Ugh. I think I'm getting arthritis in my hands.

Random things bumping around my brain this morning...

Kelly Ripa is now so thin her breasts have disappeared.

There are no groceries left in my house. Also, no time to do any grocery shopping.

There is a two hour special tonight to watch an idiot magician hang upside down. Ooohhh! Wonder how it will end? I'm guessing by standing back up. Two hours? Really?

Realized I had forgot to put Lipstick Jungle on season pass and then tried to remember the name of the other similar show I tivo-ed last year. Still have no idea what it's called and have decided it must have been cancelled as I haven't heard anything about it. Also must figure out the correct past tense verb form of Tivo. Shut up, it's totally a word.

Finally was able to watch Heroes last night. Wow. Loved it, so glad it's back on. Also glad they ran an hour show to catch us back up as I'd forgotten the smaller subplot issues.

I keep dangling the promise of a day at home doing whatever I want (baking, knitting, etc.) in front of myself if I just get my urgent to-do list done. Then I cruelly add more items to the list. I'm mean to myself.

I would mention how well the second Hibiscus for Hope sock is going but that would only invite trouble and some tragic knitting mistake so I won't mention that at all.

Love going to Twist on Sundays! Yay!

Had a very nice birthday last week. Lunch with girlfriends and then a date night with hubby. Perfect.

Google phone is coming!!!!!!! I ordered mine last night and can't wait to get it in. My business and family calendars are all on Google and it's always a battle to find a phone that I can sync all the information into. Am hoping this phone lives up to the hype and can't wait to get it.

As an aside, I can't recommend Google calendar enough. Makes keeping track of appointments and life in general very easy. We have a calendar for the business and then other calendars for the family, etc. You can share the calendars with others, e-mail events to people. All very cool.

Now back to the cruel to-do list...

"Really?"

Had to laugh when I saw this. It looks more like they're mocking anyone who doesn't have a cell phone rather than any sincere apology for lack of phone service. I immedately pictured someone standing there telling me that the phone didn't work and then making air-quotes with their hand while they said "Sorry."

You know it's really rained a lot when the umbrella display at Wal-Mart has been pushed back for a new display of life jackets and inflatable boats. We came across this Friday late afternoon when the area was deluged with rain. Thankfully our home and businesses didn't suffer any flooding or water damage.

Fall Knitty is up!

Saturday morning we sat behind our friend at his mother's funeral. Saturday afternoon/evening I had a wedding shoot. It was a stressful, draining day of mourning, working and celebrating. Such contrasts. Both events were out of town so in addition to the emotional aspect of the day there was also the practical scheduling of traveling to and from events, child care, etc. Throw all of that together and throw in a birthday party one of the children had to attend and it was a hectic day to say the least.

I took some knitting with me for the car ride to/from the funeral but spent the time visiting with my husband instead. It was so nice to have a conversation without a child interupting. Of course there is also that minor issue of having made a mistake a few rows back in the sock to deal with but we won't mention that.

This is the first time anyone our age has had a parent pass away. Even today as I was putting dishes away I teared up thinking how incredibly heart breaking it must be to lose your mom, someone who loves you unconditionally like no one else can. The person who has always put herself second and cared for you physically, emotionally and spiritually. Takes the breath right out of me and makes me cry even now. This is definitely a stage of adulthood I'd rather leave out of reach.

Anyway, Sunday we did a bit of church/house hunting. We attended a new church to try out. So far we are very pleased with it and will keep attending and feeling things out to see if it's the one for us. House hunting wasn't as promising but we will keep trudging on. Eventually we're bound to find one that will work for us. Right?

Better get back to work, I'm still trying to catch back up from when we went on vacation. ::sigh::

The cornbread experiment was remarkably bland. And dry. But, the kids loved it and we did have cornbread with the meal so I guess it was o.k. I'll keep looking for a better cornbread recipe and after I find a regular one I like I might try the ranch experiment again.

We've had a bit of a crazy week around here. One of my husband's best-friend's mother died last weekend so we've been spending time with the family at various gatherings. We've also had the obligatory school and work events so it's made for a lot of running around and serious calendar planning/scrutinizing to orchestrate who is where when with which kids.

In knitting news the end is in sight on my first Hibiscus for Hope sock but I made a mistake a couple rows back in the lace work and am having to rip back to find/fix it. There are literally just a handful of rows until the end so it's highly irritating. The mistake was discovered over Labor Day weekend but I was too tired to deal with it so I threw it back in the knitting basket and cast on a dishcloth. Or two. I've decided that kitchen cotton like the yarn equivalent of a candy bar display at checkout. They cheap, quick and easy. Every time I walk past the display I seem to throw one or two in the cart. I now have a little pile of all the remnants that I'm going to have to whip into something one of these days.

