Is this thing still on?

I have been knitting. And living. This android phone thing has upped my access to Ravelry and thus, the blog kind of died.

I have felt sad ignoring the blog. I don't think I'll be able to do any pictures. Maybe I can try slurping them from the web.

I have ignored many of my bloggy friends too. I am sorry.

I started swapping yarn on Ravelry. It is fun and I Have found a group of ladies there who are pretty cool. A friend of mine on the boards lost her husband last week. I told her to start a blog, which got me thinking about mine.

You can find me on Ravelry. Same username......

Later

Knitting Geekiness (yes, that is a word)

I am über-excited tonight.

I bought a new fabric shaver.

I plan on shaving pills off my woolies for hours on end tonight!

If you don't knit, you wont get it.

One Word Meme

I saw this (somewhere) and it looked like fun. A break from the regular, and a little about me.

Answer each with just one word

1. Yourself: mom
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): husband
3. Your hair: brown
4. Your kids: loved
5. Your house: messy
6. Your Favorite Item: yarn
7. Your dream last night: weird
8. Your Favorite drink: milk
9. Your Dream Car: suburbuan
10. The room you are in: living
11. Yarn: wool
12. Your socks: missing
13. What you want to be in 10 years? mama
14. Who you hung out with last night? kids
15. What You're Not? passive
16. Muffins: blueberry
17. One of Your Wish List Items: maid
18. Time: flies
19. The Last Thing You Did: knit
20. What You Are Wearing: sweatpants
21. Your Favorite Weather: fall
22. Your Favorite Color: blue
23. The Last Thing You Ate: pizza
24. Your Life: crazyfun
25. Your Mood: crabby
26. Your best friend: Cassie
27. What are you thinking about right now? knitting
28. Your car: van
29. What are you doing at the moment? typing
30. Your summer: pregnant
31. Outside your window: dark
32. What is on your TV? Dora
33. What is the weather like? cold
34. When is the last time you laughed? today

Consider yourself tagged!

Keep on trying.....

I have seriously sat down with the laptop about six times this week to write a post. Everytime, somebody needs me -loudly.

It's ok. I can handle that.

I figure God has a plan. And that plan is for me to sit down.

So many wonderful ideas have zipped through my brain for me to share with you. And - as I sit here in bed, with my blackberry, watching my little girl sleep in my lap her tummy all full of milk - I can't for the life of me remember a single one.

I have found some very interesting blogs as of late and will (hopefull) be updating the blogroll soon.

My friend, Papa K, would really like me to send him a picture for his fanroll. So I may have to do that this week.

Advent has not seen any activities around here. But I have been saying a Hail Mary and an Our Father with the kids each night. :)

I also decided (amoungst my thousands of other projects) that I'd like to knit 27 or so wee tiny socks to make an Advent Calandar. I'll start that in the new year.

I started a sweater for ME It's damn cold outside and everyone else around here has handknit wooly goodness, except me.

And - there is yarn on the way for me to knit 2 more sweaters for myslef. All 3 I have planned so far are cardigans, but the are the more versitile for me and do not require me to think to hard about accomodating my rather large breasts in the pattern. I will cross that obstacle sometime because my dream knitting project is a fitted, v-neck, long sleeved pullover for me. I just don't know exactly how to do that with my bust size yet.

I think I figured out what makes the baby puke. I hadn't made my absolute favorite meal in about 2 weeks - enchilada casserole. She also had not puked on me for a few weeks. Well, I made it and munched it for 2 days. She also puked on me for about 3 days. Bummer for me and my favorite meal.

Do any of my blogger friends do Facebook? (I do.)What do you think of it? Do you use it as a place to promote your blog? (I don't.) Do you use it to connect with family and close friends? (I do.) Or do you see it as more of a "networking site" and have tons of friends whom you don't actually know outside of FB? (I have lots of real friends who use FB as such.) I am just curious. I don't think there is a wrong or right way to do FB. I just wonder what everyone else does. I have a few "friends" on there whom I I only met either in blogland or as mutual friends on FB. But most of my "friends" are people I actually know and want to "connect" with more than I am able to in person. I only have about 60 or 70 "friends" and I regularly go through and edit out people I don't need or really want to be "friends" with - like the shy introvert nerdy friend I had in high school who I hung out with all the time that has since become a, ahem, $exual freak (as in talks about $ex all the time on FB!! Details too!!). I had to unfriend her after I viewed her wall and realized I was neither interested nor willing to read about her exploits on a daily basis. Ew. It was "nice" to connect or whatever, but not worth keeping her around since we obviously had nothing in common anymore. (Yuck.)

