What I think

This was not the best Christmas.  Everyone was so sick. Presents did not get opened until the evening of the 26th. Christmas dinner did not get made until the next Sunday. Everyone is starting to get better but tired and coughing. I think Hank is pleased with his gifts. He got things for the girls but still hasn't given them to them.

I think the reason I am so cranky and blah is all the noise in this house.  It is never quiet.  Someone is always here and talking and complaing and it's exhausting.

There is a new puppy in the house. I did not want a puppy but whining and moaning and groaning happened and now there is a puppy.  Puppy is annoying and I have no patience with it. We are starting Earth Science.  There will be projects once I get them organized and he'll like that. Hank decided what he wanted to learn; cooking, painting, building, and designing a computer game.  He was not thrilled that he would still have to learn math. I have knitted and crocheted.  Seahawks scarves, slouch hats and mohawk hats.  I am tired of those colors.  I think I will knit some Christmas presents.  The Hello Kitty mitts are done and will go in the mail next week.

I have been spinning on a spindle.  The first skein I made was pretty thick and thin.  Don't remember what kind of wool it was. I did not figure the yardage because I am sure it is not much. I just finished some brown shetland roving.  Its pretty even.  Again no yardage.  Now I have some faux cashmere, I think. It seems to be spinning pretty even. I finished all the KAL last month.  This month I am not knitting much.  Crocheted a birthday gift.  Did not do the charity donation for this month and won't be doing the birthstone along.  Trying to do pinktober.  I have yarn to do a hat and scarf. Started the hat and ripped it out because it seemed to be twisted.  I think it would have been too big anyway.

I have always wanted to be able to can things we grew in the garden. Not having much luck with that tho today I did do a jar of beets from the garden. Last  month we made pickles, the cucumbers were not from the garden. Today I made peach bourbon jam.  Nothing from the garden.  It tastes pretty good. Next week I am going to make banana butter.  The recipes are from the book Better Homes and Garden Can It.

Back to school for me tom.  We have been better homeschooling.  Getting it done first thing in the morning. Focusing on science and writing.  He does not like writing.  For science we have been doing experiements and watching the DVD Amazing Science. There is a website scienceandmath.com.  Have not looked at the website much but the DVD is good. Does experiments and explains why things work. I am doing lots of knit alongs this month. The romantic ruffled scarf in a teal colored sock yarn that was dyed for me and teal colored socks from the book Knit Your Socks on Straights. And a sapphire colored cowl for the birthstone along.

Not sure how this is really going to effect us.  I have read several books but they don't really say much.  Will tract down copies of our local districts common core requirements. I have found some math workbooks. They are put out by DK, www.dk.com . Math Made Easy Extra Math Practice and Math Made Easy 10 Minutes A Day Math, even comes with a timer.  The library has several grade levels. Scholastic has books called Writing Lessons to Meet the Common Core.  I got grades 3 and 4 from the library.  Hoping to get some ideas.  Maybe a writing journal.  He hates to write. I have let him dictate to me what he wants to say.  He has a blog that he can type his work on.  It takes a lot of effort to get him to do it. This morning he wrote a few lines himself while I sat with him. It I can make myself get up around 5 or 6 and play games with him first he is willing to sit and get school stuff done. He asked if we could add a cooking segment to sch...

27 years, just crazy.  Dinner out. The citron will be done tom. I was gonna try and make it bigger but there are already alot of stitches. I will be doing the felted mittens after that.  Lots of charity knitting coming up and 2 kal's I want to try.  One is a mystery sock. My spinning is a little better, thinner and hardly any unspun spots. Have a list of things to do this weekend and hopefully most of them will be crossed off by Mon. morning.

I am working on school stuff.  We homeschool year round but in Sept I try to come up with new things.  I have gotten a lot of books about Common Core.  We especially need to work on writing.  He doesn't want to.  We are also working out way throught 365 Simple Science Experiements with everyday materials.  There is some fun stuff in there and the book tells you why the experiment works. I have not wanted to knit.  I have been working on seed stitch afghan squares.  I started the Citron, ready to start the third section.  I am going to join some KALs in hopes that will inspire me. The garden is growing.  The heat did away with the peas before we really picked any.  I froze beans the other day.  Might still have blackberries so I can make jam.

