Howdy, y'all.

Bob and a friend used actual swords for cattail control. No casualties.

Re: Matrix Reloaded, why would anyone use silk for toilet paper? To each their own, I suppose.

Catherine at Bossy Little Dog (http://yorkiedog.blogspot.com) got me started on rooibos tea. Muy bueno! I recommend it highly! I've been using the Numi tea blend (www.numitea.com), it was on sale at our local health food store, Brazos Natural Foods (www.brazosnaturalfoods.com). It's very pretty when brewed and very tasty. Check out Catherine's site if you're in the neighborhood.

The abandoned puppy is still with us, I am growing attached to him. Little girl sleeps with him at night.

I'm still working away at crocheting a single chain of 2 1/2 pounds of silk/acrylic blend that is very, very fine into sportsweight yarn. It's good mindless work, my fingers can tell when I mess up.

One of the knitting discussion groups was unhappy with the ebay yarn lady that I like. It seems that they don't like the fact that she has lots of listing and clutters up the yarn offerings on ebay. They mentioned that it is possible to exclude her in your search, so you don't have to view her thousands of offerings. I do agree that she does sell lots of yarn, that most of it is not to my liking, and that her statements that "100% wool is rare and hard to find" are misleading. However, she gives great service and I've liked everything I've gotten from her.

Our local Hobby Lobby has expanded their yarn offerings and they now have some Paton's yarns. I was picking up skeins and looking over the newcomers when I spied "Katrina". It's stretchy! Stretchy like bungee cord, how do they do it? I've never seen it before. I bought a skein to play with. At $6.31 it was somewhat pricey for my budget, but I get a small amount of personal money every payday, so I bought a skein to tinker with.

I cast on 25 stitches on #9 needles and knit in a 2X2 rib until I ran out of yarn. It makes a nice headband, the stretch in the yarn holds onto my head nicely. It could also be a sash, a hatband, and in an emergency would make a nice arm sling. I think that it would make a nice dress, long tunic, even pants! (I loved Shirley Paden's lace bell bottoms in a recent Vogue Knitting, how wild!) I am definitely going to get more of this stuff. If you've not tried it yet, you should!

I don't know about durability since Katrina is a rayon/polyester. Woven rayon doesn't wear like denim, but frankly most of us do not keep items in our wardrobe forever. Styles come and go, you clean closets, you wonder "what was I thinking (WWIT)?", rejects go to Goodwill where they'll wonder "what was she thinking", and you move onto other clothing. Even something you made with your own two pitty-paws can become a WWIT and will go to Goodwill someday. The universe giveth and the universe gets it back, usually in large garbage bags.

I was listening to "Fresh Air" on our local public radio station while I made dinner last night. They were speaking about the Gospel of Thomas, which was left out of the Bible in the early days of the church. We're Episcopalian, so I was aware of books that were not included in the official canon. The book they were discussing was titled Beyond Belief by Elaine H. Pagels. The reviewers seemed to like the book, although one was obviously of the "If the King James Bible was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!" crowd and could not wrap his/her mind around the concept that the Bible was compiled by - gasp - people! I am very tempted to get it.

However, budget is tight, tight, tight right now. One skein of yarn is about what my pocket money can handle. The nursery business is ship it now, wait 30 days - or longer - for your check. Orders are not exactly pouring in right now. We need to pay our property taxes, the car and truck need servicing, Little Girl has to get started on her braces, the dogs need to go to the vet, Second Son needs to see the eye doctor and the dentist, I need to get some lab work done, the younger kids need school clothes (they've really grown in the year and a half they've been with us!), etc.

There's more good news: our state legislature, in all their wisdom, took away some of the subsidy for health insurance for educators. So, we'll be paying even more for the large deductible/barely adequate coverage that we get now. Remind me again why nationalized health insurance is so evil? AND since our district is facing a 5% or more budget reduction, no raises for staff this year! BUT, the school board gave our superintendent a 5% increase, raising his $120,000 salary another $6000. This guy makes $10,000 each and every month and the board gives him more money in a time when he makes as much as 4 teachers?!? This was one of the reasons I ran for school board. At least Bob has a job.

