THURSDAYS, THURSDAYS, YEA, YEA, YEA!!!

THURSDAYS, THURSDAYS, HA, HA, HA....
MMMMMM, I LOVE THURSDAYS!!!!

In case you're wondering...I love Turtles even more than Whoppers!!!
So therefore, when I sing about Thursdays; I'm singing to the tune of the Turtle song !

O.K. lots to catch up on, but the kids just walked in the door from school and I need to get ready!
Ready for what, you ask?
I'm getting picked up by one of my knitting friends,; I love my knitting friends.
She's taking me to Pick Up Sticks, because she has to pick up some yarn. She does; not me, no sirree Bob, I'm not getting yarn. Nope. Got enough yarn; especially since Connie and the gals at Pick Up Sticks presented me with this...


A BOUQUET OF YARN!!! ISN'T THAT A FABULOUS GIFT? AREN'T THEY WONDERFUL YARN SHOP OWNERS?!
i love knitters---they get me.
After we've visited the yarn shop (just visiting, because I'm not going there to buy yarn), KGB will be driving me down to join some other knitting friends, (whom I also love), for dinner.
Then...I get to go to KNITTING!!
It's been WEEKS since I've been knitting...I mean I've been knitting, but not out to knitting...I mean I've been out and knitting, but not out with my knitters, to knitting, on a Thursday evening!
I think I'll take some pictures and post them on....

You guessed it...FRIDAY!!! (her belly is sooooo soft.)

Rememberance Day

My children have impressed me so much this past weekend with their thoughtfulness and creativty. I share with you their rememberance days poems.

REMEMBER

Remember the soldiers who fought;

Take that as a thought.

Remember the soldiers who died,

And they did not lie.

Remember the nurses who fed,

And they put them to bed.

Remember the soldiers who tried,

And now you cry.

Remember the soldiers who came,

And when they left it rained.

Remember the nurses who saved;

They were brave.

So when you see a poppy...

You should copy.

H.B. - 9 YRS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remember in November

To all the people who gave there lives
To all the people who never saw the sun rise
To you and me
To all you can see
We must remember
In the month of November
Were poppies grow
I hope you know
That people died
And now they lie
So you and me
Could be free
And that is why we must remember
In the month of November
There was more to the war
There were more who were sore
All very sad
And some very mad
Because their family and friends
Were not there in the end
And that is why we all must remember
In the month of November

S.B. - 12 YRS

Yes, we will remember.

Thank-you guys, you make me proud.

Awwhhh Saturday Morning

Here it is.
We are a family of four.
My husband and I own a business that keeps him busy and out of the house a good, let's go with 6 1/2 days out of 7, and let's also go with that 5-6 of those are 12-14 hour days; so I'm here alone with the kids a lot.
We enjoy a comfortable lifestyle thanks to all his hard work and the children are still alive thanks to all of mine.
We are a family of four living in Canada!
Canada = Hockey; very few of us here can dispute that fact.
For the past four, five, six...years (honestly, who can keep track) there have been early hockey practices and games every Saturday and Sunday of every weekend from late September until early April. This was soon compounded by Dance classes also being scheduled on weekends so as to avoid too many evening activities after school (that just didn't work for our family---everybody got too cranky).
This year though, it's different.
Every body's graduated to big kid classes. Dance classes are held directly after school and we've earned the badge of daytime hockey, having paid the price of ungodly 6:00 (yes, A.M.) hockey!
I now look forward to Saturday mornings; this is all that I need for an enjoyable Saturday morning:

See? 'Zen and the art of RELAXATION' CD playing in the background, a book to read, a magazine to leaf through and COFFEE!! (Maybe works against the whole Zen Relaxation thing, but it's half decaf and the system seems to work) You'll also notice some knitting here today. Yup, I was knitting. You know why I was knitting?

Well, I started out just knitting, because, well, I'm a knitter! And then over the tranquil sounds of my CD came the lilting voices of my children as they prepared their breakfast...

