MCC and Memories

This weekend was the West Coast MCC Sale and it was FUN!  Although this year I knew going in that I probably was not going to be coming home with any quilts because I chose to buy a new spinning wheel instead, I still had a great time eating a delicious tri-tip sandwich, homemade (at someone else's house) berry pie, fresh Fritters, tacos and a teeny tiny amount of homemade ice cream.  I loved getting a chance to see and catch up with people I see very infrequently--mostly we see each other at the MCC Sale, with very occasional smatterings of visiting throughout the year.  The quilts were beautiful, but I worked very hard not to get toooooo attached to any of them since I didn't want to cave in and buy something I hadn't budgeted for.  The food, the quilts, and the people were all amazing, but my all time favorite part about this year's MCC Sale was Tyler.  Now, I know what you're thinking.  It's no surprise that Tanya has a "Tyler is so wonderful" tale to tell.  Honestly, that's not what this is! 

On Friday night, Doug and Tyler came to the MCC Sale with my dad for us all to have dinner together.  While we were in line for food, we ran into one of Tyler's friends from school and karate and his family.  I have really enjoyed getting to know his mom over the past few years as we keep running into each other at schools, karate, vacation Bible schools, summer camps, etc. and Tyler enjoys playing with his friend, Josiah, and his younger brother, Elijah.  After the kids had finished eating together (translation--Scarfing down their food as quickly and efficiently as possible), they left the table to play together in a big grassy area nearby.  I swear, one second there were just the three kids playing and the next second there were 8 kids running around together.  THIS was my favorite part.  The friends and the carefree memories being made. 

I have so many amazing memories from when I was growing up and going to the MCC Sale every year and playing with all my friends that I didn't get to see often.  We would have so much freedom to run around and just check in with parents for food tickets or money for books or whatever and running around like crazy people.  I even remember one year when my friend, Peter Hasegawa, bought an avocado green toilet to put in his bedroom as a fish bowl.  I realize that I do a similar thing at the MCC Sale now, it's just a lot more sedate and there is a lot more discussion on "where are you working now?" "how's your family?"  and other "grown up" talk.  I will always cherish my carefree childhood MCC Sale memories and am so glad that Tyler is having the opportunity to create some of his own.



Here are the boys coming back to the table after running around for a while.  I love how they just casually sling their arms around each other and talk about their time playing.

 Tyler, Elijah and Josiah posing together for an MCC Sale wrap picture.  Boy were they happy (and exhausted).

One of the other fun things about the MCC Sale is that they have a book sale every year.  I feel like God is trying to tell me that He has a plan for me:

(note: As funny as I think it was to find them here, I did NOT buy these books.)

Nature's Bounty

Last Friday, my friend's mother offered me some strawberries since she had been given more than she felt she could eat. Although I didn't measure or weigh or in any other way document how much I received, I was told that she got four pounds, she gave me half that and then I gave some to my friend to take home with her....I'm pretty sure I brought home about a pound of strawberries. And boy were they delicious! I polished those puppies off on Monday night and then was offered some more. Never one to turn down fresh (and free!) produce, I brought them home with me and ate some for breakfast.  I had the brainstorm to turn some of my remaining bounty into a longer lasting treat. I remember when I was growing up making strawberry freezer jam with my mom and how I loved having it on toast. I cooked this batch up tonight while Ty was doing his homework.

I had just a smidgen of homemade ice cream left to smother with the bit of jam left in the mixing bowl.  Wow!  After making this again, I think it's a great idea for people to homemaker their own condiments every now and again to keep in touch with what goes into their mouth.  2 cups of strawberry moosh to 4 cups of sugar!,,


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Servings and Remainders

It's Girl Scout Cookie time!  I confess, I'm a sucker for enterprising young people spending their free time to raise money for their organization.  It also helps that their cookies are so delicious.  (Especially the Samoas--I know the box says they're Caramel DeLites, but it lies.  They are, and forever shall be, Samoas.)