Yep, it's one big pity party for me. I have to once again credit my depression era ancestors for giving me the skills I need to get through periods of extreme poverty. Chicken hindquarters are $.39 per pound, a 10 pound bag will feed your family for a week, swiss chard is easy to grow, milk should be viewed as a nutritional, not recreational beverage. Water is cheap, sodas are wasteful. Making your own bread is cheaper than buying it. More tips from the poverty lady as time goes by.

At least we have a roof over our heads, food on the table and we are able to give the kids a decent home and still help our college boy. Bless him for doing a little work each semester so he has some extra cash. Thank goodness Oldest Son has graduated and got a job! Whenever I feel blue because of all our family has been through, I remember to be thankful for what I have.

Take care, I'll be posting to you later.

Howdy, y'all.

We saw "The Matrix" on Sunday (dropped Little Girl off with Uncle Fun Guy - AKA my younger brother). I was struck by the fact that in the Matrix universe, there are no crochet hooks, needles or pre-soak for laundry. What else can explain the holes in sweaters, general tatteredness of clothing and big sweat stains everywhere? No wonder these same people wear Italian leather when they are inside the Matrix, it's the only time that they are able to look spiffy. I see that Zion also went to a Star Trek garage sale for their uniforms, suspiciously similar to those seen in "Wrath of Khan", with a little leather trim added and the required dirt, grime and scruffing up done.

My younger brother explained that it is because they are a messianic cult and are not concerned with appearances. Right. That's why their preferred fantasy wear is black, glossy, fitted and styling.

At 3AM on Monday, dear Bob woke the household to meet a visitor. A puppy was sitting at our back door and our little dachshund chiuaua cross was barking her head off about it. This "little" guy is 6-8 weeks old and weighs 25 pounds. My best guess is Great Dane. Lovely, they eat 6 pounds of meat a day when fully grown. Yes, he will find a loving home ELSEWHERE!!!! Oh, but he is cute, cute, cute. I slept on the sofa last night so he would have company and everyone could get some sleep. We're looking for his owner, but I think that someone just dumped him. The animal shelter is filled every year when the students leave for the summer with their pets that they've abandoned. We won't be taking him to the shelter, but will try to find someone to take him on our own. I am SO glad for linoleum, he pees at the least provocation.

On the knitting front, I've been reading in all the magazines about ribbon yarn. They look intriguing, but that price tag! At this point in my life and financial state, I can't justify spending $$$ on designer yarns, though I would love to do so. I have to work within a strict, tight miniscule budget, which sometimes does not leave me enough to get a daily paper. I am so grateful to have been raised by depression era parents and so blessed to learn how to live on very little. So, hmmm, what do we have around the house that is something I can work with? I came across one of my ebay acquisitions from Barbara Furia, my favorite source off ebay (http://prism.net/furia/kp/index.html). I bought 2 1/2 pounds of 85% silk with 15% synthetic, but it is very, very fine, almost like sewing thread. It seemed to be about sportsweight when quadrupled, so I thought that I'd roll it into balls and knit it up that way. It became a "later" project and was put on the shelf.

I keep a stack of knitting magazines and books in the bathroom. Interweave Knits Spring 2003 had a lace dress made of Linet, which is a chained yarn. I thought that would look weird, but the dress seems to look fine. The price tag for this dress is well over $100. Way too high for me for a single garment. Then I remembered the fine silk thread that was taking up shelf space. I tried to make I cord with #1 needles, but it was very, very slow and hard to do without watching what you were doing. I liked the results, but I'd be working on it forever, so I frogged it and tried crocheting. I found a #5 steel crochet hook (stamped with it's price - 15 cents) that I inherited from Bob's grandmother and started to chain. I am working from the 2 1/2 cone and winding directly onto a heavy cardboard tube. This is working faster and I like the look of the finished product. I have another big cone of very fine silk yarn - different color - that will get the same treatment if I like the way it knits up.

If you think that I'm spending an inordinate amount of time, I liken this to spinning fiber to create yarn. It is also "mindless" work as I do not have to look at it. I think that this would work with any fine thread of any fiber content. I may also try a crocheted tube and may try I cord again if I have a thicker thread.

