days now. My house is trashed, but do I care. Wellllllll, yes, but I can't help myself. Brother is calling me. The only reason I ahve paused to blog, is that it fills me with joy to share with someone what lights me up.

This is not a great picture, but it shows you a bit what the wool is going to look like. There are such strong contrasts, I am pushing to finish this 2nd bobbin so I can ply it and see what my gauge is. I have visions of a chunky sweater for me, and several pairs of socks (probably spun finer after I have enough to make a sweater). Mittens, boy, they will be waterproof with this stuff.

Well, it is now time for me to get dinner started. We are having ditalini soup, pork chops, and whatever frozen veggie that I can unearth in the freezer.

I AM IN LOVE. I REPEAT, I AM IN LOVE. Not with peacocks, but I like those too. I am in love with fleece. Yes, dear friends, I am now the proud owner of not 1, but 2 full fleeces. I am delighted, ecstatic and can hardly wait to get at it.

We went to Debbie Dull's sheep farm in Eggleston, VA today. Made it a family affair. The invite came thru the RV/spin/knit group. To all my friends who missed. I am sorry.

I have to tell you something. I have a dirty mind. I am not proud of it, but truth is truth. There were 2 shearers. A father and son, they paid us ladies no mind. But I tell you. They could man handle a sheep. I was taken a bit aback. I even took a picture of the 1st position they put the sheep into. Do you know where they put the sheeps hoove? In their crotch. yes, crotch. Sheep are not weak and I would imagine, unpredictable. One small slip and ....................... I didn't show you a picture because that would be TMI.

I got some great advice there on how to scour a fleece. THE WASHING MACHINE!!! Yes, this is yet another great use for the wonderful appliance. I filled the tub with a ton of Dawn and the hottest h20 I could come up with, then I gently put in 'Brother'. (Yes, I have named both fleeces. Brother and Gwyneth. ) I let Brother soak for 30 minutes, spun him out and then did a rinse of hot water and some essential oils. Lavender, thyme, and rosemary. My house smells like an herb bower. Oh yeah, my washing machine is peppered with dirt from the sheep. It wiped out easily with a dirty t-shirt that was waiting to be washed.

As I laid out my freshly scoured fleece on 4 plastic garbage bags (hoping animals don't find this attractive to lay on), I ran and found my unused hand carders. Then, I sorted and found 'almost dry' bits and began to learn to card. I know, I know, I should have waited until it was dry, but I couldn't help myself. I also spun some up. It looks fabulous. All natural, multi-colored, and sexy.

This is the picture of Debbie skirting one of her 60+ Shetlands. I can't tell you how kind and gracious fiber people are. They didn't know me but were quick to get excited for me because I knew nothing about fleeces and that they were educating me. Learned all kinds of interesting things like how the Ashford wheels are difficult to spin on. *New flash* I have one. Maybe this will be an excuse to same my duckets for something easier!!1



I was greatly amused (oh yes, I am easily amused and proud of it), as were my children to see dogs snuffling the discarded fleeces and odd bits. It must have smelled divine, actually, I thought it smelled pretty great myself. Me who DOES NOT like perfume, likes the animal smell of fleece. No, it doesn't smell like sheep poo and pee. Just like animal.



This is what I bought. This is Brother. He is multicolored and gorgeous. Can't wait to show more pix of what he looks like as I card and spin and ultimately knit.

Believe it or not, I am considered weird by most 21st century folk. I make bread, yogurt, soap, home school, and now spin. But there is something elemental about each of these activities that speak to my soul. They speak to who I am ultimately.

Today, as I was learning what 'skirting' was and being educated on how to scour a fleece, I realized that one or more were going home with me. I couldn't help myself. I had to have that wool in my home. I had this sense of connection with other women of the world past and present. We who bake bread and spin wool for our families. It was just basic, but so profound at the same time. Wool is renewable resource. In this day and age of disposable diapers, wipes, pre-made food, TV, wireless, cell phones, etc.... It is good to just remember that I am a human.

So, my hands are still soft from the lanolin that didn't come all the way out of my fleece. No matter. I love it. My hands smell earthy and nice.

A life of ordinary questions

I have several BURNING, rhetorical questions I would like to on editorialize today. They are questions that haunt many of us. They are questions that can drive us to the brink of insanity and beyond. You ask: "Wow. These must be the deepest questions of life?" And in a small way, Yes, they are.!!!!


