Knitting Zeal

Year in Review: 2014

It's been a great year!  I can't believe how fast it zoomed by and now we are looking forward to 2015.  Here is a pictorial review of highlights from my year:

January 2014

Morticia: the most challenging of all patterns I've ever successfully knit to completion!  I love the end results of this knitting project.  (And at least the one good thing about the endless snowstorms, they make good backgrounds for knitting photos!)

February 2014

The wee one lost his first tooth this month!  Soon followed by a number of others.  The tooth fairy has been busy here!

March 2014

  Some of my mom-friends and I took the chance to go out for a yummy Moroccan Feast for dinner.  I think it was the only time all year we managed to go out at night together!  We had a great time and stayed until the place closed down!  We definitely need to go out together more than once a year in 2015!  (And notice we all wore our hand knit beaded shawls!  LOL!)

April 2014

In April, my son and I finally explored a section of abandoned rail road tracks that he had been bugging me about for months.  They were formally SEPTA tracks that ran from the city into the suburbs of Philadelphia, but the line had been closed for at least thirty years.  The tracks were a popualar area for walking.  Over the summer I saw an article exlplaining that a joint effort between SEPTA and Montgomery County will be working on making the old tracks an actual path for hiking, walking and biking.  Since then, part of the path is complete.  As a part of that joint effort, the old RR ties and metal tracks were removed.  This greatly upsets my son!  He loved being able to explore the tracks.  I think the new path will be a great addition to the area, especially for biking.  I will be able to bike almost from my house and into Philadelphia's Fairmount Park by following the new trail. 

An interesting note about this section of tracks where my son is standing. Just a few hundred feet behind him is the site of a famous train wreck that occured in 1921.  

May 2014

  The annual trek to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was a blast as usual!  We had fun checking out the sheep and alpacas as well as oogling all the hand knits everyone wore!  

June 2014

In June my son hosted his annual lemonade stand benefitting Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.  This has become a fun event we look forward to doing each June at the anniversary of Alex's first stand.  This past year we raised over $350, doubling our total from the previous year!

July 2014

There were so many great memories from July this year and it was hard to pick just one!  I loved seeing my son learn to overcome his fear of being underwater this past summer while we were at Great Wolf Lodge!  He had a blast there!  We did a lot of traveling in July, visiting Maryland and Virginia beaches, Sesame Place and the Immagination Movers in concert, Art Splash at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and stops at the farm for fresh veggies and fruit.  It was a great summer!

August 2014

The warmth of August was full of flowers!  Like this gorgeous sunflower I spied at the Burpee Fordhook Farm open house in Doylestown, PA.  After last winter's polar vortex, I welcomed the heat and sun of summer, complete with bees!  If only I could get my sunflowers at home to grow this nice!  

September 2014

My baby turned seven in September!  We had a mad scientist themed party complete with dry ice smoke on the cake!  The party was a blast and proves that a home party can be just as fun as a party at a venue.  The party goers had a blast with lots of fun science experiments.  My favorite was making elephant toothpaste!  

 

October 2014

We headed to LBI for one more visit this year to take some Christmas card photos, visit a favorite restaurant one more time before it closed for the season, and to see one more sunset at the lighthouse.  It was a fun day!  Plus we got some fun photos on the beach!

November 2014

Fall brought lots of leaves in our yard...and eventually at our curb waiting for pickup.  The little guy had fun playing in "Mount Leafmore!"

December 2014

This Christmas, Santa brought a Playmobil port-a-potty!  It was a hit!  We had a great Christmas season! From visits with friends and family to trips into Philadelphia to see some landmark holiday shows, it was a great month!

This year marks my tenth year of writing this blog.  I can't believe it's been ten years of saving and sharing memories.  I'm not sure how often I'll keep up with it in 2015, but there will be more! 

 

Happy New Year!!

