you’ve got to move it, move it
Beautiful day. #nofilter
One of the few really nice things about living in the middle of nowhere, GA is that we live right next to a lake. A lake that is actually quite pretty, if you can ignore the red-clay-instead-of-sand shoreline.
Monday morning, I put the two kids home with me at that time into the car and drove down to the lake. They rode in the double stroller, and I went for a fast paced walk while pushing them.
In 30 minutes I did 1.25 miles – .75 miles one way. That’s not too bad, considering I think the last time I really exercised was January. I think I need to start doing this 3x a week minimum.
Of course then I came down with a horrible cold Monday night (preschool germs suck) and now it is Wednesday night and I’m still pretty sick. Hopefully I’ll be up for another walk on Friday.
I am really not liking living here. It is a nice little town, but it is not for me. I really want to move back to Atlanta and I want to do it soon. However, at the moment, that is just not happening, and so I am trying to make the best of it all. Going for walks along the lake – one of the few things that I really DO like here – helps me remember that being here isn’t all bad.
So there you go…exercise and trying to make the best of things. Hopefully a win-win.
amazing, that.
I told my kids this morning that unless the living room got picked up and vacuumed, there would be no TV today. my living room was clean a half hour later. I think even the 2 year old realized I was serious. muhahaha.
(of course, a couple hours later the 4 year old decided that eating Ritz crackers on the nicely vacuumed rug was a Great Plan. siggggh.)
Now if I could just teach them how to clean a bathroom. Unfortunately, their version of cleaning the bathroom seems to be “dump water out of the bathtub while taking a bath and then wonder why Mommy’s head explodes.” Our poor bathroom floor.
the Avengers and other rambles
I really, really want to see Marvel’s The Avengers. Unfortunately, I don’t think RD’s work schedule is going to coordinate well with a babysitter anytime soon, and I don’t want to go see it by myself, so I’m adding it to the Netflix queue and having to wait. Cue the world’s tiniest violin…
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I installed a comment plugin so that now my blog will email you if someone responds to your comment. Why this took me months, I have no idea. But hey, it’s installed now. Feel free to uncheck the box if you dislike getting comment notifications. Personally, I love them, since I am way too scatterbrained to keep up with conversations unless I have reminder emails – so I’m really glad I finally got around to doing this.
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I recently signed up for the KiwiCrate subscription service. I’m hoping it will be a fun activity box to help fill up time this summer. We’ve already gotten our first box and I’ll review it once we get a chance to crack it open and do the activities. (Disclaimer: I paid for the box using my own money, but that link is an affiliate link. If you decide to sign up, we both get $10 off. Wheee!)
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I also recently became a Blogher affiliate (see, snazzy toolbar up top) and an Amazon.com affiliate. Neither really will make me any money, but most book links will probably be Amazon affiliate links from now on. Just so you know, and all.
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Need some fiction to read? Shalini of Reading and Chickens started a fiction blog called Office Crush. This is the first blog I’ve read that’s been a fiction story in blog form and I like the uniqueness of it being a blog and all. Well, maybe it isn’t unique, but it’s unique in my world, so we’re going to go with unique. (Also, if you type unique that many times, it starts looking really funny. Unique, unique, unique!)
ANYWAY! If you click over and decide to read, definitely start from the beginning.
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I really haven’t had as much time to read this year as I should, but I have been reading. Right now I’m working on The Night Circus
What’s up with everyone else?
i want you in my life
We spent the past weekend in Atlanta, for the first time since we moved out of our apartment there for good. I mean, we’d been back a few times for doctors appointments and shopping trips, but we hadn’t stayed overnight. My mother in law, brother in law and his girlfriend were in town visiting his grandparents though, so we came back to visit also.
It was a great weekend. The kids did amazingly well considering we engaged in a lot of risky moves, like dragged them to restaurants at 7pm at night two nights in a row.
My brother in law got engaged! He is so happy. I’m so happy for him. I adore his now-fiance. (Because, you know, his choice of partners is all about me. Hahaha.)
It was so, so hard to leave Atlanta. Earlygirl summed it up by getting in the car Sunday night after dinner, turning around, looking at me, and about screamed, “BUT I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK TO [SMALLTOWN]!!!”
Neither do I, baby, neither do I…
yarning again, or how i learned how to crochet in 24 hours
A friend of mine’s husband passed away recently, and as a show of support, a group of us decided to make her a “patchgan” – an afghan made from a collection of individual knitted or crocheted blocks. Each of us are making 1-5 blocks and then mailing them off to one of the better knitters in the group, who is going to stitch the squares together. While the reason we are making this patchgan is heartbreaking, I am so glad that those of us who are far away have a way to still show our love in a somewhat tangible way.
I haven’t knitted in forever – I think the last time I picked up my needles was late 2010 or early 2011. So I dusted off my Ravelry account, dug out some needles, ordered some yarn from yarn.com and started knitting. I made two squares, one of which is above.
Then, yesterday afternoon, I was avoiding cleaning the house and working bored, and decided hey, I needed to make another square, why not teach myself how to crochet?
Crocheting has always been one of those mysteries to me that I just couldn’t quite figure out. My mom has tried a few times to explain how to crochet, so it’s not for lack of being shown. I just am not that crafty and couldn’t quite get it.
For some reason though, yesterday, it clicked. I googled, and started with this tutorial, and after an hour and a half, obtained this swatch:
(Crappy cell phone pictures for the win!)
And then I googled some MORE, and found this awesome tutorial for granny squares. With step by step pictures! And instructions that made sense!
My first attempt was pathetic and I ended up with a pentagon and not a square. Turns out this part of the tutorial:
“(If you have lots of trouble with making a magic ring, you can try this instead: chain 4 and slip stitch to the first stitch to form a ring.)”
was written entirely for me. I did that instead of trying to make a loop, paid better attention to exactly how many groups of double crochet stitches I was making, and I finally started getting something that looked like a granny square:
I am about ready to throw a party. I feel like a crafting secret has suddenly been unlocked for me. Today a granny square, tomorrow the world!
Okay, maybe just a baby blanket or something. BUT STILL.
I finished the square today, and once I block it, I’ll take a real picture. It isn’t perfect – you can tell I’m still figuring out tension and such. Still though, I’m excited. I don’t know why crocheting suddenly clicked for me, but it did and I’ll take it.
And also – Susan, if you read this – I wish I could come hug you in person. I hope these squares, as inadequate as they are, carry at least a little bit of my love to you across the miles.
