Where Does the Time Go?

Tonight was the parent information meeting at my son's future school--he is in 5th grade, and will be attending middle school in the fall. It's unfathomable that he is this old, where does the time go? I worry about him in a way I never worried about the girls, he is the classic example of a little nerd, and after hearing a lot of horror stories about other boys being bullied in middle school, I am so apprehensive about letting him go.

My husband is going through something, I don't know what you would call it, possibly Edward Scissorhands Syndrome. For all these years, his only contribution to the yardwork has been mowing, and for the past couple of years, he's tried pawning that one off on the kids. I've been the one to do the weeding, planting, and grooming. So, last fall, he bought a chainsaw and went around cutting limbs off of trees, and even cut down a tree. That was like his first taste of blood. Then, he bought a new string trimmer and last week went hacking around with that. So, I come home from work today, he'd gotten out my electric hedgeclippers and had not only gone after the boxwoods, which I had worked very hard to keep in a nice shape, they are a mess, I now have one more thing to do on my already full Easter weekend-I have to re-shape the boxwoods. But, if that wasn't enough, he "trimmed" my lilac bushes, which means he took out more than he left, and THEY HAVEN'T EVEN BLOOMED YET! Yes, that was the scream heard round the world at about 5:45 this afternoon. All my beautiful lilac buds laying in a rubbish heap in the back yard. You can't even imagine the brick I've been carrying around in the pit of my stomach since then.

I heard some good news about my still-phoneless oldest through the sister-grapevine, she found out today that she got an internship for the summer with Belk, which is a pretty large department store chain here in Virginia-North Carolina. Not sure yet if it's a paying internship, but regardless, it will look great on her resume. I can only assume they contacted her via email :)) She does have a real telephone in her dorm room, which is included in her room and board, but I feel quite certain she probably wouldn't know how to make a long distance call home on it.

Tomorrow is day 9 in a 9 day work stretch for me, 5:30 can't come fast enough. My girls will be home tomorrow night for the weekend and I have 3 days off. Friday, everyone is getting a chore list, and we are doing some spring cleaning.

I'm off to put a few lengths of thread in "Elizabeth". Once my techno-teens come home and get my new camera downloading stuff figured out, I'll share some pictures of my progress on my projects.
Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday. I am just hoping for a simple day, with no more drama.

Kids, do they ever grow up?

Yesterday was one of those days you have with your kids... you moms know what I'm talking about, although sometimes I feel like I seem to have more of them than some of the other moms I know. My husband called me at work and says "have you talked to Meredith today?" To which I replied, "no", I sent her a text message, and hadn't heard back. He informs me that there was a reason for this, because her phone had been stolen. He found out because she used her laptop to go on Facebook to let her sister know that her phone had been stolen, and would she let mom and dad know PUUUUULEAAAASSSEEE! This girl graduated at the top of her high school class, and is on the dean's list at VA Tech, book smart, a virtual genius, but she doesn't have the common sense God gave a rock. Seems she was in the library and saw a friend across the way, left her phone on the table to run over and speak to her friend, comes back, and lo and behold, her phone was gone! So, being the good, yet over-indulgent parents that we tend to be, we called Sprint and had her phone suspended so that we wouldn't be getting charged for calls to who-knows-where, then managed to have them work out something to where we were able to replace the phone for $30. The new phone was already delivered here this afternoon, but we are making her sweat it out and not have it until she comes home Thursday for Easter weekend. She borrowed someone's phone to call me yesterday for a minute, and my comment to her was "Oh, my gosh, what did we do before we had cell phones?" after hearing her frantically worrying about how was she going to survive without her phone. To which she replied that she didn't know, she doesn't remember life before she had her cell phone! And, she said, now here's a thought, you guys could just overnight me one of your phones to use until I get my replacement! Don't get me wrong, she is such a good and hard-working girl, and we love her and are so proud of her accomplishments, but what a ditz she can be, we just wish there was a little more balance going on with the distribution of her brain cells. Such is the spice of life, I guess!

We love you, Mom!



Yesterday was not a complete disaster, though--at work we found out that the Chipotle up the street is having "medical Mondays" in April--every Monday in April, if you come in and show your hospital badge, you get a free meal! Guess you know what we all had for lunch!
Happy Tuesday!

March-In Like a Lion, Out Like A Lamb

Yesterday's weather was stupendous, definitely a "lamb" of a day! Lucky me had a day off from work. We did a lot of cleaning up around the yard, blowing and mulching leaves, trimming back last year's ornamental grasses, that sort of thing. I took a few pictures of nature's beauty in my yard, and as soon as I can figure out how to get them out of my new camera, and onto my computer, I will share;)) Today, we are back to cold and dreary. Typical spring.

