FOR TODAY
Outside my window...
It is sunny and warm. We walked to church this morning and it was a bit foggy, but it has now burned off and is quite lovely, without being too humid or hot. Just right.

I am thinking...
Way too much about the next couple of very full weeks. My anxiety level is up even though I know I'll accomplish all I need to get done, but it does keep my thoughts in a spin.

I am thankful for...
My husband who is very patient with me when I get like this.

From the kitchen...
I smell the omelet that Don just made after he admired mine. This is his second breakfast -- I didn't manage to get any before church. Which may also be why I'm a bit grumpy -- I'm only halfway through my morning cup of tea.

I am wearing...
Shorts, a sleeveless top and sneakers. We're going to be loading up a rented truck with Nate's furniture and "stuff" to go to his new apartment so I'll be busy.

I am creating...
Too many projects at the moment. I've been working on a quilt for my mother, finished binding off a little curved scarf with a lacy edge from a pattern a friend shared with me, need to finish the sleeves on a top-down sweater, have another scarf on the needles as well as a pair of socks. I need to give some thought to projects to take along to a 5-day conference in Atlanta and vacation after that. For vacation I've pulled out a long-stalled hand-sewing project making paper-pieced stars for an eventual quilt.

I am going...
To pick up a big truck when Nate awakes.

I am reading...
"I am Irelaunde," a novel about St. Patrick when he came to convert Ireland. Someone just handed me, in church, a copy of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." And, we've just had a conversation about which books on tape to download for our vacation which involves a lot of driving.

I am hoping...
To get through the next two weeks with my sanity intact.

I am hearing...
The radio, with Joni Mitchell singing "Amelia" on the local public radio singer-songwriter show that I only get to hear when I go to the 8:00 service.

Around the house...
Are piles of unorganized things that need to be dealt with. But, there will be room to organize in July when we have an empty bedroom upstairs and a nearly empty living room (we're giving Nate a couch and chair but keeping the loveseat -- the cats are going to be bereft as the couch and chair are two of their favorite napping places).

One of my favorite things...
A lovely cup of tea, right at hand.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Monday -- get two composite letters ready for med school candidates. Luckily they are re-writes, which don't take as much time. Oh, and move into my new office and try to bring some order to the chaos.
Tuesday -- attend the annual staff "retreat" on campus, which I'm usually not here for. Time to connect with colleagues. Wrap up loose ends with med candidates.
Wednesday -- leaving on a 5:30 a.m. flight to Atlanta to attend the Pre-Health Advisors national conference. 5:30 was the only way to get a direct flight and will give me some time to explore the city before the conference.
Thursday -- conference all day with dinner sponsored by the Danish study abroad program that some of my students have gone on/will be going on.
Friday -- conference all day with an afternoon/evening visit to the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (Georgia branch).
Saturday -- more conference, connecting with colleagues
Sunday -- home! Missing most of Father's Day.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

This is from last weekend's college reunion -- with my friend Sue who graduated 5 years before me but whom I've gotten to know since coming back to work at Colby. Since we always have the same reunion weekend, we've made a tradition of taking a photo of us each time. This time we were color-coordinated without planning it! The thought part of this is that I really was ambivalent about attending this reunion and could easily have skipped it if given the chance. BUT, I actually really enjoyed the experience, saw some people I didn't expect to see, saw some of my former students, including one from 1990 and one from 1995 and lots from 2000 and 2005. The band on Saturday was great and I had fun dancing with Don. A lesson learned -- go to reunion and don't anxt about it!

Check out the Simple Woman's Daybook blog at: http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/

Stretched

I think I remember feeling this way last June, too. The month is packed with events, activities, special days, and things that need doing. I know I'm feeling stretched too thin when I have an evening like I did earlier this week. I came home wanting everyone to just do what I told them to do and not give me any argument. I was very bossy and cross. Luckily, I'm not usually like that, so it was clear to everyone that I was feeling "stretched."

My house is a mess (after all the work we did in April to get a little organized and caught up on things) and will be even more of a mess soon. Our son is moving to an apartment and we've generously :) donated all the furniture we've been wanting to get rid of for years. That will pretty much empty out his bedroom and the living room. Which is good, because we're about to tear apart our sunporch, which means we have lots of books and stuff to move out of there. We're also going to replace windows in our living room and my sewing room -- just to add a little bit more chaos to our lives.

