It has been a crazy busy week and I have barely accomplished anything fun. However, we did have our new pastor over for dinner today.



What a nice man. We really had some awesome fellowship and enjoyed hearing about the history of our new church, Zion Hill Baptist and his vision for the church's future.

I did get a few more points knit onto my sister's Pi shawl and finally started my Mom's second sock. Neither of these paultry accomplishments were worth photographing however. I have great hopes for the upcoming week since I am giving the kids an early Spring break. Their half sister Alisha is coming and we will be focused on her visit for the next couple of weeks. That should afford a little extra knitting time as well - I hope!

I've really made some progress on my sister's Pi shawl this week. I completed the fish and wave section and am about half way through the edging. I like that you can see the fish and the waves already even though I have not yet blocked the shawl.



Click on the picture for a closer look.

I've really enjoyed working on this shawl. The knitting is easy as it is done with larger needles than I typically use. The patterns are simple too. In fact, the edging pattern is straight from the Legends of the Shetland Seas stole (which is still waiting to be blocked). I like how the edging looks on the Pi.

Although I haven't yet cast on for my Mom's second sock (I need some quiet time when I can actually think to do it and those moments are rare around here), I did manage to finish my Lorna's Laces Watercolor socks.



I like the socks though I am disappointed the colors in the two socks are so different. I like the top one best.

We had some beautiful days sprinkled over the last couple of weeks and I managed to get my spinning wheel out on the porch for a short while. (I dragged out Michael's jumper too.)



I've made a little progress on the yarn I am spinning for a woven shawl for my mother in law. I am waiting for my larger tri-loom from Running Moon Farm. A shawl for my mother in law is the first project I have planned for it.

Michael is now 4 1/2 months and he is already getting around in his walker.



At first he could only move backwards. But now he is able to go forward and backward and is starting to figure out how to move it where he wants it to go. The house is small and doesn't afford many walker roaming areas, but nevertheless, we are in trouble! Michael has already managed to raid Kurt's computer armoire, pulling out a bag of stuff.



At this rate, we are going to have to child proof soon. Yuck.

Last week, we traveled back to Gulf Breeze to attend a birthday party for one of the kids' friends.



It was so nice to see some of our friends again. Here my friend Marci holds Michael for a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, Michael didn't feel particularly cooperative at the party.



Gabrielle spent most of the party playing dress up with some of the other girls while Gregory and a bunch of the boys played a war game they created around the skateboard ramp. The kids had such a good time. I'll admit, I was pretty sad coming home. So far, we haven't really made any friends in Alabama. The churches we've visited have all been small and we haven't settled into one long enough to form relationships. The one we will probably make our new church home really doesn't seem to have anyone else in our age range and there are only a few children, none of whom are homeschooled. However, I am grateful we still have friends in Gulf Breeze who are willing to include us in things and even occasionally travel to Alabama to see us.!

Now that my Mom has returned to her home, we are getting back into our normal routine. Basically, that means homeschool, baby care, cooking, housecleaning, sleep deprivation and me trying to squeeze some knitting time into whatever space is left when all else is finished. Lately, my knitting has primarily taken place after everyone else is in bed or while the kids and I watch a movie. I've mainly focused my knitting efforts on my Mom's socks and my sister Michelle's Pi shawl.



I've finished the first of my Mom's socks. I barely had enough yarn in the skein to complete it. Thankfully my mother has small feet. I don't know if I could have squeezed socks for me out of the skeins.

I am now into the 576 stitch rows with my Pi knitting. Each row takes a half an hour to complete.



I have not grown bored with it however because I took out some software I recently acquired, the Stitch & Motif Maker, and created an eyelet fish and double wave pattern. Since the yarn colorway is "South Pacific" I thought fish and waves would be appropriate. Here is a close-up of the waves.



I can never decide if a picture looks better with or without the flash. I have a hard time getting a good color representation. The yarn is actually more blue than green but the flash makes it look too bright.



I know I should have swatched to see if my fish and waves looked right, but I didn't, at least not outside of my imagination. Thus I am quite anxious to see how they turn out. This keeps me motivated to keep pushing through the long rows. Thus, if all turns out well, not swatching will have been a very good thing!

I did a very little bit of the fringing on this shawl this week.



It has been on my tri-loom for more time than I care to remember. I'm getting closer to the finish line slowly but surely. It is just more challenging to get to my loom with the baby. I need projects that allow me to work on them 10 minutes here and there at a time. Knitting is the perfect project for my current schedule.

In all my adult life while living away from my hometown (Las Vegas) my mother has never been able to visit. However, now that she is no longer caring for children or for my ill father, she made the trip across country to visit. This is in fact the first real trip my mother has made in her life aside from going off to college when she was young.

During her visit, I got to know my mother much better, which was very nice. I discovered she had much more type A personality in her than any of us suspected growing up.



My mother couldn't stand to be idle. In fact, while visiting, she wrote on the back of the pictures she had taken over the last couple of years and then organized a bunch of recipes onto index cards. She also picked up a crochet project U.F.O. that hadn't seen the light of day since she was my age. Gee, I wonder from where I got my drive?



Another thing I discovered was that my mother hated having her picture taken almost as much as me. So we made a deal. I would take her picture and she wouldn't take mine. Not fair I know, but there you have it.



We spent one of our afternoons poking around downtown Brewton. I've always wanted to explore the Paris Market.



After seeing the prices, I don't think I will be going back. There were some very beautiful items there however.



We also went by the local vegetable stand to stock up on our produce since my mother and I both like to eat fresh, healthy foods.



And of course we had to go to my favorite Brewton restaurant, the Southern Garden something I can never remember. As much as I like the place you would think I could remember its name.



They serve a Polynesian, South Florida fare and have some of the best burgers I've ever had. The kids like the lays and the umbrella straws.



We watched a couple of movies while my mom was visiting, including the movie Robots which Gregory just received. Michael loved it and I was a bit scared to see my 4 month old son watching television.



I promised my mother a pair of socks and since the yarn I ordered 2 months ago for them never arrived, she picked something from my stash and I started.

Finally, for my mother's last day in town, we went over to Pensacola to see the beach. Wouldn't you know it was so foggy my mother couldn't see the ocean. But we did get to eat at our favorite Beach restaurant, Flounders.



When my mother told us she had never had Key lime pie, we had to order dessert. Flounders has a huge and very delicious Key lime pie. I think my mom finished hers this morning after breakfast. I'm sure it gave her the extra strength she needed to face flying across country today.



We even figured out a dessert for Gregory which he enjoyed very much.