And now, I must sleep. Today will be a long day. Homeschool group followed by lunch and a walmart run, pick up the teenager from school, and then run to a friend's house to get some yarn (acryllic for doll clothes) and a movie we left there (Barbie: Fairytopia....can't live without it), and home to get a fire going as I am sure the house will be in the 50's by then.

Tomorrow is First Friday Mass in the "big city" followed by the insane-Friday-afternoon grocery run (because we'll be there anyway for Mass, save gas).

Saturday is Chop Down A Christmas Tree Day, Get Out The Ornaments And Lights Day, and Go A Little Crazy Day.

Sunday - the second Sunday of Advent. Advent music at church is the *best* I love "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel". The. Best.

Have a great day my friends. :)

Yes, I can spell....

I even know poper grammer. And I homeschool my kis. Scary.

In that last post, made from my phone at 6am, there is a misspelling that is *bugging* me. Yeah, it's bugging me ebough that I'm posting about it. I'd fix it if I could, but I can't - not without getting online and taking lots of time which I don't have.

So instead I am going to passify my OCD brain and use this post to alert you to it and explain why. M'kay? (Yes, I am a little crazy.)

My phone "helps" with grammar/spelling/punctuation to making typing easier and faster. For instance, if you press the space bar twice (instead of once) it will add a period to the end of the last thing you typed. Cool, right? Well, it also adds apostrophes to words. If you type "h" "e" "s" it automatically changes it to "he's". Every. Single. Time.

So, when I typed "lets" it assumed I meant "let's". I didn't do that on purpose, and it changes the meaning of my sentence which I don't like.

"Milk lets down again"

vs

"Milk *Let Us* down again"

The milk NEVER lets us down! Ever!!

Ok. I feel better now.

Dropping The Ball

Crap. I believe I said "every day or every other day.". Well, it's been 4 days. :P

I am realizing I haven't posted because the week started out kinda crappy. Since I didn't post for the week, how about a recap, crap and all?

Monday - My husband's ex-wife somehow managed to convince a judge to award her child support after 8 years of 50/50 placement. She under-reported her income (yes, we (our lawyer) pointed this out to the court, yes we asked that documentation be shown, no they didn't care) and the court "evened-out" the households based on this. Never mind *my* four children who need their father's income. Or the fact that her kids wear designer clothes and we shop at goodwill/st vincent's.

I am trying to keep Faith. Faith that God will not let my family go hungry, that He will not make us choose between electricity and food or gas in the car. Maybe that is the humble lesson for me to take in all this. Maybe He just wants me to let go and Believe.

Tuesday - Haircut. This always happens after the baby comes. I love my hair long, hate it short. But it is now short. I just don't have time for it to be long. It's ok. I feel like I already have a good hold on "old lady hair". You know, short and curly. That's me. I feel like an old lady with this haircut. But it's easy.

We followed the haircut with a super-huge grocery restock in the Big City.

We finished the evening at the polls. Can I just say I am very pleased at how things turned out here. I had posted on my FB page that day the following:

"Fwd: Make sure to forward to all your voting friends. The new law is: Republicans are to vote on Tuesday. Democrats vote on Wednesday."

In our midwestern state, the democrats got the message!

Wednesday - Stayed home all day to recharge from the busy and long previous day. Baby doesn't like to be out that much and she just needed to be in familiar surroundings and be far from the carseat.

I got into a "debate" with some "pro-choicer" on another friend's FB page. My friend (pro-life) had started with a pro-life status/debate/situation. I commented. I said I call pro-choice what it really is: pro-death. Another midwife (really) called me an idiot. She says pro-choice is not pro-death, blah, blah, blah. 69 comments ensued. I had to leave it alone at about the 17 mark to make dinner/do bedtime. A self-defined "pro-life christian" pulled the rape/incest card and would not drop that there HAD to be this exception. It was pretty interesting to read. I wonder how an abortion would un-rape someone? Anyway - I could go on and on about it here.....but instead you'll probably just get some posts regarding abortion in the next few weeks.