Well I better get back to work. The kids are all in school and I have a precious few hours to try to get the house back to some semblance of clean. Item one on agenda is to dig through the paperwork on my desk and see if there is still a wood surface somewhere below...

Brilliant new recipe or tragic substitution mistake? It's in the oven baking so time will tell. I've had Ham & Beans simmering in the crockpot all day and had planned on having cornbread on the side with it. Sadly I discovered we were out of milk so I made an emergency substitution of ranch dressing and a little thinned mayo. Definitely not heart healthy but we'll see how it turns out...

"What have you been eating?"



"Nothing."

The weekend stretches out before me with nothing but possibilities. For the first time all summer I have a weekend that is completely mine and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it. My problem right now is narrowing down my list of possibilities into something a little more realistic.

I desperately need to paint my bedroom and a long weekend is a perfect time for this but I'm leaning towards putting this on the back burner as it it's a little more work than I'd like to do. I'm thinking more along the lines of relaxing and fun, not tired and messy. Not to mention I need to pick out paint colors which stresses me out just to think about.



Our pool will be closed for the season after Monday so I'm sure we'll go up there for the kids to fit in one (or two or three) last swims. Then we'll be helping with all the details that go along with closing for the season such as putting things in storage, taking things down, cleaning etc.

We've talked of going to the farmer's market and maybe even hitting the drive-in too. I'm sure there will be a barbecue thrown in somewhere as well.

Knitting will definitely be on the agenda as the Hibiscus for Hope socks are coming along rather nicely. The end is in sight for the first sock and then I'll be back to square one on the second.

I think I'll start on a little quilt too. My youngest daughter has a beloved quilt that she can't part with. I made it (as well as a matching dust ruffle, diaper stacker and bumper pads) for her before she was born. She slept under it every night and quickly become positively attached to it. It even has a name, Night-Night. Sadly, Night-Night resembles little of what it originally looked like. After six years of love it is practically in shreds. The binding has torn off, one of the borders has come off and it is rapidly deteriorating. We've had many discussions of needing to put Night-Night in a special box to keep since it's reached such a poor state. I was really worried about taking it with us on our recent vacation for fear that it would either become lost or accidentally thrown in with the laundry at the hotel. Thankfully neither happened.

Compromise has been reached and we will not put Night-Night away until I have made a replacement. My sweet girl and I went to several quilt stores until we settled on the perfect new fabrics.



She chose the pink fabric and then we added the stripes to bring in more color. From there we accessorized with fabrics until we had the perfect combination.



I now need to pre-wash and start cutting to make sure I don't need to go purchase more. Then I'll be on to the piecing and quilting. I used to do much more sewing and quilting when the kids were younger so it will be fun to dust off the old sewing machine.

Her Night-Night was a rather simple quilt, just blocks with a couple of borders and I'm sure she'll want something as similar to that as possible which should make for some quick and easy work. We'll see how much I can get done this weekend.

And as an update the two-at-a-time socks are fini! Done, over, finished, the end. Tried them on and they feel wonderful. Wish I would have done something a little more fun with them but they were a good learning project and will look great for the fall with jeans.

Back in February or March when I was suffering through the illness that would not end my glasses were accidentally stepped on by my husband. I had taken them off to lay/sleep on the couch and had put them under the couch several inches back. You may wonder why on earth I would put my glasses there. I chose the under the couch location after years of experience with my loving children. I cannot tell you how many times I've taken my glasses off while not feeling well or napping only to reach for them when I'm ready to get up and they're gone. Seeing (ha ha!) as I need the glasses to see, it makes it especially difficult to look for them. The children (each and every one of them but especially the darling boy) seem to be fascinated with my glasses and love to try them on, wear them around the house and then take them off when they're bored. And by taking them off I mean removing them from their face and putting them anywhere--their room, the floor, the kitchen, in a toy, etc.

During one bout of morning sickness with one of my pregnancies I realized I could put the glasses under the couch directly below my head. They didn't think to look there and I would hear them if they tried to get them and could stop them. Unfortunately my husband wasn't aware of this plan and has bigger feet than I had taken into account. He walked over to check on me and squished the old glasses. One lens popped out and one eye piece fell off. He managed to fix the lens but they eye piece was a goner. I was sick but I didn't care, they still kind of worked and I could see.

