Goals for 2013

I am not into making New Years resolutions, I like to make goals. What is that you say? Resolutions and goals are the same thing? Says who? Anyway, after spending the past year dusting my cluttered bookshelf that holds my dozens of cookbooks, I have decided to start using those cookbooks. 

My goal is to pick at least one cookbook a week and select a new recipe to try. This coming week, I am going to make a pasta dish out of "Essential Pepin" by Jacques Pepin and a soup out of "Vegetarian Soups For All Seasons" by Nava Atlas. 

Since my blog started out of my love for Susan Anderson's "itty bitty" books, I think it is time for me to get back to knitting thru the "itty bittys". My goal is to make one pattern a month. This month, I am going to make "wrap-me-up puppies", on page 99 of the book "itty bitty toys".

I don't know if you remember, I was making a queen size Hexagon afghan for my daughter. I started it in March of 2012. It is time to get serious about getting this done. So far, I have completed 114 of the 440 hexagons that I need. My goal is to complete 1 hexagon a day.

I am hoping that I use my time wisely so I will find extra hours in the day to learn new knitting and crocheting techniques and stitches. I received this wonderful knitting book for Christmas, "Cast On, Bind Off" by Leslie Ann Bestor. 

I refuse to set the usual "lose the fat" goal. However, yesterday I was watching the "Today" show and they had their weight loss guy on, pedaling his new book. I didn't get the name of it and really don't care. He was talking about his new theory to losing weight. I love Weight Watchers. I always do good on it. For some reason, I can't get my mind to commit to it right now. So, today I started this crazy new diet. You pick an 8 hour span during the day to eat. Eat what you want, how much you want. Ideally you will learn to make healthy choices, but for now, just worry about the 8 hour span. His theory is, you eat within the 8 hours and then fast the remaining 16 hours a day. It gives your body 16 hours to rest and burn calories. Time will tell. Today I did great. I start eating at 11:00am and ended my eating at 7:00pm. Since I get up at 5:45am, it was concerning that I wouldn't have my first bite until 11:00am, but I was fine. Hopefully, this will give me a jump start. I have alot of weight to lose.

My most important goal for 2013, is to make a difference. I am one of those people who always opens doors for people, I smile alot, I talk to strangers, but I need to make a difference. I need to be aware of those who need a little something extra to get through the day. It might be encouragement, maybe to be invited over for a home cooked meal, possibly a bag of groceries, or maybe just a phone call. I am SO blessed with a wonderful family and great friends. I am thankful everyday. 

                                                                                  

I WON A CONTEST!!!!!

I have never won a blog giveaway. I enter only the ones that I really want the prize, I wait patiently for the day of the random drawing, I check the website every hour on that day to see the winner's name, and then I post a congratulations to that winner. Guess what? I WON THE WARTHOG!!!!!  Thats right, the Warthog. I am so BEYOND excited. I love the patterns from Mamma4earth. The designer, Linda Dawkins, is incredible. Her love of nature comes through her patterns. She lives in South Africa and designs alot of African animals. I just finished her Elephant. And now, onto the Warthog. You can find all of her patterns at Natural Suburbia .

Ellie the Elephant
                                                     

I will post photos of the progress on my Hexagon afghan that I have been working on for months and will be for months, or years, to come.

Also, I am trying to decide what knitting/crocheting goals I plan on setting for 2013. I must decide by Friday. 

I will leave you with a photo of my 3 granddaughters, sledding today. The little one in the spaceship sled is a family friend. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

I can't believe a year has come and gone. Never a dull moment in 2012. I learned alot of what TO do and what NOT to do. I don't plan on dwelling on the failures, but learn from them, make changes, and look forward to what the future brings. However, 2012 did bring so many blessings and with them I say, "Thank you, Jesus". 

For the past week, the house has been filled daily with laughter, tons of food, Downton Abbey, and creative hands making cards, designing scrapbook pages, or knitting/crocheting. Every year from December 26th thru January 1st, 4 of us ladies spend these days indulging in our favorite things. Since the festivities happen at my house, I usually live in my fleece holiday pants ( 1 pair for everyday, no duplicates ). Not to mention, I still have the little ones I daycare, so I need to be comfy to be able to move quickly.
We start our crafting around 10:30 am and go strong until midnight, each day. We do potluck most of those days, so needless to say,  tomorrow I will be SLAPPED back into reality. There is always a movie going in the background. Most years we watch the old movies from the 40's & 50's. Lots of Cary Grant. This year, Downton Abbey. I have Seasons 1 & 2, so, Julia and Rebecca watched both seasons and are now all caught up and ready for the new season that starts this Sunday, January 6th, on PBS. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

School starts back up on Thursday, so that means the 6 little ones will be together one more day. With the refrigerator full of leftovers, I am hoping tomorrow will be a very easy day. Lots of snuggling in the rocking chair, coloring, Barbies, and refereeing.

