I am glad the holiday frenzy is over. I’ve spent the last week detoxing from running around like mad during the past month. I should have dug out my oriental spice tea long before I did today, but at least I did lounge around in my favorite slippers (they massage!) all week when I didn’t have to leave the house.

I’ve been working on a pair of fingerless mitts with yarn I picked up on our vacation in Montana. I have pictures to show, but I’ve got a fire-breathing Maddie requesting a few minutes to register her Webkinz bear. She also knows I’m talking about her, using her newly developing reading skills.

For my wedding shower those many years (eight) ago, the theme was for every invitee to bring a recipe that would be placed into my first recipe book.� One of these recipes was for a “Better Than S*x” cake and believe me, it almost is.� I think it’s the large amount of chocolate that makes my toes curl.� Anyhoo, I was gifted with a large amount of Nordicware bundt pans for Christmas from my brother and his significant other so I used the tree pan to make the now aptly named by the girls, The Best Cake Ever:

The Best Cake Ever (as named by the Roots girls)

Ingredients:

1 box butter or yellow cake mix

1 pkg (3 3/4 oz) instant vanilla pudding

8 oz. sour cream

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1/2 c. water

3 eggs

6 oz. chocolate chips

2 oz. German sweet chocolate squares, grated

1/2 c. nuts (I use pecans)

Small amount of powdered sugar

1. Mix all of the ingredients except the chocolate and nuts until fluffy, about 2 minutes on medium with electric mixer.
2. Add the chocolate chips, grated chocolate, and the nuts.
3. Pour mix into greased and floured bundt pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.� Cool, remove from pan, and dust with powdered sugar.� Enjoy!

I baked this on New Year’s Day and intended to post the next day. I’m a little less than a week behind, so not too bad! I cooked this, along with a delicious batch of chicken & dumplings, while lounging around in my massaging house slippers, and squeezing in a little reading from an amazing book that I got for Christmas.

My mother-in-law went to the Montana Festival of the Book this last fall and was able to have James Lee Burke’s newest short story compilation, Jesus out to Sea, autographed for me.  See?

I’m a huge fan of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels set in New Orleans and New Iberia, Louisiana, but he also rights about Montana, being a resident of Missoula also, and I had recommended him to my mother-in-law, so I was blown away when I opened this package on Christmas day.  One of his novels was turned into a movie, Heaven’s Prisoners, starring Alec Baldwin as Dave Robicheaux in what I think is one of his best roles while also being a very decent movie.  They’ve just finished up In the Electric Mist, with Tommy Lee Jones as Dave, which kind of makes me leary, but might work.  It’s scheduled to be released some time this year.

The fire-breathing Maddie is back, so I’ve got to go.  We’re going to watch The Bourne Ultimatum tonight, which means I can get in a few hours on my mitts, which I’m knitting so they’re taking a lot longer for me than I like, but I’ve got one finished so I can’t turn back now.  Maddie likes them so much that she wants a pair for herself.  Her pair will be crocheted.

Tags: , books, Family, food, Home

Never, ever cut one of those hard plastic zip ties holding together your strand of Christmas lights with an exacto knife. Even if you try to be careful, you’ll slice a deep cut into your thumb. Right after the pain medication kicks in and you try to do something as simple as zip up your jacket because the temperatures dropped 30 degrees in an hour, you’ll realize that just because your thumb is no longer throbbing, doesn’t mean you can use it yet. Nor will it feel better when you try to get back to work on your socks because the idea of wearing wool socks in a houseful of tile floors sounds really tempting. ugh.

Speaking of the lights, here is what the almost-finished outside of our house looks like. This is before the ladder fell out from under Andy, many more fuses needed to be replaced in the strands from busted light bulbs, and Andy’s pants suffered many holes from climbing around on the roof.

While uploading these photos, I found a few surprises thanks to one of my daughters.

The culprit outed herself by attempting a few self-portraits. I love the photo surprises that I get when I download my photo card. I think some of the greatest photographs in my collection where taken by the girls during random moments.

The culprit:

Ack. My thumb’s killing me. I’m trying not to use the cut side to type, but it’s hard to break a habit. I’m going to go in search of my notes for the hats I made for the girls. I want to make more, but I’m not currently feeling patient enough to try to recreate the pattern by looking at their hats.

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Now playing: Marly - Episode 19 Whatcha’ Gonna Do With A Gall Darn Ball Of Yarn
via FoxyTunes

Tags: Family, Girls, Home

This is the first time in my life that I’ve actually needed to keep a weekly planner of all of my activities. When I was working, I never had the need. I didn’t have appointments or lunches with clients to keep track of. Now, I’m volunteering in the mornings at the girls’ school (trying to average twice a week), I’m their Room Moms, I’m their Girl Scout Troop Leader (which I’m very excited about!), and they’re taking swim lessons. I’ve got an interview Monday evening at JC Penney for a holiday job to help out with a little extra Christmas money. I’ve just finished my paperwork to start after-school tutoring. It sounds like a lot to me, but it’s all working out well so far. I’ll probably not be as convinced of everything running smoothly after I start working a few evenings a week too. As far as that, I’m just excited to get out of the house in the evenings and make a little extra spending money.

Now that I’m finally over the nasty flu from last week that managed to keep me feeling miserable through this week, I have a few projects that I finished in September to share. First, I made hats for the girls. Laura’s is in worsted weight (Lion Brand Wool Ease) and Maddie’s is in fingering weight (Lion Brand Babysoft). I hope to post the pattern free in a few days, as soon as I find my notes.

Hey! That’s not Laura! She’s still at school so you get me as a model. :)

I also made a stash basket from a Bernat pattern. I haven’t woven in the ends yet and I need to buy starch to finish it out. It’s going to be an organizer for my bills more than a stash basket, but for now it’s home to the yarn for Laura’s Griffyndor scarf I’m working on.

Now, please avert your eyes if you would rather not see knitting, but I’m excited about what I’ve accomplished. It’s my first sock!! It’s the training sock from Knitty. I used Red Heart Sport and Size 3 needles. I’m going to weave in the ends and put it with my Christmas ornaments. It’s cute although not perfect.

 Now, just as exciting - I started a pair of Monkey socks!  I’m just on the first bit of ribbing because I’m not working exclusively on it (got that scarf to finish), but no troubles with 5 dpn’s so far.  I’m impressed with the twisted ribbing, I’m not just particularly impressed with knitting in to the back loop.  It takes too much time.

  It’s back to cleaning the house for me.  Mom & J are coming up this weekend for a visit.  The State Fair is on the schedule for tomorrow so hopefully I’ll have a bunch of cool pictures to share.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Tags: Crochet, Girls, Home, Knitting