Since I'm the kind of parent who feels like any conversation has the potential to be a learning opportunity for my kiddo, when we opened this box of Samoas, I asked Tyler to guess what the suggested serving size would be.  He guessed (correctly) that it would be two.  We then chatted about how it's really important to stay active and how exercise is an essential part of staying healthy, but that it was also important to make sure you don't overeat because then you might still be unhealthy.  And yes, I understand the irony of a slightly chubby mom having this conversation with her rail thin, super muscular kid.  He may not always be so active... 

 A few days later he asked me, "Mom, if the serving size is two, WHY do they give you a box with 15?  Then there's a remainder and someone doesn't get all their serving."  (They were learning division with remainders in school that week.)  What a great question!  I figure that if they're going to have a serving size, it should be appropriate to what they give you in the container size, especially if it's something so easy to control the amount/number of.  I could see if they didn't count out each individual M&M or grape, but cookies?  That's just lazy.  So we bought another box to be sure there were no remainders.

So much to learn...

My photography class started this week and I've already learned so much about my camera and about making it work for me instead of me holding it while it does whatever it wants to. I went all wild and crazy and instead of just choosing whether or not to use a flash, I turned it to manual and played around with shutter speeds. Wow! What a difference that can make. But good heavens do I have a lot to learn. Luckily I have a fantastically adorable and mostly willing practice subject.

And sometimes one who isn't given the choice. 

Most of my pictures don't look quite right...this one's a bit washed out, but it was too fun to document this moment when we got home from scootering to the library and Tyler wanted to read his new books out in the front yard.  Boy does this kid love to read!  He didn't even want to take off his helmet before he dove right in to his book about the American Revolution. 

He finally took enough of a break to look up and smile for me. 

In non-Tyler news, the guys at work found this fantastic hamburger joint near our office and we made an almost all office lunch event out of it.  A-Mazing!  The burger was perfect and the fries were delicious.  I will definitely be eating here again.  

I also stumbled upon Keva making use of the tent that I had set up in the playroom last weekend when he had a friend come over to spend the night. 

A mom, her son, their dogs and ...

THEIR LAMB.  That's right...A Lamb.

This Saturday I went walking with my dog and my bonus dog, Hawk, at the park on their main walking trail.  I stopped the dogs along the trail to take their picture (because who doesn't take a picture on their walk?) Keva was sniffing rather interestedly towards the lower bike trail that was just to the side of us so I peeked over to see what she was so curious about. 

See how she's cranning her neck?  That's very unusual for her.
I couldn't quite tell what it was that I was seeing, but I knew that it did not move like a dog.  So we decided to check it out.  Granted, this might have been a rash choice since I wore walking shoes, not hiking shoes and the lower trail is quite a bit more "rugged".  It all paid off in the end though when we caught up to the lady, her son, their three border collies and their little baby lamb who thought he was a dog.  Cutest dang thing ever!

Keva and Hawk got the opportunity to sniff a sheep up close and personal (in the way only dogs can get personal) and I got the opportunity to dream about my future life with sheep and little lambs who are part of the family out for a stroll.

Sicko!

Here's my day today:

Tyler is home sick today so between laundry and nurse duties, I have decided to make some cornbread comfort food using this fantastic recipe I found online. It's the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue corn bread and I LOVE it.

Spindle Spun

Remember this yarn?

I finished spinning this second half of the wool: 

 And then plied it up on my spinning wheel to make this fantastic yarn. 

One of the things that is so interesting to me about spinning is that you can take wool that is bright pink in sections, orange sherbert colored in others, and then dark purple in others and put it all together and it just works.  I love how the colors all kinda mush in spots and then other spots just pop. 

(Don't be alarmed by that bit of white in there.  I was a bit off on either my spinning of the two halves or the separating of the two halves and when I plied them I had a little left over on one bobbin.  Because I can't stand to waste anything, I decided to ply it in with some other white I had already spun up.  My plan is to ply any extra lengths from the current spinning I'm doing with white and then use all the varied marls together in one project so that the white is their commonality and the colors are their visual interest.)

I seem to be awfully enthralled with spinning right now and am finding it kind of hard to want to knit.  The ironic part is that as I'm knitting less (due to the spinning), I'm also increasing my yarn amounts.