Curses!

Grievous, costly knitting error!
Must un-do 43 rounds, knitted on double pointed needles.
Ugh.
With a shipping deadline looming (for my out-of-town nephews), this is a bad, bad thing.

He's Catching On

That boy of mine cracks me up.
We were eating at our favorite local pizza spot and our pizza had just been brought to the table. Chris put a piece on each of the kids' plates, served me and was reaching for his dinner.
Andrew made a complaining noise and noted that it was the slice he'd wanted for his second helping.
Chris promptly informed him, "When you're the man and you're paying for the pizza, you can pick your own piece."
Andrew noted the unfair truth: "When I'm a man and I'm paying, I'll have to give the mom that piece."
Amen.

At Least I'm Consistent.

We need to talk.
(If you are the mother of one of my nephews, you must not, for any reason at all, click on any of the links in this post! I'm watching you...)
I have told myself all year long that I would not be making hand-made Christmas presents for everyone this year. And I have meant it all year long.
I mean, after the knitting debacles and sleeplessness that nearly took me out last year, could you blame me? For heaven's sake - I wound up lying to my husband about needing a bath and sitting in the tub with my knitting hanging safely over the edge of it, actually bathing and knitting at the same time.
I made everyone hand-made stuff for their birthday presents and promised that I'd be buying stuff this year instead.
But I have little nephews. And I wanted to knit them some stuff. Two baby boys and one toddler boy - that's not so bad. I can make three presents, right? Wellll...I need to make something for my own kids too. So that's five presents. Totally do-able.
Totally.
Only, I got started and it has snowballed.
I made one little present for one little nephew and I felt pretty good that I was done with it. I mean, five homemade presents, one done, that's...um...20%, right? Next I started in on baby nephew present #2. And I am completely smitten with it. Utterly smitten with it. The clever shaping, the simple lines, the unrelenting cuteness...
Sigh.
Suddenly, nephew present #2 is looking cooler than the first present. We can't have that. I love all my babies the same amount. The designer of said amazing pattern offers a few, shall we say, variations of the same (here and here) and...and...
And there you have it. I find that I need to make one variation for each nephew. However, I already made one present, so nephew #1 now has two handmade presents in the works. We must even the score. Now, each nephew must have two handmade presents. I realize that a normal person would keep the first gift to give for the next birthday, but I can't. I am not a patient girl. Plus, nephew #3's present? The original one, I mean, not the one I have stumbled into, is too cool for school. I won't sleep unless I make it.
This, effectively, doubles the amount of hand-making I will be doing, you see, because now each nephew is getting two hand-made gifts and I hafta do the same for my children.
It may be that I've defined a new mental illness here.

But wait! There's more!

Just like everyone else in the universe, we are a little strapped this year - financially speaking. Not nearly as badly as some, but enough that it pinches my present budget uncomfortably. And I thought of another great, practically free, gift to make for everybody else too. This should have been a simple task.

It should have been.

You will have to forgive my cryptic communication here, as many of those on my gift list read this blog.

Let us suffice it to say that I have learned a lot about a certain ancient craft. One that seemed it should be simple. One that promised lovely results. One that has been far more difficult than I could have imagined, but also one that I cannot get out of now because I must. conquer. it.

It's personal.

So, in spite of my promises, this season will be filled with frazzle dazzle and sleepless nights. It seems to be my destiny. I've decided not to fight it.

For now.

PS - If you are not the mother of one of my nephews and you do click on the links, please word your comments carefully!

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far

I just have time for a drive-by posting, but I had such a special moment today with my son. It was worth posting.
I have him all to myself on Mondays for about an hour while Emma has a club meeting after school.
Today, I had a massive headache. A pupils-are-tiny-and-my-whole-self-feels-squinty headache. I even called Chris to see if he'd slipped me a cup of decaf this morning (sometimes he does that without telling me).
But he hadn't. It had been my regular cup of joe.
A Starbucks run was in order if I was to make it through the rest of the afternoon.
I picked up Drew and told him where we were headed. I also told him that I was on a tight budget, but I wanted to get him a little something - no frappuccinos or anything crazy and $10-ish like that. I suggested a tall hot chocolate.
He said he'd like a cup of coffee instead.
Just like that.
I was a little stunned, but decided to go with it.
"What, just black coffee?" I asked.
"No, mooooomm. (eye roll)"
"Oh. Cream and sugar, then?"
"Yeah. But, do they have anything else? Any flavored coffee?"