First goal for 2013, blog something everyday. Talk to you tomorrow.

                                                 

It's THURSDAY!

I love Thursdays. Thursdays are the best! It is close to the weekend. I usually only have the 3 little ones to take care of, the 3 older girls are elsewhere. We typically get a carry-out for dinner. My daughter and granddaughter have a weekly activity on Thursday nights, which means I have the house to myself for 3 1/2 hours. Can it get any better? YES!!!!!!  Thursday night is GREY'S ANATOMY!!!!  I don't watch TV during the day or night, except for Thursday nights at 9:00 pm. Anyone who knows me knows NOT to call between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm on Thursday nights. If you have an emergency, call someone else, I won't be answering my phone.  Tonight is a little bittersweet. It is the season finale for Grey's Anatomy. It is suppose to be SO exciting. I can't wait!!! Sad thing, no more Grey's until next fall. Guess I can pack up the TV until September.


I feel bad, this is suppose to be a knitting blog and I have nothing to show you. I have been working on my hexagon blanket, making progress, but no photos to show you. I think I will attach the first 19 hexagons and see if they are the right length for my daughter's bed. Not to mention, I better start attaching them or I will have a hundred to do and that will make me crazier than usual. I will get photos posted soon. Also, I forgot that I haven't finished my Elephant from the pattern by Mamma4earth. I need to work on him.


My cousin, my uncle, and I are having a contest. We all bought the same variety of tomato, Bonnie Best, and the race is on to see who eats the first red tomato, who grows the biggest tomato, and who's plant bears the most tomatoes. So far my cousin has the first flower on her plant. I have 4 buds, but no flower. 

I couldn't leave you with showing you my precious baby turtles. They are about 2-3 months old. They are Abbie, Avery, Greenie, and Poppy. Poppy is camera shy, but here are the other 3.

Wishing you early, a GREAT WEEKEND!  For those of you in the Detroit area, this Saturday is Flower Day at Eastern Market. It is suppose to be a beautiful weekend. I will be helping my son and daughter-in-love move into their new house. We are so close, we can ride bikes to each others house. 

FRIDAY!!!!!

If you haven't discovered by now, I am an animal lover. Between my 23 year old African Ringnecked Parakeet, my 22 year old Cockatiel, my 14 year old and 11 year old Yorkshire Terriers, my 9 year old Great Dane, and my 5 turtles, that I can only guess their ages. I do know that the 4 baby turtles I just got are approximately 2 months old. Thats right, FOUR new turtles. I mentioned triplets in my last post, that I was going to share with you. However, 2 of my little turtles died. I had only had them a week. I felt terribe, one little guy left in a big tank, all by himself. His name is Percival, Percy for short. So, yesterday I purchased 3 more babies. These guys look SO healthy, not like the last ones. We haven't named these 3 yet. Waiting to find out if they are boys or girls. They are so scared of people, it may be awhile until I can check out their nails. And, they won't let me photograph them either. Take my word for it, they are darling. 


Crazy thing happened this morning. My daughter was passing by the big turtle tank and what do you think she saw? SIX EGGS laying on the bottom of the tank. REALLY???!!!!  SERIOUSLY??!!  I really don't need to be the caretaker of eggs. And I really don't need 6 more turtles. Even though I am addicted to turtles, 15 would be TOO many. Actually, I don't think the eggs will hatch. They were delivered on the rocks, underwater. They need to be in dirt/sand and dry. 40 days from now, time will tell. Here is a picture of the eggs sitting next to a chicken egg.

I also mentioned in my last post that I would be plugging along, making the hexagons for the blanket I am crocheting. Here is the latest photo, 19 down, no idea how many to go.

Going to close for now. I am getting up early tomorrow to head to Eastern Market to get all my produce and some tomato plants. Have a wonderful weekend. 

Tough Days

It has been awhile since I have chatted with you. I apologize. This past month was a tough one. My daughter's Great Dane, Quinn, has been in poor health for about a year. However, April really took its toll on him. He had cancer on his toe a year ago. We had the tumor removed in November, but we knew the cancer would most likely strike again. It did, in April. We probably could have dealt with that, but Quinn also had spinal stenosis. He weighed in at 180 lbs. and getting up was very painful and sleeping was horrible. So, a week ago I made the very difficult decision to let Quinnie, "cross over". It has been a sad time in our house. Quinn's litter brother, Eli, is lost without him. He stands at the window waiting for him to return. I don't care what people say, I will never be convinced that animals don't mourn the loss of their own. We are very grateful that Quinn was with us for almost 10 years. That is HUGE for a Great Dane. Most Danes have a lifespan of 7 years. 