Here is my 1st question (but not the most important): Why, oh, why do we need so many needles? Yes, yes I know. What we tell our husband is that needles are like 'drill bits'. You need the right one for the job. It has to fit or I might strip a bolt or something. And as if you don't already know, those suckers are expensive!!!!! No self respecting man makes do with the wrong tool for a job.

So, here are the pix of my needle...... whatevers. This is how I keep my needles. I have done blitzes where I get them all in order. However, in my swatching madness, I mess them in lightning fast speed in order to get on with it, already.

Oh, I know that there are these cool things out there. The Denise needles. Yes, those attract me. Actually , quite a lot. However, as I have inherited needles from 2 grandmothers and 1 mother..... I only need to fill in the gaps of what they didn't have. And by the time the Denise set was made known to me, I had already gotten caught up in all kinds of sizes and lengths of circulars. Not to mention the double points.

All I wanted to do today, was to start some socks off the energized singles that I had spun yesterday. I tried to find a suitable size double point. All I had was 0 and 1.5. Well, the 1.5 was way to tight. Thus, my frustration. Because, on a Sunday night, at 7pm, there are no new needles to be had. This is what I need and I think I will purchase from AC Moore manana: dp's sizes 2-4. That should set me up for a while.

This leads me to my second burning question: Why does my DH shut off power to the computer just as I am getting ready to upload photos? Yes, yes. You have heard me say many complimentary things about Andy. I mean every single one of them. He is the dearest, sweetest and handiest guy to have around. Until, he wants to do something with the electricity! Like tonight! Without telling me his intentions, or checking to see what I was doing. Boom. Out goes the lights and the computer. *gasp* I lost what I was doing, and it was brilliant I tell you, brilliant. Not anything like this rant I have currently going on.

So, my last burning question, and probably the most important in my small life: Why doesn't my 2yo son eat? Yes, yes I know..... 2yo's can exist on the cereal they ate at breakfast, milk occasionally, and air. It still frustrates me, even if he is my 3rd child and have been thru this before. When he nursed, he was the Michelin Tire man. I mean the rolls and the folds hat collected 'funk' if I wasn't careful enough to dry him really, really well. Now he has a trim waist and a barrel chest. Believe me, he is doing well eating air, but not his food (as exhibited by his plate to the left). Notice, I even have the blue box of mac and chee there. He didn't eat that!

So, dear friends. Glad you came to stop by and honor me with reading this mass of questions. This is my life. Small, but important. Live well friends. catie

Greater love has no man than this......

I LOVE what Pearl-McPhee says in her blog today: "I want my daughters, (and your daughters and sons - because my kids are going to need some well adjusted people to marry) to have realistic expectations of love. I want them to know that the Valentines Day love isn't sustainable. Not through taking out the garbage, skunks in the chimney or losing your job. You need love with teeth for that. "

You need love with teeth....... That really struck me today, and as I was waltzing down memory lane anyway (because I just now feel well enough to get back to ancient history photos), I was thinking about how REAL LOVE has been demonstrated to me over the years.

Today is the 10 year anniversary of Andy's and my engagement. I remember laying by the fire in my parents house. We had exchanged cards, presents, and kisses and it was time for him to go home. I knew he was going to ask me soon and I was afraid (you are probably like, what are you nuts??????). I was afraid because of the example my parents had set. Anyway, we were discussing this and he said, "I know you are afraid, but I want you to marry me anyway." He pulled out a red wrapped box with a silver bow and I was crying and shaking so much, he had to open it. I said, "Yes, I love you." That was the biggest leap of faith I have ever taken, and it paid off.

So, we signed up with our priest for pre-marital counseling. The only thing I remember that Quigg said, and it was like a prophecy, was this: "Marriage is about 2 people joining thier lives to go thru the shit (yes, the priest really said "shit") together and not alone." I HAD NO IDEA WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT!!!!!~ Now, after mental illness, codependency, pregnancy, child birth, death, marital separations, broken family relationships...... I got it now.

