Baking

I made two dozen of these while the baby was still asleep. Oatmeal muffins with raisins, dates and walnuts. Yum! Last time I made a dozen, and the entire family ate them up (including my husband who has told me (although he says he never said any such thing) that he doesn't eat walnuts, or raisins). I use yogurt instead of buttermilk, and today I put them in these cupcake liners, bought at our local cooking store, instead of using cupcake pans. It worked quite nicely, if I do say so myself!

p.s. except that i forgot to put in the brown sugar...

What are they doing to their teeth?

New York Times article

The newest tech in dental scanners is very much a gourmet treat for dentists - it's fast, it's detailed, and the manufacturing companies are pushing it like candy. But CT-cone scanners use higher radiation levels than the best film methods, and comparable (although more time-consumptive) methods of 3D imaging with a little camera do not expose children to ANY radiation.

I think I'll have to watch out for this at the dentist (mine used film - even with the little kids) because any effects will not be seen for many years. Radiation exposure is cumulative, and i hate to think what it's doing to the rapidly growing cells in children's tooth buds. :(

(don't even get me started about the new scanners in the airports....i fully expect me and the little kids to be getting pat downs the next time we fly.)

so tired...

too tired to type much. We spent the afternoon at the local outdoor mall, and i should have had a nap, instead.

I know exactly why i wasn't this tired last time i was pregnant. Last time, the little boy was still taking naps, and i could nap with him. le sigh. not this time! Even if i get lucky enough for them to take a nap, they don't sleep at the same time.

oh well, back to the normal week tomorrow. Ta!

the car quest continues

We're getting closer. WIth the exception of Chrysler, we've looked at all the auto brands that we're interested in, and we've even taken a few for a test drive. (Today was a really long day. I truly do not like talking to auto salesman(and why are they all men??))

We know what we want. The most important part is room for 3 carseats, Little Sister and Big J and I all at the same time. That means 3 rows of seats, really. Then, there needs to be room for my Gallant dog, even if only with the seats folded up(down. depending.). We really want a rear view camera, too, because we're both paranoid about backing accidents and small children. With all that considered, the subjective factors are how easy it is for me to reach the rear-most seats(so I can unbuckle people's carseats) and how comfortable Big J and I are with the car.

The top runners are the Honda Pilot and Odyssey. I like driving the Pilot better, but the Odyssey has more room and a better interior layout. and the Odyssey minivan tends to be less expensive than the Pilot. We'll probably have a used one, whichever we finally pick out. (we're still keeping an open mind as regards Chrysler. But the other selections haven't been attractive for us.)

Oh, and while Big J and I were running around to car dealerships today, I knitted an inch on a new sock! yay me :D

last minute supper

After an unsuccessful grocery shopping expedition (amazing how much it cost), I was busily searching for something to make for supper. Something that people might like, and that used ingredients that I already have. On one of my favorite recipe blogs, had an interesting recipe for Sweet & Sour chicken, and that's what we had for supper!

It includes bell peppers, pineapple, and an interesting cornstarch coating on the chicken. My family's opinion ranged from: "Better than take-out!", to "Let's not have it again". Big J doesn't like the sour stuff (i actually didn't know this, although, that explains why he doesn't like tomatoes, too), Little J thought it was slimy ;) I liked the taste a lot, but the cornstarch was irritating my throat...i really should avoid the stuff.

Off to knitting night! bye!

Happy Birthday Baby!

If you look up above, I added something to the blog. Yep, that ticker. It's counting down until our new little baby is born. We're expecting her the end of November :)

How much would you spend for a project?

I have finished knitting projects, and things we've did, that I could be talking about, but instead, let me ramble about my current fascination....


It's a quilt. A sampler quilt called "The Farmer's Wife" that a local quilt store is promoting in their newsletter. I have no idea why I am so fascinated with it, but I love it. Lurve, lurve, lurve it. I feel a compulsion to run down to the shop and bring home the kit today. I am restraining myself, however. (okay, usually i just go with the impulses, but when I feel this obsessed, i TRY to inject a little sanity. Usually by asking Big J "Am I crazy yet?")

