10 Books

Today I hit 10 books read in 2013. That’s 1.25 books a week. We’re now in the 8th week of the year. I’m feeling quite confident that I can reach my pledge this year. So far this year I’ve read: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Beyond the Sling by Mayim Bialik, Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks, Where’d you go Bernadette by Maria Semple, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall and Sh*t My Dad Says and I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern, Three Good Things by Wendy Francis, and Mistaken Identity by Dan & Susie Van Ryan, Colleen Newell, Whitney Cerak and Mark Tabb. I just started reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I’m addicted to getting lost in a good book!

The Blue Sweater

  

Finally tried this on Quentin, who is almost 27 months old, and it fits him perfectly. He’s around 26-28 lbs. No way this would fit 5/6T, which is the size that I knit. Something’s off in this pattern for all sizes it seems, after making 2 different sizes. It’s too bad, but I won’t knit this again. So many other patterns out there to knit. But Quentin definitely looks adorable in it. He’ll probably get a bit of use out of this sweater this winter, before he outgrows it. I am glad that I finished it (aka finally seamed it) when I did, otherwise it would never have fit him.

 

50 Book Pledge

I decided to take the 50 book pledge for 2013. I also signed up for the 52 books, 52 weeks challenge with author Catherine McKenzie on Goodreads. (I’m here on there – if you’re on Goodreads, please feel free to add me as a friend). The 52 books, 52 weeks challenge though, I don’t like all the types of books that are chosen, so I’m only going to read the books I actually want to read, and the other weeks, I’ll chose something else. We are 8 weeks into the year, and I’ve read 7.5 books so far. I’m on track so far! According to the 50 books challenge, I’m on pace to read 52 books this year if I keep up my current pace. Last year, I tried to read 24 books, and was able to actually finish 22.5. This year, my knitting/crochet seems to be lacking but I’m on top of reading. I think I go through phases. There were times in the past where I’d devour books (that was also before I had kids). I missed reading so much, I think I’m over-compensating now. But that’s okay, reading is a good thing to do. So far this year I’ve read: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Beyond the Sling by Mayim Bialik, Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks, Where’d you go Bernadette by Maria Semple, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall and Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern. I’m also about a 3rd into I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern, Almost 20% into Hopeless by Colleen Hoover, 15% into How to Talk So Kids with Listen & Listen so Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber, 60% done The Stuff That Never Happened by Maddie Dawson (which I’ve had started a long time ago, but have been struggling through it, but want to finish it, because I always finish a book once started, I’m stubborn like that), and 36% into The Mominatrix's Guide To Sex: A No Surrender Advice Book For Naughty Moms by Kristen Chase, which most of it doesn’t even apply to me, as it talks about you & your partner while pregnant, just after giving birth, and with young children, and I’m way past that stage now, so a lot of it is irrelevant and I’m reading it and glad I’m way past those stages too!

What are you currently reading?

Valentine’s Day 2013

I had a lot of fun with Valentine’s day this year. Not only did I get to volunteer in Sean’s class in his elementary school but Sean and I got to make some pretty awesome Valentine’s Day cards. I saw this idea, online, about a year ago and knew that this is what I wanted to do when Sean was in Kindergarten for his classmates. After a little printing mishap (my color laser printer would NOT accept card stock, but my sister’s ink jet printer saved the day in the end), we had some pretty awesome Valentine’s Day cards.

If you notice, most of them are in French. I had to take the PDF that was on the web, get rid of the English and add in French text. Because I’m extremely  familiar with Photoshop this didn’t take me long at all. Sean’s in French immersion at school (Kindergarten through grade 2 are French all day, only grades 3 through 6 are half day English, half day French). We did print 1 sheet of English ones for a few of his buddies outside of his class. The light sabers are glow sticks, how cool! I had on hand already 1 pack of glow sticks from Target (which I was thinking about using once for part of one of the kids lootbags, but didn’t have enough), those were 15 for 1$. The balance of the glow sticks I picked up at a dollar store here, were 6 for 1$. (I wish Target would open up in Canada already!)

Sean wrote them all out, and signed them. I put them into a little Valentine’s lootbag with some candies for his friends. We had a blast making them, and I hope his friends like them too, because I’m pretty darn proud of them! I definitely am keeping this idea for Mackenzie’s kindergarten class next year.

How was your Valentine’s Day? Hope it was filled with lots of love! Enjoy!

Finally Finished

A year and a half later, I finally seamed Wyatt. I have NO idea what took me a year and a half to seam it, but it’s been finished since June 30, 2011. Maybe it’s because I knew there would be no way it would actually fit Sean when I finished it – who it was intended for. Mackenzie probably could have worn it. Now, maybe it would possibly fit Quentin in the fall for next winter. I plan to try it on him this week and see how it fits him now. It seems it’s wide enough to fit him now, but the sleeves & length are probably going to be a bit long for him. I had knit this up in a NB-9 month size, and it fit Quentin when he was 13 weeks old and wore it for a few weeks. He was 9 lbs 5 oz at 13 weeks old. No way a 9 month old could fit into the smallest size, which the designer marked as NB-9 month old. Most 13 week olds are a lot large than 9 lbs 5 oz (Quentin was a preemie born at 5 lbs 10 oz,, but dropping to 4 and a half lbs). Anyhow, there is something definitely off by the sizing in this pattern, and I don’t think I’ll knit this one again. (Looking back at the pics of Quentin in the original Wyatt I knit for him, I miss him that size!) Onto the next WIP… I’m trying to clear those out! (It’s about time!)

One Year Later

I have a Kenmore (from Sears) front loader. I had a Kenmore repair guy here for routine servicing under warranty last year. He told me I was using too much soap when doing my loads. You are not supposed to use the cup liquid soap comes with. (I use HE soap for front loading). You are only supposed to use 1 tablespoon. so I bought a set of measuring spoons from the dollar store and use the 1 tbs for measuring my soap for each load. I wanted to see how long this container of soap would last, so I marked the date on it when I started it. It says 185 loads on the bottle. I started it Feb 20, 2012 - Almost a year ago!!! I am almost down to the end of the bottle now, probably 500-600 loads later. I can't believe it & my clothes come out clean with that little soap each use! Thank you Kenmore service guy!

I QUIT!

I quit Facebook last night & it feels great. Those friends I was missing their contact info (email/phone numbers), I messaged and told them how to keep in touch. I’ve been weaning myself slowly off Facebook for a while, and last night I finally made the move and deleted my account. Let me tell you, I slept well last night! Now I know why my friends whom aren’t on Facebook, aren’t on Facebook. Are you on Facebook? Are you not on Facebook? Just like anything, it was a phase for me while I was on there, and it allowed me to reconnect with some old friends, but to be honest, while reconnecting was nice, as a mom of 3 kids, I don’t have the time or the energy to waste time on Facebook or the drama that Facebook creates.

The Kiss

Fans have been waiting for a LONG time now for this kiss. Are you a New Girl Fan? I finally got to watch last week’s episode last night. My mouth dropped – it was hot!

Goodbye to the Penny