Now, after almost 10 years of marriage, I am finally, just now, learning what LOVE is.
Love is patient: when sex is the last thing you want to do after a full day of kids
Love is kind: when your husband vacuums the house, or you massage his feet (expecting nothing in return)
Love does not envy: when husband gets kudos at work, and you get none
Love does not boast: or rather, boasts in the works of others, not your own; delighting in another
Love is not proud: "Baby, I am sorry"
Love is not rude: not calling husband names when he is stupid.... again
Love is not easily angered: after a hard day, remembering that it is not "all about you"
Love keeps no record of wrongs: after you say "I forgive you", try not to bring it up... again
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth: rejoicing as husband begins to understand you..... a little
Love always protects: pray, pray, pray. After all, what else can we really do?
Love always trusts: trusting that God has a plan, and all 'THIS', is not in vain
Love always hopes: having faith that what you can't see in the natural world, will come to pass
Love always perseveres: after failing for the 1000th time, we get up and try to love again
In short, LOVE never fails.

By no means am I claiming to have figured it all out. I just know a couple of things. God has put me in this world with a plan and a purpose to fulfill. What that is, I don't really know. But maybe, it could be as simple as LOVE. Not the 60's version of love. But this version:

"Greater love has no one that this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Jn 15:13

And the other thing..... I like to knit.

While I was sleeping....

Well, basically I have been sleeping for the past 6 days. Having the flu and all. Yuck. I am so grateful that my husband has 80 hours/year of family care time. There is NO way I could have taken care of the kids. Even now, day 7, throat is still full of razor blades and can hardly eat, but, I am 30% better. I'll take that.

So, while I was sleeping, there were many changes taking place in my home. (All good, I assure you). The den which, historically, has been a dump room, is starting to go under transformation into something good. This is the main entrance to my home. It has been Andy's newspaper room, bill room, coat room and whatever else room. The tone it set for the house was CLUTTER, CLUTTER, CLUTTER. True confession time.... I haven't really cleaned it in almost 6 years. I get so intimidated by all the 'junk' that I would have to move, I just do a light dust (if I do that) and just close my eyes and move on.


All the bookshelves are empty. This room was built by my grandfather in 1950. It is a strange room, not square at all. Knotty pine paneling and green asbestos flooring. If you look real careful in the window, there is a HUGE fan. That is the air conditioning in this home. It really works quite well. It pulls the air out of the house wherever there is a window open.

This room was dark, dirty, and intimidating. Mostly the paneling because it is knotty pine, my extended family is going to c**p themselves when they see it. That is the only problem with living in the 'family home'. They all want it to stay the way it was. I have to live here now. It is going to be beautiful, I just know it.

I was awoken out of my fluish stupor by my dh, to take this picture. My dd #2, has been begging Andy to buy her a paint brush. So, he gets her one not realizing that she really meant to PAINT!! Not childish stuff, but big daddy stuff. So, Andy even let them get into the Kilz primer (nasty stuff, which I couldn't even smell, if that tells you how sick I have been). I dutifully took this picture and it dawned on me. He is probably the best father in the entire history of the world. He doesn't spoil them with stuff, but with time..... His time. And they love doing what he is doing. Of course, I am sick and start crying over this maudlin sentiment. Before you think he is 'all that', he just lets the kids follow him around and do whatever he is doing. Now...... That could include all kinds of things involving hammers, chainsaws, or heating elements. It does have a down side, but in faith, I choose to not think about it those things.
I had to laugh at something one of my children said. The girls mind you.... THey want to be strong like daddy so that they can paint and not let thier arms get tired.

Well.... Big Daddy woke up this AM at 2, shivering. My tall, oak has the flu. I had better get my rear in gear and go get his Tamiflu. I think that medication just helps with the symptoms and maybe help you not be so contagious. I am not convinced.

No knitting lately, though I am doing heavy research on yarns for Rogue. I am leaning towards the Knitpicks brand of Andes Wool. Stay well. catie

Please don't read if you are squeamish

For all my darling friends out there who hate needles (as in, the FLU shot). This is a list of my symptoms:

nausea (no, I don't have that kind of flu. It is really weird)
faintness
razor blades in throat
fever
laryngitus
headache
extreme fatigue
staring into space
ABSOLUTELY NO KNITTING
and things that are unmentionable to say in public

I am begging and pleading with you, go get the shot. As I told a very special knitter, my darling MD gave me a shot in the bohunkus behind anyway, and I was so grateful for any hope of medical intervention that would result in me feeling better, I could have cared less. I didn't even look at the needle, just kept my head buried under the blanket his nurse pulled over me.