I just have the sleeves to go on Older Sister's CNC. I want to get that out of here before it gets too hot since it's a lapful!

I've been making a lot of sushi since dear Bob's birthday last week. I make the california style roll - it's the flavor of least rejection by people who are put off by sushi.

Third Son is getting several awards today at school. I think that I've mentioned how proud we are of him. He has gone from being a special ed student, while living with his birth parents to being on honor roll in "regular" classes, a member of the student council, chess club, computer club and orchestra now that Bob and I have adopted him. He's a great kid and we'll all be there for the ceremony. I have no money, but I have such great kids!

Take care, I'll be posting to you later.

Howdy, y'all.

I volunteered to assist with "Physics Fun Fest" at Third Son's school today (Second Son, the math/physics major, informed me that it should be Engineering Fun Fest. Ah, the joys of educated children). I got to enjoy the thrill of young minds eager to learn.

Oh, what a fantasy! What I really got to enjoy was trying to attract the attention of 20+ screaming 6th graders (I had 5 groups of 20+ each over the course of the morning) to explain the airplane toss rules to them. I got a mouthy hoodlum right off the bat, the second group had a mouthy female hoodlum and the other three groups were not as bad. I am a strict parent (yes, I'm a Liberal Democrat, the two things are not mutually exclusive) and do not care for ill-mannered children who are not house broken. I blame the parents. I do not inflict children upon the world who are unable to sit still, shut up, or keep their hands to themselves. My family always thought that my older sons and their exemplary behavior, good grades, good manners and all round wonderfulness were just luck. Ha, ha. Now that I've adopted my younger sister's children (after my sister and her husband were involved in a murder/suicide) and my husband and I have applied our parenting principles, we have shown that it ain't luck, folks, it's lots of hard work! We have seen an incredible improvement in these children. Third Son was in special ed when he lived with his birth parents. His last teacher in special ed (before he came to live with us) told him that he was the worst student she'd had in 30 years of teaching (that BITCH gets a copy of his report card every six weeks). When he came to live with us, we made a deal that he would only have to spend 6 weeks in special ed and that if he did everything they wanted - sitting still, task completion, focusing on work, not talking out of turn - that he could be put into regular classes. He sailed through those 6 weeks and was in regular classes where he makes mostly straight A's. English is about half A's, half B's.

Folks, all it takes to have terrific children that are adorable and able to attain their dreams in life is for the parent to be the grown up! We do not have television, we keep to a schedule, and bedtime is rigidly adhered to, no caffeine, very little sugar, balanced nutrition, and a stable loving home. Both children know that school is their first priority. They don't do anything until homework is done and checked over. Then, they have chores. We have a sit down family dinner every night and then watch some anime (currently watching Prince of Tennis, Naruto, Inuyasha, E's Otherwise, Princess Tutu, and Last Exile. We just finished Hikaru no Go for any anime fans out there) or play a game (Little Girl loves chess, Go, Settlers of Catan, Third Son likes Bob's role-playing game, Battlering). Low key, low stress, time to talk. Yes, we give up a lot. I have no idea who is getting kicked off whatever continent Survivor is infesting at the moment. Six Feet Under, CSI (any version), Friends, etc. are something I read about in People when I'm waiting for the kids when they have a psychologist appointment (only when I've forgotten my knitting and a book that stays open on it's own). All of this sacrifice will be worth it, two more decent human beings who are capable of having a terrific life. This in addition to the two homegrown sons, I feel that we are vindicated in our strict parenting style. Getting on Jerry Springer for your chaotic lifestyle is not normal, people!

Whew, tirade over. My buttons really get pushed when I see what the schools have to put up with every day. They get the blame for parenting failures and still come to work year after year. Our legislature is trying to emasculate public school in Texas and de-professionalize it until we drive everyone who cares out. Prisons we'll build with glee, schools can go hang.

Didn't I say tirade over? Back in the box, down, girl, down!

Okay, in the Knitting News, I ripped the second sleeve of Shapely Tee back to first decrease and started re-knitting the cap of the sleeve. Bob just downloaded 2 "Prince of Tennis" episodes and we watched them on his lunch hour. I got the sleeve finished and it looks much, much better.

