Yarn Along 1/18/17

Halfway through knitting my Pussyhat. I'm making one for myself even though I found out about the project too late to send any hats to DC. I am finding it very magical to be making the exact same thing as thousands of other women and very cathartic to be doing something--no matter how small and "menial"--to protest all the hate and negativity that the political sphere is throwing at us. This pattern is similar to the Kit Kat Hat that was in my Ravelry queue as well :)

I finished Written in My Own Heart's Blood last night and just started Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. I found this book at a local thrift shop and thought about how it fits nicely into the criteria for the Goodreads book club my friend Maggie started. I hope to recommend it there after I finish it. It's one of my personal goals this year to read more books about history (yes, I am keeping that vague on purpose--history of countries, history of religions, histories of anything, really...).






Join the Yarn Along and share your current knits + reads by visiting Ginny's site.

A Visit from Papa! and Other Small Updates

dealing with some sinus issues and feeling run down but this week has been a very nice break from the monotony of everyday winter life, because from Sunday through yesterday we had our papa with us!!

we had a really nice dinner on monday night with my dad, who brought over cheese & crackers (as is the Freyer way) along with pears & artichokes. the boys loved the artichokes! i was very excited about that, even if you do drench them in butter. mike made chicken wings in his new fryer and i made crispy crowns (which are orion's "favorite thing that is crispy! and also, my favorite thing that is crowns."). maybe not a balanced meal, but really delightful-- i get a lot of joy watching otto eat 5 or more chicken wings ("bone bones!" he calls them).

tuesday papa got to come with us to take orion to preschool and see his classroom. we did some errands and visited the library with the other kids while orion was in class. papa was even kind enough to babysit tuesday night so mike and i could go out to dinner together, which hasn't happened at all since baby luna made her appearance back in september!

i feel like we made some good memories to tide us over until he returns in the spring (and our aunt marti even visited yesterday. she was a good sport who subjected herself to sitting through a long presentation of every drawing orion has completed in the past month, handed to her one by one for inspection, followed by a scooby doo movie because orion was determined to change her into a fan).

i always love when i get to spend time with my family. everything is different now, but i am very glad to have them whenever they can be here.

Luna is 3mo and 25 days old!

luna really really really wants to roll over and is very close. enough so that the grand un-swaddling has begun. i'm not about to let her roll over all wrapped up and unable to get back the right way. when that happened unexpectedly with otto i almost had a heart attack. and so. we are left to the alternative of disjointed sleep as she tries to figure out how to sleep through flailing limbs and i try to learn to comfort her sweetly and effectively without being a crutch to her or freaking out entirely. sleep regressions...i hate you. you always seem to happen unexpectedly right when we've reached a nice sweet spot of thinking we are finally going to be able to sleep like normal people again. i'm trying very hard to get her some naps with substance so that she continues being the sweet baby you see in the above photo ;) 

my head feels like daggers are going through my eyeballs constantly, so i really have no desire to be social or do more than the bare minimum at the moment. i'm disheartened to learn this could last for 4-6 weeks before i feel better. thank goodness i have no fever and therefore don't have to take antibiotics. thank goodness i am not reading the news because i feel like my headache would be five times worse due to all the nasty political nonsense. double thank goodness there is an ice day here today so no school (although i feel really bad about that too because it was going to be pajama party day and orion was really looking forward to it).

amended to add: his teacher called me and they will have pajama day on tuesday...phew! 

yes. recovery is the plan for the rest of the week. recovery from company, recovery from lack of home maintenance (laundry mountains are high), and hopefully some recovery of health if i can sneak in a few extra showers. hot washcloths are the most helpful things for my face at this moment. hot lemon water is good too.

here's a photo of my current knitting project. the pattern is the most simplistic thing ever, but right now that is about all i can handle. i also like how it looks. hopefully i can take a full stock of my yarn situation here soon and make a game plan for next projects. considering knitting some baby hats for the hospital as i have a lot of half-skeins of baby yarn laying around...decided against the lace mess shawl for now as i realized i don't have enough yarn.

until next time, where i hopefully will be in better spirits and running on a little more sleep...:)

New Year, Same Old Project (Yarn Along 1/4/17)

I'm so close!!!