Spring fun for mom at the Mom Mixer

Last weekend my spring fun was going to the Spring into Summer Mom Mixer with my local blogging friends.  It was a blast.  I have to thank all of the brands that participated and those who provided some samples for me to try: Lands End, Lee, Koru Yoghurt, QVC, Send the Trend, McDonalds, Johnson's Baby Cares, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, Hershey's, Clean & Clear, and Neutragena.

I enjoyed learning about so many of the brands, besides Lands End, of which I was already a fan!  Seeing the folks from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation was a highlight.  Besides having the chance to chat with a friend who works for the Foundation, I was able to pick up info about hosting a lemonade stand.  My son loves lemonade and even held his own little stand last summer after seeing a Curious George episode about it.  He wants to hold another one this summer and I think we'll look into hosting one to benefit Alex's Lemonade.  I have already introduced the idea of it to him and tried to gently explain why Alex started her stand without getting into too many details that a five year old couldn't understand.  He really wants to make money for Legos, but I think donating it will be a more valuable lesson!

Hershey's sent home in my bag a really cute craft kit for making a Kisses case.  The case holds four or five kisses perfectly and will protect them from being crushed in my purse.  I managed to keep it away from my son too so that it is mine!  (OK, I'll share probably since Kisses are one of our favorite treats!)  Hershey's also sent me some info to share about their Moderation Nation program, that includes a fun website filled with tips to live a balanced lifestyle. They mentioned that one Hershey Kiss is only 25 calories, making it a nice little treat.  My son's dentist also recommends them as opposed to sticky candy that can cause cavities. 

Another fun treat discovered at the Mom Mixer was Koru Yoghurt, from Koru Dairy.  It's a new brand of creamery-style yogurt in our area.  They gave out samples to try and even sent me home with some samples to share with my family.  My son has declared it to be his new favorite yogurt!  It really is delicious.  Our favorite flavors were the peach and the strawberry + goji.  It isn't sold in my local grocery store yet, so I'll have to request it! 
Thanks again to Whitney and Colleen, along with all the brands, for a fun and social morning!!

Disclosure:  As a participant of the Mom Mixer I received a bag of samples and information from the different brands.  I was not required to write about my experience.  I did not receive any monetary compensation for participating. 

Life Well Lived, Getting Happy

This week's Life Well Lived, Getting Happy question asks, "what are your favorite relaxation techniques? And what benefits do you see from practicing them?"  My first thought about this was to laugh.  Relax?  That has always been a challenge for me.  My brain is constantly on.  I had an incredible professor in Grad school who was an expert at meditaion and taught me his technique.  I used to be able to tune out and just breath.  Yoga was even really helpful.  

Lately, I can't seem to make those techniques work for me, but there are some other ways I work on relaxation:

• Going to the local spa for a facial.  I've only gone twice, as it is expensive, but I had no idea how good it would feel to have someone focus on my face.  A face, head and arm massage is very relaxing and rejuvenating.
• Going to the Y to exercise.  I still don't love exercising, but it is time that is focused on just me, no one talking to me, no one asking for a snack or a drink or why. It lets me tune out and just focus on the moment.  I even tried a yoga class again after many years of a hiatus.  That was hard, not all that relaxing, but there is potential there!  
• Knitting with my knitting group.  I don't always get to go, but when I do it is such a nice way to turn off life and be with like minded crafters.

Someday, I'd love to incorporate meditation back into my life.  I did download an app that has timed guided meditations, but I've only used it once.  I do have a relaxation playlist on my iPod that I listen to at night when I can't sleep. It usually helps.  

How do you relax?  What works for you?

Check out BlogHer.com's Dr. Amyee for techniques on how to relax and mediate.  Be sure to enter the Life Well Lived Moments Sweepstakes for a chance to win an iPod touch!

