What we did on our summer vacation

Because money is tight this year, and gas prices are through the roof, Mike and I have adjusted our vacation plans a couple of times. Originally we were going to take two weeks and go out east to Maine and possibly come back through Canada. When we realized that wasn't going to work with our budget we decided we could camp for a week at Sheboygan, WI (which we've done a few times before and really enjoyed). Then we realized that even that trip was out of reach, so we planned a week of camping and biking at Illini State Park near Marseilles, IL. The park itself is very nice and well-kept. Just over the river in Marseilles is the I & M Canal Bike Trail which provides about seventy miles of interesting bike trails. We've camped here before but usually for only a night on our way to or from Sheboygan. Staying for an entire week was an entirely different proposition.

We had a pretty good vacation overall. Other than we had thunderstorms four of the seven nights we camped and one night the tornado siren went off. And the mosquitoes were big enough to carry off a small child. Altogether we rode a total of about 57 miles during the week. On our third bike ride (on Thursday) I had an unfortunate encounter with a railroad crossing and some gravel and thought that I had broken my knee. Of course we were nine miles from the campground at that point so I had to get back on the bike and ride back to Marseilles, injured knee and all.

Aside from all that it was a fabulous trip! We just have never quite mastered the art of the uneventful vacation.

Hooray! They Have Set a Date!

After several years of discussion and regrouping, I'm delighted to report that Katie and Doug have finally set a wedding date. They will be married on Saturday, November 29 in Carlinville. All of the details have yet to be worked out but the reception is booked (and the down payment made) so the date is definite.

Now the fun begins! Katie already has her wedding dress picked out, but still needs to order it. She has looked at bridesmaid's dresses several times but hasn't found just the right thing yet. And of course there will be a myriad of other plans, choices, and decisions to be made. And this will be my one and only chance to be "mother of the bride" so I guess I need to be figuring out what I need to do as well.

Right now November seems so far away, but I'm sure that it will be here before we know it. On the one hand I can't believe that my little girl is already planning a wedding, and on the other hand, I can't believe that it's taken them so long to set a date. Ah, the perils of motherhood!

Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On!

Well, gee, it happened again. I was awakened again last night by yet another aftershock from Friday's earthquake. Mike slept right through this one, though. Apparently there have been quite a few others that are mild enough not to be noticeable, but after feeling the earth move three times in under 72 hours, I'm beginning to wonder whether a big one is next. I guess I really should be making sure that I have my disaster kit in place and accessible just in case.

I was rather amused on Friday afternoon to read a story in the Alton Telegraph online. Apparently a school administrator at South Roxana Elementary decided that in light of the earthquake it would be expeditious to conduct an earthquake drill during the morning. Imagine the consternation of everyone involved when, halfway through the five-minute drill, the 4.5 magnitude aftershock arrived! The principal was quoted later as saying that it made him a little nervous about planning a tornado drill.

Here's hoping that the next few days don't bring us anything quite this interesting.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll!!

What a wake-up call we got this morning! I was about half-awake when the house began to shake at 4:36 a.m. Mike was sound asleep and jumped about a foot when the shaking started. It seemed to go on and on for a long time, and when it stopped I could hear a hanger swinging back and forth on the closet rod for a while longer. When I got downstairs to the computer, I had an email from dd Katie reassuring us that she and Doug were fine although seriously weirded out by the whole thing.

Then of course there was the aftershock at 10:16. I had gone to a yoga class with our neighbors, and after class we were standing around and discussing our experiences of the early morning, when the walls of the dance studio began to shake, and the vase of flowers on the table began to dance (how appropriate, after all!).

I'm thankful that we had no damage here, or even any falling objects (if you are familiar with the current state of my housekeeping you realize that there is great potential there!). And I'm reminded that I STILL need to get busy on assembling my emergency kit.

