A Horrible End

(FIGHTING OVER CAMERA TIME)

I've recently been finding large ants in our bed. I only come across one at a time, so I never know where they're coming from. I usually just squash them when I feel them crawling on my skin at night. Not fun, but what else can I do? There's at least some amount of justice in this world, though.

One of them met a very gruesome end this morning. It apparently crawled into the baby's nose, got tangled in snot and could not escape. It must have been ugly, so where's my sympathy? Ask me that again the next time you're awakened by a car-sized black ant nibbling on your knee. Besides, it most likely bit my sweet, angelic sleeping baby, so it surely deserved what it got, right?

On a lighter note... or maybe not. I'm not sure. On a different note at least...

I've figured out why kids' songs really aren't for Mommy and Daddy. You might think it's just because they're irritating and repetitive, but it's the content we should avoid thinking to hard on. Take this one as an example:

This old man, he played one
He played knick-knack on my thumb [some versions use "drum"]
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played two
He played knick-knack on my shoe
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played three
He played knick-knack on my knee
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played four
He played knick-knack on my door
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played five
He played knick-knack on my hive
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played six
He played knick-knack on my sticks
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played seven
He played knick-knack up in heaven
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played eight
He played knick-knack on my gate
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played nine
He played knick-knack on my spine [some versions use "line" here]
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played ten
He played knick-knack once ag'n [some versions use "on my hen" here]
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

We all know it well, but have we ever really analyzed its lyrics? I sing it to my kids all the time, but yesterday, I saw it for what it really is for the very time ever. And, I was disturbed. Yeah, take a look at it a second time....

Who is this perverted old man, anyway? I'm not sure what knick-knack paddywhacking is, but it sounds suspicious to me. The old perv starts out innocently enough with doing his paddywhacking on my thumb and my shoe, but he soon works his way up to my knee. The old dog - we all know what a bone is. And, then you just can't get rid of the geezer. He starts stalking me. He's at the door. The gate. He's even worked his way up to my spine. Apparently, though, by the count of seven somebody's getting a bit fed up and tries to knock him off (though, I'd doubt with his behavior that he's heading off to heaven). It didn't really seem to work all that well, though, because by the count of ten, he's back at it again.

And, we're singing this too our kids. Between that and Hansel and Gretel, it's amazing they're not all in therapy by the age of 6.

Catchy tune, though, don't you think?

Anyone just completely unsettled by my mind's random wanderings? What can I say? I spend hours upon hours with kids' music and tv in the background. A mom's got to have a little fun. Anyway, I blame my parents. This kind of humor runs in the family - a family where the game of pool (where technical words like "stroke," "balls" and "stick" are said with a straight face) is really popular.

Oh, and for those who are concerned about the state of my house... I made some real progress on the baker's rack. It got mostly emptied (though much more organized piles of things still awaiting a home can be found on two shelves), and two of the shelves now have nice arrangements of pots and pans on them. Maybe we should make a little challenge for ourselves to post pictures of our worst clutter spots and vow to clean them up and then post the after shots. A little support group for those who tend to bury their heads in their knitting so as not to see the mess around them? Anybody with me on that one? I know it might take away from your knitting time for a while, but it'll be worth it if you can find those extra yarn balls hiding under a pile of old newspapers.

Banging Your Head Against A Wall

This evening, I found two bumble bees smacking their little heads and their probiscus (is probisci the plural there?) against a metal pole. There was apparently an odor that attracted them to it, but I don't know if they were able to get any of that lovely iron nectar they were after. It was pretty funny to me, so I took a little picture of one. Plus, they're unlike any bumble bees I've ever seen in the US, so I figured I'd show them off for my American readers (some day, I'll get a nice shot of the huge all black bees they have here - fascinating). After taking pictures of them, I realized how appropriate it was for my current mood. I feel a little like I'm banging my head against a metal pole, too. Here's why...

Having the duty of taking care of laundry and dishes and other miscellaneous messes for five is a daunting task. They work so much faster than I do. First, they outnumber me by far. And, then, they are so efficient at what they do. It can take me days to thoroughly clean a room, yet during the time it takes me to take an afternoon nap, they can not only undo all my hard work, but they can also rearrange the furniture and other things they hadn't thought to do before I cleaned. It's quite impressive, really, and if I weren't so busy trying to pick up after them, I'd been in awe of their talent. They're just that good.

The kitchen is the room I would most like to get under control (or at least some semblance of control). Like in many households, our kitchen somehow ends up being the command center of the house. There is so much more than eating and cooking going on in this room. They color at the table, even though they have a desk in their playroom. They play on the floor there sometimes. And, we can't forget that the kitchen is often turned into my sewing room while a cake or a loaf of bread bakes in the oven. Naturally, every time someone does a non-food related task in the kitchen, bits and pieces of their project (my sewing included) seem to find a semi-permanent home there. It's frustrating, and I never even come close to fully controlling this room. I think the thing I have the most difficulty with is the fact that (through no fault of the kids), every horizontal surface in the room becomes a junk space. We don't have a junk drawer, and since my husband still hasn't gotten around to making the majority of the closets and shelves that should be in our new house, I'm left with few storage options.

