A review of August

is it just me or did August just zoom by?  Honestly, I'm doing much better with a photo a day which please me tremendously.  Definitely looking forward to capturing some fall color soon.

dogs-definitely dominated this month-4 with Sophie, 2 which Harley, and 1 of potential newbies that didn't pan out :-(

knitting-am glad to see more of that-reminds me to update my Ravelry project page more often.

food-made frequent appearances including an empty plate cause sometimes I'm slow on the uptake.

I think I looked around a lot more this month.  Many of the things I enjoy in general are represented in some way-love that.  Maybe I should do a full month of either looking up or down, or some combination.

S'okay to Wait

The reason for Carole's prompt for today naturally brought tear to my eyes; sometimes it's really no fun being an adult.  I have to say that how I spent my time spent waiting has changed a lot over the years.  I have spent numerous hours waiting in doctors offices for various appointments, both my own, and for members of my family.  Once when the boys were smallish, maybe 7 and 9, we had a 3 hour wait at my mother's cardiologist.  No one bothered to call the patients to let them know that the doctor had to perform emergency surgery, and that the routine appointments would be delayed (ugh!).  I think the advent of the wifi, social media, and advancements in cell phone technology have changed the concept of waiting, whether for good or bad.  My list includes past and present ways to deal with waiting.

10.  Pray-circumstances may be such that this is really the only thing that can bring peace.
  9.  Play-I always made sure my boys had plenty of things to play with-small cars, legos, coloring books,  Game Boys, etc. 
  8.  Picnic-my tote bag always had goldfish, fruit, granola bars, juice boxes or water.  I never knew how long of a wait we'd have at times, and hungry people= grumpy people, and I'm referring mostly to myself!  The DMV in Marietta was known for such a long wait that someone came up with the idea of a hot dog cart because you could really be there for several hours.
  7.  Read-I usually have something in my bag, a magazine or book.
  6.  Stay connected-check emails, Instagram, Twitter, but I rarely make phone calls, sometimes it's real annoying to have to listen to someone else's chatter.  I always leave the waiting room if I have to take a phone call is more than a half minute.
  5.  Instagram and take other photos-kinda fun, but I am sure it annoys other folks.
  4.  Chat/listen-waiting is stressful for people, and it can be comforting to others to have someone just to listen or talk with them.  I admit, I'm not always good about initiating a conversation, but if someone wants to engage me, I'm game.
  3.  Peruse the internet- Pinterest, blogs, other websites-see #6
  2.  Watch TV-sometimes the waiting room will actually have something worth watching-I love when the channel is set to HGTV, the news, not so much.
  1. KNITTING! Even if the wait is only 15 minutes, I always have my knitting with me.  I try to keep projects with me that are not too involved or complicated- see #10, #4, and #2.  The knitting usually generates some conversation, or at least some "looks".

So yea, I don't actually mind waiting these days now that I don't have little one's to occupy, and I still come with snacks and water.  I have been fortunate to have only the rare waiting event where only #10 is app.

Daily Crossings

An interesting prompt from Carole this week-not something I usually give a lot of thought to-

10.  First thing in the morning I cross from bedroom to bathroom then bedroom to go downstairs.
  9.  Sophie and I go from the laundry room to the side door for our early morning potty break, and to get the newspaper.
  8.  These above is reversed, and once I'm ready for work I cross from the kitchen into the garage to my car.
  7.  When I get to work I cross from the loading dock into the building where I go through 2 more doors to get to my desk.
  6.  I cross into my boss's office to put his newspaper on his desk and check the out box, I do the same with boss #2.  I will cross these 2 thresholds many times throughout the day
  5.  Then there is the threshold in our lobby where I'll receive deliveries or guests, some days are busier than others.  Sometimes I actually go through another door and stand on the sidewalk.
  4.  Multiple trips to the ladies room [TMI?] during the day.
  3.  When it's time to heat up my lunch I cross into another office before heading outside to eat and knit.
  2.  Finally at the end of the day when I get home I plan to cross from the kitchen to the deck for a bit of relaxing.

  1.  My post dinner exercise will require me to go from the kitchen area to the basement, and then when it's bed time I'll be upstairs where #10 happens.


I wish my day was a bit more interesting with regards to which thresholds I'm crossing, like visiting with family or friends, or going somewhere special.  Now if this was a post for over the weekend, my list would be much more interesting.
 

Weekend Lens| July

The past weekend was pretty exhausting-lots of activities and things to do.  The weekend sorta started on Thursday with Book Club, this is our fourth meeting, and I really enjoy this group of ladies.  The book we picked wasn't one I'd tell my friends to run out and get, but it did generate some great conversation.  Isn't that the point of book club anyway-aside from the munchies and wine?!

Friday was Quilt Club, we haven't gotten together as a group in a long time, and we were still missing Brenda.  It was fun hearing about Joyce's trip to China with her adopted daughter Mei-it was an interesting 3 weeks.  I didn't feel like lugging my sewing machine to Kathy's, so I did some knitting instead.  The boys and one of PJ's friends came home for the weekend.  I love having them home.

Saturday morning included an indoor bike ride [my bike was in the shop], then to oversee the HOA Board meeting.

Right afterwards it was time to take Mom to her hair appointment-I then headed to the bank, the store, went through the car wash, picked up some food for lunch, and then back to get Mom.

I ate lunch quickly and then proceeded onto my errands which included a trip to the library, Total Wine, 2nd and Charles, Barnes and Noble, Stein Mart, Performance Bikes, and then to Costco which was a ZOO!!!

 I tried Starbuck's new ginger-ale soda-pretty good and not too bad on the calories.  Definitely refreshing on a very very hot July day.

