The Race

Handyman doesn't do any exercise, because his job already requires so much physical labor.  However, when he heard that several of his brothers and nephews (and one fabulous sister-in-law) were going to be running a 3K in a nearby town, he decided to sign up.

He convinced Peter that he could do it as well.  I was a little worried that Peter might have trouble, but Handyman blithely assured me that my eldest son would be just fine.

When did this kid get so big?!  When did he stop crawling and begin running?! (Insert "Mommy Moment" *sob*) 

The process for getting ready for the race was very exciting.  Men love gadgets of all sorts.

 And food.  Food is very important to Peter, who will go through quite a lot of hardship to have food.

Then of course, there is the noble art of . . ..

 

 

(You have to play the video.  It's hilarious.  If you're reading this via email you'll have to go here to the blog to play the video.)

 

It was *$$^#)_ cold that morning so I bundled up as best I could in the van with my knitting and waited for the race to start.

I'm not sure why Peter is making that face.  Perhaps he was having second thoughts.

"Goodbye, Peter!  Daddy loves you very much but he's going to run ahead and leave you in the dust so you can run with your kind(er) Aunt".

 

Ella stayed nice and warm in her stroller and made flirty eyes with everyone.

 Aaaaannnnd they're off!!!!

Tom came in first with a blazin' speed of 9 something ish(?).  Next came Bob (who is the eldest of The Brothers) followed by his two boys.

Handyman came flying by next, followed by Mike, and then finally Aunt Amanda and a triumphant and exhausted Peter.

A few of The Brothers (and Sons) medaled for their age group, including Handyman.  I think his extra speed was due to his cunningly hand-knitted aerodynamic cap.

(With the Father of The Brothers).

From there we all went to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed a delicious Midwest breakfast.

As I said before, Peter will do a lot for food.

Juneberry Shawl in April

 

 

 

 

For my dear Mum's birthday in March, I knit her a shawl from her own alpaca yarn, and I so fell in love with the pattern I right away cast on for another shawl (this one is a gift for someone else and she knows who she is.)  I finished this one in April.



This almost never happens with me.  I like the new, the next, the onward.



Somehow, though, this pattern keeps me knitting.  Just when I get bored of one section, it's time to switch to another.

 

I have discovered that this pattern works best with solid or lightly heathered yarns.  Anything too "busy" hides all the detailed stitches -

 

- and who would want to hide this?!

 

 

(Pattern specifications and yarn information can be found on my Ravelry page.)

The Breaking Point

As a stay-at-home-mom who homeschools three kids, has a baby with skin/dietary "issues", and also teaches music part time, there occasionally comes a moment when something inside that mom snaps.

Something vital.

Something that, under normal circumstances, prevents aforementioned stay-at-home-mom from hiding in her yarn stash with a thick book and a large bottle of whiskey and laughing/weeping hysterically in fits and spurts . . . .

A few weeks ago, I had reached that point, and things were getting scary, my friends, very scary.

I think Handyman picked up on my subtle hints ("HURRY UP AND GET HOME BECAUSE I'M GOING TO SELL ONE OF OUR CHILDREN ON EBAY AND I'M NOT PARTICULARLY PARTIAL TO WHICH ONE I PICK") because he wisely stayed home from work one Saturday so that I could have the day off. 

The whole. blessed. day.

First, I grabbed a book and went out for a nice breakfast.  When the waitress asked, "how many?" for seating, I gleefully replied "JUST ME!!!!!".

After my leisurely breakfast where nothing was spilled and no one stole anyone else's orange juice and no one complained about "too many nuts in their pancakes", and (best of all) no dishes to clean up, I walked around down-town and browsed the local shops.

I went into stores that I usually avoid like the plague because they are NOT the places to bring children. (shudder)

I stopped by the local yarn store and had a nice chat with the owner about the merits of this yarn versus that.  Perfectly lovely, boring, stuff that makes my heart thump merrily.

After that I headed to the closest mall (which is 45 minutes away).  On the way, I listened to MY radio and reveled in the feeling of not having to yell, "DON'T MAKE ME STOP THIS CAR!!!".

I went to Starbucks and got a large coffee and sat in Barnes and Noble and read some more while Ella (I did have to bring her with me, as she's still exclusively nursing) sat like an angel in her stroller and charmed everyone who passed by.

On my way home, I stopped at Guitar Center and picked out my birthday present from Handyman, a beautiful ukulele.

It was a fabulous day, finished by a fabulous present.

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh . . . . . .

Baby Set



My dear friend Rachel is due to have her baby soon, and although I gave her a baby shower, I wanted to knit a little something as well for her little man-to-come.

I had the perfect amount of super soft, 100% merino wool leftover from a previous project to make a set of matching booties and hat.

A bit of blue ribbon as shoe laces, and it was good to go!  Nice and easy and relatively quick.

Ravelry Page for Hat
Ravelry Page for Booties

In Hopes of No More Snow

Maybe I'm jinxing myself, but I'm hoping that if I fool the weather into thinking I like It, It will not turn around a dump a bucket-load of snow on me this weekend.  (The forecast is calling for more snow.)

