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The Only Way Out is Through  Who cares if I hurt my own chances? it's Malabrigo, which I've never used but would love to try: http://salihan.com/2009/malabrigo-giveaw Sharing the love, so that *I* get an extra chance to win the yarny goodness! Someone's giving away sock yarn! Hubby's taking the boys to the shore today, to meet up with his cousin. I can't go. To combat the empty house I'll be coming home to, I'm staying away longer by going to the mall. Whee! I found out yesterday that the my former employer, after ignoring my pleas to hire more staff for 2 months before they fired me, has now hired THREE people to do the work I was doing. Fuck them, up one side and down the other. Every story I hear from the folks who are still there reinforce my reaction, that the firing was a well needed kick in the ass. My in-laws bought us a Wii Fit during their visit, and I love it! We also have Wii Sports Resort (where I am the worst in the family at swordplay, go figure). It's great to have something that's reasonably active to do as a family after supper on these hot summer evenings. The boys love to play Wii together, too, and I've seen marked improvement in their cooperatin! I've made sure to work out for at least 30 minutes almost every day. I can definitely see improvements in my strength and flexibility, and I've reduced my "Wii Fit Age" from the embarrassing 59 to 36! Unfortunately, my weight has not changed by much at all. Oh well, I've always said that the only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than are consumed. Now that I've boosted my activity and turned it into a pattern, it's definitely time to work harder at the other end of the spectrum. Current mood:  hungry.
I finally knitted my first pair of socks: plain stockinette, on DPN, toe-up. They're not magnificent because I was learning and practicing, but they're SOCKS! They fit comfortably (mostly, these will be house socks and not for inside shoes) and everything. Yay for me! And now both my mother and MIL want some. This is fine, because neither one has ever been excited about any other type of project I've suggested, but their eyes lit up at the prospect of socks. And one has a birthday in November, the other in January - bracketing the Midwinter Retail Holiday. But where do they fall in the queue? Marcus wants a Tyrone sweater, which I'd better make while he's young enough to be interested. My tallit probably isn't needed for 6 months or so, so that can take a break. Carol's baby girl is due in January, so I don't have to be in overdrive for the layette. My Bonfire cardi needs steady progress so the garter stitch doesn't show lines (and I WANT it!). Scaruffle will go into the Sisterhood gift exchange if it's done in time. Drat, I think I just convinced myself to go make some socks, and put off my personal projects until January. Double drat! We (Hubby, boys, and my in-laws) went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island over the weekend, on the dry day. Arlyn loved the ferry rides! I've climbed up to the crown as a child, as had Halina, but none of the menfolk. Needless to say we were clueless about now needing reservation 3+ months in advance to go up to the crown, but that gave us more time to go through the Immigration museum. It was fascinating, and I was sorry we had to cut our tour short to keep the little boys engaged. Next time we'll get the audio tours to see if that helps. At Liberty Island, I learned something very, very important for the future: Whenever there's an opportunity to take a Ranger-led tour at a facility maintained by the US Park Service, DO SO. We had 20 minutes of good storytelling from a wonderful young man (the name Charlotte refers to the artist's mother, who posed), and I came home feeling far more connected to this monument that I'd thought possible. I can't wait to go back again, even if it's in the winter. Current mood:  refreshed.
I've ordered side rails to turn the head- and foot- board set in my basement into a bed for Marcus. All we need now is a mattress and box spring. Time to get onto eBay and see what of the ever-growing pile of stuff in the basement might be useful to someone else. It's fun to watch Marcus grow into a very different person than his brother. He loves imagination play, and is into dinosaurs while Arlyn never really cared about them. Of course, being his own man doesn't mean he doesn't want to do everything big brother does, and equally as well! No one knows how to push Arlyn's buttons like Marcus. We keep telling him that there's no point in competing with someone half his age - maybe he'll get it about the time that Marcus *has* the skills to be competitive. Arlyn is having a rough summer. He's in that "fight everything" mode again, and reading is the biggest thing he's resisting. At this point I don't care if all he reads is video game manuals, as long as he reads SOMETHING. Over the past six months, all has been well: everyone is healthy, jobs are intact, Hubby loves his photography, I'm knitting away happily. We hired a cleaning service but I'm still overworked. Arlyn got stellar grades, made the upper level soccer squad, and is going to start oboe (!) lessons in the fall. Marcus is dry most of the time and will be changing to a new pre-school come fall. We bought a Wii. It's great fun to have games that we can all play together, and it's one hell of a motivator for the boys to control their behavior. They need it, too - I can't often leave them alone together for more than a few minutes, that I don't come back to someone screaming. The whole video-games thing is a line to be walked, between enough to work as motivation, and too much (which results in degenerating behavior). Vacation was fun. My in-laws are coming in a few weeks. My mother is going downhill mentally, and FAST. We still haven't started remodeling the basement, or finished the gardens. Life goes on. |
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