My lifeforce in my favorite mug... Yes, it is a good Sunday morning!

As for the rest of the day? Paige reminded me of the shearing festival at Springside Farm. We went 2 years ago, and I think we'll take a drive down today, that is if I can pull the "boys" away from the Wii. The biggest boy bought himself the Wii zapper yesterday which included Link's Crossbow Training. They're having a lot of fun apparently.

Even with the older three kids back in school this week, I've been soooo busy.

With all this great weather, I've started spring cleaning in earnest. Opening windows to air out - Cleaning out drawers and closets - Consolidating items left out of season in the kid's cubby - And hopefully before the weekend I can start on the yearly "thinning of the toys". I swear, Cassidy's Barbies and the boys action figures have been hooking up after the lights go out, purely to reproduce and stage a coup.

Connor also had his special ed and psychological re-eval on Monday, which is was nearly a whole day event seeing as how I got terribly lost trying to find where we needed to go. Picture me driving around East Syracuse looking for a road that seemingly didn't exist (no sign!) and a gas station that had a phone book. All of this because I rushed out the door so quickly, leaving the address on the dining room table, and my cell phone on the kitchen counter.

The evaluations went well though. We'll wrap them up today with a home visit later this afternoon with the special education evaluator. But in the end, he scored lower than I think any of us expected him to. Its a very weird feeling as a mother, hearing his scores. In that, I wanted him to evaluate poorly enough that the CPSE would have fewer arguments at the next meeting to negotiate him out of attending an integrated classroom, as they did last year. But I also wanted my baby to score well because he is so smart! I know other moms with special needs kids will understand my personal conflict.. and know just how terribly difficult to verbalize.

The crochet project? It grows. No pictorial updates however, because it hasn't grown that much. I did get quite a lot done last night while watching There Will Be Blood with Richard. We didn't like it. Incredible acting.. Incredible. But the movie itself? Ehhhh. Mostly, I've gotten so little done because there was this thing called the Pennsylvania Democratic primary going on. Between watching cable news, reading my favorite political blogs, and spending some time making calls for Obama - crafting took a back seat.

And now we get to the part where you say, "I was told there'd be a giveaway?" after reading my rambling update which clearly doesn't match the title of my post..

I'm reading I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley, which I'm thoroughly enjoying. I love essays, particularly ones that make me laugh out loud. But additionally interesting, is that Sloane creates dioramas capturing the scenes in many of her essays.

As Cassidy is recently obsessed with creating dioramas, we love to look at Sloane's flickr album where you can see them take shape a piece at a time. Plastic spoons as subway seats and a hazelnut as a turd. Maybe I'm odd in that craft geek sort of way, but find it very interesting.

And now for the giveaway.. I have an extra copy of the book, sitting here on the desk, ready to ship out. Getting it is as easy as leaving a comment here. Nothing else. Just leave a comment by Wednesday April 30th, 2008. I'll use the handy number randomizer to pick a comment and send the book along for your reading enjoyment.

Good luck!

While Richard has the kids out for lunch and some errands, and I'm home alone, in a blissfully quiet house, I should really be doing something productive, right? A shower? A nap? Basking in the warm sun knitting something? Naaah.

But I have missed blogging this week. And taking pictures.. so I have a few to share now that I finally bought a new battery.

We are slightly addicted to this amazingly easy recipe in my Moosewood Simple Suppers book, roasted ratatouille. We've enjoyed it two weekends in a row with fresh crusty bread on the side. Its a really good thing the kids don't like it.. all the more for myself and Richard!

I learned to crochet. Or rather, I taught myself to crochet.

I fell, completely in love with this one image on flickr, and knew I needed to learn as soon as possible. I spent a day with scraps and a hook and learned. Then I spent another day figuring out the pattern. Now I've gone and bought a boatload of acrylic yarn to make a throw for my knitting chair.  While I'm not a big fan on the acrylic yarn.. I needed something inexpensive, and that can withstand the abuse of small children, not to mention able to be subjected to multiple washings because of said abuse by children.  I'm loving the colors and the rhythm, though I'm not very fast at this. I guess that comes with time?   And before anyone asks, no, I haven't given up knitting. I still prefer it. But I cannot fathom the amount of time it would take to knit a throw unless at a super bulky gauge.

