April is a lovely month

One that brought me two wonderful babies.  Yesterday my baby turned five. We spoiled him all day long, and he ate it up!

We went through the drive thru at McDonalds for lunch. With our eating style, this is a huge deal. A very rare treat.... If you can consider food that can kill you a treat anyway.  He was so happy all day, and just loved opening gifts. It was hilarious. He would open underwear, or something of the like, and scream at the top of his lungs "look!!!! Underwear!!!" With pure joy, as though it was the best gift in the world. I adore this simple joy. Love it entirely.

It is super hard to get a picture of his excitement when he is jumping and shouting.

Super hard.

But the general cuteness come through. 

He chose this toy, which is hilarious. It attaches to your hands and feet, and stretches. It came with a work out video. I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever seen, until I watched him with it. He loves it!  Just like everything else on his magical day.

And the cake??? More magic. 

He had such a twinkle in his eye. He LOVES to blow out candles, even when they are not his.

So we, being the awesome parents that we are, we both instantly covered his best candle blow. 

But he still had plenty of umph left.

And he was very pleased indeed.

priceless times

Sometimes a picture is priceless, not because it is a great picture, but because it has such great meaning behind it.

These are some of those.

My daughter teaching her grandpa to text. 

 He concentrated super hard. We know this by the way he works his tongue. All of his children do the same.

Then he decided that talk to text might be the way to go, because he has oversized fingers.

We may have giggled a little, but it was with  and not at him, of course.

In the end he got it, by golly. Now he is sitting on the couch texting my daughter, who is still sitting next to him. 

I think we just took him forward a few generations. 

I love this man. I have been so blessed to have him as my father in law, and the grandpa to my children. He is one of this Earths great blessings. 

Someone should teach my kids

 That if you are going to be destructive, you should not sign your name.

Or leave footprints straight to your room.

(The full mess , because who would want to miss this?)

Or leave your hand prints as evidence.

This makes me smile a ridiculous amount. I know that someday I will truly miss these little hands. I love being a mother. 

But that doesn't have to mean that I miss them today. Little turkey. 

In other news, the princess of the mess decided that she needed her hair cut. I agreed. Where we didn't agree was on the length. She wanted to cut it up to her ears. We compromised and my heart ached a little as I took about five inches off. 

 She loves it, and so do I. She looks just adorable, as usual. If I could design the perfect hair for a beautiful little child, it would be hers. I have such cute kids.

The little guy couldn't go to any easter activities because of his immune problems, so he helped hide eggs for the hunter, who was sick. He may need some practice on egg hiding.

 His aunt felt bad, and made him this lovely bunny cake. He had a blast with it. It was such a great day with my little one. Blessings, blessings, blessings.

And on the knitting front, Gramps is coming along nicely. This pattern,ohhh this pattern. So far it is one of the best I have used. Each stitch is pure love. So very relaxing. 

Maybe I should get a second cow

I truly, truly, truly love Bessie. I can't believe the joy I feel in owning a cow. I love everything about it, and I have no idea why I waited so long to get one. I am pretty seriously thinking of getting a second one so that I have milk year round.

The decision may be more than slightly swayed by the fact that we opened our first block of home made cheddar cheese tonight. It is the best cheese I have ever had. It is a very sharp cheddar. So, so good! Trust me. I wish you could taste it, but it is mine. All mine.

And my amazing husband has decided that he needs to make more, bigger batches of cheese. So he got this little pot. The photo has not been poorly photoshopped, or stretched. That poy really is that big!

My knitting is out of control, due to a bad case of startitis

Generally I am a very controlled knitter. I have zero control when it comes to stash, but I have always had a pretty good control of what I actually have on the needles. I have been a big believer in one complicated, one simple on the needles. I don't have a UFO pile. I don't think I could live that way. I start a project, and finish it before I cast on another. It is the rule, and one of the only knitting rules that I follow closely. However, when on vacation it is OK to break rules, right? It is OK to cast on many, many projects without completing the things already on the needles. I admit, I went a little crazy. I wanted to go a lot crazy, but I am not an animal. So I only cast on a few too many things. I still felt like I had a pretty good grip on things. Then I got home, and assumed that things would return to normal. I would milk the goats, and cow. I would care for and feed the children. I would clean the house, and do the laundry. I would be a fairly monogamous knitter.
But things didn't really work out that way. The startis continued to flare, and I haven't found a cure. I want to cast on. I can usually control this urge, but not today.