I will say, I think that the drug Tamiflu (along with Advil and Tylenol) might be a miracle drug. I am at least on my feet today. I cannot speak, but I can at least wander around the house a little without fear of fainting. WHo knows, I might be mostly cured tomorrow!! Still can't knit though or drink tea *sigh*

GO GET YOUR FLU SHOT!!

I just want to encourage all of you out there in cyberspace, to GET YOUR FLU SHOT!! I was sooooooo lazy and didn't get one, thinking that, surely, I wouldn't get the real flu 2 years in a row. But, I have the flu.

I embarrassed myself in the MD's office this AM. Almost fainted.

It's not too late!!!! I feel like road kill. Go get your flu shot!!! You don't want to feel like me!!!!

Brain at 55% capacity

Crikey!! I am a bad mother.

So, Ethan has been hacking for a couple of days. He coughed all night last night. I was up 5x's with him. He is such a good natured thing that he wasn't crying, just coughing and wishing he was asleep. Anyway, he got up this am and was baking. 103 to be exact. Called my fav aunt, who is an MD, and she did a house call. My little puddin' is just a smidge away from pneumonia. Technically, he has a bad bronchitus. No cough suppressants. She wants him to cough as much as possible.

Well, he coughed so much he vomited on my old aubusson rug and a couple of times in the kitchen. I got that to stop with some dum dums. He ate no lunch, no surprise. I figured that if he just drank as much as possible, he'll catch up later. I gave him a piece of gum, he is quite able to handle that. (DH gave him his 1st piece at 18mo and I had a serious conniption, but, alas, the deed was done). The gum does help him not do vomitous hacking.

Nap time came. He is almost 3 and has dropped his nap, but I was insistent. Down he went. Slept a good 3 hours, Praise God!!!! I slept myself as I was under the weather a bit. Eldest DD slept too, but not my middle girl. No sirree. She is a force of nature.

I woke up and had my mid afternoon snack with 'force of nature'. Then (here it comes, the reason I am a bad mother), Ethan woke up and come downstairs, CHEWING GUM!!! I am so sick of having my brain at only 55% capacity!!!! That is soooooooooo unlike me, to forget that kind of detail. I just have to say..... That God really does watch over mother's of small children. Think of all the things that could have happened, but didn't. Thank you Lord. Thank you for caring for me and my family.

Ancient History

I have said many times that my mother and grandmother closed down housekeeping the same year, for different reasons. Anyway, I am now the 'proud' caretaker of the family photos. Multiple sides. Any of you scrapbooking afficianados out there know that I MUST get them into some kind of archival quality album soon. Now, those photos are in a non-air conditioned house with full humidity. Sacrililege.
And since I am on a SERIOUS organizing kick..... I spent a small fortune on yet another Creative Memories album. Chocolate brown to be exact. The question remains, "How many pictures of so and so do you REALLY need to tell the story of where the family came from to your children? "How much space and time of your life should it take over?" I don't have the answer for anyone else but me. It will take up maybe 2 albums worth and the rest are going to the city dump. *some of you are gasping in horror, I know. Sorry.* I just can't live with the guilt of not taking care of them anymore.


These are 2 pages, jam packed with my father's Boy Scout Jamboree photos of 1950 something. In all those pix, there is only 1 of my father. So, out the rest of them go. I don't know where the thing was and who was there, or even if my father like the Boy Scouts. He must have to some extent, as he became and Eagle Scout. It is cool to look at them briefly though. I just wish that the pictures had more 'content' in them.

I am looking forward to viewing these pictures with my children in years to come. My father died 5 weeks before Andy and I got married. He had been my best friend. It has taken me a decade to 'get over it' (if you ever do).

So, I am gonna 'rip and paste' the rest of the Ancient History and then get back to my Modern History albums. I love pictures. Maybe even more than yarn and knitting.