5 more rows and then the final section!! I'm renaming this shawl the Never-ending Age of Brass and Steam...at least I took a photo where you can finally see the full beauty of the yarn color.

I meant to have a new project to show you today actually. I started a pair of fingerless gloves for myself as my hands are always freezing in this house, but I ended up frogging it after 12 or so rows once I realized that playing LEGOs and knitting simultaneously don't mix. Some day I hope to be able to multitask while knitting...at least I wasn't in love with the yarn I had chose :)

Currently reading:

1. Lots of info about Ebook writing...YES, I am going to be writing an Ebook. Can you guess the topic? Hint: It's not about knitting ;)

2. It's All Easy by Gwyneth Paltrow (I don't care what other people think; I adore her. Her recipe for salmon is one of my all time favorites).

3. Captain Underpants...Found two more in the series to add to our collection at the Little Free Library. Reading out loud to the boys...it's a good step up from a picture book, but keeps their attention more than a full-fledged chapter book.




I'm looking forward to seeing what you are knitting and reading to start the New Year! If you aren't already, please join the Yarn Along by visiting Ginny's page.

Yarn A Long - Will I Finish These WIPs by New Year's??

I'm 60% done with my book, but my digital library loan expired on my Kindle this morning, so I'm happy that I thought ahead and picked up a hard copy of the book at the actual library on Tuesday. It's a monster, but I am determined to finish it by year's end...the same with the two pictured knitting projects...

#1 is my third Barley hat in a row and is for the boy's two year old cousin, Vienna. I think she'll get a kick out of having the same style as them. I'll be finishing it off this morning.

#2 is my blasted Age of Brass and Steam shawlette-thing. I've learned so many things with this project...number one being, don't knit dark yarn on dark needles! The needles I'm using are super nice, but very hard to see what I am doing with the dark green yarn (which sadly didn't show up in the photo in it's beautifully variegated tones).

I am also running into the issue of knots where I had to re-tie the yarn together after Otto tangled it before I was able to wind it. Lesson #2-- don't forget to ask the yarn shop to wind my yarn for me!! I'm not looking forward to fixing all the imperfections in this piece.

See the yarn in the bottom left hand corner? That's what is keeping me going! I can't wait to cast on a new project for the new year! Trying to decide if I brave the Lace Mess Shawl or make myself a hat...the Kit Kat hat looks appealing...

If I don't update before the year's end, I wish you the best! Bring on 2017!

(You can join the yarn a long by visiting the Small Things blog)

Yarn Along 12/14/16

I finished Orion's Barley hat this morning and immediately cast on for my third and FINAL Barley! This one will be for cousin Vienna who just turned two. I'm going to make her a toddler sized hat as well. The yarn is Knit Picks from a long abandoned blanket project kit.

My reading is still going slowly, but I am 40% done with Shelter for the Spirit and got to read some in the tub last night. I am enjoying this book very much, even though some of it is dated (she explains using a debit card)! Some of the material is common sense, but a lot of it is timeless. If I was giving a housewarming gift or a gift to someone living alone for the first time, I would find a copy of this book and a copy of An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler to give them. Both contain essential, valuable information to keeping a cozy and thoughtful home and kitchen.

Rodale's Organic Life is a new read for me. I realize it is filled with ads for the Rodale's brand, but I get the magazine free and I quite like it. All of the recipes are real food recipes and quite a few are going into my recipe file to try. The pickled cranberries in the last issue in particular caught my eye...

I hope all your holiday knitting is going well! Here's a photo of Orion's hat and you can clearly see the glaring error I made, but he's given me a lot of hugs and kisses already for making it for him, so I am choosing to see all the good in it instead of my mistake (it fits his head perfectly)!

You can join the Yarn Along fun by joining the link up at Ginny's blog. 

