It seems I’ve been tagged by several people to answer the new round of the Weird Thing meme. I was thinking it seemed mighty familiar and a quick search of this here blog proved me correct. You can see my answers to the 6 Weird Things Meme and if you’re truly a glutton for punishment you can see my answers for the 5 Weird Habits Meme here. As if that wasn’t enough about me, I’ve learned I have a new little quirk that is making my family crazy: we have a cover on the sofa now and I can’t stand for it to be messed up or have wrinkles. In case you’re new to this blog, I have three children aged 2-5. I know it is an exercise in futility but keeping it neat and wrinkle free (and making the husband and children crazy by constantly tucking and straightening the offending cover) is my current mission in life. It’s gotten so bad that there are rumors of a ceremonial burning of the cover when we buy a new sofa. However sofa shopping is a whole other can of worms and I’m not even prepared to go there so I live with the cover.

We went fishing with friends and while I’m not into fishing, I can’t wait to go again. My friend Ann did all the gross stuff like baiting the hooks and putting the fish on lines, etc. It was a fabulous day and the kids all caught a fish. they also got custom koozies from http://trueimprint.com which was great! They only caught brim but in their minds, it might as well have been a big bass.

We went out to the Blackwater Conservation area along the Comite River last week with a group of friends and had a blast. We had to take a short hike down to the river but nary a complaint was heard since the kids were too busy picking and stuffing blackberries into their mouths.

And I finished Ahab’s Wife: Or, The Star-Gazer: A Novel. READ IT. It is amazing and all I want to do now is pick up and move to a lighthouse in New England. This book is definitely high on my list of favorites — a bildungsroman with a female protaganist, the references to Keats, Shakespeare, and Wordsworth that really do make my mind and spirit soar, historical accuracy… *sigh* And the entire time I was reading the book I had Billy Bragg and Wilco’s At My Window Sad and Lonely playing through my head (if you’d rather read the lyrics you can do that here). I’ll stop now before y’all think I’ve turned into a raving loon but be warned: I have a new stack of books and I think I’ll spend this afternoon sitting in front of the window listening to Mermaid Avenue, staring out the window and trying to decide which book I’ll read next. Knitting to resume shortly.

This is my first real foray into embroidery and I love it. I’ve always admired embroidered tea towels, kitchen towels, table cloths, and handkerchiefs. The idea of all of those little stitches adorning an everyday item makes my little heart swell to the point that I feel like dancing around and singing My Favorite Things like Julie Andrews did in The Sound of Music (do I really need to link that?). There is just something so utterly charming about spending all that time to make an everyday item more unique, more colorful, more cheerful. Now it’s your turn, what makes you want to dance around and sing?

Slipnslide

We went to lunch Saturday and the restaurant was playing classic rock. I looked up from the menu to see the Poulette rockin’ out in her high chair and when she saw me looking at her she smiled and said loudly enough for the entire restaurant to hear, “I’m dancing on my heiny mama!” The Frog Prince pulled a stunt at lunch that made me laugh so hard I thought diet coke was going to spew out of my nose. He was pouting because he wanted to sit next to his daddy and not across the table from his daddy but we didn’t want to play musical chairs since we were actually eating a hot meal. Since it’s mighty rare for mama to eat her food while it is still hot, I was the one that laid down the law. Indignant, he gave me a dirty look and was, I think, attempting to stare me down with his mean face on. I said, “Froggy, wipe that look off your face and eat your lunch.” He sighed loudly, picked up his napkin and made a grand and sweeping gesture of wiping his mouth. Then he ate. Of course by that point Mr. Clothesknit and I were laughing and the Frog Prince knew he’d made us laugh so he sat there smiling smugly to himself and ate his food. Hope your weekend was a good one too!