My First Contest

OK so I have decided that I need a little humor in my life. So I am going to let you finish the following sentence for an entry.

_____________ is as dense as a Black Hole.

1. You must answer the question, as humorously as possible.

2. You must follow my blog.

For extra entries

1 Twitter and let me know that you did.

2. Add a Face book link and let me know that you did.

The prize Consists of 3 skeins of Berroco Suede in color 3754 dye lot 15. The yarn is 100% nylon 1.75 ounces and 120 yards long.

John and I will judge to see which one makes us laugh the hardest. In the event of more than 1 super great answer I will dig into my yarn stash and select a second prize.

The contest ends Saturday nightOctober 24, at midnight PST.

Sick Child Day 7 and Counting

We are at day 7 and counting with Eric home sick with a cold, no it is not H1N1 because you get a fever with that. This is just a runny nose and a cough.

So you might wonder what I do for an entire week at home with a sick child. First and foremost I do an incredible amount of laundry. Last night I was up with Eric most of the night so at midnight I threw in a load of laundry and by 5 am the last load of the night was in the dryer. I am told by the local electric company that this has a positive impact on the environment by doing laundry in off peak hours. I really believe it was a female employee trying to convince her husband that it is really OK to run the washer and dryer in the middle of the night when she was up with sick children. So she started a environmental campaign and probably got a bonus for it too.


There is also taking care of Eric. Which basically means that when ever there is a noise coming from his room day or night I go running. I tend to give him lunch in bed, because I find it to hard to get Eric out of bed and into his wheelchair. I also try to keep him amused with his music, DVDs and TV. I try to change his position every so often because he is in bed for so long.

Yesterday I also re-took all the pictures of the items in my Art Fire Studio and listed a bunch of new items. I will also list more items today.

Then there is the paper work that seems to go by the wayside when I have a chance to get out of the house. I have no idea when I will get to the post office but I will have a bag of mail ready to go. This of course leads to cleaning and a neater house. I try to do odds and ends chores that can be put down at any time to go take care of Eric. There are also regular chores such as running rumba and scooba. And once the counters and tables are cleared I might just try to organize the house a bit. There are dinners to cook although John is absolutely great when it comes to knowing when to bring home take away for dinner. The dishwasher to run and empty.

Some days I get a lot of knitting done, especially when Eric wants me to sit with him for hours at a time. All the knitting leads to a basket full of finishing work that needs to be done. Which will lead to more pictures and listings on Art Fire.

I also sneak away to Twitter and Face book to check to see if the world outside of these 4 walls is really still there. I try to find a few minutes for myself and today I am going to make a pan of brownies, because I really need the chocolate.

I know that I am getting tired of being home because I am planning some retail therapy and a lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. I printed out the lunch coupon and have decided with my new hair style that the first time in years I need a blow dryer for my hair.

So to sum up what it is like to be home with Eric sick for the week it is basically a busy week.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy your families.

The Tucson Wool Festival

After a long night with Eric and a sleep in till 8:30am., although I don't think you can really call it sleeping in if you are up with a cranky child till 2 am. I made it to the Tucson Wool Festival without John and Eric.

I manage to get a parking space in Kathy's new lot. Since I did not have Eric with me this time I actually got to watch the sheep shearing this year. I found it very interesting, with the wool from each animal going into a separate bag with the name of the animal. They also got there tetanus shots and nails trimmed at the same time. This is all very labor intensive and was a 2 man job. With all the work that goes into the process I personally think that we should probably be spending more for our lovely yarns.

I got to try my hand at carding some alpaca this again is a very labor intensive operation. I can see why the fiber artist had such trim arms. My timing was off for the wet felting demonstrations. It also look very complicated to get a loom ready for weaving. Almost everything under the sun that was wool including felted soap, jewelry, spinning, and supplies. were included.

Unfortunately for the vendors I went to the Wool Festival with less than $100 and did not pull out my credit card. After all I am trying to de-stash and bingeing on yarn would be counter productive. I did however come home with a little over 7 ounces of white baby alpaca yarn grown locally in Southern Arizona. I will add pictures later of this yummy soft yarn. I actually see a shawl in its' future. It will have to have it's own blog entry.