Anyway, back in January the kids and I picked a wonderfully sunny day to visit some friends in Wisconsin.

Peter is truly his father's son.  He loves playing outside, no matter the temperature.

They went sledding and exploring all around Elise's beautiful property.

This was followed by a fabulous lunch of home made chicken and rice soup.

Okay weather, you can be nice now!

Wishing for Warm

 Sorry for the hiatus from blogging.  My family has been visiting from the Sunny South, and we've been busy. 

I found these pictures on my desktop of fingerless mitts that I never posted.  (Don't worry, they're not for me.  Personally this color on me looks like my hand has gangrene, but on my sister in law Kerissa, they're great.)

My hand looks a bit tanned, doesn't it?  That's because I took these photos just after coming back from Hawaii, when I still had sun memories in my skin.

Now I am once more pasty and pale and sad.

It is raining today.

And cold.

And my family left yesterday.

I am sad.

I need more coffee.

A Baby Shower

 



My dear friend Rachel is pregnant with her third child, and I was so excited to have been able to host a baby shower for her.



Rachel loves butterflies, so I decided to use a butterfly/spring theme as well as incorporating blue since she's having a boy. 

For the invitations, I printed the information onto vellum paper, and then tied it on top of some paper I got from a book of scrapbook papers from Joann Fabrics.

The cool thing about this paper is that it's double sided, so the back is as pretty as the front.

Rachel's friend Rhonda offered to take care of the games and help me set up on the day of the shower.  She also brought along some beautiful decorations.

 

Her daughter Isobel was also a fantastic help.  (Keeping each Taco Cup neat would have made me run screaming for my knitting cabinet.)

 

 

I knew we were going to have a house-full, so I wanted to have plenty of food.  I made hors d'oeuvres that could be nibbled on throughout the Shower so people could mingle and move about and visit with Rachel.  My house has small rooms, and I wanted Rachel to feel like she got to spend time with everyone there.



 

Rachel has trouble tolerating gluten, so everything was gluten free so that she could eat to her heart's content. (I have devious designs on being responsible for her having a 12 pound baby.)



 

 

I made two sets of cake pops, one with regular cake and one with gluten-free cake (I just bought a gluten-free box cake mix).  The cake was plain white cake, but I mixed a bit of vanilla frosting with some lemonade frosting to give it a bit of a fresh, "spring" taste.  (The lemonade icing is available right now as an Easter/spring special in the baking aisle.) The candy coating was just the Wilton blue candy melts I got from the cake decorating section at Wal-Mart.  I was worried I'd have to adjust the color to match the aqua color of the party decorations, but it worked perfectly without needing any changes!

I personally think Cake Pops taste best slightly frozen, so I made them a few days ahead of time and kept them in the freezer under lock and key until an hour before the Shower so they'd be cold.  Also, the regular candy melts are a bit too thick when melted, so I thinned it with a little bit of coconut oil.  Along with all the health benefits, coconut oil has the advantage of solidifying when it's below 80 degrees (which is like, ALWAYS up here).  This made it easier to coat the cake pops and the covering hardened quickly.

The plates and napkins I ordered online through Party City and picked up solid blue ones from the Dollar Tree to save a few pennies. (I'm Dutch.  We do things like that).

I picked up a set of plastic "bathroom cups" from Wal-Mart and filled them with Coconut Rice Custard.  Miss Boo sprinkled a bit of Saigon Cinnamon on top, which really added a wonderful flavor.  Oh my goodness, if you like coconut, this tastes amazing. So good. Mmmmmmmm . . . .

These were little quinoa quiche cups that I mixed with broccoli.  The recipe calls for zucchini (which I didn't have) and ham (Rachel doesn't eat pork) so I modified it by sautéing the broccoli with red onions in butter before mixing with the quinoa, egg, and cheese mix.

I also made a few trays of deviled eggs with a little bit of parsley garnish.  The white bowl held a Quinoa Cilantro Lime Salad.  I just love this recipe.  It's so fresh tasting and packed with flavor!  I would definitely recommend making it a day ahead of time because the taste improves a ton the next day when the lime-cumin dressing has had time to work it's magic. 

Finally, as the official "cake", I made a flourless orange chocolate torte with whipped cream/cream cheese frosting.  I basically followed the recipe, but didn't add any coconut milk to the ganache (I did a regular ganache recipe which uses heavy whipping cream), and added enough orange syrup (a coffee flavoring syrup) till the taste was just right. Subtle and not overpowering.  If I could do it again I think I'd use a slightly better chocolate.  As a note in case you ever decide to do this, the cake is rather gooey (like fudge) when warm, so keep it in the freezer and cut it when frozen (it doesn't ever freeze solidly; more like an ice cream consistency).  I knew it would be hard to serve once it warmed up, so after I cut the cake into slices I put them individually on flattened cupcake wrappers.

Everyone brought such beautiful gifts!

 

 I moved things around and lined up folding chairs along the walls, and somehow we managed to squeeze nearly 30 people in my house!  Cozy, but fun.

I put my most comfy recliner in the center room so that Rachel could see what was happening in both the other rooms where people were sitting.

Okay, now Rachel can have that baby!