I picked up my teal mohair lacy raglan chemise and saw a note that I'd swiped the #11 needles off it for the CNC for Oldest Sister. Okay, finish that first, then back to the Mohair.

I was thinking about all the folks out there in Knitting Land participating in a swap, sort of like charm swaps in the quilting world. The quilters are trying to accumulate lots of different patterns for scrap quilts and they'll get bits of fabric from all over. I was envisioning something like an orphan ball of yarn swap. I have some odd balls that I would be willing to throw out to the Universe and see what the universe gave back. I'll ruminate over this some more. I think it would be fun. Details later…

I finished a cotton/linen blend plaid camp shirt for me and realized that I'd picked buttons that needed periwinkle thread, not the lime green I'd used to sew the rest of the shirt. The buttons been riding around with me for several days waiting for a visit to the fabric store. I need to finish that. I had some fabric left over and thinking of making a pair of shorts, but I'm not sure if the world is ready for my rear end wrapped in that much vibrantly colored plaid.

I have 20 yards of a lingerie style tricot (sheer with a white background and a light gray-blue sort of floral design), that I bought for $1/yd at Wal-Mart. It's been speaking to me for several days and suddenly, I could hear it clearly! It said "Cut me into 1/2" strips and knit me like ribbon." Well, I obviously need to increase the dosage on something since my fabric stash is talking to me, but what an idea! 20 yards of 60" wide fabric cut into 1/2" strips will yield 2400 yards of ribbon. Hmm….if I save some yardage, I could make a knit/sewn hybrid garment. Now, if I can just get a zombie to do the cutting…..

The problem with fabric is that once you cut it you've committed yourself. Knitting can be reincarnated into other things. Frogging into princes? Oops, my free association is showing again.

I'm meeting some really wonderful people through blogging. I'm so grateful for all the comments and a special thanks to my regular correspondents.

Take care, I'll be posting to you later.

Greetings, y'all

I have the Knitting Goddess by the bed (www.knittinggoddess.com). I bought it some time ago and flipped through it and it was shelved until "later". I picked it up recently and started reading chapter by chapter rather than scanning for interesting projects. Most of it is New Age, female empowerment babble stuff and would probably offend the same people who are offended by Harry Potter. Lest you believe me to be closed minded, I would like to assure you that I am fairly open-minded. Dear Bob's family was New Age before it became nouveau. In our living room at this very moment is a large wall panel that hung in the office of Hugh Lynn Cayce, son of Edgar Cayce (the sleeping prophet, the one quoted by the National Enquirer). My MIL bought it at an A.R.E. (Association for Research and Enlightenment) auction and gave it to Bob for his birthday some years ago. Bob went to A.R.E. camp every summer in his childhood and was a counselor in his teens and felt very close to Hugh Lynn.

I am also not anti-feminist, far from it!

But I digress…..

In spite of the skepticism with which I approached the text of this book, I have kept reading it. After reading about red yarn, I was reminded of a Miyazaki animation "Whispers of the Heart". This one is not as well known as "Kiki's Delivery Service" or "Spirited Away". It's a wonderful little love story. In it, the boy and the girl refer to being bound together by a red thread, which shows that they are destined to be together. When I read about red yarn, I was suddenly inspired by a project for my female relatives. I want to make a red shawl for all of them. It has to have silk in it. So, I'm researching and making sketches.

I have not abandoned anything I'm knitting on; Shapely Tee in "Green Tea" Silk blend is almost done (a little longer now that the sleeves are wrong) and matching skirt for summer wear. You can still get this yarn on ebay, just type in "Green Tea Silk" in the search. I'm almost finished with my sister's purple CNC. And I'm nearly done on my Older Son's Rib Striped Cardigan (I'll be peddling that design around to the yarn companies!). I still have not frogged the afghan, I'm ambivalent about what to do with it. I've started on a second kumihimo braid and Little Girl decided that she wanted to try one. She picked out four colors of embroidery floss. I cut each skein in 4ths and had her wind the pieces on 16 bobbins. I used a Godiva lid for her since her braid will be short and it is working very well.