The problem is the price. It's $25 to sign up for the kit. There's a required book that is $28. Then, it's a block of the month club (and i hope they do more than one block a month, or it's going to take 113 months), and there's a monthly 24.95$ charge. Backing is not included in the kit, and that's approximately $100. And, the item I almost forgot, is to have it machine quilted(b'cause there's no way I could hand quilt a king size blanket by myself) which is at around $200 for a quilt that size. Add it all up, and that would be over $600. Ouch!

Do people really spend this much to make a blanket? (yes, this is the knitter with a $40 scarf talking) There's always ladies in the quilt store, picking out fabric for their next project, but I didn't realize how much you could spend on one! I like the idea of quilting, I like sewing, but for me, it's more about frugalness, using up something that would otherwise be thrown away. At these prices, even though I love the quilt, I would be afraid to ever touch it.

What do you think? Am I crazy?

knitting and birthdays

Aren't they cute? but this isn't only for cuteness' sake, but to show that yes, I have been knitting. Look on their feet. Slippers! fuzzy felted goodness :) These were finished back in February, and then the kiddos asked me to put pompoms on to it. well, first I put pompoms on the toes of Little G's slippers, then Little J asked for pompoms too.

I've been knitting a little since then. I get the most done on the nights I go to the local knitting group at the library, as I have two whole hours to myself to knit! I'm working on two, no three, projects right now. A little shrug for Gloria, that I hope to have done before Easter, a warm-weather sweater for me, and socks for Gloria.

And here here's a close up of the slippers:



More recently, Little G had her birthday! yes, the little girl is two whole years old. I've promised people the videos from her birthday, and while I haven't sent them yet (oops!) I loaded them to flickr today.

and one last cuteness picture. My little girl, wearing her mommy's apron.

Today

It was a good morning. The little ones didn't wake up until a decent hour, which meant that I slept in. We had oatmeal (with golden raisins (sultanas. there's your vocab word of the day) and cinnamon and ginger and brown sugar. Yum!) and soft-boiled eggs for breakfast, and eventually, we headed out for some shopping.

We didn't find anything that I had planned on shopping for, but I did find two sweaters for me on clearance. And, we had Panda bowls and ice cream for lunch. It made the little ones quite happy.

And then on the way home, a nice police officer gave me a speeding ticket :(

Speeding tickets still make me cry. Oh, not in front of the children, or the officer, although i did feel a sudden need to eat ice cream. And, I don't know why. It's not like in college, where a speeding ticket would mean that I would have trouble paying bills or buying groceries. Perhaps, it's because there's only two choices, either I was doing something wrong, or I was doing something right and will be punished anyway.

Now I have to decide wether to pay it, or to show up for the court date. I think I'm going to go back south of town and look at those speed limit signs again, and then I'll decide.

baby hat

My other sister was visiting for the weekend, and she brought along baby clothes that my mother had saved. Most of it was too little for my little girl, but tucked into a little box, was this crocheted hat. It's adorable! It's a headband that ties under the chin, with a pony tail made up of curly strands and pompoms. We'll see how often I can put it on Little G this winter :D


Looking through all of the clothes and baby blankets, we decided to save some of the baby blankets, and some of the handmade baby clothes. Of the blankets, some are crocheted, by my mother and grandmother, and there are two cross-stitched and quilted blankets.
Other sister also had some old pictures that she had found among our parents things. The ones of my Aunt Vera and Uncle Emmit, i knew existed somewhere (well, hoped that they still existed), but I hadn't seen them in a very long time. Hmmm...i should ask her if she can make copies of those for me.


Right now, I'm watching the superbowl, for the comercials, mostly. And writing, and knitting. I've reached the arms on my Zelda sweater (yay me!), let's see how much I can do during this game. Go Colts!

what have i been doing? part two

This is what I've been doing for the last three days. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I was making a cake, and who knew it would take so long?

