We invite friends who cheer us up and who almost always get sick after getting in contact with our kids ... sigh.
I notice when feeling helpless, I start knitting. The time goal for this shawl was 10 days, but it took me about 12 days to complete it. I think two of these nights I couldn't stay up past 11:30 pm.
I'll blog about the next picture sometime next month, but I've been keeping myself really busy with this project. I saw a link to it on my friend's blog and thought that even I could sew it.
My yarn is being used in other ways too. I helped the kids build paper castles. Then Julia asked me to make her a prince and a princess for her castle. I recalled playing with the dolls made out of yarn when I was a little kid, so I improvised and made Julia a boy and a girl dolls similar to those from my childhood. She found them amusing and actually has been playing with them since then.
What really helped me through the winter blues was David's teachers' positive report on his academic progress in school (according to Seth, positive behavioral progress ain't happening until David's in college). They showed me a pile of beginner books that David has been easily reading through and the list of sight words that he memorized. He's very stubborn at home and lately his favorite phrase has been "I do whatever I want", so it was hard for me to convince him to do much work. Once we realized what he's capable of, we ordered dozens of "easy reader" books from the library and he loves reading them especially before going to bed. Instead of us reading to him now, he insists on reading a few books to us for up to an hour every night. These books are very easy, but at least it's a beginning.
So, what's on my needles now? Here's a clue below. All I can say is that it's going to be a very challenging project. I'm setting the deadline for May. Stay tuned.
