Sunday evening

Well, tomorrow morning will be Monday and I won't be going to work for the first time. I'm still not sure how I'll react. Knowing me, probably badly, but my working was just not working out in the real world. As it is, I have multiple errands that have to be run, orthodontics appts that have to be made for 2 kids, various arrangements to be worked on, practitioners to be hunted down. And here I really wanted some down time (don't we all). I think one thing I have to do is take my blood pressure regularly and just see how it reacts.

I did finish Addie's socks so her Thanksgiving outfit is complete (we tried the socks on her, and they fit as you see)

and I knit the fingerless gloves my SIL requested for her 7 year old quite some time ago that I just hadn't gotten to, despite having the yarn in stash and this being such an easy thing to whip up.

Those are Gilad's hands modeling the mitts; he thought they were wonderful and wanted to keep them. Um, don't think so. Pink fingerless mitts are just not you, Gilad.

We let Kayla create a Facebook account, so everyone who knows her go find her there now. Of course we also found out that Tirtze had created a Facebook account without telling us or friending us. Yet another opportunity for us to be mad at her. Sigh.

The boys and Jeffrey went to a Boy Scout Court of Honor this evening; Feivel was awarded a badge he'd earned and Sachy was awarded his Tenderfoot (I think I have that right).

an announcement and a test

I'm mostly testing here because Kayla's having trouble posting to her blog, but meanwhile I'll announce that Jeffrey and the boys are home safe from Boy Scout camp.

Memorial Day Weekend

Here it is Monday already. Shabbos passed fine without Jeffrey and the boys (though we missed them) who were camping with the Boy Scouts. The girls, the little ones and I had our meals, made it to shul for a little while, and even managed to attempt a walk in the park (which we don't normally try since it's outside the eruv). Addie walked happily about 1/2 mile from the house and then sat down and wouldn't budge another step. Gilad found a caterpillar on the path, put it on his arm, took it with him for quite a while, then shared it with Addie who wanted a turn. Then they put it back on the path to continue on its way, but they hoped to come back and pick it back up on our return. Unfortunately by the time we got back to it, it had been squished by a bicycle. For the record, Gilad had named it "Naruto."

Sunday, my mother, Tirtze, and I took Gilad and Addie to the zoo. We saw a lot of the animals, but Gilad's favorite part of the whole zoo trip was the mist machines they have up along the main path.

Jeffrey and the boys came home in the middle of the night last night. Kayla's out camping with the Girl Scouts now, and Tirtze's at her grandparents.

I've gotten very little knitting done, but I have finished the front and back of my "Boggart in the Window" sweater (so-named because I joked about Harry Potter book boggarts appearing to me in the form of a cable needle, and the sweater pattern is called "Windowpane."

Gilad thinks outside the tracks

While Zombie Addie and her monster Pibbie come to get you (Addie's the one on the right if you weren't sure):

And eventually vampire Kayla gets her:

(but Kayla made me delete the photo).

Meanwhile, in somewhat saner lands, Feivel and Jeffrey survived the Boy Scout ski trip today and had a good time.  Sachy had basketball practice, Kayla had Girl Scout Thinking Day, and Tirtze supposedly did all her homework.  Added bonus:  Kayla brought home vegetable California rolls and Sachy ate a ton of them.

Oh, and we started our Purim baking a little.

What We've Been Up To:

Working hard

Being cute

Just thinking.

Actually we had a fine Shabbos, then Saturday night Feivel went to the high school play (no one else here wanted to go but he had a great time and felt very grown up seeing "I Remember Mama").  Today, Kayla spent most of the day working with her friend Naomi on their project to recreate the clothing of the Kohen Gadol (chief priest of the Holy Temple) with all his special garments; Tirtze is with her friend Sarah for the afternoon; and Feivel and Jeffrey are now at a Boy Scout meeting.  Then everyone gets back home, we'll light the first Chanukah candles, and then I head out to a knitting get-together while the rest of the family goes to the synagogue's Chanukah party and dinner.

Oh, and I'm knitting an unusually constructed baby sweater for our next-door neighbor's new baby boy; in essence it's two octagons folded, joined, seamed, and finished into a baby sweater.  Here's one half already folded and the other ready to be folded and seamed (pattern is XRX's 4 Tam Pram Set):

Sunday, Nutty Sunday

I started this morning with a spinning class, and I can now say I can spin long draw properly and successfully, yeah me!  But meanwhile, Gilad has a birthday party to attend (and they forgot to take the gift on the way out), Kayla has a Girl Scout activity, Feivel has a Boy Scout meeting, and Sachy has a Cub Scout popcorn booth sale to attend.  Then this evening I have SnB and I have to be sure to be there because someone is coming especially to try out my spinning wheel. 

So it's another quiet day in our house.

Oh, but Feivel's slippers fit!

Rainy days and Sundays

After several rainy days, we woke up this morning to find...it was pouring still.  So I put some cinnamon buns in the toaster oven ('cause I need to keep the big oven from being milchig), put in a load of the little kids' laundry, got an apple and streusel cake in the oven, and am figuring out what else needs to be cooked when.

Gone, though, are the plans to spend the day at Shepherd's Purse Alpaca Farm (it's National Alpaca Farm day, you know) and their neighbor, Rock Hill Orchard.  Even Kayla was excited about crias and apples in close proximity.  It's just not worth going in drenching rain and days' worth of mud.  We'll just have to buy our apples the new-fangled way, at the supermarket.

So instead Gilad will spend the day whining about Scooby Doo and Blues Clues (cue Addie flashing the pawprints sign), and we'll cook.

