That’s right, after almost 9 years of Eureka brand monogamy, I was forced to find another partner in suction (get your mind out of the gutter, that’s not what I meant).
I got me a (insert heavenly angelic music and lighting here) Dyson!!! And I am SO in love. The pet fur doesn’t stand a chance.
You know, I was kind of incredulous last night when, after driving all the way home from Charlotte and getting in around midnight that the first thing Paul wanted to do was open up the boxes of car parts that came in the mail while he was away this week. I was even kind of annoyed. But then I took a mental step back and though to myself, what if that were yarn? Would I blame him at all? No, no I would not.
Emily’s “let it snow” rituals worked!! We woke up yesterday morning to snow! We got a nice blanketing that continued most of the day, turning over to sleet later on. So of course there was no school, and they canceled it again today due to all the ice we accumulated overnight. The older girls spent most of yesterday playing outside. I ventured out only briefly to help Emily assemble the 3 snowman pieces she had rolled up (another speckled snowman, I might add), but I couldn’t really play outside with them because of the baby. But they were out most of the day having fun, coming in here and there to refuel with hot cocoa.
It was nice to have some quiet time for just me and Oona. I made a pumpkin cream pie and worked on my socks a bit (still didn’t finish…..I only get a few baby free minutes here and there). After they came in for good Neve earned her “McEnroe” nickname all over again, throwing fits whenever she lost at Wii tennis, and outright sobbing uncontrollably anytime she was beat at any other game. She could not be calmed, and would not relinquish the remote for anything. I swear, if ever there are moments you question the wisdom of having children, these are them. I had to turn the darn thing off. But it ended up alright. Neve and Oona sat together and watched what has become my sanity saver, Yo Gabba Gabba. Have you seen it? As many will testify, I absolutely hated Yo Gabba Gabba the first time I saw it. I wanted to know just what Nick Jr. was thinking airing such a crazy show. Admittedly, I was barely able to make it past the host’s wild getup before I changed the channel. But, the kids LOVE it, and the songs are catchy, and the next thing I know I am enjoying it as well. And Oona squeals now when I turn it on for her. She’ll sit nicely for about an episode a day, which is enough time for me to empty the dishwasher, load it back up and maybe have a cup of coffee (sometimes even breakfast!!) in the process. And it has become part of the vernacular of our home now, along with The Simpsons, Futurama, Dirty Jobs, and various other programs (we watch way too much tv).
Today was much less peaceful – the snow was mostly ice by the time the kids got out the door, and then it all but melted by lunchtime so they decided they preferred to stay inside and drive me crazy. Our satellite is not working at the moment, so they couldn’t watch anything unrecorded (in other words, anything they haven’t seen 10,000 times already). So I suggested they partake in that grand past time I like to call “Crack for Kids”. Or, as it is known to the rest of the world, Webkinz. With the older girls occupied thusly, I was actually able to consider doing laundry. Calm down there, I said consider. What I actually accomplished today fell far short of any real housework. Also my vacuum is broken, so there’s no point making myself crazy over what a mess I’ve got going on in here, since I can’t even clean up the dog fur properly. Besides, every time I approach any sort of productivity, Oona decides it’s time for me to hold her instead. But if I am lucky, I may have a husband home this weekend to help out. Two people considering the laundry is better than one, right?
I was hoping I’d be done with my latest pair of socks so I could post pictures, but sadly I have not yet begun the toe on the 2nd sock. But I have a good excuse. And she is very cute.
. 
That’s Oona. She’s almost 5 months old. My other girls tend to be a handful as well, but the baby is the one that really cuts into my “free” time. But she’s too happy and snuggly for me to mind. Lately she’s been “making eyes” at me a lot, and I love it. I just wish I could get more “me” time in. Whenever she naps I try to sneak in a few rows of knitting – which let me tell you, isn’t so easy when you’ve got the baby asleep on your chest and you’re working with 5 tiny size 2 double pointed needles. On the rare occasion that I get to put her down while she naps (usually she wakes up) it seems that the universe decides it’s time to mess with me. The UPS guy comes and rings the doorbell. The dog goes apes**t and barks like mad at the burn pile from the new house project across the street (I don’t get it either). Telemarketers begin calling every few minutes. Neve screams from the bathroom that she peed herself, and then slams the door on her way out, stomping up the stairs to change. The cat jumps at the window, trying to get at the birds in the feeder outside and then gets stuck (it happens more than you’d think). Actually, now that I think about it, it’s mostly my animals that do the damage. The dog especially. She loves to shake and jingle the tags on her collar right next to the cradle. And she barks with special relish at the 8 billion deer that always seem to show up in my yard during the mid – day nap.
Today I avoided it by taking the little kids to the Children’s Museum. It was fun and crazy as always and I got home and cleaned up a bit and helped Emily do her “make it snow” rituals (running around in the grass wearing your pj’s inside out, putting spoons under our pillows) and then made spaghetti and meatballs (yes, from scratch. I’m clearly a glutton for punishment). Anyway it was a decent day so it’s not so bad that I haven’t worked on my socks at all. But I am very close. 
See? They’re the Jaywalkers pattern by Grumperina. I did them in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Watercolor. I can’t wait – they’re the first pair I’ve made for myself. I generally prefer to knit for my little ones and other people, and let’s face it, baby sized items are way more fun to knit than adult sized. In fact, when these are done I’ll be casting on for more baby socks, since Oona’ s outgrown the ones she has, and I should probably work on the sweaters I’ve got in progress for the other girls. You know, before it’s 90 degrees outside and they’ve outgrown them.
