Last Friday was Texas Day…or something like that. I have videos to upload but meanwhile, check out the pics on our Flickr account.

Sure signs of aging: loving onions, mustard AND sauerkraut. Another sure sign of aging: really, really enjoying PBS and BBC. When did this sneak up on me?? I feel like normal television doesn’t include a plot anymore. I am addicted. MI-5 is a new one for me and it is fantastic, although I see I have 8 or 9 seasons to catch up on! I already love Masterpiece Classic - that Rupert Penry-Jones is amazing. No need to elaborate, right? Well, he reminds me of that guy in Robinson Crusoe that was cancelled (great show - I am still mourning television’s loss with that cancellation). I look forward to seeing The 39 Steps this Sunday night. Maybe getting old isn’t so bad!

Ravelry: I have known about the site for years but I was afraid to get too deeply involved…with good reason. One could surf the project pictures and patterns indefinitely (you know, those *other* people without any self control!). I finally gave in and set up a profile - 10cowife - to document my adventures in yarn. Other than this blog, that is. Truly addicting. A great way to keep track of needles, yarn, pattern sources, etc. It’s so fun to see patterns in the many different color combinations that other Ravelry members have thunk up. Off to do a little more browsing…I’m sick in bed so it’s fully justified, right?

It’s a little gnome army. Cute, huh?!?

Jack’s showing off his candy sweetheart ipod box. Both ideas are from Family Fun online, except I modified the gnomes by sewing the hats instead of gluing them with fabric glue.

Just last week, we had the Fruity Pebbles incident. After this Cheerios incident, we might have to give up on cereal altogether and start eating more oatmeal! I came out of the shower to find Ben had tried to get himself more Cheerios. When I saw him he had a glass shard the size of a pencil in his hand, rolling it around, so I calmly asked, “Where did you get that???” and then I saw the broom. He was barefoot and had tried to clean it up himself. I could hardly be mad at such a sweet effort. It was a miracle we weren’t in the ER that day! He had not a cut, bruise, or drop of blood on him anywhere. We were headed to the church that day to put on a luncheon and I think the good Lord must have wanted us there instead of the ER.

Book club at my home was approaching. All the other book club ladies have such nice homes and nice furniture to go with them. I was aching for a coffee table and perhaps an end table or two so that people wouldn’t have to put plates on their laps. It is a tight week for us this week so I also wanted to make nice things to eat without going to the store. Which meant no fresh fruit. Hmmm. I made a blackberry coffee cake streusel and a bundt cinnamon coffee cake as well as a hash brown bake. No going to the store also meant no paper plates (at least not sturdy enough ones to use)…no problem, I don’t mind doing dishes, and using real plates is always nicer than paper.

I was trying to clean stains off the couches, stains off the carpet and feeling bad for myself that I didn’t have all new-matching-beautiful-perfect furniture. I could quickly see everywhere the dog has been…but would I give up the dog? Definitely not. She is worth the stains and hair. Then, I quickly got a grip and realized none of those things are important.

The house looked so nice from midnight to about 10 minutes AFTER book club was over. I was very thankful for Cole - one of the BEST KIDS EVER - who was more than willing to stay up and help me clean. He even manually picked out leftover red M&Ms from the Christmas bags I stocked up on after the holiday when they went on sale (he did the same thing with candy DOTS! What a kid!). The red looked so cute in my valentine heart dishes and nobody knew how frugal I really was.

I had been at Kohl’s earlier that day and had a clearance banquet tablecloth in my hand for $19.99. Mind you, I have two white banquet tablecloths that I can’t seem to locate since our move. I searched. Don searched. No such luck. I put the purchase back on the shelf at Kohl’s and walked out empty handed. Even though I felt like I desperately needed that tablecloth. So, I went home and took a cream colored fabric shower curtain and washed it and laid it out on half the table. Then, I took another cream colored tablecloth I had (smaller than banquet) and put it over the other half. Then, I took a small square tablecloth my mother made for me and put it over the seam. I can honestly say that I doubt anybody even noticed and it looked so good! I really AM learning how to make do and it felt pretty good! Give it about 3 days and I’ll find my white banquet tablecloths somewhere…isn’t that how it always goes?!

When all was said and done, I was so happy with how everything looked and tasted and the company was the best of all. I learned a couple of things: 1) if you refrain from the impulse to buy something just because you think you need it, DON’T DO IT!!. You’ll feel better in the long run. You and your home can shine with what you already are or have. 2) Women who don’t care about those things, anyway, are the best friends to have. If anybody would have cared in the least, I really wouldn’t want to have them as a friend, anyway!!!

Jackson’s flag football league actually started at the end of January. It was 63° F and only a touch windy - a perfect day for flag football. Just enough wet grass to get a little muddy. We had fun at the game but I think we had even more fun as a family playing catch at Meyer Park earlier this morning. Then we hit up the Bush library for our library card and everybody checked out some goodies…now the only problem is returning them on time. We are notorious for buying books instead of going to a library because we are so very bad at returning them. Here goes! I’ll let you know how responsible we’ve become this time next week. Plus, I cannot say enough great things about this i9 football league - it’s a national franchise and just brilliant. Same time, same location, fair play…so much better than our Farm League experience last season. I highly recommend it!

So I thought we had mice or a rather large cockroach spreading the Fruity Pebbles cereal all over the pantry…until I saw the spoon. Even a large cockroach can’t use a spoon! The guilty party was someone who had never had sugar cereal before and certainly took a liking to them. So much for a treat! More shots on our flickr account. The guilty one is holding a football, how cute is that?! How could anyone get mad at that face?!?

I’ve been busy knitting hearts for Valentine’s Day. A friend of mine is teaching crochet and I’m teaching knitting in an upcoming workshop for church.

I made the potholder pattern from Lion Brand Yarn just fine but I’m trying to alter it for a dishcloth.

JoAnn’s pattern for a heart here is a little easier but they’re all basically the same. It’s not difficult, I got it on the first try!

Two more knitting sites that I like: Veronik Avery and Skein Queen. Don’t forget Veronik has a blog and a book. Skein Queen has wonderful yarns for sale and patterns, too. Happy surfing!

I’ve been gone for so long, I feel like I need to reintroduce myself! I have been more than busy this season and I’m going to have to change that. I definitely need to rearrange some priorities. I am determined to include more knitting time. I have so many great knitting links and blogs to share that I’ll just start off with a couple and give you time to enjoy them. Then I’ll list a few more next time. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

First, check out Brooklyntweed. His name is Jared Flood and he’s on flickr, twitter, blogs and has a website. He teaches knitting but I simply enjoyed looking at his work. His technique is amazing and his color choices seem natural yet subdued and perfectly suited to the pieces he works. Love it! I wish he offered some free patterns but I couldn’t find any. I really enjoyed his circular needles version of the baby pants pictured above.

The original baby pants pattern can be found from Shibui Knits out of Portland. I couldn’t find any free patterns on there site, either, but there is enough eye candy to inspire you for sure!

Parents gone. So sad! But I did NOT cry. I just kept telling myself I’d see them this summer. It helped that it is Cole’s 14th birthday and he went with me to take them to the airport. Tonight as I was tucking Gabe in, I thought he was holding Tinkerbell but it was only his stuffed black cat. It won’t feel like they’re gone, just yet. Will probably hit in a day or two. It has been so nice having them here!!! They are less trouble than the kids. I kept joking I’d send the kids back and keep the parents. I’ll have to write up a tribute to Cole for his birthday a day late. I just can’t do it today!!!

Pretty self explanatory. We only have 4 more days with the parents…we are so sad it is almost time for them to go!