Five or Ten Things

I have five pictures, so we can start there, and if I think of more things to add, then so be it!

1. Already thought of one!  My cousin is getting married today, so at four o'clock this afternoon, let's all send them prayers of happiness.

2. I am so glad that the first two weeks of school are four-day weeks.  The packing-lunch routine is already wearing thin.

 3. The paperwork...the five dollar contributions, the checks for field trips...did I mention the paperwork?

 4.  A pleasant side effect of reading Leslie's blog is that you notice hearts everywhere.  This was ranch dressing that I'd dumped out after the kids abandoned it and the carrots.

 5.  Embroidery...hard to make personalized Christmas gifts on the sly around here.

 6.  Go ahead and blame this on Jodi.  My granny square itch just had to be scratched.  I rationalize this by saying that it's a great way to use up all the stray balls of yarn that I have, and yet I find myself thinking that I need to buy just a few more colors so I can finish it up...it's not really stash busting if you are simultaneously adding to the stash.  I have 18 out of 81 squares done, so this will be a while.

7. We went to Trader Joe's last weekend.  We don't go there all that often--usually only when we go out to eat at a restaurant that is in the TJ's shopping center.  And Rob usually buys mostly snacks.  This time I bought the dark chocolate covered espresso beans.  Yum.  The kids couldn't understand why I wouldn't let them eat any.  Really.

8. I have jumped on the pinterest bandwagon.  I had to open a twitter account in order to get into pinterest, so now I'm on the twitter, too.  I don't tweet, but if you're on there (or pinterest), feel free to friend/follow/tweet me (whatever the lingo).  All I've really done on pinterest is just re-pin others' pictures.  I haven't put any original things up there.  It's a nice inspiration board, I guess, and another potential time-suck.

9. My youngest child will be turning eight on Tuesday.  Eight!  Where did the time go?  And why has returning to school made him so wild and out of control?  Is it because he has to be well-behaved all day at school?  So that when he comes home he's just used up all his self-control for the day?  He really has me yearning for a return to the 7:00 bedtime.  Eight years old.  Wow.

10.  Hey, I made it to ten!  This week Erin wrote a post about how busy she's been in the kitchen.  And Tsh at Simple Mom has a meal-planning chapter from her latest e-book available for free download.  I took both ladies' posts to heart, and I have planned our menus for the next 12 days.  I entered the meals in my google calendar, and I am going to make double batches of some of the meals to freeze them for later.  Once the scouts/dance/baseball train starts rolling in a couple of weeks, I'm going to need some easy meals!

And Just Like That...

They're off.

 Sixth grade, second grade, fourth grade.

 This is her last year at the elementary school.  That fact brings up all sorts of mixed emotions.

These two have a few more years.  Bobby's second grade teacher was Caroline's second grade teacher.  This is our first "repeat."   I love the first day of school because the principal allows parents to come in with the kids.  We get to meet the teachers and (try to) give a last minute kiss goodbye to the kids.

I came home to discover that two of the kids had left behind their "what I read this summer" lists.  That gave me the idea to share with you my list of what I read.  Here it is:

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (I took the kids to a play of this--they loved it.)
Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maude Montgomery
State of Wonder (her latest novel) and Truth and Beauty (a memoir) both by Ann Patchett
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall
Mockingbird (a biography of Harper Lee)--I forget the author's name, but it was really good
The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst
The White Queen by Phillippa Gregory
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir
and the second and third Flavia de Luce novels, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag and A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley.

There were a couple of books that I started and skimmed a little.  There was at least one that I checked out and returned unread.  But when I look at the list, I think I'd recommend all of them.

So, how was your summer?  Did you read anything good?

Sighs of Relief

I am so glad that Irene is behind us.  We came out okay--a little tired and a little worn out with worrying--but our basement is dry.  Actually, the worst part came late yesterday afternoon when I checked the district's website and found this:

 That's right.  A snow day.  The kids are, of course, thrilled.

There was some crafting during the last week or so.  About ten days ago, I cast on for Aidez.  Yesterday I finished the back.

 Recently I ordered the ABC Sampler pattern from Alicia Paulson.  I had a Christmas idea.  I started stitching last week as soon as the wool arrived. 

I am really enjoying this project. I may be coming up with all sorts of ways to use this pattern.

If you were in Irene's path, I hope that you are well and breathing your own sighs of relief!

We have a winner!

She's ready to start on next year's quilt!

ADVENTure: Home Decor Edition

In between knitting Christmas gifts, I've been working on a few items to decorate the home this season. 

 I've made two felted trees. The pattern is in Mason-Dixon Knitting: Outside the Lines. You can see on the larger one that I ran out of the dark green, so I combined it with a lighter green to finish it. I have a place in mind to put these, and there's enough room so that I can eventually create a whole forest of felted trees in a variety of colors. This year, I may make one more small one and call it done.

 Last winter, I began accumulating Christmas-y fabrics with a Christmas quilt in mind.

 A few years ago, Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts hosted a quiltalong.  She made one block per week, and I printed out the instructions for several of the blocks.  I don't think she has these instructions on her blog anymore--she's hosted many, many quiltalongs since then--so I am very glad that I hoarded saved the patterns.

I finished the top on Monday!  It's roughly 60" square.  I am planning on using some red and white printed flannel for the back.  I just have to go to Joann's and purchase the rest of the materials.

Hanging in there

What, your kitchen doesn't look like this at 9:30 in the morning?

We're in the home stretch of summer.  I'm trying to look past the bickering and enjoy my time with the kids.  I'm doing a lot of deep breathing.

Inspiration Overload

My parents came to visit us last week, and on Saturday, we drove out to Lancaster, PA.  My mom and I went into the Lancaster County Quilt Museum while everyone else checked out the Farmers' Market.

 The quilting on these is just amazing--and it was all done by hand.

Makes you want to break out some solid fabrics, doesn't it?