Yarn Along 12/7/16

From left to right we have the start of Orion's red Barley hat, the wee beginnings of a Lace Mess Shawl, and my never-ending Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief that I just completed the second eyelet section on, even though I started it this past spring. I just can't get into shawls...so why did I cast on the Lace Mess last night in sock yarn nonetheless? Sometimes I question myself.

Not much reading going on at the moment since I need to buy the 8th Outlander book. I have been reading cookbooks during lunchtime (a very pleasant activity, believe it or not) and The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook never fails to inspire. I'll be making the Raspberry Rugelach on Friday.

My new planner just had to sneak in the photo too...Last year I had the large My Happy Planner and really liked it, but the size of this one is much better for me and my lifestyle. I love personalizing these types of planners and keeping a "hard copy" of my schedule and to-do's instead of using an app. I promise to write a planner post sometime soon!

As always, please feel free to join the Yarn Along! Started by Ginny of Small Things, you can go there to join the fun and share what you are reading and knitting :)

Well, at Least I Finished the Hat...

Where have I been?!

Well, let me tell you...Settle in, this could take a bit...You might already know some of this from Facebook if you follow me there.



Last Tuesday was Luna's two month check up! She's healthy and really short, basically. She's in the bottom percentile for height, but in the 10th for weight (9lbs 11oz)! Growing well though so no concerns. She had her shots, poor thing, and on the way home from the appointment I began to feel poorly myself.

See, the day before, after Mike left for work, I ended up with a really bad cramp in my left side. The heating pad I tried did nothing for it, but I took an Ibuprofen and called Mike to ask if I could go to urgent care to get it looked at. He agreed and we went over there together. They told me I had a UTI and my side pain was just probably a "pulled muscle." Well.

Okay, back to Tuesday. The horrible side pain comes back while I'm driving. By the time I get home I'm just praying how thankful I am that I got us home and I walk through the door, tell Mike he has to unload the kids, and go to our bedroom to try to lay down and cry. I couldn't get comfortable. It was excruciating. I read online something about ruptured appendixes and kind of freak out. Tell Mike and we agree that he will drop me off at the ER because it's not getting better and I'm feeling nauseous on top of it all.

Mike drops me off at the hospital to go put the kids to bed because we have no idea how long this will take. I tell the nurses I urgently have to use the rest room and they tell me to take a sample. There's not much coming out, but okay. They tell me I'm severely dehydrated and start fluids as well as two different pain killers. I'm throwing up in a bag as she's trying to get me the meds. They tell me next is to relax until I can go for a CT scan. The scan uncovers an 8mm kidney stone and they also let me know I NEVER HAD A UTI. I've never had one before in my life though so I didn't know to question that! The nurse said the urgent care just assumed that from the presence of blood in my urine...which was quite annoying for me to have wasted money being misdiagnosed. They should have sent me to the ER the previous day.

ER sends me home with painkillers and I'm still super doped up from the IV, which means Luna has to take formula for the first time ever. She's my first kid to ever have even tried it. I only had two bottles of "mama water" (what Otto calls breast milk) pumped in the freezer. This upset me quite a bit, but once I get home and Mike says she took to it no problem I relax a bit, because this is a dire situation and was my last resort. Fed babies are happy babies, I remind myself.

Bros being big helpers while I was ill. 

Wednesday I meet with the urologist. He says I might have to wait until Friday or Monday for the surgery I need because of Thanksgiving. He calls the hospital to check. They are going to be closed Friday too. He asks me when I last ate and I tell him...and thank god, they get me in that night! Our lovely friend watched the kids so Mike could be with me. I wake up with a stent and super hungry.

The next day was Thanksgiving! I did too much and it was quite tiring, but I was in a cheerful mood because that horrible (seriously, horrible. I'd rather have contraction pain) pain was gone! Mike did a great deal of the cooking, bless him (yes, we STILL hosted Thanksgiving here)! I was planning on making two types of rolls from scratch, but you can see we bought some instead. I did make the stuffing myself and the wild rice and tangerine salad. Mike took over the cranberries for me, made a pie, and spatch-cocked the turkey on the grill. The other side dishes were brought by our guests.

