The hat

I'm uploading a picture of the hat I mentioned in a previous post. Mostly because I never seem to get many pictures in this blog and this is my current work in progress. I think I need to take more random photos of my knitting so I can see the progess I have made. Maybe like a recap of the week. (Okay who are we kidding, if I do every other week I will consider myself successful)

In other news, I did a 5K this weekend and my calves are a little sore today. We were running late in getting there and had to park super far away so I think it was closer to a 6K but at least the extra exercise is getting easier for me. Someday I'd love to be able run it instead of walking it. And what a great cause we were supporting- Make a Wish Foundation of AZ!

We are also dealing with the dreaded pink eye right now. C woke up this morning with it. Fortunately there is a terrific minute clinic by my house so I didn't have to wait until Monday to get him into the doctor. He hates the drops but he us being a good sport with only minimal bribery (mostly chocolate).

New Skill

I'm so excited- I figured out how to knit in the round. I had wanted to learn for a while but didn't think I could figure it out. Going from two needles to four or five seemed really tough. Two things finally prompted me to get my butt in gear. The first was my list of resolutions. I had wanted to expand my knitting ability and this seemed like a good way to increase the amount of patterns I would be capable of following. The other reason was a specific project I wanted to create. (More on that in a future post but for now I'm going to stay secretive).
I decided to teach myself during my previous vacation. I knew I had to find some time to myself to totally get it. I tried casting on a handful of stitches then joining but wasn't having much luck. So I tried knitting a few rows straight then joining, which seemed to work better. Now that I've done it a few times I think I can join on the first round without twisting. I am currently working on a hat with Caron Simply Soft. If it comes out okay I will give it to a friend who just had a baby. Hopefully I can post a picture of the work in progress soon but I haven't had the best lighting for pics lately.

New Year New Resolutions (Part 4)

I made my new dish for February today. I tried a chicken crockpot recipe. It combined chicken, carrots, onions, celery with white wine and chicken stock. A little bit of flour was thrown into thicken it. I simmered it on high for one hour and then turned it down for three more hours. Cream and peas were added at the end. I also cut back on the salt recommended in the dish and it was plenty flavorful anyway. I loved it, J liked it, E ate it and C refused to try it. I will probably make it again but not really often since I got mixed family reactions.
What I will be making again are the drop biscuits that went with it. Never made them before but they were easy. They tasted pretty good even though I forgot salt so I'm sure it will be great with it. Everyone liked them!

God, nature and symmetry

I went to a lecture today on how to effectively present data and information. So what does this have to do with the title of the post? Well the symmetry part is a little bit easier to understand. Good charts and graphs have some symetrical balance most of the time. So the professor pointed out that the journal Nature has many good graphical examples. Seems that the environmental world around us has many patterns and beautiful symmetry. It got me thinking about how amazing God is - it gave me goosebumps! He is able to design this world full of patterns and balance and it's no coincidence. I'm glad he was able to use something like a lecture to speak to me. It seems like whenever I get into a funk (and I've been kind of feeling that way lately), God will show me his awesomeness. Thank you God for showing me!

Aaargh!

I knew this would happen! I posted about the checkerboard that I was working on and how it's all down hill from here. I pretty much lost all motivation to work on it shortly thereafter. I have only completed two and a half more squares since then. I'm really doubting my ability to get it done in time. I'm thinking I may need to shoot for June. The worst part is I seem to have lost all motivation to knit at all. I've got a stitch pattern blanket that I'm working on (I'm pretty sure it will be a baby blanket for a friend) but I had to frog one of the squares so I'm frusterated with that too! Gotta get my knitting groove back - there's so many things I want to make...hopefully vacation at the end of the month will allow me time to get my mojo going

New Year New Resolutions (Part 3)

Part of my New Year's resolution was to incorporate a new dish into hubby and my cooking rotation. So we tried a few different things this month. My original idea was to try a recipe I found in my Real Simple magazine for a marinated chicken breast and quinoa with walnuts. I ran into a few problems along the way though. I forgot to defrost the chicken ahead of time so I couldn't marinade it properly. I also couldn't find quinoa at the store. Maybe I can try these next month.
There were a few other things we tried...
Couscous - this was my first time making it. It was a little bland and E wasn't crazy about the texture. This will require some tweaking but has some potential.
Chicken coated with crackers - I've done this once before but wanted to try again. E didn't like it but I did. Might be worth adding in occasionally. The crackers aren't the healthiest things but every once in a while will be okay and I can always make E some plain chicken.
Marinara sauce - This was the big hit of the month. Unfortunately I can't take the credit. E decided he wanted to give it a try so on Saturday he tried out a recipe. It was fabulous! I'm not sure if I will be able to go back to the jarred stuff after this.
I can't wait to try some other new things in February to see what we come up with!

Halfway Done

I'm almost halfway done with my massive knitting project. I probably should have waited until tomorrow when I am actually half way done before I get excited but I finished the 32nd square of the giant checkerboard. I still need to stitch the row of squares together but the kniting has reached the halfway point! Maybe there is hope for finishing it in April after all.