This is conference season in my line of work. I've been to meetings at two other campuses just this week, and am off to Hotlanta (I hate hot weather - why are we meeting in Atlanta in the summer?) for 5 days next week. And, just to add a bit more chaos to my work life, my director and I are swapping offices, which has involved moving everything out of each in order to paint them. With any luck I'll have everything in my new office by Monday - but it will be weeks before I actually get it unpacked.

And, our summer vacation happens this month. It will be fun - once we get going. But, we have decided to shorten it a bit so I can have a few days at home too.

Special events? Missed my sister's birthday due to my 30th college reunion and will miss Father's Day because I'll be flying home from Atlanta that afternoon. Both of those things earned me a place in the doghouse with my mother. The annual staff retreat, which I usually miss due to a conference, is between conferences this year. High school graduation was last night (I went to yoga instead).

Anyway, the upside is that the weather has been lovely with only intermittent rain (as compared to last year's very rainy June...and July...). The garden looks great (needs weeding, but that will have to wait). I've gotten to see many of my favorite colleagues, including one from Minnesota, at meetings. I'm healthy (though out of shape). I've had both a pedicure and a manicure in the past two weeks and have an appointment for a perm in two weeks. I'm moving into a shady office. We've got new patio furniture and, as my DH says, it now looks like adults live here (the patio and furniture are right smack where our old cedar climbing tower and swing set resided for many years). I got the refrigerator cleaned out recently and have cleaned half of the shower. I've lost 6 pounds and didn't eat any cookies at lunch today at St. Joseph's.

All in all, I'm a very fortunate person. Thanks for letting me get that whining out of my system. I feel better and hope you do too.

OFF MY NEEDLES
My Evenstar myster KAL shawl is done! I'll photograph it when I block it, which will be after Nate leaves to start his camp job.

ON MY NEEDLES
Re-knitting my Daybreak Shawl. Instead of the large shawl, which I didn't really like when it was done, I've frogged the whole thing and will make two small ones. I'm going to give one of them away to someone who admired the project when I was making it the first time.

And, some other things, but I'm too disorganized to even name them at the moment.

Stay-cation

It has been a lovely week so far. We've had a range of weather from snow to 70 degrees and sun (currently 65 and sunny). I've been fairly productive in the basement, even though I probably won't get through the whole place as thoroughly as I need to. It is much cleaner and we've definitely cleared out a lot of stuff. And, rediscovered some treasures I'd forgotten about.

Today I've been rather unorganized and not very productive. But, Don is having a very productive day (maybe we're taking turns -- ala our boys who, as twins, always seemed to take turns with bad days, developmental changes, etc. and still seem to do that at times). He's done a dandelion patrol, mowed the lawn, and is now cleaning out our grill! I'm just puttering and making only small forays into piles of stuff.

Ah, vacation! Maybe I'll read a book.

ON MY NEEDLES
I'm caught up on the Evenstar Shawl, now just waiting for Clue 6 to be released tomorrow afternoon. I even found beads for it at Beads on the Kennebec in Augusta. Can't wait to see how it all comes together!

The top-down cardigan is down to the last few rows on the body and then I have to do the sleeves. After that there are a couple of rows to knit around the collar and front edges and then it will be done. It won't be a lovely thing, but it will be warm and comfy for weekends.

I've pulled out an old project that will be an easy one to tote along when I need something that I don't have to think too hard about. It is a scarf of boucle and mohair I picked up as a souvenir last spring when attending a conference in Philadelphia. The colors are lovely, based on a periwinkle and pale, pale pink with a little white and darker blue in the boucle. I'll photo it when there is more to show.

Socks -- just haven't had the time or energy to think about them. But, I did just find in a box in the basement the very first three pairs of socks I ever made, while living in Scotland, many years ago! Two pair are felted and too small to get on my feet anymore, while one has never been worn. Sock yarn is definitely more interesting nowadays -- and nice to have washable wool so they don't shrink so easily.

