I Need a Routine

Well I think we will be at home for a while. I need to start a routine.  I have a hunch that this might just take a little while to resolve it self.  I intend to call at least one person a day to check in on them.  Knitting is going well.  Reorganization is going well, tomorrow I am sending 8 pounds of roving and fluff  to a friend who needs project’s to do. Clearing clutter is going well too.

Tomorrow I will try Fry’s order in advance and call when you get to the parking lot service.  The ordering was a bear and kept changing my order and adding things that I did not want. The app needs to be more user friendly.  I hope the delivery goes better.

I have decided to use the same mindset I used when Eric used to get sick.  We will make it through. I have yarn and fluff.  We are cooking 3 meals a day at home we can do this.  Also. Have lots of plastic bags to put finished projects in.

Why Knitter are Great Friends

Today was spent with a lot of my knitting buddies.  We cried together. I got a lot of healing hugs. We laughed together. We remembered Eric together. We even knit together, although truth be told I personally did not get a lot of knitting done. I was given yarn to help in the healing process.   I mostly tried to be in the moment and take in all the healing energy that surrounded me. Yes, I was very distracted.  I did finish knitting a shawlette that still needs to be blocked.

I also managed to get 2 loads of laundry finished. Read a huge stack of condolence cards. I also need to write thank you notes.  I have started the next bag for Goodwill. When it is full I plan to store it in the van to get it out of the house. Also I will not have to take out a lot of full bags later.   There is so much to do that it seems a bit overwhelming.  I just have to remember that I don’t need to do 3 or 4 things at once now. I just need to do one thing at a time and stay in the moment.

Below is a picture of the shawlette before blocking.  Yes, it was knit with my own hand spun yarn.

The ISP

After being up with Eric a lot last night the last thing I wanted to do was prepare for Eric’s ISP which is short for an individual service plan.  Better understood by parents as the  quarterly we want to annoy you and tell you how you are not living up to some silly  bureaucrats idea of how we should be living our lives and that our kids are not making enough progress. Can you tell how much I hate the process? Every few years they decided to revise what they want and this was the year.  So instead of taking a much needed nap, I went through 42 pages of regurgitate questions.  Before I even got there to look through the questions, while eating breakfast, I was the very annoyed recipient of 16 robo calls in 32 minutes. I do not pick up calls when I don’t recognize the name and instead let it go to voicemail.  Yes, all 16 calls during breakfast went to voicemail and did not leave a message.   This did not make for a calm start to my day.

I did manage to make a good friend very happy with a box of gluten free cupcakes and a half a loaf of bread.  I also introduced her to goat cheese sandwiches.

With all that was going on today, I forgot about my step count and had to walk 5,000 steps after dinner to meet my daily goal. Well Eric is asleep so wish me luck tonight. I hope I get a full nights sleep tonight.

Things That I Am Grateful For

In no particular order here are some of the things that I am grateful for.

1. My Family
2. My friends
3. Team Eric
4. Being ambidextrous, it comes in handy when one hand won't work right. Yes, I am sometimes that annoying person who changes hands in the middle of a meal. It is taking a whole lot longer for my hand to heal than I thought it would.
5. Being 4 inches slimmer since I gave up all high fructose corn syrup and aspertame. The inches come off more slowly than they went on. Bah humbug.

My challenge to you you is to find at least 5 things that you are grateful for and share with everyone.

Monday

Last night was a long night with Eric. I managed to get to bed by 2:30 and John let me sleep in until after 7am so it was not the caffeine rich day I was anticipating. 

I did manage to spend time with Nancy and get some knitting and talking in.  Do you believe that I ran into someone who did not remember my name but rather my shawl.  I will add the link tomorrow. 

At home I got some cleaning in and finished 2 more hats tonight. Now that I refilled the yarn bag it seems that I have a long way to go again. 

In No Order

In no particular order the following got done over the past few days.

1.  Eric brought in 27 pounds of tabs to the Tucson Ronald McDonald House.  Our goal for the year was 20 pounds. Eric now stands 37 pounds. Way to go Eric.  If you are in Tucson you can drop your tabs off at the Tucson JCC.  If you see me on a regular basis I will still take them. 

I just cast on hat #15 out of 30.  I am going through yarn much faster than I thought I would. A big thank you goes out to Barbara M. For her wonderful pattern. 

Eric has gotten into waking up at 5 am. So I am a bit tired by the evening.  

A lot of projects got finished in the craft room including positioning pillows for Eric's day program. 

If fiber is a _______ to spin, then it is equally bad to ply.  

