Making Me Smile This Week 9.18.09

• Watching my Lacy Baktus grow.
• Making new friends at a new (to us) homeschool coop, and finding out I actually graduated high school with one of the dear homeschooling moms! That would explain why she looked familiar...
• 6 & 8 yr old learning about Spain (european geography class at coop) and excitedly telling about the 'umbrellos' they wear on their heads and how they have really big tomato fights, and then finding silly video clips of the tomato throwing festival and hearing their collective giggles as they watch the craziness under the guise of a cultural event, hehe...
• My last two bad pain days (head & neck) both responded to ice and Motrin, within about an hour, that is huge for me, I used to lose entire days to severe pain. I love my chiropractor, he has changed my life.
• My teenager, who was once my baby, and who turned 16 last Saturday, making me feel older, but blessing this Momma's heart every day.
• Hearing about my son scoring his 1st 2 goals of the season, in the 1st game I couldn't make it to... (that one makes me a little bit bummed as well, but I'm choosing to focus on the good- he scored! Twice! Woohoo!)
• Watching my little girls play cowboys, or rather, cowgirls, running around in fake leather vests with fringe and wearing my cowboy hat. (There are a lot of people, with a lot of horses, around here, and my girls like to count horses as we drive around, and imagine they all belong on our ranch, except, we don't live on a ranch...)
• Watching Baby J feel, and try to eat, the tiny pebbles at the playground, after being released from the stroller to go exploring for the 1st time. It was the perfect opportunity for a little "no mouth" training!
• Having to work hard to find snippets of time to knit because my life is so full right now, contented sigh...
• Hearing 2, 4, 6, 8, & 10 yr olds using Spanish words they've picked up (watching Dora!) Too bad I took 4 1/2 yrs of French, haha!
• Cool evenings- I can finally get cozy in all of my favorite sweaters! (And start knitting some more!!)

What's making you smile this week?

happy knitting-
ali

Making Me Smile This Week 7.11.09

• Strawberries! Strawberries! and more Strawberries!!
• The Autofocus System
• Good friends
• Cafe breves
• Time in the garden pulling weeds, yes, I like that part
• A couple quiet moments with my thoughts, my plans, my lists...
• Snow cones!
• Time spent nursing Baby J, who is growing way too fast
• 2 yr old, Little M, insisting on making her own peanut butter & jelly sandwich, "I do it!", and then licking the knife clean
• A week without asthma problems
• Is Your Mama a Llama? , again...
• My visual journal version
• 4 yr old trying to "out-help" the bigger kids!
• Casting on with Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton
• Blogging with bacon

What's making you smile this week?

Happy knitting-

ali

Making Me Smile This Week 7.3.09

Ideally, there would be another post or two in between these Friday 'Making Me Smile' posts, but no sooner did I start something new, to go with the new season, than life got crazy- crazier than usual.

Our 6 yr old's asthma began to flare up pretty bad last Saturday. We stepped up the meds, but they seemed to have no impact on the wheezing and her O2 level began a steady decline. After falling asleep it dipped into dangerous territory (right after back-to-back nebs) and we were off to the ER, a place this particular child knows too well. That doesn't make me smile, that makes me sad. But she's a trooper and a good sport and she likes getting new stuffed animals from the nurses and stickers! Stickers make kids smile, and smiling kids make mamas smile. It's nice how that works out.

So, let's see, making me smile this week-

• 6 yr old coming home after 3 nights in the hospital!
• 9 yr old leaving the land of single digits and entering the promised land of double digits!
• The way the youngers scavanged for 'presents' for new 10 yr old- they gave of their own toys, and even managed to wrap up his own compass and 'give' it to him for his birthday- too cute!!
• Baby J deciding to try real crawling
• Rose-breasted Grosbeaks right out my window
• Orioles coming to the feeder
• Listening to my 15 yr old fiddle
• Angel Lush with Pineapple- so easy! and so refreshingly yummy!
• The simple joys of hand-knit washcloths (knitting content! see, it's still a knitting blog!)
• A husband home to take boys mountain biking- even if there was a black bear sighting, and no pictures! what good is a handy dandy little point and shoot if you don't bring it with you and point and shoot?!!
• My new chairs- that was a great $10 spent! Yay for yard sales!

Have a fantabulous holiday weekend- if you've got kiddos, try some of these Independance Day printables, or maybe pass some time making a zillion 5 pointed stars with 1 snip, and let me know what you think!

Time to head out for some personal pan pizza party fun, inhalers in tote.

Happy knitting-

ali

*mental note- get pics off of camera and onto computer before sitting down to blog next time...

Making Me Smile This Week 6.26.09

Freestyle sewing- no patterns needed- so liberating, and fun! (Although it does steal some time away from the knitting...)

Kids laughing and splashing in the pool.

Homemade cole slaw- I love this recipe (it has buttermilk! I love buttermilk.) I will never again spend $3 for a jar of someone else's cole slaw dressing, not if I can help it. Sorry, no pic, I always eat it all too fast... seriously. (And I don't have the first clue about how to take a nice picture of cole slaw...)

Kids drawing birds.

Blueberry Scones- Why did I wait so long to bake these for the first time?

4 yr old's family portrait.


Sun tea. Yep. Summer has officially arrived.

Happy knitting-
ali