 

Friday Favorites

I haven't done this is a long time, but here are some of the favorites from this week:

• We read A LOT of books!  The stack from the library, some favorites, and some from my childhood.
• It rained most of the week, but on Monday we took advantage of a sunny afternoon to go to a playground with school buddies for a picnic lunch and playtime.  
• We made gifts for the Grandmoms....they are a secret for now!
• We went to Bounce U with a buddy and then out for a snack at a local health-conscious restaurant.  The boys took over the place, since it was almost empty. I got this grumpy face from my kid because I was interferring with the boys taking over the entire place!
• 
• My buddy and I enjoyed some bookstore time.  We each picked out a new book and enjoyed beverages in the the cafe.  I see a budding Starbucks addict in my future.
• We had an awesome lunchtime play date with our best girlies and the kids played with every toy we own, almost!
• I took a yoga class at the Y.  It was harder than I remember and it was not at all relaxing, but it felt good to stretch.
• We had the grandparents over for Breakfast for Dinner, a kiddo favorite.  
• 
• Our garden is growing nicely, especially with all the rain this week!  Although, the pests (raccoon, groundhog, or squirrels) have eaten all of the seed sprouts and the three basil plants!  Grr.
• I'm planning to go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival tomorrow!  I've been picking out patterns so I have an idea of what to shop for, since it overwhelms me everytime.  I can't wait to check out Tess' Designer Yarn tent area.  I need to remember that just because the colors are pretty doesn't mean it will make a useful item of clothing!

Happy Weekend!

Optimism = Happiness

Optimistic, even in the face of reality. That has been my motto for many years.

Back before I was a parent and I worked full time as a therapist I had a button stuck in the bulletin board above my desk that had that saying on it. I had bought it from the Northern Sun Catalog, way before Internet shopping existed, probably the early 1990s. It was a saying that really meant something to me, as I had a very stressful job working with people who needed me to be positive, since their lives were so challenging. It was a message I tried to convey to my clients, as I truly believe that optimistic people are happier people, even in stressful times.

As a participant in BlogHer’s “Life Well Lived” series I have the opportunity to write about my thoughts regarding the current posted question about “Getting Happy."  This week’s question wonders about how we teach the children in our lives about happiness. Since my kid is stuck with a therapist for a mother, there is a great deal of discussion going on here about feelings. I help him identify his feelings and we discuss them on a four year old level. For the most part, he is a very happy kid. He does get angry at times and I speak with him about his anger and appropriate ways to express it. Just as it is important to talk about and model difficult feelings, it is also important to model happiness and remark on it just as often. One of the ways I model happiness for my son is by being optimistic.

Let’s face it, being a parent is challenging in this day and age. There are many stressors out there. I feel lucky that overall our lives are blessed, but that doesn’t mean stress is absent either. So, I’m not always feeling completely happy, but I focus on being optimistic. The difference to me is that just because I feel unhappy about a particular situation, I have hope that it will get better soon. I work hard to show my son that by having a positive outlook means that the challenges in my life can be overcome.

Does my four year old get optimism yet? I would say yes! He is optimistic in his personality. He doesn’t see limitations to his world. While at times that belief that he can do anything can get him in trouble, it is a belief that I do not want to crush, just shape a bit. I encourage his optimistic personality by listening to him, letting him learn consequences, and helping him process his thoughts and feelings when needed. I model being optimistic by carefully choosing the language I use around him and not being overly critical of myself or him. Constructive criticism for oneself can be useful, but too often I notice that people are mean, and not constructive with their opinions or criticism, especially about themselves. Being a happy person means keeping the negativity in check and being accepting of our self in life.

Another way I teach my son happiness? Laughing! We laugh all the time….by being silly, joking, tickling, singing funny songs and reading stories with silly voices. Hearing my son’s belly laugh makes me happy! It is the best sound in life!

How do you teach the children in your life happiness? Please share your best tools and tips in the comments below and be sure to visit BlogHer.com to contribute your ideas to this week's discussion!  Also check out the current Sweepstakes on BlogHer for a Kindle Fire!

