Ten on Tuesday

10 Things You Always Have In Your Car

Ah my car. My poor, poor car. I love my Saturn but it's state, like the house, is at the mercy of the Desctructive Duo.

1. First aid kit- a must. I found a great one at Target years ago and it tucks nicely under the back seat.
2. Carseats- Obviously. The kids are far enough apart in age and size that as Little Dude outgrows his seat, Little Miss is ready for it. That has helped alot. The seats, however, have rendered my car unable to take on extra passengers...unless you are willing to get squished between the two seats. I will usually render up shotgun and sit between the kids. Being of petite stature, it is eaisiest for me. 
3. Tissues- For at all times someone has a runny nose due to cold and/or allergies. 
4. Bluetooth earpiece- it's the law. 
5. A mini flashlight- you never know when you may need a little light on the situation. Usually it spends it's time occupying Little Dude on the ride home. 
6. Mints-because, well, sometimes you need a little freshing up. Especially after a garlic laden meal.
7. Reusable grocery bags- unless we've fogotten to bring them back out to the car. They come in handy for a lot of other things as well. 
8. Stroller- we love our umbrella stroller. It's a Maclaren Volo and has held up beautifully through two kids.
9. Work stuff- either my tool box, tool bag, or just a roller tray and some brushes. I tend to always have some tools of my trade in my car. You never know when your scenic skills will save the day. 
10. Sharpies- because you never know when you may need one. Just hide them from the kids. 

I'm home sick today. Friday I had the rug pulled out from under me medically and I'm still processesing. And I'm in the throws of wrapping up this project. Excepting one night when I fell asleep with the kids, I've not been to bed before midnight for almost a month now. Soon...soon I can breathe again. And knit again. And sleep.
And speaking of sleep, I think it's time for another nap.

Ten on Tuesday

Today's Ten on Tueday...I can sum it up rather quickly

10 Tips for Sticking With Your Fitness Routine

Yeah. He said it perfectly.

Onto other things...I am on the verge of having my design done. Or needing to have it done. I'll write more about it as things progress but this process that I thought would be fun has been stressful and forcing me to call into question all of my supposed talents. But the director is apparently returning to the country today and therefore I can meet with her and get everything finalized. And then I can spend the next 4 months being heckled and tormented by my coworkers. So the blogging will resume shortly, until then I need to pull some brilliant solutions out of my arse. Too bad doing that won't make it smaller or firmer.

Happy Birthday to Me & Ten on Tuesday

Sorry this is being posted a day late. Yesterday was my birthday after all.

Today's Ten on Tuesday topic is very appropriate for the day. If you've been reading for a while you know that since my birthday is a week after New Years, I consider this date the start of my new year.

