Crazy Camp week has begun!.

The elder members of the PeachyQueen gang seem to be enjoying camp. DS1 is at cub scout camp and is having a blast. Normally, I can't get a word out of him about his day. This entire week, he couldn't wait to tell me about camp. He even wanted to cook dinner with a recipe he learned in camp. I'm still not sure about this recipe. You crack and egg into a Ziploc bag, add milk and cheese, and mush up. Then you are supposed to put the mixture in to a pan of boiling water. I figured we were making some sort of poached omlette. I'm pretty sure he left out a step or two. At some point, you are also supposed to put the egg mixture into an oven. Eventually, we had scrambled eggs.

[I have to interrupt this thought with a mental picture. DS1 just walked in wearing shark pajamas, Star Wars sunglasses, and two large pearl necklaces hanging down to his waist. Where's my camera . . . .]

DS1 also has had a great time with archery and shooting BB guns. He even received a special award today for shooting the target with more than 5 shots. I'm not sure how I feel about DS1 holding any sort of gun. I guess I have a mixture of pride, concern and absolute fear. He's all boy with all of the little boy destructive tendencies. I guess I will feel proud of his accomplishments and happy that we don't have a BB gun at home.

DS2 is reluctantly having fun at camp. He would much rather stay home with Mommy. Mommy, however, has a few things to do. In addition to the normal doctor appointments and errands, I need to get the family ready to go to Tennessee next week. I also think he may be a little bored at this camp. It sounds like the camp moves at a slower pace, and nothing DS2 does is slow. He is supposed to return to this camp later in the summer, but I may find a different camp that week.

Having the boys at different camps in different parts of town has taken a toll on my car. I'm driving over 100 miles every day. The only good aspect of spending my life in the car is that I have found the most wonderful audiobook: The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It received great reviews as both a well-told story and a well-read book. It's fabulous. I don't want to put my IPod down. The biggest problem is that the story is set in Jackson, Mississippi. After listening to the Southern accents all afternoon, I tend to talk like a character in the novel!

I need to go help prepare the boys for their last day of camp this week. Have a great night!

A Sad Day to be a Tree

The word came down today - the Kwanzan cherry tree outside my office window must go.

It's actually a pretty tree, maybe 10 feet tall. We planted it when we first moved into the house 10 years ago. In the spring, it sports these beautiful cotton puff pink flowers. I have fond memories (and several great pictures) of the kids pulling the flowers off the tree and blowing the pedals into the wind.

This year, I noticed a large branch that died. Not a problem, I thought; we'll just cut it off. When I inspected the tree yesterday, I noticed that leaves on several nearby branches were dying. I asked our lawn care person about the tree, and he noted an area of rot in the trunk. I had hoped that I would find some sort of cure on the Web, but all the information that I can find states that Japanese cherry trees are sensitive and that they will not survive the rot. I may send out one more e-mail to the local celebrity gardning guru, Walter Reeves, to see if he has any last suggestions. I probably should call an arborist, but my husband is reluctant to spend the money since we both suspect the tree's days are numbered.

I guess next week, I'll call someone to take down the tree. I'll miss the pink flowers next spring.

I knitted a Baby Surprise Jacket

Yes, it's true. It's not finished, but it's knitted. I still need to sew in the ends, the top seam, and add buttons, but here is what it currently looks like:

It is knitted in Knit Picks Comfy Sport, a cotton-acrylic blend that will be perfect for a baby who is going to live in Arizona. I brought the almost-finished piece to the Atlanta Knitting Guild tonight, and I received many oohs and ahs from the membership both on the yarn selection and my workmanship. It is appropriate that I finished knitting the BSJ tonight since I began the BSJ at the last guild meeting. Okay, actually I spent the May meeting fighting a ball of yarn intended for the BSJ, but I think I cast on that evening or the morning after. I hope to weave in all the ends by my next weekly knitting meeting. Once the baby is born, I'll add the appropriate buttons.

