Warning! Actual Knitting Content...

The knit mojo is back in a mild way. I've finished a pair of socks in a tan speckly color, and started a second pair in plain blue vintage sock wool.

I'd like to finish up those blue socks, and bring some really special sock wool along when we go to Normandy in a week for a D-Day sites trip with some other folks from David's work. Maybe this wool (scroll down for picture) - my winnings a while back in Liz's blog contest.

I also have my eye on a gorgeous vest pattern (thanks for enabling, Jill) called Vertigo. Check it out here. Nice, huh?

I shall leave you with some sock pictures, and a shot of David playing with the castle and knights I bought from a friend. This has been a VERY successful toy for both kids!


Neat thing about the castle is that it slots together, and can be packed flat. Not that we've taken it apart yet, in the 2 weeks since we put it together...

Notice that manky, crumply thing in the lower left corner? Unblocked, washed sock. My homemade sock blockers actually work - laminated cardboard, so not very durable, but they are fine for now.

Here's the latest sock in progress. I'd love to finish it tonight...we'll see!

A Meditation on My Feelings upon the Return of My Beloved from the Desert...

or:

So very happy.

(thanks to ICanHasCheezburger for  the image)

Waiting...with Charming Kid Pix for Distraction

The last day or so of a deloyment can seem like a week.  Let's hope it won't literally become a week!  I am so looking forward to my sweetie's return.

Meanwhile, the kids and I have been enjoying the term break.  Two weeks is a loooong time to just hang out.  I think we've all appreciated the respite from the usual engagements. There were a couple of movies, some bowling, hide and seek at the castle with a friend, bike riding, puppet shows created by kids, model-building, and general noodling around. We lucked out yesterday and were at the library in time for some great kitchen science type experiments (Mentos and Coke, layering liquids, fun with electricity)and pizza.

Easter day was lovely.  Here's a shot of the Boy and the Girl in their finery.  Note D's new sneakers...I didn't realize he didn't have dress shoes on til we were in the car headed out to church. Ah, well...they were nice and clean!

Two days later, it was Miss Lily's birthday.  "Now we are six," in the words of A. A. Milne.  Lily got a new bicycle from Mummy and Daddy, big enough for a 6-year-old.  I think she likes it...

Then nine young ladies made a day of it at the local Princess Party salon. It was a symphony of pinkness and pampering.  They did a lovely job making Lily and her friends feel like absolute stars.  Here is the princess in all her glory...

Easter Fun

Sorry for the lack of bloggy goodness lately.  I haven't had much exciting to report, really.  No knitting mojo, and now the kids are on spring break for two weeks so we've been running around, errands and bowling and library and a field trip to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D down in Cambridge.  That was fun!

Darling spouseman comes home soonish and I am really, REALLY looking forward to that.

I'l placate you all with pictures of Lily's Easter bonnet she wore during the fundraiser a couple of weeks ago (we raised 350 pounds for the preschool - whooo!).  Didn't get a shot during the contest, but got a couple after the party, before we disassembled the bonnet for Easter re-use.  

Below those pics are some from our Easter egg  dyeing this afternoon.  We used a different type of Paas kit, with little sponges and supah-concentrated dyes, so the eggs look really neat!  David wasn't as into it as Lily, but he did 4 or 5 eggs... The chocolate and jelly beans are laid in, and I am sure we will have a little hunt tomorrow after church. 

Semi-confidential to Jill - I tried the purple foo-foo dress on Lily today - it's really big around the waist  and chest, but we'll cinch it with the sash. She looks adorable!  It will make a great Easter and birthday outfit. Does anyone remember the Saturday Night Live GAP girls?  "Just...cinch it!!"

Two Years

Two years ago today, we lost my mom.  In some ways, it seems like it was last week, when I think, "Ooh, I have to share that with mom when I call her."  In other ways, I feel like it has been a much longer time than 2 years.  So much has happened that mom wasn't here to share with us. 

I look at this picture, and it reminds me of so much that I loved about my mother.  She loved the kids, and they loved her, completely.  She knew how to listen to children (and adults), and how to play and create with real imagination.  She was always up for an expedition, even with two broken arms.  And she loved being outside, in beautiful places and some not so obviously beautiful.  My mother was a true "noticer" of things.  She had the observant eye of an artist, and I love that she shared what she saw.  When I notice the wonderful little details in something seemingly mundane, I thank her for it.  And I will try to keep up the adventuring, and spirit of play, in her memory.

Missing you always, mother dear!...

 

Wheels

Isn't she pretty?

100 Books

I've seen this meme around.  When Betsy sent it to me on Facebook, I decided to play along.  I have read 48 of these - not saying I REMEMBER all 48, though!

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. (I can’t verify this statistic).

Also.... The Da Vinci Code? Come ON... read this and it's no "great 100 books" sort of book.  Same for Bridget Jones' Diary.
   
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (x ) In fact I am re-reading it, again, right now.

2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (x )

3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte ()

4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (X )

5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee ( )

6. The Bible ( x)

7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte ( x)

8. 1984 - George Orwell (x )

9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ()

10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ( )

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott ( X)

12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ( )

13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (x)

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare ( ) -

15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier ( )

16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (x )

17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ( )

18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (X)

19. The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (x )

20. Middlemarch - George Eliot ( )

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell ( X)

22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (x)

23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens ( )

24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ( )

25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (x)

26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ( )

27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (X )

28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (X)

29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (X)

30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (x)


31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ( )

32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ( )

33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis ( x)

34. Emma - Jane Austen ( X)

35. Persuasion - Jane Austen ( )

36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (x )

37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - ( ) -

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ( )

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ( )

40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (X)


41. Animal Farm - George Orwell (X)

42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (x )

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )

44. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving ()

45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ( )

46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X)

47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ( )

48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (X)

49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding (X)

50. Atonement - Ian McEwan ()
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel ()

52. Dune - Frank Herbert (x)

53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons ( x)

54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen ( )

55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ( )

56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ( )

57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ( x)

58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (x )

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon (x)

60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck ( X)

62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov ( X)

63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt ( )

64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ( )

65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas ( )

66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac ()

67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy (x )

68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding ()

69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie ( )

70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville ( )


71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens ( )

72. Dracula - Bram Stoker ( )

73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (X) -

74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (x )

75. Ulysses - James Joyce ()

76. The Inferno - Dante (X)

77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ( )

78. Germinal - Emile Zola ( )

79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ( )

80. Possession - AS Byatt ( )

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (X)

82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ( )

83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker (X)

84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ( )

85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (x )

86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ( )

87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White ( X)

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ( )

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (X)

90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ( )


91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ( ) started but could not finish...

92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (X)

93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ( )

94. Watership Down - Richard Adams (x)

95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ()

96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute (x )

97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas ( )

98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (X)

100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ( )