I realized my mistake with the sleeves on my Shapely Tee. I knitted just 18 rows and should have gone for 36 rows. Oh, I see, reading the instructions would have helped! Then, actually following what the instructions said as opposed to what I thought they said. Hmmm, note to self, procede more carefully next time. I get this “feet first, ask questions later” from my paternal Grandmother. When making a boxed cake mix, for example, she would dump the mix in the bowl and then dump the box in the trash. Then, she would have to retrieve it from the trash to see what to do next.


The Bois D'Arc trees are all planted and in 8 years we'll have our own fruit for using in firing pottery (bois d'arc fruit makes a sunburst effect when fired directly on pottery. This is what I've heard, but have not tested myself). By that time, we should have the wheel, kiln and pottery shed all set up. I'm sure you've heard the saying "Don't dress for the job you have, dress for the job you WANT to have". I've taken that as permission to buy things that I won't get started right away. I remind myself that it is for my future life. When I had a full time job (and had a full complement of siblings), I bought fabric, fiber, yarn, equipment, etc., etc. Now I'm a stay at home mom for the two new kids and have less than half the money we used to have. My planning for the life I wanted to have has really paid off, since I have lots of raw material to work with.

We got some new plants ("slow pets" as Bob calls them) at the plant swap today. I planted the passion vine starts immediately. I had a gallon of cold tea in the 'frig and fresh banana bread (my secret? Really ripe bananas) to serve to everyone who followed us home from the swap.

We saw X-Men 2 yesterday. Is it just me, or did it look like Prof X was going to kiss Cyclops/Scott when he was channeling Jean? Ha, Ha, Ha. We have not seen Matrix re-do yet, but since Third Son has been salivating ever since Oldest Son brought over Matrix the First to reward him for progress in Math, I know that I will be seeing it ad nauseum this summer. It's rated R and I will have to be with him. Thank goodness I can knit in the dark!

Take care, I'll be posting to you later.

Another week gone by, but at least my toilet bowls are all clean (calgon, take me away!) Ah, the joys of domestic bliss, harmony and an almost clean house.

I've been putting together a free association blog thoughts doc and decided that the world was ready for my disjointed, incomplete ramblings (well, I wanted to post SOMETHING and this was ready). No, no photos yet. Soon, soon.

Favorite knitting related movie moment - "Foul Play" - Goldie Hawn defending herself with 14" knitting needles. They look to be size 13 or larger. Very lethal.

Knitting in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory". Grandma Josephine, 2 different projects, 1 on dbl pt needles!

Babs the knitting chicken in "Chicken Run".

Knitting in animation - Marge Simpson - holds her needles correctly. Wilma Flintstone - what the hell is she doing? Zaniba in Spirited away, spinner, weaver, knitter, creator of magic ponytail holders, what a gal. Even teaches the mouse, fly and No-Face to spin and knit.

Knitting Tabi - Japanese socks with big toe articulated for wearing with thongs (thongs that go on your feet! Not the other kind, which always struck me as butt floss - a product idea whose time will never come. My younger brother says they are surprisingly comfortable, but I've not tried myself. Although…hmm….knitting exciting underwear, later, later. ) Making first part with Lang Yarn Ja Wool.

Check out www.getcrafty.com. Fun, fun, fun uses for old t-shirts given new life as underwear. Brave young woman to model panties for the world. I salute you!

IDEA : June 21 is a Saturday. Harry Potter & the order of the phoenix come out. Organize a KIP event at bookstore with raffles giving away hand knit Gryffindor scarves to benefits Literacy organization. Check with Literacy org, bookstore, etc. Knitting lessons at same time? Dobby Socks, finally got the picture's on that site to load. Nice, I will make my own variation. Also organize a KIP for the next HP movie.

Another IDEA: Doggie sweaters for fund raising for animal shelters. Kitty toys.

