Catching Up

Sigh. There's a lot to catch up on here.
I have scrapped the Mindy Scarf all of you so kindly voted on. I really do apologize. I have frogged maybe three scarves altogether and finally concluded that my problem was the yarn. It's lovely yarn with cashmere and silk, but it just didn't want to be a scarf. So, I panicked and searched for patterns, decided to get new yarn and resorted to checking out a yarn store in Winter Haven (probably a 30 minute drive) in an effort to avoid the long drive to Tampa to the only local yarn store I know about. The Winter Haven store was a complete bust. So I tossed my daughter into the car on Saturday, dropped the boys off at the chess meet (2 wins, 2 losses) and popped by my mom's house to see if she wanted to go to the yarn store with us. Not that she knits or likes yarn that much....but it just seemed like a fun thing to do anyway. I'm so glad she went. I poked my fists into countless cubbies full of yarn, searching for just the right springiness and fluff and softness. And I found it. I pulled out the most gorgeous hank of yarn! In the perfect color! And it was way over my budget. Here's where mom comes in handy, you see. She said she'd help me out. That it would be part of my Christmas gift to enjoy knitting with such a fine yarn. That she wanted me to have the opportunity to make something that was actually as special as I wanted it to be.
I love my mom.
So I left the yarn store in such a tizzy. Alas, I cannot share this lovely yarn or the scarf I finally settled on until after Christmas. But you will like it, I'm sure. And the pink yarn will be some legwarmers for my little ballerina. It will be much happier in stockinette stitch.
On a sadder note, though, my mom lost her dog this morning. More than her dog, I guesss. Her baby. We have all had a very sad day filled with hugs and tears. Emma has a little book that she made called "Old Friends Remembered" which contains mostly portraits and names of wild creatures she has met and who have gone on their way. She made an entry this morning for little Opie, the red-headed, feisty, too-big-for-his-britches poodle. We had a nice lunch out with my mom and dad to get all our minds off the sadness. My family does everything big. We fight big, we party big, and we love even bigger. And this fierce love extends to our critters - they are part of our family. So we mourn their passing in a big way, too.
Over lunch, Chris reminded me that it was our turn to provide dessert for church tonight. I remembered having seen some pre-made gingerbread cookie dough where we had just been grocery-shopping and decided that this Shortcut to Holiday Fun would be just what the kids and I needed today to bring a little Christmas into our home. I ducked into the store on our way home from lunch, imagining that I would just grab it and head out. But this particular store had no such shortcuts available to me. Being a Bear of Little Brain lately, I was not able to formulate a Plan B right there by the dairy case. As I tapped my head and repeated "think, think, think," my inner homemaker (who has been feeling oh-so-ignored) suggested we just make gingerbread men from scratch. I said to her that it seemed such a fine idea and we would just buy icing and call that a shortcut. And it was done. I came home and donned a tank top (it is 84 degrees after all) and my Mrs. Claus apron and pulled out my recipe book. To my dismay, this dough was going to need to chill for two hours in the refrigerator. And I had exactly two and a half hours before church. This would never do. I mixed furiously and flatted out the dough and stuck it in the freezer to speed things along (there's a handy little tip from me to you, in case you haven't thought of it before). But I was also happily surprised to find that this recipe did not call for eggs. That means that these little gingerbread men would not make my face all red and itchy! And although I'm not really supposed to have sugar or white flour for another couple of months....perhaps I could just let it slide this once.



We so didn't have time to make homemade gingerbread men, but it was really worth it to squeeze that in to our day. I already feel more Christmasy than I have yet this year, and our Advent service tonight gave me a chance to just meditate and reflect and be still.
Well, plus, I ate a cookie for the first time in....I can't remember the last cookie I ate. That may be the real reason I feel so much nicer.

DAILY BLISS: icing and sprinkles and a husband who runs around behind me to clean up the mess in my wake