On some level, I felt a little silly in that I had a lot of problems with what essentially is a garter stitch pattern. I do feel I learned a lot from the pattern, and I take a great deal of comfort in the fact that most people seem to find it a challenging pattern.

I also learned an important little fact from my knitting group last night. Apparently, I do not make my knit stitch correctly. I knit into the back of the needle and purl into the front. My understanding is that many self-taught knitters make the same mistake. While this is not a problem for many patterns, it may be a problem when I start to use patterns that require I knit into the back of the stitch. I decided to knit several washcloths and baby bibs to re-teach myself how to knit.

Anyway, I'm going to celebrate my accomplishment by curling up in bed and watching The Deadliest Catch (I'm addicted). I hope ya'll have a great evening!

How can it be June?

I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks because, well, I haven't had time. I usually try to put a lot of thought into a blog. I compose an essay with a definite theme and some sort of conclusion. Now that the summer has begun, I need to get over my legal self and just write.

The past two weeks have been crazy busy. The week of May 16 was our children's last week of school. Sunday, my oldest child "graduated" the religious school first grade program in the morning, and in the afternoon he graduated to a "wolf" in the Cub Scouts. Monday and Tuesday were filled with doctor appointments and non-stop errands. I also spent the week finalizing camp plans. On Thursday, my oldest had a school awards ceremony and camp orientation. Friday was my middle child's preschool graduation and my oldest's end of year presentation and school party. Friday afternoon, my parents and sister arrived for a quick overnight visit. Not much knitting happened that week.

To add to the crazy week, we had an unexpected houseguest. Our friend, S, suffered a broken ankle from a nasty car accident. S is single and has no family in the area, so she stayed with us after she was discharged. So while we were running around from school event to school event, we were also taking care of S, who was far more disabled than we had realized.

Taking care of S had an additional unexpected challenge - her duplex. Eventually, S would need access to her own bedroom and bathroom, both of which were impassible. I spent over an hour cleaning her bedroom floor, and I was not even close to being done. I hauled her laundry over to our house for cleaning and gave her keys to a friend who was bringing a cleaning person to the home. My friend and the cleaning person spent an additional 4 hours cleaning just the bedroom and master bath, and then they returned another day to clean the rest of the duplex. S has been informed that her bedroom is to stay in pristine condition; there are now several people who have a vested interest in seeing it clean.

Immediately after my family left town on Saturday, I turned my attention to getting our family ready to go to Florida on Wednesday morning. I spent Sunday doing nothing but laundry and creating packing list for the kids. S's mother arrived on Memorial Day, which worked out very well for us. We were able to take S back to her house home that evening and begin to pack for our trip to Florida on Wednesday, May 27. As you can imagine, packing for a family of 5 for a six-day trip took all of our time on Tuesday, and we left town early on Wednesday morning.

From a knitting perspective, the trip to Florida was wonderful. I was left in charge of the baby much of the time, which meant that spent a lot of time sitting and waiting for him to wake up from a nap or watching him roll around on the floor. That was great knitting time. I made considerable progress on the Baby Surprise Jacket, and I should have a picture of it in the next couple of days.

Unfortunately, because I was watching the baby, I really was not able to take advantage of the beach or my in-laws' pool. I took the baby to the beach once, but he spent his time trying to get off of the beach towel and eat the sand. Normally babies eat a handful of sand and spend an hour trying to get the grains out of their mouths. My baby, of course, loved the sand and spent his time trying to eat more of it. In our six day Florida trip, I spent a total of 2 hours on the beach. Sigh. Maybe next summer. . . .

I wish I could say that the rest of the summer would be more relaxing, but I suspect it will be just as busy. In fact, I know it will. I just updated my calendar for June, and it's not pretty. The next two weeks are packed with appointments, medical procedures, and playdates. I did hire a babysitter today to come by two days a week to watch the kids, which will be extremely helpful. Also, the older two have camp next week, which also should free up some time.