Had an informal finishing in public (FIP?) during last HP movie. I was putting fringe on scarves (last minute, is there a better way?) that I was giving to all our friends who were attending the movie with us and attracted a good sized crowd who wanted to buy from me ( I don't sell them, I give them to our church for their various charitable causes - St. Thomas Episcopal) . I suggested that I could teach them, had no takers on that offer. Usual excuses "I don't have the patience" - do I look like I have patience? Ask any of my children (home grown or adopted) and they will tell you that patient is the LAST word that would describe me. Or my favorite comment "How long did it take you?" I'm thinking of renting that Roger Moore movie, used to be named "ffolkes", but it was renamed something silly like "Strike Force". Absolutely brilliant. He plays a misogynist who loves his cats. At one point he whips out a needlepoint with a kitty picture on it. Another person in the scene admires it and asks "How long have you been working on it?" He says "17 years (or some similar length of time)". The person is astonished and Roger replies that he uses it to help him think. Gotta rent that again. Maybe a weekend of old off-beat movies, "Being There", "Harold and Maude", "The Magic Christian" and "ffolkes".

http://betseeee.blogspot.com/ has a kitty photo (apologizes to the kitty haters out there) who looks just our cat, Velcro (you can guess why he got that name, we are all scarred around here).

Hit a snag in the Shapely Tee. I thought that the top straps were a little narrow, but I made them just the same. Now that I'm almost finished with the first sleeve, it is very apparent that it will not fit! FROGGING TIME - what a coincidence, we are experiencing frog time in our ponds. You literally cannot hear yourself shout over the noise of all our frogs. We watched the eclipse last night with some friends (not as much light pollution in the country) and the frogs were in fine fettle. Konrad Lorenz (King Solomon's Ring, terrific writer, biologist) worried that frogs were disappearing from the eco-system. They have a safe haven with us!

So, today, ripping out! Third Son is on an orchestra trip and will not be back until after 10PM. Little girl's greatest joy is watching a video together with Bob and me. We have watched Willy Wonka way, way too much lately. I think I'll try to persuade her to try Kiki's delivery service or Laputa (Castle in the Sky).

By the way, has anyone out there tried to teach boys to knit? My older boys were interesting and I started them both on knitting and crocheting projects. Sadly, they abandoned them, but did discover that, in a pinch, 14" straight needles make great fencing foils.

Greetings, y'all.

I'll be brief today, lots going on. Dear Bob (MFP) is planting our bois d'arc seedlings (horseapple or hedgeapple) along our property line today. The bois d'arc tree is also known as Osage Orange, you can use it for dye, the saplings make great bows, the fruit can be used to make designs when firing pottery and they make a great fence - over a period of time, about 8 years. There has also been some reference to using the leaves in silkworm production. Sounds like fun, I can hardly wait until we have our hedgerow of them.

There was a mentioning of knitting in the car on Car Talk on NPR this morning. Check it out on their website www.cartalk.com. A woman who knits while her husband is driving was worried that if the airbag deployed her needles would be driven into parts of her body. Since airbags deploy at 200 MPH, you don't have time to react. In a recent car wreck we were in, a young woman digging in her purse rear ended me and ran me into the back of Bob's truck. We were on our way to work and taking the children to school respectively. Everything was so fast that there was no reaction time, I did not even have time to think about bracing the children (who came through the wreck without a scratch, but it shook them up considerably. The sound was like the double gun shot when their mother was killed and they had a flashback. They both said later that they thought someone was shooting at us.) If I had been holding knitting, I would not have had time to put it down. Then I thought that I usually knit with circular needles and don’t look at the knitting if it is something like the Harry Potter scarves, so it would probably be okay in a wreck.

Knitting and car wrecks reminded me of my second oldest brother's fiance. They were in a rollover wreck in 1970 in which she was killed and he was considerably injured (they were both 18 and had just graduated from high school.). She was knitting on a grey turtleneck for him at the time. Her mother retrieved the project and finished it for my brother. When we cleaned his home after his suicide in 1997, he still had this sweater along with everything else she'd made for him.

Please forgive me for taking a turn down Tragedy Lane. I've been on that road so often that I seem to detour there naturally.

Okay, enough car analogies and sad talk. Anyone have a knitting on car trips (KOCT)story? Anyone been KOCT during a wreck and lived to tell the tale?

