I thought I would take this week to write about the things I use everyday and love. Today it’s kitchen stuff.

•The Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper makes the best popcorn! There are very few kernels that remain unpopped and it takes just a little bit of oil to make it work. I use this SO much.

•My Bodum Coffee Press. I use it almost every day, pop it in the dishwasher and it’s ready for the next day. Of all the coffee I drink, my favorite is out of the coffee press.

•I got my Wooden Citrus Reamer at Target for $.89. It’s perfect for juicing a lemon or two and I use it to juice my limes for cosmos!

•I bought my 5″ Calphalon Santoku Knife last year. It was the first nice knife I every bought, $30 and it was all I was willing to spend at the time on one knife. (I’ve always thought with kitchen tools that you should buy the best you can afford.) I use it every day and will take the extra time to wash it if it’s dirty rather than grab another knife.

•My friend Sarah made my butter bell. At first I wasn’t so sure about these butter bell things, but now I’m addicted. It submerges the butter in cold water, keeping it the perfect mix of cool and soft. I have to admit, it probably causes me to use more butter though!

•I recently purchased this pampered chef egg slicer. I’ve always been leery of pampered chef – I guess not so sure that it’s all they claim it to be. But I love the egg slicer. Last week when I made beef stroganoff, the egg slicer made it so fast to slice the mushrooms, even with the kids helping. I can’t wait to use it for strawberries.

If my site happens to go down (or Tangle too) don’t be alarmed, we’re just moving servers.

I’ve been knitting up a storm. I knit up a Calorimetry that ended up way too big. But I wore it any way sledding on Sunday. I just ended up tying it in a knot in the back.

I finished the cable eight top awhile back, but I’ve yet to take a pic of it. And I knit myself a Ruffles and Ridges Scarf (PDF) adding another repeat to make it wider and I used two balls of the Misti Alpaca in Cream to match my cabled hat.

In other knitting news, I found this great free knitting graph paper. And I just got in a big shipment of the favorite Malabrigo colors at Tangle. Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier this week that there are a few things on sale at Tangle too, including the Very Best Sock Kits.

I’m still working on my Sweater Workshop Sweater after putting it down for several months. Mostly I’m motivated because I want my 32″ size 8 Addi Turbos out of it to knit Jim a pair of alpaca fingerless mitts and I’m too lazy to move the sweater onto waste yarn. Plus, I’d love to have another sweater to wear in these freezing temperatures. It’s a balmy 8 degrees right now with a slight hope that by Saturday our high will rise above freezing.

I’m off to boot the dog out of my seat, snuggle under a blanket, see what my TiVo has to offer me and work on my sweater.

6. Live your life. Are you surviving? or are you living a life of purpose.
7. Think about living your life with purpose, what does it mean? Does it mean that you’re living day to day or living with an end goal in mind. Does it mean that every thing you do is for a bigger reason, or are you floundering? A life that is lived with purpose has direction, is cohesive, is accomplished.
8. Don’t do things solely out of obligation. It’s not worth it.
9. Plan for the future. Make goals, live your life to fulfill them. Be hopeful, but realistic.
10. Make sacrifices to fulfill your goals, but never so much so that you lose YOU.
11. Make art. Make your life an expression of who you really ARE.

edit: part one is here.

Monday
Pizza aka fend for yourselves while I’m at my teachers meeting eating tasty snacks

Tuesday
Penne with broccoli & ricotta

Wednesday
Salmon tacos (because I didn’t make it to the store that carries the good salmon last week.)

Thursday
Beef Stroganoff – crock pot!

Weekend
Rigatoni with Italian Sausage (turkey) and broccoli rabe (if I can find it!)
Potato Basil Fritatta
Potato soup with sausage and kale

Snacks
Hummus with carrots and whole grain crackers
Frozen banana shakes (banana, milk and berries)
chips with cheese dip (jim)
Go-gurt frozen (thanks Jo for the idea!)

I talked awhile back about some changes we are making in our lives. One of the things I started really thinking about was the kid’s toys. Compared to some, they may not have a ton of toys, but in my mind they have way. too. many. When I started to realize that they weren’t playing with the toys they had, I determined that I was, in fact, right. They have so many that their play room doesn’t stay clean and then they can’t find the pieces of what they want to play with. And they have so many that they don’t know what to play with.

Generally, I go through their play room about once a month and re-organize all the toys, putting all the blocks together, all the polly pockets together, all the little plastic bugs together, etc. So, after a big re-organization, I decided to transfer about 3/4 of the toys to the basement, all sealed up and properly divided. Now the playroom stays basically clean and they actually go in there and PLAY with what they have. In a month or so, I’ll swap some of they toys in the basement for what they have now. It will be like getting new toys!

But I think the biggest reason I’m thinking about all this has to do with their attitude. I’ve noticed that they are just as happy with one My Little Pony as they are 10. Honor is perfectly happy to have four matchbox cars as he is to have 50. I was thinking about an attitude of thankfulness. Do my kids need to expect to have one in every color, or should they be happy with one or two?

I think of the toys that I had when I was little. I remember being SO happy to get ONE barbie for my birthday or ONE cabbage patch doll for Christmas. And, maybe because I only had one cabbage patch when my friends had five, I want to buy things for my kids. I can afford to buy Eden a new polly pocket and Honor a new set of legos, so I do. But I’m starting to first think about if I should, not if I CAN. My end goal for my children is to have kids who are grateful for what they have and who don’t expect to get a toy every time we take a trip to the store. And I hope that attitude will transfer into adulthood and they will learn to save for what they want rather than whip out a credit card and get it RIGHT NOW. It’s a lesson that so many of us have learned the hard way and I hope that I can spare my children that one lesson by teaching them to be thankful for what they have now.

I started knitting these socks at my mom’s house during Christmas. They only took me a couple days to finish. Gotta love that worsted weight yarn!

I knit these two at a time on a size 6 32″ Addi Turbo, toe up, magic loop. It took two balls of Big Mexiko, a worsted weight, self patterning superwash wool. I know that a lot of people don’t like knitting worsted weight socks because they’re too thick to wear with shoes, but I LOVE to come home from work and put these on my cold feet. They are SO comfortable! And if you do wear clogs (or God forbid, crocs) these would work great.

beep, beep, beep

beep, beep, beep

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP

“Mom, the food needs you.”

Today I attended the funeral for my dear knitting student. I’ve lost very few people in my life (I am lucky) and death has always been a hard one for me to grasp. I keep thinking, “She can’t really be gone. I don’t want it to be this way.” As if my will power alone will change the course of history. I think it’s the finality of death that is hard to grasp. There is nothing else in life that is so absolute. It also brings to light the fragility of life. In an instant everything can be different. Keeping that at the forefront of my mind would change the way I live my life.

Sitting in the memorial service, I was struck with a thought. I don’t know if I can say this without sounding like an ass, but why does it seem like the people we lose first are the last ones that should go? The very best are usually the ones we can’t hang onto. Life is so terribly unfair.

I do know one thing though, my life is better for knowing her. Tangle is better for knowing her. She was a wonderful person who could light up a room and I will miss her so much.

Sunday
Roast Chicken and Baked Sweet Potatoes

Monday
Roast Beef with peppers, potatoes and garlic

Tuesday
either vegetable curry or chicken with salad

Wednesday
Beef and Mango wraps

Thursday
Chicken vegetable soup

Friday
Date night!!!

Saturday/Sunday
Salmon Tacos
Thin Crust Pizza (whole wheat tortillas, ricotta, veggies, mmmm…)