A Love for Books

I love school.  Not as much as Will loves school, but I do love it.  I love the excitement that Will still shows every day about getting to go, the weekly emails from his teacher telling us what the kids are up to, and the fact that he is READING!  His teacher has even said that he's reading as well as the kids do at the end of kindergarten instead of in the middle.  We've started reading longer books at night, like the Wizard of Oz.  (which he absolutely loved.  He kept rolling onto his stomach and shutting his eyes, and I was worried that he was scared.  Those Flying Monkeys are terrifying.  But it turns out he was doing that so he could "imagine it better.")  While at the library last week, I found the "Tales of Wayside School" series that I read as a kid, and checked them out for something to read every night.   Perhaps he'd enjoy my favorite "Little House" series if we read it together....and Lord knows that I would love to read them again.

 It is SO COOL to read books with your kid that you read when you were a kid yourself.   

Movie Weekend

For the family that rarely sits thru a movie, it's been a Movie Weekend!

First, Brian and I saw Les Miserables on Friday night, finally!  It was the first time I had seen it, though we have tickets to see it on stage in April.  (Happy Anniversary to us!)  It was fantastic!  Well, except for the part of Russell Crowe playing the inspector.  Hubby and I are in agreement, Russell Crowe is one hell of an actor, but he's not a singer.  But Hugh Jackman?  MAN!  And Ann Hathaway too.  Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the inkeeper and the inkeeper's wife was spot on, too.

Then last night Tracy came over and I made chili for the three of us, and Tracy and I sat down and finally watched the last Harry Potter movie while Brian watched the Flyers on the other side of the house.  I know that the rest of the world has aleady seen the movies and read the books.  I enjoyed the movie, but the final death scene felt anticlimactic.  The special effects were fantastic, though.  Now I'm just sad because I have nothing Harry Potter left.  :(

If there wasn't another Flyers game on tonight, I'd watch another movie.  I need to get back to my "Five Classic Movies" list item.

False Starts

I feel like most of 2013 has been a big knitting failure.

That's not fair.  2013 is only 22 days old, so calling it a big knitting failure already seems harsh.

So I'll start again:  2013 has been a bit of a failure on the knitting front.

I frogged a sock yesterday.  I had made it past the heel but they were going to be horrible, baggy, fall-down kind of socks.  Despite knitting a gauge swatch I have discovered that I am more of a "sock pattern" kind of girl than a "sock recipe" kind of girl.  My humblest of apologies, Yarn Harlot.

I spent a week working on a surprise gift of a shawl for a friend.  It was serving two purposes:  making a pretty gift for someone special, and finishing up some bright pink sock yarn out of my yarn stash.  Twenty rows left in the project, I run out of yarn and have to buy more.  (Boooooooo   Hiss.)  I'm sure that there's a way to avoid that kind of thing but I haven't discovered it yet. 

I'm itching to start a sweater for my husband, but I want to finish my own spring cotton sweater first, and frog another sweater.  Yes, I'm frogging Ditto.  It's been almost a year and a half since I got frustrated and stuffed it in a bag.  I aim a mix of hopeful words and four-letter words at it from time to time, but it hasn't seen the light of day and I think frogging it will bring peace and relief.  Plus, I can soak and re-hank the yarn and have the yarn all over again for a different sweater!  I'm looking for the silver lining, people. 

Well, here's a bright spot:  the 2013 dates for the Webs Tent Sale have been announced!  And I've already started making my list of projects to shop for in May.  Priorities, right?

 I really need a knitting win though.  Something substantial.   

On God and Beading

  Yesterday I spent some time with the Big Kid, working on a craft project.  His brother had given him a beaded animal kit for Christmas, and he was very psyched to make a penguin keychain for his school backpack.  The end results weren't quite as pretty as the picture, but we get the general idea.

First we sorted beads by color and how many we needed in each color. 

Then we knocked them all over the floor and re-counted them. 