I have started back with my old project-a-day rotation since last Wednesday, and am much happier as far as my stitching goes. I have managed to get in at least a few stitches on each of the projects in my rotation, I figure a little progress is better than none at all. I didn't have any complete finishes for March, although I am within an hour or so of having 1990 Prairie Schooler Santa finished. I have filling in of his red suit to complete, and he'll be done. I think I'll carry him in my purse with me, and maybe eat my lunch in my car and work on him for a few minutes each day until he is done. I don't think it's possible for me to stitch one of those per month, 6 weeks is probably more realistic. They would go really quickly if I were stitching them on linen, but I am using the khaki Davos called for, which requires stitching with the over-one method, and it is just very tedious. But, they are gorgeous on the Davos, and worth the frustration. I will be able to share my Santa in a few days.
Yesterday was my day to work on Village of Hawk Run Hollow, I am working on block 8 right now. I am working the blocks in random order. I was having so much fun on that last night, I hated to put it away and go to bed at 1:15 this morning! Today, I am working on Carriage House's "Elizabeth", which is also a lot of fun. I started her last Wednesday, and am loving the large blocks of color, and not a lot of color changes. I am getting her dress outlined, so I will have a reference point for stitching her head, and THAT HAIR-I have a thing about wanting to get the faces stitched ASAP when I work on projects that have faces. I guess it sort of brings the project to life.
Enough for now, I have to get ready for work. Enjoy your Wednesday, and hope you don't have too many April Fool's jokes played on you.

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Not much going on around here, I've had a pretty lazy weekend. I had good intentions of getting a lot of spring cleaning done, but haven't done a lot. I think I'm getting too old to be working full time, all I want to do when I'm not at work is stitch or relax or putter around. I'm just plain tired!
I did do a little Easter decorating, and did get a new camera yesterday. I got an updated version of the Sony Cybershot, my old one that is 3 years old is a 5.1 megapixel, the new one is a 7.2. I promise to be taking lots and lots of pictures, I am charging the battery pack right now.
As for my ongoing quest for the perfect stitching rotation, let's just say the 10-hour rotation didn't work for me. I spent most of the month of March stitching on 2 projects, not touching the other 5 in my rotation. I think if I weren't employed outside the home, it would be an excellent option--or, if I didn't have SO many things I want to stitch. I am back to a different project each day of the week, but changed the days a little. The one thing I really want to finish each month is a Prairie Schooler santa every month or 6 weeks at the most. Having logged my stitching time this month on the santa I've been working on, It has taken me about 22hours to stitch the 1990 santa. I was doing these on Mondays. The day of the week in which I tend to do the most stitching tends to be Saturday, so I am now going to devote Saturdays to the Prairie Schooler Santas. I also tend to get a lot done on Sundays, so I thought that where I used to work on a small project on Tuesdays, that by moving those to Sundays, I would get more done in a shorter period of time, thus some instant gratification. Then , Mondays, Shores of Hawk Run Hollow, Tuesdays, Village of Hawk Run Hollow, Wednesdays, Elizabeth, Thursdays, This is the Day, and Fridays, Carriage House alphabet. I think even getting a few stitches done on each project every week will be better than not doing anything on some of them for a month. I miss all of my Carriage House projects that haven't been touched since February!
This week is National Physician's Appreciation Week. We're having a potluck luncheon for the doctors at work tomorrow. I'm making a fruit tart using a Paula Deen recipe. Maybe I'll take a picture of it with my new camera!
Have a great week everyone!

This week, lots of pictures, etc

Ahhh, a 3 day weekend, what a great way to end a week. It's been a pretty pleasant week, all in all. Meredith went back to Blacksburg Monday morning, we had a wonderful time with the girls home for their spring breaks. Not a lot of stitching got done, and the house looks like a tornado blew through, but nice all the same. Saint Patrick's day was fun, I don't know why that is just one of my favorite days of the year. I started the day with our traditional favorite green bagels. We do Reubens for dinner, corned beef and cabbage in it's traditional form is not well received by this bunch. I found some really yummy pumpernickel sub rolls at Walmart this year, so we had Reuben subs!
Here is a picture of my Saint Patrick's tree:



I finished the sorority shirts for Meredith's little-sis/big-sis unveiling which was Friday. I finished these Wednesday morning and we mailed them to her. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished shirts all folded and lined up on Meredith's bed, with my lovely assistant Bob helping with the photo shoot.





Yesterday was the first day of spring!!! It was also the day I joined Hunter's entire 5th grade as a chaperone for a trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Thankfully, I was responsible for Hunter and 2 other quiet and well behaved little boys, Stefan and Jordan. They were a delight, and we had a wonderful day! Here are a few pictures:














Here are pictures of some recent finishes, just got around to doing some picture-taking!
First is my Stacy Nash Primitives Heart Pin Cushion and Strawberry Emery, which Bob has decided makes a good toy, I had to put it away after I photographed it.