Thursday - Local homeschool group. I think I've been meaning to blog about how awesome this is for a while. It just keeps slipping my mind. A new family moved to the area and sought out other homeschoolers. She united those of us that were already here and we've been meeting every week at the local park on Thursday mornings for about 10 weeks. This week we switched to the gym at a local private Lutheran school (one of the families are parishoners there and the pastor homeschooled his kids so they let us use it FOR FREE!!) It's lovely and warm.

It is so nice to fimally know some families. I have made some local friends and I know my 10 year old is loving having some "guys" to play with.

After that we went to go get the teenager from building school and stopped at the chiropractor. It's been a long time since my last adjustment and it was really nice.

On the way home we stopped by the Amish woodshop and picked up a very, very late birthday present for my toddlers. They are constantly fighting over the only chair that we have with our wooden table. For their birthdays (in August) my aunt sent me the money to purchase another. I finally made it there on Thursday. The kids are very excited to each have their own chair.

Oh! And I got my last installment of the Sunshine Yarns Harry Potter Yarn Club in the mail!! "Unforgivable Curse" was the colorway and it is beautiful. I did not like the last two, so I was very happy to like this one. I am trying to trade them on Ravelry for skiens of the latest one. Wish me luck!

Friday (today) - First Friday Mass with our Catholic homeschool group. Boy did I wa to skip this today!! I finally said the following prayer to God after a shitty morning (and a crappy night of sleep last night):

God....I am getting a cold, the kids are fighting, and First Friday Mass is an hour and a half drive away with a newborn that hates cars and no husband to drive me. Today would be a great day to skip Mass. I implore You: I will drive us to Mass. You take care of the rest. Thank You.

And He did!! My baby slept peacefully all the way to town, even with a stop at the gas station. Her Godmother held her all through Mass and she didn't cry. I was able to *kneel* during the Consecration (it's been ages since I could - always holding someone or too pregnant) and I got to put my older daughter in the sling when we stood which she loved. My 2 year old boy clung to his "godsister" all through Mass and managed to not get into too many things. :) I am going to have to ask for God's direct help more often.

How was your week?

Should This Bother Us?

I have no intention of getting rid of my microwave *any* time soon. It is a necessity item in our house with a new baby.

That said.....

I do wonder about said "appliance". Obviously, food can be heated up on the stove, in the oven, or even in a crockpot.

Let's say I were to heat up something in the oven. I take it out. I turn the oven off. If I put my hand in the oven right away I would feel heat, possibly burn myself if I touched any part of it.

If I heat something up in the microwave, the food comes out hot but the space in the microwave is cold.

That makes me wonder exactly what the heck is going on in there???!

I know, I know....it has to do with some kind of waves-type-thing radiating or causing molecules to move around and heat up or whatever (I know it has to be a fat, water, or protien molecule to react, that's why paper doesn't "burn" or anything in there).

But when you think too hard about it - it's really, really weird. W-E-I-R-D.

Not much to say....

Not too much going on in my household right now, and not much to blog about.

I've got lots of ideas swimming around in my head, especially regarding Truth and Church teaching.

But I just don't have any energy to blog about it right now.

I think I may dye some diapers today.

I got 2 new knitting books in the mail this week (turn-around from the proceeds of selling some yarn on Ravelry): Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmermann and Learn-to-Knit Afghan Book by Barbara Walker.

I am suddenly realizing I only have 7 weeks left to get stuff ready for this baby. Not that there is a ton of "stuff" I need....just stuff to do. I need to lanolize all the wool, wash all the diapers, and figure out where I am going to set it up so that my 2 year old hurricane doesn't dispense them in an unrecognizable pile on the floor every 15 minutes.

I have some wool and some slings I'd like to sell, but it is hard for me to upload pictures to diaperswappers.com.......so I may just use a blog post on here to do that and then link to it at diaperswappers. Don't be alarmed if you see a post that just has pictures of things for sale and prices.

