Taking a breath...

I can't believe it's been a week since the last post. Things have been so busy around here. So much so that it's hard to think straight. The weekend is an absolute blur to me now and honestly could not tell you what happened other than quickly washing the car one of the days so that I wouldn't be totally embarrassed when driving through the neighborhood, stopping by the LYS (that is going out of business) and then canning tomatoes and salsa until I couldn't stand in the kitchen any longer. I swear I had tomatoes coming out of my ears. The pic below is only a small portion of what was in the sink before I started blanching them. It took a few hours but in the end I had 8 qts. & 2 pints of plain tomatoes. And then for salsa there are 6 qts & 2 pints. And can you believe someone in my family actually asked if that was going to be enough for this winter. That was not the question to be asking me after being in the kitchen for 4 hrs and it being non stop tomatoes.

Now I've got rhubarb waiting for me to clean and cut, bag and put away in the freezer. For the love of Pete, I just remembered there is zucchini also! Crumbs!!! Oh well, they can wait for the weekend.

Still plugging away at Em's sweater. I've only got the hood to go and then the finishing edges. I finally made it down to the LYS with what I had made so far so that one of the girls there could show me how to properly seam the poor thing together. I've only done top down sweaters before where it's all one piece and had no clue as to what I was doing. So after a very long day on Tuesday of lessons, our PE group, & Em's book club group, I was speeding down the road to make it home in time to drop the girls off with Glenn before the LYS closed for the night. The girls at the shop were ever so nice to sit and show me what I needed to do and then let me go around the shop looking for yarn to make me a couple of sweaters while they were gathering things for the end of the day. I must admit that when I was down there on Saturday, there was more than just "checking things out". Everything in the shop is on sale and who could honestly pass up that opportunity to browse and see if there is anything worthy of knitting a sweater with. I did walk out with some gorgeous yarn for a new sweater and a couple of skeins for a pair of socks. I will show those off sometime tomorrow. Well, while at the shop Tuesday I found some wonderful "cheap" yarn to make a couple of hooded sweaters for myself in some colors that I would not have normally picked out. I will show those tomorrow also. I didn't get home until 7:30ish and was absolutely beat when I passed through the door. All I could do was shower, put comfy pj's on, dry my hair and hit the pillow.

I think old age is creeping up on me. I'm not a party animal anymore. The days of staying up and awake all weekend long are long past and are distant memories. I now wonder "what the heck was I thinking doing things like that?". I don't like living in the fast lane where I'm moving from dawn till dusk. I'm slow and quiet and just like to veg out at home, with a comfy blanket around me while knitting away. Let's not forget the yummy hot chocolate and the popcorn that has to be within arms reach while hearing the needles tapping together while knits and purls are being created. Last night was so darn enjoyable with the TV off, no music playing and having the girls hang out in the living room with me, sharing their books with me while they were reading. I'm going to have to make sure there are more of those nights around here, all the time.

Soon Brenna's little sweater will be on the needles as I have now been able to claw my way through the "dysfunctional pattern" as it is lovingly called now. Even the girls at the LYS said it could have been written better. That's saying something. I will show pics, promise. Do you honestly think that I would suffer through something like this and not show off what was accomplished with the "Greek" writing? There will be pics.

So off to go see if my brand new sweat pants are dry. The weather is so dog gone wonderful here with the 50 degrees and breezes. Now I'm just waiting for all the gorgeous colors to show themselves. I couldn't help myself when at the store earlier from picking up a new pair of sweats, coming home and throwing them in the washer so that they would be warm and comfy for this evening. Yes, they were the only thing in the washer. There will be some knitting, snacking and some HOCKEY watching going on around here tonight. It's the start of the season!!!! It's been a long wait since the Stanley Cup playoffs. Thought we were going to go through withdrawals. It won't be quiet around here but at least I will be home where it's comfy cozy.

So until tomorrow, I hope everyone has a wonderful evening. Tomorrow will be busy but at least it will be busy with making cookies. There are some fresh apples staring at me in the kitchen just wondering when they will be made into a warm gooey apple crisp. Sometime this weekend dearies. :) There goes the whole idea of watching what I eat, huh!!!

So here's to taking a breather, enjoying