Tonight before dinner, I had a very strong desire to clean the kitchen from top to bottom. After dinner, I scanned the room to take stock. That's when I became paralyzed by a sense of being overwhelmed by the mess and all motivation drained from my body in a matter of seconds. Well, that's not really true. I still have a strong desire - a need really - to clean that room. I just don't know where to start. I always have trouble putting my blinders on and zeroing in on one section of the room at a time. Then, there's the very real issue that most of the things I see lying around don't have a real home of their own. So, I stand there aimlessly shifting objects from one pile to the next. Needless to say, none of this helps either my mood or the general appearance of the house.

I'm a little down now after wanting to dive in and get something done but spending too long standing around lost in my own home. And, when faced with this sort of problem what do all bloggers do to tackle it? Why, we blog, of course. I don't tend to talk much about this part of my life. It's a little too depressing, and I'd rather show off the kids and my sewing or knitting projects. Call it denial. I don't care. You'd most likely be right. After all, staring into this 14 or so inch box as I type these words certainly prevents me from looking around the room at the chaos around me.

Now, I generally choose not to be 100% honest about this part of my life. Well, I don't really lie. I just conveniently omit it when I blog. Some of you recently were amazed at all the sewing I seem to get done. It's largely due to the fact that I can ignore messes much like the one pictured here when my nose is buried in a bunch of fabric. This is a satisfactory solution as long as I continue to sew (hence the amazing productivity). Again some may refer to this behavior as denial, but I prefer to call it attention displacement. Sounds fancier that way.

It may seem a bit perverse or silly for me to snap a picture of this mess and post it on the internet (my mom is surely hanging her head in shame at the sight of it). My reasons are valid, though. First, I figure I'm not the only one out there with some section of their home that looks this way. It can only be comforting to those people to know they are not alone. Second, if I post a picture and claim I'm going to clean this mess up, I just might stick to it and show you the finished picture, where my lovely pots and pans might find a neat and tidy home here on the rack they used to love back before I had kids and a husband. And, third, I think taking a picture could help me to better focus on just this small area long enough to clean it without feeling overwhelmed. Just looking at it here as I write this post, I see a few items whose homes would be easy enough to find. I could clear them pretty easily. Standing in the kitchen looking at this rack, I was too shocked by the mess in its entirety to see the individual parts that could easily be dealt with. I just might have found a new decluttering method here. My camera's lens isn't wide enough to take everything in, and I just might be able to deal with the small sections of the chaos it presents me with.

Okay, I've talked myself into. The kids are in bed, and the men (husband and father-in-law) are engrossed in a rugby match on tv (I might even get them each a beer to nurse while I work, so I can feel all 1950's this evening), so I think I'll get to work. Before I go, I'll give you some happy thoughts to tide you over. Look at these clowns. This is why I still love them despite the messes they leave me to deal with.

A Teeny Bit of News

We've been busy working on moving things, throwing junk away, etc. lately, so I've found little time to knit or blog. We decided to move our bed over to the loft over the livingroom to allow the kids to use our old bedroom as a playroom. I was really tired of tripping over their toys in the livingroom. They outnumber me, and I just can't keep up. I figure if the toys are contained to the room upstairs, it'll be less dangerous for those walking around downstairs, as well as less embarrassing when people stop by. What they don't see won't hurt them (or make me ashamed). So, we've been working on that a lot. Plus, a friend of mine who is quite the flea market shopper had a school desk she had found for 5 euros. It's too big for her apartment, and her daughter never uses it like she had hoped. We, however, have had the kids begging for their own desk for at least a month, so I jumped on the chance to take it home with us.

It's huge. I'll give it that much, but it's also in great condition. It has two seats attached to a large table. So, both the two bigger Lambchops can draw pictures till the sheep come home. It's big enough that even my husband, at a bit over 6'1" can sit comfortably in it, so it'll be useful for homework for years to come. Then, there's the added bonus of them being able to play school with it.

I brought it home last night, and I spent the morning preparing the room for it and putting it back together (it was too large to fit in the car in one piece). I love it. It's just the kind of thing kids dream of having when they're little and want to play school. Or, at least it's the kind of thing I dreamed of having. Very cool. I'll get a nice shot of it once the playroom is fully set up.

In other fun news...