I am still reading all of your blogs, and trying to comment when my phone will let me. It gets obnoxious sometimes, and I just break down and come to the laptop to make comments.

My son is very happily mowing the lawn right now. It's nice when the kids start to get older and can (and want to, sometimes) help out. Woo hoo.

I have watched about 4 different Barbie movies this morning. Yikes. At least Barbie always makes the "right" decision.

Brain spill - two days in a row. Wow.

Random Sunday (Except that it's really Monday)

~~First up, some cute pictures I can't help but share.

Love this one too. Oops! That is not exactly the one I wanted to load. Oh, well. Still nice one of the girl. He was brushing her hair. Cute.

~~I did it again. I started another project. See? Look down.

I am making longies out of that yarn. I know. I have no will power.

I did, however, finish the hat in just one day. And, I even worked a bunch of rows on the shawl. Really.

~~I hate knitting lace. I will finish it. But not start another one, probably ever.

~~I am still not sleeping well. I have been taking the iron supplement. My midwife says I probably won't notice a difference for a few weeks. I also finally found a chiropractor who takes our insurance (yes!) and is wonderful, and not too far away (only 1/2 hour). I can't wait to go see him again this week.

~~What ever happened to midwifery?? Am I still in "school"? Do I still study? Attend births?

Yes, I am still in school, technically. I go to a school that allows you to work at your own pace, therefore allowing "breaks". This pregnancy has been a big break, and not one I was expecting. All of my classroom/academic stuff is done already. I simply have clinicals to finish. I was about 50% done with those when I became pregnant (this time around....I also started out school when I was pregnant last time).

The midwife I work with is super understanding about me not being able to handle anything more than Just This Pregnancy. It helps that she is also my midwife. I plan to start seeing patients with her again once the baby is somewhere between 3-6 months old. We see patients 1-2 days a week for prenatals and I can bring my baby with. I can start getting the rest of my birth assists and primaries once my daughter is maybe 6-9 months old.....or older. We'll see what kind of baby I have. They are all different, and I am really not into leaving my baby. It depends on how far along labors are, if it's a first, second, or more baby for a mama, etc. Lots of factors go into me being able to go to a birth.

I will say I truly miss the work. I have been reading my textbooks late at night when I can't sleep. Dorky, I know. But I LOVE this stuff. I also started reading my favorite midwifery book of all time the other night, "Baby Catcher" by Peggy Vincent. I got this book before I became pregnant with my second child. It made me seek out a midwife for my next pregnancy/birth and cemented my desire to become a midwife. Reading it now really makes me miss attending births.....but I just can't. And I know there will be plenty of time for that later.

~~My husband's birthday was yesterday (ok, 2 days ago, as I write this Sunday night, but really it's 1 am Monday morning). We took the kids out to dinner at a super fancy smancy restaurant where the dinners are $35/plate. Chris and I have been there a few times in the past (read once or twice a year for the last few years). There is always sooooo much food that he and I ordered meals and just ordered salads for the kids (and 1 plate of french fries for the babies to share). We both split our meals with the kids and we still brought home leftovers. Our bill wasn't too high and the kids loved having such fancy food served to them. They thought the unending loaves of fresh baked bread that we had to cut ourselves was the best part.

~~I have a confession of sorts to make. Really, I just want to say something that isn't really bad, just bothering me.

I missed Mass about 6 weeks ago for no good reason at all. (I was tired and didn't feel like getting up, but I also didn't bother to go to a later Mass that day either.) I haven't missed any Masses except that one. But I also haven't managed to make it to Confession since I missed the Mass. This, of course, means I haven't received the Eucharist since then either. It really sucks to sit at Mass and NOT be able to go up and receive our Lord. Sucks big time. Especially when my husband keeps asking me why I am not going up. I keep telling him. He just thinks I am being stubborn. But I know that it is a grave sin to miss Mass and that I am not to receive Holy Communion until I go to Confession.

The problem is not that I don't want to go to Confession. It's that Confession is only on Saturdays. I never think about going until Sunday morning. I wish we lived in a time when there were enough priests that there was Confession before (and sometimes during) every Mass. That would be really awesome. I would probably go every single time I went to Mass, even if it was a weekday Mass.