A friend of mine from the local knitting group, Laura Phillippi (i think i've seen that name before, on an army uniform, actually. hmm) is the curator of the Lansing Historical Museum. She was soliciting entries for a Kansas Day cake decorating contest, and I had been reading a book on a cake decorating technique ("The Whimsical Bakehouse") and it all just came together. I designed a cake, around the theme of wheat traveling from Russia to Kansas, and I used the decorating technique from the book to create wheat stalks and small, partial versions of the US map and of Russia.

This picture has a top view of the cake, so that you can see Russia and the United States better. The U.S.A. has a small square that is to symbolize Kansas.

The wheat stalks, and the map pieces, were made out of melted chocolate and candy coating. It's laid down in layers to make the designs. I did find that it's not as easy to do as the book seems to say. I'm not sure how the book's authors managed to make fine lines with the melted chocolate...my chocolate kept hardening inside the decorating bag when I tried fine lines, so that I had a minimum line size that I could use. And if you try this, use disposable decorating bags to hold the melted chocolate. It's much simpler to throw away a used bag than to empty out hardened chocolate. The chocolate designs are more fragile than you might think, so make more designs than you think you might need, and handle carefully.


And the little girl helping me bake a cake. Cute, no?

what have i been doing?

Well, my fingers are blue and green, but if you really want to know, you'll have to be at the Lansing Historical Museum on Saturday. There, will be the fruits of my labors!

I can give you a hint, although it isn't very significant: I had to make Russia and US twice. Because my mind wasn't thinking in 3 dimensions very well.

I remember: dominos with Grandma

When I was quite small, Grandma taught me how to play dominos. They were in a long red rectangular box, and were black dominos with white dots. I remember that it was special because Grandma would take the time to sit down and play with me.

I've been thinking that Little J was big enough to play dominos. It's basically a matching game, and he's really good at puzzles and matching problems. We found a set of dominos (a really BIG box, because you can always use more dominos) and he learned how today. And he's been beating the pants off of Little Sister -- he won 4 out of 5 games.

reading has caused a temporary interruption in our knitting

The weather is really wierd these days. There's been fog, for the last 3 days. Really dense fog. And almost frozen temperatures. The weather forecasters have been getting their forecasts wrong - they predict that the fog will leave by the afternoon, and it HASN'T. I'm a bit peeved about it. Especially today, when I would be driving to K.C. if there wasn't all this fog... Little Sister broke her glasses (they're quite fixable, but i don't want us to try and break them Worse) and that's the nearest LensCrafter store.

I've been reading older sci-fi lately. I picked up C.S. Lewis' Silent Planet trilogy again, and I think I'm going to read some of his non-fiction, too. I like the trilogy quite a bit, although I find myself speaking in more British-type English and speaking in long, convoluted, multiphrased sentences that challenge the record for the most words per sentence. :D It's good for my brain, some days I am too deeply into the mommie talk of my everyday life, and his prose has jarred the stuck record off of it's normal grove (yes, I'm old enough to remember LPs) .

I should get hardcopy versions of my C.S. Lewis books (yes, I have the Narnia series too. They may be hiding in Little Sister's room) Reading these books have cut into my knitting time (I can knit while reading big hardback books that stay open by themself. It's much more difficult to reading with a floppy paperback that wants to close up.) although Knitting night at the library too has an effect on relieving the Mommy Speak in my mind.

I've been working on a sweater (summerish sweater) for me for the last few weeks, since the holdiays. I really like it, and it's knitting up quickly (taking into consideration all the interuptiosn) , but I've a dilemma. And I can't seem to knit while pondering the dilemma. I have a sweater for Little G, that I started over a year ago, that is almost finished. I have yarn for a sweater for Little J, and a vest for him too. So, do I keep knitting on my sweater (which I would like to have done by March. So my BigJ can see it when he is back home) or do I knit on one of the projects for the little kids? And which one? I really need to decide, so that I can get back to knitting. And this is without taking into consideration the socks for Little G that I am trying to knit by Cat Bordhi's new method (I think her feet are growing over night. That would be one explanation for why I keep needing to start over.)