Finally home, and after all that running around a cocktail was definitely in order!  My own concoction of muddled peaches, peach-pear la croix, simple syrup, bourbon [of course], and peach bitters with a lemon garnish.

 

 Andrew had agreed to cook burgers on the grill, and they were awesome!  Better than what I had last week when I was really craving a cheeseburger before the Peachtree Road Road,  A real simple dinner of just burgers, chips, beans and ice cream sundaes.  Lots of laughs around the table.  Some reading time then off to bed for me.  Not sure how late the boys stayed up, but it was muuuuuch later than me!

Sunday up early and another indoor bike ride, church, and then home for breakfast with the boys before they headed back to school.  They packed up the Tahoe with extra things I had around they house that they'll be able to use when they move into the house they are renting at the end of the month.  I'm really liking that I can pass things along to them.

Sunday afternoon was a baby shower for my sweet niece, Katie.  It was so much fun seeing the little baby stuff, and the food was so-so good. 

 Fortunately, I had a very light dinner planned of poached cod.  It was my first time making poached fish-it was really good.  More like a soup, and I added some fresh spinach for extra vitamins!  I seem to be doing this a lot lately.

 I spent the rest of the evening doing some knitting and hanging out with Sophie, we were both pretty exhausted when bed time came around.  There were a few minutes of reading, and a quick conversation with Steve before I turned out the light.  I'm glad I got to mark a lot of things off my to do list, but would have liked to have been able to do an outdoor bike ride-that's planned for the next coming weekend.

 
As I look over my calendar for this next week, it is a very light schedule, so I hope that means a little Tour de France replay, and some serious knitting.  There are dinner plans with Steve on Saturday, not sure where we're going yet, but it's been a while since it's been just the 2 of us for a meal out.  Weekends are wonderful, just wish they didn't always end so quickly.

cause that's how i like to do it.

with regular spring weather upon us, i got to thinking about outside bike rides.  I've really missed them, but what I don't miss about them is how time consuming they can be-1+ hour to drive round trip, load and unload bikes, then 2+ hours for the ride.  The good side is that if Steve is driving, I get to knit while he drives.  It got me thinking about my routine.  I'll admit I like my  routine,and I don't like it messed with-I know there are times when things have to be re-arranged, but to just approach each day without some sort of plan makes me twitchy.  While thinking about the timesuckthatisoutdoorcycling, I also realized that my extra pair of hands won't be home this summer.  So I made a list of the things I have to do each week along with a list of things I want to do-grocery shopping, laundry, cooking, cleaning, exercise, knitting, sewing, etc. Along with my need to have a routing, I'm of the camp that you do your chores first then you play, so with game plan in place, my goal for the next few months is to "work" Sunday AM-Wednesday, so I can play Thursday-Saturday, and Sunday afternoon.  Some of these shifts will include doing my house work Sunday mornings while everyone is asleep.  I have a pretty good routine for this, so it only takes about 45 minutes-without vacuuming- that will have to wait til after church.  I'm going to use Wednesday as my grocery shopping, and weekend prep day-cutting/washing/prepping veggies, marinades, dressings, etc.  Anything that can be made ahead of time.  Our dinners are going to be more thematic as well.  Friday-snack or leftovers-am looking forward to sitting on the deck with a glass of wine, my knitting and food that only requires me to put it on my plate.  Saturday will be pizza/stromboli night-think my family can cope with the change?!  Sunday after church lunch a simple one dish meal that'll fill us up, and then we can have snacks again for dinner.  Monday-Thursday will be a combination of leftover and anything that can be made into a quesadilla. Am hoping this will work, and provide me with the sense of balance, accomplishment, and not lose my sanity.  Hopefully there will be more blog fodder too.  Am making great progress on my current WIPs, so hopefully I'll have something to share in a week or so.

time for a quickie.

i have ever intention of blogging about snowjam 2014 the sequel, but for now i'm
-catching up on blog reading
-working on my willard pullover (one sleeve nearly done!)
-drinking my last cup of coffee-for today.
-re-reading a very sweet and unexpected Valentine from a friend i haven't seen in a while
-getting ready to take my mother to her hair appointment.
-looking forward to a 3 day weekend after a 3 day work break courtesy of snow jam
-looking forward to 2 1/2 additional days off this next week-a sewing class, quilt club, and general de-cluttering are on the to-do list
-wondering what it's going to be like not having hot water until the new hot water heater is installed on MONDAY!!!

you know nothing really says Happy Valentine's Day than finding that your hot water heater has a rusted out bottom, and you spend a good hour or so shop vac-ing the basement floor!

what's your current "i am's"?

i love a giveaway.andpie.

my recent success in winning cool stuff has prompted me to enter every possible giveaway on blogs i read especially when it comes to books and yarn.  that being said after hearing the recent episode of the craftlit podcast, which featured an interview with andi and her book big foot knits, i couldn't resist.  this is a must for any sock knitter's library.  i love my hand-knit socks, but sometimes the fit isn't always "spot on".  this book goes beyond just giving pattern instructions and provides a recipe or template to customizing them for optimal fit. so i'm doing my part by spreading the word.  this also reminds me that i have sorely neglecting this blog, and i hope to change that.  may to august has kept me busy, while at the same time i've been trying to be "not too busy". i've wanted to spend more time closer to home.  the next big thing is getting andrew ready for college-move in day is NEXT WEEK-gah! i'm really gonna miss him, but am excited for him at the same time.  i'll be changing a lot of my daily routine, especially kitchen duties, so perhaps that will provide some moderately interesting content to bring to the blog.  in the meantime, i'll leave you with a photo of the lemon meringue pie andrew made yesterday. andrew heading off to college is going to be great on my waistline.