OK, It has been so long I almost feel like I need to reintroduce myself.

Hi, I’m Becca. I used to knit.

So, what’s been up? Work, illness and tonsils have dominated recently. Tuesday little sis had her tonsils out. Hoary!! Poor thing has been sick since Christmas day. We’ve had 10 days with fever of 104 or more. One 7 hour stint in the ER. Four different antibiotics. These are my last four sick days of the school year.

All that said she’s pretty mad at me about the whole thing. She wants chips and salsa, now. Between that and the fact I keep waking her up to take yucky medicine I am not fer favorite right now.

Today she’s a bit better. She has more energy and I am not needed constantly. So my goals are to :

1. Make oatmeal
2. Knit a bit for the first time in three weeks
3. Make chicken noodle soup
4. Shower
5. Deliver popsicles
6. Clean toilets

I know, try not to be jealous.

And a side note to Diego. No, I really don’t want to help you rescue animals. That’s your job. Mine is sitting here trying to coax a 4 year old into taking one more dose of antibiotic. Stop staring at me like that. I do not care that is is the smallest baby mane wolf or that it might hurt itself on those thorns. Circle of life, dude.

I am cleaning out some fabric. As I mentioned a while back I inherited a huge mess of fabric from a childhood neighbor of the husband. She’s in her early 90’s and just recently has settled into an assisted living facility. She was a lifelong sewer and I can not even begin to describe the bounty.

The problem is there is a bit too much bounty, so I’ll be slowly putting batches of it up for sale over the next few weeks. Here’s a sample. It is a double-knit argyle pattern with metallic sparkles. It is amazing, but I now literally now own reams of double knit fabric. Too good not to share.

There are a few other things for sale.

Well, we ended up getting about a half inch yesterday. Not enough to cancel school or make snowmen, but it was pretty.

We ended up home anyway. Little sis has a raging tonsil infection. She has officially been sick since Christmas Day with this bug. Took her back to the doctor yesterday and this time we got to see our regular guy. Apparently the other doc we saw the first time prescribed the wrong amount of antibiotic. She was getting 1/2 tsp instead of 1 & 1/4 teaspoon. Not too happy about this. She is much more sick now, and has had a fever of 104 for three days.

Little sis with her Webkinz “Beatiful Sparkly Jewel”- and yes that’s the full name

Sorry about the vent. She is doing better now that we have the correct dose. The next step is to talk to the ENT about removing tonsils altogether. Anyone done this with a 4 year old? I had mine out when I was 22, and I hate to think of putting her through that, but since the tubes this past fall she has not gone more than 5 days in a row without a sore throat.

Off to make jello!

Things have been a bit hectic around here post holiday. We’re adding a room onto the house. Our kitchen is the size of a matchbox and is not heated….very Little House on the Prairie, but not in the good way.

So the news that we might be in for some snow was more than a tad exciting. We haven’t had a good snow since we returned from Florida last year, and frankly we could use a day off.

We’re either getting frozen stuff, or a lot of soggy disappointed kids on the way to school tomorrow.

My sister lives in Santa Monica, but frequently gets to travel to San Francisco. So I am prematurely and vicariously planning what I will do next time I visit.

Britex Fabrics

Oh well, winter break is over. Back to the grindstone…

Egad, we’re almost there!

Gifts are made and wrapped. My sister just flew in from LA (yay!) Kids are nestled in bed, if twitching and awake from all the excitement. Sata’s going to be getting here late this year.

I just finished making breakfast for tomorrow. Over the past few years I have learned it needs to be a holiday for MOM too, so I bake ahead. Here’s the recipe if anyone’s interested. Merry Christmas!

Pumpkin Bunt Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 Tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt6 eggs
• 16 oz pureed pumpkin, fresh or canned
• 2/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a bunt pan.
• Mix the first 6 dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
• Beat the eggs until foamy.
• Add the pumpkin, butter and brown sugar and mix until blended.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix.
• Pour the batter into the bunt pan. level the top of the batter so it is evenly distributed in the pan.
• Place in the oven and bake for 60 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a butter knife into the cake. If it comes out clean the cake is done.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

You can glaze it or serve as is. Enjoy!

This photo is totally for me…it is our downstairs bathroom in a rare state of clenliness. This is the one the girls and guests use. Here it’s clean and shiny, a Christmas miracle!

 

Little-Sis woke up this morning insisting that she needed cards for all her “kids” at preschool. She’s just learned to write her name, so I came up with these. Yes, it’s the same art I used for the Doggie Bookplates. Can’t help I, I love these dogs.

These would work as tiny cards for kids, or as gift tags. They’re all in a PDF and can be printed in color or black and white. Enjoy!

I have to say keeping up the advent calendar this week has been crazy. We’ve had a slew of meeting, ranging from PTA to pre-school pageant. It is like every group or organization we are in had to get in a December meeting this week.

I haven’t even finished attaching all the numbers to the calendar. A project leftover from last year. Things done and undone, right?

I try to balance fun stuff with things that relate to the Christmas story. Tonight the girls got star stickers. We talked about who followed a star, and what they were looking for.

Here are some of the other things we have done. Some of them are cards to follow clues to find something, or cards for an activity.

• Make teacher gifts
• birthday candles
• Make cookies with mom
• straw tied in a present- we talked about how it felt, and what kind of bed it would make for a baby
• write Christmas cards
• Then the old fall-back, M&M’s

The husband and I are on a road trip to DC. Want proof:

Us looking goofy

So far we’ve been to the Indian Museum, Library of Congress, Capitol Building Grounds…basically all the things we don’t get to do when we have the girls along. No dinosaurs this weekend.

Library of Congress

Indian Museum

More Library

So far the Library of Congress has been my favorite. As a kid my dad was stationed at Ft. Meade MD for three years, so we did DC quite a bit. At the time he was working with the national guard and one of the guys was also a secret service agent at the White House, so when we visited we got to see all the inside stuff, like the oval office and the security rooms in the basement. I am sure now that would all be totally off limits. Even then security was pretty tight…I remember my little sister’s Kermit the Frog doll getting frisked.

So we always had to go see the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. Yawn. The Library of Congress is amazing. I had no idea the architecture was so incredible. These are all of the Jefferson building.

My dream is to one day have some need of checking something out to read int he main reading room…historical knitting copywrite anyone?

 

 

 

We had a great Thanksgiving. I even survived the in-laws. No small matter, that.

I also had tons of time for crafting. Here’s a sneak peak:

I’ll be posting on a few of these separatly later this week. Today I am home from work today. Big-sis has a nasty stomach bug. Go wash your hands…seriously.

And if you are interested in playing along with the Handmade Holiday Craft-Along, jump right in. Let us know what you’re making for the holidays!