Spring Snow

Here's a snowy day picture for you. This is Lydia who stretches out on a radiator every time she hears the furnace start up! And, a photo of both of the girls when the furnace is off :)


Yes, spring has sprung -- we have daffodils, and our tulips are about to pop. The hostas and day lilies are way up and the apple tree looks like it will bloom soon. All early, all welcome. However, it has been snowing all day! But, not sticking, so I think we'll recover easily.

I haven't posted in a while, partly due to spending far to much of my "spare time" working on my Evenstar shawl. This is a "mystery" knit along (known as a KAL in the knitting community) and members of the KAL receive one "clue" or section of the pattern every so often. I got a bit of a late start, but worked hard to catch up. We're on clue 5 of 7 and it will be beautiful. I'm actually enjoying knitting blythely along without really knowing the end result. The pattern is quite challenging but fun. There are around 600 stitches per row at the moment (going in circles for a circular shawl). I see from the Ravelry discussion threads that I'm going to need around 2900 seed beads for the finish. The next clue comes out in 6 days, but I'm not quite halfway through clue 5, so will have to move along to keep up!

Luckily, I am on vacation this week. Of course, it turns out to be not the best week to be away from the office, but I'm sure I'm more dispensable than I'd like to think. It is school vacation and, being married to a teacher, we decided in the first empty nest year to take this vacation together from now on. Last year we took an actual vacation and spent several days in the Lancaster, PA area on our way to pay a visit to our son at Allegheny College. It was lovely. But, this year we're doing a staycation. Don helps coach the junior high track team and the head coach is having surgery this week, so we're staying home so he can be here for the team. SO, the plan is to work on cleaning out our basement and maybe the garage.

Today is the first day of vacation, but I haven't even been in the basement yet. I met a friend for coffee this morning and then have spent most of the rest of the day so far knitting (big surprise). Then I decided to get on Ravelry and see if there are any notes on the KAL that I should know about before I get to the really tricky part of the pattern. And then I decided to look and see how long it has been since I posted a blog entry. Hmm, what can I procrastinate on next? Maybe selecting garden seeds? I think we're going to go back to having a small raised bed for veggies and place it next to our patio so we'll keep up with it. We'll see.

So, maybe I'll allow myself to putter, knit, and procrastinate today, but I need to get to work tomorrow!

ON MY NEEDLES
My Evenstar shawl in pale pink Misti Alpaca Lace. Row 36, Clue 5.

Skew socks from Knitty in Berroco Sox with sparkles. One foot is done to where the heel should start. I'm going to start the second foot and catch it up so that I can work the two opposite directions at the same time using the Magic Loop method.

Top down cardigan from Cascade EcoWool. Using the Knitting Pure and Simple bolero pattern, but ala Ellen at Purl Diva, am continuing on to make a full cardigan sweater. It will be a great knock-around sweater and knitting top-down allows me to make the lengths of the body and sleeves exactly the way they fit me the best. And, it is great mindless knitting to work on while watching the HBO John Adams series that we're currently hooked on.

Oh, and there is one more thumb to knit to complete a pair of mittens I was knitting before Evenstar came along.

OFF MY NEEDLES - FINALLY
The Slouchy Cardi is done. I'm not as in love with it as I thought I would be, but it is done. The hood is smaller than the pattern called for, both because photos I saw on Ravelry made it look huge and because I knit it with nearly every inch of yarn I had and am not going to get more just to add a couple of inches to the hood. I'm not terribly happy with the sleeve cap that I fudged, but it will do. It was meant to be a knock-around sweater, so that will be fine.

BTW, Zeben LOVES his sweater and wore it home when he visited over his spring break in March. He's talking about knitting another one this summer.

Itching for Spring

The weather has been on the not-so-nice side lately. Lots of gray days and weather that can't make up its mind whether to snow or rain or whatever. But, we inch along the calendar to my favorite sign of spring -- the North Street Dairy Cone will open for the summer sometime around St. Patrick's Day. And that won't be long in coming!

I spent Saturday at Spa, Knit, and Spin in Freeport with 3 knitting friends. We call our trips to these events "knitting boondoggles." I did very well sticking to my budget at the vendor market, and then ended up going over a bit when we stopped at Purl Diva in Brunswick on the way home. To cap off a lovely day (despite the cold, gray weather), we had gelatto with another Spa attendee we befriended at Purl Diva. It was a nice get-away.

