Alone, All Alone

This evening my dh left to take 2 of the kids to Youth Group. He took 2 younger kids with him just for the ride. One of our children is at my sister's house (dh will be picking him up). And the 6th one was working, but is going to stop by my sister's and then go pick up the 2 that are at Youth Group for us. So I am alone. Alone. ALONE.

I don't know whether to go have a LONG shower, take a nap, or do other stuff. So I elected the other stuff. I have dyed a skein of yarn for my7kids.etsy.com and have made a pair of very gothic, felted lace, black angora fingerless mitts for HeartFeltFun.

And, I finished my block for the day. This is the 2nd yellow and purple block for one of the healing quilts, and my 4th and last for those. Friday I will be able to mail them off. This one is called Harlequin Star. It is very striking and not boring. My daughter put hers together wrong, and I like it even better. LoL.

It is COLD here today. Supposed to be cold again tomorrow too, with a chance for snow. Everybody around here will be wiping out the grocery stores from bread, milk, and eggs. Because if there are FIVE fluffy, floating flakes of snow, these people panic that they are going to be snowed in. And of course if you are snowed in, you need staples, like bread, milk, and eggs. People actually call in to work saying they can't get there because of the snow! Wow, what would they do if they lived where I grew up in Ohio. Guess they would knuckle under and starve.

I am down 4 pounds since New Year's Eve. I think I must have shivered it off. LoL.

Ok that's all the news I have for now. Wow. I am ALONE. Think I will go have that long, hot shower after all.

BRRRR!

I thought it would be such a shame to deprive the world of any views of my new ride. So I have added them to yesterday's post, below (please go see! I LOVE this bike! I had forgotten how much until we started it up and I nearly cried!) Definitely not the weather to ride! It is freezing tonight! Guess I will have to go start it up every day and hear it run, just to do my heart good (and keep the gas from turning to varnish).

I love to quilt, but when the weather gets like this, I want to knit. Today I completed another ski band, and spun up about half the Happy Begonia Batt I got from Maisie Handspun off etsy. I took the batt with me to church (left it in the car, don't worry!) and played with it afterward when I went to my sister's to collect one of my kids that Des had borrowed. Which makes my sister mad. The spinning, not the kid borrowing. My sister doesn't have any hobbies besides watching TV, even though dd#1 and I have offered to teach her (ANYthing!). But she gets mad if we bring our knitting or spinning to her house. I can only tolerate so much idle sitting, watching a glowing screen. [shrug] And Des spent the DAY there today, while her dh is building a platform for their bed in the garage. So, we brought our hobbies.

Today I listed 3 new yarns: Another Shepherd / Joseph, Mary's Righteous Husband / and Nestor, the Donkey that Carried Mary. Another Shepherd and Nestor are both made from an Irish Heathers hand-knitted and seamed sweater. They were natural brown sheep wool, which I hand dyed. Gorgeous! Joseph was a beautiful blue sweater, a 2-ply sock weight, one ply navy blue and one a lighter blue tweed.

I also listed an ear warmer/ski band/headband
in my HeartFeltFun shop. I hand knitted it from yarn I got from FeltStudiosUK on etsy... a 2-ply hand dyed, handspun Falkland wool in beige, tan, brown, sage green, light gray, and a little blue. I knitted in subtle diamonds and I think it is beautiful!

A Turn in the Weather

ok, so we're back. We got back late Wed. evening, and haven't had a spare minute to write until now! I didn't even get caught up on my emails until this morning.

Had to be up Thurs. at the crack of dawn to help the girls with their 4-H baking units. Diantha's age group had to make biscuits, Veronica's had to make muffins. Other ages had to make yeast bread, cupcakes, and cookies. The meeting was in the next town over at 8:30 AM. Diantha won 1st place with her made-from-scratch biscuits, using butter instead of shortening. Veronica won 1st place with her Oatmeal White Chocolate muffins, also made from scratch. In the Spring, they go on to a competition in the county. If they win there, they go on to the state.

Came home, unloaded the bike, and my mom, dad, BIL, and niece Dana came over. Dad and I took off to take lunch to eldest DS and get the title transferred on the bike. It is old, and smaller than our 450, but not by much. The top of the tank needs painting. But it started on the first kick (real bikers kick, LoL) and sounded mighty fine to my bike-deprived ears. Shoulda gone for a ride in the balmy 50 degree weather!

In the afternoon, I took the 4 youngest kids plus my niece to the Children's Museum in Oak Ridge. Met my oldest dd and her two kids there, plus a friend of ours and her two kids the same age as my daughter's. Twelve of us in all. What a good time. It was Josiah's 8th birthday, so he was thrilled to get to go have so much fun for his birthday.

Took Dana home and took in food for everyone at sis's house... stayed around to visit a little while, but I was exhausted. So far this week I have averaged 5 hours sleep a night, plus the round-trip to Ohio.

Today dawned too dang cold to ride. Call me a piker, but I like to see at least a "4" in the 10s column of that weather number before I ride, no matter HOW well those fringed chaps block the cold.

I caught up emails, ran to the PO, went to bake Josiah's cake to have everyone over this evening and didn't have a speck of flour. He wanted a "Hot Wheels" party, and I was going to make him a big, 3-dimensional racecar with dark-chocolate wheels for a cake. Off to buy some flour. The store had a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, complete with a road and billboards on it, on the day-old rack. I really don't like store-bought cake, but when 16 people are going to dig into this thing, they aren't going to let it get a minute older! Divine Providence, that's what it was. Though my BIL did comment on my not serving a scratchmade cake ("What is the world coming to?!")

We baked a bunch of pizzas; Josiah got some nice presents. A Car Holder that hangs on the back of the bedroom door, some new Hot Wheels, a Hot Wheels "laptop" to do some of his school on, some new jeans. A Disc Shooter, to ensure that the floors of my house continually have little foam discs on them until Christmas.

My dh is feeling lousy, but I gave him a hard time about it today. When I am sick, do I get to just go lie down and die like I feel like doing? Especially when I am going to have a houseful of company? So he sat on the couch with the kids and made them get rid of all the laundry in the living room. That is some help at least.

Tomorrow I will put up some new yarns, I hope bright and early. Tonight I am going to go lay on the bed, knit, and read to hubby. Goodnight!