Months went by and I didn't get new glasses because they seemed like a low priority compared to other financial demands. The husband and kids teased me about my goofy glasses but I only wore them at home after/before contacts were taken out/put in so it wasn't a big deal. OK, I did wear them a few times to Sam's really early in the morning but I walked fast and didn't talk to anyone. I'm sure no one noticed. Yeah right.

Anyway, the other night I knocked them off of my nightstand while reaching for my glass of water. I carefully felt around under the night stand trying to find them (all the while convinced I would instead grab an enormous spider since it was the middle of the night and the lights weren't on). Thankfully I didn't grab any creepy-crawlies but did find a lonely eye-piece instead. The glasses were officially D.O.A. and necessitated a trip to the eye doctor yesterday to order new ones.


Thankfully the final tab was about half of what I expected so although it was still a chunk of change it could have been much worse.

Despite the glasses fiasco I have managed to continue working on the Hibiscus for Hope socks. The heel has been turned and I'm working my way up the ankle. I somehow managed to mess up a row which required ripping/re-knitting about three times but I finally located the error and am again making forward progress.



The actual color is a bit more subdued than the photograph above but I was too lazy to try to fix it in Photoshop.



You can see that my son didn't let my knitting picture taking to interfere with his important race car driving.

School has started at our house and returned us to our much needed normal routine. During the summer break we go through the busiest, craziest time of the year at our house. Between all of the kids summer activities (swim team, synchronized swimming, gymnastics, t-ball, annoying each other and destroying the house) and the increased business load we go from being a well-oiled machine to a sputtering mess. We manage to keep up the basics of clean clothes and dishes but regular meal planning always seems to slip through the cracks. Now that summer is over I'm thrilled to be getting back into the old routine.

We actually did start to work on our meal planning before school started as we noticed just how much we were relying on fast food (sadly way too much). Not only is it obviously not good for you it adds up really quickly. In our never-ending quest to save money we decided to get back to eating at home.

Planning ahead is the key to the entire operation. I plan a "Menu" for 8-10 dinner meals. I have tried and true recipes that I incorporate as well as a few new ones for each Menu. I utilize my crock-pot on days when I'm working so I won't come home exhausted and bail on dinner for convenient drive-thru junk.

The other appliance I love that saves time is my steamer. I buy lots of frozen veggies and can put those in the steamer and 20 minutes later have perfect, healthy side dishes. Surprisingly the kids love it too so we're all happy about it (I suspect this is because I've done it their whole little lives). It also does a great job steaming rice as well. I'm on my second steamer as I used my first one so much it eventually died. Although not identical this is very similar and the same brand as my steamer.




Lunches are either leftovers or regular standbys like sandwiches. Sadly the kiddos are doing nothing but increasing their dinner consumption rate which radically depletes any leftover reserves (I'm sure this part of the algebraic equation which ultimately equals the fact that they are outgrowing all of their clothes. ::sigh::). When we're out of leftovers we fall back on good old standbys like sandwiches, salads and pantry raids. We've invented some interesting meals out of the pantry in the past. And there's always a feeling of triumph when we buck up and eat lunch at home instead of forking over $5-$20 on lunch at McDriveThru. During the school year the kids take a packed lunch to school most days.

Breakfasts need to be quick because I'm NOT a morning person. Frozen waffles, cereal, fruit, oatmeal, banana bread, muffins, scrambled eggs are all morning options. I will bake the banana bread and muffins the night before so they'll be ready to go the next morning (again, NOT a morning person. Did I mention I pack their lunches before bed too?).

I rarely buy convenience foods and make every attempt to cook as much as possible from scratch. Not only does it tastes better it is also way cheaper. That being said I confess there are certain items that I do fall back on regularly like pie crust, pre-trimmed chicken breasts and frozen waffles. Some of these things are either cheaper to buy pre-made like the waffles. Others don't cost much more than making them from scratch and save me time so that's a no-brainer. And finally some of them I buy purely to make my life easier and because I'm prone to bouts of self-indulgence.

I'm happy to say that this weekend we ate every single meal at home. Don't get me wrong, I love going out to restaurants as much as the next person but it's a small victory to stay ahead of the game financially by not having to spend a dime all weekend. Friday night I made one of my husbands favorite dinners, Garlic Beef Enchiladas (go ahead, click it it's a link. Make it with some Spanish rice on the side and make your house smell yummy with garlicky goodness). Yesterday morning we had a brunch of scrambled eggs, toast & bacon. Last night we had barbecued burgers, dogs, potato salad. We've munched on leftovers for breakfast and lunch today and will be grilling chicken for dinner tonight.

