Freaky Fridays

For a couple of weeks I've had a runny nose, but pretty much ignored it because I was taking care of littler people with runny noses and coughs. Croupie coughs. So I thought my own bout of sinus drip was due more to lack of sleep and over taxed body. Logical yus?
Then last friday my ear started itching....never a good sign to one who had chronic ear infections. So I dropped in some earwax removal solution (sometimes it fixes everything) and it was okay, but the next day the itch was still there. So I dribbled in some hydrogen peroxide to kill any bacterias that could be up to no good.......LOTS of bubbles....kinda tickled......until it started to BURN. shock
run run run downstairs, warm up salt water in thermonuclear device and squirt it into said ear with infant booger sucker thing.
Dang.

Ignore it for 2 more days

Feel itching start up again......Himself harrasses me into calling Doctor.
I really like my Doctor. He is funny and talks about all your symptoms, the medication choices, the side effects and all that. A good guy, and a rare find these days.
Well he looked at me, shook his head and asked me if I had driven myself in because he was rather suprized my balance wasn't completely off...............
Apparently both my ear drums are bulged out with yuck, completely impacted and infected, a quick look up my orafices discovered that all my sinus cavities were firmly impacted....he was curious as to how I was walking upright and was amazed that I was suffering no hearing loss.
I suppose its the old family genes kickin in, high pain tolerance an all.

So here I am today hopped up on 4 different medications. Its weird because now that I am diagnosed, I actually feel what he was talking about....where as before I could blame sore neck glands as a crik in the neck from sleeping funny........

Why oh why do I do this to myself?

Tea anyone?

Thank ya, I'd love a cuppa tea.

So......I go downstairs to get a cup of tea and ya know what I saw?

Popcorn. Everywhere. On the counters, table, floor. It was trailed all the way into the bathrooms and hall. The rabbits were loose and the chihuahua was chasing them. The Ebear was getting his groove on to some Audio Adrenaline, wearing sunglasses and his superman cape. The lil princess was flinging dog food and laughing maniacally, not unlike me right this moment.
All 3 older brothers, who were supposed to be supervising the young siblings, were outside riding skateboards and WATERING all the plants (our yard has been more like a pond for the last 3 weeks, WHY they thought the plants were dying of thirst I will never know).

I'm between aggrivation, laughter, and downright lunacy at this point, thank ya very much.

Where is my knitting?

Mmmmmm Stash Enhancement

My cotton came in from Little Knits, and so begins my complete and total "knit from stash" diet. Its a heady feeling having all the brazillian spun light cotton around, just screams spring. I dove so quickly into the stash that a top for Princess was made before I even took pictures! yipe! the work you see still on needles is my first go at an EZ bog jacket for herself as well ;-P

Updates and stuff

Well its been a few days....well, quite a few days since my last update. Sorry about that.
Ebear and Princess have been rather coughy/croakie and its rubbed off on their mum. When my head is full of the yucks I am not overly inclined to type. You know how it is.
Anywho, I got my 9 pounds of cotton lovin' in the mail YAAAY and have been a knitting fool. Made Princess a shirt and am in the process of a bog jacket for her as well. I need, NEED more needles. My sizes are pretty limited and that is affecting my abilty to knit up stuff propertly. However, I got plenty for what I'm making for punkin and I'll be fine (ignore the quivering woman in the corner flinging chop sticks around looking for a 32' needle size 9.75)
Himself brought my Elizabeth Zimmerman book back home from my MIL's, I missed it. I'm going to put her other books on my wish list. The way she writes and allows a knitter to think for herself is brilliant.....even if she does make me do math.
My chocolate consumption has risen, and it makes me wonder about my self esteem. It seems that every single time I shed some weight, I start craving things that will put the fat back on. Why is that? Is my blubber a safety wall between me and the world? I think so. By typing this out there, I am here by declaring war on my psyche that is hurting my health. Take THAT. Muhuwahahahahahahahahaaaa

