Busy busy

.: 18:09 :.

I keep wanting to update this more often. It's just not happening. I'm considering adding a weather pixie for where our Florida Families are (approximately) so that those of you who warn us we might get cold because of lows in the 60's can compare your low temperatures to our high temperatures. We are going to swelter. But we'll enjoy seeing all you folks. There now I have two Weather Pixies. Some folks have a dog cat, well, one of them, with their pixie, I'll have to find out how to do that. (I looked, it says sometimes it's there, sometimes not. Cats are like that.) And they show the time difference too - at least if it's light in one place and dark in the other.


I've been busily knitting on Logan's sweater in hopes of having it finished in time for air conditioning. And also on some socks, and a gift or two to boot. Sparky and Sunny have been underfoot as usual, but as Sparky has gotten more settled, Sunny has started chewing things I'd prefer he left alone. And there's no chance it's not him because the things get chewed when Sparky is in his crate. John keeps working on his coffee roaster, when he gets a minute to spare. And we've made an offer on a larger piece of land, but it looks like we're not going to get it now. I'll post something more excited if we do, but I'm not hoping too much at the moment.

Henry VIII It's Not

.: 20:20 :.

The title only makes sense if you've been reading knitting blogs. I've been reading about making a much more complicated sweater than this one. You can see the progress on that one here. And you can see several similarly complicated sweaters knit by someone with two small children here. This one is going very nicely, but I'm glad it's toddler sized and not adult sized. This is a simple cardigan knitted from the top down, so this is the top of it, just before I started the sleeves. And then, here it is with one sleeve, modeled by the beautiful Miss Logan Genevieve.

I'm most of the way done with the second sleeve now, and then I go back to knitting back and forth for the body. When it's done it will be trimmed in the pink yarn too. I told Logan I'd worked on it some more today, and she asked if it was all done. I'll have to knit faster, or more.

One Two Three

.: 18:36 :.

Logan has added a new number to her repertoire. Well, she knows more than that. She often announces she has five or nine of something. And occasionally announces, and I quote, "seven, eight, nine, ten". But she's only been reliably counting to two. Now she is counting to three. We'll see if it carries over to the number of forks we need for supper. This may seem late to all you out there in television land. Please note, we don't have television. We don't watch Sesame Street. We hardly even watch videos or DVDs. And we haven't been trying to teach Logan to count or say the ABC's at all. (She has also started announcing "P, A, J," which are my dad's initials, but I'm not sure there's any connection there.) We figure she's bound to learn them in due course, and there's no rush. Waldorf schools don't teach reading until third or fourth grade, I believe, and while I doubt she'll go to a Waldorf school, I may look in to their homeschooling information.

This evening we are going to dye eggs for part of our contribution to Susan and Ty's Easter Egg Extravaganza. Other folks will also be bringing some, and there will be a child egg hunt, and a adult children egg hunt. Logan got to paint eggs at Kyle's house today, so I brought home some water soluble tempera paints and after the eggs are dyed, we'll also paint on some of them. Logan napped for about twenty minutes today, but at least this will keep her busy.

And on that note, it sounds like I'm due to go participate in the egg coloring. With luck I'll get a further note and more pictures up here later tonight. I've got way more pictures than I can post at one time, but I'm trying to get them resized so I can put a few here.

Oops,

.: 07:31 :.

I should look more closely at pictures before I post them, or maybe look at them when my eyes are actually open and my brain is working. Despite the title and the comments about it, the lamb Logan is holding is not the cross bred, it's Luna, first lamb born here. I could go back and change it, but I'll just try to get a picture of the black lamb up later on. My mind must still be sleeping!

Pictures, new stuff, right

.: 07:27 :.

I think there are some pictures ready to go here. All my free time, such as it is, has been going in to working on a cardigan sweater for Logan. I have a picture of that too, but I think it may be on the camera rather than the computer, so it may not make it with this entry.

Life here is fine, just hectic. Logan and I are going to Kyle's House (the day care) two days a week for the moment, because she's having fun and I'm getting to knit, as I answer the same questions over and over again for the same two and four year olds. Several have tried on Logan's sweater, in it's pre sleeve state. One wanted to know if it was a hat. But I got a bunch of knitting done while Logan happily socialized. Today is Baby and Me, the moms' group, where I often can knit a bunch while talking and playing. We'll see.