 

My winter hands need relief, Carmex to the rescue

Ok, it isn't exactly winter yet, but with the way the weather has been going this fall, it might as well be.  All spring and summer I don't have to worry about my hands, especially while knitting.  As soon as it gets cold out, the skin on my hands, especially my fingertips, dries out and starts to peel.  It's ugly, it hurts and it makes knitting a bit challenging since the skin catches on the yarn fibers.  It's been so bad in winters past that my fingers have bled.  I am sure the fact that I am constantly washing my hands or washing dishes contributes to the problem.  I use hand cream and lotions constantly during the cold months.  (I do use them in the summer for sun-kissed skin, but not as much.)  

As a member of the Carmex Blog Squad, I received a package of Carmex's new line of lotions and creams.  Carmex, the company famous for selling their little yellow pots of lip balm, have used their experience to create two moisturizing formulas of lotion and cream.  The Carmex skin care line has two products: Carmex Healing Lotion and Carmex Healing Cream.  Both products are advertised as having a non-greasy feel, which I have to say was accurate from my experience.  I like to apply hand lotion prior to knitting, and after, since the yarn wicks away moisture from my hands.  I cannot use greasy lotions or creams when knitting, as I don't want to stain the yarn.  I was impressed with how quickly the Carmex lotion and cream absorbed.  

Both products smell faintly of their famous lip balm cousin, as there is menthol and camphor in both for healing and soothing skin.  Each also has a very light vanilla scent added.  The lotion has Vitamin E and Aloe in it for additional soothing and healing properties.  While I liked the results of the products on my hands, the scent wasn't my favorite, although it did dissipate rather quickly.   I also liked the thickness of the cream a bit more than the lotion, as it was more concentrated and I could use less.  

The Carmex Skin Care line is available for purchase at Walgreens and CVS, as well as Walmart.  

 

Want to try out the Carmex Skin Care line yourself?  Carmex will send one of my readers the same Skin Care pack that I received.  In it you'll find 

• one 5.5oz Carmex Healing Lotion
• one 4oz Carmex Healing Cream
• one 1oz Carmex Healing Lotion
• one .75oz Carmex Healing Cream

For a chance to receive this skin care pack, leave me a comment here and tell me why you want to try this new line of skin care out!  I'll pick a winning comment using Random.org on November 21, 2011 after 10:00pm EST. The winner will be notified by email, so be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you are the chosen one.  The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email, otherwise the prize is forfeited. Contest open to US addresses only.  

 

Disclosure:  As part of the Carmex Blog Squad, I received complimentary products for the purposes of this review.  No monetary compensation was received.  The opinions expressed are my own.

TGIF, after a long week

We had a ridiculously stressful and exhausting week, which is why I haven't been online to post.  My little guy had a cold last weekend that led to him being admitted to the hospital via the ER after we realized he was having trouble breathing.  He was in respiratory distress and ended up diagnosed with the general "reactive airway disease."  Basically he had an asthma attack, but he wasn't doing what I thought was traditional wheezing.  He has no history of wheezing, so we are really hoping this was a one time occurrence as a result of the cold virus. He was released after a day and has been on round the clock nebulizer treatments, which has just wiped me out.  I haven't slept more than three hours in a row for a week now.  Yesterday during our second visit this week to his pediatrician for follow up we were told his lungs sounded good and we just had to continue the nebulizer treatments around the clock four times a day for another week.  In my exhaustion I almost screamed at the doctor, but held it together enough to just question the length of time on the meds.  He agreed that just four more days would be enough.  In the meantime, the little guy HATES the nebulizer.  It's so bad that I've taken to promising candy if he does it, something I swore I'd never do!  Let's hope that he doesn't get alot of colds this year, as that could lead to him having another wheezing issue.

