A Short Catch Up

It has been a busy couple of days around here. The days have been long and the results are amazing despite Eric not sleeping well.

Tuesday was a day full of appointments. Followed by an afternoon of making jewelry and packing up for Wednesday.

Yesterday was a big day for Eric's Day program, the Taglit group. The fund raiser was to try to earn enough money to fund the garden and nutrition program. The very good news is that the goal was achieved. There are still a few plants and hand knit cotton soap bags available. So Just drop by the JCC between 8 am and 3 pm. Monday through Friday.  Stop by the front desk and say that you would like to buy a plant or a soap bag to support the Taglit program.  Sixty three items left my stash of handmade items to help the cause. Just think about how much yarn was used from my stash.

This means I have a chance to create more items and will have a lot of room for them. My to do list will  go as follows:

1. Teri's shawl ( a home project ). 1 1/2 skeins to go.
2. Project Gratitude scarfs ( my on the go project )
3. Teri's queen size blanket that I started her 1L year. This project has gone a little slower than I would have liked. Yes Teri has finished 3 years of law school and passed the California Bar. But in my defense I did finish the pair of socks that I started when Teri and I were looking at law schools. Yes a very poor defense. ( a dining room table project ) 2/3 left to knit.
4. Some things for me that I have wanted to knit for me.
5. Adding some more shawls to my inventory. ( knitting with girls friends)
6. Knitting a few different style hats.
7. Make some more pretty jewelry and possibly make some shawl pins.
8. To card some of my own batts.
9. Type up and take photo's of new pattern designs.
10. Finish a few new designs.
11.  Last but not least to find some time to spin.

Since I spent the entire day at the Tucson JCC yesterday house cleaning started at 6 am today. I am so lucky that John did the windows and all of the polishing. This let me do the laundry and other work that I needed to do. I got the last skein of Yarn for Teri's shawl wound, but I was much to tired to knit today. Tomorrow will be full of cooking and cleaning. Since Eric is asleep I think I will end the blog post here tonight.

La Shana Tova

First off I would like to wish everyone a sweet New Year. May you have a year full of health, happiness and learning. With that out of the way I would like to say that I admire my friends that have spent the entire week cooking for their families for this occasion. I could not pull my self together enough to do any cooking this year. I would like to thank the cooking staff of my local Whole Foods for the wonderful grilled salmon and the side dishes that I served for dinner. Also to Beyond Bread for the bread and honey cake.

It just seems to me that the sicker that Eric becomes the less I am ready for the holidays. This is coming from the person who gets the most excited about birthdays and holidays in this house. So tonight instead of putting the last minute touches on a holiday dinner, I sat at my spinning wheel and plyed some yarn. I still had time so I started spinning another skein. For some reason this gave me more joy than cooking tonight.

I will probably not understand the reason for this for years to come. For right now I will chalk it up to being to tired. Also not having the energy to put into a truly fabulous meal or the shopping involved. With that said my sincere hope is that Eric sleeps tonight.

Terrific Tuesday

I had a rare day off today. Eric was eager to go to school today. So after he boarded his bus, I was off to have fun. There was knitting with Vanessa, she is working on a pretty cowl for herself. I finished another wash cloth and am attempting to duplicate it so I can write the pattern up. The best news is that it only takes 2 ounces of cotton yarn.

I also have to thank the wonderful people at my local Trader Joe's. They just seem to know when I am exhausted and insist on loading the grocery's into the car for me. Yes I did take a little time away from play to restock the house with grocery's. But the way this year has been going, I never know when the next siege will hit.

I spent the the afternoon watching some mommy programs on TV.  I watched 2 episode's of Dr.House, 1 of Modern Family and 1 Undercover Boss. Yes being tired did turn me into a couch potato, but every once in a while it is good to be one.  I did get a bit of spinning done too.

John came home and made a lovely dinner of a salad, Bagels and lox. He wants to make sure that I am 100% before I start cooking again. How lucky am I to have such a great husband.

I do think Eric needs a little help in the choosing gifts for Mothers Day. He thinks that I need a new Thomas the Tank DVD and a new  stuffed Snoopy. He has tried to convince us that he will take care of the Snoopy for me. That I do not doubt. Just maybe he needs to have a heart to heart with Teri to really figure this out.

Over all this has been one of the best days that I have had in a long while and do feel totally recharged.  So I think it is time to call it a night.

Smooth Sailing

It has been a quiet weekend so far. Friday, John was home so I got to join the girls for knitting and lunch. These ladies are the best. They can take me from up tight mom with sick kid at home to relaxation in under 2 hours. All I can say is that I am grateful for such fantastic friends. After going out to lunch with them it was back home to give John a break from child care.

I also figured why I had not finished a doll blanket. I had taken it out of the UFO box where it has been for the last 3 years. After working on it for 2 hours at knitting and some additional time at home I found that I did not have enough yarn to finish it. I know that 3/4 of the way through and all I can say is darn and time to tink it. For those that read this blog who don't knit, tink is a different way to say I am ripping it out. Maybe I will make some bean bags or something that uses a light weight cotton yarn

We did manage to get out of the house today. John saw something with a lot of booms in it. Eric and I saw the Muppet Movie. It is very different from the past Muppet movies with a lack of forks in the road and other skits. It was more like the Muppet Show, which Eric and I still watch on occasion. Eric and I liked the movie very much.