Then Mama screwed up and cut the satin cord instead of just folding it in half.  Yes, the box does say that the kit is for kids aged six and above.  But I guess at 36 you may qualify for remedial instructions.
We got it together and voila!  A penguin.  Will is currently obsessed with penguins.  Oh yeah, and Spider-Man.  If there was a beading kit to make a Spider-Man keychain, he'd be in his glory. 

Spending this kind of special one-on-one time with your kids is precious.  It also has a tendency to lead to intriguing conversation.  Such as yes, Mommy does know how to do other crafts besides knittting.  But here is the gem of the afternoon, which came out of nowhere:

"Mama.  You were wrong about God and the world.  My best friend Silas at school has it all figured out.  First there were bugs.  Then birds, then crocodiles.  And from crocodiles, humans."  Consider myself corrected.  Daddy and I agreed, and told him a little bit about evolution. But then Brian said "But where did the bugs come from?"  With great dramatic pause, Will said "I don't know.  I'll have to ask Silas about it at school tomorrow."  :)

31 Days to Organization...Possible?

I've been going thru my Ravelry queue the past few weeks, moving things forward to get through some things that have been sitting in there FOREVER.  Examining the stash, assigning it to projects, making lists of things I want to shop for at the Webs Tent Sale.  (It's never too early to start thinking, despite the sale being in May!) 

Apparently I'm not the only person that's thinking this way, as Webs is currently doing a "31 days to getting organized" series on their blog.  I've kind of turned a blind eye onto most of it, as my stash is as "organized" as I can get it in it's current state of three cart rollers/one big tote/bags on the closet floor/possibly a pile in the basement can get.  Oh....let's not forget the living room drawer.  Hmph.  Still not seeing an issue here. 

But then I saw a quick posting the other day about recycling yarn.  Recovering the yarn from something that you were working on and turning it from a work-in-progress to yarn again.  This got me thinking....I've got a few things that could use the old "finish or frog" game!  So now that I know how to do this magic trick of turning a project that's making you do the  "scream-and-pull-your-hair-out-but-don't-wanna-waste-the-yarn-you-spent-good-money-on" dance, I think I'm going to try it this weekend.  Hopefully all will go well and I'll have some pretty yarns that I can turn into something that doesn't frustrate me.  Wish me luck  :)

Three

And now a bright spot in winter:  Sean turns three today!

He woke up this morning kind of like the day he was born with a big healthy screech.  Only this time it wasn't about the cold, bright place, but not wanting to get out of bed.  So I guess it IS kind of the same thing.  Upon wishing him a happy birthday, my "baby" rolled over sleepily and informed me that it wasn't his birthday yet.

Now he's watching "Princess Week" with Bubby on Disney Jr. and enjoying the donuts I bought on the way home from knitting last night.  Tonight, in family Tradition, dinner is whatever he wants.  So we're having chicken, french fries and birthday cake per his request.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!  Mommy, Daddy and Bubby love you more and more every day!

And Into the Dark

January 1, 2013.

I've never been a big fan of the first day of the new year.  It's the end of the holiday season,  the Christmas decorations go from joyful to a mess to be reckoned with in the short span of 24 hours.  The drive home from work every day is dark and cold, with no merry lights on houses to cheer it a bit.  And as I've discovered the past couple of New Year's, a food hangover is worse than an alcohol hangover. (yet never seem to remember til it's too late.)  We had a nice NYE party here at the house last night, lots of old friends and much laughter.  Today I feel like a truck ran over me and gave me  wretched heartburn on the trip.  So it has been a slow day of reading, taking the tree down, playing Legos with the boys and knitting.  Tomorrow everyone goes back to work, school and daycare respectively and it is going to be a rude awakening.  It will be nice to get back into a routine, though.   

Lots of good things to look forward though.  Sean's third birthday is in nine days!  And seeing friends over the next couple of weekends, and other stuff...that helps get thru these New England winters.