I did spend awhile yesterday organizing.  Davey kept me company while he pretended to knit.  I gave him some big metal needles, old yarn, and he had a good time.

So let’s see.  I found my passport.  I’d lost that several years ago.  I found the social security card that I’d also lost.  I’d already gotten another one.  I found some old savings bonds that I’d forgotten I still had.  I don’t think I am really quite that scatterbrained, it’s just that we have moved a few times in the last several years, and I have a hard time keeping up.

Then I got distracted when I found these:

I realized that Davey had never fingerpainted before.  I had a poster board and so off we went.  Davey enjoyed this immensely – as did I.   There really is something very relaxing about finger painting, IF you don’t mind getting your fingers covered in paint.  It will have the opposite effect, I think, if you do.  Davey and I didn’t mind.  Big David would mind.  Very much.

At some point Davey decided that painting with 3 fingers might work even better.

I always love to take photos of Davey when he is really focusing.  I messed up the light on this shot, but I like it anyway.

Finally it was time to get back to work.  That’s when I found the crazy quilt.  I’d put it all together when we were living in Tennessee.  My friend, Dixie, helped me figure out how to put together the pattern and taught me a lot in general about making a quilt.  Then I never finished it.  The plan was to do a variety of embroidery stitches in a variety of colors around each piece.  I want to finish this!  How?   I’ve decided I am going to leave it out, and even if I work on it only 5 minutes a week, that’s better than nothing at all.

I found several other projects including a very large tablecloth that I am well into embroidering, but on which I still have much to do.  I think I will put that away until I finish the crazy quilt.

The day really got away from me today so that I didn’t have a chance to get going on Boyfriend Sock number 2.  I really want to finish this Perseverance Shawl too, but I really really want to get Boyfriend Sock going tomorrow.

Tuesday morning and it’s time to take on my closet.  A couple of weeks ago,  I organized all my yarn.  It’s been a nice feeling to see it all put away neatly.  I also have about 4 plastic drawer bin things that are full of craft projects from the past.  I have dabbled in many things over the years.  (Dabble – there’s a word I don’t use often.)  Counted cross-stitch, embroidery, quilting, and there are probably some things that I have forgotten.  I need to get David in there too I guess.  He does not ask questions first.  He is fearless about getting rid of stuff.  I am not a total packrat, but it’s not as easy for me.

Maybe I should set some guidelines before I start.  How about if I have not looked at it in over a year then I should get rid of it?  But that is going to force me to get rid of almost all of it.  So maybe I should keep projects near completion or that could realistically be completed in a week or so?  Well, maybe I shouldn’t make any strict rules.  I think a flexible approach will work best for me.  (David is rolling his eyes already.)

I took a break from socks last night and worked on my Perseverance Shawl.  It was nice to just knit in a long row although I was kind of wanting to start my second Boyfriend sock.  I have about 16 rows left and my shawl will be done.  I’d take a photo of it, but it’s all bunched up on my needles now and would just look like a big blob.

Davey is happily playing in his room at the moment, but he took a big tumble in the hall awhile ago.  He has been analyzing it ever since:  “Mommy, I was running too fast, and I falled.  I shouldn’t run so fast!”  And then, “Mommy, I was not paying attention.”  And finally,  “Mommy you should move that rug so that I won’t trip!”

I can’t have a “photoless” blog post, so here’s a silly one of Davey from the other day.

Dora was a no-show.  I guess that’s not exactly a fair statement.  The problem was more of a Mommy reading and comprehension problem.  Apparently, it was not get your picture with Dora herself.  It was get a coupon for a free 5×7 photo card with a picture of Dora on the frame of the card.  All I read was “picture with Dora”.  So Davey was a little disappointed.  However, all was well because of the:

We sat down in Subway to eat Davey’s cupcake, and then we decided we’d have lunch.  Davey doesn’t eat much in the way of Subway, and per a prior agreement with Daddy (involving dessert before lunch), he was already well into his cupcake.  So after his cupcake he had Doritos and apple juice.   He was very happy.  At one point, (he had cupcake and doritos all over him) he looked at David and said, “This is a fine lunch!”

Then we went home and David built Davey’s toddler bed.  Davey was so excited.  He wanted to climb in as soon as David was done, and he insisted on immediately putting all his friends into his bed with him.

Then he wanted to get all tucked in.

