This week the weather has been mild, so I have been starting each day with a walk. Sometimes I escape alone, but more frequently, I am chased by a pack of children. Either way, I love this morning walk through the woods. Today, crawling out of bed and seeing that the sky was dark with imminent rain, I raced to get dressed. Before I was able to get out the door, I heard the water slamming into our metal roof. Refusing to give up, I grabbed an umbrella. Larkspur and Keats came racing wildly over the back hill as they saw my umbrella bobbing away. A morning walk in the rain is quite wonderful.
If I could find the perfect pattern for a hat that would cover my entire face with only holes for my eyes, and maybe a hole to breathe through, I might be able to brave cold mornings as well.
Yesterday I took Seth and Gabe to our local coin shop on the way to piano lessons. Seth could spend hours there, but he only got fifteen minutes. The older men who run the place teased Seth a bit, in a nice way. One of them suggested to Seth that if he were ever to find a bag of coins on one of his metal detecting trips, that he should bring it into the shop and they’d give him a hundred bucks. Seth gave him an “are you out of your mind” look and explained that after removing xy and z from the bag, then he might be willing to make a deal. Then the men started quizzing Seth on the percentages of silver in certain coins. They quickly realized that Seth knows his coins. I tried to keep a straight and humble face.
Seth and I have plans together as soon as the ground dries. He’s pretty excited. He may be taking over the blog for a day next week.
I finished and gifted the ruffled scarf. I do recommend this project. The last few rows feel a bit endless, but because you know you are indeed on the last few rows, it’s easy to motivate yourself to power through all that purling.
Silas received a beautiful little spoon engraved with his name from a friend of mine this week. My first babies received engraved gifts, but not these last few, so I am pretty thrilled with this spoon. It may become my go-to baby gift. (It was purchased from The Vintage Pearl.)
I shouldn’t post photos of Jonny wearing Silas on his back while he washes dishes, or else you might all hate me. Just so we’re clear, he doesn’t clean toilets.
On the organizing front: some of you have asked how I store and organize my knitting needles and supplies. The short answer is that I don’t. Patterns are stored in a notebook, but everything else is in a drawer of my desk. There are lots of great organizers out there for needles (I came across this shop last night.) I go looking for organizers from time to time but knowing I could make one myself, I never buy one. But of course I don’t ever make one either, so my needles remain in a mess. I do have a master list of all the needles that I own. So, before going searching for a particular needle in the messy drawer, I check my list to be sure I actually do indeed own it. (If you have a favorite knitting needle organizer, leave a link in the comments!)
And, the first tip that I took to heart from Organized Simplicity: I made a master grocery shopping list. I created categories and laid them out on an Excel spreadsheet based on the floor plan of the grocery store that I usually shop at. Everything I ever buy is on that list. So each week I can print it out, and then cross out the things that I don’t need (based on our meal plan-I plan one week at a time), rather than writing down the things that I do. I shopped with the list (clipped to a clipboard) on Monday and it worked well. I included the other stops that I make: the little grocery where I buy eggs, and the butcher where I buy meat. I made a note on the list of how much I spent at each stop.
While I do have favorite cookbooks, I frequently go searching for recipes online, write them down on a scrap of paper, and then lose them. Last week, after writing down the recipe for pumpkin baked oatmeal (I 1 1/2 times the recipe, cut the sugar in half and substitute maple syrup, use one entire can of pumpkin and five eggs) for probably the fifth time or so, I made a small purchase to help me to organize recipes. I do have a recipe box, but for some reason have never been able to embrace the cards. I like the idea of everything being in a bound book, so when I saw this one in the latest Martha Stewart magazine, I ordered it. I love it. The categories aren’t all relevant to me, but it was easy enough to change the “cocktail” section to a breakfast section with one of the included labels.
Last night I stayed up late cleaning out the drawers in my sewing and craft desk. Larkspur’s birthday is in a little over a month. I’ve got some sewing to do.
Happy Friday!
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