Road Trip

We came back home last night after a very long road trip. Over the last week we traveled through 10 states and 3500 miles. If we make it through all these miles without getting H1N1 it will be a miracle.
I realized on this trip I am in love with seeing different landmarks and landscapes.
The welcome sign to Alabama...

I completely agree that Alabama(at least the Northern part we drove through) is beautiful with all the mountains and beautiful farms dotting the landscape. I could see us with a nice little farm there. (I felt this way about Tennessee too.)
The weather was grey and rainy for the rest of the drive down South and it may have influenced my opinion about Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

Tons of refineries dotted the landscape through these 3 states.
The goal was to get my parent's winter home set up by the 19th. On the 17th we moved their RV to their winter spot by the beach.

We brought the grey and rain from Illinois with us. This part of Texas never has this much rain for so many consecutive days.

On Friday the kids took advantage of a beautiful, sunny day to ride bikes down the beach.

I could park myself on a chair listening to the surf for the rest of the winter and not miss a bit of the Illinois winter.

Everything is Texas is Texas sized.
We drove past this big squirrel in Sinton,TX outside of a praline store..

We ate lunch at Lulu's Bakery and Cafe where they have 3 pound cinnamon rolls.

On Saturday we headed to San Antonio to catch our train back home. The rail is a great way to see the USA and the kids love it. The train went past the new Dallas stadium, the Colorado River in Austin, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and the Mississippi River. The best part about the train is the ability to get up and walk around and the views from the observation car.

The kids and I may become hermits for a couple of weeks and recover from all the crowds of people we encountered on our trip home. Our train was overbooked by 5 people but we made it home safely and right on schedule.
Thanks to my wonderful husband we came home last night to a clean house, presents wrapped, and a Christmas tree all set up and ready to decorate. Thanks babe, I couldn't do it without you!

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The dog may think differently but he'll do just about anything for a treat.

Red Scarf Project

The Red Scarf Project is in need of more scarves ASAP!
There is lots more info on who gets the scarves if you follow the link above.
As of last week, the OFA has just barely 1300 scarves. They need 3000 for the Red Scarf Project, to send in care packages to college students formerly in foster care, who are going it on their own.
The students truly appreciate what you are doing, knitting something by hand for them. Not only is it likely to be the only handknit they receive, it will likely be the only care package.
If you need more motivation to knit for this project there are a couple of groups on Ravelry with more information.

Weekend Wrapup

Did you all have a restful Thanksgiving weekend?

For the first time in 20 years of living on my own we had a traditional dinner for Thanksgiving. Youngest child expressed concern that he would never, ever know what a real turkey tasted like. My husband took over the oven and cooked them a bird.

It was gross and I didn't enjoy any minute of dinner but now they can't say we never made an effort to give them a "normal" Thanksgiving dinner.

Husband and I stayed up all night after dinner and started our Christmas shopping at 2:30am. We were finished by 7am and found some really good deals(at least 50% off) on items we needed.

In my knitting world the current shawl in progress is inching along at turtle speed. The edging instructions involves an 8 row repeat 114 times. I'm about halfway through the edging and hope to finish it up by New Year's Eve.

On Saturday I went to pick out a "new to me" fiddle(on the right).

I went with a specific color and make in mind(a nice dark reddish brown and German made)but I ended up not finding exactly what I wanted. I am going to borrow this one for a few months. It ended up looking very similar to my violin(on the left) but the sound is very different. I love the warm sound this one produces. I'm looking forward to gathering in front of the fireplace and playing lots of festive tunes during December.

Thankful

for my three crazy guys.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Art Class

We can call every crafting adventure an art class here at our house of homeschooling. The past couple of days we've been busy making ornaments for a tree at a local museum.
A knitting friend passed along some recycled cards and instructions.
We punched lots of circles, and folded all of them...

We were able to glue together 8 ornaments from all the cards.

We also made about 3 dozen dough ornaments. Hey, anything that can bring a smile to the teen is a winner of a project to me.

Of course my favorite ornaments they painted were wearing hand knits.

Tis the Season

I delivered my first Christmas gift yesterday.
A goat milking stand.....

It's been 20 years since I've made anything with tools other than knitting needles and a sewing machine. With help from some awesome online plans I was able to build this in a couple of hours. I think it took me longer to gather the supplies and materials than it did to put it all together. Mama goat, Callie, is due in March so this present arrived in plenty of time.

I packaged up my first box for Halos of Hope charity this morning. I was able to knit 5 hats and sew up 4 bandannas.