trying to take back my life

School had taken over my life until I put my foot down yesterday. I started with decluttering our bedroom and the room I share with the monkey. I've just been piling stuff instead of filing whatever needed filing and not reading whatever should be read. Our bedroom floor is clearer (by the window). My desk is clear and everything is now filed away. I also put my sock blockers up on the wall (finally). I sat and knit last night too. I was supposed to do some of that today but have gotten distracted with listening to songs on the wedding cds my sister made for us which made us think of other songs and it's now 4 o'clock make that 6:30. Talk about dilly dallying! I did get to chat with my sister for a bit though and I caught up on some emails. I need to make time to sit down and read and to sit down and answer some letters as well.
We watched Fantastic Mr. Fox last night and loved it. We loved it SO much we're going to watch it one more time before we return it!  

Since I last posted, there's been baking and new projects. Last Sunday the hubs and I made vegan red velvet cupcakes. My SIL did a red velvet cupcake experiment a few days before we wanted to try a vegan version.

We had to get creative with the frosting. We didn't have regular cream cheese) only strawberry and I wanted the frosting to have a bit of lemon zest. BEST frosting we've had in a while. :) The cupcakes got eaten up (mostly by me) by the middle of the week. We are definitely going to start making more cupcakes from

They're SO good!!
A couple of days ago I decided to cast on for some new projects. I've mostly been working on goldie whenever I get a chance but I needed another distraction. So I stupidly cast on for the cedar leaf shawlette (270 stitches!!!!!!!!!) so now it's been pushed to the side for now.

It's pretty though, right? ;)
So since that idea was a bad one, I cast on for the buttoned lace cowl.

I spent a good portion of yesterday working on it so I'm about double than what I have pictured. I will try to finish it tonight but I think that will be nearly impossible!
Here's goldie so far:

She's gorgeous as ever. I just wish she were a faster knit! It's going to be eons before I get to show her off!
I leave you with this: I love my new school. I love my co-workers. I love everything so much that I've started to feel good about myself and I noticed that I make more of an effort to look nice at this school than I did at my last one. I think because for once, I'm finally happy. :)

school has taken over my life!!

And so has kid germs. I'm still sick..I've been battling laryngitis for the past week. So this weekend is a 'no talking' weekend. I guess I'm going through all of this because I've been away from mass kid germs for a good year so all those antibodies I had in my reserves got used up. Time to build up some more. :) Once I get through this garbage, I should be okay (one can only hope!).

I received my yarn in the mail not too long ago. This is Evangeline from Three Irish Girls. Isn't she gorgeous?? :)

And this is Forest Primeval.

Being back in a setting where kids can do easel painting has revived my love of color mixing. I may not dye yarn or even spin it but I can mix a mean cup of paint. :)

Maybe I was an artist in another life? I don't know how else to explain my love of color (and texture!). I made a few more batches yesterday but didn't have my camera to capture them. That's on my list (not to mention to take a picture of the wires I had the hubs put up for me in the classroom.
There has been a teeny bit of knitting. I worked a little bit on goldie.

My secret project that I had been working on back in May was finally shipped and received. :)

I made a citron for Robyn for her birthday back in June but ran into some yarn shortage problems (which I had anticipated) but the gal who had dyed the yarn assured me that I'd have enough. HA. That wasn't the case so there was a bit of waiting time. But needless to say, she loves it! This was one pattern I was happy to make more than once. :)

Week 2 feels like Week 20

I do apologize for the current lack of knitting content. Blame can be placed on my new job. Being the head of a class room full of 4 and 5 year olds is no easy task. It has been quite challenging to figure out activities that are interesting to both ends of my spectrum. Attention spans are practically next to nothing and the ability to sit and endure on the rug is also quite impossible for most of them. But we are getting through it. Routines are slowing being put in place. Names are starting to be learned.
The monkey started school for the first time ever last week and she loves it to pieces. Though apparently there was one day last week where she didn't want to go to her school. She wanted to go to my school. The girl has only been to my school at least three times! How could she already love it more there than at her own school??
The hubs has been busy attending school as well. We will be attending a free jazz concert on Saturday-his only hw assignment from his Jazz Appreciation class. We will also be attending the Greek Festival! His drafting class is currently kicking his butt though. He'll push through.
Aside from the kids still figuring out how they ought to be at school, things are going all right. It could be worse than what it already is. So thank goodness it isn't.
Most evenings are spent working on stuff for school but I'm hoping come next year, this same time, I can find myself knitting rather than creating games for my kids!
So since a majority of my evenings are spent on school-related things, that leaves very little time for knitting. Today was a minimum day and I thought I'd be able to squeeze in just a teeny bit of knitting but no such luck. Maybe tonight after I get my parent letter complete. :)
My sister is sweating in Chicago. lol. She was sweating in LA. She had her first two classes on Monday and one of them (her night class) is a sleeper. Her second day of classes was going to be today. Oh, it turns out that she will be in Chicago for 4 years unless it takes her 5 to complete her dissertation. I'm sure she's working towards getting it done in 4 so that she will owe less money! She has no couch. Hers wouldn't fit through her door so it is currently in storage.
My car went crazy again. It went back to beeping and lights blinking on the panel. Thank goodness I got paid yesterday! So that has been taken care of but now apparently I need to replace the timing belt and that isn't cheap..it never ends!