Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Crocheting

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Happy Friday! Can you believe it’s December already? I can’t believe how quickly the year has passed. Josh will be turning 12 next Saturday, then, Christmas is right around the corner. And, then, of course, it’ll be 2012, the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar.

Boy, wouldn’t it be interesting to really know that the end of the world was scheduled? I’m thinking there would be some bills I wouldn’t pay and some fun things I would do. I guess that’s a sign that it might be time to reassess my priorities…but still pay the bills, I suppose.

I could lay around all day like my cat in this bag of clothes a friend sent. Yes, I’m going to have to rewash the entire bag of clothes before I pass them along. Crazy cat.

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Anyway, it’s been the first of the two crazy weeks between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break around here. I should just take the whole month of December off, but we need the days to satisfy our state requirement of 180 days and we did that once – the natives were really restless by the time we started school in January, as in “driving me up a wall stir-crazy.”

We decorated for Christmas last Sunday evening. Gus liked having the decoration boxes in my just-cleaned dining room much more than I did.

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One more cat picture before I move along. Brianna insisted on giving him a bath the other night. He looked like a drowned rat. Poor guy.

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We’ve pretty much been doing a lot of the same old, same old, as far as school goes. Nothing very exciting, just making sure we get all the basics covered. We did do a really cool science experiment, though. It was to show how ice can break rocks. We filled a balloon with water, then covered the balloon with plaster of Paris.

Of course, we used homemade plaster of Paris because a few months ago, I cleaned out one of the closets. In that closet was a box of plaster of Paris that I’d had forever, just in case we needed it. In my cleaning frenzy, I decided that we’d had it for years, we’d never used it, we weren’t going to use it, so I should just throw it away.

Yeah. Tell me I’m not the only one who does stuff like that.

Anyway, after our homemade stuff (salt dough) dried, we put the balloon in the freezer. The kids thought it was really cool how the water froze and burst our homemade rock.

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On the “making time for Mom” front, I’ve been learning to crochet. My cousin crocheted my girls some beautiful winter hats and it made me want to learn. While it’s been frustrating at times, it’s also really cool to learn something new.

My first attempt at a square wound up looking very purse-shaped…so I gave it to Megan and told her it was a purse for her Liv dolls! She doesn’t even mind that it doesn’t open.

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I’m starting to get the hang of it now, though, and my squares actually look like squares. Plus, I’ve learned some new terms and techniques that I didn’t know a week ago. That’s part of what life-long learning is all about.

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I’ve also become hopelessly addicted to Words with Friends on Facebook. I love it! I have always loved Scrabble, but I never can get anyone to play with me. Now, I have at least a dozen games going on with friends. So, if I go MIA here on my blog, that could very well be what’s happened.

Somewhere in between school, housework, crochet and Words with Friends, I’ve also been squeezing in time to read. I’ve started The Hunger Games after seeing the movie previews. It was recommended to me before and it didn’t sound that interesting, but the movie previews looked good, so I borrowed it from the library.

Brianna and I had a little skirmish over who got to read it first, but I won, playing the “I’m a faster reader” card (and the “mom” trump card when that one looked a little iffy). I’m really enjoying it, so far. Those three things – the crochet, Words with Friends, and reading – are directly related to how sleepy I am today. I’ve been staying up too late trying to find time to fit it all in. I think I may need a 20 minute power nap before dinner.

Speaking of time for mom, I’m also trying to make sure I’m taking more photos. I really want to start Project 365 (ish) again in January, since I let that fall by the wayside last year. That means y’all may be inundated with photos of my cat since he’s my most willing subject.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be running my second 10K. I’m getting the whole family involved this time. They’ll be doing the 1-mile fun run/walk. The lure of a free t-shirt and buffet breakfast after the race won them over.

Are you doing anything fun this weekend? How was your week? Be sure to post about it and sign up with MckLinky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines. You can also follow the guidelines link to grab the banner code.

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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25 Comments

  1. Hey – good for you learning to crochet! My mother taught herself watching YouTube videos and has been loving it for about 3 years now. I am feeling really sorry for your sweet kitty…

  2. Good luck with the race!  Wow, good for you!  🙂  I love the pictures of your kitty.  It is awesome that you are learning to crochet.  My grandmother taught me many years ago, and looking back now that she has been gone for over a decade, I am so glad that I took the time to learn and hopefully pass the tradition down to my daughter. 

