One Year Later

We woke this morning to a thick blanket of snow and there is something about the city when it snows.  All the sounds are muffled and people rest.  After rushing around all day yesterday and then spending the evening with some close girlfriends; the anxious feeling I had all day is gone. 

I've been trying to decide the best way to acknowledge the one year anniversary of my mom's death. Such a strange anniversary to celebrate, but that is what I did last night. Matt is out of town and I put the boys to bed early. A few women I am growing to love came to help me celebrate my mom. It was really nice. We talked and drank wine and laughed...just what my mom would have wanted. Of course, all day I played the "one-year ago today" game and I imagine as the years pass I will continue to play that game and eventually it will get easier. This year has been such a time of change for us and I am looking forward to settling in and being still for a while.

Still no word on the house loan. We were supposed to close on January 22nd, but after the Bank of America bought out Country Wide Mortgage, our closing has been delayed numerous times. Our latest closing date is this Monday the 4th, but if we don't close then we will find a new mortgage company to work with. If that happens we might not close for another two week. The waiting game is hard and is beginning to be a stressful element in our lives. We continue to dream about the house and land and know that in a matter of weeks 

we'll be in and all this will seem like a distant thought! On Sunday we went for a nice walk in the woods of the Fenner Nature Center that borders our new land to the West and North. This photo was taken in the magical grove of trees just north of our land! It is such a wonderful place with amazing woodland energy. I can't wait to play in the trees with the boys this Spring! The walk was great too. We crossed paths with a number of X-C skiers...and right out our back door!

Arlo is now cutting about 4 or 5 teeth, as far as I can tell. He's been a bit cranky today wanting to nurse A LOT! You can see how I spent my morning! So sweet, but after the 10th nurse in three hours, I thought for sure I'd go nuts...my sweet boy is napping now, thank goodness.

He's also starting to repeat a lot of words! We hear him say "popcorn", "go", "more", and today I heard "daddy". It is pretty amazing. Our communication is so easy. He signs a lot and that fills in any verbal gaps we might have.

With Matt in Washington, I have been with the boys 24/7 and am hanging in there pretty good. I usually enjoy the first couple days he is gone, then I get tired! I hired a babysitter to come on Sunday afternoon so I can attend two knitting gatherings! I am very excited and I will be very ready for a break from the boys by then. 

Matt took this great picture of me knitting and cuddling with Sam last weekend. I love it. 

Andy's socks are almost done! I am about 2/3 of the way through the second sock. I'd like to be done early next week.

I am hosting our home school preschool group on Monday and have started some ideas. Our theme is "friendship". There will be more about that later...

It's Been One of Those Days!

...when I learned that I can fit almost 2/3 of a bottle of wine into ONE wine glass!

Twenty Things I like: A List.

1. Sledding with my family on a Saturday afternoon.
2. Trader Joe's "2 Buck Chuck" Merlot wine in large quantities.
3. Watching my 14 month old son walk naked across the living room floor.
4. Hearing my 3 1/2 year old son tell me I am his best friend (along with his brother).
5. Watching movies I borrowed from my library for free.
6. Hearing from my sister that she got her dream job (working for the America Cancer Society).
7. Learning that a close friend is pregnant by surprise when she didn't think it would ever happen, but really, really, really wanted it to happen.
8. Hearing my kids singing in the bath.
9. Nursing my baby in the afternoon with no sleep expectations.
10. Reading to Sam.
11. The rare passionate kisses I sometimes steal with Matt in public.
12. Watching the snow fall by candlelight at dinner per request of Sam.
13. Knitting and watching the Gilmore Girls.
14. Folding diapers and watching the Gilmore Girls.
15. Walking in a light snowfall in the afternoon when the city sounds quiet.
16. A nice lavender shea butter lotion when my hands are very dry.
17. Watching Arlo sign "bath time" with the sign that Sam invented and taught to him.
18. Laying in bed at night with my boys asleep, watching movies with Matt, the electric blanket on and knitting.
19. Listening to Matt play guitar, especially when he has either just written a new song or mastered a new Ray LaMontagne song...(he just figured out how to play "Be Here Now" and I love it!)
20. A hot shower, all alone without worrying that either boy is going to wake up, get hurt, or break something.

Saugatuck...by Request

Last weekend we escaped from the city and headed to the beach! Saugatuck is on the western coast of Michigan, the eastern part of Lake Michigan. This little town is so cute, right out of a novel and it feels like a town you'd find on Cape Cod or the Maine coast...so of course,  I loved it.

And we have history there...at least Matt does. His Aunt Meg and Uncle John were married there when Matt was 18 and he vividly remembers visiting.

Our good friends Sarah and Stewart recommended the town and the Saugatuck Dunes State Park, which is where these photos were taken. It was a short hike in from the parking lot and then the vast, amazing beach! Truly a wonder. We live only an hour from here! 

We will surely be back, though perhaps when it is a bit warmer!

The Eight Year Scarf and other Unfinished Ventures

Lately I can't get enough of other people's knitting blogs! I look at least a couple times a day and I feel a bit like a stalker, but I love seeing what other knitters are up to. I am very inspired by the projects created and by the ones that aren't. It feels good to know that other dedicated knitters let the knitting fall to the wayside when life steps us the pace.

