Long Weekend Ahead

Unfortunately I don't get to enjoy much of it. I work tonight and tomorrow morning and Monday. I shouldn't complain. It's the first of the month and the extra money comes in handy.

Some friends and I were discussing scrapbooking(yes I have some scrapping stash but haven't dove head first into it yet. More laziness than anything, pics are organized, I have acquired a nice bit of stash over of the last few years) and the subject of an "About Me" album came up. This really got me to thinking about how much my kids know about me. Who I was before I married their dad and they were born and who I am now. Sure they see someone who does laundry, cleans, makes sure they eat and do their homework, but who do they really see? My oldest is 16 and he's gotten interested in politics this year. Last night while discussing some things with him I got annoyed that a certain political comedy show was where he was getting his facts. Then this bright light went on and I started to remember when my political ideas were formed, what people influenced my thinking and why. I shut up fast and then just explained to him that while this show did manage to book political guests it was first and foremost a comedy show and he needed to remember to search other places for information and opinions. My parents never discussed politics with me. I remember when I was a kid and the whole Watergate thing was going on all my mom would discuss was the fact her Soaps weren't on. Anyway, the point I was getting at was what do our families know about us other than the obvious? My mom continually talks about us moving back home, I finally had to tell her, "I spent most my life planning my escape from there, why in the world would I move back now?" Where was she when I was growing up? I knew a long time ago that she never really knew me but for some reason I thought maybe she heard me all those years ago. Apparently she didn't.

I hope I always hear my kids and support them and treasure them. Now I hope that with some scrapbooking and journaling maybe they'll know a little more about me one day than they do now.

I finished my niece Harleigh's afghan and forgot to take a finished pic but it looks pretty much like the pic in an earlier post, just all sewn together with a nice SC border around the outside. It felt so good to finish something and honestly, to give it away. There is nothing that makes me feel better than someone loving something I make. Of course she may never get it because DH forgot, FORGOT the zip code of his mother's house and wrote the wrong one on the package. He only lived there all his life. What have I learned from this? Fill out all airbills myself.

Now to restart the afghan for myself. It really perked up my living room when I had it tossed over the back of the couch. Really happy colors. I do need to collect a few more brighter colors. No where around here has a good selection of yarn, even cheapie Red Heart yarn is only stocked in the most basic colors. I can get bright yellow and orange easily enough, JoAnn's stocks the Red Heart Kids in lime and bright pink, but I'd like to find a few more super bright colors to add to my afghan. I wish there were more choices in softer yarns for afghans that wouldn't break the bank.

Next up in the crochet to do pile are a couple of ponchos for my nieces. I found a free pattern at www.lionbrand.com Their pattern calls for Lionbrand boucle yarn, but I was thinking about using Carribean Homespun, a bright pink, and trimming it with some dark pink fun fur. I haven't cared too much for colors the boucle comes in, but then again Walmart doesn't have a huge selection of colors in the fun fibers either.

Reading

Just started reading Good Grief by Lolly Winston. So far it's pretty good but I haven't had a lot of time to really get into it yet. It's a about a woman who has lost her husband and then the rest of her life sort of falls apart too.

I'm obsessing over these books:

Amazon.com: Books: Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western T

I want to read the whole series. I've always loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and even reread the Little House books occaisionally, but these books tell the real time stories of the women moving West in the 1800s. I've requested Amazon.com: Books: So Much to Be Done: Women Settlers on the Mining and Ranchi and Amazon.com: Books: Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey (Studies in the Lif from my library while I try to track down the Covered Wagon Women series. If I can't find it locally I'll order it from Amazon.

I go through phases when I get restless and want to be anywhere but where I'm at and considering I love where I live and it's the only place I've ever wanted to live, I'd hate to really up and move since it took me 35 yrs to get here, but I also dream of ranches, horses, mountians, and sheep. Blizzards, warm fires and no tourists. Wide open spaces fill my dreams but then could I really leave my Gulf for not only cold winters but 40 degrees below zero kind of winters?