When it was bedtime, he had a little bit of a hard time staying in bed at first.  Who could blame him?  So much new freedom.  But finally I sat down next to him for a few minutes, and he was soon asleep.  He slept the entire night in his bed.  When he woke up this morning, he came to our room.  I asked him, “How did you sleep?”  “Very good,” he answered.

And speaking of very good – or better very well, my sock is coming along very well.  I am all done with the fair isle, and I am working on the toe.  Then I have got to go back and do that heel.  It is going to be painstaking and kind of scary work, and this may be where very well doesn’t apply anymore.  I’ll have to remember to take some pictures to explain it better.

102 today. Criminy.

I think today is Dora the Explorer’s birthday.  Or it’s the weekend for her big birthday celebration, bash, something.  I am not sure.  The important thing is that she is going to be at Walmart today, and that there will be cupcakes.   Although Davey did explain to me, “Mommy, that is not the real Dora.  She’s a pretend Dora.”  He is ready for cupcakes, and I am hoping he will want to have his picture taken with her.

He was excited about it this morning (as was Daddy!):

Right now I am listening to Davey sing “Frere Poopa.  Dormez-poop? Dormez-poop?”  Lovely I know.

I hope to maybe have a little knitting time this afternoon.  I am eager to get going on the foot of the sock.  I finished the leg last night.  I set up the heel to do later, and now it’s time for the foot.  There is a row of blue stitches visible near the needles.  I will pull those out later and pick up the stitches to knit the heel.  (In theory that is.)

Ok I have tried to distract Davey from “Frere Poopa” by introducing some old Elvis music.  He likes to dance with me.  Time for more dancing.

I am getting close to finishing the leg of my first Boyfriend Sock.   I’ll then be speeding right past the heel.  I’ve not done the type of heel this pattern requires.  I knit 36 stitches onto waste yarn and then just move on to the foot.  I’ll come back and do the heel later.   The leg seems to be going well.  I am using size 3 needles and it looks like the tension is ok.  After the size 0 needles though, these 3s still feel kind of like knitting with little clubs.

We had to go to Little Rock yesterday, and  Davey had a big day which included a new bed, picking out potty training reward toys, and playing at a kid discovery place.

On the way home, we were trying to avoid the horrible construction traffic that we’d seen on our way into Little Rock.  Last time we were there, they had not taken it down in the evening.  It was backed up for miles. So we started trying to wind our way from Little Rock to Benton by way of little curvy roads. The map was not much help.  There were some little gray roads marked, but they didn’t have any numbers.  A few times, we had to turn around and backtrack a little.

Backseat driver says, “Why did you do that Daddy?”  “Why are you turning around Daddy?”  “Why are you going the wrong way Daddy?”  “Why are we changing directions Daddy? ”  “Daddy, I thought we were going to Mavlern (Malvern) to eat!”  We finally made it back to Malvern.  I am not even going to disclose how long it took us, and I have a real good feeling that sitting in traffic would have been quicker.  But on the bright side, I get tired of the interstate, and this was a much more interesting, if slower, drive.

I didn’t take any pictures yesterday or yet today, so I decided to do a little flashback Friday.

Here’s Davey in August of 2008. He was working hard on crawling somewhere.

Then here he is in August 2009 right after he’d had a haircut.  It’s amazing how much he changed in that year.

And today it is still hot hot and hotter.  102.

It’s true that this sock is not too easy. I am moving pieces of string around all the time, unwinding, and trying to prevent huge tangles.  Then I am trying not to let my tension get too tight so that I can actually put this sock on my foot when I am done.  Taking a photo of my sock this morning was like maneuvering someone in a hospital with multiple iv lines. (I have 6 colors attached at the moment.)

That said, this is a great sock.  I love knitting it.  It may become my favorite sock.  It is so cool to change colors, follow the pattern, and then watch that pattern emerge.  Here’s what I knitted last night:

Yesterday was also a day for zucchini.  I started reading a food blog the other day called “My Kitchen in the Rockies“, and she’d blogged about these two recipes.   One is this  basic baked summer vegetable recipe. I sliced up zucchini, squash and a yellow bell pepper (it was the best part.)  Then I put olive oil, and salt and pepper on them.  I’ve done this before.  What I had not done was shred pecorino/romano cheese and put that on the top before I baked them.

There are certain things that make me feel like a real knitter:  bobbles, fair isle, making socks.  There are also certain things that make me feel like I am a real cook.  (I’m still not though.) One of those is buying a wedge of hard cheese  with a name like pecorino/romano.  I guess I don’t get out much in the cooking world.   Anyway, this made the vegetables even better.