What I probably need to do is simply get there early on Sunday and ask our priest if he would have time for a confession after Mass. Usually they are pretty accommodating when someone wants a confessor.

That's all I have for now. I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Random Question

As I sat in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, eating "Double Stuf" Oreos, I couldn't help but thinking:

Why do they even make the regular Oreos?? Does anyone buy them when there are double stuffed ones available? I mean, what's the point?

And now for something completely different......

Don't you just love it when bloggers go from "super-serious" posts to something totally frivolous??

Well, that's what I am doing.

I have a little confession to make.

I have some embarrassing, teenager-ish things I am doing (and have been doing) this week.

*sigh* Here it goes:

1. I bought both Taylor Swift CD's. And I like them.

Don't laugh.

2. I re-read the 3rd and 4th books (in 2 days no less) of the Twilight Saga, in preparation for the 3rd movie release (Eclipse) next week.

Yes, I said re-read. Like, I have read them before and they are so good I read them again. And I own them. Really.

Stop laughing.

3. I have already made plans as to exactly which day in the week next week I can get away from my children to go and see said movie.

It comes out on Wednesday. I have to wait until Saturday.

The fact that I am actually seeing the movie in theatres is a really big deal because I NEVER see movies in the theatre. Too expensive. Too many people. And I have too many little kids to get away.

However, I am making it happen here.

Wow. I feel much better putting that out there publicly. I promise to talk more about why I like Twilight so much later. 'Nother post. 'Nother day.

I have been so obsessed reading those books again I actually put down the knitting.

Seriously. What's wrong with me? But that's all done now. Back to the crack.

Yes, I am still here :)

I had all but given up on poor blog.

I have so many ideas, and so many things I want to tell you about, and write about, that I just couldn't wrap my mind around them all.

Then I got a lovely comment on my last post from Katherine. It was so nice, I decided I just needed to press on. Not only do I love blog, but the writing is sort of therapeutic especially when things get crazy.

So, without further waiting, I must share some simple updates with you. I will make a real effort for regular blogging from now on.

~~~Showers~~~

I am really not getting as many showers as I'd like. In fact, usually I cannot remember the last time I've had one even if I think real hard.

Today I finally took one. Is it bad that I was so exhausted from standing up in the hot water trying to shave my legs that I almost passed out?? It doesn't help that I have forgone any kind of shaving for so long that I had to go over one leg two times and the other three. Don't even get me started on the underarm hair. I should have just taken a chisel in with me to get it off.

Oh, and it's not that I like the unshaven look or that I'm a hippy. I just have small children, and I homeschool, and I'm busy. Events like shaving just seem to fall to the wayside. Um, showers too. If I get in the shower at all I am generally not concerned with the state of my body hair. I know that sounds kind of yucky, but that's the way things are.

~~~Knitting~~~

A whole lot of knitting is going on here. I don't have actual pictures to post on blog, because it takes forever to load them. But I have been loading my projects in Ravelry, with pictures. And guess what? They have a new feature that allows me to post a link to invite you to look at my project page whether you have a Ravelry account or not. :) I am sorry not to give you any eye candy here, but if you click on the links below you can see pictures and notes on the wonderful things I have been knitting. It's lovely. It also means I only have to wait one time to load pictures and then can share them with the ravelry community and you.

Sweater for Flower
New Baby Sweater
New Baby Hat
Cute Turtle Toy
Baby Diaper Soaker
Flower's Fingerless Gloves
Nighttime Diaper Soaker

As for the Sweater that will never die.....it's getting frogged back partly and reknit. You can read about details here and see some new pictures. I should have listened to my instincts on that one.

If you really want to see all my projects, and anything else interesting on ravelry, just join. It's free and really worth it.

