Yuck

It has been a few days since I last blogged. My hands have been a total wreck with tendinitis and carpel tunnel.  I have splints for both hands and it seems to help. I am going through terrible withdrawal symptoms from knitting and spinning. I hate not doing anything but I must give my hands a break. In the mean time you will find me wearing a matching set of these. Its so fun doing laundry while wearing them.

Well its time to put the boy to bed so he can go to his last day of school tomorrow.

Catching Up

I have been very busy since Wednesday with routine stuff., and therefore to busy to blog. Here is a brief catch up for everyone. Teri got a summer internship in the bay area and will be with in walking distance from a Bart station. Eric made it to school every day this week, to bad he only has a few more days of the school year left.

I have also done a lot of knitting and spinning this week. I really don't know if that contributed to a sore left hand and swollen thumb this morning. I have put my hand in a brace and the swelling seems to be going down although the clicking still seems to be there. I have spent the entire day Not spinning or knitting and to cope I went through old knitting magazines picking out the patterns that I want before I pass the magazines on.  Maybe I can swap them for fluff on Raverly.

Well my hand is very tired so it is time to say goodnight to everyone.

Hump Day better Known as Wednesday

Today was another busy day in the Old Pueblo for me.  I actually made it to the dentist for a long over do check up and guess what Mom? No cavities. I learned an interesting tidbit at the Post Office today. Did you know that you pay more for larger lighter packages then smaller heaver packages? Something about the space it takes on the plane and not the amount of fuel used per pound. It seems odd to me.

Then it was on to Bookmans our favorite used book store to see if they had anything I wanted and to see if they would take anything that was in the go to Bookmans bag. Well I did not find anything that I wanted so Teri will have $10.00 more in store credit when she comes for her next visit. Hopefully this summer before her 3rd year of law school, because December is just to long to wait.

I came home and had left overs for lunch and watched a little TV with some spinning on the spindle and knitting included. After lunch I went to work in the craft room and manage to put some things away and add some more to the charity pile. While Eric was doing his percussion I sat down at the spinning wheel to practice with some very thin roving to get the hang of the wheel. I think my plan worked very well. I am starting to feel better about the wheel, but if I ever up grade I think I might get a 2 peddle wheel. Also I think that 45 minutes is long enough to sit and spin in one session for right now.

Well it is getting late and I have another very over booked day for tomorrow so good night all.

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.