My recent blog posts have been a bit depressing, even though I am feeling quite high in spirits. I thought I'd revisit my knitting history in honor of all my knit stocking, I mean stalking. Ha!

In the ages before I met my husband and when I was still a student and young prowess, I was somewhat of an observer in my large university classes. I took a required Math class called (if you can believe it) "Math for Liberal Arts Majors"! It was in this class that I first met Lance. He used to come to class very sweaty from riding his bike and he was usually one of the last students to come into the room. We somehow became acquaintances, though it was after I began dating and living with Matt, that we really became friends. Lance graduated a year before me and moved to the Missoula area (incidentally, where he still is today), and met a wonderful woman named Abigail. He claimed to have fallen in love at first sight, and after meeting her, I believed him! 

Abigail and I became fast friends and it was she who taught me to knit.

I'll never forget the afternoon we sat on my college worn couch at 1202 Koch Street and she demonstrated the complexities of the knit and purl stitches, casting on and binding off. 

I think I spent the first six months knitting dishcloths, and not well, I might add. 

We moved to Kansas and Abigail and her knitting expertise were far, far, far away in the mountains of the great Bitteroot Valley. I was left to my own devices to delve in to the great world of knitting. I spent a good 5 years knitting scarves! It was in the year 2000 that this scarf was born. It is a hodge podge of yarn scraps and little bits  I have purchased at yard sales, etc.     

I just keep adding to it and eventually I will finish it...maybe!

It really is the 8 year scarf!

It even has some of my own hand spun yarn. Llama wool died yellow from onion skins and spun using an old school wooden drop spindle! A former male art student of mine gifted 

me the wool and the spindle and then taught me use it! What a treat that was! I sure do miss David.

I digress, back to the knitting story...so a few months after Sam was born and after I had knit about 2 million "fuzzy scarves" (see to the right), I decided it was time to move on and learn to knit 3-D items, as I like to call them (i.e. socks, hats, sweaters, etc).

Matt bought me a fantastic basic knitting book with lots of options for knitting these mystic 3-D items and a set of size 3 DPN. I was all set to start...except I was scared!

I visited my local library and found this excellent book by DebbieBliss, Baby Knits for

Beginners, and I began knitting, hats, booties, sweaters and even one little baby sock. I also purchased a pattern to make a Gromit doll (center on the bottom to the right). The winter I was pregnant with Arlo (2006), I began knitting Gromit and he is all knit and almost all sewn together! I think by Sam's 4th birthday Gromit will live! 

Arlo's winter (as I like to refer to the winter months before he was born) was a very productive knitting winter. I was big and pregnant and sitting a fair amount. Sam was also old enough that I could knit in front of him without having my needles pulled out or yarn strewn across the room (we're not there yet with Arlo). I knit three pairs of adult socks and one pair of toddler socks in about 3 months time, which is really good for me. Shortly after

 that my mom passed away and I didn't knit again until the Fall of 2007.

That brings us to the present knitting time. 

I posted previously about Andy's socks and the challenges I have had. On the left you'll see what Andy's socks looked like in the beginning and on the right the state they are in now. I am knitting with Lamb's Pride yarn. It is 85% wool and 15% mohair and

it is worsted weight. I like knitting socks with worsted weight yarns, in fact, I have never knit a pair of sock with fingering weight. The yarn is not that great to knit with. It splits quite easily and I don't think I'll buy it again for socks. I don't like the striping as much as I liked the fair isle pattern, but I know this pair will fit him and that is what is important. It was meant to be an irregular striping, but it turning out to be somewhat of a regular pattern. Oh, well. Sometimes knitting projects take on lives of their own...at least mine do!

I hope to keep knitting more and more this year. It is my only resolution and to help keep me motivated I am seeking a knitting club or gathering that is regular. I have a few leads, but nothing regular yet. I have been attending one gathering once a month and enjoy that, but sometimes it is a small group. Last month it was myself and one other woman, who happens to be a midwife and photographer. I loved chatting with her as our sticks twitched. 

Hopefully you'll be seeing more knitting posts as this year moves on.

I put myself of the Ravelry invitation list, so in about a month I might get an invite. I am number 7,065!  Ravelry is an amazing site and I can't wait to get invited and get organized!

Nebulizer *Update*

When Sam was about a month old I began having troubles with coughing and wheezing, general trouble breathing. After months of doing this and that, acupuncture, herbs, medications....I was diagnosed with mild asthma. While in Washington I was able to keep it under control with the occasional use of my inhalers and massage. 

When we first moved here to Michigan we went camping in the U.P. I had a cold that turned into nasty bronchitis after a bad rainstorm and my asthma has been terrible ever since.

Yesterday my amazing doctor prescribed me a nebulizer breathing machine to be used three times a day. It is not fun to use, but it seems to be helping. So what you see below is how I now check my email and blogs, every 4-6 hours. It is loud and sort of sounds like I am Darth Vader and it takes about 15 minutes to complete. 

*Update* My chest x-rays came back positive for pneumonia. So I'll be on meds for 2 weeks and hopefully that will do it. My blood tests haven't come back yet, nor has the sputum results.

The Next Morning

And the next morning....a good night's sleep, a couple cups of coffee...what a world of a difference.

P.S. I have been a bit of a prolific blogger of late, so if you think you've missed something, keep scrolling down...there is lots to see....