the story (so far)

Ravellenics socks...

The Boy's choral MVP award...

Early spring in our favorite park...

Ladies' knit out rainbow sock KAL...

Election Day in the park...

Memorial Day parade...

The graduates...

Baby praying mantises...

Air hockey at the campground...

Day out with Thomas...

First snow day

Catching snowflakes

**we are four**

kiddos turned four years old a few weeks ago.  

birthday cake at nan and pap's house.  we went to knoebels earlier in the day and drove to their house afterward for a little party.  freddie wasn't feeling well - feverish, quiet, mopey.  he acted that way at the park, and he all but took a nap on me at my folks' house.  little did we know...

a few days later, on their actual birthday, freddie's fever was gone but he had sore throat, little appetite and was still tired.  now petunia came down with the same sick.  fever, tired, unfocused.  they had their annual checkup that morning and the doctor said that summer virus was going around, with no treatment except for tylenol for the fever and aches and ice pops and ice cream for the sore throat.  happy bday kids!!



the next day they felt up to cake.  petunia still had fever but felt a little perkier, freddie was getting his energy back, and now big kid was sick - he actually cried that he felt so bad, and it takes a lot to make my boy cry.  fun times!



i can't get over how grown up they are, now that they are four years old. i still look at my kids and think they should only be toddlers.  it doesn't seem long ago that they were just tiny little babies.

the kiddos are going to preschool three days a week for three hours.  they are still learning to ride bike, enjoy coloring, playing with cars and fighting with each other.  it's so much fun watching them grow up, watching their personalities change, glimpsing peeks at who they are becoming. 

where did summer go?

i would like to know!

the kids go back to school in a few weeks.  it feels like they just got out of school!  we had a busy summer, with the kids going to three bible schools, the boy went to church camp, and trips to the playground and bike park filled our days.  

yet again, the summer got away from me and i didn't get to do things i'd planned.  missed some movies, didn't get to go to the pool (the boy had two free swim passes, and we didn't get to go during the last heat wave, and now that the weather is cooler - low 80s, upper 70s - feel too cool to swim.  we went to knoebels a few times, and we will go a few more in the future, but we didn't get to swim there either.  we wanted to go on a few outings - to the crayola crayon factory, to choo choo barn - but we couldn't get our schedules to work.  

my garden did pretty well this summer, but the heat wave and blight took its toll on my tomatoes.  my grape tomato plants are all but dead, and my heirloom plants are slowly dying.  my roma tomato plants are steadily producing, and i froze the ones i picked in anticipation of making tomato sauce in a few weeks.  my cucumber plants are doing pretty well, and i've made pickles with some of them.  next year i'm going to change the layout of my plants, add a bush cucumber plant, and keep track of the apples.  i want to make pectin with them, but all summer they fell on the ground and instantly turned wormy.  still have my eye on my pears.  they're still a bit small, so they should be ready soon.

i canned pickles this past week.  i made bread and butter pickles, dill pickles and kosher pickles.  i'd like to do another batch of bread and butter pickles.  i also made a batch of mixed berry jelly - i picked up raspberries, blackberries and blueberries at market and decided to make a jelly out of them.  holy crow, did that jelly come out great!

i haven't been knitting much this summer - too tired, too hot, and wavering mojo.  i finished my age of brass and steam shawl with fiber optic yarns paintbox gradient kasmir yarn.

beautiful, scrumptious yarn.  i bought more gradient yarn, this time in colorway aqua to chocolate.  i want to make a circle shawl with it, and i'm still trying to decide which pattern to use...



 i made petunia a cardi - remind me to not make a pieced sweater again!  piecing a sweater together is a pita!  i'm in the process of knitting freddie's, so i get to piece another one!  i'm contemplating knitting a sweater for the boy.  his will be a top down seamless sweater, as bob is my witness!

i have some shawls in the queue, and a lot of WIPs to finish.  i'm hoping to get some knit time in when the kiddos go to school - they'll be in school three mornings a week, so i should be able to eke out some knit time there.



i made a storage roll case for my crochet hooks.  i am taking a intro to crochet class at KDO this year (don't laugh, but i want to learn to make granny squares so i can use up my stash for blankets!) and i wanted a neat case for my hooks.  i used this tutorial to make mine, tweaking it a little bit to take a button and loop instead.  i love it!



the boy went to the library a few times for their summer program, and i took the kiddos once, but the kids who attended were babies/early toddlers.  the program met in the library that day, and the room we were in was too crowded with parents and kids.  the kiddos were actually BORED.  maybe next year, i can get my act together, and send the kids to the same program!