I remember in the late 80's when Iben Browning predicted that the New Madrid Fault would produce a severe earthquake on a certain date in early December. Anthony, our youngest son, was just over 3 years old at the time. On the day of the predicted earthquake, he donned an old sailor hat from my uncle's Navy days, and insisted on wearing it all day "for protection from falling objects". It must have worked well since nothing fell on his head. Wonder where the sailor hat is now??

Exciting News!

I got some really exciting news today! I was notified that I am one of 14 family child care providers selected to receive a full scholarship (registration, meals, travel and accommodations) to attend the National Association for Family Child Care's annual conference in Chicago in July. I'm really excited to be attending this conference! I had really wanted to go since it is so close this year (the last few years it has been in Florida, California, and Kansas) but I knew I couldn't afford it on my own.

We'll be leaving from Springfield on Thursday evening, July 17, and returning on Saturday evening, July 19. Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary is the keynote speaker on Friday. There will be many sessions covering all aspects of family child care, from the basics all the way to national credentials and accreditation. I can't wait to get there!

My Latest Knitting Project: an original baby blanket

I just finished up a baby blanket that I have been working on for a few weeks from an original pattern which I designed. I was sitting in church one morning when the inspiration for this pattern came to me (sorry, Pastor Jeff!!). It is unique in that it is knitted from the center outward; the center portion is knitted in garter stitch with a double strand of yarn, and the border is knitted in two-color double-knitting. I enjoyed making it so much that I have decided to make another one, using a different color and a different pattern for the two-color border. My plan is to add photos of both when I get the second one finished, and then I'll be looking for pattern testers as I am actually hoping at some point to have the pattern published.

An Actual Post About Knitting

In looking over the recent posts in this blog, I noticed that while the title of the blog is "the knitlady" I have included very few posts that were actually specifically about knitting. So I decided that it's time to post something that actually pertains to knitting.

I've been knitting since the age of nine. When I was ten I knitted a blue sweater which I actually wore a few times before I outgrew it. During high school I started taking my knitting to school, where I first knitted in study hall and then eventually started knitting during classes. The first Christmas that I was married I made an afghan for my new in-laws, which impressed them to no end. When I was first pregnant, I knitted an outfit and a sweater set and crocheted a blanket which I used to bring each of my three sons home from the hospital. (Katie never wore the coming-home outfit since she was born at home.) Over the years there have been times when I knitted quite a bit and other times when I hardly knitted at all. The past several years I've been in a pretty much constant knitting phase again. My kids tease me about knitting in my sleep (I really don't!) and knitting while I'm reading, but they all like the hand-knitted socks that they receive occasionally for Christmas or other special occasions. My daughter Katie once introduced me to a friend that she had brought home as "my mom who is a knitaholic". (Katie knows how to knit, too, but she rarely admits it any more.) And everyone who knows me knows that I don't like to drive because it cuts into my knitting time.

I've had many people comment to me that they "don't have the patience" to knit. Well, I'd have to say that in all honesty I don't have the patience to NOT knit. I find that I am much calmer and more focused with knitting in my hands than without; therefore the knitting goes with me almost everywhere I go. It's a great stress reliever under less than ideal circumstances and I've learned to keep a bag packed with some sort of project at all times, in case of emergencies. This habit served me well when Mike had his heart attack, as I grabbed the knitting bag on my way out the door to the hospital. When we got him home three days later and I unpacked the bag, I had 14 dishcloths finished. So I managed my stress levels while simultaneously adding to my craft show stock. It doesn't get much more efficient than that!

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to knit while I'm blogging.

A Brief Taste of Spring

For months now I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring weather. I'm just not a winter person at all. If I had my way, snow would be limited to Christmas Eve so that the holiday "purists" could have their white Christmas, and then we would have spring starting the first week in January. But alas, winter has continued to plague us despite my repeated impassioned pleas to the Almighty for "sunny and warmer" weather.

Last Sunday we had "sunny and warmer" in all its glory. The high temperature hit 78 degrees, all of the residual snow piles and the ice in our driveway melted away, and the sun shone brightly on our smiling faces. We spent hours outside on Sunday afternoon doing long overdue yard work and soaking up the sunshine.

