What a Life!

Who wouldn’t love a face like that?

I am so proud of myself! Not only did I buy a Mother’s Day card for my mom, I even put it in the mail. It will actually be postmarked tomorrow because the mail has already gone today, but it should still be there on time. I. So. Have. My. Act. Together. [Hi Mom!]

And what are my plans for Mother’s Day? That would be a loaded question…sorta.

My mother-in-law lives in the area, and even back when Steve and I were dating, I always made it a point that we got together with her on Mother’s Day since she lives so close. [My mom lives two-legs of a flight away, so it’s not so easy.]

After I became a mom, the day was somewhat for me too, but we still carried on our old tradiition. My first Mother’s Day (the one where I wanted Steve to distract Ben every time I went to the bathroom so I could have a moment to myself), Steve’s mom suggested we got eat a Valentino’s so we wouldn’t have to cook. Mom’s eat free on Mother’s Day, of course. We arrived a half hour before noon to find people tailgating in the parking lot – even for a table of just four, the wait was three hours! I said, “Over my dead body,” and we went to eat somewhere else.

The next year, all I knew was that I didn’t want to do that again. In fact, I didn’t think I even wanted to spend Mother’s Day with my mother-in-law. So I was clever – I told my parents to come visit for Mother’s Day since I hadn’t been with my Mom on Mother’s Day since I’d left home for college. I wanted to go to a baseball game – something I love to do, especially when the weather is perfect like it was that day. Mom wasn’t so keen on the idea, so she went antique shopping in the Haymarket…and I felt guilty for letting her celebrate the day alone.

Last year, we were in Florida for Mother’s Day. [Yeah, me trying to be clever again.] Dad, Steve and Ben went to a baseball game while Mom and I went shopping. It was pretty fun. Then we waited an hour and a half for a table at Olive Garden. It was fun, but I was still trying to take into consideration how to make the day special for someone other than myself, though I think I did a bit better than the previous year.

This year, the question arose again – how did I want to celebrate Mother’s Day? To be quite honest, spending the day with my mother-in-law still doesn’t make the list of things I want to do. Sorry. It’s my day too. And really, our spending an afternoon with her is just as special the weekend after Mother’s Day as it would be on Mother’s Day. And Mom and Dad came to visit just a month ago so we won’t be seeing them over Mother’s Day this year.

Here’s the deal – if I didn’t have to worry about spending the day with anyone else and making it special for them too, here is what I would do: I would spend the day at home, relaxing. I’d make myself some really yummy meals. Just like with the bathroom thing my first Mother’s Day, Steve and the boys’ gift to me would simply be to stay out of my way so I could enjoy cooking. Really, I don’t ask that much. I might even go so far as to request a trip to somewhere where they have lawn chairs so I could pick out a comfortable one that I like (prior to Mother’s Day) and then enjoy sitting in it and watching the boys play. I really am not asking all that much. But I’m thinking it would be the best Mother’s Day ever.

I still haven’t completely decided what would be on the menu. The only thing I’ve come up with so far is a pie made with some of this from my garden:

I am sure I will come up with a grand plan over the next few days. I’ll have it all spelled out down to the last detail so I am cooking enough to have fun but not so much that I’m slaving in the kitchen all day. And the food will be really, really good. Stuff I wouldn’t normally go to the trouble of doing otherwise. Hot Artichoke Dip? Homemade Italian style pizza? (We had some homemade pizza like that last night, and I’m telling you, it was good!] A fancy breakfast with fruit and some kind of pastry?

We shall see what I come up with in the next few days. Believe me, I’m sure I’ll be posting about what I decide to do. All I can say now is that it’s gonna be good!

Disclaimer: This was his own idea. He did not learn it from watching us.

I’ve been letting Ben have a storybook to read while he sits on the potty – he stays there longer when I do that and I’m hoping more time on the potty might bring a little luck.

This afternoon, when I told him it was time to sit on the potty, he insisted on bringing his keyboard and mouse with him. Apparently this is what he had in mind.

My boss has given me a new schedule. Well, I’m the boss, but…anyway…

I used to get up in the morning and knit (still do that), shower, make Steve’s lunch and get him off to work, and then I’d come downstairs and read blogs and post on my blog and whatever. The first part is still the same, but the last part has changed.