So, what did I spend my budget money on? A skein of Woolen Rabbit Whisper merino lace in Scottish Heather (in some light it looks more purple and in other light grey). I plan to knit another Maplewing as the color I made it in last year just isn't my favorite. At Purl Diva I got 2 coordinating Zauberballs to knit the Daybreak Shawl. And, I bought a pattern to make a quick sweater with some EcoWool I've got hanging around. Two skeins should make this top-down cardigan a quick knit in off-white.

I've also gotten hooked into the Evenstar KAL (knit-along for my non-knitting readers) based on the Lord of the Rings. I'm getting a late start, but since it is a Pi Shawl, I should be able to catch up pretty quickly.

Most importantly, I'm beginning to get my yarn stuff more organized. I had a shoe-pocket thingy to hang up and put it on the closet door. I decided to use it to organize my round and flexible bamboo needles -- I'm so excited! They've been such a pain to keep track of and now they are neatly corralled by size. And the bookcase is painted and filled with all of my fiber books and magazines. I bought one pair of curtains, but the other size I needed wasn't in stock, so I need to order the second pair. I'm still in search of a filing cabinet I won't hate looking at or using, though. But, it is feeling like one small part of my life is getting organized.

We're thinking of using April vacation to clean out our basement. What fun. But, it will be good once we're done. And even better when Nate moves into his apartment for the fall and we can donate a bunch of furniture it is time to get rid of :)

ON MY NEEDLES
STILL working on the hood for the slouchy cardi. Got quite a bit done last night while watching two episodes of Eureka.

Mittens are almost done -- just have one thumb to do and ends to tie in.

And I cast on for Skew socks this weekend and am almost up to the heel on the first one.

Mission Accomplished

Ahhh. I just hit the "submit" button on the boys' FAFSAs! Taxes and financial aid applications done for yet one more year. As far as financial aid goes, 3 down, 1 to go! One more benefit (and likely the last time it will make a whit of difference) of having twins -- they'll both be (God willing!) done with college in 2012 and I'll be done doing their taxes and FAFSAs a year from now.

I don't actually mind doing our taxes each year. It is a reasonable mental exercise. But, doing it for multiple people in multiple states nearly drove me over the edge this year. Then, I spent a week putting off doing the FAFSAs, though when I finally, grumpily settled down to do them this afternoon, it took less than an hour to do them for both boys. Not bad.

Now, all that is left is to get all the right forms to all the right people for signatures and make sure they get them sent off in the envelopes provided. Nate's will be easy because we visited him at college yesterday and I got him to sign his forms. Last year Zeben didn't quite follow my instructions, so I'll have to be more stern this year about getting copies of all the signed forms to his financial aid office.

So nice to have this done! I think I'll go for a walk!

ON MY NEEDLES
I've actually been finishing up a couple of projects and really haven't had anything much in progress. I think as a reward for all the paper I've been pushing, I'm going to cast on for two new projects: Nora's sweater in Ultra Alpaca and these funky socks from the latest Knitty. I've got some space-dyed sparkly yarn that would be fun for these socks and they look like an interesting challenge.

People I Admire

I spent much of the past weekend on campus attending a Posse Plus Retreat. I was part of the "Plus" part as the retreat is mainly for students who attend my college through the Posse Program. They have this retreat every year and invite students, faculty, and staff to participate. I attended the retreat last year and learned a lot about these students and about myself and was pleased to be able to participate again this year. What I come away feeling is that these students are very brave people. They step way out of their comfort zone to attend a predominately white college in Maine and then work hard not to be invisible or sidelined while here. I'm proud to know them. I certainly wasn't that brave when I came to Colby!

While I joined the retreat on Friday evening and all day/evening Saturday, I had to miss Sunday morning so that I could finish the family tax returns. I completed returns for the US, Maine, and Pennsylvania. Yes, I should make the boys do their own taxes, but since I have to complete the financial aid forms for them by March 1, it is just easier to do them myself and get them done. One more year, guys, and then you'll be doing them for yourselves!!

ON MY NEEDLES
Nothing new -- didn't get a moment to knit all weekend. But, I'll make up for it this weekend (see previous post)!