I do have to say that our local hospital was just wonderful.  We were in the ER for about six hours before he was finally admitted because his pulse-ox levels did not improve enough with albueterol in the ER.  While there, he had to have a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia.  While we were waiting for the x-ray tech, we witnessed an older woman in a hospital gown, drunk, being arrested and led out of the ER in handcuffs.  I covered the monkey's eyes for that, since I wasn't up for the questions that would follow.  A young football player in full uniform, helmet and all, was wheeled by us with his family in tow.  That freaked me out, every parent's nightmare of a kid being whisked off the field into an ambulance without even removing his helmet.  I tried to find out if he was ok, but our nurse wasn't involved in his care.  I reassured the little guy that he was ok.  Someone overdosed and was either being treated or died while we were there, as all of a sudden a nurse came to our area and told us she had to shut our curtain for a few minutes.  A gurney passed by shortly afterwards and we later learned that someone had died.  There was a little six year old girl there in worse respiratory distress than my little guy and our nurse was really upset about it as they were hoping that she wouldn't have to be intubated.  Saturday night at a suburban hospital was quite exciting.  The physician's assistant that took care of us initially was a mom from our music class that we used to take, which was nice since we knew her.  

The pediatric unit at the hospital was very impressive and run by CHOP.  There was a playroom complete with a play house, which is something my son desperately wants to own.  Every room had free tv with a DVD/VHS player.  The play room had a full video/DVD library, so we were able to watch the Lion King and Phineas and Ferb!  There were race cars for the kids that parents could wheel around the unit. The staff was wonderful and really helpful.   For a while the little guy begged to go home, but after he started feeling better he realized how much was there to play with and see.  He loved checking out the kitchen that was filled with snacks and drinks. He must have had four cartons of chocolate milk that day, a usually one time a week treat.  The liquid prednisone he was on made him sick, but we were able to mix it with Hershey's syrup to make it more palatable.  Today he told me he loved being at the hospital and can't wait to go back there to play.  I would love to never have to go back there, but at least it was a good experience for the little patient.

He's back at school this week and loving it!   

 

Lip Balm addict

Everyone has their weak spots regarding products they can never have enough of....mine is lip balm.  I try out all sorts of lip balm flavors and formulas.  When I recently was invited to participate in the Carmex Blog Squad, I jumped at the chance to be able to try out new products.  Recently they sent me a fun package containing two new flavors of lip balms, Vanilla and Lime Twist.  They are similar to the traditional Carmex lip balm, but with added moisturizers.  To read my full review, check out my post on my review blog, Knitting Zeal's Two Cents!

Bad news comes in threes, but good news always follows, right?

I've always heard the "myth" bad things happen in threes, whether it be death, bad news, or whatever, the negative nellies out there believe in this adage.  I like to think it's more of a coincidence that we had three very unexpected and very expensive events occur all within a week or so recently, because within the three negatives, a positive thing occurred too!

A few weeks ago, on Friday, July 30th, a terrible storm hit our neighborhood.  It started around 6:45 pm, when we were just about to sit down for dinner (a really great meal I made from scratch, too!)  It got very dark outside and started raining. Really hard.  I had just put my plate down on the table after serving the two "boys" when I looked up above my son's head out the kitchen window to see a sheet of water covering it...sort of like someone was pointing a hose on the window.  Then the gusts of wind started, with the trees next to our house bending in the wind.  I was scared.  Really frightened.  I quickly grabbed my son, but calmly told him that we were going to go downstairs to the basement. At that point I was concerned that there was a tornado coming.  My son was beyond excited.  He isn't usually allowed in our basement, which is more like an old fashioned cellar with cement floors and exposed beams and wires.  He was full of questions, but we just told him we were going to wait out the storm there.  That's when I noticed the water pouring into my basement from under the seam of a window.  It was horrible, flooding the basement quickly, but not deep enough to use the sump pump.  We now know that we need to replace some of the old windows down there and get some waterproofing done.  I have no idea how to go about getting that done, but will figure it out. 

By 7:00pm the storm stopped and we went back upstairs.  I decided to check out our back yard to see if there was any damage.  The back yard looked great, with just a few small branches down and some leaves.  Even our umbrella and table were ok, which was surprising because of the wind we heard.  I then went to our door that leads to the driveway to check on the drive and cars.  At first I didn't see it, but then I realized that the only tree that we have left out front, after removing some this past winter, had split and was covering our yard and neighbor's yard.  Turns out it hit the front of their house too! Thankfully the damage was minimal to their house and landscaping.