I also have acquired quite a bit more yarn. It's a sickness I tell you. My project list has grown also since I am trying to only get yarn for projects I actually intend to make. Right now, the list looks like this:

Finish Wonderful Wallaby for Flower (almost done)
Frog and fix Husband Sweater
Wonderful Wallaby for Lovely
Longies for Baby in Malabrigo "Oceanos"
Longies for Baby in Malabrigo "Sealing Wax"
Sweater for Baby in Madelintosh Merino "Nutmeg" and "Scarlet"
Finish Nighttime Soaker
More size small soakers for Baby in random assorted wool
Baby hats
Wonderful Wallaby for Wobbers in Wool-Ease "Pines Print"
February Lady Sweater for me in Malabrigo "Verde Esperanza"
Rivendel Socks in some local Wool/Cashmere/Nylon blend in "Plum"
Baby blanket (maybe)
Something pretty out of Malabrigo Silky Merino
Finish Mitts Pattern and publish
Reknit that second mitt
Traveling Woman Shawl out of Mountain Colors Twizzle (which is what the mitts are made out of)

Ya know, just a small list. Should be able to get that all done before the baby comes in September. Right? Uh-huh. Suuuuuuure.

~~~Baby Weight~~~

I am 20 weeks along. And ya know what? I have yet to gain a single pound with this pregnancy!! I am very excited about this and not for reasons of vanity. I know I will have a much easier time with this pregnancy if I do not pack on the pounds. I will be more comfortable, healthier, and have an easier time feeling normal again after delivery.

I have in fact lost weight during this pregnancy. Lost weight. And it's staying off. I have done nothing to accomplish this. I am not on purpose doing anything different. I am not exercising. Not trying to eat less. Not eating more healthy than I have been. I will say I do not feel as ravenously hungry this time around. I am not making a cake every other day, like I did when I was pregnant with Lovey, and consuming the whole thing myself. And I am knitting a lot. That must be keeping me too busy to gorge. I feel like it's great because I am just eating a normal portion of food when I sit down, instead of enough to feed 2-3 adults. (Seriously, I have been eating like that for the last couple of years, enough to feed 2-3 adults per sitting....it's kind of gross when I think about it.)

So, because I am not shy about my numbers.....I am going to share some with you. I wouldn't want you to think that I am some thin or skinny mama happy to not be gaining weight. I've got some to lose.

Pregnancy #1: 18 years old, 125 lb. I lost about 10 lb in the first few months, then went on to gain it back plus 65 lbs. (One month, in just 4 weeks, I gained 35 lbs. Seriously.) Delivered a healthy 8 lb 4 oz boy and I weighed 190 lbs at delivery.

In the next 2 years, I lost most of the pregnancy weight and was a reasonably healthy 140-150 lb. woman. Then I met my husband. We were very happy and both put on about 20 lbs over the next 2-3 years. Uh-huh.

Pregnancy #2: 25 years old, 170 lb. I also lost about 10-15 pounds at the beginning of this pregnancy. I delivered at 198 lbs, a 7 lb. 10 oz. baby girl.

Pregnancy #3: 27 years old, 190 lb. I lost 15 pounds at the beginning of this pregnancy. I delivered at 214 lbs, a 7 lb 4 oz baby boy.

I had been hovering around 220 lbs. for the last year.

Pregnancy #4: 29 years old, 216 lbs. I weighed myself as soon as I got the positive pregnancy test at 12 days post-conception. I dropped down to 205 lbs by 10 weeks and have remained there since.

I am very excited to not be packing on pounds and I hope I can keep it up. By this point in my other 3 pregnancies, I had already recovered from the lost weight and then some. So this is new to me and wonderful. At least I think it's wonderful. ;)

~~~~~~~

That's all I have today. I hope you enjoy those links. Oh! I almost forgot! Those teeth finally came in and Lovey is back in all his wonderfulness. The Brute seems to have disappeared for now.

WTF? Why am I awake?

I realize that some of you are up at this hour every day. But not me. Seriously. It's 5 am. Not cool. (Ok, it's 6. But I've been laying here since about 4:30 or so thinking I'll just fall back asleep.)

My best guesses as to why I am not in Sandman-Runneth-Over-Me mode:

•The 4 (four!!) glasses of Boston Iced Tea (that's cranberry juice mixed with iced tea) that I consumed at lunch with my mom yesterday.

•The burning desire to knit every piece of yarn in my home into something wearable for my family, coupled with my brain's complusive ability to run through the endless lists of possibilities even while I dream or try to reach dreamyworld. (Yep, just made up a word.)

