the joy of LOVE - Day 5 - love to hate

Today's theme is love to hate - I love to hate how Max eats donuts- from the top down starting with the frosting, then the cream in the center and lastly the donut. I don't know that he could come up with a messier way even if he tried. But darn he loves donuts!

the joy of LOVE - Day 3 & 4

Day 3 - then and now

Max in his crib two years ago and Max in his crib yesterday "helping" Penny

Day 4 - what they wear

Couldn't pass up the perfect opportunity for this one today

the joy of LOVE - Day 2 - how they look

I get a lot done when I'm up and at 'em at 6 am. That's not a great time for me, but I don't really have a choice. Penny's got a cough and it woke her up that early. She's normally my late sleeper, but not this morning.

I've already got some laundry done, taken a shower, the kids are dressed (I just put pjs back on, but for some reason I dressed the kids?)

So anyway the joy of LOVE day 2 is to take a picture of how they look... at you, at something, a look that's them.

I caught mine right away this morning. This is one of my favorite looks for Penny. She reserves it for her big brother. She just adores him. The joy on her face for him does not compare to anything else. It melts my heart every time. She eagerly waits for him to notice her.

We got a lot of snow last night. I don't know how much and it's hard to tell because of all the blowing and drifting. They've plowed our alley but not our street. There must be some reason I guess. I'm not going anywhere unless I can help it, besides when I went to check out the back, I found this

There used to be three steps there, well I assume they are still there, but I'm certainly not looking for them.

Our eager neighbors across the street have already dug out their drive... too bad the city hasn't done the street yet.

I'm torn because I don't want to dig out to go pick Adam up at the airport, but I also want him home. But mostly because I'm selfish and I want to nap and take a break from being a Mommy for like 10 minutes (or maybe 10 hours). We'll see what the airports are up to this afternoon.

the joy of LOVE - Day 1 - what they do

I've decided to do a little project for February. It's called the joy of LOVE and it's a little online photo class/tutorial. It's just for fun and I'm hoping to learn a little something new.

I know I won't post everyday, but I'm excited to see what comes out of this.

Today's topic is what they do and I chose to catch Max doin' what he does. Here's my pick of the day.

Eating Supper- A Favorite of Ours

 PS- Do you see the white on our windows in the background? We've gotten a foot of snow today and are looking at up to eight more inches tonight. I so am over snow.

PPS- You can sign up for the joy of LOVE too if you wish- click here

Play Pretend...

One of Max's favorite things to do lately is play pretend. Mostly he's a cow, in a cage, which is really Penny's crib. Sometimes he plays hocus pocus and uses a towel to magically turn things into other things. He mostly turns Penny into a pumpkin. Sometimes he also pretends he's a dog and likes to lick people, and sometimes our bed is a stage and we have to announce him and then turn on the lights and he'll play you a song on his guitar.

But today I realized most days I still feel like I'm pretending to play house, kinda like I really can't be this old and have two (2!) kids that I am responsible for. And instead I'm back in college and still unsure of what I am and who I'm supposed to be. Like I might wake up and this has all been a very freakishly vivid dream.

Tonight I had coffee with a new and awesome friend. And I realized I didn't know how long we've lived here. It's been long enough that I stopped counting. I'm not dreaming and I'm not going to wake up and find myself living back in Swiss Tower in that little bubble of wonderfullness that was Dallas Seminary. Or back in Morrill Tower (I've lived in a lot of towers) with the Humanities Scholars- again a bubble of wonderfullness- This is my life and it's all still about figuring out who I am and trying to come up with what I'm doing and mostly right now it has to do with laundry and asking a certain person if they have to go potty four thousand times a day. It's a reality that I know won't last forever, but sometimes I still feel like I'm playing pretend.

Like tonight when  I undercooked the bread, and burnt the potatoes and the french toast tasted awful even though Max and Adam ate it anyway. I felt like I was playing pretend and was way out of my league. Even though it's a dinner I've made at least a dozen times. Some days we float around the house and Max helps pick up and I get something decently cleaned and we are all smiling at the end of the day. And others are like tonight where I put the baby to sleep and happily say goodbye and leave the house as quickly as possible to escape the reality of it all.

I mostly my life- real or pretend as it may be. My favorite part is when Max plays a song for me.

It's all coming up yarn

I like yarn better than roses anyway.

Today I began a little knitting group. Well knitting, crocheting, teaching, learning, children running around screaming, babies eating needles and gnawing on yarn, group. I hope it sticks. It's that good kind of chaos that leaves me feeling like the rest of the day is calm cool and collected. And it wears out the kiddos.

Today Soulemama blogged about what's in her knitting basket and I thought- Hmmm I don't have a knitting basket, I have a knitting space between our trunk and the love seat and then there's the overflow.... We won't talk about that....

But then I realized there's yarn all over the house. And I really like it that way. So I dug up some places there are yarn and this was after I had already picked up a little.

A yarn covered diaper next to a yarny WIP 

Yarn came in the mail today from Mamaw to finish off a baby gift

Part of my stash that was revealed to the knitting ladies today

Ahem- the diaper bag with a purchase from yesterday....

Penny's Halloween lady bug ears that are still played with.

And finally my knitting space. Complete with my knitpicks harmony needles I got for Christmas (LOVE!) and most of my works in progress.... Here they are in detail.

 A baby blanket in a made up classic ripple. It is very American looking, but also very lovely I think.

A mystery test pattern knit. I can't wait to blog about this one and also about the person who wrote the pattern, probably one of the coolest people I internet know. (You know, instead of real life know...)

A waiting scarf for Grammy that was promised back on New Years and still not started (Sorry Grammy!)

Penny's Christmas Blocks that still aren't finished either... I got distracted by other beautiful things.

Busy Beavers

We've been busy beavers lately (um, when are we not!) and we've had something to do each day. But I gotta be honest. I am so very looking forward to the day when we can just play outside. I'm not a snow player and it seems that Max has a tendency that way too. It takes me longer to get him dressed to play outside than he'll actually stay out. So really, it's not worth it. It's cold. That makes me grumpy. It also explodes cans of soda on our back porch leaving a huge disaster of soda on the walls ceiling and floor. That makes me extra grumpy.

I've been knitting away, but nothing I can share. A baby blanket is being crocheted and I'm testing a pattern that's hoping to be published for an internet friend.

I"ve bought more yarn than I've used up in the past month and have a taken a hiatus on buying yarn... That's really easy to say since I bought yarn today.... So it's a new hiatus and one I probably won't kill myself to keep.

I've also been organizing everything I can get my hands on- Re-purposing as much as possible and getting rid of everything I'm not using. The old hutch is now relabeled with the hopes of being functional again- Binders are being reorganized - my household notebook, recipe notebook, crochet/knitting pattern notebook- they are all getting new looks.

I've also been baking- mostly making bread using Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

It's leading to me really needing to get back into a gym routine. I will work out just so I can eat more bread. That's motivation, my friends.

Other than that I have really cute kids, some awesome friends who are always up for a bit of fun, and a to do list a mile and a half long. Life's pretty awesome.