Now, I'm going to go out and crochet in the sun for a bit while the house is still so calm.

I haven't even put the memory card back in the camera since I last posted (what was it, Monday?) So I'm breaking my loosely adhered to rule of "blogging pictureless". But hey.. I'm blogging today. That has to count for something, right?

Really, not much going on around here. The winter crud has moved through each of us, one at a time. If "slow and steady wins the race" then germs kicked our ass this winter. Seriously, it seems like forever since we've simultaneously all been "healthy". This past week's flu recipient was Connor. But this was his third really awful illness this past winter - The poor kid just can't catch a break.  He is on the mend however. So much so that he and I ventured out today to do some errands.

Our first stop was a yarn sale. Many of my local knittas knew about this.. it was the big news in yarny circles. Elegant Needles in Skaneateles cleared its stock over the past few months to move out of the building and make way for the building to be remodeled. The leftover skeins over 2,000 of them... reported to be wool, blends,.. even the word "Rowan" was let out of the bag, were donated to St Camillus to be sold there at one.dollar.per.ball.

Regretfully, Connor and I left late. So late, that by the time we pulled in to the parking lot, 30 minutes after the sale started, women walking out told me not to even bother.. nothing was left. I saw at least 10 people carrying out large boxes, and I mean LARGE boxes filled to brim with yarn.  Oh well.

I thought about heading up to Sheep Thrills or Mission Rose, but in the end, Connor and I just headed to the bank, the post office, the market.. then home.

Now before I leave you with my favorite youtube of the week, I need to show you these. Incredibly silly.. but I want them! And squee.. this too! I've long wanted one of these, but every one I've found was well over 100.00!

Now.. on to youtube..

How about a "Less Wordy Wednesday"?

"A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water."

~ Carl Reiner

Amen Carl. I hate snow. Having given up skiing more than 15 years ago, I have little use for it.

But, then there are some days after a good snow fall, when you just have to give Mother Nature props for a mornings worth of eye candy.

I bought a new chair yesterday. Nothing special. Just this club chair from Target. My glider rocker, the very expensive one that Richard bought for me, just prior to giving birth to Dylan, was going to just collapse any day. I can't knit or spin without my chair. So in other words, this seating situation was reaching critical mass.

Last night while I'm sitting in my comfy new, inexpensive chair, my dad calls and asks how our day was, what did we do, yada yada. So I tell him about the new chair..

Dad: laugh, you bought a chair?

Me: Yep!

Dad: Not a new couch?

Me: Nope

Dad: You didn't find it on the side of the road?

Me: Nope

Dad: You didn't get it on that internet thingie you do?

Me: Nope

Dad: Your telling me you paid cold hard cash.. for furniture?

Me: laughing.. Yep!

Dad: So when are you buying a new couch?

Ok, I admit.. we need a new couch. Everyone knows that. But everyone also knows, I'm pretty cheap. Not so much cheap as frugal and insistent on "using up" what we have. Besides that, have you any idea the kind of abuse children inflict on furniture? Before I lay down cold hard cash, as my dad said.. I make damn sure I can't repair, or "make pretty" what we already have. I mean, my glider is the perfect example of this.. my kids ruined this chair. What was once a lovely soft cream color, turned gray. The original "floating on air" graceful glide of that cushy soft chair, one day turned into a loud, clunking, metal scraping wood, uncomfortable place to park my arse.

To get back on my main topic of knitting, I actually did some knitting in my new chair last night. I'm in the homestretch of the second Shibui Breeze basic sock, having turned the heel and completed gusset stitches while watching movies with Richard. For the interested they were Clerks 2 (predictable, boring) and Jackass 2 (hilarious, but stupid in that "boys are weird" kind of way.)

Lastly, back to my cheapness.. I'd have never paid the price on the Target website. I got it for half that price, in store. If the kids destroy it.. I won't cry.

