In progress

This is the bowl that sits near the couch and holds my knitting odds and ends, what is half done, what might come next. It's too small for everything currently so I also have a stack next to it....

But wait, isn't that purplish ball of yarn on the top suppose to be a whole sock by now? Well, yes, it would be had I not ripped the whole thing out when I was almost 3/4 done with it. I managed to turn the heel. I managed to pick up the stitches along the heel flap clumsily but at that point several things went wrong. Not horribly wrong, but wrong enough to make me want to do it over rather than suffer through. I really, really like the yarn and want to have nice socks made out of it not weird socks made out of it.

I plan to cast on again this week.

There is a lot of cotton in there. When I was pregnant with Maya I was knitting a few things for her and I think had overblown aspirations of other things I was going to get done before she arrived. And in there somewhere this kind of cotton yarn must have been on sale. I have no recollection of buying it all, no idea what I thought I was going to make out of it. I blame it on hormones.

I have already made a couple of spring/fall hats for the kids out of the green and yellow (a modified version of this pattern). I have made each kid a washcloth out of the terracotta. And I still have all this cotton yarn left!

I sure hope it was a good sale.

Underneath in the back is a half done wash cloth made with the dusty pink cotton in this Raspberry Jam pattern. I have one done and enough yarn to (hopefully) make two more and will have a set of 3 for gift for someone.

The green and blue are leftover partial skeins that I am trying to figure something out for, they seem meant to be used together.

The maize yellow and terracotta are for the project pictured below. It's a sun dress for Maya. I have the back done (except the trim) and am working on the front. I think I am going to do a button on one shoulder due to the comments on the pattern I kept reading about the neck hole being small.

Other random outside...

It was a beautiful weekend for playing outside. Relatively mild temperatures, minimal wind and fluffy snow flakes.

We have clothes hanging all over to dry, mittens and hats over the heat registers and a puddle by the door.

Maya got to slide and eat a lot of snow.

Alex got to ski once yesterday and twice today.

Ben got to ski and got quite a workout pulling Maya around in her sled.

I got to ski and even went for a solo snowshoe in the woods this afternoon.

Finally.

My mom and Amy drove over this weekend and brought Alex's cross country skis. He was given the skis over Christmas break (they are hand me downs from my brother) but there was no way we could fit them in the car to bring them home. Alex has been talking about them almost daily since then.

He went all over the front yard, then Ben dug out his skis and took him out in the back field. We have just enough of a hill in the back to get some speed and practice dealing with hills.

I got out my skis and went out with him for a while this morning and then he went out with Ben again this afternoon. He's catching on quickly and has asked about lessons, so I need to make some phone calls.

Neither Ben or I have had our skis (we both have ancient, but usable, used classic skis) out since we moved here so it has been a lot of fun for us too.

Today is the day! GO PACKERS!

The logical thing to do when it's below zero

is to make homemade ice cream of course! We had fresh, fluffy snow so we decided to try both the ice cream in a bag method using snow in the outer bag instead of ice cubes and the Snow Cream method and compare the textures.

We found out very quickly that we needed to wear gloves while shaking the bags! It was pretty cool (no pun intended) how it seemed to go from liquid to ice cream within a matter of seconds and no in between.

We made vanilla (just sugar and vanilla) and chocolate (cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla). I would say that the 1 cup portion per bag that the recipe calls for is more than enough for one child. Neither Alex or Maya finished theirs.

The snow cream was delicious. I had to add more snow than I originally thought because our snow was so fluffy but it was amazing how the texture turned out. I expected it to just dissolve or melt more than it did.

When you can't play outside.....

Play on dad!

Mercedes Benz Tweet Race

A friend of the family - Todd Sanders - has been chosen to be a part of the 2011 Mercedes Benz Tweet Race. His team is raising money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Just by being selected for the race MB is giving St. Judes $25,000 up front. IF they win then MB kicks in another $20,000. Plus Todd and John have personally set out to raise another $5000 and are well on their way.

They will be driving a Mercedes from LA to Dallas the 5 days before the Superbowl. An extra bonus is that they get to go to the superbowl which is now extra exciting considering the Packers are one game away from being in the game!