We managed to get home just as the rain was starting. Timing is everything right. I frogged the project I started in the movie, I just did not get it right. I don't know if it was the 3 women in front of us texting through out the movie or that I just did not know what I had in mind. It is now recast on and going well. I did wind up some more yarn and made pumpkin bread for dinner. Cold rainy days are great for baking.

Well it is almost time to get dinner on the table. so have a great night.

Another Day in the Life of...

Well more of the same old same old going on around here today. Eric is home sick. Piles of laundry and yes some will be left for tomorrow. Although I did manage to fold or hang every load of laundry done today. No applause necessary just throw fluff my way.  13 more inches done on an Operation Gratitude scarf.

I don't feel like cooking so John is stuck with a roast, sweet potatoes and steamed vegetables. You can commiserate with him when you see him next time. Yes there is enough for roast beef sandwiches tomorrow.

Well since I have some help here right now I am going to try to finish one of Kathy Withers wonderful batts. If you would like to see some of Kathy's batts here is a link to her etsy store Unique Designs by Kathy . Right now she has a lot of art yarn. One skein will make a fabulous one of a kind scarf. Also check out her pattern and one of a kind creations.

Enjoy your families .

Well at Least I am up to Something

It has been a while since I last blogged. After Eric being sick and at home for over 6 weeks this time I am a little tired. But the good news is that since giving up diet soda and hfcs my body is not stuck in bed. So my un-scientific real live test subject research shows that the combo of hfcs and diet soda is not good for me.

I have spent the week doing errands and running around getting out of the house. It seems to be a good plan in hindsight because they sent Eric home with a fever of over 100 today, but they sent him home alone on the bus, even so I did not have to finish emptying the car in a hurry to run to school and pick him up.

There has not been much cleaning this week. Hey I can either run errands or clean there are just not enough hours in a 24 hour day and I really don't think I want a long day anyway. I also broke the second tape gun this week. They just don't seem to last as long as I would like, we got them in the late 70's and early 80's. I thought they would last forever. What is this with the poor workmanship.  So I made John an apple pie to ease the news to him. It's in the oven now. Well it is time to go make turkey and avocado sandwiches for dinner.

I will write more tomorrow about my adventures in spinning. I think I am getting fairly good but I will let Kathy Withers be the judge of that.

Well since I did not finish yesterdays blog I will add that today I made up for the rest of the week in getting some cleaning done. I have gotten 5 baskets and 2 full loads of shredded paper out to the what was the nearly empty recycle bin in the back yard. I am hoping that I have enough room for the rest of the week. 

Eric's temperature went back to normal a few hours after he got home, but I had to keep him home anyway because they sent him home with a fever. He was very content to kick back most of the day, after all what young adult would pass up a day to kick back and watch TV?

Well I have decided to make pizza for dinner so it is time to go make the dough and get things going for home made pizza and salad for dinner. I am seriously thinking a wedge cut salad for dinner tonight not that I am tired after a full day of Eric care and cleaning.

Have a Great evening and enjoy your families.

First Really Bad Day Without Diet Soda

Well we know it had to happen sometime. Eric had a long night and I had no diet soda to keep me awake. Worse yet I did not have my ritual 2 cans after a long night to wake me up. I was tired and sluggish all day. Teri and John did all the driving. Did I mention how nice it is to be chauffeured around everywhere.


Despite my lack of sleep we did manage a full day. We ate Dim Sum for brunch. Brunch was followed by a mass hair cut for the guys and Teri at Supercuts. We then dropped the guys off and went shoe shopping. Teri got new tennis shoes and the nicest boots at Alan’s Shoes. We took a walk around LaEncanata and did the shopping for dinner at AJ’s.

At 4 pm my body said enough and a 3 hour nap followed. At least I had the foresight to get dinner cooking before the nap so we had dinner at a decent hour.

It was difficult but I did make it through the day without diet soda. I am still tired and maybe it’s time to say good night to the Dr. Who special and turn in.

Enjoy your families and have a great year.

Improvising a Casserole Dish

It occurred to me yesterday when I was on the phone with Teri that a lot of people born in the last 25 years or so have not had mandatory cooking classes in middle school or high school, so I though I would write about improvising if you don't have the called for casserole dish.

To improvise a casserole pan is one of the easiest things to do. Most of you basic cooking sets will come with either a rectangular or square cake pan or a bread pan. And you should have aluminum foil as on of your kitchen basics.

Line your pan with the foil, shinny side down. added your ingredients and seal your pan with another layer of foil shinny side down. Make sure that your seal is very tight or you might run out of cooking liquids and end up with a very dry or burnt dish.

For metal pans you can use the the temperature called for in the recipe. For glass baking pans DO NOT put the oven temperature above 325 degrees Fahrenheit and give it a longer time to cook.

If you have any specific question on improvising just leave a note in the comment section and I will address the issue to the best of my abilities.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy your families.