this evening

Our Monday night consisted of the usual-homework, dinner (squash soup with turkey salad sandwiches-yes still eating turkey), showers and chores.
I did however find a couple of moments to sit on the couch to look at a Josh Groban dvd (checked out from the library), knit a few rows-really just a few, and browse thru a couple of magazines~


~aren't these slippers so festive, maybe I could knit two pair, for the girls knitted gifts




~look at those cute animals and owls!


Josh on stage singing (I'm kinda silly to take a picture of my tv :)



~ribbed hat in progress, can you see my copy of MSL magazine peeking in there? I somehow just can't resist her Christmas/Holiday issues


~sweater, coming along slowly

so from now until Christmas, I'll get in one stitch at a time (hopefully more) whenever I can, wherever I can-because realistically I'm no jack rabbit when it comes to knitting, I'm more of a "tortoise" speed (perhaps tortoise and speed shouldn't be in the same sentence, huh?)
Have a wonderful evening!

giving thanks

~making biscuits



~pear bundt cake,recipe in this book


I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Although we didn't make it out to visit our extended family (on the East Coast and in the South), we had a nice time with new friends. Really I have so much to be thankful for, and I want to embrace this thankfulness not only on Thanksgiving, but daily.

I'm not looking to do any major shopping today (I may go to Jo-Ann's and Borders, and we need two bedside table lamps (maybe shop online for the lamps) but that's about it. After viewing this it really puts in perspective about how we engage in the consumerism cycle (and I find it amazing that Thanksgiving is now so closely associated with Black Friday). Lots of times I think all of these "new gadgets" keep us conveniently distracted-distracted from others and mostly from ourselves. Now don't get me wrong I think technology can be a good thing-in small doses. Just the other day we were all home- I was sitting on the couch looking at television with my youngest daughter, my oldest daughter was upstairs on the computer, and my husband was downstairs on his computer. We were all home, together-but really were we together? Something for me to think about.

On to other things, I have an ambitious plan of knitting something for my husband and my girls for Christmas. Right now I'm working on a ribbed hat for my husband, I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to knit for the girls yet. These knits are not going to be long and involved-just things that are short and sweet.
So hopefully today I'll get some knitting in and then tonight we are going to our towns Christmas Parade.

Have a delightful weekend, and enjoy the leftovers!

finding

Unpacking is long work. I just dropped off more boxes today at the recycling center that have been in our garage. Really since we are renting I don't want to completely unpack everything. It's crazy though, last week I needed batteries for my camera, so I bought some from WinCo. Okay so now today, just looking in a basket at the top of my closet I realized that I had purchased a whole pack of batteries before we moved. This can be a little tricky, a lot of my craft stuff is still in boxes too, so I have to talk to myself-really and say "Now, do I need another of yard of fabric? (apparently I did, I purchased some from Jo-Ann's last week), or another skein of yarn? I did unpack the sewing machine yesterday-no need for a new one, at least not yet. I'm currently using this, and it's really an awesome little machine. It's my oldest daughter's machine, a gift from Nana, but my daughter graciously lets me use it. I also have an old Singer machine that my husband got me from the Goodwill couple of years ago. That machine is heavy duty, but when I use it I just can't get the thread tension right, so for now I'm sticking with Hello Kitty.
Anyway I found an old photo memory stick (circa 2008) in my closet too, and I just wanted to share a few photos from it~

~thrifted afghan, on the bed


~watercolors


~breakfast


~apple haul


~ my youngest scooping up snow (oh,how I'm going to miss those Midwest winters, seriously)


It's kinda weird but looking at some of these old photos totally reminds me of myself. See, sometimes I feel like perhaps a little part of me got lost in the move, but looking back helps me to look forward, which helps me to find my new footing, on this new ground.
Have a great Tuesday evening!

for the love of knitting

knitting can be found on~

my arm, an i-cord bracelet


on my phone

my cup of coffee (a decaf mocha), both the cell phone case and coffee sleeve were given as gifts to me, thanks Tara!

my neck, keeping me warm

Hopefully this upcoming winter, with the rain coming down and winds whipping, I'll be found on my couch-blanket covering my legs, a warm cup of tea at my side with some yarn and needles in my hand, making more knitted things to love.

The Parade

The girls school took the day off so all the students could attend the Veterans Day Parade in the neighboring town








At a point in the parade, I found myself getting a little emotional, unexpectedly.
Despite differences that may exist either politically, racially, spiritually-we are all humans. Humans that can hopefully remember that our humanness connects us more than anything else.
Wishing you a blessed Veteran's Day!

this week so far....

breakfast, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

The above picture is one of our breakfast on Sunday, waffles with homemade applesauce, a good way to start the week-don't you think?
We've also been working on fifth grade math (the distributive property). My oldest daughter and I worked on that Monday night- it took me back to my own grade school years and my lack of love for the subject, but I think by 9:30 pm it started to click- for the both of us.
Today the girls and I ate an early dinner right after school at Baja Fresh, then we visited the bookstore, and then decided it would be a good idea to get a sweet treat. Now its time to get ready for bed-I feel like night comes so early now with daylight savings time being over.
Other things I need to do this week include getting us some rain coats and some socks (the manager at Baja Fresh told me there are three seasons here, which are" rain, rain, and more rain-which somewhere in between is broken up with about fifty days of sunshine", oh boy, no wonder there is a coffee shop on every corner in town). The girls will start up piano lessons tomorrow. I found someone who teaches lessons in her home and she can teach the lessons back to back (before I was taking the girls on different days, but at that time my youngest had only half days in school). I'm hoping to get some more knitting done on my sweater this week too-I worked on it a little bit on Sunday. I don't want this new project to become a ufo!
You know, we've been in our new home for a little over two months and some days it seems more like home here than others. Change is very hard for me, I accept this, and I also realize that in the process I am growing, learning, and understanding that now matter where I am, God continues to bless us and gives us the grace we need.
grace.

at home....

~by the sink


~in my lap


I've got a little knitting going on, the pattern is here.

Have a good weekend!