valentine swag

if you are a classmate of my kids', you will be receiving these:

the bags (100) cost around five bucks...the boy's parachute guys were about $12 for 24...the candy about $20.  i'm not sure this swag was cost effective.


darn you, pinterest, for giving me expensive ideas.

happy valentine's day!

reboot

after a nearly two week long christmas break, we are settling back into our old routine of school/work/home.

we had a good christmas.  the kids tore into their gifts and enjoyed their new lego/thomas/barbie goodies.  hubby and i exchanged a couple gifts (beeswax candles and cheap dvds for me, beeswax coil candles and a wool coat [on sale!] for hubby).  the kiddos spent a few days with my parents, who took them to hell on earth chuck e cheese, and petunia got her first hair cut (really, a trim).  hubby and i had "alone time" to ourselves, spent rattling around the house and slobbering over hugh jackman oops that's just me shedding tears over les miz.

new year's eve found us eating "pickies" - snack treats i got at aldi - little smokies wrapped in phyllo, baked fried green beans, spinach dip bites, chicken taquitos and my childhood favorite, cut up hickory farms summer sausage simmered in sweet and sour sauce.  we also enjoyed our crackers.  the batch i bought this year had great loot in it.  petunia got a little car, freddie a tiny screwdriver set, the big kid a pair of toenail clippers (i claimed them having lost the pair i bought months ago), i got a tiny tape measure and hubby got a whoopie cushion!  the spare cracker had a tiny flashlight, which freddie claimed.

freddie's feeling FABULOUS!

big kid claimed the whoopie cushion


someone on facebook joked that petunia found my "stash".  but that's sparkling cider from aldi, and the case of woodchuck is months old (and really belongs in the back porch).  oh, the irony.


happy new year from the mcknitster clan!




i'm not a fan of january.  i loathe the cold and darkness and it's a month that always reminds me of a icy black lake stuck in the middle of the sparkly christmas season and the warm squishiness of valentine's day in february.

the start of the new year marks a reboot in life.  many use it to make resolutions or bucket lists.  i use this time, as i do with september (the start of school) and june (the end of school/beginning of summer) to reevaluate my life, and to figure out what's working and what isn't.

welcome to my "shoulds".

this year, i hope to go to the gym at least twice a week.  i try to go when the kiddos are in school and the days i can't i go on saturday morning or a day when my folks are watching the kids.  i lost 36 pounds, two pants sizes and my A1C went from 7.1 to 6.0 over the course of 6 months. awesome, right?!  but i have quite a ways to go.  i want to get down to my college weight of one hundred mumble mumble pounds.  hard work, but i'm ready for the challenge.

a lot of people have knitting and stash challenges.  i'm not sure what kind of knitting challenges i'm up for, but i do know i want complete more FOs this year.  more hats, more mittens, more lace shawls, and a pair of gloves for me!  i have a bunch of UFOs to complete (two sweaters, a couple pairs of socks, some shawls).  as for my SABLE, i really should think about reducing it, either through stash busting projects or more realistically, putting some of it up for sale.

will this be the year i declutter the homestead?  i barely touched my lists in my sparkly green notebook. hubby talked about renting a dumpster this summer and tossing stuff that's cluttering up the cellar and in the garage;  i want to focus on the attic which is full of junk.

i think, above all, i want to be more "in the moment".  the kids' school year is nearly half over.  a decade birthday is looming.  some days, i feel like my life is passing me by and i have nothing to show for it.  i work hard at taking care of my family, my home, i should enjoy it more, right?  i know it won't be easy but it'll make me a better mom, wife and person.  i'm ready for my new year reboot.

do you have any goals for the new year?

christmas wrapping

this song takes me back to leg warmers, valley girl, and square pegs.  a happy time in my life.  enjoy!

raggedy anne and andy

the kiddos' halloween party at school was delayed by one day due to the storm.  they wore last year's costumes becos i bought them big enough to last a couple of years, they wore them only once last year,  plus i'm cheap.

freddie wasn't too happy with his costume.  it was a bit short and snug.  petunia's fit but was on the short side as well.  i took a pair of jeans for freddie to change into after the costume parade.  he refused to wear his cap and i didn't fight him.  it was enough to get him to wear the suit.

walking to school...

photo op!


for being grumpy about his costume, freddie is happier than petunia...


the kiddos and their class of fuzzed faces (and spiderman too)!

the class paraded around the hallway and got treats from the church secretary and another parishioner.  they came home with a ton of treats.  i'm seriously considering snitching a pack of pringles.  finder's fee, ya know?

sadly i have no pictures of the boy in his costume.  he wanted to be a gunslinger from some game he plays on his iPod.  since he's not allowed taking a toy gun to school, i made a gun holster from a piece of textured felt (it looked like hand tooled leather) that i slipped on his belt.  a plaid shirt and a vest from goodwill, a straw hat from target and his sheriff's star from our trip out west and he was good to go.  he won a prize at his halloween fall fest party at school - a jar of candy becos he guessed the closest number of pieces in it.  i also took him trick or treating around the neighborhood and he got a decent haul.  he gave me a tootsie roll for taking him - i took a mini snickers bar.  finder's fee, right?

halloween is in our rearview mirror now, and we are looking forward to thanksgiving which will be here before we know it.  i have a feeling november is going to fly by.

