Economic stimulus checks

I often go to this website called Simple Living to get ideas on how I might be able to live more simply, save some money and make my life a bit more peaceful.  On the home page of this site was this banner, which I really like.  I have been thinking a lot about the economic stimulus checks that are going out in the beginning of May, and actually looking forward to getting mine. We are absolutely not putting our check into the economy though, we are putting our check into a child, actually our adoption fund so that we can adopt a child.  I do believe very strongly though that even if we were not adopting we would put that money somewhere other then into the economy.  I know that this economy needs people to purchase goods and services but how much and at what cost?  The environment, our financial futures, our retirement,  I wonder sometimes how much we have to hurt ourselves before we realize that what we are doing is not working the way we thought it would or wanted it to. It is sad that consumerism is so rampant in our society and that we look to things to make us happy.  I wish that we could find happiness in the ordinary wonders of life, the quiet moments with our families and friends and just be happy with what we have instead of always looking for more.  I certainly share the struggle against buying and wanting things, but strive for the good simple life as I fight against the consumer in me.  If you are interested in ways that you can spend your government check you can check out the website above and click on the banner that looks the one I have posted.  They will give you ideas on what you can do with your money. Be strong and fight the good fight:)

A word picture

Picture this:

It is a sunny day and the temp outside is hovering around 50.  You have just had a good walk with your friend, some lunch and a stop at the local bookstore.  You are feeling good and things seems to be going just perfectly.  You leave the bookstore to head back home and there in the middle of the parking lot is a single male mallard duck just sitting and relaxing.  About 10 feet away from the relaxing male duck is a small elderly Asian woman that is crouched down and chattering to the duck.  Between the two of them is a piece of fried chicken, a leg to be exact.  Does the woman think that duck is interested in some fried chicken?  Is it a total fluke that the fried chicken leg is there on the pavement between them?  Perhaps it is none of the above, what ever the case it served to provide a great laugh between two friends walking home on a perfect afternoon.

Earth Hour 2008

The Ewan quote of the day

"I love pooping"

Voila

I finished my first hat and I think that it looks pretty good.  I realized at the end that I had not decreased the way it said to in the instructions but it worked out ok.  I already have plans to start a new hat for a neighbor that is having a baby.  I can now officially mark making a hat off my list of things to learn how to do.  Yeah!!!!

Hat update

So as you can see I successfully got my hat onto double pointed needles. Thankfully it was not as hard as I thought it was going to be.  The challenging part is making sure I keep the right count as I am now decreasing.  I figure if it comes out a little wonky that is ok, it is my first hat after all.

Watermelon Girl!

Thankfully we are right on the cusp of watermelon season officially starting.  We started the season in my family a little early and Anwen absolutely loves it.  The second she sees the watermelon she is enthusiastically pointing and grunting at it.  I love how kids could not care less about having food all over their face, neck, chest and not to mention all in their hair.  As long as what they are eating is good they are all over it.

My first hat

I have been a knitter for about 4 years and in that time I have never made a hat.  I have always wanted to but something about knitting in the round and with double pointed needles has kept me at bay.  Well I have finally decided to tackle the project of a hat for Anwen.  I belong to this great knitting circle and so in preparation for this new task I went armed with questions.  The first thing that they pointed out was that my circular needles were not the right size.  Then they gave me a pair that were the right size to practice with.  They showed me how to take my gauge and how to join the round.  The night had been just what I needed to get prepared to start the hat.  The next day I ordered circular needles on Ebay and anxiously awaited their arrival.  Once my needles came I picked out my yarn, and made a few stitch markers and then was ready to start working.  I think I pulled out my stitches a few times before I felt that I had joined the round tight enough.  Once I had joined my round to my satisfaction I was free to just knit.  Knitting in the round is quite relaxing I think.  So far I am really enjoying it, we will see how much I like knitting with the double pointed needles:)  Here is a picture of my progress, I think it looks kind-of cute right now.  I will continue to post pics as I get further along, hopefully the hat will still look cute when it is finished!

Stuck in a bad situation

I woke up this morning and blurry eyed walked over to the window to gaze out at the birds.  I saw plenty of birds and then I spotted this guy stuck in a bad situation.

He must have been chased up the pole and was curled up trying to make the best of it.  He is pretty cute at a distance:)

More veggies, fruits and donuts!

My last post started me thinking about what other vegetables were being knit and were they as wonderful as the beet.  Thus began my search for more knit veggies.  I found an assortment of wonderful edibles in knit form.  You can purchase these at Yellow Label Kids.

Eat Up!!!!

Knit a beet?

You betcha, apparently you can knit anything.  I found this on a website called You Grow Girl. I just thought this pattern was so beautiful that I had to share it.  I never thought a beet could look so appetizing:)

Library Thing

I came across this really cool widget for your blog and so I thought I would share my find.  It is called Library Thing and it is a way to catalog your book collection and share what is in your library with your friends.  You can also join groups or chat with other people on the website that have the same interests as you.  You can see my widget towards the bottom on my blog on the right side, you can't miss it!  

Spring forward

Spring forward, finally we are springing forward.  It does kind of stink losing an hour of sleep that first night, but for me that pales in comparison to the wonderful feeling of having an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day.  This evening I took advantage of the extra sunlight and took my son Ewan for a walk to the park.  The park is only a block away and the walk goes quickly but it was a walk we had not taken for months.  This winter we have seen very little outside action and somehow we managed, but boy was it nice to see the park.  I even took my bird book and binoculars with, ok I know that was a bit premature but I could not help myself.  The park was snowy and cold and there were only a few squirrels running around, but I could just imagine the days when it will be warm and buzzing with life.  Ewan went to the swings and even the squeaky sound of the swing going back and forth was welcome.  After our little swinging session we walked over to the still frozen pond to see if any ducks were sitting on the ice, there were none but that was ok, they will be there soon.  Our walk was not too long but it was just long enough for me to appreciate that the winter is coming to an end and soon we will be bounding around outside in the warmth of spring.

Whatever works for you...

I was looking for a prayer picture and came across this.  It is called the Prayer Antenna, I don't think I need to say much more then WHOA, and giggle a little or a lot.

Taken for a ride:<

Brian and I pretty faithfully take our car in for regular maintenance to keep it in good shape and this year we have noticed a very unappealing trend when ever go in for our oil change.  We go in for something that costs us about $30 and are told we need anywhere from $400-$900 in work done.  The first two time it happened I was really pissed off but thought what can we do our car is getting older and once we get this work done we should be fine.  But then when it happened again and then again, I was really mad.  I asked one day while I was in the shop if we should trade our car in because we keep having to pay these large amounts of money to get it "fixed".  The guy said your car (our car is a Toyota) will run for a long time you have done a lot to this car you should not have to do anything for a while, that conversation happened a few months ago!  Today Brian went in to have the brakes done in the front and they told us that we should do the 85000 mile work on the car and the cheapest thing they could do would only be an extra $400 on top of the $250 for the brakes.  What the ----!!!  I will let you add your own word.  Brian called me and told me we were not going to use this place anymore, and I thought to myself, FINALLY!   It just seems ridiculous that every few months we should be putting that much money into a car, it feels like we have been taken for a ride.  I thought we would be able to trust these people too, they are a huge dealer in Chicago.  I guess the big man is all about the big bucks!

 

The sweet sound of Thom Yorke

Indeed it is quite sweet listening to Thom Yorke of Radiohead.  Check out their new album, "In Rainbows".