Then in mid-June, the children and I head to Franklin, TN to visit my my parents for two weeks. This should be a lot of fun. For the first week, the kids are going to an awesome camp. They will play soccer with Nashville's semi-pro soccer team in the morning, and in the afternoon they will perform science experiments and learn to build Lego robots. They should have a blast. The second week is Mommy and Nana Camp where we take them to cool places around the city and on day trips. Again, we all should have fun.

While the boys are in Soccer/Science camp, Mom and I will hold "Knitting Camp." We plan to check out all the LYS we can find and take as many classes as we can cram into two weeks. Knitting heaven.

My husband is staying behind on this trip to focus on his work, on finding a new job (know anyone who needs a CIO?), and on his "Honey do" list. I am very proud to say that today alone, he staked six tomato plants and fixed the pantry door. More importantly, for the first time ever, the water closet door in the master bathroom actually closes and locks. You have no idea how important a locked WC door is until you have little boys pulling it open demanding to know whether you have a penis and what exactly you are doing at that moment. I can't wait to see how my house improves during his two weeks as a bachelor.

I had hoped to have pictures to show you from our trip, but my husband apparently has not downloaded his photos from his camera yet. Look for them over the next few days. In the meantime, wish me luck. I may need it.

Is Change in the Air?

How many times have I started this blog post? About as many times as I’ve cast on the Baby Surprise Jacket. It’s been a tough week from a blog and a knitting perspective. I’ve been very distracted and have a variety of issues muddying up my head.

The main issue with which I have been grappling is whether to go back to work. My DH has been working on contract for a while, longer than we expected. While we are fine financially, we both are more than a little tired of the instability. I’m just a little hesitant about getting a steady, sit-at-your-desk-all-day type of job. Will I physically have the energy to work a 40+ hour week? Will I be able to keep work commitments with three small children, two of which have medical needs? And what if my DH finds a job that requires travel? After his last consulting gig that required full-time travel, I informed him that I would not be a Working Weekday Single Mom. That job as a WWSM is for the birds.

In some respects, it is good for my ego to review what I accomplished in my last position. I accomplished a fair amount of experience in a fairly short period of time. I was even gaining a good reputation for my work. Unfortunately, I had my own practice, and owning your own business requires a 60+ hour a week commitment. I’m not doing that to my family. Or to my own sanity, for that matter. (My DH wants me to add that my 60 hour weeks do bad things to his sanity as well.)

I do think I have matured considerably since I closed my practice. I’ve learned a lot about what situations I do and do not want to handle. For example, I’m a straight shooter who is not interested in office politics, and I do march to my own drummer. I would be a poor fit in an office where I would be measured by my United Way donation and the number of navy blue skirt suits I own. (BTW – I never owned a navy blue suit. Teal blue, yes; navy blue, yuk.) I do have a fabulous bright apple green suit that I wear in the spring and summer. I will know I am working in the right place when I can wear that suit and receive compliments instead of surprised glances.

Of course, returning to the law may delay my ultimate goal of becoming the next Yarn Harlot. She gets paid to knit and to write about knitting and her broken dishwasher. I know she’s not a perfect knitter; I’ve read her knitting horror stories. I can write, and I certainly can knit horror stories. I even have a dying oven. How do I get her gig?

Despite the frustrations of the week, we did have a high point – my middle son’s birthday party. For his fifth birthday, we had a roller skating party. Most of the children had never roller skated before, and they all had a great time. I love watching small children learn to skate. They remind me of does first learning to stand. They get knobby kneed just before their legs go different directions and their body hits the ground. Then they look up with a big grin on their faces. It’s priceless.

My DH made my son’s cake from scratch. I am so proud of him. It was almost too cute to eat.

DH spent hours putting this cake together. In fairness, the design comes from a kit, but he made the frosting from scratch and decorated it by himself. Okay, I helped a little, but he did a better job.