Luna's so cute...enjoying being passed around on her 1st Thanksgiving

After Thursday I rested a great deal. I thought about working on the hat for Otto I've been posting on the Yarn Along posts, but sleep is much more satisfying than knitting (and knitting on pain medicine would probably be a disaster for me). My routine was pain pills, read Outlander, and fall asleep until Luna needed me. It was a glorious three days of rest that I feel I've been needing for four years! Only wish I didn't have to go through what I did to get there. Happily, I was able to resume breast feeding too.

All day Sunday I was an anxious wreck because the stent had to come out and the surgeon told me to remove it myself. I'm very proud to say that I accomplished that and I did take a picture once it was out of me, but I won't post it here because I want to keep the few blog readers I do have ;)

We also put up the Christmas tree Saturday. Oops. I'm going out of chronological order here. The Ninja Turtle ornaments were my idea (Pinterest) but Mike and Orion bought the components and assembled them. All of us helped make the cranberry garland, which was actually pretty enjoyable and took less cranberries than I imagined. I'm quite thrilled the tree looks different than the past few years! And we decided the boys are old enough now that we'd try putting it back inside. The past two years we've put the tree out in the sun room until Christmas morning. So far, so good, but Otto will still try to dismantle it if he is unattended and in a feisty mood...

I also went out Black Friday for some thrifting (Orion grew into 4T pants overnight) and found this sweet little snow lady for $1 to add to my Christmas mantle. My mom had quite a collection of snowmen/snowwomen she put out every year and this one certainly reminds me of her <3

Sunday my friend Kristen and I both took our oldest kids to see Moana together. I loved it! My favorite character was the grandmother. Orion choose sour skittles and chocolate milk for his movie snack, which makes my stomach churn but he was happy. I drank a huge overpriced bottle of water because I'm too afraid to drink soda now and ate a lot of popcorn. Afterwards, they came back to our house and Kristen took some family photos for us so I could put together our Christmas card. I'm so pleased with how they turned out but I'm not posting more here because they will be on the cards!

But don't think my health woes were over after all that fun!!!

My next hurdle was my tooth. My front right tooth had been causing me a lot of pain since the vomiting-at-the-hospital incident. So I had to waste precious time going to the dentist to be told I need a root canal. Joy! This appointment was scheduled for Wednesday, but the surgeon had a death in the family and now I wait until next week.



So, can you see I've been a little too busy to post? It's funny because I've never had a reason to distrust my body before but it seems to be revolting. There are also lovely symptoms of having my good gut bacteria killed off from the antibiotics I was prescribed after surgery....*sigh*

Anyhow, I am still supposed to be taking it easy, but it is HARD. I told myself to ignore the dishes this morning and do something fun instead. So I finished Otto's hat! The pattern is Barley by Tin Can Knits and you can find my notes on the project at my Ravelry page.

He told me he liked it, but then declared that it is a "skateboard!" and not a hat at all...

Finally, here we are. The week has gone by very fast and that's one of the best things I can say. I am looking forward to maybe squeezing in a nap if we are lucky...and I'm hoping to get back to church because Advent is one of my favorite times of the year. I'll leave you with these two cute photos of a super happy Lu. She's definitely the most smiley baby out of all my kids!

Yarn Along (A Day Late Again)

Started my first Barley hat for Otto. I have a crazy vision of making us all Barley hats by Christmas, but at the rate I'm able to knit now who knows if that will be accomplished. Orion and Otto will both get theirs for Christmas for certain, but maybe Mike can wait until his birthday...and us girls can have ours somewhere in between? Knitting for Mike is difficult because 1) He is hard on things--he wears out clothes extraordinarily fast & 2) He is sensitive to certain materials and fibers. I made the mistake of knitting him a wool scarf once...never again!! Plus it felted when he washed it :(

I'm working on using up my stash yarns for these hats. If there is a Christmas bonus in our future I hope to start buying some yummy nice yarns from my LYS. I think this yarn is Lion Brand, but most of the other Barleys will be with KnitPicks.