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1-20-10 Finally posted this. Thank goodness, the fog has cleared up occasionally. Maybe we're done with it for awhile?

Loops haul

Loops haul
Originally uploaded by marigo

We drove 300+ miles to visit my sister-in-law, and what did I do? visit a yarn store. What can I say, it relaxes me, and we had some free time. (before the littlest girl started throwing up, that is)

(oh my goodness, Little Sister made an absolutely scrumptioussss apple pie. Golden delicious apples, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, almost perfect pie crust...wow. i must stop slurping it down. And resolve not to sneak it out of the 'frig in the middle of the night.)

back to the yarn store: We visited Loops in Tulsa, OK. It's a wonderful, upscale yarnshop, with a great selection, and lots of room to sit and knit. They have a toy room, that the littlest ones loved. Considering I haven't visited a yarn store in four months, I didn't spend too much, but I certainly could have!

What I came away with, was:
-1 skein Lamb's Pride worsted
-Eucalan grapefruit wool wash
-#5 circular needles
-3 skeins Berrocco Pure Merino
-2 skeins Noro Silk Garden, different colorways

and I have projects planned for all of these yarns. The Lamb's Pride will be a Koolhaus hat for Big J, the Pure Merino will be used with blue PureMerino I already have(from Clementine's) for a sweater for Little J. The Noro is for a Noro striped scarf a la BrooklynTweed. shoot. I just looked at the pattern, and I think i need twice as much noro as i actually have. Must Order more yarn!

Slipper yarn

Slipper yarn
Originally uploaded by marigo

I have _plans_ for this yarn. I'm going to squish it, and soak it, and tease it until it all begs for mercy!

yep, I'm going to felt it.

Fiber Trends has a pattern for felted slippers that are sized for the whole family. we usually take off our shoes by the front door (oddly enough, that's not where we come in the house.) And, with Little J at the Montessori preschool, he's accustomed to changing to slippers inside, so, i'd like to start having them wear slippers at home, too.

What's the saying, "A sweater is what a child wears when his mother is cold"? It's so true. I really want to make slippers because my toes are cold, and they are running around in bare feet.

And I did think of how to have multiple pictures via flickr! The bottom picture is of the yarn that Little G picked out.

Christmas 2009 present

Christmas 2009 present
Originally uploaded by marigo

This was my Christmas present from the D.A. The book is Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi, and the yarn (raided from my Aunt's stash) is one skein of Fortissima Socka, and one skein of Inox 4-color Twister(I think). aren't they pretty?

I'm writing this blog entry via Flickr, and I haven't found out how to put more than one picture per entry, so there will be more blog posts today, with the REST of my stash increase.

plans for 2010

I've felt guilty (a little bit) about abandoning the blog lately. But the family came down with a flu/cold/general ickiness over the 1st of the year, and I can't manage to blog, or do much of anything, when I'm sick. So, I haven't felt too guilty.

I have a cornucopia of ideas for the blog, and of things that I want to do for the new year. All my yarnie goodies that I have acquired, since Christmas, should be exhibited, and the current knitting projects, too. And the sewing projects, and the gardening plans...

And this year, we'll be more involved in the local LaLecheLegue groups, and visit the local yarn stores (we drove 300 miles, and I visited a LYS. How silly can I be?), maybe I'll finally be part of an FRG(family readiness group, the army Luurves acronyms), more exercise! and see if the little boy would like to start Taekwondo (and maybe his mommy too, we'll see), and maybe I can go dancing with his Daddy...

Hopefully, there aren't too many more blizzards in this winter. I'm tired of being snowed in.