On to happier news. My son graduated from the Detroit Police Academy and the official ceremony was fantastic. There were 33 graduates. My son was the class president, so he gave the speech. Made me cry. Took the breath away from the city big wigs. Police Chief Godbee was so taken with Joe's speech, that he kept referring to it during his speech. Also, my son received the Award for Outstanding Performance. This is only given to one graduate in a class and not every class has someone who receives this award. Again, I cried. He is now officially a Detroit Police Officer and his first duty, WALKING the beat. He was assigned to a very dangerous area and he and his partner patrol this large area on foot. The neighbors were all coming out asking what they were doing? They said there hasn't been police on foot in Detroit since 1980. The people were thrilled. 

  

Another milestone in our family, my granddaughter learned to ride her bike without training wheels. For 3 days straight, my daughter and I tried to teach her to ride. We ran along side her bike, holding on to her seat, trying to give her the reassurance she needed. It didn't work. She was SO frustrated. Finally, we said she will have to walk to the ice cream store this summer while all of us ride our bikes. Guess What?  YEP! She tells us she is going to go outside for a little bit. About 20 minutes later as I look up from my knitting on the porch, who goes flying by but Luiza, riding her bike like she has been doing it her whole life. Kids are amazing.

I have been knitting some of the animals from Mamma4earth. I am  so taken with these patterns. Most make up in a few hours. 

This week I am working on hexagons for the afghan for my daughter's room. I will post photos of the first row in a day or two. 


AND......I will be posting pictures of 3 new members of the family. Since I have no children who have had triplets, you can pretty much guess the photo will be of my new TURTLES!  Check back.                                                                                                                            

End of a BUSY Week.

I REALLY wish I could say that this week has been filled with hours of knitting and crocheting. That I have finished many WIP's (works in progress). I'd like to tell you I started many projects from my "New Projects" list. Better yet, I wish I had actually compiled a "New Projects" list. I would love to show you photos of spring cleaning jobs that I started and/or completed. Since I have no pictures to show you, I would love to tell you that is because my camera didn't work. That would be a lie. The truth is, I didn't work, ON ANYTHING! With all 6 little ones here everyday this week, my goal was to survive each day and send 6 happy children home with their parents each night. IT WORKED!


The worst part of daycare, to me, is the food. The children arrive between 8:00 am and 9:00 am. Breakfast begins at 9:15 am, followed by 8 hours of requests for treats, EVERY 30 minutes. No wonder I can't get my weight under control. So, for this spring break, I decided to get 5 pails, one for each of the older kids, and stock them each morning with treats. Once they have eaten their breakfast, the pails are theirs. They can't start nibbling until after 10:00 am. After that, they don't have to ask. If they eat everything by 10:15 am, then they won't have anymore snacks the rest of the day.
I posted the lunch menu on a board every morning. The girls LOVED to see what was on the menu. It really is amazing, when children who are taught to eat healthy and are given the opportunity to eat what and when they want, they seem to make good choices. Even Nolan, who is 2, never went for the sweet treats first. 

The reason I am able to post on my blog in the middle of the morning......

the kids are watching it, as I type.


I did complete a few hexagons for the blanket I am making for my daughter, LAST week.

I had planned on making Hare Finger Puppets for all the children. Only made one for David. Since he was too little for a snack pail, he got the entertainment. This sweet little puppet can be made in less than an hour. It is a free pattern on Ravelry. The designer is Ala Ela and her company is Twins.

I bought my daughter this cookbook, "The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier", by Ree Drummond. My Sarah is a great cook. She has been on a cooking frenzy lately and no one is complaining. 

I am a vegetarian, so, I am thoroughly enjoying the side dishes, desserts, and MACARONI AND CHEESE!!!  It is to die for. There are roasted mushrooms in it. Oh My Goodness! For those of you with a sweet tooth, the brownie is layered with caramel. 

I received this beautiful lily and YUMMY Easter basket, from my little David, for Easter. What a special family. So thoughtful.

Last week when I was at my favorite Saturday morning stomping ground, Srodek's Polish Market, I found these beautiful hand painted eggs. Love them!

Can't resist showing you what my 7 year old granddaughter, Ella, brings with her when she spends the night. Lambie and her I-pod. Don't you just love that children want to grow up so fast, but can't give up their lifelong "friend".

Last but not least, I am leaving you with a picture of our little finches.