Starting them young...

Last night I heard a noise behind me, and turned to find Lila leaning against the table with one of these "dumb bells" in one hand and doing perfect little bicep curls.  I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I got to work on my muskels."

Today she keeps walking around with them and saying,

"Up"

"Down"

and then occasionally scrunching up her face and growling as she "be's super strong!"

I don't know where she's picked this up from, because I don't work out at home and I haven't ever taken her to the gym with me. Maybe it's genetic. I am sure sometimes I scrunch my face and growl my way through a hard rep...

Sickies, soup, and silliness...

Everyone in this family is sick. Everyone except me. Because mothers don't get sick days, but that is an entirely different post...

I hate spring colds, brought on by impatient children who run outside barefoot and jacket-less the second the temperatures soar above thirty five degrees. I hate that with the whole next week off of school because of spring break, Jake missed school today. I hate that when the day was finally warm enough to let the little monsters run wild in the backyard, we were all couped up inside with low-grade fevers, coughs and running noses.

I did get to enjoy snuggling up with all my kiddos and watching a silly old movie, Thoroughly Modern Millie. I especially loved the part where the hero of the movie is climbing the outside of a building to see the girl he is in love with. Jake, my ever literal child, turned to me with a look confusion and asked, "What is he doing? Is he crazy?!" I said, "Well, men do crazy things when they fall in love."  He contemplated that for a moment, then shook his head in disgust and said with heartfelt sarcasm, "Oh great, I can't wait."

Moving on...

I just want to say thank you to everyone who took a moment to comment on my last post. You all had such great things to say, and the support means a lot to me. I know this isn't going to be a success only journey, and I was just taking a moment to vent about my feelings. I am mostly over it now. Also, I was reduced to tears this afternoon by a pistachio that refused to open... so I am thinking that I may be a tad hormonal right now.

I think it's good to record the bad days as well as the good. I want to be able to share with my children that I wasn't perfect but that I didn't give up when things got tough. I know that Jake at least knows that I am not perfect. Tonight he told me that I only have one flaw, not spending enough time with him. I couldn't ask for a better ego booster then that kid.

A new perspective?

Sometime between my workout yesterday and today they put giant mirrors up in the gym I go to. The fact that there weren't any mirrors was one of my favorite things about this gym. (For the record, it sounds like they had them before, but they were gone before I started working out there.) I won't lie. I am having a really hard time with the mirrors. (Yes. I know it's only been one day.) It was emotionally draining.

I spend a lot of time and energy NOT looking in mirrors. I haven't for a long time. A quick glance to make sure that nothing is seriously out of place and everything that should be snapped, zipped, or buttoned is snapped, zipped and buttoned, and then move on. I haven't liked what I've seen for so long, that I stopped looking. And it turns out that is a hard habit to break. So to be "forced" to break it in front of other people... well, it was not a great morning.

I felt like I did before I started making changes. I stood there trying so hard not to compare myself to the 110 lb. toothpicks and failing miserably. It felt like everything that I have a accomplished in a relatively short time period just melted away. I couldn't see any of the positive changes anymore, just how far I still have to go.

I am enough of a grown up that I am not going to complain to management and demand they take them down. (Not that I think they would, I'm not that narcissistic.) I'm even mature enough that I won't let this emotional set back stop me from working out there. I just may be the only person in the gym determinedly facing the other direction, which means they can all watch my backside. Yeah...that won't make me feel awkward at all...

I was right... this is going to be a problem.

Here are the three skeins of yarn I dyed today.

 I bought the matching two with a clear plan in mind. I knew what color I was hoping to achieve, and I knew exactly what I want to knit out of it.

It came out even better then I had envisioned. This started as a pale pink. I was hoping for a sort of sherbet-y orange with just a hint of the pink showing through here and there. Through a series of happy accidents I have this gorgeous blend of pinks, yellows, and orange, which I think will look even better than my original idea!

And then I didn't want to stop! So I went back to the yarn store and got a skein of light purple and then we hit it with green. It turned an awful green color, sort of like over cooked spinach. Bleech. So we hit it with some blue, which livened it up. And then we added some more purple which I love! It was fun because Myra and Jeanette each ended up with a skein that is basically the same colors, but they are all slightly different because of the color the yarn was when we started and the amounts of food coloring we added.

I wish I had thought to take my camera with me, and taken a picture of all the skeins we dyed today. The colors were so gorgeous all lined up in Jeanette's window to dry. I could hardly stand waiting for them to dry (which takes a day or two). I can't wait to see how they look when they are knit up!

I am telling you, this dying my own yarn thing is going to be dangerously addictive. It's like magic seeing how the different colors combine and blend together. (I may or may not have done a little happy dance in Jeanette's kitchen...) And since we used food coloring, kool-aid, and vinegar, it is very cost effective when compared to buying a skein of hand-painted yarn. Oh yes, this is definitely going to be a problem...

 And now for something completely different:

Brian was changing Lila into her PJs,

when she decided she could not wait one more second,

for a great big hug. 

It just melts my heart when she is so loving and wants to be "nuggled".

It makes up a little for the times when she is being just so terribly two...

Tomorrow I will dye...

Some yarn that is. I am very excited to try a new aspect of fiber crafts. There is a very real concern that learning how to create any color of yarn I can imagine could lead to an even more out of control stash then I already have. I am still holding strong against learning to spin my own yarn though. I just know when that day comes I will be gone. From there it will be a short step to having some sheep in my backyard, and I'm pretty sure we're not zoned for that...

I must remember for next year...

I've been spending the last couple of days at my dad's house. Brian went out of town on his yearly "golfing" weekend and Thursday night was the first night since we've been married that I stayed overnight with just the children. Always before I either stayed with my mom or Caitlin came and stayed with me. Um, I didn't do well. I woke up at every little noise and finally gave up any pretense at being a capable grown-up and slept with the lamps on. I even strongly considered hauling everyone out of bed and over to my dad's at 3 am, except for that would mean getting them up early to make it back in time for school...

Last night was much better, even if it meant sharing a bed with all three of my children. They of course are ecstatic at the prospect of having a "two night sleepover!" with Caite and Patrick. We've been enjoying our mini vacation to Pa Dave's by watching old movies like The Secret of Nimh and Fern Gully, and having chocolate chip pancakes with whip cream and strawberries for dinner, and playing the Kinect for hours at a time. Yup, you ask any of my children and they will tell you that Pa Dave's rates a solid four stars.

I am just grateful that Caite and Patrick are willing to let me and my little hooligans crash with them. And I am even more grateful not to have to do the church thing as a single parent tomorrow...