Llama llama llama duck

Llama song

turn on your speakers and BE the LlamaDuck


I love this


and I to was once a cake

I finished

Not a knitting project however *sigh*

But! My huge filing cabinet of 'important papers' which is really more of a postal black hole, has been sorted, appropriately shredded, and refiled down into two itty bitty accordion files! Go me!
I had help from Princess, my secretary, and from Himself, former Zen King of Filing Systems in the Universe. Guess who promptly piped up to accuse me of quashing that mojo the very moment I stepped back into his life? Heheheheheeheheheee......snort!
I now know that I need to :
***Call the State of Alabama and ask them where the heck my tax refund from 2000 is! I found a card that was mailed to me in '04 telling me they had a check waiting on me!!! COOL!
***Call the investment firm that is carrying the stocks on the kids indiviual portfolios and get some updated papers on that! My most recent copies are from 2001! Yeep! Got to get on that and start investment stocks for the newer kids.

and much to my suprise, that was it! Everything else has been handled or is in the handling process already! I feel all mature and responsible now *self satisfied smug/smarmy smile creeps across face...........and then she realizes its March 20th and her tags are expired****

KIP's , WIP's and CO crazies

Dude (said in best Hurley impersonation)

I have a lot of Works In Progress, Knits In Progress and yet, I'm itching to Cast On even more.
Whats up with that? Am I really so easily distracted that I need that knitters high of fresh projects? Fresh yarn, fresh abandonment of things half way done? I should be grounded to dishcloths for a month for this slacker behaviour.

My PhilosophersWool cardigan, which I LOVE but just wont work on without some solid blocks of uninterrupted time.
My Christmas gifts in progress, which comprise mostly of neat face cloths that I'm knitting in the car (only I never go anywhere so progress is a sad sad slow go)
My Log Cabin blankie, which is seeing some action, but come on, I been working on her since groundhogs day!
My socks *sigh* yall, I lost a completed hand knit sock. Can't find it anywhere, can't bear knitting the mate knowing the first is lost. waaaaaah
Kelley's knit clogs, which only need sewing up! And I should have sent them to her LAST OCTOBER. uhg.

Then there is the crossstitch projects that are clamouring for my attention. You know Himself's Christmas stocking I started working on last August? Yup, soooo not finished. The main haul of the work is done, its just detailing and some sewing, easy peasy, yet it langushes under the bed. Princess's stocking has not even been made....or A's........or Ebears.........aaaaaauuuugggghhhhhhhh
Yet when I go to cross stitch, all I can think of are the new things I want to stitch, and none of them have anything to do with Christmas.

My mommy quilt. This is a bed spread that will be made up of my kids baby/toddler clothes. My favorite tie dyed t-shirt that ALL my kids wore at one time, thats full of holes so It will have to be piece mealed around, all those kinds of fabrics, that mean so much to my memories. The kids could care less and don't even recall wearing the items, but thats why its a mommy memory quilt ;)

I am so not even going to THINK about the empty photo albulms and all the pictures in freakishly huge plastic boxes that need to go into said albulms. Its a good thing we don't really have closets I can hide stuff in because these pics would be the first to go. Unfortunately for me, my daughter will out grow her crib and one day I will no longer have all that space under her bed to squirrel stuff away in.

All of this, and yet here I sit at my portal to the world looking for ideas for the 9 pounds of cotton yarn coming to me from Little Knits. NINE pounds!
Himself was sitting here when I got the email that UPS had picked up my order and he looked at me like I was nuts. He said "9 pounds Dana?" and y'all, I could tell he was thinking it was time for me to go on a yarn diet. Honestly I know he is right and am putting myself back on the self control wagon, cause its easier if I put myself there than wait for him to pull a Dan on me. My rebellious nature will kick in, and I have access to pointy sticks, so we just don't need to go down THAT sordid path.
Subliminally he knows its safer if all my pointy sticks have yarn on them, and I think that was the only thing that stopped him from from taking away my debit card, but I ain't going to take any chances ;)

I need help yall. I need to just DO EET, get 'er done, roll with the tide on the flip side, knock these projects out 1-2-3, get some chips for my salsa, put salt in the guacamole, (I'm making up references for completeting things AND I get to procrastinate a wee bit longer), Dot my I's, cross my T's, wrap up my jot's and tittles (obscure Hebrew terminology), put my feet where my mouth is, pedal to the metal, run with the bulls, just go for it, crunch and munch time, put some warp to my woof,remake my bed, float my knitted boat, put the cheese on the cracker, finish a Christmas stocking by Easter, sew up the dang clogs already .......