If you are wearing my hand me downs that I shrunk out of, you have no right to call me fat.  It's a shame that the person who made the comment does not read this blog. 

If you want me to teach you to knit, you have to let me have time to show you how and explain things. In other words stop talking long enough for me to say something.  

I am the luckiest woman alive.  I have Great kids.  A wonderful husband.  The best friends a person could ever ask for.  With that my ramblings will stop for the evening. 

Fun and More

The day was filled with fun, knitting and friends. I think it is the first time in days that I was able to relax. Of course I did add to my UFO pile by starting another cowl. I managed to get the 3rd skein of yarn off my wheel. A lovely merino silk combo.

I tried out my knee on getting Eric into the car this afternoon. My feeling now is that my knee still needs more healing time. This is really hard for me because I am so impatient by nature. So aside from a haircut for Eric and a grocery run, I am planning a lay low weekend.

Well it is almost time. To get Eric ready for bed. So I hope everyone has a great weekend.

A Busy Time of Year

It has been a week since I last posted. In that span of time I fell off my shoe while walking and wrenched my knee. Yes I know sandals with heels are not the best exercise shoe around.  If it is still bothering me next week I will have it looked at. John and I put together my spinning wheel. The spinning definitely needs some practice as it is so different from the spindle as it goes much faster. The kindest thing you can say about my first spin is that it super bulky. I think I will try to put together a spinning wheel orifice hook, as I think this might help getting the yarn through the orifice.

Eric is back to sleeping through the night and we are getting much needed sleep. He delivered the going away scarf to his teacher, he picked the yarn by feel and the color from my descriptions, of course he choose green. The scarf pattern was potato chip Scarf Pattern. The yarn was by Rachael of the The CountingSheepFarm. I just lover her colorways, fiber and handmade soap..

I have started to attack the last room of the house and am happy to say that I am making slow but steady progress. I am limiting my self to no more than a half hour at a time several times a day. I find that heavy deep cleaning has to be taken in short spurts until the room is almost done and then I find its OK to go longer to finish.

I have been doing a lot of charity knitting and am slowly filling my giant Ziploc XXL bags. One bag even hit the 10 inch mark this week. I have made a very small dent in the hat yarn basket, but I am afraid that I might find more small bits for  the basket as I clean the craft room. I am almost done with another Project Gratitude scarf. As you can tell I am so glad that the yucks of winter are past and things are getting done at a good pace. I am not so glad that the school year is almost over, since it seems to me that Eric was home more then in school.

I am so glad that I am finding time to knit with my friends as I find that getting out of the house is a very good thing. This leads me to my money saving tip of the week. If you bring your own drink glass most places will give you a discount on your drinks from 10 cent on upwards of almost a dollar a drink.   Well it is time to go get dinner ready. So have a great day and enjoy your families.a drink.

Things I Dislike

Okay, I am normally a very up beat person; but, I do dislike it when Eric gets sick. What mother does not. So yesterday my day started at 4 am with a boy who did not feel well. Eyrping and 4 loads of laundry were soon to follow. I spent the day with Eric taking care of all his needs and was the official TV channel changer.

I did get a lot of knitting done so I really should not bulk much. I think I got 3 whole repeats done on a green shawl being made with hand spun yarn by Kathy at http://www.uniquedesignsbykathy.com/. I really do love her yarn. I even got to got outside for a little while,while Eric's afternoon aide was here.

I was thinking about Teri also, but since it is finals time I let her make the calls when it is convenient for her. I got a wonderful call while I was outside. It is just so nice to see how well she handles herself. I am just so lucky that she is in my life.

After a full day of feeling yucky and getting a low grade fever I thought that Eric would be tired enough to sleep through the night. Boy was I ever wrong. I finally got Eric to sleep at 4:30 am, did I mention my day normally starts at 5:30 am. After a 24.5 hour day I got an hour of sleep before today started.  After Eric's aide got here this morning I managed to get out and drop food and a check to the annual stuff the Mayflower event hosted by 94.9MixFM. Then I splurged and went to Einsteins to get some bagels and Starbucks for some much needed caffeine.

Nancy and Caroline stopped off after the guild meeting to drop off some yarn goodies. The yarn is just perfect for some scarfs for the shelter ladies that Nancy works with. They did not leave empty handed, I sent some small storage bins with Nancy, but I forgot to give her 2 scarfs for the shelter ladies, sigh, I just get so forgetful when I am tired.