The way they win is by interacting with their social network "team" throughout the race via Twitter and Facebook. Anyone can join their team and help out! The race starts Feb 2nd so now is the time to sign up and watch for updates on how to help them win.

Here is the info on their website that explains How the Race Works

Here is the info on How to Participate

Here is the Team S Facebook Page

Here is the info about St. Jude's

There will be more detailed information to follow as to what/who exactly to tweet during the race to earn them points.

This will be my first foray into the world of twitter but it seems like this is a good reason to check it out.

No school!

It's amazing what a whirlwind of activity kids can be. And what was so interesting today is that they seem to ramp it up when they know it's a "special" or out of the ordinary day. Today it has been all about big activities - they built a big bean bag and pillow "fort" in the basement, begged to go sledding at a local park despite a nippy windchill and then stayed there for over an hour and a half, then came home and finger painted, then asked to use the regular paints........Everything is labor intensive and messy! But fun, so we are just going with it!

Sledding was a lot of fun and we dressed in many layers so we stayed pretty warm except for our cheeks.

There was a family that came while we were there - mom, dad and two teenage girls. They were all running and jumping and sledding and having a great time. It really made me smile to see teenagers that were willing to go out and do something with their parents, OUTSIDE and have fun. And to see parents joining in and not just supervising or watching. And no one was texting, surfing, talking or even had their phones with them that I could see.

At lunchtime I casually asked Alex if he knew why there was no school today. He did, he said it was Martin Luther King (jr) day. I asked if he knew why Dr. King was famous and had his own day. This launched Alex into quite an explanation - they had read a book on Friday in their village meeting at school and I was impressed at how much he had paid attention and retained. He was pretty wound up and said - "MOM - did you know that there use to be laws that separated white and black skinned people?? I mean like separate drinking fountains and everything!" He then went on and talked about how Dr. King was famous because he didn't agree with those "bad laws" and tried to stop them and help people be able to work together and understand eachother. I was really impressed and proud of some of his thoughts about how Dr. King taught people how to fight against these bad things without hurting others or using violence. Alex said he thought that was the best part "because doing more bad things would just make things worse."

Hmmm...kids get it. A lot of grown ups could learn some things.

We talked about some of the kids in his class and in our own family that have different colors of skin.....and hair and eyes. And how for some reason that doesn't make a whole lot of sense some people think skin color is different than say hair or eye color.

I'm glad they talked about this at school, I'm glad we could have an easy (not forced) conversation about it at home. I wish I could find the link, but of course cannot, but last year a friend sent me a link to an article about how not mentioning race or not talking about skin color with the idea of trying to be "color blind" was actually a really good way to have your kids end up absorbing stereotypical ideas about race. It makes sense, the areas that we leave "blank" can end up being filled by other less reliable sources.

New recipes for January

I have a goal for myself this year to try a new recipe every other week, or twice a month. So far we've tried two new things this month.

Last week I made Lambchops with Rosemary and Garlic. I had never used lamb chops before. We get some beef, pork and lamb given to us every fall through Ben's work and we never know what cuts we will get. It's always an adventure to find ways to use the things that are unfamiliar to us. We only had 4 chops and were running out of "W" sauce so I kind of winged it on the marinade and the flavor still turned out very strong so I can't imagine using the full amounts listed in the recipe. Over all we liked it and if I ever had lamb chops around again I'd make this recipe again. I don't know if it's how all lamb chops are or it was just the ones we had but there was not much meat on them as a whole. It was work to cut through and find the meat that was there. That might be a deterrent for me to go out and purchase lamb chops.

Last night I made Pioneer Woman Meatloaf . I have never ever made meatloaf. I have never ever liked meatloaf. But it seemed like a good way to use ground beef other than tacos or spaghetti sauce that the kids would eat and wasn't a casserole (I don't really like casseroles and Alex isn't a fan of lots of foods mixed up just like me when I was a kid).

Alex really liked it minus the bacon on top because the bacon wasn't crispy. Ben had the same comment. I liked it alright. Maya wouldn't eat it based on appearance alone but she's been extra picky lately.