My DH is a great baker. We joke that when he retires, we’re going to open a bakery. I even have the name picked out: Mike’s Sweet Stuff. At some point, I’m going to send him to the culinary institute for a class in pastries. While it would be deadly from a Weight Watchers perspective, it would be a lot of fun. Cake decorating also has a yarn benefit - cake frosting dyes are supposed to be great for dying yarn.

My knitting, well, it’s making slow progress. I’ve only done a few rows this week. I became a little paranoid when I checked the BSJ forum in Ravely and discovered a series of YouTube tutorials on the BSJ. I watched the first four, and I think I’m doing okay. I’m marking the decreases differently that the video suggests, but I’m being consistent. I’m also bravely using a cotton blend instead of wool. Cotton just makes more sense to me since the baby will live in Arizona.

I feel a little boring don’t have anything else on my needles right now. On some level, I’m ready for a new challenge. I really don’t want to make another scarf or baby bib. On the other hand, I seem to have trouble counting (thus the slow progress of the BSJ). Lacking the ability to count, I’m not sure that I’m mentally prepared to handle the challenge of a pair of socks or a baby kimono.

The more I blog, the less I knit. So I suppose it’s time to sign off and hit the needles. Or maybe the pillow. I roller skated for over an hour today, and I’m not the high school skating queen I used to be.

The Best Husband and Mother's Day Ever

I just have to rant and rave about my wonderful husband. He got me a set of Harmony interchangeable circular needles for Mother's Day. In fairness, when he asked me what I wanted, I did tell him I wanted this set of needles, but this is a super nice gift for what I consider to be a Hallmark holiday. He also enclosed a copy of a book of baby patterns by Debbie Bliss.

And, if that weren't enough, he worked with each child to make decorative cement stones for the garden. You can make these stones from kits sold in a big box craft store, or probably in Walmart. While I was at my knitting meeting this week, Mike poured each of the boys poured a concrete stone and had them decorate it with a handprint and beads. Mike then put a picture of each boy encased in plastic in the top left corner. The stones are so cute! I put them in the corner of my garden near the front door.

Two of the boys also surprised me with gifts from school. My oldest made a flower picture frame out of foam and a card with an origami flower center. My middle child made a "Mommy cookbook" in which each student in the class describes how his mother makes a certain dish. Here is how I make a "potatoe": "Mommy washes the potatoe, then she puts in in the microwave and bakes it for 1 minute at 40 degrees."

Another favorite recipe is Emma's Mommy's Spinach Pie: "Put grapes in a bowl, add corn and apple. Put something over the bowl. Put in microwave for 34 minutes. Put crust on then eat."

What an amazing Mother's Day. I hope everyone had a Mother's Day as wonderful as mine!

Sorrow & Joy

t was a sad, sad night for my baby surprise jacket. I went to a local knitting group, and I needed help with a section of the jacket. I was using a wool that has different thicknesses - the yarn goes from very thin to very thick - and I couldn’t tell if I had dropped a stitch. Ultimately, it was determined that I was having a lot of trouble seeing what I was doing with the yarn, and those with more experience strongly suggested that I frog what I have and try the pattern with a more forgiving yarn. As stubborn as I am, I knew they were right. So I frogged the project this morning and will start again with a new yarn. (Ignore the soft weeping you hear in the background.) Let’s hope that the third time is a charm.

There was a shining spot yesterday. I completed my Duck bib for my brother and SIL.

(Lily Sugar n' Cream Solid, yellow and hot orange)

I need to make a couple of changes to finish the bib. The fish button is a functioning button, but it is difficult to unbutton because the yarn catches on the fins. At the suggestion of a knitter in my knitting group, I think I'm going to add velcro or a snap for the closure and make the button purely decorative.

I am very proud of the bib for a couple of reasons. First, it is cute. Second, I adapted the pattern from a crochet duck bib pattern I found on Ravelry. I guess I created my first pattern. Not bad for a beginner, huh.