    Many blessings,
    Lisa

  3. i started the 365 project on my own, when you did at the beginning of the year… I will be so glad when i dont feel obligated to take a picture every day. There are a lot of nice ones but there are a lot of the kids and our dog, and the fields around our little town. We dont have any cats and i cant seem to get a sharp photo of our guinea pigs. I would do it all over again, for one year, but i dont think i will ever do a 2nd year.

  4. Poor kitty and cool experiment!

    Also, kudos to you for learning how to crochet, it always hurts my hands, so I stick to cross stitching.  Good luck on your race this weekend!

  5. You are definitely not the only one that does things like that!  It seems like Murphy's Law that as soon as you've thrown something away, you find that you need it!

    Good luck on your next 10K…you amaze me!

  6. I'm right there with ya–every time  I throw something away, I live to regret it! 🙂  And I love that you have so much going on–such a fulfilling life you live!  Will we be seeing a review of Hunger Games?  I enjoyed it–made me think of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" and the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" and also "The Giver" by Lois Lowry.  So your daughter could be reading those for literature while she waits for her turn on the series! 🙂   (That's what  I did, made my kiddos read the "classic lit" first–FUN! lol)

  7. I don't know about a review. Maybe. I'm just reading it for fun. I'll have to to check out some of those other books. I've never read them either.

  8. Thanks, Sharla. I appreciate it. I should be in bed, but I never sleep well before a race anyway, so I figured why bother?

  9. My sister is learning to knit and she says she can't do it long because it hurts her hands. So far, crocheting isn't hurting my hands, but it hurts my shoulders sometimes. I take that to mean that I'm not holding things quite right and keeping too much tension in my arms. I'm trying to relax. I'm hoping as I learn more what I'm doing, I'll relax a bit.

  10. That will be so cool to be able to pass the skill on to your daughter from your grandmother. That makes it even more special.

  11. LOL He dried quickly. He really did stink. Not sure what he got into. YouTube videos are great for learning crochet stitches. I'm a very hands-on/visual learner.

  12. I used to crochet all the time and am considering it again.  It's so soothing!  Poor, poor cat!  At least he gets to sleep peacefully most of the time.
    Enjoy your race!

    Annie Kate

  13. I just finished reading The Hunger Games.  All three books actually, in a week.  I was hooked and shocked I hadn't read them sooner.  I really had so many different people talking about them, some even telling me to let Parker read them.  I don't think he is ready for those just yet.  I did pick up Gregor the Overlander by the same author to see if he likes them.

  14. I love the kitty!  My daughter has read the first Hunger Games book and really enjoyed it, so I'm planning to read them.  The movie preview (which I saw at the Breaking Dawn premier) looked really good.

  15. That's where I saw the movie trailer, too. 😉 I'm really enjoying the book, so far, and everyone I've talked to who has read the series really enjoyed it.

  16. My cousin read all three books in something like three days. I can't believe how fast she reads! I've gotten hooked very quickly…but I haven't had much time to read. I think most of the craziness has slowed down for a bit, so I hope to finish the first one pretty quickly, so that I can pass it along to Brianna unless I find anything too objectionable.

  17. YOU ARE A MACHINE!

    keep crocheting – it took me while, but I love it.  The one pattern I actually do know! =)

  18. I have a running friend who tells me frequently that I am a machine. Can I be honest and say that it makes me smile every time? I think I'm about to get the hang of this crochet thing. It's fun.

  19. I would totally play scrabble with you on facebook!  I am not a fan of words with friends – don't like the adds and it doesn't work so well on my netbook.  

    Nice job on the crochet!  I started learning last year, but put it aside.  I need to get back to it!  

  20. Your Gus is adorable and I'm all over that science project for my kiddos (I found an old bucket of plaster of paris last week in our art drawer, but I didn't toss it! Yay!)

  21. I ended up crocheting purses too when I started… in fact, it was such a cute purse, I continued to crochet it so it was an actual purse (instead of flat).  I made an extra one too so both daughters could have one for their dolls.  

  22. Ok. You really did it this time. I have been THINKING about crocheting for several months now. Tried knitting last year…. Uh, maybe not for me. Ended up making up many jokes about it, but not good product. I suppose that's how it's supposed to start. I just wanna make cute hats. Thanks for the encouragement on crocheting. You give me hope that maybe I can learn.

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