And really, I don't have THAT much on the needles.
Maybe if I make a list, I will be able to stick to it. Or not. This is not a commitment.

I have to finish this belt. This belt. It may kill me.

I am knitting a king size blanket. I don't think this can rationally count against my two project rule. It seems like long term relationships shouldn't count.
I have a pair of socks. Or two. But I don't know that those should count, but I am having a hard time coming up with exactly why it shouldn't count.
I have the second Monica Shawl. It has been on hold for a long while because I lost interest. It is a lovely knit, and highly enjoyable. But it isn't a sweater or cardigan.

K, making a list makes it sounds OK, and really not that bad. Especially since the list says that socks and blankets don't count. I am going to go co Gramps in orange Remix. This list was a great idea!!

UPDATE: like a responsible knitter, I finished the belt first.  The Cardi is done, if you only count the knitting part, which fortunately I do.

And this remix is knitting up nicely.

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig

I loved my Tennessee trip, but home feels so good. It is where I keep my favorite husband, cow, daughter, and goats. Home is truly where the heart is.

But there are Tennessee things that I really miss. 

Mostly my sister wife, who had no clue I was sneaking pictures of her frequently. I know, pretty creepy... But I miss her horribly and it helps to see her. This is her in her natural habitat, with yarn.

This is what we were sitting in the midst of, while knitting and sneaking pictures. Sheep. Absolutely adorable sheep. With only one fault. Hair. 

And as we were leaving the trees burst into bloom, almost like a final plea to stay with them, in Tennessee. 

Where there are really cool moths. 

And so many toads that it is nearly impossible to walk from the van to the house without stepping on them. (Right after this picture was taken, the toad peed)

But Tennessee may not be as cool as Nebraska. (Just kidding. Nebraska is really long and boring)
Because Nebraska has these.

It is like an awesome bidet toilet highbred. 

And it had a heated seat. How can you not love a heated toilet seat in a public restroom, where others may have or have not had their most intimate parts gently sprayed, and blown dried?

However, Wyoming was awesome. We saw thousand of deer, elk, and antelope. My thirteen year old hunter was very much in heaven. 

But home is good.

Very good. 

And we were blessed with a special surprise the day after we got home. Three perfect little chicks. And one really ugly, odd one. (Just kidding. There were only three chicks)

And she is such a good mama. She tried to eat my perfectly well behaved Lily dog, just for looking. 

Now for the important stuff. 

I have knitting to share. 

I knit (and blocked, though not before this picture) an adorable baby cardi. What a fabulously simple, genius pattern. 

Queensland Sugar Rush (which I just purchased 59 skeins of, so you may feel things get a bit tedious here on the blog for a bit, but I love it)

Knit on a size five.

Pattern is:

Linnie

And I finished half of the belt cardi belt, and am trying to not be bitter that it looks much better on The Grassfed Angel. 

Sometimes knits chose their own destiny, instead of following my intended path. This one seems to have chosen her. Cashmere. For real. Maybe I will lose 70 pounds and it will chose me. For now though, I think the chosen recipient should be required to finish the stupid belt. And she can't have my $18 button either. So there. 

Then there is this, the Liesl. I would like to pretend to have knit this beautiful piece of art, but I did not. My sister wife did, and in a knitterly twist of fate, it chose me. I think the knitting God's were trying to even things out. Not sure where that leaves the sister wife though. She is on her own. 

I love it, and it looks amazing on me . It feels amazing. Much love. 

And that is a lot of amazing for one post.

Liesl

On the way down the dusty old road

Yesterday we saw Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, and Nebraska. Today is Nebraska, Wyoming, and hopefully Idaho.

Alone, with four kids.

It has been surprisingly delightful.