What is with the over usage of the word awesome.  Is everything really awesome?  Isn't anything good, okay, shiny, brilliant?  No, just awesome. Is an awesome person equally as awesome as an awesome cup of coffee?  Really.

School starts 4 weeks from today.  I had such big plans for summer and I have accomplished none of them. The garden is growing nicely and we have eaten a lot of stuff from it.  I have made jam. Even got some raised beds built. I have knitted, 2 sweaters that fit. We have done some school.  I really need to focus on this. I have spun a little and have not sewn a thing. But there is still summer left.

I did not hear about Made by me May until May had started but I wear handknit socks everyday. I am knitting the Rocky Coast cardigan.  Just finishing the first sleeve. I think it is going to fit. I had hoped to be further along with school.  I wanted to be working on 4th grade stuff by now but we have not progressed very far with 3d grade. We are going to focus on writing and science over thesummer.

Hank got to go to his first M's game  on Saturday.  It started off with him being  sick in the car but by the time we got to grandmas he was fine. We waited in line 45 minutes. It was packed!  Once we got in he kept stopping to watch the players on the field. He would not walk up the stairs there were alot of them and they were open. We finally took the elevator. The seats were on the 3d level.  You could see everything but one corner of the field. He did not like that they were so high and the angle made you feel like you were leaning forward.  He held my hand most of thetime. I think he had a good time despite all this and the team lost.

Easter went well.  Made Easter dinner yesterday since Chelsie was going home today.  Had chai pancakes and red velvet pancakes for Easter brunchish.  With the house full I did not do anything on my spring break to do list.  I will try and get everything put away tom. so that I can start on the list next week.  It is all stuff I really want to do so it shouldnt really be a chore. I did start crocheting the jigsaw puzzle afghan.  It will look similar to the pattern because I really could not see the graph and just figured it out from the picture.

The best coupon deal I have ever gotten: 2 large coffemate creamers for .50.  FM had them 2 for 4 and there was a 1.50 catalina.  I will never be an extreme couponer but I try. The felted mittens felted after I tried felting them by hand then ran them thru the washer and dryer twice.  They are still a little too big, especially the thumb, but they'll work.  I might run them thru the wash again next winter when I want to wear them. Only a 3 day work week so I am going to make a list of things to do with 2 days off and see what happens.

Homeschool is getting way too hard. It's like pulling teeth to get him to do anything.  He always 'doesn't know' no matter what I ask.  It takes forever to get him to do the simpliest thing.  The sad thing is, I think, he knows the answers and what he needs to do.  He just won't do it. In knitting news; my felted mittens look like they are felting but they are not getting any smaller.  The slippers I tried to felt a while ago never looked felted or got smaller.  Felting may not be for me.

Cami died yesterday morning.  She was sick the day before but we thought she would get better.  The vet. said there was nothing they could do for her.  Poor little thing we didn't know she was so sick. And a mouse was in the house.  He is gone now and hopefully will stay that way.

I mentioned to the gal I work with that I had heard on the radio that this was the most depressing week for people,  I didn't hear why tho.  So she asked if I was depressed and I said I wasn't.  Just blah.  She said that and not doing things was depression.  I am not happy but I am not depressed.  No one likes to clean and do things for people who don't appreciate it anyway.  And we can't all be depressed.  I may not be happy but I am not depressed. But I did make 2 granny square afghans and sort thru all the yarn and projects.  Pretty good for a week of doing nothing else.  And I walk most days and do push ups everyday.  So I think all in all I am ok.

I had every intention of having all the knitting done and paperwork organized by today.  I was going to be able to set goals for the year.  Get organized, get things done.  Multi task.  I know I used to be able to do that.  But, it didnt happen.  I have a cold now and feel yucky but I can't blame it on that. Maybe tom.  I will have things caught up.