•The return of psycho-chick mean girl in the form of a lovely caring priest trying to help. (Don't worry, I am not actually going to let psyco-chick draw me into her talons (totally misspelled) again.) (Double parenthesis there. Woot.) Much obsessive brain power has been sucked up on this issue, again.

•My absolute need to have tomorrow morning (um, yeah, that would be today) run smoothly.

•My overwhelming desire to wake my husband up for some *air quotes here* alone time. Thatks not gonna happen.

•The never before made, but had to be made, Puerto Rican Rice recipe I whipped up in the hour before bed last night. I grew up eating this stuff and have always wanted to make it. Unfortunately, everyone who could teach me is dead. But, as fate would have it, I ran across a Puerto Rican recipe website on a KNITTING blog last week (really). There are like 5 different versions of this recipe and I am going to have to keep experimenting until I get it right. Last night's batch was missing *something*, salt for sure, but something else too. It sure smelled awesome and immediately took me back to my Aunt Jenny's kitchen where I would beg and beg for just one more helping of rice while ignoring everything else on my plate. (Hmmmmm, craving startches only. Apparently that has been a life-long habit.) Oh, and I take back the "everyone is dead" comment. My dad is gone, but if I searched real hard I coyld maybe find Aunt Jenny. Maybe. It's been years...

So, do I just get up? Do I try to sleep (again)? Crap. My alarm will go off in an hour. Is it worth it to get back to. sleep only to have the alarm sounding a code red right as I get to REM sleep? I don't know. But at least all the craps outta my brain now. (Except for the knitting, of course.) (And the recipe.) (And the psyco-chick.) (Who am I kidding.) ;)

Simplify

Throw it all out.

She Copped-Out

She couldn't pick one of us to win the "You Tickle Me" Award, so we all get it. Here's mine:



Apparently, I tickle her with my choice of funny things from this post.

Thanks Jenni.

Don't Quote Me

Funny bit of words I actually muttered to a dear friend last night.....

"We didn't even know him the first time we met him."

Really? Hmmmm.

I'm getting old.

~H

Crabby

It's not that I don't have anything to say. It's just that I'm rather crabby. I'm busy and stressed and I don't feel the need to unload it all unto you.

I've been a bad blogger, but I'm hoping to change sometime soon.

In my world:

This bar burning down thing is bothering me more than I thought it would. Weird.

I am sick of being fat. I don't mind NOT being the skinny teenager I was when I started having babies. But I do mind being so wide I fit nicely into my husband's size 2XL t-shirts. Honestly.

I'm glad I gave up cake for Lent. It makes it that much easier not to eat it now.

I really need to sell my house. We found a house to buy 5 minutes from where my husband works.

Being a midwife is the most rewarding thing I could ever do....next to being a mother.

I actually enjoy watching Blue's Clues. Really.

Knitting is like heroin. I'm addicted. I love it!!

I have finally realized that I have always had a walking partner, no matter what time of day or night it is. My doggie. He's my new bud.

I am reading a book called "Hand of God" by Bernard Nathanson, M.D. It's an autobiography where he chronicles his life. He ran the largest abortion clinic in the country in the 60's & 70's. He eventually changed his mind about abortion, but not before he founded NARAL and helped make abortion legal. It tells his pro-life conversion and conversion to the Roman Catholic Faith. I'm only about 30 pages in. IT IS SO GOOD. Fascinating really.

My Lovey is 8 months old. He is so big, so strong, so precious. I feel so blessed.

Flower is almost 3 and finally doing the typical age 2 stuff: throwing fits, saying "Mine!", becoming super cuddly, wanting to wear mismatching clothes, and following me around wanting to be a "little mommy". Love, love, love this age.

Wobbers needs to stop growing. I don't ever remember giving him permission to grow up. He never asked if he could enter adolescence. What right does he have to become a man? Ah, they really aren't ours. They're His. And the grow and move on and up. I'm glad I get to keep this one for another decade.

Hmmm, I guess I did have some things to say after all. Just needed to warm up to the keyboard.

God Bless all of you in this wonderful Easter season!!

~H