Ravelry

Ok, I know that I just did a LONG post about knitting, but I just have to add something....

Ravelry.

RAVELRY.

RAVELRY.

I just discovered this site like one second ago, have I been knitting under a rock or what? It is an online community of......you guessed it, KNITTERS.

If you never hear from me again it is because I have been swallowed whole by Ravelry.

So I better give a couple of updates before diving in to my new knitting network.

Hmmmm.......Today I finally caved and bought some new winter boots so that I could play in the snow with Heckle and Jeckle. And of course I simply couldn't do it last night when the babies were asleep, could I? Absolutely not, which is why in order for us to even get to the fun snow play part of the morning we first had to go to Target, where I once again forgot to buy toilet paper, and this type of outing takes at least one full hour, even when I know exactly what I want, even when I DO NOT browse. One hour gone.

When we made it back home I was greeted by the furnace guy's truck in the drive, which was a welcome sight as we've been battling it out with the furnace for the past few days and the furnace has of course been winning. However, furnace guy's truck in the drive meant that I had to park on the street and unload 3 babes from the curb, the orchestration of which must have been rather amusing to watch.

Because there is so much snow piled up along the curb, I left the van parked in front of the drive and got Nuala out, she had boots on, and told her to walk up to the front porch. She was confused but shrugged it off and toddled along the walk. I then got Oscar out of the trunk (no, no, he wasn't IN the trunk, but we access his car seat through the back of the van), he only had shoes on, but I still sent him plodding along through the snow up to the porch. When I went to get Saoirse out I realized that her door was still too close to the snow bank and so I had to get back in and reverse a tad, at which point Oscar began howling at the top of his lungs, which of course would scare the living heebers out of anyone driving in reverse. I jumped out of the car only to realize he was simply alarmed that I was leaving him and was not in fact stuck under any of the tires. Ok.

Now for the fun part.

I grabbed Saoirse out of the car and set her seat down on the sidewalk so that I could move the car out of the drive way, which naturally prompted some more screaming from the boy, and I don't know about you, but around here screaming of this particular intensity can easily spread like wild fire. So when I finally got the car parked and joined Oscar and Saoirse on the sidewalk (we're talking like all of 9 seconds here folks) they were having a screaming match of sorts to see who could cry the loudest. Nuala was by this point already on the porch wondering what the big deal was.

The porch had been shoveled, well the path up to the door had been shoveled. The other side, which hadn't been shoveled, and had in fact become the new home of all the shoveled snow, had nice big fluffy snow banks on it. Snow banks just perfect for little girls to jump in. Little, mitten less, snowsuit less, girls to jump in.

Good thing she had on those boots.

So by the time I got from the walk to the porch (we're talking all of 10 seconds this time) Nuala, the good one, the one who hadn't thrown a fit, or feared for her future, or even just lallygagged, the one who 10 seconds earlier was standing by the door waiting to go inside, was up to her pretty little pink neck in snow, was in fact quite STUCK in the snow and had joined the chorus of crying children.

This is how Nuala learned the hard way that snow hurts, and how I learned that I love my driveway and also perhaps that I should shovel off the entire porch.

Now harm done, I got everyone inside and calmed down and re-bundled in appropriate snow gear and we took a 45 minute walk around the neighborhood. I wore the baby and the twins trudged along in their obnoxiously puffy snowsuits and moon boots (think Ralphie's kid brother from A Christmas Story). I brought along a sled so that once they grew too tired of the trudge I could easily pull them home. It was a wonderful morning.

In other news I have made a renewed vow to start implementing some morning art into our routine. I cleaned out a drawer in the dining room to house some supplies (I've always used the fact that all the art supplies are upstairs as an excuse to never bring them out) and it is time to start some projects. I've already got some old tricks up my sleeve, but I am on the hunt for some new age appropriate ideas. The next few months of winter are always difficult to get through, but I've got a plan, an idea, a vision of sorts, and I think we can make it through paintbrush in hand.

Remember how I said that sitting babies are the best right up until they start crawling? Well, she's not crawling yet, but Saoirse is rolling and doing the reverse scoot. So leaving her on the blanket and expecting her to still be there when you return is not really happening anymore. It's more like leaving and HOPING and then coming back to find her under the tree or approaching the fire place (and I wondered why we never had fires last winter, duh). Don't worry, I'm on it. I just thought it was funny that I was boasting about it yesterday and then last night she had to show me that I have no idea what I'm talking about. Like, "Ha, in your face mama, sit on the blanket what????"

Ok, so there are no pictures again, but I think I just earned a long venture into Ravelry. Well for as long as the babies continue to sleep at least, so maybe like, 8 minutes? Free patterns here I come!!!!