10 Goals for 2013

1. Knit more socks. I've deemed 2013 the year of the sock in my world. My boot socks are disintegrating.  I have one pair left without holes. Even my collection of store bought knee socks is starting  to shuffle off it's mortal coil. I need socks. And I want hand knit ones. 
2. Medical maintenance. This is what I am calling getting my treatment in order. Starting up my mail order account for my medications. Getting my files in order and having a system for keeping track of meds and doctor's appointments. I want to get this to store my medicines in my bedroom. I should order my medical alert pendent. And working my therapy exercises into my daily routine.
3. Cook more and with more abandon. I love to cook and once again we've fallen into a rut with meals in our house. I don't know why but it seems we can never think of things to have for dinner. I know we used to have a wide variety of meals and now it seems we have the same 4 or 5 meals. It's time to experiment again. Time to dig out the recipe books and just start making stuff.
4. More homemade food. This ties in with the above goal. I want to start making my own pasta again. We did make some breakfast sausage this year and it didn't turn out so bad. My father is really blazing the trail with this and inspiring me. I used to make soup all the time. I did make some blueberry jelly this summer and that made me realize I want to start home canning again. With the price of food and all the crap they put in things these days, I feel this is the direction I want to move out household in. Plus it's a great thing to teach the kids. 
5. More sewing. Setting up the sewing machine in my bedroom has really made this possible. I don't have to waste time setting up and tearing down and can grab some stolen moments here and there. I thoroughly enjoyed sewing their Halloween costumes and I've been working on the quilt for my FIL. I've got a quilt in the planning phase for Little Dude. 
6. Find new shoes. This sounds stupid but it's actually rather important. My go to shoes for years have been the Dansko Professional clogs. I love these shoes. But with the MS, they are a bit of a liability. There is a tendency for my ankles to roll while walking in them. It apparently is a common issue. What it means that I'll be walking along just fine and then suddenly flail around trying to keep myself from falling. With the MS, not falling becomes more difficult. The other issue with them is that though they wonderful insole support they are very heavy shoes. Which, again because of the MS, fatigues me much quicker. So I need to find a replacement everyday shoe, and I've not had any luck so far. I need something comfortable, that isn't going to trip me, works in most weather situations (the problem with Converse) and won't break the budget. If they make me a few inches taller that doesn't hurt either, another reason I love the Dansko clogs.
7. Less TV, more playing. I'm really trying to limit the TV watching in the house and doing more activities with the kids. Both kids are artistically inclined but Little Miss is still young enough that projects don't hold her attention too long and she still needs a lot of help with them. Little Dude will sit and color or paint for hours. I have pages and pages of colored pictures all over the house. This might be the year I teach him to knit. 
8. Work on the house. Need I say more. We have to sit and prioritize the to-do list and then get started. I'm starting to organize my ideas by room and I think it's time to start getting some actually design ideas down on paper.
9. Organize the photos. I've already started working on this project. I've started shifting all the photos to the server and separating them into folders by year and then month. I'm stumped on a system of renaming the actual photos. If anyone has suggestions, please share. I've started organizing my painting portfolio photos as well. It's a daunting project but it needs to be done. The next big step will be scanning in all the old photos.
10. More dates with my husband...without kids. We've had a few of these the last several months and are attempting to make this a regular thing. Now that the kids are getting bigger and able to amuse themselves it's time to focus back on our relationship. 

I'm sure there's a bunch of other things but this is a fairly decent overview of my goals. I like the Knitmore Girls idea of having a theme for the year as opposed to specific resolutions. I'm not quite sure what my theme for this year would be, but I'll keep you updated. 

Going forward....

Now that the weekend is here I have a moment. Jumping back into work full throttle without my meds that control the spasticity completely kicked my arse the last few days. I didn't realize how little I thought of the opera until I walked back into the shop and was reminded of what I was working on. It took a few hours to figure out where I had left off and see what was left to finish. But I've got more meds (yea!) and the opera is on track to be done (not soon enough), now it's time to look at all my crafting projects.

I'm currently trying to an inventory of my works in progress. My plan for the year is to spend the first few months finishing up what I've already started. That includes knitting, crochet, sewing and 'other' crafting projects. Last year I reassessed and ended up frogging several pieces. I couldn't believe how wonderful that felt. Sometimes you just have to accept that something isn't working and move on. Some of the projects I will resurrect and others are gone forever. One project, my red vest, I had started pre-babies, and it didn't work on what my body has become. And now that I am done having babies....(yes. done and done. The household can't handle anymore destructive cuteness) I can start knitting and sewing for my own body once again. When I'm not creating for the minions. Though Little Dude is on the cusp of learning how to knit, and my husband *gasp* even began to learn some crochet to help with the holiday gifting.

So this is where the work in progress list stands:
(though I must admit I like the label of Jasmin of the Knitmore Girls- PHD's Project's Half Done. It sounds so distinguished. Much better than the old label of PIGS- Projects In Grocery Sacks. I most often use WIP or the occasional UFO - UnFinished Object)

 Knitting:

• Hulk Smash socks- Double Heelix socks out of Skinny Bugga. First sock nearly done

• Batgirl Tunic- Anouk out of Cotton Classic. Back is almost done  

• Second Pillow- Made a pillow for my stepmother out of yarn recycled from her father's sweater. She loved it and I have enough yarn left over to make a second.