Top 10 things to do while waiting for blogger to upload your photos

Top 10 things do do while waiting for photos to upload do Blogger:

10. play solitaire
9. unload hot dishes from dishwasher
8. apply lip balm
7. pee (praying no smallfry touch any buttons while you are behind closed doors)
6. get dressed for the day (including face, teeth and clothes, but no shower)
5. diffuse a 'girl' fight
4. trim your nails
3. change laundry from washer to dryer
2. get antsy because it is taking so long and you have nothing else to do
1. try to knit, but can't, because it doesn't quite take that long

So (I dare you)..... What are YOUR top 10 things do while you are waiting for photos to upload to blogger?

just another manic saturday

Baby shower, check. Made b-day cake, check. Finished Celtic Cap and mattress stitched it up, check. unloaded bookshelves, check. vacuumed house, uh-oh. cleaned bathroom, uh-oh. cleaned oven after cake overflowed pans, uh-oh. wrapped presents, uh-oh. picked up toys kids have strewn all over house, getting there. folded laundry, partially. Yeesh. I have an awful, lot of work to do because WE HAVE A B-DAY TOMORROW!!!! You would think I would get off my keister and get cracking, eh?

Tomorrow is my eldest dd b-day. She is going to be 7. I can hardly believe it. I was just ruminating a little bit earlier what my dh and I were doing on this day before she was born. I had just been to the MD and she was 9 days overdue. He checked me and no dialation and a smidge of effacement. We made plans for an induction in 2 days. I was a bohemoth. My dh and I planned to go see a movie at the Grandin and then go out to dinner. I so wish I could remember the movie. We got to the theatre..... and it wasn't showing anymore. I was so bummed from the MD and the no movie that I succumbed to a pouting fit and we went home and ate hot dogs and baked beans for dinner. By 7 pm I was having cramps and by 11 I was in some SERIOUS pain.

After 18 hours of labor my dd was in distress and I had a c-section at 11ish am on Feb. 4, 2000. The light of my life was born. Amelia Joy Long. Man, I love that kid. She is full of light and joy. She was aptly named.

10mo after she was born, I was so in love, that I thought 1 kid was fantastic 2 would be easy. Ha Ha Ha. 2 kids broke me. They were only 19mo apart. 18mo after the 2nd light of my life was born, Madeline Grace, I thought nothing could be harder than 2!!! And you know what? It wasn't that bad. Robert Ethan is now almost 3 and I am a wiser woman and my dh had a vasectomy. Best maneuver that man ever created!!

So.... These pictures are of me, those of you who don't know me. I was born Mary Catherine, but my mother nicknamed me Catie. And I am wearing Arwen and my new Celtic Cap that I just finished this AM instead of cleaning my house. There. Gotta go clean the oven (can't find the Easy Off), Swiffer the house, take care of sick son, ice the cake, make dinner, wrap presents, etc, etc, etc. And it is 5:17pm. &*%&$#%#^**(&^(*&^*^%

Yarn Reclamation correlates with House Reclamation!

This was my 1st Noro yarn ever. I do believe it is Big Kureyon. I love the wintry look of this blanket. I love the Noro brand. This is 100% wool and has been a warm lap blanket. HOWEVER.... I have children. They grab the blanket and drag it all over the house. Use my Noro blanket as the top of forts. Get under the blanket and stretch it out with thier feet. One gets the blanket and the other demands 'share!' So, This blanket can be no longer. I love the yarn too much to let it go. Or, to just darn the hole. So, I am thinking of reclaiming the yarn and making a French Market bag from Knitty .




The only thing about this yarn, is that it seems right fragile. It can't stand up to the wear and tear of children. There are 10 skeins of Big Kureyon in this blanket and I am thinking of getting a jump on Christmas presents for next year. Who knows how many French Market bags I can get out of 10 skeins.

Speaking of children..... We have done school today, and let me tell you, doing school in a school room vs. the dining room table has made a huge difference. It is no neat and clutter free in there that the kids are quieter, on task, and (shocker) want to not only complete their lessons, but do MORE when I am done. Even my 2yo son, does 'school' with us in there. Zounds!!! I think we are on to something here. CLUTTER=CLUTTERED MIND whereas LACK OF CLUTTER = FOCUSED MIND. This a 1st for me.

The next room to tackle is the foyer. That is the real MONSTER here. It is DH office/coat throw area/paper area/ shoe area.... All that with asbestos tiling and faded, knotty pine panelins............ We have got our work cut out for us here. Well, gotta go pack books from those knotty pine, built in bookshelves. Have a great day!!!!! catie