Lovelihood

Fridays are me-time. I usually don't have to work. The kids, when it's not New Year's Eve Eve, are at school. Mr. New Media isn't home puttering around in his "coding pants," getting in my way. I log a nice long run. Take a leisurely shower (I can even shave my legs if I really feel like it). Crank up the iTunes and get in some quality time with the sewing machine. What to do about lunch is usually the biggest worry of the day. Today, I settled in with some semi-instant noodles, pan-steamed gyoza and an almost-due library book. Crazy in sodium level, sure (except for the book), but it's nice to have a meal I don't have to pick up from under Bear's high-chair.

Over the summer and through early autumn, the house still a wreck of half-unpacked boxes and furniture-poor rooms, I'd get the kids geared up on material-gathering expeditions. We'd pick up pine cones and sticks and newly-turned leaves and itty bitty flowers on the way to the playground. Mostly, it was to get The Boy interested in getting out of the house, and our spoils would sit piled up in a heap by the front door. I'd seen some nice yarn-wrapped sticks out there on the internet, though, and it ended up being a pleasantly low-key project, a way for The Boy to indulge his interest in all those balls of surplus yarn I generally don't want little kids tangling up. Now the sticks contribute to the sweet hodgepodge of found and made things on our narrow little mantle.

Normally, we might not let The Boy head directly out into the snow before breakfast and good-mornings and all the usual day-breaking formalities. But the forecast was for warmer weather and a snow-clearing rain. And I believed it. So as soon he came stumbling down the stairs in the morning, we hustled him into his jacket and out the door where he was quite content to throw slushballs at the shrubbery. Later in the morning, coming out of the shower, I found he had suited up and headed back out into the backyard by himself. Which I guess is what I get for not letting him watch tv while I shower. And yeah, by early afternoon most of the snow was gone.

Not a crystal clear shot. But I just got home from work after the bus didn't quite make it all the way up the hill and partway back down to where our house is. So I trust you'll forgive me for not going back out to perfect the shot. I'm told, though, that this winter will yield a bumper crop of snow days, so I'll defer photographic perfection to another day.

I've got the between-project doldrums. The best cure, of course, is to exhume fabrics purchased and stashed away for just such a rainy day. I'd been thinking that The Boy needs a new quilt, one that will cover his entire full-sized bed, perhaps replacing the mash of six or seven smaller blankets, including the quilt I'd made for his crib, that when laid over each other in interlocking fashion almost cover him adequately. But the fabrics I pulled out, the ones I really want to cut into now, are a tad girly, even for my pink-loving boy. So now I'm thinking another throw for the couch, instead... A girly one, of course.

For whatever reason, I believe that my children look best in macro. One day, probably not that long from now, The Boy will no longer allow me to get so close that I can see the fuzz on his face. And at this level of closeness I can pretend that there will be no need for orthodontia.

The King's Ring aka a smoked bacon maple glazed doughnut in honor of, who else, Elvis. I spent much of yesterday scheming ways to get to this limitedly engaged goodie. Made it downtown today with the fam to partake while also exposing the kids to the gritty world of Elvis impersonators. I didn't ask what the calorie count was on this bad boy, but I can only assume that this morning's weak-assed run likely did not cover the total.