The LC on the DL

As you know I haven’t been posting much to any of my blogs or the podcast. I have refocused most of my time and energy back where it belongs, to my family. Should time free up again, I hope to spend more time blogging, until then it is time well spent with my children, my husband, and taking care of my home.

We have many projects that are taking up a lot of our time but they have been great family projects. First up is our vegetable garden, while it is small we hope to get enough produce out of it to save some on our grocery bill this season. The kids all picked vegetables they are in charge of and have been diligent in caring for it. Also to their delight we planted some marigolds and sunflowers.

Several weeks ago we constructed a guinea pig home and cat proofed it. We adopted three male guinea pigs that are about a year and a few months old and that have lived together in a 1′x2′ cage most of their lives. They were surrendered to a rescue shelter and were not used to being handled (the noted reason for surrendering was because the children wouldn’t clean the cage). They are doing smashingly and already are used to their meal schedule and come to our voices. The little one we named Scooby Doo now curls up on my chest and will nap. They have some a long way from the shy and squirmy little guys they were and the children, my husband, and I just love them to pieces.

I have to take a sideline here and rant for a minute. Children should not be the sole responsible party for a pet. Children cannot BE responsible for pets and giving a child a pet does not teach them responsibility. I have seen numerous parents agree to let children have a small pet on the condition that they will take care of it and if they fail the pet will be “gotten rid of”. One, this teaches children that parents allow a child to ignore a pet and live in terrible and inhumane conditions (since the parent won’t step in) and two, that if they don’t want the pet all they have to do is to stop taking care of it and the parents will get rid of it. This is a very tragic and common occurrence and parents who think they are teaching their children lessons of responsibility usually don’t realize they are teaching irresponsibility instead. Adults should be in charge of the pet with children assisting parents. Remember, the best way to teach your children is by example. (end rant)

I have been sewing and crocheting quite a bit and trying to get rid of a lot of surplus fabric I have by turning it into rompers and dresses for the littlest girl. My oldest daughter learned to sew recently and has been working on some of her own projects as well. We have even made some cozies for the guinea pigs.

Coupons and shopping trip deals have been taking up several hours every weekend but the money we are saving is worth every penny. It costs enough to feed and care for a family of six as it is and the way grocery and incidental costs are going up it is costing more than ever. Every week we spend time as a family clipping coupons from the Sunday paper, I then organize them and check out the weekly ads. I have found several websites to be invaluable resources in planning my weekly shopping:

Money Saving Mom - (Walgreens, CVS, Wal-Mart deals as well as a few other good deals)

BeCentsAble - Grocery Gatherings include weekly ads and the coupons that go with them allowing you to either get items free or for pennies on the dollar. They note the best deals for items on sale or with coupons at a long list of stores so you don’t have to spend quite so much time keeping track of them on your own when planning your shopping trips.

Those are the two big ones I check. There are many other blogs I am keeping up with and I will share those with you later. I will have a post from my great deals this week to share with you the kinds of things these sites have helped me to accomplish (for example, I got $20 worth of stuff absolutely free yesterday at Wal-Mart). It takes some work, but a penny saved is double that which is earned!

My primary job is to be a great mom and wife and to care for my family and home. While technology is a great passion of mine, it cannot consume my time. I do love teaching people about technology and being an open source evangelist but there are only so many hours in the day and once I have spent 40 hours a week or more away from home my family suffers when I spend another 40 ignoring them at home. I am more than happy to answer questions, share what I know, and link to things I think are truly exceptional, but I don’t have time to be a news outlet. ;)  I am keeping up with as much as I can but can’t afford to miss out on my family. Thanks for understanding that.

They don’t even have to play and the more damaged and useless they are the better. I am searching for these to refashion into crocheted shopping bags, door mats, and place mats. I intent to rip the tape out of the casing and use as yarn. I have a few I think are bad in our personal library, after that I will be hitting the freecycle lists. If you are interested in repurposing your old tapes into an item such as I mentioned and aren’t so crafty yourself, I would consider making some for you out of your old tapes if you send them to me. Comment if you are interested and I will post the results of my experiment when I get a few items done so you can decide if you want some of your own. If you search on flickr you can see the geniuses that have already made some bags and accessories (I couldn’t find any I could include on this post under creative commons licensing).