All of the planning and prep is worth it though. We routinely feed a family of five for $75-$100 a week (and that usually even includes cleaning supplies and toiletries as I do the shopping for everything all at once). It also helps that I have several meals that are very inexpensive to prepare that I rotate through the menu in addition to the more expensive meals.

So there you have it. I challenge everyone to eat at home more. It makes your home smell yummy, saves you money, let's you flex some creative muscle in the kitchen, let's you bond with the kiddos while nourishing their little bodies and also thumb your nose at Big McDriveThru. What's not to like?

Ugh, I'm dragging today. Started feeling a tad icky yesterday and woke up this morning with a lovely sore throat and head cold. Am so tired but have a lot of work I need to finish up. Thankfully it's the home stretch on two orders so I'm hoping I can finish them up today and get them out of my life. Love putting a completely finished file into the file cabinet. It's like permanently crossing it off of a to do list.

Last night I ventured out to Stitch & Bitch at the knit store. I've wanted to go all summer long but have had something come up every single Thursday. Finally had a free night last night so I jumped on it. I was really surprised there were so many people there. I incorrectly assumed that the KIP group was a pretty fair representation of how many knitters would be there. Way off on my part. But it was a really nice night. It was nice to actually meet people in person (Hi Becca!) that I've followed on the net. Important lesson learned, arrive early to get a good seat, they nearly ran out of chairs.

It was nice to take everything all in and listen to all the different discussions. I like to hang back and gauge the personalities and crowds and figure out where I fit in (also, am a bit shy and worried I'll blurt our something completely idiotic). It was interesting to see/hear the wide variety of knitting skill, personalities and opinions. Lots of fun, hope I'll be able to make it back for more.

Last night after getting home I did a little browsing on the 'net and came across a blog that really opened my eyes. I couldn't believe how solitary and alone the writer is. She certainly isn't trying to communicate that in her brief posts but from the outside looking in it was painfully obvious to me. It really made me appreciate my little family. I may get completely overwhelmed by all the people in my life that need things from me (family, friends, customers, etc.) but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I am truly rich in love and completely grateful for my crazy little life.

Hyrup!

Hee hee! Came across this and it made me laugh. I'll be singing it in my head every time I make pancakes...

I felt bad for the poor two-at-a-time socks which have been a bit neglected over my excitement for the Hibiscus for Hope socks. I haven't posted any photos of their current state so I thought I should. I need to get out my tape measure and check because I'm awfully close to the decreases for the toes. The end is in sight! It drives me crazy to have more than one project at a time going on so I might have to finish these up real quick and then get back to the Hibiscus. We'll see...

There is a commercial that we quote more than any other movie line in our house (and let me tell you, we quote movies A LOT). My husband and I ask this when we see the other one surfing the web/goofing off online:

"A zillion dollars worth of technology and what are you doing?"

To which the other always replies:

"Browsing."

Love Dennis Leary, here's the original commercial here.



In my defense I can't do any other major computer work as I'm burning several DVDs so I thought I'd do a quick update (with pictures!) of my Hibiscus for Hope socks.







Getting ready to start working on the heel, the pattern is going great!

Am obsessed with this, want to knit it soooo bad....

http://theraineysisters.com/?p=762

::sigh:: beautiful.

I took some pictures of the yarn I chose for my Hibiscus for Hope socks before I left for vacation but didn't have time to upload the images to the blog. Here they are...


This is Panda Silk yarn which is great to work with, very soft! I picked it up at Twist. Not sure of the exact colorway but it is obviously in lovely shades of pinks. I'm planning on giving these socks to a breast cancer survivor and felt that pink was perhaps the obvious choice but I'm going with it anyway.


Here is the beginning of the first sock. I took these photos on Friday, August 8th and am happy to say that I made quite a bit of progress over vacation. I'll have to take more photos to update the current stage of the sock.






Here are some photos of my first "design." I took copious notes but need to make another one up to make sure that everything is correct. I'm still toying with names for the hat. I made it out of a cheap acrylic to try out but will buy some pretty yarn to make a proper hat after I make sure the pattern has all the kinks out of it.

As you can see it has a ruffled brim which leads into a vine lace pattern and then finishes in stockinette decreases.



And finally some pictures of my little boy. He went to the barber with his dad and walked in rockin' a new 'do while I was finishing up my little knitting photo shoot. The barber sprayed in some color streaks which the little man thought was awesome. Of course I had to get a few pics since I already had the camera in hand.


He "took mom's picture" with his toy while I was taking his.


I'm sure he'd love it if I'd fix his hair this way every day...