John and I went to our friend Ty's birthday party on saturday, and had the honor of being included in a group that was largely family. We'll go there again on Easter for a toddler style egg hunt. Lady Logan and Susan and Ty's grandson Sir Logan are one week apart in age, and doing similar things currently, so it's fun to see them together.

John keeps making progress on his coffee roaster, this weekend was lots of wiring, which I think is now done. I don't follow that too closely, but it is going well, I believe.

Oh, right, picture. We had one more Lamb born on Thursday last week, I think. This one is also Logan's Lamb, although at times it's her Black Lamb too. This one is only half Jacob Sheep, crossed with an Icelandic for a fine soft fleece. So far so good.

Sparky the foster dog is still with us. I need to check with Golden Bond and see what's happening with his adoption prospects. He's doing well and settling in to be a decent house dog. He'll do well for some family, but he's definitely a bit big for our house.

Maybe I'll manage a sweater picture later today. And I'll try to take some Logan pictures too.

Something real soon

.: 16:46 :.

Really. It's been a hectic and sniffily week. Logan had a cold or an ear infection or something. I've got a cold now. And I'm working on a sweater for Logan. And the foster dog is still here, a week after having almost been adopted.

Right now I'm trying to add a thingy that will let you put your email address in and get a notice when I update this page. I don't know how well it works, I haven't tried it myself yet. But it seemed like a good idea. Let me know what you think if you try it out. It should be down below the weather pixie, if I've stuck it in the right place in the code. ==pcj

Farewell AndreaAidan

.: 08:40 :.

Today Andrea and Aidan are off for a month of visiting family and friends to the south. With luck they'll see this note, and will have email access while they are gone. Logan is a little concerned about them going, and is ready to go to: This is the suitcase we got her for our upcoming trip to Florida to see our folks. She likes it. She has announced that she is ready to go, on the bus, with Sparky and Sunny dogs. She is also identifying trains and boats as planes, so there may just be some mix up going on in her head. But she's looking forward to seeing her grandma's and grandpa, and would like to invite Andrea and Aidan along. I've tried to explain that they'll be back when we get back, but the time is too big a concept at the moment.

Sparky dog has a potential family who has talked to me about him. If I didn't frighten them off with the talk about what he's eaten, they may decide to meet him and see what they think in person. Sparky is up to his usual tricks. At least he's good natured about it. I removed three Red Rose tea animals from his mouth yesterday. And a Logan toy. And a bit of dead shoelace, or something. And some paper this morning, plus a Logan slipper. He's worse than Logan is about putting things in his mouth (or her mouth?). Logan on the other hand is trying to figure out how to scratch behind her ear with one of her feet and chew on her belly. She likes the dogs a lot. She's curling up next to Sparky as I type.

Tuesday

.: 19:45 :.

These pictures are actually from the weekend. I'm a little slow in getting them up. (If you're looking for John's coffee roaster stuff, scroll down.) But I figured Phil and Joanne, who sent me notes saying they'd found us, would like to see their brother and their niece a little more. My family will just have to wait - no one is taking pictures of me at the moment. But my sister is the only one who I know is out there holding her breath to see more pictures - and they are showing up funny in Explorer for her. I don't know what's up with that, and I haven't fixed the one she saw yet. But I'll try to get these to behave better.

Here is Logan all bundled up in her little Grandma Wilma quilt. She wraps up in it, I use it as a lap blanket, it looks really durable and washable, it's great. Logan really likes it too. I don't know if they show, but it has ducks and cats stitched on to it. Very cute!

Here are Logan and John - I think it might have been before he went to work, which would make it friday it was taken, but it could have been saturday too. I'm trying to put a bit of a space between the photos and the text, but I won't know if it has worked until this is live on the web. So there's no telling what you'll see. :-) Tell me what you think of it anyway.

These last two are Logan and John saturday afternoon, while JOhn was working on his coffee roaster, and then one that Logan took of John herself, with me holding the strap of the camera and telling her what to do. We hit temperatures in the high seventies on both saturday and sunday, and Logan was too hot so she took her shirt off.


I haven't done any more work on my sheep shawl for a few days. I made a mistake and noticed it a row and a half later, so now I'm taking that part out, then I'll do it over. Eventually I'll post another picture of it. Once I'm making forward progress again.