Sofia

We got a dog. She is a beagle and she loves people. The people at my house love her too. It is really exciting to have our first dog but I am exhausted from working so much. Thank goodness I took tomorrow off work, Helen and Lily are getting their schedules and packets. I love back to school.

Maybe it is time for a dog

We have been wanting a dog at our house for a couple of years. We have been talking about it for the last 6 months. We have an opportunity to get a great dog now. I had a list of concerns and they are rapidly becoming non-concerns. This is something that all 4 of us want equally, maybe not equally; the kids really, really, really want a dog. The benefits seem to outweigh the concerns, maybe it is time to do it.

I did a gauge swatch for the first time yesterday, yeah me!!! I really had to do it for my Olive Branch Hoodie and I needed to go down a size in needles.

All my kids will be home tonight, until Zoe goes to Ludington over Labor Day weekend. I am so glad they have friends with places to go up north. I remember wanting to be one of the people to go up north when I was a kid, it was not fun to be the one family who always stayed home. I know the reasons we didn't have a place up north now, but as a kid that didn't matter and still doeesn't to my kids either.

Today is day 3 of a 10 day stretch at work. Gotta love OT and comp, it is also a 12 hour day. I am grateful for the time I spend at home after spending so much time at work.

Calm before the storm....

I feel like it is the calm before the storm. The storm of school starting. Marching Band has started in full swing, camp is this week and next week will be all afternoon practice. We have picked up the "packets" for two of the schools and emergency cards are filled out. Helen is trying to decide what afterschool activities she wants to be involved in this year. Lily is awaiting going to the new school to find out about EVERYTHING. She says it is not fair that her sisters get to get packets and she doesn't. I think all three of them are excited to start school. Now they need to start going to be earlier so they can get up at the crack o'dawn.
I purchased new yarn yesterday to start my Olive Branch Hoodie http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/olive-branch-yoga-hoodie. I need to finish at least one project before I start the Olive Branch Hoodie. I am excited for this partially because the yarn is heavy worsted and much larger than I have been knitting with on my mitten and Lily's slippers. I have been trying to finish the 2nd slipper for Lily. I noticed as I was halfway done with the side that I was knitting in stockinette not garter. Ugghhh!!!! I am not going back to change it. The two slippers will just have different stitches, it just shows it was made with love.
I have started my christmas knitting and it is going well.
I have finished the cuff of my Anemoi Mittens for me on the second mitten, yeah me. I really like the colorwork and I am chooseing to start more projects that are similiar.
I downloaded the Magic Catalogue from Project Gutenburg, WOW, so many free books that I can now download to the Kindle. I need to be doing more free and less store bought books on it. I love reading on the Kindle and will choose it over a paper book when I can. I have been rereading the Harry Potter series before bed but I won't carry it around like I do with the Kindle.
It will be a busy next few weeks as I am working just about everyday for the next couple of weeks. I will enjoy the OT and comp time while I can get it.

What to do???

I am sometimes faced with the idea that I have an hour of time to do something. Do I do something around the house like empty the dishwasher, work on the kid's school scrapbooks, read or knit? Sometimes I just get involved in the time suck called the computer. I am faced with that idea now and just want to lay around and do nothing. I finished one of my Anemoi Mittens for me and need to start the second but I also want to reread the Harry Potter series unfortunately not on Kindle :-(. I am so not working on the school memory books, the dishwasher is unloaded(thank you kids), dinner is decided(must eat leftovers) so I think the knitting will win out, especially since I have new projects just waiting for me to start. Thanks to Sandy for the pictures of the mitten.