"You took my egg! You selfish, little BRAT!!"

"Yea, well you're an IDIOT!!"

"You selfish, little BRAT!!!"

"Oowww, that hurt!"

"Chicken...!"

"No, I'm just going to eat my breakfast! STOOOOPPPP IIIITTTTT!!!!"

So, I'm knitting. This conversation and numerous variations along the same train of thought were repeated several times. I'm knitting, but becoming more and more distracted by the dialogue in the next room. (Thank God it was a tres, tres, tres, simple pattern!)

I consider putting the knitting down, getting up, walking into the kitchen, clearing a path to the eggs using whatever means necessary, picking up the eggs and TOSSING THE EGGS INTO THE GREEN BIN!!!

Then my plan kind of fell apart. Send them to their room? Scream and yell to add some kind of punishment jobs? Argue about who's in charge around here? Call their father? (Not!!)

It all seemed a little counter productive.

So I focus on my knitting! I repeat in my mind, "Knit, knit, knit....".

As the volume in the kitchen continues to rise, I realize I need reinforcement if I am to continue to remain calm and so I say out loud, "Knit, knit, knit..."

They worked it out (I guess), nobody was bleeding after breakfast; they got fed. Me?

I knit two rows!! Come on....they're long rows!

Moral of the story?

Kids will be kids. They can work it out. (Just like my brother and I did.---That sound you hear is my parents falling down with laughter!)

Most importantly though, I will do WHATEVER it takes to keep Saturday mornings the way I like them---even talk to myself and accept the consequences of brothers and sisters in the kitchen.

Anybody got a problem with that?!

It's Tuesday Already!!

Trust me when I say it's Tuesday! I 'uploaded' pictures with every intention to post on Monday; actually been planning it since Saturday, but, well here it is Tuesday and at least you get to read something without a political agenda.
Whatever will everyone talk about next week?
Anywho...
When last we spoke I was conveying the joy I felt at welcoming a new knitter to the flock.
I had started L with a wavy scarf pattern. I cast on for her, showed her the 'knit' stitch and then ventured into yarn overs; she grasped the whole concept immediately. She left my place Friday afternoon happily working on her first scarf.
Saturday morning she appeared at my door with this:

ONE EVENING!! She even had decided that she wasn't too fond of the lacy-ness of the yarn overs, and even though she had already charted the whole pattern out on an excel spread sheet (L loves Excel), ripped out her first project, picked up all (but one) of the stitches and just kept knitting!
Handed out treats to the Trick Or Treaters and kept on knitting!
Her tension is lovely. I especially admire the way that she is so forgiving of herself and how she understands that it can be ripped out, it all takes practice, and she just wants to keep going!
I asked her if she had EVER knit before. You know as a child, someone showed her once, for school? Anything?
Nope. Never.
I showed her on Friday how to knit and on Monday tells me that she had had a problem with her knitting on Sunday. I was upset that she hadn't called me right away!
No knitter should ever be left floundering; help is ALWAYS a phone call, short car ride or even a google search away.
This was her problem:

She ran out of yarn.

She finished her first ever knitting project (managing to pick up that lost stitch too) in 3 days! She made her husband drive around for the weekend errands so that she could knit in the car (wonder who showed her that trick? hehe) Her back was bothering her on Sunday so she layed flat on her back, propped her arm on a pillow, turned on her t.v. and knit!

She loves her scarf, she just cuddles and cuddles it.

I showed her how to cast off. She did it.

I showed her how to sew in her ends. She did it.

And while I wasn't looking, she went downstairs and wound another two balls of yarn to get started on the next scarf!

Now, should the next post be entitled:

"A Knitter is Born" or perhaps,

"Another One Bites the Dust"?

Before you decide you should probably be advised that today we went out and she bought 4 more hanks of yarn. I had to teach her about Dye Lots.

"Never miss an opportunity to teach somebody about knitting," words to live by.

This is great, I can talk about L and not have to go into what I did or did not buy!