Loggin' goodness

Not too terribly much to post about. Been obsessive about "Lost" and my Log Cabin Blankie of Goodness. Listening to TheBlueThread and learning some good stuff. I'm pretty hypersensetive about just about everything religious. There are so many false teachers and people that call them selves Christians but their lives are the total opposite....well that bleeds over into my ability to do something new. Himself told me that this Sunday our church is doing a new thing called an "afterglow service"
I'll be totally honest, all I could think was "What the???"
My friend out west has told me to give it a chance and some scripture to back it up, make sure things are in line with scripture. He is the same friend that says my weird-o-meter is set pretty high. Not that its a bad thing, and really, I'm greatful to have a person I trust to go running to when something sounds fruity at church. I've believed in God my whole life, but I am such a baby Christian when it comes to really reading and understanding what the Bible tells me. Wild stuff. Crazy wild stuff.

Off to listen to more podcasts and knit knit knit

And finally post a picture update (thanks to Jessie for harrassing me into using my camera)

Financial advisory

We met with *Ed last night to go over our finances. Investments, retirement, budget, that sort of thing. Learning the rule of 72 and insurance.

Insurance is a wonky subject with me. Car insurance, well of course I have that. In the state of Michigan no insurance means no tag renewal, so its a matter of obeying the law. No big deal. Its also a 'no fault' state so if some drunk jerk comes tooling out of nowhere and kills my family, It's illegal for me to sue him. Grrrrrrrrrr
I really REALLY do not think that is constitutionally sound law. but thats not the point of my post and I'll leave it at that. All having insurance means is that if your car gets totalled and there was a note on it, the note gets paid off. You can't even sue the guy to replace you car. BAH, anyway

Life insurance. On one hand, as a Christian, I depend on God to take care of me and my family. On the other hand, there is having good stewardship of the things the Lord has blessed you with....so where does insurance as a whole fall into? A typical funeral costs upwards of 10,000$ and if something were to happen, that cost alone would put my family in financial hardship. We are GOING to die one day (barring rapture) so this is a cost that WILL happen. It is irresponsible of me to leave it out there willy nilly. What about the kids? It would be a horrible enough thing on its own to bury a child, but to have incredible funeral costs on top of that? Uhg. There is just something sick about a world where you have to carry life insurance on your child.
So in this train of thought, I find myself in an argument loop in my head. I trust in God to take care of us, but isn't it possible that is why he sent us *Ed so we could have all these things organized and be good stewards?
What about investments? The one servant went and buried his masters money to keep it safe, while the other went and used it to turn a profit and earn more for his master. Isn't that what good financial stewardship is about? Taking what we are blessed with now and trying to make a profit for retirement?
A righteous man leaves enough inheritence for his childrens children......

I dunno. Its all so odd to me. On one hand we are not to worry about tomorrow because it will take care of itself.......but then to be making long term investments almost looks like we don't trust that God is gonna take care of us in our old age. Does that make sense? I know it doesn't....because He gave us the knowledge on how to be with our money and yadda yadda

heh heh

I need more coffee I think.

Anyway, as of now, today, my hubbo and I are more financially sound. Our stock portfolio is working harder and our budget is more in line with our current and long term needs. We have no debt, but our credit is bad BECAUSE we have no debt. Crazy huh? Because we refuse to use credit cards and take loans out on things that we should save for, because we are a family who pays cash, not credit, its going to be difficult when we go to get a loan for a new home.....which actually is fine with me. The subprime lending market is about to go bankrupt, in my opinion, so waiting a year or two will get us a much better deal on a home. We are not so foolish as to buy more than we can afford to upkeep....Which is a very common thing to see in the current market "oh look at how much more you can afford blah blah blah" when you know you can only afford 500$ a month in a mort payment, don't go buying a place that will have you at 1,500$ because the realtor and her mort broker says you can afford it...they are interested in the commission, not in how you pay your bills. This is why over 20% of homes in America are in the process of forclosure. Its also the reason I suspect a huge realty bubble pop in the next year or two.