Here is the Bent Creek monthly Snapper sampler I have worked on with Kathie B's group for quite a long time, I finally have finished it and taken it out of UFO status. I have some little buttons to add to the border, and I have a frame , I just need to mount it, and will take it to Michaels to have it put in the frame with the glass and spacers.



Here is 1989 Prairie Schooler Santa, and then a picture of the PS santas I've finished up to now. I should probably start doing the finishing work on these before I get so many that it becomes overwhelming.





As for my new stitching rotation, I am not 100% happy with it, and maybe I should just blame it on having all of my kids home, and not making the time to stitch, but somehow, the 10 hours of stitching I had alloted to "Maidens of the Sea" ended up stretching out over 2 weeks, this week, I have been working on 1990 PS santa, so March is pretty much shot, and I haven't touched the other 5 projects in my rotation yet this month. So, my next experiment will be to work on each project for 4 days in a row. I'm thinking that by knowing I have a finite time to work on each thing, I will trick myself into getting more done. We'll see.

Well, I think I've probably taken up enough of everyone's time, hope you have a wonderful weekend! I am off to clean house.

By the way, check my last post, I added pictures of Maidens of the Sea to it!

One monkey off my back!

"Mom, my FAFSA deadline is March 11"....Here it is the 11th hour, and I just finished submitting the girls' FAFSA applications for 2009-2010, whew! I know why I wait until the last minute every year, because it's a pain. But, I sure am happy I did it when the girls get their Federal Student Aid $$ every year!
Now, for the fun stuff. Last week, after some conversations with some friends got me to thinking, I decided to re-think my current stitching rotation. I have enjoyed working on a different project every day of the week, but on weeks when I may not find but 15 minutes on one day of the week, and maybe 2 hours another day, not all projects were receiving equal time. So, starting last week, I am trying a 10-hour rule...I am devoting 10 hours to a project, then after the 10 hours, I move on to another project. Last week, I decided to start by working on With My Needle's "Maidens of the Sea". I bought this chart and all the related threads, linen, etc., last summer before we went to the beach. Each summer, I like to take a new "beachy" project with me on vacation, and start on it at the beach, as sort of a memento of my vacation. I have so many happy memories of sitting in the sun and stitching at the beach. Anyway, I didn't get a lot done on it last year, and had kind of abandoned it, so I decided I needed to devote some time to it. I have to say, this 10 hour thing is GREAT! In the past week, I've had days where I've had 15 minutes to stitch, and days where I've had 3 hours to stitch, so it's alleviated the guilt I've felt on days where I haven't had the time to work on something. Now, if it doesn't get done today, hey, there's always tomorrow. And, even a few minutes a day eventually adds up to 10 hours. I have really accomplished quite a bit on "Maidens", and will not feel at all guilty when it's time to put it away until the next time.
We're in the midst of the girls' spring break, actually, Rachel had her's last week, and went back to school Sunday, Meredith came home last Thursday, and goes back this coming Sunday. In her ongoing quest to find ways to monopolize my time, Meredith has decided that I need to make t shirts and sweatshirts with her sorority letters appliqued on the fronts for herself and her 2 new little sisters and big sister. So, this week, I have 4 sweatshirts and 4 t shirts to applique. Oh, and I have to help her paint wine glasses with the sorority letters, as well. I think I need a spring break!

Here are some pictures of my progress on "Maidens of the Sea".

March is Here!

I am so excited that March is here. Every year, I feel so relieved when March has arrived, it's almost like Wednesday in a week, you've made it over the hump, and it's downhill from here. I know I will only have to put up with the cold weather for a little while longer--I don't mind being hot, but I can't tolerate the cold. Don't get me wrong, there are things I like about winter, but there are lots more things I like about spring--St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite days of the year, I guess it's the Irish in me, and the fact that green is my favorite color. I also love Easter, and my birthday is in April. I think the main thing I love about spring though, is the flowers--hyacinths are my very favorite, along with lilacs, daffodils. tulips, pansies and forsythias. Knowing that getting to enjoy all of this in only a matter of weeks makes me smile.

Today also marks the beginning of 2 stitchalongs I am participating in with some online friends. One, is Carriage House Samplings Shores of Hawk Run Hollow, and the other is Carriage House Samplings "girls" series, I am starting with Elizabeth. Today I plan to get started on "Shores", since I have all of the supplies ready to go, my chart finally arrived in the mail on Friday. I have ordered the linen for all 4 of the "girls" from my favorite online shop Elegant Stitch, and will start on Elizabeth as soon as the linen arrives.