Trio of Hats #2

Here's Max. Can you believe that skin? It's good to be 12.

For Educat

It's called the Clover Yarn Guide and it looks like so:



I got mine for Christmas, but they look pretty easy to find on the Internet and my LYS has them.

Bad New for Vermont Red Heads

It fits!





Good news for red heads: There's plenty of wool left and a long winter ahead :)

All's Well That Ends Well

The boys won their championship game 12-0. That's about the narrowest margin they've had so far. Max didn't get to play as much as usual, but he played enough to feel satisfied with the job he did, so that's good. Afterwards they had a nice pizza party. It was cool out, but I'd brought a blanket and the rain stopped right before the game began, which was a tender mercy as far as I'm concerned. I don't think the kids cared, but those of us watching the game did.

Tomorrow will be a day full of geometry and boys' haircuts and school, but today is Sunday and that means worship, time together as a family, some time to relax, and some time to knit. I've got a hat on the needles that I suspect will be too small for its intended recipient, Milo. But it's coming out so cute that I'm going to go ahead and finish it for whatever child it ends up fitting. I also tried this widget that holds multiple strands of yarn on your finger for two-color knitting. I've always done one color in one hand and one in the other--but for the simple patterns in this hat, I decided to give the finger widget a try and it worked beautifully.

Saturday Mania

It's going to take a lot of caffeine to handle this day properly. It's only 2:00 pm and what I really want to do at this point is bury myself in geometry (No, what I really want to do is turn on the heat, but I won't!) but there is still so much left to this day.

Chris is on the youth temple trip being a chaperone. So he's in Washington D.C., and I suspect when he gets back he's going to gobble something up for dinner and then go to his mother's house to watch the football game.

So Gaye and I are on Max duty. Max would ordinarily have gone on the Youth Temple Trip, too, but he had both a piano recital and the championship football game today, so he stayed home to play football and piano. So far we're one down, one to go. The recital went fine. Max was barely prepared, but played the song well and called it good. Hopefully we'll be getting in more practicing now that football is about to be over.

After he finished his piece (with his teacher's permission) we all left and Gaye went back to her house and I took Max to football practice. In another hour I'll drop the twins at Gaye's and then go get Max and take him over to the big football field across town where the actual game will be played.

It is raining cats and dogs, so even with my new birthday umbrella, I expect to get soaked. Chris cannot watch his darling son play football as it wraps him around the goal posts in emotion. I don't have this problem as after three or four seasons of watching him play football--I still don't have a clue what the heck those boys are doing. Looks like a mess to me and then some kid gets the ball and runs and scores and we all cheer. I do try to only cheer when a kid in a red shirt gets the ball so as not to upset the other moms and dads on our team, but sometimes I slip up. Based on how the game goes the rest of the time, it's pretty impressive when someone gets to score.

Anyway, so that's what I get to do here soon. Since Max will have already been in the rain for over an hour when I pick him up from practice to take him to the game, I'm thinking I might bring the boy a hot chocolate to drink.

After the game, unbelievably, they're going to try to squeeze in a party for the kids back at the Assembly of God church. I say unbelievably because I have a hard time believing I'm the only parent for whom 1:45 pm to 7:00 pm is just. too. much. football. All I can think about is the lesson on locus I'm supposed to be writing. Nevertheless, I can't let Max miss his end-of-the-season party just because I want to write 7 worksheets on loci; so I'll get him to the party and get him in dry clothes and try to socialize and stay off the Bad Mom couch until he says he's ready to go, too.

Then I'll come home and do grilled cheese sandwiches or maybe even peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches, or something equally simple, so that I can say with a straight face that I fed my family dinner. Then send Chris off to watch the game and let the kids play the Wii till bedtime while I try to get a page or two of work done.

I'm glad tomorrow is Sunday. I could really use a Sunday at this point.

And now I think it's time to go make that hot chocolate.

My Glass

I'm holding on for dear life with the wild ride we're on right now. Life is very much "sweet 'n sour." On the one hand there's the undeniable stress of Chris' unemployment and my over-employment. We're going down in flames financially. That's a huge stress. On the other hand it's a gorgeous, amazing fall; I love my husband so much; my kids are healthy and doing well in school; we're getting lots of help with the financial issues; I'm in a good place spiritually; I love my calling in the Relief Society; the job at the law office is going well; and I have a great dog. (She just came over to say hi and look hopefully through my bag for a treat.)

I keep hoping the geometry project is finally over. But then another assignment arrives in my in-box. It is by far the most challenging project in which I have participated and the time it takes me to complete each page isn't worth the modest pay. But we need the money so badly and it's math--every page is a fight, but I feel so satisfied when each page is done. I can't make the deadlines but my employer must be happy with the final result because they haven't said a THING about it and just keep feeding me more. I prefer writing math to any other content area and having to relearn the advanced geometry concepts is really more satisfying than anything else--it's just that there's so little time for figuring things out.

Living beyond frugally is TIME consuming. It's satisfying, but for example, I need to can up more beans for us to use for meals and that will be time this evening that I should be working on my grammar project. On the other hand, I simply CAN'T work around the clock. I get brain freeze. I need to get up and go knead bread or do a few dishes or lead the family in a whole-house pick up. These things clear out my head and make it possible for me to sit back down and make faster progress. Sweet 'n sour. I feel like I should be working when I'm doing other things. When I'm working I can't concentrate for the other things that are left undone. I'm trying to strike a balance so I can focus just on what's in front of me.

My glass isn't empty at all. As fast as it's being emptied financially, something else comes along to fill it up. God is merciful as long as I'm willing to open my eyes and look up from the checkbook and see the other things. I do have moments when I can't. I get tunnel vision and just see what is unpaid. Or I see how hard this all is on Chris and get to feeling hopeless about my inability to fix that for him. He's such a wonderful husband and father and I struggle with finding ways to show that. But the autumn sun is shining through my window right now and lighting up the quiz on vectors that I just finished and I feel hopeful in this moment and that's what it's about, right? Savoring the sweet and appreciating its contrast to the sour.

Live Blogging the Vice-Presidential Debate

I can't really Live Blog the debate. It's all I can do to listen to the debate and write a math lesson at the same time (I'm working on the technical art. I couldn't write the text and listen to people talking at the same time.)

But I do think there's a clear winner emerging from the debate--the moderator. Can I vote for her?