As far as what I am reading...I haven't really started this book yet. I should have read it awhile ago, probably, because I'm in sort of a rough spot with Orion. I need to keep my composure a little better and hopefully this book will provide some good insights and a "pep talk" from someone who has been there.

Not pictured but reading on my Kindle: Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
I'm not super into it, but I've already read many books/listened to lots of podcasts on the topics she covers. Also can't relate to being an "over achiever" or an extrovert. Her revelations seem like common sense to me mostly...although I enjoyed the ruminations on training yourself to pray in a more helpful way. I'm 44% in and while it is a quick read, I don't really have much desire to go on with it.

Until next week! Come back and see if I manage to post on time! :)

As always, feel free to join the Yarn Along fun and visit Ginny's site to see more posts!

An Update with Pictures (Long post)

Currently eating this lovely little tureen of oatmeal while I type. It's so amusing to me that people complain about how long steel cut oats take to cook because from the time from when I decide I should start cooking myself breakfast to the time I actually get to eat said breakfast between feeding children, wiping up children, changing children's shirts, and finding children some entertainment so I can sit down to eat...it's been way more than enough time for my steel cut oats to cook (and making one batch makes enough for 3-4 days). This concoction is Comice pear, vanilla, and the tiniest amount of brown sugar. I cooked the oats in almond milk to use it up. 

Orion's fourth birthday was a huge success and he had a delightful handmade dinosaur cake that I regrettably did not get a photo of...

In this photo above you can see that he got to eat breakfast in the living room, because he was too excited to leave his new toy. It's a giant plastic monstrosity, but he had asked for it continuously for about two months (and even made me watch a ten minute YouTube review of all the cool features it has, which admittedly, is quite a few) so we decided that he should have it because he showed such devotion. It's the Lion Guard Training Lair play set and we found it for the best price on Amazon after the Target here was sold out of them. The Ninja Turtles and various Nintendo figures like to play on the jungle too, along with Kion and his friends. 

Other gifts included amazing Waldorf colored pencils, more dinosaur toys, and some chapter books to read together from Papa, Teenage Mutant Turtle figures and a Turtle Garbage Truck from his aunties, a Learning Resources cash register from his other grandparents, art supplies (including Dino themed art kits) and a set of Junior Legos from his friends. What is left for Santa to bring?! Just socks probably, haha...Speaking of the Junior Legos though...

We've been making a bag of Legos from his birthday set every day during quiet time. It's so much fun! These Legos have now moved to their own Lego shelf from the spot in this photo and Batman has been demoted from his wrecking crane operating because we made the construction mini figure that Orion insists is more qualified for the job ;) 

Last Orion related news, but we had his first parent-teacher conference last night and I'm pleased that there were mostly only positive things to say about his development and progress. The teacher is highly impressed with his artistic skills and even used the word "phenomenal." He does have a tendency to have a hard time with switching activities at school, which is something we see at home too, even when you give a warning...he just gets really focused! And sharing is hard sometimes still, which is another issue we deal with here. He's always making progress though, so I'm looking forward to what we hear at the next conference in February. 

(Some recent parts of Orion's drawings. The smiley orange guy is a squid, I'm told. Also, note the  "Triforce Guy" in the bottom picture).

In other news, I finished Luna's hat from last week! I had to start entirely over after I forgot a lifeline and tried to switch the project to a different set of needles and failed. That was on Friday. On Saturday her and I were up at 4:30 am and so I knit the hat in about three hours so she could wear it to Mike's family gathering that afternoon. Working on i-cord is a ton of fun! I don't enjoy decreasing hats, but I love working in the round. 

Since I took social media off my phone I feel like I am calmer and getting more done. I'll post my new knitting project in a separate Yarn Along post later today, but I also started a Dinner Diary, inspired by THIS article. 

I have two other projects rattling around in my brain to make some headway on soon and this will be the first (maybe only?) place you'll hear about those as well. I do plan to continue posting links to my blog posts on Facebook so you can find them easily, but I would love it if you'd consider leaving any comments here so I don't have to log into Facebook to check/miss anything you have to say :) 

Finally, here's something to make you laugh...a very wonderful mom at Orion's school gave me a bin of little girl clothes. Inside, I found this very...curious...pair of pants (which I am not keeping!!) Bless whomever thought this was a good idea. My sister's comment that "this is proof that society doesn't care what we call our daughters as long as they are pretty" seems accurate! 