The only thing I haven’t figured out what to do with is the casings since I really don’t want those going to the landfills either.

Cool link: VHS Clutch Purse Instructions 

I have been trying to finish up the pile of crochet projects I have had backed up for some time so that I could start some new ones on the Knifty Knitter Loom Kit I bought recently. I find fabric arts to be incredibly soothing to my soul and it quiets the mind. Can’t stress out when you are focusing on the yarn in your hands (or sewing needle and thread).

I finished up my daughter’s baby afghan that I dawdled on for so long I had to expand the size to grow with her and still be useful. I finished it up at a tad bigger than a crib mattress so that it fits her toddler bed quiet nicely and will continue to be a nice throw and lap afghan as she grows up. The green stripes match her bedroom fabric and the pink stripe in the middle is her favorite color. I think the only part she cares about right now is the fact that she can stick her fingers out through the afghan holes. She thinks that is pretty neat.

I also started and finished a smaller afghan for my friends who’s baby arrived about a month earlier than planned. The gift was about a month late but I think they like it just the same.

I made a purse as well as a market bag for my Grandmama’s birthday this week. The purse was made on one of my new looms and came out considerably smaller than I expected it to come out. It has a nice cabling pattern though. The market bag was made from recycled Target bags that I cut into strips then crocheted together with a speed hook. It was a big hit and I will definitely make more.

The first project that I attempted to make was wrist warmers for my 11 year old daughter. The pattern was a little too loose for my liking but she likes them quite a bit. I am currently making a fashion scarf out of left overs from the baby afghan and my small loom and should have that done any day now. I will be loaning the small loom to a friend at work as she wants to learn to make things. Next up, an afghan or two. The projects aren’t super fancy, but I like them anyway.

If you have an account at Ravelry (the social networking site for yarn lovers) feel free to friend me, I of course go by linuxhic.

Where have I been this week? Not much on Twitter, no podcast last week, and hardly any posts. My deepest apologies. I had some minor surgery Monday which resulted in 13 stitches (six on the inside, 7 on the outside) on the side of my face almost right up against my ear. While I thought it wouldn’t be too bad, the pain went on for days. You don’t realize how much that skin gets tugged and pulled until you are all sewn up and try to eat, talk, laugh, cough, and sneeze. Holy moly! Tonight I am feeling much improved as compared to the beginning of the week and am starting to feel almost normal. Tomorrow the stitches come out and hopefully I will be able to put on my headphones and get a podcast out as well as a bunch of new posts.

As for my frantic schedule I found this awesome spreadsheet to keep my blog posting focused and on schedule and have started tweaking it out for my own sites and get everything on track.

To sum it all up, I have had little energy or enthusiasm to do much of anything. Lack of sleep contributed too because every time I rolled over in my sleep I would end up on my stitches which would promptly wake me back up.

I did get some other things done though. I finished a crochet baby blanket for some friends of mine who’s little one arrived about a month sooner than planned. She is a little doll baby and healthy. =) Crochet and sewing has always been a good outlet for me when I am stressed or not feeling well as it takes my mind off everything except what I am working on.

The kids are planning a garden and a worm farm and the nice weather this weekend really made them want to get started. Unfortunately the 70s we had today have now plunged to 46 degrees (F) with some rain and the threat of floods and a winter weather advisory. Snow is expected tomorrow - boo!!

We also checked out the new Bass Pro Shop this weekend. That place was amazing! They have a big climbing wall that kids were scrambling up, a restaurant, and outdoor gear I didn’t even know existed. They have a large tank of fish from the lakes and rivers of Missouri and a 100lb catfish! The kids loved it! We checked out fishing gear and boats and left full of spring fever. I can’t wait to get out to the lake and fish.

Well, enough for now, domestic duties are calling and winter is screaming at the door. I am going to go curl up under a blanket and relax a bit.