i am also remembering my first baby, who departed this world ten years ago today.  i don't think i'll ever think of halloween or all saint's day without thinking about mackenzie.

my two dads

it's father's day and i'd love to share a couple tidbits about my dad and my FIL.

my dad writes calligraphy.  when he was a pastor, he'd fill out marriage certificates, baptismal booklets and confirmation certificates in beautiful copperplate.  he had several fountain pens - most of them used ink cartridges.  i remember when i was little, he had a small bottle of black ink in his desk.  i used to hold it up and watch the fluid slosh around inside, and it had a distinct smell that permeated the desk.  when i was ten he gave me a calligraphy kit, with a pen and a dozen ink cartridges.  i tried but i can't write as nice as dad.

calligraphy is a dying art.  occasionally i find stories about people who use their writing talents for invitations or artwork.  maybe i should dig that kit out and try writing again.  i'd love to carrying on my dad's writing tradition.


my father in law is well known in our community for his distinctive handlebar mustache.  he's worn it for years, before funky mustaches became vogue.  a few years ago we got pop this t-shirt for christmas:

it's safe to say that i won't be growing a handlebar mustache soon.

happy father's day daddy and pop!

remembering

today is memorial day.  this is how we spent today:

our town has a parade and memorial service for memorial day, with various veteran organizations, fire trucks, the high school marching band and JROTC.  every year we take the children to the parade not so much for entertainment, but to pay our respects.  this year there were maybe a handful of families on hand to watch the parade.  perhaps there were more people on the route and at the cemetery (we were at the beginning, by the playground.)  i felt sad that there weren't more people out in support.

when i was in high school our marching band participated in 4 parades and services over the memorial day weekend.  the first one was sunday in my home town, next to the community pool.  it was always hotter than blazes that day and inevitably someone would pass out (we wore our "summer" uniform which consisted of wool pants and long sleeved cotton "pirate" shirt - no namby-pamby khakis or polo shirts for us.  this was also before the era of disposable water bottles so there was usually little available for quenching thirst).  the next morning we would start the day with a parade and service in next community, followed an hour later at the community next to that, finishing with the final service at the village north of town, where we marched up a hill to the cemetery.  we'd finish around noontime feeling sweaty, tired and having the services' message all but memorized (they used the same speaker at all three services).  by senior year you could almost rattle off the names of the deceased.  the three services have since been combined into one at the community center.  at the time i loathed memorial day weekend becos of those services, but now i have a better appreciation of them, and what they mean.

our country has been at war for a better part of a decade.  sadly, we've added more fallen soldiers to the rolls since my days in marching band.  i personally do not know anyone who died in combat, but i have acquaintances who have lost spouses and friends.  growing up, war felt so old - we'd heard of war world II and the vietnam war was a vague memory.  every day we hear about another loss or learn about someone being deployed on another tour, and my heart drops each time.

it's important for us to show our children what memorial day stands for.  we want the kids to learn and show respect to those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.  some day my kids may march in a parade as part of a band, or maybe for scouts or JROTC.  i hope when that time comes they remember our times at the parades, and what the day really means.

sásta st. lá Paddy ar!

it's corned beef and cabbage day!  i made this in the crock-pot.  i eat mine with a smidge of apple cider vinegar (i have no idear why, it was how i was taught to eat it).  

i love saint patrick's day.  i found out last year that part of my dad's family is from county cork, ireland.  now i know why shamrocks, bagpipes and tartans stir up my blood (er, guess the bagpipes and tartans are from the scotch side of the family)...

tá lá iontach! (have a great day!)

blessed beyond measure

hubby surprised me with this necklace for valentine's day:

i am so blessed to have a wonderful man like him to love.  and he loves me right back!

merry christmas

enjoy the wonder of the season, and have a blessed christmas.

happy 4th

image courtesy of http://glucocardyouchoose.com/blog/tag/july-4/

hope jesus liked the mario brothers

i think the easter bunny was in cahoots with santa claus this year.  i have no one to blame but myself, but holy cats, did the kids make out like bandits goody wise:









each kid got a book (the little ones got recycled mini books, the boy got magic treehouse), a video (i found the mario brothers movie, a huge coup!, plus shawn the sheep and thomas the tank engine), new penn state t-shirts (matching except for the color of the shirt) and candy.  the boy likes japanese cookies and yan yans, so i got a lot of those.  petunia got a doll, and freddie got some cars.  petunia dumped out everyone else's buckets except her own.  we didn't do an egg hunt.  the boy went to our church one saturday, and the kiddos were basically run over by the other kids during their sunday school egg hunt.

i didn't get any pictures of the kids in their easter finest.  there weren't many easter flowers at church to do this, plus the boy was already in sunday school when we got to church.  this is the closest to an easter picture we got:











yes, that's chicago hope playing in the background.

i made a ham in the crock pot and baked corn saturday, which we reheated for lunch.  i also made baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows.  i also baked my first real double layer cake, albeit with boxed mix and canned frosting.  no pictures, cos i'm lazy like that.

today we ate lunch with my parents and grams at country cupboard.  shame my pants were so snug, and i had to feed the kiddos, becos i could've eaten more baked macaroni and salisbury steak.

tomorrow we go back to our regular routine.  only about 6 more weeks of school to go!