TGIF

Well we made it to Friday in one piece.  John had the day off so I took advantage and went to knitting. I had fun with the girls. You should see all the creative Christmas decorations they are knitting up for their trees. There were baskets, pine cones and miniature sweaters. Me on the other hand a knit 1 purl 2 scarf pattern, it is a very steady pattern that comes out quite nice. Oh I forgot cast on in multiples of 3.

I did get some spinning time in today. I am 2/3 of the way through one of Kathy Withers batts. I did notice that she did not have any listed in her shop, but if you send her a note through her etsy shop she might be able to come up with something just for you.

At dinner, yes I take my knitting when we eat out, I found a very large mistake in the red cowl I was 2/3 of the way done and it was not a recoverable error. Believe me I did try that first before I frogged the whole thing. I had the project re casted before we went home.

A little more knitting tonight. Two more squares were finished on Teri's Queen size blanket. Just in case you were wondering why the blanket is taking so long to knit;it is being knit on US size seven knitting needles.  So unless I love you as much as I love Teri I will not be making you one on size 7 needles ever. If it were for anyone else but Teri I would have given up on it a long time ago.

Well it is getting late so 1 last quick reminder. the contest is open until November 20 at midnight MST. I have 3 prizes and only 2 entries so far so you chances are very good so far.

I Will be a Willow Tree

Sometimes I wonder why I bother to make plans at all. About 50% of my plans land in the blender. Take today for instance. I had planed to go to the knitting guild meeting today and hang out with some friends and maybe have lunch. So to that end I called and scheduled a nurse for today last Friday, because Eric is still home. I figured 6 days in advance was enough. Well 8:00 am came and went. We are suppose to wait a reasonable amount of time in case the nurse gets lost. By 8:30  still no nurse and they have 2 hours to find a replacement. So much for the guild meeting and lunch with friends.

So instead I went to the pantry and filled a bag of food for the annual stuff the Mayflower for the Tucson Community Food Bank that our local radio station 94.9MIXfm puts on. Let Eric watch some TV while I got ready. Negotiated with Eric what shows he wanted to watch before we dropped the food and check off. Yes we had to wait until Sesame Street was over.

Then it was getting Eric ready to go and all that that entails. Load Eric in the car and drive down to the drop off site. Then I had to explain that Eric wanted to make the donation of the food so I put it in his lap so the volunteer could take the bag of food from him and then they said thank you to Eric. I also took a moment to drop the check in the collection bucket.

Back home again and it was time for my lunch and then to put Eric down for a nap. Eric wanted company so I did some knitting. When he dozed off I did some pretty awesome tossing of junk into recycle. Then Eric would squeak and I would go back to his room,  knit some more until he dozed  and then it was back to cleaning.This went on for 4 hours this afternoon. But the net result is a cleaner section of the house. And enough magazines tossed to compress the recycle bin a little.

I also figured out what was causing Eric's bed to act all funny. Yes I fixed that too. I just love duck tape, I just need to get more of it. An darn if I was not at the hardware store just last night and walked right past it thinking that I had enough of it.

Eric's afternoon aide was late too. He showed up 25 minutes after the start of the shift and then tried to play the we need to fill out the time card in pencil routine, yes like I have never seen that done before and did not know he was going to erase the time he was here with the time he was suppose to be here. Pencil really who was he trying to kid? I wrote over his pencil in black ink.

I can truly say that I am very tired and that it was a long day. Other than the disappointment of not being able to go out or have the energy to take pictures for my on line shop the day did turn out all right.

Now if Eric would only sleep through the night tonight.

Hump Day

After a long night with Eric, I decided to take it slow today. Actually my body did not give me much of a choice. Even fully caffeinated Eric and I managed to take a couple of naps today. To clarify I had the caffeine and not Eric, I am not that brave to try and give him caffeine.

More napping than knitting got done. On Eric's 3rd nap of the day I did manage to do some finishing work. If the nurse does not show tomorrow I will spend the morning taking pictures with Eric. I have incorporated some of my own hand spun in 2 of the hats.

When the mail came today Eric decided that he wanted the t-shirt that I had won as a prize from Pepsi. So I told him if he really wanted it he would have to take it out of my hands. He  really surprised me by reaching over with both hands and really giving it a tug. So now I would like to thank Pepsi for the new t-shirt for Eric from the Pepsi Refresh Project. As a reminder for everyone. Eric is still collecting tabs for the Ronald McDonald House here in Tucson for his charity work. He Just loves it when you send tabs his way.

I know the blog is rambling tonight so I guess this means it is time to go to sleep. Night all.

A Pretty Good Day

I had a pretty good day for being in the middle of week 3 home with Eric. Eric is starting to feel better and is not quiet as grumpy as yesterday.  This left me with some time to do a little pick up around the house and make a home cooked dinner.

