just what I need

I have a new hobby which I learned from my friend on the Grand Canyon trip in December 2011:

It has been a productive hobby which is mostly invoked when I do the daily obligatory reading assigned to K and N and when I help K with her dictée.  I spend a lot of time assisting homework apparently!  I have learned to knit well (and am 1/2 finished my first scarf for K).  For the more experienced knitters, it is apparent that I haven't learned to purl ( ~ mostly because then I'd have to count or pay greater attention to the knitting than I can do when primarily focussing on kids' homework)!  I knit, but I don't purl!

One-half scarf down, more to come!

PS: for those curious about the Merino wool used in this scarf, it is from Malabrigo and is worsted 625 Kaleidos!  It is positively gorgeous and the photo doesn't reflect the true colours as it was taken in the evening with artificial light!  The Malabrigo website photo is better!

Valentine's week

I have had a prolonged Valentine's week this year which is unusual for me!  As mentioned, I participated in Prana Light's Valentine swap.  As I hadn't been blogging, it didn't occur to me to take photos of the Valentine that I sent to my swap partner, Marie, or to Tracy!  But I took photos of what I received!

I was very surprised to discover that Tracy sent a Valentine to me!  K & N love when I get mail ~ the "what's yours is mine and what's mine is mine" expression come to mind!  Tracy's Valentine arrived shortly before Valentine's Day and the girls were quite anxious to get the Norwegian stamps that arrived as well.  (I claimed the entire envelop as mine and plan to use it in a Blogging layout for my "Twelve" scrapbooking class ~ see the sidebar for particulars on Twelve! ~ although I allowed them to take the envelop to show the stamps to their classmates!)  Isn't Tracy's hand-painted ATC gorgeous?

My swap partner, Marie, lives in England.  Her parcel arrived shortly after Valentine's Day which extended the joy throughout Valentine's week!!  She sent some lovely vintage Valentine's that she redid with sparkles (which I will somehow incorporate into a Valentine's layout as well as the postage stamp for "Twelve") as well as a pretty Mary Engelbreit book and the always appreciated chocolates (which, of course, I had to share!).

 Thank you, Tracy and Marie, for Valentine's week and for your contributions to my "Twelve" class!

a mecca for Valentine's

As proof that our home is a mecca for Valentine's:

 The girls enjoy decorating the windows and re-decorating and redecorating....  In the bottom photo, you'll see my protest snowflake decorations remain throughout the house until springtime.

It is so cute to see what N chose to decorate a Valentine for her best friend.  Who would have thought that her best friend holds the key to her heart?  So sweet!

Meanwhile, K was determined 3 weeks ago to hand-make cards for each of her 26 classmates.  I dutifully went to Michael's to purchase supplies and then she resisted!  After persuasion, she enjoyed herself making Valentine's in the craft room!  It is so nice not to have to fully supervise her in the craft room!

Happy Valentine's Day to you!

the reward is in the journey, not the destination

I love travelling.  Or rather, for clarity sake, I love destinations.  I dream of destinations.  I plan what to do, what to see, and read guide books, watch tv travel shows and research to my heart's content.  I Love Destinations!

This past Christmas, we met our friends in Las Vegas.  I agree that Las Vegas was an odd destination to take children to for Christmas but it was quite prettily decorated and an artificial skating rink was unexpected.

We chose Vegas as a springboard to travel to the Grand Canyon ~ the round-trip is about 9 hours.  When we discovered in late November that our van tour operator declared bankruptcy, we had enough time to arrange a bus tour to the South Rim. I understand that the Canyon has 3 different Rims and, although the South Rim is the most famous, it is also the Rim that apparently changes the least scenery-wise.  We went to the Canyon (S. Rim), we saw the Canyon, we took pictures of the Canyon (including one photo of the girls and me wearing our Blundstones for a Blundstone boot contest where the winner wins a trip to Australia ~ I'm crossing my fingers for that one!)

It was wonderful to spend time with family and friends in Vegas and it was, without a doubt, one of the most relaxing and fun Christmases I've had in a while.  Although the Canyon was lovely, this time I can honestly say that I learned so many things on that journey:  the girls do not like being away from home at Christmas; I learned more about how to plan travel for our family than I ever expected.  The bonuses of this trip?  My back cooperated for the entire trip!!  Yippee!  And another bonus?  I learned how to knit on the trip as I needed to learn as K has been begging to learn for about 1.5 years!  This time the reward was in the journey, not so much the destination.