Yesterday we received a birthday party invite for a fellow homeschooler. Part of the party will be making hearts for Hearts That Help. Unfortunately, we'll be unable to attend.

I found a pattern on Ravelry for a felted heart, and Hannah and I have a heart assembly line going on.



Another set of homeschoolers created their first little company, HOPE cookies. I wish I had a link, but I think they're really small-scale. They're selling 5 cookies for $5 and donating all of the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders. They've already raised $600. These kids rock.

Mostly Hats

I've decided to spend this year knitting hats. I've tried sweaters and scarves and mittens, but I really love knitting hats. The other day I actually found myself listing the reasons why I like knitting hats. It went something like:

a. instant gratification and increased likelihood of a finished object

b. no-guilt ripping out

c. the winter is cold

d. bad hair day solution

e. gauge matters less

f. i have a habit of buying one or two skeins of yarn

The desire to own this pilot cap is the reason I started knitting, and I've come back to it at least 20 times, for my own children and as baby gifts.

Some other patterns on my list for this year:

Windschief by Westknits

Habitat by Jared Flood

Wurm by Katharina

Odessa by Grumperina

Botanic by Westknits

Very Warm Hat by Elizabeth Zimmermann

I am also anxiously awaiting the release of Twisted Wooly Toppers, which will round out my list.

This is about it for my New Year's "resolutions". Knit more hats.

Not looking

Both the library books and the armwarmers were found within 2 days.

The library books were under a blanket, in a wagon, in my in-laws' garage. The armwarmers were under a couch cushion at my grandparents' house. Tearing apart my own house was completely unnecessary. At least I got some cleaning done and saved the $32 library fee...

Looking

It seems like I'm always looking for something. Right now I'm searching for 3 things: two (overdue) library books and my new knitted armwarmers. My superstitious side believes that if I post this, I'll find them. It also believes that the word "quiet", uttered on a L&D floor, will bring a shitstorm of nightmare patients. Not entirely rational.

XMess

This Christmas was... interesting. I worked the 7a-3:30p shift, and it was one of the worst shifts I have ever worked. Whenever anyone says to me "oh, you have the best job", I try to smile and agree. What I'm really thinking is, "it's a good job when everything goes well." When things don't go well, it's a terrible job to have.

Anyhow, I ended up having to stay an extra 1.5 hours to do paperwork, and when I got home the kids were practically drooling with anticipation. They waited ALL DAY to open the presents with me. :)

Chris got me some really thoughtful gifts, including microwaveable socks and an "I heart grapefruit" shirt. He got some pretty boring presents, but went out the next day and bought his real gift: a pair of Bruno Maglis. His right to make fun of me for having two pairs of the same Keen shoe in different colors has been revoked.

The kids have been sick since Dec 23rd. First it was Enzo, then Annabelle, and then Hannah was discovered to have an ear infection while her siblings were at their pedi appointment. It has been the most hectic holiday. Enzo ended up with spasmodic croup, and I have like 17 more gray hairs. I am looking forward to everyone recovering so we can have a peaceful furlough vacation week in Maine.

Year in review (photo-heavy)

How did time go by so quickly?

Things have been rather busy lately. Somehow I still haven't finished my holiday shopping (after Christmas). A few weeks ago, I made photo calendars for my mother, my grandparents, and a few others. Unfortunately, I found out about the buy-one, get-the-rest-half-off sale the day it ended. I spent an entire day uploading pictures to a very cranky Shutterfly, then I stayed up until 2:30am doing the calendars. It left me entirely unenthusiastic about taking or uploading pictures.

Going through the last year's stock of pictures reminded me that my kids have an okay life. The next time I feel like Bitch Mother, I'll remember that my kids spent the year going on field trips, gardening, and playing on the beach in Maine.

Here's a little (big and photo-heavy) year-in-review...

I don't even know what to call this...

Over the summer, I checked out a library book called Confessions of an Organized Homemaker. In October, I finally admitted the damn thing was lost. Irony.

I ended up paying for it, and the librarian told me that if I keep the receipt and find the book within a year, I could bring it back and they'd refund my money.

So I took my receipt and placed it in the "Holiday Receipts 2009" envelope. And then last week, Chris found the book in the backseat of his car. It must have fell out of the returns bag and gotten buried. So now I can return the stupid lost book (although I'll read it first) and get my money back. All because I was organized.

num!

Today we went out to the Norman Bird Sanctuary for a homeschool raptor class.

The kids found a bunch of... undigested food in the thicket. yum yum.

the past few weeks

We've kept ourselves busy lately. We've been enjoying the last of the fall hiking, mostly at Purgatory Chasm. A few weeks ago, we made it up to the Berkshires for Indian brunch with friends and hiking at The Cobble.

The next weekend we celebrated our third Enzoween. The past two have been really hectic, trying to fit in cake and presents before or after trick-or-treating. This year, Halloween fell on a Saturday, which made it way easier. Our friends and their son joined us for a very mellow birthday party, followed by a warm-weather candy extravaganza.





After Halloween, our pumpkin went from this:


to this:


to make this very yummy Roasted Pumpkin Soup.

This weekend it's work, more hiking, and hopefully the completion of the Great Bathroom Debacle.

Corn Maze

We try to make it out to a corn maze every year. We've been doing this since '03, with the exception of the year when I was 9 months pregnant in October. We always go to Salisbury Farm, since they have awesome hours and reasonable admission fees.

This year my friend Kim and I went with the kiddos. This is the first year that Enzo has been walking without the option of a sling. Keeping track of 3 kids in a corn maze? Hard work. It's not so easy to find them once they are lost.

Luckily, we pretty much had the maze to ourselves, so no one else had to hear me yell "WAIT UP!" 500,000 times. We finished the maze in about 1.5 hours, which is decent considering the adults were outnumbered 2:1.









Tomorrow we're all heading up to the Berkshires to visit one of my most favorite friends. We're having Sunday Indian buffet and then going hiking to work it off.