Catch up

I'm so bad about keeping up with blogging. We've been busy adjusting to having the husband home, and the kids started summer vacation a week ago. It's been hectic around here.

We are starting some new projects. I've made a plan to can a lot of things this summer. The kids and I will be heading to our local farm later today to pick some strawberries. We'll use that to make jam. We will also make some syrup, but I want to get the gourmet jars first. I'm also going to follow the schedule for filling my freezer from Money Saving Mom. I haven't planned it out so we're going to grab the stuff that I need today.

Branching out

I'm always up for learning a new skill. Over the years, I have taught myself to bake, sew, crochet, can food, and knit. My newest obsession is hair bows. I've made 6 already over the past few days, and I have plans for a few more.

I've already gotten the ribbons prepped to make a 4th of July bow. And I have to make one to match the skirt that I made for my 9 year old tonight.

Wrong side of the road

I've always been a naturally skinny person. That is, until I had my third child. I haven't been able to lose the baby weight yet and Bug is now 7 years old. I've taken up running as a way to get active and try to help lose the weight. Especially since My Man will be home from deployment within the next two months. So, I've been walking the kids to school every morning while bringing the dog along. I kiss them goodbye right before we get onto school property and then we're off.

Yesterday, I went a different way than usual because Pixie was home with a fever and I wanted to get back as quickly as possible. Add that choice with the decision to pick up the pace at the end and you have a disaster. Two doors down from us, the driveway and sidewalk are torn up from tree roots. My tired feet didn't get high enough to clear them and down I went. My left hand and knee took the impact along with my iPhone. My knee and phone are relatively undamaged. The bottom corner of my phone does have a crack. My knee is just a little scraped up. My hand, on the other hand, had a chunk of skin taken out of it. I'm also contemplating whether I should go to urgent care today as I type this one-handed. There's nothing obviously wrong with it but it hurts to bend and turn.

My husband laughed at me last night as we were texting about my injuries last night. I had just put the kids to bed and I was most upset about the loss of my nightly activity. I couldn't knit!!! He was laughing because I said that I didn't want to get blood on my project.

Pictures of knitting projects

Blogger is working for me now! So I'm just making a separate post for the pictures of my current projects. These are all of my in-progress knitting ones. I'll make a separate post later for the other things going on. I want to add a disclaimer right at the beginning. None of the patterns are my own. I am nowhere near designing my own patterns.

Please forgive my pictures. I currently only have a point and click camera. Also, I rotated the first picture but it didn't show up rotated. I'll work on it. :)

Current projects

I am one of those people that always has a project going. I currently have 4 knitting projects in the works. A blanket that I'm still in the process of crocheting, and 3 things to sew. I guess I'll just give you a list of what I'm working on since Blogger won't let me add a picture at the moment.

Knit
Half-finished lace shawl
Hat that just needs to be blocked
Baby blanket that only has about 8" done
Very beginning of a cardigan

Crochet
Blanket that is 3/4 of the way done

Sewn
3 pairs of pajama pants

I made a pact last weekend with myself that I wouldn't start anything new until I finished all of these projects up. I must hang my head in shame now because I've already broken it. I picked up some roving and a drop spindle yesterday so I could spin my own yarn. I am going to hide it in my sewing cabinet until I finish everything else though. That is, until I can't take it anymore because I'll hear it calling me. "Cheryl...play with me...you know you want to ...please ..."

So, my new goal is to make a timeline for completing everything. Unfortunately, I can't decide what order to do things. I want to finish the pants so that my kids have them, but I need to have my serger serviced. I will be taking it in to the shop on Monday. I have to finish the baby blanket before I can go back to the shawl since they both use my 24" size 5 circular needles. And My Man would not be happy with me if I bought another one. Sigh. I guess I'll just keep going back and forth until I can finish all of them.

Introduction

I guess this is the part where I tell you who I am and why you should be reading my blog. I hate doing this. It feels like the first day of school, and the teacher is making everyone tell something about themselves. Then you're sitting there wishing that they wouldn't get to you, and you're trying to think of something to say. I mean, you know who you are, but you've got to say something so that doesn't make you look like an idiot. "Do I tell them about the trip I took this summer? Gotta leave out the part where I lost my bathing suit bottoms in the pool..."

Now that I'm done freaking out, let's see what I can tell you. I have three kids. Two girls and a boy. Princess is 11, Pixie is 9, and Boogs is 7. I've been married to My Man for 12 years now. My Man is in the Navy and is less than a year away from retirement. I've been a stay-at-home mom but recently went back to school. I'm on the wait list at the moment to get into my school's LPN program. I love to make things, and I taught myself to do most of it. I am now trying to pass on the things that I've learned to my children.