Wrote a song about it....here it go

Imagine me, that person who looks semi-dignified on occasion, for a minute if you will.
Now imagine me, running through the house, singing at the top of my voice,
"I'm so proud of Benjamin,
'cause he pooped in the potty and not in his pants!!!!!!
I'm so proud of Benjamin,
'cause he pooped in the potty and not on McQueen!"

If you're a potty training parent of boy(s), you'll get the Cars movie reference in that last bit.
Only three days until Big Papa comes home. Not that I'm counting.

I'm almost extinct....give me some candy.

Hub left this morning for a four day trip for work.
To Las Vegas.
Can I say that I'm just a bit, um, meh, about this?
"But I'm in meetings for two days," he protests.
"Didn't you just get off the phone with the golf course confirmation, though?" I ask.
"Um, yeah, but we only have time to play 9," he says.

I leave you with this. Pictures of my four trick or treating monkeys to follow tomorrow if I remember to take pictures.

I am a real person

I spent the whole morning thinking about how little of myself I've shared here. Part of that is because I had no camera with which to share anything, and part is because I don't know how much is appropriate, really. That thin line between what I'm knitting and how crazy our life is here. I can show you the sweater I'm knitting for the boy, but can I show the journey it took to get there? Do I show the baby ripping it out while she giggles? Can I show another photo of my boys using #15s for swords? How about my two year old, pantless, sitting on the floor and 'pedalling' my spinning wheel?
It's insane, people, to homeschool with four children. Insane. Some days we have history of knitting, complete with sheep discussion and the Knifty Knitter. We watch mom draft a bit ( but not spin, as the brake on my wheel disintegrated and the new one isn't working well) and then it all breaks down. Most days are a bit of Math and History and teaching the five year old to read. It takes a couple of hours and is mostly chaos, but I guess it works.
So, dear reader (I've always wanted to say that, but I really do mean it) I leave you with two pictures. One is of myself, so you can see that I'm a real person. You have no idea how many of these I took of myself so as not to have a double chin or crossed eyes. The other photograph is of my morning, all wrapped up.
Have a great day.

Rhinebeck, or what I missed

Before I begin, I would like to say that next year, I'm sneaking off under cover of darkness before anyone realizes that I'm gone, and I will make it to the Fold booth before there's only two skeins of Socks that Rock in Olivenite left. And yes, I did arrive at 11 am but those knitters are tenacious, man. Tenacious.
To sum it up....
I have few pictures. My friend and I got a bit of a late start, but not a big deal, I thought. We brought three of our eight children, thinking that they'd be excited to see sheep and wool. Because we home educate said children, we thought it would be a fun little field trip for the girls and lots of fibery luxury goodness for us.
We were so naive.
This child


Turned into this child

and whined the whole way to NY. As did her seatmates.

I was informed later that my partner in crimes of wool and alpaca doesn't really like crowds and felt overwhelmed with all of the people there.

I just wanted to shop. I wanted to meet up. I wanted to wallow in Grafton batts.

From afar, I saw several bloggers that I 'know'.

This is what I got, and it was in the last fifteen minutes because I couldn't go home emptyhanded. It's Brooks Farm Duet, and three skeins of wool/silk fingering weight from Spirit Trail Fibers.


I've been sniffling over other blog posts but so far people have been fairly merciful to me.

YAY!

Mommy finally got her camera running.
Just in time for Rhinebeck.
Check back for the haul shots on Monday.

And just to be silly

A meme I spotted elsewhere. I always got a good chuckle out of this type of thing as a kid. I suppose I haven't grown much in that area.

The Name Game

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: ( pet and current street name)

Fish Baldwin

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your moms side, your favorite candy)

Ruth Cadbury Mini Eggs (Now that's catchy)

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of last name, first three letters of your middle name)

H Eli

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)

Brown Alpaca

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)

Elizabeth Westbrook

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 2 letters of mom's maiden name and first 3 letters of the town you grew up in.)

Harambewes

7. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color, favorite drink)

The Caramel Machiatto (although I'm leaning heavily towards the Pumpkin Spiced Latte these days)

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first name of both your grandfathers)

Harry Clifford

9. FUTURISTIC NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne and the name of your favorite shoes)

Michael Flip Flops. (And no, they're not my favorite shoes, but I couldn't pick one. I'm not a flip flop type of girl unless I'm getting a pedicure.)
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother/father's middle name )

Eldred Edward. How's that for weird. Guess whose name is whose :)

That dent in my forehead?

There's something about homeschooling that is remarkably like herding sheep. I once heard someone say that sheep are the dumbest of the animals, and I would hardly compare my children to them in that regard, but they repeatedly do not listen to the voice of their shepherd and go off on tangents all day long. I love these kids but I have to say I'm getting tired of beating my head up and down on my desk here. Add to the mix a teething, clingy baby and I have to say that the hair on the back of my neck is beginning to stand up. Breathe in, breathe out. Serenity now.
I haven't had time to get that camera up and running, so I'll leave you with a teaser of what's to come.

Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle
My second FBS, which is at 75% completion
Stephanie Japel's Forecast
Bonne Marie's Cutaway
Annie Modesitt's Sideways Spencer, sans acceptable buttons
and several other projects in various stages of completion

Blog, Interrupted

It's been a crazy summer, and now Autumn as well. I don't think I stopped much to knit, let alone write about it. I also had the disadvantage of not owning a digital camera, so uploading progress shots was daunting at best, not happenin' at worst. I decided to take a break based on the fact that I had nothing good to report.
But that's all changed.
Hub works for a major auto dealer that happens to reward its employees from time to time and we just spent a lovely weekend in Laguna, CA. We were gifted each night with clever, thoughtful gifts, such as a relaxation basket with Land's End robes and a Jack Johnson CD, a gorgeous painting of our resort by a local artist, and....
a digital camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just in time for Rhinebeck and everything. Yippee for yay!
SO....I now have no excuse for not updating anything as I can just take the pic and upload it right away. I'm so the opposite of anything technically gifted, so it may take a day for me to get ready, but I'll be there.
I can't imagine that anyone who used to even read me is still around, but if you are, hey. I missed you guys.