Grateful

Since the end of August my head has been spinning with all that has to be done.  My Mother was hospitalized twice and went into rehab.  My Dad is not doing well with her absence.  She was supposed to be discharged yesterday on my Dad's 88th Birthday, but is instead going to be placed in the nursing home portion of the facility.  She is declining, and it is hard to see from every angle. My sons started school and now my youngest is now in a home bound school program as he has been ill.  Everyday when I say, "What could possibly happen now?"  Something does.  So today is a day to find things to be grateful for.

 Max is always available for a belly rub, a paw holding, or a nice walk.

 Beautiful flowers to remind me a Autumn.  I usually decorate for Autumn and Halloween, Halloween being my favorite holiday, but this year decorating has been put on hold because we are finally starting a kitchen renovation next week.  It is 6 weeks late, but it is starting.

 My friend Lynda who lives in North Carolina presses fall leaves for me every year.  She keeps them until the next Fall then mails them to me.  These beauties arrived the day after my last post, when Max and I went looking for Autumn.  Who knew we had to look in my mailbox?

 Family changes as your kids get older.  You know less and less about what your kids are up to, you just hope they are making the right decisions.  This little angel hangs in my family room, she reminds me everyday to be thankful for my family, whatever shape we are in.

I have been so busy that crochet and knit time is hard to find.  So when I am able to even get one row of my son's Chocolate Yarn Sucking Blanket done I am so grateful.  We are at a whopping 48 inches long, I get so excited until I hold it up to him and realize I have at least 24 inches to go. 

My oldest was in his high school conference swim meet this past Saturday.  At the meet there were 7 records broken and he was involved in 4 of them.  Two relay records and 2 individual for him.  His 100 breast stroke, broke an 18 year old record!  He is looking strong, healthy and swimming well for this point in the season.  But best of all after breaking his last record, his coach ran to him and they hugged right on deck, the biggest hug you have ever seen.  That is worth all the grief has has had to put up with in the past from his previous coach.  He is off to LSU this weekend for his second recruiting trip, send him positive thoughts if you have any to spare.

I think I am going to try and find some more positive things to blog about, I think it really helps. Hope your Thursday is calm and full of love.

Autumn where are you?

Blogs everywhere are saying that Autumn is in the air.  A change in temperature, change in leaf color, a shortening of the day.  The smell of a fireplace, crisp leaves to walk on, well you get the idea.  I live in Florida.  Autumn is my very favorite time of year, and frankly a season I do not get to experience.  So Max and I went out this morning to see if we could see any traces of Fall.

 Are you Ready?

 Autumn are you hiding in my maple tree?

 Are you hiding in the swamp behind my house?  No, but I bet there is an alligator in there.

 Are you on the road?

 Wait, what is this?  A leaf with some color! 

 Not even in the poison oak hanging from a tree is turning colors.

 Suddenly, a peek through the trees and what did we see?  A little bit of color that isn't a shade of green.

Max and I had a lovely time even if it is hot and humid and Autumn is far, far away from us.  Hope you are experiencing all the beauty this season has to offer.

Mish-Mash

I have so many little things to chat about today that you are in for a mish-mash of a post.  Is mish-mash even a word?  Well if it isn't I now declare it to be one!

First on the list is a big thank you for all of your kind thoughts for my son.  Leave it to blogger friends to always make you feel better.  He LOVED Ohio State.  If there was a bigger word to use than love, I think that is how he felt.  The  Head Coach was, "the nicest man I have ever met." A direct quote I heard twice and was texted to me once.  The swimmers were really a great group of guys.  There is no hazing, which I like and apparently they act like a family, there for each other all the time.  He loved the campus, the football game, the weather, (we'll see about that during the winter months).  Well he just loved everything.  So lets hope they loved him, too.

 On the knitting/crochet front there is not a lot of news.  I have been crunched for time, finding that many days I do not even have time to knit or crochet a row.  How sad is that?  Above you will see my second attempt at the Rustic Autumn Shawl from Knit Purl Girl.  The KAL is over but the pattern remains a beauty.  I am making this out of Red Heart Yarn Boutique Treasure.  Made from 70% Acrylic and 30% Wool.  Purchased at JoAnn's Fabric and Crafts.    The yarn is very lovely and a lot lighter than the pictures portray.  These were taken early this morning with a limited amount of available light.

 This one is a little better but still not prefect.  I am about a third of the way completed.  I think I will make this for my son's swim coach for Christmas.  What do you think?

As for my youngest we have stalled on the blanket at about 22 inches.  I have pretty much stalled on everything yarn wise so it is not the blankets fault.  I am on my eighth skein of yarn, I am sure this blanket is a bit of a black hole as far as yarn goes.  It just keeps sucking up the yarn, without making a big dent in the length.  I just keep thinking ,"coupons" and I can take a deep breath.

We are about to start a kitchen renovation that I just found out last night will be put off until October 4.  Okay this is the second delay and I am getting a bit mad.  I took today off work to help pack things up.  I know a free day sounds glorious, but now it will be filled with paperwork and a little packing.

If you are into reading do I have the book for you.  Roses by Leila Meacham.   Very engrossing, epic tale of a family in Texas.  I am hooked and I have to say I haven't been hooked on a book since The Help.  I am scheming ways to get a bit of reading time.  I downloaded the Nook app on my new phone so I have been reading on my phone while waiting for my son in his Doctor and Orthodontic appointments.  Very fun.  If I could be reading it right now while typing this post I would. 

My Mom is still not doing well, and it is taking its toll on all of us in the family, well most of us but that is for another post.  Once again I have to say that this is such a tough time of life.  My kids are in the throws of puberty, I am a menopausal mess, my Mom and Dad are failing, each in their own way, and frankly my husband is trying to figure all this wackiness out. 

