Kiss My Knits!

It’s been a rough couple of days. Yesterday there was construction in front of our house all day. No big deal, but when they started digging up our front yard at about 8:30 last night, we went out to ask what was going on. Some water pipe up the street had been cracked by tree roots, so they were digging around, trying to locate the shutoff to the water main with varying degrees of success. Well, not much to be done for that. And I felt for the poor guys, it was cold out there.

Somehow that “shut off the water” part of what they told us didn’t quite sink in until we tried to turn on the water at about 10pm and realized it was off. Fortunately, we had some fresh water already, enough for brushing teeth and for flushing the toilet should it be necessary. We hoped it would be on by morning, since Emily’s never known life without water.

About 1am last night, I woke up feeling terrible. I could still see the flashing lights of the water truck outside. I sat on the cold tile of the bathroom floor, saying little prayers. “Please don’t let me get sick when we have no water in the house. Pleeeeease don’t let me get sick with no water in the house.” Thankfully, those prayers were answered. And the water was back on this morning. You can bet your keister that I am not taking piped-in water for granted today. I feel very fortunate to live in a country where I can just turn a magic knob and clean water flows into my home. Amazing.

Today, I have a scratchy throat and feel awful, but in an entirely different way. Looks like I’m getting a cold. It wasn’t a big day for me to run around and do fun things to blog about, so instead I’ll share with you one from last weekend.

Emily’s been more active and engaged lately, wanting to hang out outside and asking odd questions like, “what does the skeleton of your teeth look like?”

Late last week we went outside, even though frankly I wanted to stay in. There are some little purple wildflowers growing near the outdoor spigot, and Emily looked at them, then looked around some more.

Emily: Isn’t it beautiful?
Me: What, sweetie?
Emily: Everything outside!

Good point, sugar. My mood lifted. Sometimes it just takes a shift in perspective to stop us from taking things for granted.

Here’s a picture of my girl up in a tree. Life is good.

Several people asked, so here’s a partial list.

This is the indie/literary/artsy/non-superhero ones. I know there’s more floating around, but I can’t put my hands on it at the moment.

We had two new girls join us, so we’re up to seven girls total now. They seem quite nice. A bit quiet, but that’s to be expected when you’re joining an already established group.

We made our dolls. Emily finished hers first, and hers also looked the most like mine. I should have anticipated that when I made an example. She stayed fairly calm when she was having trouble, and I was able to stick close to help when she asked for it. We had a range of creations, including marbled chocolate cake with candles, and tree sculpture including monkey.

Then we used the lantern I previously mentioned. We didn’t have s’mores. We had s’mores flavor Pop Tarts. We turned on the lantern and turned out the lights, then passed out Pop Tarts as we sat around our ‘campfire.’ I asked them what their favorite thing they saw on our nature walk through the mountains was. They made up stuff they’d seen, and we told stories, including this strange but true story of a kamakazi cow (cowmakazi?) falling off a cliff onto a minivan. It was a successful camping trip.

All around, a good meeting. Emily’s decompressing some and eating pizza while playing MySims on the wii. After she’s had a couple of slices, we’ll do homework. Then she’ll want a bath (she wants one every night now) and it’ll be bedtime. What a full day!

I will give a free hat to the first Browncoat from this town to ask, just for get the pleasure of sending something there. So totally worth it.

In today’s girl scout meeting, we’ll be finishing up business from last meeting’s try-it patch. We ran out of time to do s’mores. S’mores presents a challenge in a classroom. One of our girls is bringing a lantern, and we’re going to try to melt chocolate over it. I like her ingenuity. Fortunately, I like all three ingredients in s’mores, so it’ll be tasty no matter the outcome.

We’ll also be working on the “Puppets, Dolls, and Play” badge. I picked up some craft foam from Michael’s craft store, and we’ll be making cunning little puppets with holes cut out for our fingers to be legs. Note picture to the right of the sample I made to be sure it worked. I didn’t want to make it too fancy, because I don’t want the girls to make themselves nuts. I just wanted to try it out and show them one method. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with.

Wearwithstyle is again open for business. My hand is tender when touched, but I can knit just fine. So, hopefully knit night tonight, unless I get too tired. I missed last week, so I hope to make it out tonight!

So, so tired. And Brownies today.

I shoulda taken a nap.

ETA: More bead pics in new subfolder.

I’m trying to de-clutter my home. I’m fighting a lot of longstanding tendencies of mine in doing this. Don’t throw things away, they might be useful/valuable at some point. Or they have sentimental value, but only the tiniest shred. (My mother warned me when Emily started preschool, you can’t save every piece of paper or you’ll be drowning in it. She was right.)

A lot of these things, I’ve kept around because I knew they’d get some cash on eBay, if I ever got around to putting them up. Note that last phrase. They’re never going to get put up. I just don’t have the time.

So I just donated a bunch of books to the library (WAA! BOOKS LEAVING MY HOUSE!) and I’ve got a bunch more graphic novels to go. Nice stuff. I hope it makes it into their collection, but if it winds up on the 25-cent book rack, that’s fine too. It’s out of my house.

The problem, of course, is that the clutter is so advanced. The library got a big cardboard box of books that had been awaiting eBay while sitting on the floor of the dining room. And you can’t tell one iota of difference in there.

I saw someone post recently that losing clutter is like losing weight. For a while, it looks like absolutely nothing is happening. You’ve just got to keep plugging away. That’s a very motivating analogy.

So. Graphic novels, comics, books, yarn (this will probably go up for sale on ravelry), beading magazines and beads (here if you want to call dibs on something), clothes which I haven’t fit into for so long they’re nearly vintage, and much more. It’s gotta go. I might post up some stuff for, like, the cost of shipping plus PayPal fees, but then again, I might just donate it. Or even trash it, although that pains me mightily. I can’t have stuff sitting in the “donate” pile forever.

On a completely related note, my in-laws are coming over this weekend. I wonder how much of this stuff I can jam into the dryer until they leave…

My arm doesn’t hurt anymore, and while my hand still aches, I think it’ll be good to go by tomorrow. Since it’s the left one and I’m right-handed, I’m writing Jayne hat notes while watching Corner Gas this morning. That show’s a recent discovery for my husband and me, and we love it. This show is on in the wee hours of the morning on Chicago’s WGN, but we record it and watch it later. Very funny. It’s like Seinfeld if Seinfeld didn’t work blue and lived in a small Canadian town. Those wacky Canadians.

Meanwhile, cribbed from , go to a search engine and type “yourname is” (in quotations), and then share some of the things you find with us.

Heather is an important food source for various sheep and deer.
Heather is actually quite tall and brainy.
Heather is the Original Las Vegas Wedding Chapel.
Heather is powered by WordPress.
Heather is one of the smartest and hardest working people.
Heather is a star.
Heather is finally getting her life back on track.
Heather is said to be stained with the blood of clan wars.

Wow! 100% true!

Okay, time to stop typing again. Rest, precious digits, rest.

You know what I didn’t need to have happen at the height of Jayne hat season? I didn’t need to whack my left hand on a doorknob, sending pain up my forearm. That was three hours ago and it still hurts.

Ladies and gentlemen, wearwithstyle is CLOSED to new orders until Wednesday. By then it’ll either be better or I’ll have seen a doctor. Either way, I’m going to do the smart thing and not knit. Minimal typing, too, because I can feel this as well.

No knitting. This could seriously kill me. Or possibly someone else. Remember these phrases: she seemed nice. Kinda quiet. Kept to herself. We never would have suspected…

Three kits out the door today, four more orders in.

Too! Many! BROWNCOATS!