I told him about the bountiful array of syrups. He was pretty into it at that point.
So, we went in and I helped him order his first cup of real coffee at Starbucks.

I started drinking coffee at a much younger age than he. I think I was about 8. At the same time, I remember the grown-up feeling of sharing that ritual with other people.

It was small, but it was special.

My best guy and me.

Daily Bliss: Licking out the cookie dough bowl
Wake-Up Playlist: Canticle of Mary (Ames & Leaman)

Photography Class - Final

Last night was my next-to-last photography class for this semester. I had thought my professor asked us to "shoot like crazy and bring in three more images" as a final assignment. I found a few pockets of time, though it was difficult to find them, and took some pictures. But then I got to class and found out we were only supposed to narrow down our portraits to three final ones and bring in any more that we shot over the holiday week.
So.
I was really happy with my portraits I'd turned in - you've all seen them - the one of Jon & his dog Huckleberry, the one of Emma with the giant flower on her head, and the ones of Mindy & my little nephew Nolan. I added in the one I took of Becky & her honey that I showed you a few days ago and called it good.
However, I had several images that I had planned to turn in and thought maybe you'd like to see them. I am open to critiques and opinions. I just want to know what you guys like to see. Some of you lurkers out there - I'd love to hear from you.

First up, Christmas lights:




A cute little ladybug:


Some grasses in gorgeous morning light:



This one's my favorite:


A sweet mama belly (check it out Becky - I gave him a new fingernail!):


And, just for fun, a robot raiding my fridge:


I had planned to save the robot and show you later, as I've been doing kind of a series of him in random situations, but since I thought about turning it in as an assignment, I figured I'd go ahead and post it.

I've had so much fun in this class. I've definitely learned a lot and I'm so looking forward to next semester!

I Made It

With all the busy-ness we've had going on this fall, I've tried really hard not to make compromises when it comes to my kids. I've had to volunteer a little less often for school functions, or rely on other people to give them rides to things here and there, but for the most part, we've done pretty well there.
Of course, that means that I'm exhausted.
It's a lot of work to be all things to all people, you know.
I was thinking about my schedule today and the idea of water displacement came to me. It's like my life is a glass of water and it's f-u-l-l. Filled to the brim with things to do and places to go.
Then, just for fun (or if you get rear-ended and have to go to physical therapy. ahem.), you drop something else into your glass of life. What happens? It displaces an amount of busy-ness equal to its own weight. And if your glass is already full, that displaced life just spills over the side.
Just go with me on that one, okay?
So, we have managed to keep most of our, uh, life in the glass, as it were, but as this fall semester begins to come to its end, the level of activity just increases. That's pretty much true for everybody, I think. And it's at this point that I have to start making compromises that make me uncomfortable.
My photography class is a Thursday class and Andrew's holiday band concert is next Thursday. My professor actually (very graciously) agreed to let me take my final exam on another day so I could make it to the concert.
Compromise avoided.
However, Andrew was in the city Christmas parade tonight. Obviously, I can't skip the last two weeks of class entirely. Obviously, my professor was generous enough about my final exam that I didn't want to ask for more.
Obviously, I would have to miss the parade.
I missed it last year too, which made this decision all the worse.
I have been pretty torn up about it.
But guess what? I got out of class early tonight.
I thought, "Hey. Why not try to make it down there and see Andrew? Why not have my cake and eat it too?" It was about an hour into the parade, but I remembered where the end of the route was and figured there was a chance. I called my mom to find out where everybody was standing and she and Dad were already leaving the parade, having seen Andrew. As a matter of fact, they were parked near the end of the route and were happy to wait for me to get there so that I could take over their parking space.
Sweet!
By the time I pulled in, I knew I didn't have much time to spare. I went running down the sidewalk to get to the parade. I heard high school bands and loud music and I was really afraid I'd miss him - I happened to know he was near the front of the parade.
What was that?
Oh yeah. I did say that I ran.
For several blocks.
In high-heeled boots.
Carrying a giant purse.
I really hate running.