It’s summertime now. Yes, I know it’s still spring, but school will be out soon, and really, there are only two seasons to my schedule anyway – summer and winter. Winter is when it’s too cold to walk in the morning so I go out after lunch, at the warmest part of the day. Summer is when it feels better if I walk right after Steve leaves for work…and all the kids get to school – I hate walking during rush hour when all these crazy moms are zooming down sidestreets because they’re late getting their kids to school…not my cup of tea.

So now we’re walking – or gardening – first thing in the morning. Then I come inside and shower and then I try to be productive. I’m using the Six Most Important Things list – you simply write down the six most important things you need to get done today and then do them as soon as possible, along with whatever else you decide to do. My goal is to have them done by noon. So far it’s working pretty well.

Unfortunately, though, blogging is not on my Six Most Important Things list [though reading my blog may be on your’s]. So blogging’s going to be done after lunch now. Except on days like today. Today I came downstairs and got on the computer and started researching diapers. Yeah, Joey’s got “plumber butt” so it’s time to think about making bigger diapers. Don’t you wish you had my life?

And it’s raining today so no gardening, at least not outside. I spend my gardening time planning exactly where I was going to plant things. I have seeds I bought, and I have what is left of the little plants I tried to grow. Yesterday I had them outside where I was trying to “harden” them before planting (that’s what they say you’re supposed to do, and mine always die when I do this). Not all of them died. But the neighbor’s lawn got sprayed and I could smell it all day, which could explain why they were all wilted. Then Ben plucked some more of them – I had three eggplant, four peppers and two hot peppers and he got at least on of each as well as one of my ground cherry tomatoes. It’s making me wish I’d snagged Grandma’s plant light when I went down to her house in Oklahoma, but alas! I did not. I could have put them in the utility room and they could have grown twice as big with light all day and Ben couldn’t have gotten into them. Don’t ask me about next year right now – I’m not making any committments.

In other news, I’m making pizza for supper (from scratch, as in, I made the dough myself, folks) and I have a peach blueberry pie in the oven as we speak. Don’t you wish you lived at our house? Then again, we have two whiney boys as well, so maybe not.

Oh, and yesterday Ben spent the whole entire morning watching this Sesame Street Elmo Potty Training DVD Steve’s mom bought him for Easter. As in, he watched it over and over and over again. But no, he is not doing anything more on the potty than he has been – i.e. just sititng there when we tell him to. Patience…patience…

I just came across the greatest blog this morning: Stash and Burn. Recently they had a contest – how many UFO’s (knit-speak for UnFinished Objects) you have and what are they?

I just made a list for myself yesterday (before I discovered this great blog). Today I will share my list with you.

• Pack-Pack – a pattern I tested for Little Turtle Knits – completed through the felting, just needs the buttons and straps to be sewn on
• Ayla from Knitty – again, this babe’s been felted, but the I-cord for the strap got knotted when it was felting so it didn’t felt evenly and I’m not sure I want to use it anyway so it is waiting for some kind of straps and closure
• I-cord Jacket for me – the knitting is done…all the ends are buried…I just need to make the button loops and sew on the buttons (and yes, I even have the buttons)
• Sweater for Jackson – same as the I-cord jacket except that I bought a zipper for it and decided against it so now I need to go buy buttons and then sew them on and make the loops

Notice a pattern here? Remember the little sweater I made for my friend’s daughter? I had it all finished and blocked except for the sewing on of the buttons and it sat there for a whole month before I finally forced myself to sew on the buttons. Blocking and seaming I do just fine; it’s the hand-sewing that gets me!

Moving on here…

• Entrelac hat for me – again, I think it’s going to be too tall so I need to frog back and re-do it; this will be a great project for the summer when it is hot and I don’t want some big wool sweater sitting on my lap while I knit
• Sierra blouse – I haven’t posted about this much so no links. We’ll just say my initial idea turned out okay but when I got further into it, I had other problems so I frogged back to the point where everything is okay and now I’m letting it “simmer” while I decide what to do next.

In the past, when I’ve had a backlog of UFO’s, I’ve declared a UFO Week where I did nothing but finish things. This time, I’ve decided, at least with the first four UFO’s, that my goal is to finish one per week. [And yes, I know, my “backlog” is nothing like some people have, but just the same…]

This week, I will be finishing the little sweater for Jackson. Tonight I am running errands without the boys and one of my planned stops is the fabric store where I will be buying buttons to sew onto that little sweater. Wish me luck!

Happy May Day everyone!