I joined Wardrobe Refashion. I'm sure you've noticed me playing around with old clothes lately. That's what they do over at Wardrobe Refashion. It's actually where I got much of my inspiration in the first place. The idea would probably not really have occurred to me without this wonderfully diverse place we call the internet. There may be lots of places you can spend way too much money, but there are also many where you can learn to save a buck or two. Wardrobe Refashion is one of them. They make wearing second-hand clothes fashionable. And, I want to be like the cool crowd, you know? So, I've signed up to post whatever projects I get done over there. I find it nice to have a forum like that to express those kinds of projects and ideas to other like-minded people. So, if you're into that, pop on over there. It's a really cool blog with lots of great ideas for making everything from underwear out of t-shirts to modifications of an old pair of pants. That way, you can "repurpose" that old shirt/skirt/dress/whatever that you always loved and just can't part with. Or, you can modify that great thrift shop find with the fabulous fabric but hideous cut. Check it out. It can really open your fashion horizons up a bit.

My Favorite Furniture

Here is my favorite piece of furniture. Can you guess why? Yeah, it's not so much the furniture itself as what is inside it. This is the home of my entire yarn stash and most of my sewing goodies. I actually have some more fabric floating around here and in the old house still, but it'll be coming over shortly.

I was finally lucky enough to have this cabinet moved over here yesterday from the old house. It's huge, cumbersome and very heavy, so I think it took a lot of mental preparation to work up the nerve to move it. The left side has always been somewhat well-organized, but the right side was a mess. I spent all evening yesterday and most of today organizing it all and winding up all the odd balls of yarn that had gotten tangled up together (well, I'll admit there are a couple I still haven't worked up the courage to attack).

A little tour:

On the left side of the armoire in the sock hanger thing there are tons of balls of yarn. I highly recommend this kind of storage. I love keeping them this way. Most of the yarn in here is Anny Blatt/Bouton d'Or stuff I got last time I went to one of their sales (a couple of years ago). There's also some Knit Picks and that skein of lovely sock yarn I received the other day from Jo. Below that is some fiber to spin someday. Behind it is my sewing pattern tracing paper and my swift. To the left of it, in the plastic drawer tower is the bulk of my yarn. In the bottom drawer is almost all my cotton and linen. The rest of the drawers contain all the animal fibers. Sitting on top of that is a plastic bin tower that holds an assortment of works in progress that have either been abandoned or put on hold for various reasons. There are also some odd balls of yarn that don't fit in the drawers.

On the right side of the armoire, you'll find all of my pattern books (second shelf), sewing books and reference books for all the crafty endeavors I might feel like partaking in at any given time. Above that, on the top shelf, is a combination of things. Mostly, there are odd balls of yarns I was either given or have accumulated that don't fit in the drawers on the left. There is also a ton of cotton hiding in there. My mother-in-law tends to toss yarn in drawers, where all the assorted balls and skeins mingle and hang out until they have become one. At that point, she's not all that interested in dealing with them. I was told once that anything I could untangle was mine. There must be more than a pound of cotton washcloth yarn in there. I imagine I'll give some of it back to her now that I've wound it all into nice, little center-pull balls (love that ball-winder!). There is also a bag that holds the yarn intended for the Deep-V Argyle Vest (I'm itching to start that, but I haven't gotten the time yet. There are some things I'd like to get off the needles first, too.). On that same shelf, there are also lots of various yarn samples. Oh, and a bunch of sewing patterns are crammed into a folder in there, too.

On the third shelf down, I have a rather large tackle box thing that I'm considering giving to my son to play with. It seems to take up way to much room in my cabinet, and it's so impractical to pull it out and put it back in that I rarely keep anything I use much in there. I think the space would be much better used for fabric and my sewing notions (which aren't currently in the cabinet. You also see my handy-dandy ball winder (Did I mention that I love that thing?), a couple of boxes of moth repellent (definite must around here), a brown bag full of Kool-Aid (yep, only a knitter would keep drink mix in a cabinet in the livingroom), and two cases of interchangeable needles.

The bottom shelf on the right has what portion of my fabric stash I have rounded up so far and a box with some organic cotton to spin up. On the right on that same shelf is a sweater currently being unwound to be reknit, various shirts to chop up for the rug I'm making, the rug itself and a couple of balls of the shirt "yarn" all wound up and ready to be knit.

Below that bottom shelf is a little drawer. Inside it is a mixture of gauge swatches, some felted, some not. There is also an assortment of tiny leftover balls and all the ball bands I've ever remembered to keep.

So, there you have it. It's probably not the most modest yarn stash out there, but by no means is it the largest. I'm happy to say that I could most likely knit all of that yarn in my lifetime, so that's a plus. My goal is to keep it at that manageable size and allow the cabinet to be the limit. As long as it fits, I figure it's okay to have it. The best thing about keeping all of these things in this one cabinet is that it has a lock and a key that work. No little fingers can go roaming through my stash, and my husband just isn't interested. This means that when I organize it, it stays organized. The only reason the right side of the cabinet was a mess is because it had never been organized in the first place. It also makes a wonderful place to hide Christmas and birthday presents (like the two puzzle hiding out in the back on the top shelf). Love being a sneaky momma, and you just never know when you'll need a puzzle for a kids' party. Now, if only I could fit a little bed in there and cozy up to all the fuzzy fibers and make that my new ultra-organized home, because the rest of the house is still a mess.