I managed to finish some UFOs. One was an order due next Monday and the other was a hat for the online shop. I plan on doing the finishing work tomorrow. One of my circular needles got lonely so I cast on another hat to work on when I am sitting with Eric. Yes I know I just created another UFO but what can I say. The needles were lonely and the yarn was there. If the boss is in a good enough mood I may even be able to take some pictures and list some items tomorrow.

I did manage to get some spinning done today. I am working with one of Kathy Withers batts in apricot. It is just so lovely to spin. I find that spinning can take me to a nice place of relaxation. It is just me and the fiber. Nothing else happens when the fiber is being spun. I have come to the conclusion that spinning is as good as chocolate but less fattening.

Even with such a good day, I think I am slowly creeping into a snarky mood which will have to be sent packing tomorrow. It might have been do to the fact that I woke with a raging margarine at 5:15 this morning.  Yes it is very easy to be snarky, but I still strive to be the nice gentle optimistic person I usually am and want to be.

It is getting late so I will try to get some sleep so I have the energy to deal with Eric tomorrow.

On and On

We are now at the beginning of week 3 of Eric being home sick this time. Yes really this is week 3.  We are on our second round of medicine. His sleep is still very erratic.  I have continued to master sit down and take a nap at the drop of a hat. Which means not much is getting done around here but the essentials. By the way are clean laundry and home cooked meals really essential?

There are plenty of things on hold such as working out and test knitting new patterns, listing the few finished things I have in my on line shop, cleaning, spinning, sewing. The one thing I have been able to do in bits and pieces is knit. I have been going through yarn at a good clip. The hats are getting very creative. I have started mixing commercially and hand spun yarn in the same hat for some really neat texture and color combinations. I also have finished a few cowls.

I hope to have Eric out the door to school by next Monday which will give me exactly 2 days off before he is home for the holiday weekend.  Before I ramble any more I hear laundry calling my name.

Rainy Days and Monday

Today did not start off in a stellar fashion. By 8 am I wanted a do over. Yes, really seriously. As I got out of the shower I thought I heard the low battery on a smoke alarm. Since John did not change them Halloween weekend as is our custom. So out came the step ladder and the 9 volt batteries. I changed all the batteries. On the new models we got they are a lot easier to change the batteries than the ones we bought in 1994. Did you know the life span of the average smoke detector is 10 years. Have you replaced your units if the are over 10 years old.

Back from the random tangent. I still heard the beeping after changing all of the batteries. Upon further investigation I found John's pager going off like mad. I wish I knew how to turn it off. Just for a point of reference it went off so many times this morning it bounced it's way off the shelf.

Eric spiked a temperature this morning. So my anticipated day of freedom will be put off at least another day or two. To add to the morning jumble the wrong trash can was out this morning, so we have to wait another week for recycling to go out.

The best part of the day was that we got 1/2 inch of a nice gentle rain this morning. Oh how I love the rain. Yes it does not rain much here. It was also the second day this week that we got snow on the Santa Catalina's. Not a whole lot just enough to make me want more so I could take a picture.

I seem to be in a knitting funk. I am busy starting new projects without finishing old ones. I have at least 10 small projects going and I really need to finish Teri's blanket. The spinning front is not going much better. I have wip's on my wheel and on all but one of my spindles. I am hoping to finish some of the smaller projects tomorrow and Wednesday. When I finally get Eric out of the house I am going to be in desperate need of girl/knit and chat time.  So please be prepared for a random phone call, you know who you are.

Well it is almost time to get Eric ready for bed. Yes I know he has been in bed for most of the day but it is now really bed time.

Old Fashioned Beef Stew

This is what I served John for dinner last night. It takes a little more preparation than my usual recipes but the taste is well worth the effort in my humble opinion.

Old Fashioned Beef Stew

1 pound beef stew meat
24 ounces of mini potatoes washed
1 medium sweet onion coarsely chopped
6 large sweet carrots peeled and coarsely sliced
1 whole celery washed and coarsely sliced
1 pound frozen mixed vegetables
salt and pepper to taste

Three and one half hours before dinner get your 4 1/4 quart Le Creuset pot or a similar sized pot. Make sure it will hold the steam in. I did not add any extra liquid to this recipe so it is important to not lose steam or liquid during cooking. If you pot lets out to much steam you may have to add water to keep this from burning.

On a medium heat add the stew meat with the salt and pepper to brown. Once the meat is no longer bright red add the onions and cook covered until the onions are soft. Then layer in the potatoes, carrots and celery. Cover and continue to heat on a medium heat for 30 minutes. Carefully take the lid off the pot to keep as much of the moisture in the pan as possible. Stir the pot and put the cover back on. Lower the temperature to medium low and cook for 1 more hour. Carefully take off the lid to preserve the moisture in the pan. Add the frozen vegetables and cover for 30 minutes. Stir and cover for the last half hour.

Serve with fresh bread or biscuits. Serves 4.

You may substitute fresh lamb, or chicken in the stew but the flavorings may have to be adjusted.