I know I’ve been kind of quiet the past few weeks. Sorry. Aside from having my nose in one of three books pretty much constantly, I’ve been busy doing nothing interesting.

The pre (as in before it starts next week)-school stuff is in high gear now. There was a picnic BBQ last night, a huge, 3-4 hour meeting tonight, and the teachers are already asking for help to get their rooms ready. We’ve been clothes shopping, but V still needs shoes, and we haven’t picked up school supplies yet.

We’re refurnishing and redecorating the basement family room, FINALLY! It’s been an inefficiently jumbled mess of furniture from the old house that we couldn’t get to work in this house, so when my friend Carol said she was selling her almost new leather sectional for their move to New York, we jumped on it. And as it is with most improvements in a home, it got the ball rolling. After about 6 years of talking about it, we finally sprung for a nice TV on Saturday. Today I picked up a few gallons of paint. It’s so exciting to have a legitimate family room now, and the girls suddenly don’t mind spending time down there. They never wanted to play in it before because there was no room and it just wasn’t laid out well. Now, they love it.

So I’m going to be painting, organizing, and hopefully, making curtains for the next couple of weeks.

Yesterday I was craving my spinning wheel, so I pulled it out and relaxed into the rhythm of spinning for awhile. I love spinning. Right now I’m working on a baby camel/tussah silk blend roving from Crown Mountain Fibers that I totally love. It’s soft, and gorgeous, and it made me incredibly happy.

So there’s a quick catch up with me.

There isn’t a lot of natural light downstairs, so getting accurately colored pictures will be a challenge, but I’ll try to show you what I’m doing as it goes along.

Oh, and I’m really, really liking my hair.

This was a great week. I ate great. I exercised three times. I’m a little lighter on the scale today, but that’s probably because I didn’t eat enough yesterday.

This morning, my friend had about 4 dozen donuts at her house when I stopped by on my exercise walk, and I resisted.

How was your week?

Before

And after

Wow, my hair is long. I didn’t realize. I have my hair up in a twist or braids most of the time because Clark pulls on it a lot, so seeing it hit below my shoulder blades is bizarre. And having it a shocking shade of red is also bizarre. Purple didn’t have near the same effect.

The girls like it. Clark is excitedly intrigued and keeps shoving my face to the side so he can see it. I think it looks sinister, but Nate disagrees. I won’t detail his reaction, but it was… enthusiastic.

I finished the right front of Abby’s cardi yesterday. I hope to block the two fronts today and start on the sleeves. I’m getting excited to work on Veronica’s sweater.

I’m up to the armhole shaping on the right side of Abby’s cardigan front. I could quite conceivably finish it today, which leaves the sleeves…..

I’m not sure what to do about the sleeves. I don’t want them to taper as my basic pattern guide is written, and I’m concerned about how they’ll fit in the armhole, since my gauge is off and I’ve been improvising. I guess it’ll be trial and error, which I’m not exactly looking forward to. Why I insist on making up my own patterns instead of safely going with an existing one and recommended gauge is somewhat beyond me. It takes so much more thought and effort.

I’m stubborn, that’s it. And there is some thrill to the accomplishment, even though I complain about it.

Clark has stepped up his “boy-ness” this week. He still can’t walk, but he gets around just fine. Up and down the stairs in their entirety, emptying dresser drawers repeatedly, scattering my laundry piles, digging through the girls’ bedside tables and breaking things… all the while flashing million dollar smiles, his eyes sparkling.

He’s such a stinker.

Nate wants to dye my hair tonight. The purple has completely washed out, so the last several inches of my hair are bleached blonde. I think it’s cool, but he wants it red. He actually went into Ulta himself and picked out the dye. I’m concerned. Red is an extremely difficult color to keep in hair. I’ve tried a more conventional red in the past, and it didn’t work at all. This stuff is crayon red, and I’m hoping that, like the purple, it washes out all the way. Because faded pink won’t do. If it comes to that, I’ll have to chop it.

I think I’m getting to the point where I can do something other than read about Edward and Bella, though I’m still really enjoying the books. I read them all a second time through, and now just pick them up occasionally (several times a day) to re-read some favorite parts.

My girls are exasperated, Nate’s amused.

I finally picked up my needles again yesterday, and today, I’ve finished the left front of Abby’s cardigan, and started the right.

I had to re-work the neck once because I’d scooped it out a little too much. Hopefully, it’s better now. It’s still too dark of a sweater to get a really good picture.

Well, I’m pretty happy right now with how things are going. I still need to resume regular exercise, but I’ve been eating well. I haven’t been formally recording my meals into Calorie King, and to be honest, I’m probably not getting quite up to my minimum calorie intake, BUT, I’m trying to keep myself balanced. I’m getting my vitamins in my homemade protein shakes, and I’m trying to eat 3 times a day. (Food is still kind of repulsive to me, for whatever reason).