Hope you all are having a great day and you didn't mind my mish-mash post.

Nervous

This is my oldest son last year at his high school state swim meet.  Today he left for his first college recruiting trip to Ohio State.  If you could all send those coaches some positive thoughts for my son I would appreciate it.  He is a good kid, a hard worker and deserves to be in a good situation especially considering how he has been treated in the past. 

It is very bittersweet sending your boy off on a trip without you.  You are so happy for him, but nervous and scared all at the same time.  And it feels really crazy that this could be happening so soon.  Wasn't he just running around in a Halloween costume and playing with trucks?  How could he be getting ready for college already?

Thanks for all your help, I can't wait until Sunday to see how it all went.

Holiday and a Quick Fix

It is Labor Day here in the US and I am loving every minute of being home today.  I love working with my delayed children but a day off is so nice every once in a while.  Yesterday I spent a little time on a scarf.  I had gone to JoAnn's Fabric and Crafts to buy some yarn for my youngest sons blanket. (More on that later).  And I found this very fun pom pom yarn.  I had a coupon for 40% off and so I bought it on a whim.  I am really not a novelty yarn buyer but this was so much fun.

 

 The yarn is Red Heart Pomp a Doodle, in the color African Violet.  It is 54 yards of string and pom poms.  I used size 10 1/2 needles, cast on 11 stitches and knit for less than two hours before I had a finished scarf.  It is very soft and quite yummy. You only knit the string portion of the yarn and let the pom poms fall wherever they want. Fun, fun, fun.

 Sorry my close up is a bit foggy.  When I take pictures outside so you can see the real colors of the yarn my lens fogs up......Florida is a very humid place.

 I really went to JoAnn's to pick up more yarn for this.  My youngest son has wanted a blanket for a while.  I made his brother the Big Red Monster blanket last year and truly wanted to rip my hair out with the boredom of it.  He likes it so that is the main thing, but the thought of another blanket just wasn't all that appealing. 

But Mom can't do something for one child and not the other so I decided to take the plunge.  My son wanted brown, so it would feel like he was wrapped in chocolate.  A lovely thought I might say, so I went to a very reliable yarn that I have used for baby blankets and small purses, the famous Lion Brand Yarn Nature's Choice Organic Cotton.  I chained 129 stitches and got to work. 

There is just one small thing I forgot.  Crochet is a huge suck up of yarn.  And I mean HUGE.  I have already used 5 skeins of yarn and am at a measly 11 inches.  My son is rounding out at 5'10", with a potential of several more.  I think I may be broke before this baby is done.  There is a bright spot in this expensive story.  JoAnn's usually has a coupon in the paper every week, and I usually get one mailed to me.  They are accepting Michael's coupons too, so that means about three coupons a week at 40% off.  I envision lots and lots of trips to the store for yarn before this is done.  Any guess on how many skeins it is going to take before I am finished?

Hope you are having a lovely Monday.

At Last

I am finished with the Rustic Autumn Shawl so beautifully created by Knit Purl Gurl.  And I love it so much I am ready to cast on another one right away.  Just take a look at this.

 I used Universal Yarn Classic Shades in watermelon.  This is a 70% acrylic/30% wool combination yarn that is very soft and not so warm for Florida.  Knit Purl Gurl created her shawl with Noro, which I am in love with but did not have on hand when I decided to cast on.  Universal Yarns are very reasonable price wise and I have to say I am loving them more and more every time I use them,

 The pattern was very easy to understand and quick and fun to make.  I used a size 11 needle and did one less garter stitch row repeat to adjust for my larger needle size. 

 I think I might repeat the diagonal rib pattern one more time in my next shawl to make it a bit longer.  If you are newish to knitting you can just omit the diagonal rib pattern and just keep knitting away in garter stitch.  Let your beautiful yarn do the talking for you.

 Max is a bit bored with me right now.  We just went for a walk and now he is sad because his Dad has left for the weekend.  Okay, I am going to go out on a limb here, but does anyone else get a little excited when their husband or partner goes away for the weekend?  I love my husband to bits and I am so happy we have been married for almost 20 years, but.......it's sort of nice to get a break isn't it?  I get to plan my weekend and not have to check in.  I can knit and crochet until my hands are sore and I don't have to think about what he needs.  Now I still have two boys at home and of course Max, oh and my parents to deal with, but it is nice to have one less obligation, a great obligation, but still he is someone else to think about.

I have been on the computer trying to catch up with blogs and.........Christmas ideas.  Thus the horribly bored look above.  Don't scream at me, but it is September 3, already.  I have a few ideas for all of you.  The last few years I have been trying to have my presents take on more meaning.  Every other year I knit or crochet things, this year it is cowls.  I have a good head start on that already.  I have a few websites I think you all might be interested in for Christmas ideas.  Last year I sent baskets full of things  from womensbeanproject.com which is an amazing organization helping women break the chain of poverty.  These baskets were a big hit, so check them out.  I also found a beautiful bracelet in a store near my house that helps fund the free pharmacy in my county.  I loved the bracelet so much I went online to read more about it.  storybraceletsandmore.com, is a wonderful organization helping stay at home and single moms, it empowers them with income and flexibility without the worry of working away from home and providing daycare for their children.

My other favorite website is globalgoodspartners.org.  If you look under the bag category you will find the purse I have been using for 2 years.  It is in the corner of the main picture, It is red and leather and made with wool, by women in Peru.  It is a free trade organization so you are helping others while shopping.  What could be better than that?

Here is hoping you are all having a relaxing, wonderful weekend.  For those of you in need, I am keeping you close to my heart.