Then Ben and I had it leftover today. Wow, it's so good leftover. I warmed it up in slices in a skillet. So good. Next time I might make it ahead of time so it sits in the fridge over night.

The only other modifications I would do: cook the bacon separate and crumble it on the top so it still have it's flavor but was crispy. I would also cut down on the brown sugar in the sauce. We use natural/organic ketchup which I think has a sweeter taste than the standard Huntz/Heinz. Combined with the recommended amount of brown sugar it was really sweet.

So I have already met my self imposed goal for January but I'm pretty sure there will be at least one more new recipe I'll try this month. We have a lamb roast and some ground lamb in the freezer that I have a few things in mind for.

We got a little time outside today

Before the wind really kicked up! It was ok in the front but even a few minutes in the backyard resulted in watering eyes and stinging cheeks.

I got a new lens for my camera and I have been enjoying playing with it. My kit lens didn't have much of a zoom so it's fun to have more flexibility. My favorite place to take pictures is outside and unfortunately we haven't strayed very far from home lately so there isn't much variety.

Fairy princess

Unfortunately this fairy princess did not want her picture taken. However we wanted Grandma to see the dress up clothes in use.

What a treat

We've actually seen the sun several days since the New Year! Yesterday was really nice, as long as you stayed out of the wind it was quite "warm". The kids got out their snowshoes again and ventured into the back yard and woods. Maya tires quickly in the snowshoes because she tries to keep up with Alex so she waded around in just her boots for a while and then helped me shovel while Ben and Alex went out in the back field.

We also accomplished getting the Christmas tree undecorated and out of the house, all the other decorations put away, the mountain of laundry clean and put away, 2 football games watched (YAY Packers!), many Legos built and fairy dress up clothes worn.

Shoein'

Alex got some awesome hand me down snowshoes from the neighbor this year so that means Maya inherited the "snow stompers" as Alex dubbed them. (the kid's Redfeather snowshoes he had that make Yeti tracks in the snow)

Alex is loving his new ones, they are smaller and lighter and have the crampons on the bottom for climbing better.

Maya is doing a great job with the stompers. They are wider and I was afraid she'd have trouble getting use to having her feet out wider, I know Alex didn't really go full swing on them until he was 4. She caught on right away and just catches a toe every now and then and falls down.

Alex had them going through quite an obstacle course today - over snowbanks, touch that tree, go around the bush, over the other snowbank.....

It was fun to watch.

I shoveled.

That wasn't quite as much fun.

Our own sparkly snow globe

Fresh snow, sun peaking through and some dusty lake effect in the air......

Attempting

to knit socks.

All my local knitting friends be aware that I will soon be calling/visiting one of you to help me through the heel instructions.

Berry Bowl

I'm so excited! Yes, I am excited about getting a berry bowl for Christmas.

Christmas gift crafts

Maya got a Melissa and Doug brand decorate your own fairy wand that she was excited to start. She got the decorate your own magic mirror this summer and really enjoyed it. The glitter glue is easy enough for her to squeeze out but the opening is small enough that she can control the amount somewhat.

Alex got a paint by number in his stocking. "Santa" got it in the dollar bin at Joann's I'm pretty sure. I didn't know if he'd be into it or not but he really was. It was pretty detailed with lots of small spaces and most of the spaces required you to mix two colors of paint together to make a new color. He really liked that part.

I'd call both those gifts a success!

Happy New Year!

Having just gotten home later in the day on Thursday, we decided to have a quiet New Year's Eve at home. The kids had a bit of vacation/travel/holiday hangover and home is often the easiest place to deal with that!

We did make your own pita pizzas for supper and I had bought watermelon (in winter! and not on sale!) and chips (chips!) and sparkling grape juice so they thought it was quite a celebration. We played some of our new Wii games and planned on letting the kids stay up until things got out of control with a goal of a 10pm or so bedtime for them. Maya asked to go to bed at 9:30 and Alex didn't argue with that idea at all so 9:30 it was.

I tested out my new blender and made some strawberry daiquiris and Ben tried out his Appletini mix (ala JD from Scrubs) from Matt and Amy. Matt, that picture is for you.

Some random outside shots