Let me know at gari_strawn@hotmail.com

Take care, I'll be posting to you later.

Greeting, y'all.

I spent part of the morning fighting the cattail infestation in one of our ponds. I've read about how "you can use all parts of the cattail", so I decided to gather pollen for use in baked products (I only got 1/4 cup, I'll have to do this again tomorrow.) while I chopped down the leaves and tossed them on the bank of the pond. The leaves will dry and the children can use them for making a thatch roof on their clubhouse this summer. We'll also try basket weaving. No, I was not a hippie, I'm not old enough (I'm on the back end of the baby boom, early 40's born very late 50's), but I did have a brother who was in a commune. I'm just weird. I also practice "curbside conservationism" - i.e. I trash pick.

Little girl is having early onset of puberty - at 3 months shy of her 8th birthday. I have taken the probable murder of my best friend, the suicide of a brother, the murder of a sister, all the legal entanglements that ensued, and every other sad or challenging episode of my life in stride, picked myself up, dusted off, rolled my sleeves up, but this has thrown me for a loop. Our doctor says that it is because of better nutrition. Terrific. She also said that my broken tailbone (slipped on the ice - ICE in TEXAS - on February 25) had only healed at a 20 degree angle and that we could re-break it and wire it into place (with another 8-10 weeks of healing and wagging the "donut" around). Boy, she was full of good news. Dear Bob is not freaked out by it at all. Maybe he doesn't really grasp the situation. His mother had a hysterectomy right after he was born, he had 2 brothers and we raised 2 sons before the new kids came to live with us. I am BLESSED in that I have never had cramps, barely had morning sickness, PMS or any other "female complaint" (just a small problem with an IUD, but we'll talk about that later). This is his first exposure to having a small, rapidly maturing female in the house. I hope we get through this without drugs. At least, praise the Lord, I am not going through menopause at the same time. (see, I'm counting my blessings. There are worse problems to have!)



Anyone else have experience with this? Please email me at gari_strawn@hotmail.com and let me know what your experience was. The websites I can find I swear wrote the pamphlets that I got when I was pregnant, using terms like "natural", "wonderful", "positive". They never mentioned messy, toting "sanitary" supplies, concealing "sanitary" supplies, etc. I am not in any way against being a girl, I really like being one, I'm not squeamish, but it's TOO SOON!!!

Whew, I'm going to be okay, I just feel that she has been through so much that it would have been nice if God (or Goddess or the Universe, whatever system you ascribe to) could have put this off !

I'm still learning Blogger Pro, so I made my first draft - with pictures - of my kumihimo instructions. I'll be posting it to our website www.pocketponds.com so everyone does not have to wait on my ruminations. I'll put up the link as soon as Bob (dear, dear palindrome) puts it up.

Almost to the underarms of Older Sister's CNC. Older Sister is short and wide and the pockets seem unnaturally high, but that's the way she wanted them. Since she'll probably take it to work and leave it there, I won't have to be bugged by looking at it and thinking "the pockets are unnaturally high".

I got outbid on a Folkwear pattern on ebay, so nay, nay, I went and bought it directly from the company. It's the Japanese haori, haten and tabi pattern. Dear Bob loves his hakama and kimono that I made him and loves to wear thongs (the ones on his feet, what did you think?) in the summer, so I'm going to create a knitted tabi (split toe socks, like mittens for your feet, big toe in one section, the rest of your toes in another) pattern. I know that there's one already out there, but I think that I can contribute an extra something to the art.

The swiss chard is coming up nicely. We planted "Bright Lites" which has white, yellow, orange and red ribs and veins. I cooked a "mess" of greens last night, combining the swiss chard with radish tops. Along with black-eyed peas and cornbread (from scratch, using the Frugal Gourmet's recipe), we had a low cost Southern feast. Radish tops are wonderful greens, if you've never tried them, grab a package of radish seeds and start today! I forgot to add some of our lambsquarter (I'll put some pictures up of this plant, it's beautiful as well as highly nutritious).I'll be going to a plant swap on the 18th and will be offering some of these plants as well as some of our irises.

Take care, I'll be posting to you later.