 

The tree did pull a wire off my neighbor's house, but since we all had power we were not sure what it was.  Turns out it was their cable line, which affected their internet access and phone!  Yikes.  I called our tree guy and left two messages.  By the next morning we still hadn't heard back, so we called another tree guy we know.  He was able to get out to check out the tree and determine it wasn't an emergency.  By Monday afternoon his crew was out to clean it all up.  (Thanks to Sauers tree service!)

Our area had been hit hard by that storm, which was a wind surge, or something, not a tornado.  One street nearby lost 50 trees!  We were lucky the storm damage wasn't worse, but the clean up was still expensive.  Our tree looks great now, and seems ok.

The week following the tree drama brought two more issues...my husband's car needed an unexpected repair and our TV in our family room, the giagantic projection TV, stopped working.  After figuring out the problem, I got it working for another week, but then it stopped again.  My husband tried cleaning it out with compressed air, and got it working again for ten minutes, but it died again.  

That TV, a monsterous 50 inch projection Sony Wega HDTV set, was our big "pre-baby" purchased.  It was one of those things my husband wanted terribly for years and was purchased when he got an unexpected bonus check one year. It's got to be about seven years old now and it's been rebuilt, under warrarnty, and has had the lamp replaced almost yearly since the first one burned out after four or so years.  The research I did on fixing it made me realize that since it's an older set, and a projection set that isn't popular anymore, it would be hard to get parts for it...and it probably needs new fans for the cooling system.  I know a visit from the TV repair guy would be at least $150 just for a diagnosis.  So we've gone for over a week without TV in the family room and it's actually been nice, most of the time!  (A new TV will come soon. The Phillies "might" be in the World Series, you know:-)

Even though I limit the quantity of TV viewing my son does, along with being very selective with what he views, we had gotten in the habit of watching a show or movie in the afternoon for some quiet time, since he no longer naps.  It also gave me a chance to safely start dinner, usually.  This past week my son has played with every toy he owns, and my house is a wreck, but he has had so much fun!  

So the good news in all this?  The morning before the storm hit I got a phone call from 360 Cookware.  I was picked as their Facebook Fan of the Month!  About a week later I received my fan prize...the frying pan I had wanted!  It was such a wonderful surprise and really made me feel better after all the expense we had been putting out for repairs.  I love their line of cookware and will have to do a post on my new pan sometime soon. It works great!  Thank you!!

It's my blog-iversary!

So back in August of 2004, I decided to jump in head first and figure out this blogging thing on typepad.  I had been using several other blog formats before, but decided to try to do something that looked nicer.  I was childless back then, so my blog focused on knitting primarily.  Fast forward seven years and my focus has changed to parenting and food!  I still knit, but post that stuff on Ravelry. 

It's been a great experience blogging for this long and I love having a record of my life for the past seven years, expecially with photos.  In a way it is a scrapbook/journal for me to have of my life and hopefully my son will enjoy reading through it when he is older.  

Once, at least five years ago, I had my blog printed and bound in a book.  Someday I'll have to do that again to keep a printed version of those later years too. 

Blogging has given me lots of opportunities to meet people online and in real life.  It started with knitting and has increased to parenting now too.  Through it I've been able to take on other writing assignments, such as being a contributing writer on Mama's Little Helper and Montco Moms Blog, as well as write for Examiner.com.  I enjoy writing and hope that as I have more time to focus for more than ten minute intervals, I'll be able to increase my writing and be more creative.  

I've also enjoyed participating in different groups, such as BlogHer's book club, writing reviews of fun products companies have sent me, linking up to menu plan Monday and Project Spectrum, and making connections with companies who produce products I really believe in and enjoy using, such as 360 Cookware.  Blogging has been a great way to try new things and share my experiences with others.

I'd love to redesign my blog, but that involves learning coding and other techy stuff.  I'm still trying to master my dslr camera.  One thing at a time!    

So, thanks for reading my little piece on the interwebs.  I hope it's amusing at least some of the time!