Then I think I baked one of the best cakes ever.  Zucchini Cake.  It’s really good.  Too good.  I baked it hoping that I’d get some vegetables into Davey because he wouldn’t be able to resist cake would he?  And especially cake onto which he’d added sprinkles.  Everything is better with sprinkles! (What a mess we made.)

So far, unfortunately, he does not want anything to do with it.  Maybe he will come around.  There’s 2 and 1/2 cups of zucchini in it.  I put it in the food processor and so he’d never ever know it was in there.   Oh!  I spoke too soon.  As I was writing this, David just got him to try some.  Yay!  What a way to get vegetables.

I cast on the Boyfriend Socks last night.  I did a 1 inch 1×1 rib, and now I am about 7 rows into the fair isle.   Here are the 8 colors involved:

Trying to photograph these little boogers was not easy.  I was trying to stack them in a halfway photograph friendly way, and they kept rolling all over the place.  Then Davey came in to help with his turkey and horse in tow.

So that was pretty much the end of my photography session.

The Boyfriend Socks.  These are going to be a challenge.  Lots of strings.  When I first saw that they were called “boyfriend” socks, and then when I looked at a picture of the “boyfriend” socks,  I thought that there is no way I would make these for a boyfriend.  Maybe for a Golden Anniversary Husband.  Not a boyfriend.  But then I looked at the description, and I think the intent of the title was more about borrowing a comfy pair of your boyfriend’s socks.   I can’t imagine David wearing these socks.

We got a free pull-up in the mail the other day with some potty training information, sticker chart and stickers.  I never thought that a sticker chart would be much motivation for Davey.  We’ve played with stickers a lot for the last year, and I thought they’d be no big deal to him anymore.  As usual, I was wrong.  He loves pottying for stickers.  Yesterday we finished the first sheet, and I had to create a new one.   So here’s the first one.  I figured I should preserve this memory.  Maybe one day it will be a fond fond memory. (I have to add though, that he is catching on quickly and doing great!)

We started early this morning.  We had some branches trimmed. (David says I should call them limbs as some were very large.  “Like small trees,” he explained.)  After they were cut, David and Davey started dragging them off.  They are back out working on the rest right now.  Oak branches are not bad to drag.  Pine branches are terrible.  Prickly and sticky.  I am going to go help just as soon    as      I      finish       this       post.   (which may just happen to need to be really long today.)

I just peeked out the window.  I love the sight of Davey scampering behind David.  That’s not a word I would typically use.   But there is no better way to describe it in this instance.  He is scampering – his little legs are just dancing around as he follows Daddy.  Davey loves to follow and help Daddy.

Speaking of helping, Davey helped me make blueberry scones this morning.  David had some when he was in Tulsa at the culinary school where his brother Johnny teaches.  So he wanted me to make some.  I went to my allrecipes.com in order to try to come up with a scone recipe that would match the chefs at the school.  They actually turned out really well, even though I had to cut butter into the flour and ingredients, and I had to be careful not to “overmix”.  I tend to overmix.  But I guess I didn’t.  Here’s the recipe.  One of the reviewers suggested sprinkling sugar on the top before baking.  I liked that.  Although, next time I think I will try a glaze.  David said the scones at the school had a glaze, and that does sound good.

I took a picture, but it would not inspire a person to make these.  Blueberries are oozing everywhere, and they are not oozing attractively.  I have been taking more photos lately, and the more I take, the more I realize I need to learn how to take photos.

So that’s enough about scones.

Last night I was looking around for a heart rate monitor strap, and instead I found a cowboy outfit for Davey.  This was actually David’s when he was a little boy.   Davey loves it.

He wanted to get right onto his horse.

I am now really almost done with my Movie Socks.  I’d hoped to finish last night, but I am still working my way down the foot.  I was able to get quite abit done because while I was knitting, I was watching (kinda) Rambo 2 with David.  I confess that there are a few small moments in that movie that almost (that may be pushing it) make it worth watching the entire movie.  I love the part when Rambo is standing and hiding in some type of muddy hill.   He’s completely hidden by the mud, and he is not moving.  You can not see him.  Suddenly you see a big brown eye open from in the middle of that column of mud.  Then everything quickly goes downhill, and the moment is ruined with a descent into knifey violence.

I hope I don’t now associate my Movie Socks with that Movie.  I am going to have to watch a nice non-violent movie tonight as I finish these up.

Ok I guess I better go help with the rest of the branches!