• Tilted Duster- now this is pretty much complete and I've worn it. All it lacks is the fabulous buttons I had picked out for it and promptly lost. Well, now they are found and want attaching.

Crochet:

• Double thick potholders- These were a Christmas gift for my Dad. Completed one and ran out of yarn while frantically crocheting on Christmas Eve. I had a friend pick up some more yarn for my while at the After Christmas sale at Webs. Dad has a very, very old set of these made by one of my Grandmothers out of 70's nasty acrylic...mainly because I think they were made in the 70's. They need to die, but he loves them. His new ones are made out of Cascade 220 superwash. I went with wool because of the fact that it is self extinguishing. 

Sewing/Quilting:

• Boy Scout T-shirt quilt-This project has been such a struggle. But I am at the quilting phase of it. I probably would have had it done if I didn't have a show to design.

Mending:

• Lots of things in the mending pile- several shirts including my son's favorite T-rex shirt, a few purse straps that need fixing, reattaching some velcro to a bib, repairing stitching on some cloth diapers, and several holey work shirts. I just need to sit down one day and hit the pile.

Other:

• Key chain boondoggle- remember these things from camp made out of plastic lacing. I made one of these for my Mom eons ago. It was probably about 10" long and she loved it because she could easily get her keys when they fall to the bottom of her immense purse. It died many, many years ago. I started a new one a few years ago. I bought two spools and started the cord halfway down each spool. I plan on making it as long as the lacing will last. The length was making it slightly cumbersome until I dug out some bobbins. Now I just need to sit and do it.

So that's what I've found in progress around my house. There's a few false starts  that could be included but I'll add those to the later list. The next few weeks my focus will be on finishing my set design, (oh by the way, I'm designing a show this semester) but once those plans are turned in, January and February are dedicated to wiping out this list.

Happy New Year!

It's a fresh new year and a fresh new baktun. I can't say that I will miss the last year. 2012 was not a fabulous year in our world, and not just because of all the morons who thought that the world was going to end. The year started out symptoms that lead to my MS diagnosis in March. It has been a whirlwind year of doctors, tests, drugs and therapy. Tweaking meds until we find the right dose. Needles and more needles. (I don't like needles). Just when I feel like I'm reaching some sort of new normal, the rug gets pulled out from under me. I became JC positive, which means my treatment could have fatal complications. So now more MRI's, because who doesn't want more MRI's. And my last MRI shows that it's working, sortof. Most lesions have halted, but one hasn't. Not quite sure what it means. My treatment also meant that I had to wean Little Miss at short notice. At work, the end of last season could only be described as a clusterfuck, and this year didn't start out much better. They changed our insurance plans, which they announced that same week as the recommendations for major cuts across the University came out. Once again, for the third year running, I was unemployed all summer. Little Dude's lottery number for the magnet school meant that he didn't get in and we continued to pay daycare costs that are more than our mortgage. The roof still didn't get replaced and the upstairs didn't get completed. My laptop died, we had it repaired and it died again. The cars have crapped out on us numerous times. Any extra money we've managed to accrue, has been eaten away by surprise expenses, often within a day's time. Newtown. Numerous hardships in our circle of friends and families. And to end the year on a high note, we discovered on Saturday that the kids picked up head-lice at school.  

Yeah, it was one of those kind of years. But it's time to shake that off, take a deep breathe and move on forward. And part of that is going to be this blog. It's gone through a bit of an identity crisis lately and I think I know where I'd like it to go. There's a lot coming in the new year that I want to talk about. So expect more posts and some visual changes as well.

I hope you all have wonderful year this year.