Luckily we both zonked out at the same time from 10 am to 3pm. I think the Venti glass of tea must have worn off around 10 am. I really think Eric was ticked at his body for not letting him sleep longer. He woke up coughing and even managed to get to his yellow zone. I managed to get him back to his green zone. So I just sat there propping him up for a while. Then it was off to grab a bag of knitting to make sure he did not do any funny stuff.

When his afternoon aide got here I did manage to sneak out of the house for a little over an hour for dinner. I just did not want a third bagel meal for the day and leftover fish and chips just did not sound as good as they did last night. So one Mayco's taco later it was time to blog.

I have declared this a very successful day because everyone made it though the day. It is time to say good night as I still have to get the trash out. Enjoy your families and join  me in hoping that Eric has a better night. Enjoy your families and have a wonderful night or day if you are reading this earlier in the day.

My Mother's Day

Well today was Mothers Day in the United States and all in all I had an ideal Mothers Day. I got to sleep in until 8 am, which is a luxury. We had a very slow morning followed by Dim Sum (Chinese sweet treats) for brunch. Followed by a quick trip to pick up odds and ends at the supermarket.


I do admit that I got a small chink in my armor today at the checkout line. I have not seen many of Eric’s friends from school since they graduated from high school. One of his friends was our cashier today, I am so proud of her; she is at the University of Arizona now. I did forget to ask what her major was; however. There was just enough emotion to make me a bit sad. I am happy for Eric’s friend and sad for all the roads Eric will never travel in this life.

When we got home we watched the movie the Invention of Lying, all in all a pretty good movie. During the Movie I got a quick call from Teri wishing me happy Mother’s Day. I did get a lot of knitting done today, a little on Teri’s blanket, a little on a baby blanket that I keep in Eric’s room, and a little on a lovely Llama and mohair scarf. I know I have multiple projects going, but it is more convenient to have different projects in different areas of the house and car.

John made a lovely salad for dinner and I cut the bread for the sandwiches which we each assembled to our own liking. We watched a little more TV after dinner and I did some more knitting and blogging.

Well it is now time to get ready for bed. 6:00 am comes awfully early. So have a great night and enjoy your families.

A Wonderful Day

I always find it interesting how I always have a wonderful day after Eric gets better. Friday was no exception. I did not even mind that my day would be cut short, the air conditioning was out on the bus, so I let Eric ride to school because it was still fairly cool. When he got out of school it was about 100 degrees outside which would equal an oven in the bus, no we do not want to do heat stroke again, once was one more time than was absolutely necessary.

It was a small but great group at knitting Friday. I finished one of my unfinished objects. Well not all the way finished but the knitting is done and I did not want to weave in the ends Friday. This morning I wove in the ends and listed it on Art Fire. Because of the 50% off sale this week the current cost $65.00 is only the cost of the yarn, no labor included. The price will go up Tuesday. John liked the blanket, but said that even selling it for the price of the yarn the blanket was still too pricey. I am hoping that if people want to support the handmade movement and the made in the USA movement the they would be willing to pay a little bit more for a nice handmade blanket. check it out at http://www.tinyurl.com/handmadebysheri ,I guess that only time will tell.

I was thankful that Wii did not forget me, and that I had a great workout. One of the few that have lasted 30 minutes since December. The real test will be tomorrow, to see if I can do 30 minutes again.

Have a wonderful day an enjoy the time with your families.

Friends

Everyone should have a friend like Justin. Justin is Eric's friend at camp. Justin has gone from a shy boy to a great advocate. Take today for instance, I made a big time mommy boo boo. When I packed Eric's lunch for today I forgot to check to see if there were any extensions and syringes in Eric's lunch pail. Just to clarify Eric has a mickey button( better know as a g-tube) which goes right to the tummy, we don't fool around with food, we send it straight to where it is suppose to go.

I got the panic call that there was no tube or syringes, so Teri gathered the supplies and I my purse,pod, knitting and headed off to camp with the supplies. Eric's camp councilor was happy for the supplies, Justin on the other hand told me to "be more careful next time and don't ever forget it again" He said I was not doing my job right. I needed to take better care of his friend.

There are other times that Justin will tell me about Eric's day or what supplies I need to bring to camp for the current fundraising effort. I am so glad that Justin is in Eric's life. Justin will go far. Some day I hope to see him on the Governor's Council for Developmental Disabilities as a Self Advocate. I can also see him answering questions and providing training to public servants on how to handle the disabled.

Thank You Justin for being a wonderful part of Eric's life. And for the rest of the world please look beyond the physical and learn to look at the person. I know that if you meet Justin you will know just what I mean.