Puzzle

See if you can figure out what I was doing this week:

Hot July

Oh phooey. I had put in this entire long post and accidentally erased it when I tried to copy it over. Here are the high points.

• It's hot.
• I've been spending a lot of time outside.
• When I got dizzy while weeding yesterday, my thought was not concern that I would hurt myself if I fell but that the paramedics would trample my garden if they had to come get me.
  
• Neighbors are moving. Please join us in prayer that the new neighbors are "good", for want of a better word.
• Pictures of me in my mortifying but sun-safe outfit tomorrow.
• Harvested beets today. Yum!
• I'm really bummed that I erased that other post. Waaaaaaaa....

I'm baaaack!

It's hard to believe that the summer's 2/3 over. Well, sort of. Since we curtail but don't eliminate school during the summer, one could argue (and believe me, my girls certainly do) that we don't get a break at all. (Give me a break...just wait until "full-blown school" and tell me you don't get a break during the summer!) Some folks are headed back to work at schools next week, which means that summer will effectively be over for them. It's just a weird thing. I've made a concerted effort to focus on each day and appreciate summer for what it is...life still blazes past. I guess it's an immutable fact of life and something we can't do anything about.

Sunday is our wedding anniversary. I remember back when I thought 3 years was a long time to be married and we've surpassed that by 15. It doesn't bring back all the flurry of preparing a special anniversary dinner, the ceremonial viewing of the wedding video, etc. Mostly, we're just trying to figure out when and how to celebrate the day, given that we probably won't do it on Sunday itself. Still, it's a special day for me and since I'm blathering on, I will blather about that.

I've been assiduously working on a baby gift for my cousin's soon-to-be born son. It's the baby kimino from the Mason-Dixon knitting book. I came close to frogging the whole thing and buying something but I'd told my aunt that I couldn't send anything to the shower earlier because I was making the gift and it wasn't finished. She probably thinks I'm making a quilt, ha! One thing about knitting, you can give hand-made gifts and not have them take months and months to complete. Anyway, last night, I was knitting and reading a murder mystery. I had just finished the front of one side when Doug called up from the basement and scared me half to death. What is it about getting your head in a book that makes it hard to come back to real life? I'm just glad I didn't accidentally jerk the needles out of the bottom when he startled me.

Yesterday, the twins and Sarah and I ran some errands, including picking up a Step 2 sandbox that someone didn't want anymore. It took some wrangling but I finally got it into the van (those suckers are bigger than they look!) and we drove to the vet's office and to the library. (Lucy the Wonder Dog has coccidia, which isn't fatal but is a major pain in the backside. You should see the list of things I have to do to keep this dog healthy.) When we got out at the library, I noticed that the wind was blowing a bit and I grinned widely. I don't know if Sarah thought I was nuts or what. I explained that the hot wind blowing was drying my clothes very well on the line and making them fluffier than usual. It just tickles me to use something that's preexisting to save myself money. I do like the actual action of hanging clothes too. I don't know why but it's soothing to me, but I like saving money more, especially when the outside is much like the inside of my dryer. I'm experimenting today. Last night I hung a load to see if it would dry overnight, despite the possibility of dew. It was in the 80's last night when I was hanging them so I'm imagining that they'll be dry, or at the very least, the dew will evaporate pretty quickly.

Well, Friend Husband is about to leave for work (last week of summer school, yay!) so I'll toddle upstairs and wave him off. Have a great day (and thanks for the well wishes yesterday...they truly brought tears to my eyes)!

Progress

Way back at the end of May, Ali had a contest to make knitting plans for the summer.  Here were my goals:

So here are my goals for the summer:

1. I joined the sock-a-month KAL which ends on 7/31, so I hope/plan to knit two pairs of socks.

2. Knit my cousin a kimino out of the Mason-Dixon Knitting Book for her first baby, due at the end of August (like an August baby in LA needs a long-sleeved kimino, but whatever).

3. Knit the twins sweaters out of some of the acrylic that I got for Mother's Day.

4. Knit the dishcloths that I need to have to give the ladies at my congregation for their birthdays (I've been giving them a hand-knitted dishcloth for their birthdays...they don't get it but it makes me happy.)

5. Finish knitting and shrinking Friend Diane's felted bag which is in exchange for the dandy soap she gave me this month.

And that's enough for this girl. I've got five children, camp to get ready for and to go to (and to return from) a 40th birthday celebration to contemplate (my own, on Father's Day), homeschooling to do, and several gardens to keep under control. Enough excuses? Probably.

Let's see how well I've done at the end of the summer.

What have I completed?  Well, I did dishcloths for my sister's wedding and for another couple's wedding gift, but I don't suppose that counts on the dishcloth agenda.  I did finish 2 pairs of socks, more or less, for the knit-along.  Wanna see the new ones?  They're really felted slippers but they count because they're constructed like ginormous socks.  Here they are:

Before:

After:

So #1 is completed.  #2 is started and I knitted on it a bit today.  I still have my doubts about whether or not my cousin will like it but it will be done nonetheless.  Baby Landon is due next month.

#3?  Pfffft!  What was I thinking?  Yes, I know what I was thinking:  "Surely I can whip out a couple of toddler sweaters this summer."  Riiiiight!  Friend Gina is making the same pattern for her daughter so I'll see how hard they are.  Instead, I promised Friend Husband that I'd make him a cool Man Sweater.  Ha.  Riiiight.

#5 was completed and every time I see Friend Diane she just thanks me over and over.  What a sweetie!  I'm glad it turned out well and didn't look like it had knees, like Rachel's bag does.

Over and out.