Here are few photos of gorgeous, funny (she laughed in her sleep yesterday!), alert, & smart little Luna to end this post.

xoxox until next time!

Little Things 10-17-16

1.

Help! I have too many knitting projects started and no stamina to finish any of them...

Also, I have recently become aware of the existence of the most perfect yarn shop I've ever set foot in (GarenHuis --downtown Holland) and I am very itchy to get back to browse as my trip was cut short by a fussy infant (whom I don't blame. She probably saved me from spending over $50. I spent a conservative $20 so I could grab a ball of yarn for her hat and some needle point covers).

Buying yarn is interesting and I try not to do it as I have a lot of unused yarn...but I have started only buying when I have a project and yardage in mind. I have tons of yarn that I'd like to ideally sell, but I haven't found anyone interested yet. I wonder if there are places you can donate yarn to (like all the cotton yarn I bought for knitting washcloths...it turns out I LOATHE knitting washcloths)?


2.

I'm back on the "no dairy" diet. I actually really like doing this, it makes me feel better (and hopefully will help Luna feel better too), but watching other people eat pizza kind of blows. I don't even particularly crave pizza, especially greasy delivery pizza, but when I'm on a dairy free diet it really is a sad state of affairs when we have pizza night and I'm eating just crust and sauce.

And then I had to pass up cannoli on Saturday at a restaurant. That was hard. Another almost-oops happened at Starbucks when I ordered a chocolate croissant because I went shopping without eating breakfast first...didn't eat the croissant after I realized it was laden with milk (I brought it home and my sister ate it). Pfftt. Did you know that Pumpkin Spice Latte SYRUP has milk in it? So even if you order soy or coconut milk there will still be dairy in the drink. Meh.


3.

I've heard it said that in some cultures there is a 40 day rest period after you give birth to a baby. Well, Luna's one month old birthday is in two days & ten more days after that is almost the end of the month...so I'm giving myself 42 days of rest and then I'm jumping back into cutting down on screen time and being a more involved mom for the boys. We were doing so well before I gave birth!

But, everything is a phase...I have noticed that since they've been watching more TV lately that they've had a little bit more of an attitude. Probably from lack of attention from me. I've been so busy learning Luna and keeping her fed that I haven't been the best at giving anyone else undivided attention. Anyway, no more beating myself up about it. Just thinking about starting to fix it. I especially want to get back to reading to them for extended periods of time each day. We were having at least two 20-30 minute story times a day (not including bedtime stories) when the screen time was limited. I have been stocking up on arts and craft supplies, which I think will help coax them back to self-entertaining and we will be using a lot of those this week :)

I also am realizing the need for a shift in discipline for Orion as he is maturing--time outs aren't really working anymore. I think a chore chart to earn his screen time may be my next big project. He does well with incentives. How do you discipline or encourage good behavior in your 4-5 year olds??


4.

(exploring new teas--I bought this because many years ago there was a berry tea from Teavana I liked quite a bit)

I'd like to start drinking more tea. The only teas I really enjoy are peppermint and Sleepytime, however. I do not like floral teas of any sort. What other sort of tea should I try? Black tea is alright, but sort of boring. I don't put milk or sugar in my tea. It just gets cold in here starting the time of year and I like a warm drink around 3pm and around bedtime...


5. I cried quietly for the first time yesterday while holding Luna, because when she sleeps and her eyes flutter, she looks like my mom. Or at least it reminds me of my mom. It's very interesting how the first few weeks of life and the period of nearing the end of life are similar in so many ways.

A Little Heart

Knitted up a little heart this morning (while the kids were running around!) and I was surprised at what a mood booster completing a small project in its entirety can be. Made me feel a little better for the slow going on the shawl (although I worked on it last night and was able to catch two mistakes I made rather quickly & rectify them...so even that project is humming along nicely now).