we took the kids to a couple baseball games - we left the first one becos i had a nasty case of hives, and hubby took the boy to see another game.  the kiddos seemed to enjoy the game;  the big kid has always liked going to games.

i'm looking forward to the kids going to school.  i think the kids are looking forward to the school routine too. it's tough entertaining three kids with different interests.  we watched a lot of dvds, and hubby took the kids to the playground and the "bike park" to give me a little break.

i have so many plans for when school starts!  the house needs a deep cleaning.  i have a lot of outgrown toys and clothes to go through and send to consignment or pack in deep storage.  i get to go to the gym three times a week!  i haven't gone all summer!  i planned to go early in the morning, before hubby went to work, but i either slept in or had the groggies and couldn't get it together.  oops.  so i gotta get back on the exercise routine.  i feel better when i do!

until then, i'm making the most of what's left of summer.

catching up

it's been a couple of months since i last posted here.  quite a bit has happened.

i went to maryland sheep and wool with my friend kristin and her mom and aunt.  this was my haul.  i see two sweaters, several shawls, two cowls, and the motherlode of wollmeise. 

the verdant gryphon had a codex update, and i bought the devil's dictionary.  at first i was thinking a shrug sweater but i think it really wants to be a shawl.


clearly i lost the april through june pantsdown stashdown.  :/

after many starts and stops and some mixed up skeins, my age of brass and steam shawl is steaming (ha!) ahead...


i'm going to KDO again this fall and am taking a steeks class and a intro to crochet (!!) class.  here is my homework (i still have a seed stitch square to do.  i loathe seed stitch.)


i took a class at a new yarn shop and learned to do a sweet tomato heel.


i signed up to do tour de fleece this year.  i am on team spindler.  clearly i am deluded, becos my spinning sucks, sucks sucks!  i really need a wheel...


black betty came out of hibernation so i stitched up some project bags...


it's canning time again, so i made two kinds of strawberry jam, two kinds of cherry jam, and black forest jam (cherry and chocolate and almond, yum!).  i'm hoping to add some sliced and whole fruit and veggies to my canning, provided i can find a pressure canner.


i got serious about my garden this year and planted three heirloom tomato plants, three roma tomato plants (for sauce!), two pepper plants, two cucumber plants, and a couple of herbs.  i have some dill drying down cellar, picked two huge (albeit green) heirloom tomatoes and downed these little beauties. mother nature has been kind to our garden and has kept our rain barrels full, so we don't have to rely on our public water.  i also shredded irish spring soap to deter the squirrels (still finding holes, the little dirtballs!) and bought slug repellent to chase the slugs away (might be working?)  i also planted my usual variety of flowers and they are flourishing as well.


speaking of rain barrels, i finally painted these after looking at their gaudy blue exteriors for nearly four years.  now they blend in with the scenery.


my mojo wavered quite a bit, so i read.  a lot.  and i have more to go.


the kids keep me hopping.  school has been out for nearly a month, and in that time they attended two bible schools (our church and my parents' church), celebrated the end of school with a trip to chuck e cheese and the book store, and play with the neighbor kid.

the kiddos enjoy visits to the park...


they graduated from preschool (the three year old class, anyway...)


and freddie is obsessed with the movie cars.  we watch it at least once a day, sometimes twice.  the kid can do movie karaoke with it, and i actually have a couple favorite scenes and songs.


the kids are learning to ride bike.  petunia quickly learned and often flies past her brothers.  freddie is more content with his trike.  not to be outdone by the kiddos, the boy is learning to ride too.  they ride up at my parents' house, who live across from a large cemetery, the same one where i learned to ride my bike.  they ride around in circles and sometimes take a tumble, but i'm glad that they are getting exercise.


the boy participated in his second soapbox derby.  he said he didn't care that he didn't place, he enjoyed just doing it.


this summer the boy will be going to church camp.  it's his first time away from home without family.  he's a little nervous, but i think he'll have fun.

prolly the kids' favorite summer activity - playing in our backyard.



we have other activities planned for the summer - visits to knoebels, summer reading at the library, sleeping over at grandparents' homes and a family picnic with hubby's extended family.  before we know it, we will be shopping for notebooks and pencils, new sneakers and jeans, and trading evening play in the yard for settling down for homework and early bedtimes.  there's so much left to do, and i don't want to miss anything!

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?

{this moment}

{this moment} - a friday ritual.  a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  a simple, special, extraordinary moment.  a moment i want to pause, savor and remember.  this feature is inspired by soulemama.