Valentine was here! **Warning: picture-heavy post**

Happy Day of Love!

Socks done: DIC Shooshy, Chinatown Apple color , twisted cable rib (C. Schurch)

This below is what I woke up to today from #4, my 6 y/o. My favorite candies that she and DH found for me. Can you hear me sigh with emotion from the words. Words: they mean so much to me.

Then my #3 said he had a message for me last night:

What can it be? A hint?

Love, that's it!

Words; they mean so much to me.

These are some of Ree's cookies. We've used muffin papers, and as you see, all of these are candy-less. All the candied ones are popped away for the dozens of children in our school who will be receiving the 130 cookies; one each.

Best yet, some dear friends have offered to watch the beasties tonight so DH and I can have a date. Sweet.

Flocking and Lent

Yes, there were birds at the park, but it was the sheer number of people that was impressive. I've only seen that many people there for a big summer event, like a concert. It was two days ago, Sunday after lunch.

Lent is the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter and it has been historically recognized by the church as a time to mentally prepare for the resurrection of Jesus. Most Reformed churches have eschewed the "giving up something for Lent" practice of the Roman Catholic church. But I like it...and sometimes have done things especially to prepare my heart and mind. This year, I was mightily intrigued by Laura when she recounted what she did last year. She Rocked! She read the whole bible for Lent. Read about it here.
Well, Laura, I am going for it! The bible from now until Easter...here I go...

More play at the park.

Friends and family are so good for spending time on Sundays.

Fetching Finally Finished

I've been working on a fingerless glove pattern by Knitty called Fetching. It look me a day or two way back in the Fall to do the first one and the other has just waited patiently to be knit up. I finally got to it this weekend. Above is a picture of the underside. For a picture of the first one modeled next to a great work of literature see this post. The two gloves were knit so far apart in time that I must have forgotten which needle size I used for the first one...it is smaller. It doesn't matter, right?
This is some Wonderfully soft and luscious Misti Cotton I got a LYS sale:

And this is some luxurious Noro Cash Iroha at the same sale:

Who could say no? I had a gift certificate AND they were on 30% off. I am thinking I'll have to conjoin them each with something else, unless a scarf is the project. There just isn't enough for a whole sweater.

Books and Dirt

This series by Jennifer Chiaverini is a fun read. It begins about 8 books ago. Some books are set in the past (like arriving in America 200 years ago and also in the underground railroad) and some are set all over the country. But all of them revolve around quilts and quilt-making and have certain core set of characters. I am so inspired by all the quilt making in the books that I even bought some stuff, but haven't really gotten in to it, yet...

I also just finished reading "The Bronze Bow" by Elizabeth George Speare to the kids for part of our Ancient Rome for history. It was very good, but not as good as I had hoped. Those high hopes seem to make even good thing seem...well, disappointing.

I have also been reading "The Narrated Bible" which is written in timeline formation. I really like it.

I also read the kids "The Children's Story Bible" by Vos. It's wonderful. Do you read that one, too?
Here's some pictures of how the bikes look after the ride:
the first one is the bag that hangs down from my husband's seat, the next is his bike, from the handlebars down...

The last is the #1's dirt.

Alternative Entertainment:

Who needs the Superbowl when you have a soggy steep trail going from the local mountains to the sea??? We don't!
A good friend and I dropped off the 8 kids and two dads at the trail head and said goodbye. This is what they did:

Nine miles to the sea. Trees and hills and many, many new pools.
They got a little wet.

And a little muddy! They even found a bit of sunshine.

Meanwhile, Danielle's car broke down and we were 2 hours (?) late in picking them up. They were cold and hungry and very, very wet. And happy.
I am thrilled the Giants won, but sad that I didn't get to knit at all.
Do I sound a little smug? I hope not. I do love having something outdoors to do, even if we have bad weather....
And I hope everyone who watched the game had a great time, too!

Finished with the Calormitery headband from Knitty.


I used Artyarns Reality on size 8 needles.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of our day avoiding the super event on TV.