Getting Crafty for Christmas

My friend had a baby shower on Friday, so I decided to make this little sweater. But I didn't finish it until today, so she got diapers instead. This is my first sweater. It was super beginner, and obviously doesn't lay very straight. Jesse was giving me a hard time because the pieces are square and rectangular. He has no imagination. I got a whole bunch of yarn at Goodwill for $12. I'm excited to try to make some sweaters for the kids since we actually wear them here. This one will end up as a Christmas present for one of the quads, I guess.

In other news, Jesse got his dissertation in last week. We find out tomorrow what the committee decides. And we got church callings. Who wants to take a guess?

Reading For Pleasure

This weekend Jesse and I did a little job swap. He watched the kids and I worked on his dissertation. It was surprisingly relaxing. J got to some sewing he's been wanting me to do, and I proofread all 295 pages, including footnotes. It was fun to use my little red pen crossing out superfluous articles and inserting missing prepositions. It took me back to my Reading Writing Center days in college when I had the MLA handbook memorized. Unfortunately, Jesse used Chicago, so I was of little citing help. But I am now able to say that I have read Jesse's dissertation from start to finish. And I've learned a lot about Ennin, the Hui Chang persecution, the history of journals in Japan, and what the heck my husband has been doing the last three years or so.

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of the Year

I was looking at the Halloween post and realizing that it's now November and then comes December which is always CRAZY (and that's not counting the great flood of 2008).

Because lest you forget there's:
Christmas, Dec 25
Monkey's B-day (5), Dec 29
Jesse's B-day, Jan 1
Mermaid's B-day (8), Jan 31
Mermaid's Baptism, Feb sometime.
Valentine's Day, Feb 14.

And to make things exciting this year, we have:

Dissertation sent to advisers, Nov 16,
Thanksgiving, Nov 26,
Dissertation filed, Dec 5,
MLA Conference, Dec 27-29,
Job interviews, Feb.

I know that tons of people are way busier than I am, but for two months I feel like a CPA at tax time. CRAZY!

Unemployment

Check out this graph on the NY Times. It's the unemployment rate according to race, sex, age, and education. A pretty awesome visual reminder why getting a college education is a really good idea. It's also a pretty embarrassing visual of racial, sex, and age inequality.

You Rock!

I want to give a special shout out to whoever is using dial up to access my blog (they've accessed the blog 9 times this month). That is dedication.

Classic Mermaid and Cousin Ez

Jesse has me organizing the photos and I'm coming across some classic gems like this one. These two are now 7 and 8.

Sunday Hikes

Jesse first remembered me as the girl in mission prep class who said that Sacred Falls was a Sunday hike. We're continuing the tradition here in Maine. Short jaunts close to home.
Our Sundays are pretty quiet now. The weather has been nice, so we've been exploring our new home. Last week, we went to the bird sanctuary. And this week, we took a stroll along the river and the graveyard. This is the mighty Androscoggin River. The graveyard had these old trees interspersed throughout.

Halloween

I made the kids' Halloween costumes for the first time ever. I love that my mom has done this all the years previous. She's pretty awesome. So here's my handiwork.

Cook Books I've Read This Week

I don't really think of myself as a foodie. I'm the type of person who watches the Food Network while eating a tv dinner. I do like food. I like to cook. I like to try new things. And I really like cook books.
I'm also liking that our library has been putting cookbooks on display right next to the checkout so I can grab them without having to haul my kid to nonfiction on the 2nd floor.

So here are my two latest finds:
Lobel's Meat Bible by the Lobel family of butchers in Manhattan. First of all, I plan on making a trip to their shop this Christmas time. They are a multigenerational butchering family and they take it very seriously. I'm not much of a meat eater. And ironically, I'll probably be eating it less since I've read this book. Most definitely, I will never buy ground meat again unless it's been ground fresh while I wait from one piece of meat. The recipes look amazing in the meat bible, but I really liked learning all the different cuts, and types of meat are available. I've been afraid of beef in the past, but no longer. The recipes look amazing, but I don't have any meat in my fridge right now, so I didn't try any.

The other book I read was Well-Preserved by Eugenia Bone. Oooh La! I am so inspired! I want a canner, and a pressure cooker, and I want to can my own artichoke hearts! Her recipes are for small batches, which is brilliant for small spaces or trying out a new fruit or veg. I really want to try smoking my own bacon. How cool would that be? I love that Bone gives directions for canning w/ a water bath, pressure cooker, smoking, preserving in oil, and freezing. The information is empowering. I've done jams and jellies, but not a lot of vegetable canning, and no meat. As soon as we settle down a bit, I'm going canning crazy. If only we were still in California where the produce is amazing.

Jesse said we needed to figure out a way to earn more money. So I'm monetizing my blog. I think I'll get a dime a month or so. Oh yeah.

Saving Time

It's 8:13 here on the east coast. And our kids are in bed. One is definitely asleep. I'm not too sure about the other, but she's very, very quiet.

We've decided to embrace daylight savings. Instead of moan and groan about getting used to the time change, we're changing with the time. We pushed bedtime back to 7:30 for the kids, and we were asleep by 10 last night. Everyone gets up around 6:30. J is out the door at 7, and Mermaid practices the piano before school.

My one complaint, I really don't like that the sun sets at 4:30 (living so far north does have some MAJOR disadvantages). But at least I'm up when the sun is, for now.

So, we got a new computer, but it doesn't have internet hooked up yet. So when it does, I'll get some cool pics up of Halloween and our talent show. I know, the anticipation is killing you.