But I made it.

I even found a near-front-row spot in which to stand.

I made it before the front of the parade even got there.

I was surrounded by, I kid you not, children with no shoes on (in the downtown streets, people!) and people burping loudly and all manner of unpleasant humanity.
Actual snippet of conversation I overheard behind me (between two good ol' boys who thought they were very funny):

Larry the Cable Guy 1*: Y'all don't wanna mess with me. I know jitso (I presume he meant Jujitsu) and karate and all them other Japanese words.
Larry the Cable Guy 2: Yeah? Well I know Smith 'n Wesson
Larry the Cable Guy 1: Aright then! You win!

And just about the time I was going to turn around and tell Guy #1 where I thought he should shove his rude mouth, I saw Andrew's float coming down the street.
Something came over me.
I bounced up and down, waved my arms and hollered like a high school cheerleader - "Wooooo! Andrewwwwww! I made it!!!". His teachers all laughed at me, but he saw me. He smiled. His float passed and I turned to leave.
Within a block's walk, my exhaustion, my insanely hectic day and probably some leftover mother-guilt got the best of me and I just cried.
Nobody cries after the parade.
But I couldn't help it.
I was so relieved.

I made it.

*Names have been changed to protect the ignorant

Sh. Don't Tell Anybody, K?

I went to a Miley Cyrus concert last night.
Ugh.
I know.
It's a little embarrassing to admit. I'm way too much of a cool indie music person to do something like that (said the girl who actually likes lots of way uncool music). It's just that pop music not my thing and I'm pretty anti-brand name and anti-pop culture and all that stuff - especially when it comes to my kids.
I don't like it when people raise their kids to idolize people that they've never even met. I'm sure Miley's a nice enough girl, but I don't know her or anything (though my brother's met her and says she's super-nice. I guess she likes his band and they all met up in Dallas), so we try not to look up to her in my house. Does that make enough sense without being mean? I hope so. I don't mean it to be.
I will say this - I was surprised by her voice. She really has a powerful, beautiful instrument. The show was pretty great and I was impressed with her stamina (oh, to be young!) and her ability to sing really well live. Not everybody sounds good when they aren't being helped out by a good producer.
I digress.
Emma's friend's mom called up and asked if they could take Emma to the concert - she had bought tickets for her daughter to take a friend as a birthday gift and Emma was the Lucky Chosen One.
She was super-excited!
But I couldn't let some other mom take my daughter to her first concert! I especially couldn't let some other mom take my daughter to a concert as important as this one - the one every girl between the ages of 6 and 14 wants to see (and, as evidenced by the weird, grown woman getting her groove on a couple aisles in front of me, plenty of other ages of girls want to see Miley in concert...). So I bought a ticket.
My seat wasn't exactly close to Em and her friend but it turns out there was one un-sold seat next to them, so I sort of sidled into that one and got to be with her the whole time. The seats were great - very close, actually. It was the Fan Club Section. You could actually see all the performers on the stage and even make out their faces from where we were.
Pretty sweet deal.
It was so special to share such an important night with my daughter. We bought a new outfit for her, down to the brand new cowgirl boots. She felt cute. You could tell by the way she was swaggering. We made it a full-on girls' night with dinner out and lots of chit-chat (sorry, Karen! I sure talk a lot more when I'm tired!). The girls screamed and squealed and danced and were all-around cute. We moms might have done some of that, though Other Mom was a mite more dignified than I. I wanted to make sure I was participating fully - that's all.
Anyway, I won't offer criticism or praise for the Performer Herself, just know that I endured an evening filled with screaming girls and pop culture, things which I normally avoid at all cost, in order to make a fantastic memory with my girl.
It was so, so worth it.
PS - It was even a lot of fun.




Daily Bliss: ice cream. pomegranate-dark-chocolate ice cream.
Wake-up Playlist: Girls' Night Out, Miley Cyrus (what? it's not like i control this stuff!)