I love decorating for Valentine's Day and need some more decor around the house...this heart used up a tiny bit of yarn left over from a baby girl hat and left me thinking that if I were to make more for a garland or such, I would use smaller needles and cotton yarn. This heart is hanging in my bedroom window, currently, where I will smile when I see it, to know that I can find time for making, even if they are little things.

(the pattern for this heart is located at ravelry)

Questions I Have Regarding Knitting

1. How can people who knit seriously afford to buy $22 skeins of yarn (multiple ones!) for each project?

2. How come yarn that is that expensive is always twelve times more exciting than any colorway I can find at Michael's or Hobby Lobby?

3. How is it that every single project I want to do requires new needles?! 

4. How am I the only mother on Earth who apparently has children that gravitate towards yarn like a moth to a flame? I'm unable to find any other experience online or in my questioning of real life friends of people with children who inhibit them from knitting during the day time due to being more interested in mommy's yarn than any of their toys. And yet, it happened to be with baby Orion and it's happening again with young Otto. 

These days, knitting gets put off until nap time--and on those days, housework gets put off for knitting--or until bedtime, when knitting isn't even much of a joy anymore. I long for the age to come where they don't give a hoot about my knitting. Or I can teach them to knit with their own yarn (maybe even $22 yarn! I can afford it in my day dream)! Actually, by the time they are that old, I'm sure I'll have another wee bairn (been reading too much Outlander...) around to grow into a feisty yarn tangler...and he/she will have two crafty older brothers to teach them how. 

There was like a few month window when they were tiny ones where I could knit while they nursed. But one time I bonked Otto's head with the needles and quickly abandoned that.

5. Okay, last question...do you think it is possible to be a knitter who ONLY uses circulars? I am hopelessly in love with circs. I think I am going to try. Magic loop is the easiest bleeping technique and makes way more sense to be than trying to wield 5 needles for socks.

Welcome Back!

So the topic of starting a blog for 2016 arose on a simple living forum I am a part of and I decided, after finding this old place a few days back and enjoying reading all my entries, that I would really like to get back to it. My friend over at Untangled Simplicity is also an inspiration and asked me awhile back to write a guest post for her blog, so getting back in the writing habit should happen!

Simple Living and Minimalism are topics I really enjoy reading about and it would be nice for me to do a little more documentation of the various things I do to make my life simple & cozy while documenting daily life here at Acorn Landing with my sweet family...

Today is the first time this winter that I have used the snow blower. I think he remembers all the struggles we had last year, because he graciously started for me on the third pull today. Yes, the snowblower is masculine to me. Mike is around, but I did the job because he is fighting a horrible and nasty cold. The boys are still coughing and poor Otto is leaking snot everywhere, which makes his sleep erratic and all of us a little on edge.

On the 1st, I began my latest knitting project, which is the Outlander inspired Transported to 1743 shawl . The yarn cost more than I expected AND I ended up reversing two colors, but I am continuing the way I started, with a darker color than the main color in the photo of the pattern. The colors will suit my wardrobe better this way besides.

I ended up frogging all my progress you see in this photo on the 2nd because I did not end up with the correct number of stitches after the first 33 rows (only 70-something instead of 97)...our printer is broken and I had to hand write out the instructions.

So, due to that, apparently I missed transcribing a M1R and a M1L increase before and after my stitch markers! Ugh! So, I am back on row 9-10 because now I've been assisting all the sick boys in the house and working on housework without time for the knitting. Today's nap time should yield a good chunk of time for some progress though. Ah, the trials of a beginning knitter. I suppose this is how one learns. I hope some day I'll have less of these mistakes. I thought I was doing well and being careful!

Cleaned out the fridge today...so nice to get back to decluttering after some time off!

We also (finally) cooked a ham last night for dinner. We bought one on sale during the holidays, but already had so many other good meals planned that the ham was moved to the back burner. Tonight I am going to make Ham and Cheese Pasta Casserole from this recipe, but I think I will adapt it to be closer to what commenter Stacie Clarke made.

And there's a brief update on what is new in my simple little life! :)