Still, we ARE in the process of working our credit score now. Want to get it back up to where well established financial groups, like say a REAL bank, is begging us to take their loan instead of us banging on every lenders door in town. Know what I mean?

I need to go knit....knitting helps me organize my brain as well as covering me in knitted goodness. Today feels like a log cabin blankie day. Building my financial house and knitting my cabin. sounds like a brilliant combination.

*grin*

I was amazed at 20/20

As I've blathered on before about, I've stopped watching TV. Just can't stomach the balonga anymore, know what I mean? Even my Lost addiction can't get me to tune in (I now watch the episode the next day on line).
Well color me suprised that the generally one sided/one opinion US news media actually did a report on EXACTLY why I homeschool my munchkins! Whoa! Not that it mentioned homeschooling as an option, but showed a good many of the reason I opt out of sending my kids into those places. Tres Neato.

You can watch it here if you want. Gonna look further into this John Stossel fellah.


On other news, specifically knitting news, today (I hope I hope I hope) my cotton will arrive from Little Knits and I can start my summer shrug.
Yes I know I still have to finish my PW cardigan, but yall know how it is. ;)

Today is the day my house loses the effluvient paper weight it has amassed over the last 3 years. Brand new paper shredder is greased and ready, file cabinet knows I mean business and is cowering in the corner. That bad mamba jamba will be on the curbside tonight and freecycled by morning. I'm guesstimating the weightloss will be around the *gulp* 500 pound mark. Yeep.

Which reminds me, I need to order more school supplies for the critters. A whole new curriculum actually now that middleschool has begun in earnest. Lots more regimentation than the elementary grades, but ciest la vie. I think we are going to try a year with ACE and see how it works for us.

Monday, the week after.......

Hi yall

We went to Cincy this last weekend, spent 4 days, and learned SO much about the place! Specifically, we learned the areas we do NOT want to live heheheheheeee no Ypsi repeat mistakes for this family, Lord willing! We met with Mark and Laura from the realty group and they were just fantastic. They presented us with a basket of Ohio goodies and directions to follow from home to home to get a real good feel for the area. The next day, after Himself went to check out the new facilities, he and I went gallivanting around while the babysitter (A's mom and stepdad) watched the kids terrorize the hotel. G said he'd like to just stay AT the hotel LOL. We discovered many things, not the least of which was where we do NOT want to raise the kiddos.
Saturday we spent with the delightful Lora* who took us about the better areas. Out of over 300 homes in contention, only 2 remain as possiblities! Its that crazy. One of those homes would be perfect, if not for the swimming pool. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm ALL for swimming, but I am only one woman, and have 5 children. Its physically impossible for me to keep my eyes on them all at once, and it would only take one time for disaster to strike with the younger two. Not worth the risk at any price.

Though I took several knitting projects with me, I only managed to get potholders and dishrags done LOL but knitting is knitting and soothes the stressed out soul. Looking forward to my little knits delivery today! Whoot!

Mon March 5

Well, not much to say today, but I'll try.

Last Friday was my birthday and I spent it amongst construction in the living room, and teaching knitting over in the tv room. The student, A's mom, gallantly tried, but I don't think she has quite caught the bug for yarnery goodness.
Saturday Himself took me on a dinner mystery train, and it was nothing short of a riot. We had a fantastic time and would totally do it again. I managed to figure out who the murderer was and got a kick out of it. We shared a table with another Lost fan couple heheheheheheee

On the knitting front, I finshed a dishrag(my car knitting)and got half of a new one done. Got messed up on the color rotation pattern of my log cabin, but am going with it. My Fair Isle sweater made some progress and over all, I'm just pleased as punch with it. Its not turning out nearly as bulky as I had feared so Yaaaay

Today I'm packing up the classroom a bit and then going to get back to knittin' while even more construction goes on in the living room. I am so tired of living in constant construction zone. No matter what you do, the house will always look cluttered, dusty and cramped. Enough already LOL