When we last heard from the front lines, the report was as follows:
January 9, 2008
The lady invasion continues in full force. Efforts to drive back their numbers have failed. Their flight and wall – -scaling capabilities have prevented our top agents on the job, Sushi and Milo, from capturing many of them. Late word this morning is that 51 of them were seen in the master bathroom, with another two dozen lady corpses residing unashamedly in the bathtub. When asked if plans were in place for a full scale counter-attack Sushi simply stared out the window.
Meanwhile the number of “Dust and Fur Bunny” operatives continues to climb unabated. Unconfirmed reports of fur buffaloes are circulating as well.
In the bedrooms efforts have been made to scale the great laundry mountains, but it is fast becoming a possibility that these mountains may in fact be un – scalable.
The production of dirty dishes is at an all – time high and resources to combat this foe are limited at best. Morale in the trenches continues to be poor as the dirt and clutter attack in wave after wave of destruction and talk of unconditional surrender is underway.
“We must think of the children” a war weary onlooker was heard to say. “They need their parents with them, and not pre-occupied with this ugly war”.
Yet others continue to be pro – war, despite the odds. “We are doing this so that the younger generation may have a safe and clean environment in which to grow and play.”
Our leader, when asked for comment, had only this to say:
“We probably won’t overcome, and need to be prepared to learn to live with the enemy.”
Update!!!!
It has been discovered that the dust buffaloes are breeding a secret weapon: spiders!!!! Two of the eight legged offenders were discovered dangerously close to yarn stash “A” in the dining room. When the battle had ended the weary victor was heard to say that new resources would have to be approved in the ongoing war.
“We were close to admitting defeat but the presence of these illegals is a clear violation of our provisional treaty. The cease fire is off.”
No word yet on what, if any, new resources will be approved, but half a bottle of wine was emptied prior to the frontal assault on the arachnids. Experts indicate that protecting the borders from further insectoid threat will be an ongoing job with no clear end in sight. “Constant vigilance is the only hope.”
Indeed.
Occasionally, I am told, I am a good mommy. Like tonight, when I said we were having blueberry pancakes for dinner. The incredulous looks on their faces were priceless.
“Really? Pancakes for dinner???”
And I even made them using the snowflake molds I got from Williams Sonoma a few years ago. They couldn’t believe their luck that it wasn’t chili, roasted chicken with root vegetables or roasted pork and black bean soup (you know, all the horrible things I’ve been forcing upon them in the name of evil all week).
It even bought me 20 minutes of happy quietude before Neve started screaming for someone to log her into Webkinz.
And as for me, I got my fix of sugar laden, fake blueberry mapley crap. Yum.
So I’ve been blogging on MySpace for awhile, but only a few people I know have an account, so here I am. If I can figure out how to add all of my archived blogs here, I will, but I am something of a technological moron, and if it’s not explicitly stated how to accomplish something, then I probably can’t do it, and am too lazy to learn. Besides, my kids don’t afford me much time to do these sorts of things. It’s a good day when I am showered and my hair’s done. It doesn’t help that I am probably the most disorganized person on the planet. Something about managing 3 kids (an 8 year old, a 4 year old, a 4 month old) mostly on my own caused some essential fuse to blow in my brain and I’ve been operating inefficiently ever since.
One difference about this blog versus the old one is that at the risk of boring everyone to death, I will have more knitting content here. I have no one at home that really cares that I just finished the second of a pair of patterned socks (the cats are only interested in playing with the yarn in ball form, and the dog is only excited if she can chew on said socks) so I’ll brag in blog form instead. I’ve also placed links on this page to other bloggers I read (and yes, they are mostly knitting blogs…..we’re a numerous, if slightly crazy, bunch). So check them out – they are all much better writers and/or knitters than I.
A lot of people I know suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. These people, (plus most “sane” people) usually think I am out of my freakin’ gourd when I tell them I suffer from the opposite of SAD. Usually sufferers of SAD get the blues or even become depressed during the winter months (I believe it’s due to the lack of sunlight during the shorter days…….something to that effect anyway). Me? I get the blues when there’s too much sun in the winter. That’s right, you read that correctly. I am an oddball, I admit it. I am the one rooting for a ton of snow to fall and then disappointed when it fails to materialize. I’ve noticed that since moving to Virginia I feel more and more hostile toward mother nature every year. I put up with the oppressive, melt – me heat in the summer (and even into the fall……very few frosty and crisp autumn days here) in the hopes that this year winter won’t disappoint and will instead deliver me a veritable overflow of snow days. Sadly, in the eleven years I have lived here, there’s only been a handful of good, memorable snowfalls here (natives of Va. might disagree…but I’m from upstate New York, so it’s all relative). The last good storm we had was 2 years ago, and it was mediocre at best. I thought it would be enough for a good snowman, though, so Emily and Neve and I set out to the front lawn to roll one up, and we made what will forever be known as the “Speckled” snowman. You see, as a kid there was always enough snow that you could roll up a huge snow dude and you still couldn’t see the ground for all the white stuff. Not so with Mr. Speckled. As we rolled the snow, we exposed the ground, and all of the deer poop that was covering our front lawn was now embedded in the body. We even temporarily entertained the idea of using it to make his face and buttons. Anyway it was one ugly, mottled brownish snowman. He looked like he had brown chicken pox.
The irony is not lost on me that I finally have plenty of property to make my own private cross country ski trails (and even a nice streamy – type valley out back that could be dug out for a skate pond) but I no longer live in the necessary climate for it. I am also 100% guaranteed not to have a real winter due to the fact that we own a fully functional behemoth snow blower. I have not yet found a way to sabotage it without being discovered.
So, once again I pray for a real winter (or at least a few good snowfalls), and I keep myself from being too unhappy by knitting all manner of cold weather items, thus virtually ensuring that no winter will ever come.
Merry Magpie Farm 