Unfortunately our one "spring" day was nothing but a cruel hoax, as it cooled off dramatically and rained all day yesterday, and today we were "blessed" with six inches of the fluffy white stuff again. Winter has struck again with a vengeance and it is all the more difficult after the brief taste of spring we were teased with on Sunday.

Please let spring come soon!

Help! The Ceiling Is Falling!!

Yesterday evening, our grandson Kindon brought his mommy Sara and daddy Jeremy over to eat dinner at our house. In fact, Sara cooked for us (burgers and hot dogs on the grill). After we had eaten and they hung out for a while, it was time for them to go home. Mike and I walked them out to their respective vehicles and as we walked back in the front door, there was a rumble and a crash and parts of the living room ceiling came tumbling down on our heads. When the dust had settled (and there was LOTS of dust!) slightly more than half of the suspended ceiling tiles had fallen down. Upon inspection we discovered that when the suspended ceiling was installed (some time prior to our purchasing the house 28 years ago) the grid had been supported by wires that were nailed to the original plaster ceiling (instead of by screws which is the correct way to install suspended ceiling grid) and a couple of the nails had pulled loose and allowed the gridwork to collapse. Needless to say, the next few evenings will be spend repairing the gridwork and replacing tiles, and we'll have to order replacements for the tiles that were broken as they fell. After that is finished, we'll be reinforcing the gridwork in every other suspended ceiling in the house to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

We are very thankful that the ceiling didn't fall five minutes earlier when Kindon would have been underneath it and could have been seriously injured by falling tiles/gridwork. Maybe now things could just calm down a little bit and not be so interesting for a while.......please, God?

The World's Cutest Grandson

I love being a grandma. It's even more fun than being a mom (and I loved being a mom, too). The best part is that after I'm done spoiling my grandson completely rotten I get to send him home. Since Kindon is currently our only grandchild he gets plenty of spoiling.

Last year at Christmas he was really a little young to "get" the idea of presents, but we thought surely this year at 2 1/2 he would grasp the concept. However, we were very surprised when he showed absolutely no interest whatsoever in opening any packages at all. We got together on Christmas Day at my parents' house, and after a sumptuous dinner it was time to open presents. Kindon had a stack of packages but was completely uninterested in any of them. Repeated efforts throughout the day failed to entice him to see what might be inside any of the pretty packages. Finally, very late in the afternoon, we were able to convince him to open one package which came from my sister in Florida. The package contained a gift card holder which played music whenever he opened it, and that finally got his attention. He opened and shut the card numerous times until we were all thoroughly tired of hearing the repeated music. But despite his delight with this gift he still wasn't interested in opening any more packages. Eventually before he went home he managed to at least open everything.

There is never a dull moment when Kindon is around. A couple of weeks ago I was taking care of him for the day because Jeremy and Sara were both working. After a quick trip to the bathroom I looked around and he was nowhere to be seen. Upon further investigation I found him kneeling in the kitchen sink, happy as a clam and soaking wet, with the cold water running full force and the sink sprayer spraying water all over the kitchen. He wasn't very happy when I took him out of the sink, stripped his wet clothes off and dried him off. I put him in his spare clothes but didn't have a spare pair of socks for him so he had to go barefoot until I could get his wet clothes dried. Every few minutes he would come over to me and lift up his bare foot to remind me that he didn't have any socks on, and I would remind him that he was the one who got his socks wet in the first place. I have to give him points for creativity, though, since this was one thing that none of my four kids ever thought to do when they were little.

When Kindon was born, I told Jeremy that if he was as smart as Jeremy had been that he and Sara would definitely have their hands full. It appears that my prediction was correct, because Kindon is very smart, and he is indeed a handful at times. But he is a delightful little boy and he has brightened all of our lives more than I can say.

Did I mention that I love being a grandma?