I feel good. I’m down to between 217 and 218, fluctuating. I hit the 215’s one day. That was exciting. My pants feel looser again, and my shirts are looking looser. My new bras have either stretched out a little bit, (not likely), or I’ve shrunk there a tad, too. I’m fastening them on the tightest hook.

This is all great for motivation.

Nate and I went golfing Thursday night, I think for the first time since the car accident 4+ years ago. It was fabulous, and great exercise. It was SO nice to be back out there, on the course. I hope that is something we can get back into.

How was your week?

I’m, uh, sort of infatuated with Edward Cullen right now.

Yes, it’s embarrassing. I’m a silly, sentimental, romantic little girl. But it’s true.

A friend of mine told me she was reading a fantastic Vampire book. I don’t read. No interest. But Nate is an avid, enthusiastic reader. He devours books. It actually makes me kind of crazy when Hayden comes over on Wednesday nights and she and Nate talk books for the first half hour. (I still love you, Hayden. Just a little jealous).

Anyway, I told Nate about the book, that it came highly recommended. So he bought it, and was a third of the way into it when I came home from spinning group Thursday night. He was really enjoying it, and told me about the plot so far. I was significantly more interested than I usually am when he describes the books he’s reading, (I still didn’t realize it was a relationship book) so he started reading it to me.

There are several reasons why I don’t read. First of all, it’s not how I enjoy spending my time. Secondly, I have a hard time with the mechanics of it. I tend to jump around on the page unwillingly, getting myself confused and taking three times as long as I should to keep finding my place on the page and trying to focus. (This is also why I don’t read a lot of blogs. My mechanical struggles make it extremely frustrating).

Third, when on the rare occasion I do find something interesting or gripping enough to make me want to read it, I can’t do anything else. I know a lot of people say that, but I really mean it. I haven’t been able to eat since last Thursday night. I don’t think I’ve consumed more than 400-600 calories a day since. I’ve lost 7 pounds.

I KNOW I sound psychotic. This is completely insane. Can’t help it. And what’s worse, I’m really enjoying it.

I’ve now read all three books (I don’t sleep, either. Walking is a hazard for me right now) but I’m not mentally able to let go yet, so I’ve started over with book 1. I’m making significant efforts to be a little more sane this time through, and I’m forcing myself to eat, but the smell of food is nauseating.

I had no idea, from my friend’s recommendation, that this was a romantic story. Wildly romantic. Sure, romantic in a high school, adolescent sort of way, but to be honest, that’s my favorite kind of romance story anyway. And my first exposure to the characters was Nate’s reading them to me.

So Edward’s beautiful, adoring voice is Nate’s voice in my head. Not to mention their similar physical makeup. While Nate isn’t the physical embodiment of perfection with the super-strength and muscular definition of an immortal vampire, they’re both tall, light complexioned, lean, and can be breathtakingly handsome.

Yes, yes, I know I’m being completely silly.

But to be honest, Edward says and does some things the way Nate does, and I hear his voice… Being already totally infatuated with my husband, it’s more than I can resist, an incredibly romantic story like this.

So, I’m ridiculous. I’m irresponsible. I’m self indulgent. And Abby’s sweater continues to be ready for neck shaping on the left front, and that’s all. Pre book, I expected hers to be done by now, and to have been well on to Veronica’s. This is totally messing up my timing on the fall sweaters for the kids.

Go ahead and laugh. Call me immature. I don’t really care, nor can I argue. But I haven’t had this much fun in a very long time.

Good morning.

I actually did rather well this week. Or, the last half of it, anyway. I only got in an hour of good exercise, but I ate well. It’s so hard for me to understand, when I eat the way I’m supposed to, why I struggle with it so much. Because it’s not hard. I feel so ridiculous.

Anyway, I’m pleased with my improvement this week, and will settle with that.

How was your week?

Kid knitting is so fast! I cast on for Abby’s left sweater front last night, and was almost to the armhole shaping before I stopped.

And I’m not a fast knitter! This is cool.

The back easily blocked out to 16 inches, and once it was dry and I gave it a good shake and fluff, it shrunk down to 14.5 inches, which is the gauge my swatch blocked to. So I’m going to add a little to the fronts to give a bit more room. If it doesn’t lay right, I’ll rip it out and redo it without the additional stitches, but I’m not worried. Either way, this is knitting up quick and painless so far. The only thing that has turned out different than planned is the length. I didn’t know how close to her armpits I should be before shaping the armholes, I went a little long, and then the armholes themselves just seem longer than I expected, even though they’re the correct measurement.

On the plus side, the sweater is now as long as Abby wanted it. I wanted it shorter. She and I disagree on the point that the layered look is cute, with the shirt coming lower than the over-sweater. She thinks it looks stupid. I showed her pictures. She didn’t care. Oh well. It’ll get worn more being to her liking.