Jeffrey and the boys spent the weekend up in PA at a boy scout camp out, but they're coming home a little earlier than originally planned; they're expected back around lunch time, rather than dinner time as previously expected.  This makes us happy here!

Of course, as usual their return from a rainy boy scout weekend means the mud content in the house will increase by several pounds.  

He rode it! Sorry I took so long to tell you all

Feivel, age 11, completed his bicycle ride of the entire C&O Canal last Thursday, along with other members of his Boy Scout Troop.  Mind you, Feivel was over a year younger than the next youngest of the scouts on the ride, and if you are a family member, friend, or regular reader here you remember that Feivel is developmentally disabled as well, making it that much more impressive and special that he completed this momentous feat--a 184.5 mile ride, camping out the whole way, with a stop to go white water rafting (they put Feivel in the raft with the three adults on the trip, which to my mind was the smartest thing they could have done).  He may be among the youngest ever to have accomplished this ride.

He is very proud of himself, and we are phenomenally proud of him.  Our thanks to Bob Kreitman, Dave Herschander, Yonasan Gorin, and all the scouts and parents who were involved, as well as to BSA which gave him this opportunity.

I hope to have at least a couple of photos soon to add to this post, but I'm not sure what became of them--Jeffrey, who helped with support for the trip, took them and either hasn't downloaded them or hasn't let me know where they are among the electronic files.  At the very least, I'll take a new photo of him in his gear.

We did sponsor the kiddush at shul this week in honor of his accomplishment, and contributed chocolates, Pepperidge Farm cookies, cocoa covered almonds, and Jelly Belly jellybeans, much to Feivel's delight and that of the other children.

Everyone's been hard at work

Today, Feivel left for his big Boy Scout ride--Troop 613 left this morning to bike down the whole C&O Canal!  They'll make some stops during the week for rafting and the like, and finish in Georgetown Thursday evening.  The biked over 3 hours this afternoon and made it to their intended camping point at about 5:15 pm.

Jeffrey left early in the morning to meet up with the troop, help with davening and transport, and get them going in the northwest.  He just got home at about 8 pm.

The girls and Sachy spend the morning helping their grandparents with gardening and preparation for fence painting.  They worked very hard and Grandpa was very appreciative.

Gilad and Addie behaved nicely at their grandparents' house so everyone else could get their work done.

Meanwhile, being insane, I decided that just working the Slow Bee Mystery II shawl is not enough lace to be knitting (and I only have one other project on the needles at the moment, my Komon sweater from Knit Kimono).  So of course, I cast on Nancy Bush's summer Estonian shawl from the most recent Piecework.

We're just all worn out.

They're outa here!

Feivel is at boy scout camp; Sachy and Jeffrey are at cub scout camp; and I drove Kayla up to girl scout camp. The men all left yesterday morning at 6:30; I drove Kayla up to Leesburg in the early afternoon. So now it's just me at home with Tirtze, Gilad and Addie.

Gilad took scraps of paper last night and told me he was writing postcards. He scribbled on each of them, then "read" them to me. They say:

Dear Tatty/Feivel/Sachy/Kayla,
I miss you.
Please come home tomorrow.
Love, Gilad

Unfortunately, yesterday I also engaged in acts of plumbing. With Grandpa's help, I replaced the insides of our toilet, which had some pipe leak that make the whole house knock when you flushed. When we re-connected everything, though, it turned out that now the connecting pipe between the water valve and the toilet had sprung a leak. Oma took the original so she could run to the hardware store for me today to get an identical one, but I figured I would go to the store myself and find the right thing and get it done last night. Needless to say, the one I got was the wrong size at one connector end, so the toilet is still not usable. Sigh.

However our big new is:
Gilad is now wearing big boy underpants.

Is it Over Yet?

We're a little worn out around here!

Everyone is at least home after a whirlwind weekend of camping and sleeping out. Jeffrey and Sachy were at a Cub Scout campout, Kayla was at a Girl Scout campout, Feivel was at a Boy Scout campout, and Tirtze and Gilad slept out last night at their Oma's house.
Would you believe that they let Feivel shoot .22s and engage in archery? Not to mention use an ax and a bow saw? Duck, that's all I can say.
Everyone is home now and everyone's worn out. Jeffrey was so tired he went to bed without eating dinner yet. I already told the boys they're going to bed early.
Everyone had a great time, though.

Advances in Feiveldom

Somehow I forgot or didn't get around to posting that Feivel went on a bike trip on Sunday with his Boy Scout troop--from Chevy Chase all the way to the Key Bridge and back! Talk about super riders.

This was their first trial trail ride in preparation for their planned C&O Canal ride this summer.

Also exciting, I think we're going to be able to get him registered for Special Olympics Track and Field activities for this spring. He thinks it sounds great.

It's not Monday. No. It isn't.

Sunday evening not only was I staggering around I was so tired, but I couldn't even account for several hours out of the day.

We went to Mom and Dad's to celebrate Tirtze's birthday and to see Grandma who's in the process of moving to a retirement home down here. The kids all got their Chanuka gifts since we probably won't see Mom and Dad next weekend (iPod for Tirtze as a combined gift, fake Ugggs for Kayla, Pokemon cards for the boys, toys for the 2 little ones).

I stole a couple of photos from Mom to scan in. Now I'll have a pic of Josie to illustrate any and all posts about Dora (she's even wearing her sweatshirt with the big Superman "D" on the front--you know, SuperDora), plus one of Herbie just 'cause he's cute.

Feivel had his first 5th grade basketball team practice. We'll see just how this goes...he's not the only kid on the team from the special ed program, at least. He also had a boy scout meeting and felt very proud that he already knew a lot of what they went over, thanks to working with Jeffrey.