If you did not get a chance to go to the wool festival you can still get some lovely yarn from Kathy at her Etsy shop UniqueDesignsbyKathy. Kathy has a selection of patterns, finished products, and yarn, did I mention that she is a fabulous fiber artist in her own right. Kathy is one amazing woman not only does she raise her wool and mohair herself, but processes it, dyes it, spins it, kints it, crochets it , felts it and weaves it. Did I mention that she is an excellent teacher also.
http://http//www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5349708

Have a great day and enjoy your families.

A busy yet fun day.

It is never all work and no play for long. Today and tomorrow Eric has Fall Break. I don't know why he has 2 random days off in the middle of October, but that is the way it is.

I took Eric with me to the knitting guild meeting today. I had 4 hats to drop off for the winter charity drive for low income children in Northern Arizona. I also finished 1 more hat at the meeting. Helga said that they still needed more hats and asked if I could make a few more and drop them off next week, so I said OK. The meeting started at 9:30 and we left at 10 am to go home and meet Eric's help for the mid day shift.

It was off to Jacob's Park where they have the Milagros play ground. The Milagros play ground is the only totally wheelchair accessible play structure in Tucson. Funded and built by the local Rotary Club. Those wonderful people just might not know what a wonderful gift that they gave to the community. Eric spent an hour playing with his aid. It was a perfect day for the park, the temperatures were in the low 80's with a slight breeze.

Then it was off to lunch and now it is rest time for Eric. The laundry is going, at least 3 loads today. I just love these totally mellow days, I wish I had more of them. The pace is just a lot slower than usual and it is so nice to have a mellow day. It does not matter that the arthritis is flared up and my body does not want to move or that there is a lot of laundry to do, bills to pay dishes to clean up.. well you get the picture. The work never stops around here.

I hope you are having a mellow day today too. Please enjoy your families.

A very long night

I could tell by the grimace on Eric's face that it would be a long night. Eric rarely signs I love you to me, it is one of the harder signs for him to do. I knew I was in big trouble when he sign I love you, gave me a kiss and choose pedilyte over formula.

There was the usual tummy ache followed by the now unusual bout of seizures. Eric had a little over an hour of on and off partial seizures. There is nothing that makes me feel more useless as a mom than standing by Eric's bed unable to do anything but tell him everything will be all right and holding his hand while he has seizure after seizure. By 2:30 am the seizures had stopped and he fell asleep.

OK, so I got to sleep between 2:30 am and 5:40 am so the day should not be that bad unless I run out of Diet Coke. I got 3 hours of sleep, I should be able to handle a sick child all day, I just need to keep moving and hope that he takes a nap so that I can take a nap too.

On the bright side there is one bowl of chili and some corn bread left over from last nights dinner, so lunch is made. Depending on how tired I am tonight John will either get chicken stir fry or soup, the only thing I know for sure is that it will be chicken.

It's not even 8 am yet, but I really want it to be bed time right now, so I guess its time to stop writing and go find the Diet Coke.

Did I mention that the garage door is being serviced today. The service tech is here right now. New cables plus what ever else is about to break.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy your families.

A Failed Shopping Trip

Today's shopping trip failed miserably. All I was looking for were 2 pair of men's cotton PJ's in size large by Dockers. I was told time and again that men's pj's are only stocked for the holidays. I must be missing something here. The stores stock pj's for women and children year round and men just for the holidays.

Can someone in retail explain to me why this seems to be a broad policy across retail. Now at dinner I will have to tell my husband that men's pj's are only a holiday item and unless I can get them on line he will have to wait till at least November for new pj's. This is just so wrong in I don't know how many ways. This was the answer at 5 different department stores.

I had my items that I needed to buy, and could not get them. How are we suppose to spend our hard earned money to buy goods, to get us out of the recession if the goods we want to buy are not there in the first place?

I also could not find Cal-King sheet sets for 22 inch deep pockets in cotton anywhere, not even for full price.

Has this recession made the retailers not want to carry what I need. Retailers, here's a big clue.. If you stock what I need and want, I will shop, otherwise I will keep my wallet closed.

Thank you for listening to me. I hope your shopping goes better for you.

Enjoy your families and have a great day.

A Quick Soup Recipe

One of our favorite quick soup recipes takes 15 minutes to make and serves 4.

2 cans chicken broth
1 pound frozen stir fry vegetables
12 frozen pot stickers ( we use chicken )

Add the frozen vegetables and chicken broth to a 4 quart pot. Bring to a boil and cook 10 minutes.

Microwave the pot stickers.

Place 3 pot stickers per soup bowl cover with the soup.

For Vegan or vegetarian options use vegetable broth and vegetarian pot stickers.