love, friday

• Love that my LYS didn't blink an eye when I asked if I could exchange two skeins leftover from this and three skeins leftover from this for five skeins in a new color (it's pale yellow, though you can't tell in the photo), so I could have enough for a new project in the stash. Both purchases were over a year old and I didn't have the receipt, but they know me and said "of course!" Love my yarn store. (And that's not "buying yarn," for those keeping track of my yarn diet progress.)
• Love that the second try at Dan's new hiking socks is going better than the first. The first was awesome, except I went and made it too big again. (Hiking socks should not be too big, or else there will be blisters.) These are the re-soleable ones from Favorite Socks. (They were supposed to be a surprise but my knitterly intuition thought it best to do a fitting with the foot...good idea. The photo is the first one, much too large.)
• Love my other knitting projects that are flying off my needles that I can't tell you about yet.

• Love that my dear, sweet friend Kristina is getting married to Zach this summer! Though we've known each other for years, we've never met in person. Here's hoping that can be remedied this year. (Congratulations again!!!)

• Love the anticipation of Eden and Aaron's wedding this fall too. Can't stop looking at their "save the date" card and getting all excited for the trip!

• Love the gorgeous first weekend of May ahead of us. Our family schedule is packed to over-flowing with activities but we're excited to do it all, see everyone and be together.

• Love getting ahead of my kitchen this week by making lots of dinners to keep in the fridge and lots of breads to have on hand. Next up: muffins and cookies. The J-Man loves his cookies.

• Love that I've maybe-sorta-kinda been able to get on top of the Whiny Monster who has taken up residence in our household as of late, by putting my foot down about where whining can occur (bedroom only, thankyouverymuch), ignoring it when necessary and, when all else fails, smothering it with love. When I tell the Whiny Monster (a.k.a. Jackson) that I want to help him but I simply don't understand "whine," he amazingly pauses and starts over with regular old English about 7 times out of 10. Not bad...

• Love taking both kids for a hike at the nature center yesterday. Love that Amelia is seemingly as in love with the outdoors as her brother. Love that Jackson is still talking about the ducks who "stuck their butts in the air" as we walked by the marsh on the boardwalk. We've indoctrinated them well!

• Love that Baby Girl is crawling, for all intents and purposes. Sure, she still mainly goes backwards. Sure, she gets mad that she can't see where she's going and gets stuck a lot. But she's really awesome at going from sitting to crawling and back, is totally practicing her balance and is great at going in circles. Forward is next and then...heaven help us. (The 3yo's toys are small!)
• Love that Baby Girl makes the sign for "airplane" every time she sees or hears an airplane overhead. Admittedly, this sign is not as useful as, say, "milk" or "more" or "change diaper" but it shows that she's learning and it's like watching her brain grow every time she uses it.

• Love watching "The Return of the King" for many nights this week while knitting. Love LOTR. Love getting lost in Middle Earth.

• Love finding a few minutes to compose this today since the kids are sleeping in a little. (I know, I know, finally. Sorry, Eden! How's this?) :)

• Love these goofy kids. (I will be able to get a photo with both of them smiling someday, right?)
love, friday