Ok, so first, a knitting update. I did not, in fact, manage to finish even the first sock of my dad's Christmas pair, in time for Christmas morning. I ended up popping the sock in progress, needles, ball of yarn, and all, into a gift bag. When he opened it, I told him I'd continue working on it, if he'd hand it back. The first sock is now finished, and I've got almost the entire cuff of the second sock done. Here's hoping I can finish the socks, over the next few days.

Ok, so Christmas is nearly here, and despite the fact that I decided to do very little gift knitting this year (largely on account of school), I'm significantly behind. I think I may have had a chance of making it, if I hadn't been bitten by the writing bug, right before finals. As it is, I have one gift completed, that I finished more than a month ago. The other, well... it's a pair of socks. Or rather, that's what it is intended to be. I'm on the heel flap. Of the first sock. I'm still daring to hope that I'll have the first sock completed before Christmas morning.

I've always been an introvert - at least, in the Meyers-Briggs sense. For those unfamiliar with M-B, what that basically means is that my energy and motivation generally comes more from within myself, than from others. Introverts are not necessarily unfriendly, shy, or reclusive - it just means that hanging around with other people (especially lots of other people), even when it is something they enjoy, requires energy, rather than restoring it to them – it may be fun, but is generally not relaxing.

Let's just establish up front that I'm probably crazy for trying to pick up blogging again (if the sporadic nature of my updates ever qualified as "picked up", in your book), right now. I have been insanely busy for quite some time, having started nursing school this fall, around trying to keep up with the house, and my little girls. It has been a challenge for various reasons, one of which is the unique-to-itself (as far as I know) grading scale that my nursing classes use - anything below 80% is flunking, so 90% means you're scraping by with a B... barely.

I've spent a significant portion of the day feeling a bit out of sorts. The following is a list of contributing factors:

• I have a cold, which I have been fighting for nearly two weeks (I am coming to the conclusion that taking Airborne only prolongs the early stages, for me)
• I have been running short on sleep, since I have two little girls that have a tendency to keep me up late

Ok, I'm not usually into blog rants, especially political ones, but I saw a link to this article in a tweet by the Yarn Harlot (Stephanie didn't care for it, either), and just really felt the need to toss my $0.02 out there. Simply put, the author of the article complains about how "Women are girly. Again", and about how we have "lost" a bunch of hard-won "bad-assery", because some women blog about cupcakes and knitting and such. She doesn't get it.

So...after yet another long hiatus, I decided today, on my way home from class, that I have a burning desire to blog, again. At least, to blog today. Perhaps because I have enough to say that I don't care to cram it into tweets.

KB:"What are you doing, Mommy?"
Mommy:"I'm doing my homework?"
KB: "What kind of homework?"
Mommy: "Organic Chemistry homework. I'm learning about protein."
KB(climbing up on couch next to Mommy): "Oh, protein."
Mommy: "Did you know that there is protein in lots of the food we eat, and then our bodies use the protein for lots of things? Like building things in your body? There is protein in your skin, and in your muscles, and your hair, and your fingernails..."
KB (rolls onto her front, and peers back down over her shoulder): "Is there protein in my butt?"

This morning, I put fresh batteries in KatyBeth's baby doll (it's the kind that says, "mama", and general baby babbles). This delighted my soon-to-be-three year old, who has been walking around cuddling the doll ever since, proclaiming (as one would expect) that she is the baby doll's mama. Lily is also fascinated with the doll, smiling whenever it babbles, and often reaching for her. In an unsurprising addition to the game of pretend, the baby doll's mama declared Lily to be "the baby doll's big sister".

I've been going on cleaning binges, all week (and let me tell you, while the house is far from perfect, it looks WAY better than it did), and this morning I found the romper that I knit before Lily was born. Knowing I have larger than average babies, I made it bigger than the pattern instructed, for a newborn. Unfortunately, I apparently WAY overdid it, and she about swam in it: