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.

An Amazing Day

I think I had quite an amazing day today, considering Eric kept me up until 3 am and I was up before 7:30. I joined the Tuesday morning knitting group at Einsteins arriving a little late, I had a hard time getting into gear this morning. As I walked in Nancy said to the group that there is another teacher here to the assembled group. I looked around wondering who it might be and then Carolyn piped in that it was me. Was I ever so surprised that Nancy thought so much of my humble knitting skills. So I spent part of the morning teaching an adorable little blond how to pearl and cast on. Considering how tired I was, I found that I could improvise on my feet pretty well.

A drive to Kiwi to look at some fibre and for the other to get more yarn to finish their current projects. Then more driving to the Tucson Mall to have lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen. Note to self even the half order of salad is enough for 2. Their Moroccan Chicken salad is just wonderful. Just be sure to leave off the dressing for the full flavor of the salad.

I then went home and watched a little Tivo until Eric got home. A little spinning and laundry got done. The dishwasher run and emptied. Did I mention that I had planed leftovers for dinner so there was no cooking involved.

I would like to thank every one who has helped Eric over the last 2 months collecting tabs for our local Ronald McDonald house. His 2 month total was 3.9 pounds. That is quite a lot for one not so little guy to carry in.

Well here is hoping that the not so little guy is asleep.

Semi Homemade Chicken Pot Pie.

It was a very rare lazy day for me. I followed my bodies lead and took it very slow today.  So this is what John got for dinner tonight.

Semi Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

6 ounces pre diced onions
2 cups frozen hash brown potato cubes
2 heaping tablespoons margarine
1 box of Pillsbury ready made pie crusts - you will need both
1 pound frozen mixed vegetables
6 ounces pre cooked chicken diced
1 large deep dish pie pan
1 foil lined cookie sheet

In a large fry pan or wok melt the margarine on a medium low heat. Add the onions and saute for about 5 minutes. Lower the temperature to a lower heat and add the frozen potatoes and cook until soft. Add the chicken and the vegetables and keep on a low heat until 45 minutes before dinner. Unroll the first crust into an un greased pie pan. Pat the pie crust in place. Add all the mixture from the pan and pack it very firmly into the pie crust. dampen the edges of the pie crust and unroll the second pie crust on top. Wet the entire top of the pie crust with a small amount of water. Roll the bottom and top edges together and crimp anyway you would like. There are no bonus points for perfect thumb prints or crimps. Make 4 slits around the top of the pie crust and another vent hole in the center. Place in a cold oven and bake at 325 for 45 minutes,  a little longer if you like a darker crust.

You will notice two things about this recipe. First I did not add additional seasonings. I find that when making semi homemade items everything is usually very well seasoned to begin with. Secondly that I place the pot pie in a cold oven. I use a glass pie dish and I do not want it to crack so I put it on a cookie sheet lined with foil into a cold oven. It is better for the pie dish to heat up very slowly. When I remove the pot pie I leave it on the cookie sheet. It is very important that you do not put hot glass baking dishes on a damp or cold surface when taking it out of the oven.  So the cookie sheet is perfect in two ways. First it will catch any over flow and second just leave the pot pie on the cookie sheet until both are cool.

This serves 4 to 5 people. For a vegan pot pie just leave out the chicken.

Mother's Day 2011

My Mother's Day for this year started rather early this morning as Eric is having a rather hard time recovering from this bout of pneumonia. I truly had one of those befuddled nights with no attention span at all. I started out knitting on a poncho. After a few rows I switched to a scarf. Then to yet another scarf and back and forth between the 2 scarfs. I think I have a few too many things on the needles when I can switch back and forth like that and still not get anything finished.

I got to talk to my mom very early this morning before she headed out to my sisters house. The guys took me to brunch at China Phoenix for dim sum.  I then got to spend the afternoon spinning and knitting. Yes I again hopped from project to project. I still have a lot of UFOs.

One of the high lights of my day was that Teri managed to break away from studying for finals for a few minutes to talk. Talk about an  wonderful an unexpected call. John and I got a quick dinner at Mayco's while Eric and his aide worked on his night time routine. Well I think I will call it a night and try to stay awake long enough to put Eric to bed.

One Thing to Never Do

Today I have learned not to fight with fabric while trying to sew. The sewing machine always wins. I have been sewing since I was 9 and have never sewn my finger before.  This is a first that I could have done with out. One black and blue finger plus a tetanus shot later I have decided to go back to quilting the wrong way. I have been doing it wrong for years and before today I have never run over my finger. 

On the Bright side Eric's fever is gone and he is feeling well enough to grumble that he does not feel well. I will take progress anyway I can get it.

I also need to thank John and Eric's aide Joe for fixing Eric's bed. They managed to wangle the old wheels off and putting the new ones on with a plus side of we now have working breaks.

The blog is going to be very short until my finger feels better because I don't type well when I am not using all my fingers. I do very badly with hunt and peck.

A Smile

After a very long night I did manage to get 5 glorious hours of sleep. Eric and I had a very lay low day today. By all accounts I should have called in a nurse for the day. That being said I sometimes get tired of the revolving door of people through the house and just wanted some quiet today. So a few chores got done and I spent most of the day with Eric.

For those following the saga of the 33 gallons of wool boucle, I did manage to finish the orange up today and will have to finish the current poncho with some yellow. The end is in sight 3 maybe 4 more ponchos and the boucle should be finished. It took me long enough. I did manage to sneak in a nap today when Eric's aide got here.

I have finished half of the yellow and red combo I got from Kathy. I have decided to wind off the first half and start with an empty spindle for the second half. Pictures will follow when I get the camera out.

This evening even though he is still feeling crummy I got the first smile in days from Eric. That being said I think I will call it a night.

And Life Goes On

Well I took Eric to the doctors today and no surprise here, he has pneumonia again. The down side he is not feeling well and wants to be with his friends. The up side is that he has won me. I will also get a lot of knitting done. Last night I finished 1/2 of a poncho and started on the second half. I also put another color and style of poncho on a a pair of circulars I am on 5 or 6 rows into the first side of that one.

Teri has one final down and 3 more to go. She has also won a Cali for her Mass.Comm. class. We are very proud of her and are so lucky to be part of her life. Keep up the good work Teri. Eric also enjoyed listening to Teri's call today, but wanted to make sure she knew that because he was sick he owned me. 

I suspect that it will be another lay low week end but I have yarn and fluff so I am good to go. If I don't get to blog before then. Happy Mothers day to all you moms and single dads who have the children full time, this is your day too.

Here is hoping for at least 5 hours of sleep tonight.