We had an estimate done for some basement/foundation work this morning. In one word: depressing. Let me tell you.. it has set the tone for my day. With the temperature outside, a balmy 48.. and expected to climb higher tomorrow, it only adds to this melancholy feeling. Because, by Friday we'll be back in the deep freeze that is January in upstate New York. In a nutshell, I've discovered over the years, that I'm a prime candidate to be one of those people who spend the summer up north, and the winter down south (that is, if I could find a nice liberal, nicely colored blue locality somewhere in the south!)

Additionally, I have another sinus infection brewing. Saturday was pretty horrid, fighting off the intense pain behind my eyes and forehead - all day long. By Sunday it lessened, but it still feels a bit concrete in there. Oh, and the resulting discomfort while eating, associated with a sinus infection. Bleh. But enough about that.. I've been working through it... and the theme is Gretel!

I just can't get enough of this pattern! You'll recall I did one some time ago for Cassidy in Pink Jaeger Shetland Aran. But I was wearing it earlier this week due to the extreme cold temperatures and everyone said it looked great on me. So stash diving I went, emerging with the leftover custom spun alpaca merino from last year's spinning guild holiday wool. I thought for sure I'd have enough to complete the fitted style of the Gretel hat, but no such luck. A frantic email to Christina was composed, and I was able to retrieve 2oz of this coveted and one of a kind yarn at our spinning guild meeting yesterday. Once I wind up that 2oz skein, I expect I'll be done in one evening.

But after the yarn shortage mishap, I couldn't just let go of Gretel. Another dive in the stash resulted in 2 balls of Karabella Aurora 8 in a "coal" looking color that I bought for a mere song at the Mission Rose yearly sale. I looooove this yarn. I don't like the retail price of it.. and I'll never knit an entire sweater with it because of that.. but I do love it. I cast this on around 3PM on Friday afternoon, and was finishing it up Saturday evening around 10PM (this is how I dealt with the sinus headache, all day long on Saturday.)

Now if that wasn't enough Gretel.. Cassidy reported to me that her pink Gretel is a smidge too big, and that my new black one was "perfect for her". So while we were out on Sunday morning doing some shopping, she picked out this multi blue Patons Merino. I'm not entirely confident that this multi blue will show the cables well, but its what she wanted.

I have so much more to take pictures of, but I'm a little picture lazy this week. There are the breeze Shibui socks.. the Bird In Hand mittens that I started before Christmas (50% done), a Koolhaus hat. But after my lengthy hiatus, perhaps I'll spread it all out this week, so as to not overload everyone. Especially my non knitting family and friends who stop in every day. I can literally sense the yawning over the internet after a knitting post.

Oh.. and Happy St. Distaff's Day. This means I need to remember to get my wheel out of the back of the van, and make some time, once the children are pajamafied and tucked in to do some spinning.

*this is not the best image. darn cloudy skies. damn lack of decent indoor lighting. and where the hell is the tripod?

Its a new year. The kids have returned to school. Connor's therapy schedule goes back to normal. Richard's office and teaching schedule return..

Its a relief, and also a little sad. Vacation is over.

But... the contract project was finished and shipped off (Its a horrid pattern. I wouldn't suggest it to anyone. I'll talk more about it.. if, when, it makes it to the site or catalog.) The previous one I returned is now up on the site, but I'm not telling which it is until I receive my catalog. This all means, I can go back to knitting what I want to knit.. when I want to.

More relief.

I've started another Gretel, a woven stitch scarf, which will likely be frogged - its not coming out the way I expected, the second basic sock is on the needles. I have plenty to keep my hands busy.

With that said, I haven't made resolutions, but I have set goals for myself. They are..

Get organized or be more organized. I'm sick of looking for obscure paperwork. Or for seasonal clothes for the kids. I need to organize them better in the attic so that they can be pulled out easily.

Make a routine and stick to it. Connor's sensory issues demand this. And some behind the scenes family happenings will also require this.

Be more creative. Not just knit already published patterns. Finally get down to brass tacks with the shawl design mulling in my noggin and get.it.done.

Spin more. And ultimately use more self spun yarn (which means BUY LESS commercially spun yarn.)

Family menus, where we all eat LESS meat.

Cook more. I love to cook.. I should be more adventurous in the kitchen.

Research buying a violin. I want to learn to play one. I've put this goal off for years.. its time to research buying one and actually learning!