I've been feeling introspective lately, thus not saying much of anything anywhere. I think I'm ready to snap out of it now. Here's a nice long stream-of-conciousness ramble for your reading pleasure. ;-)

When we were first married, I made bread for us. Two loaves every week, using my gramma's recipe. Then I got pregnant with Abigail and fell out of the habit, we bought a bread maker, and I've been using that for the last 6 years. About two months ago, I lost the paddle to the breadmaker (okay, it's not lost, we accidentally threw it out). I started making bread by hand again. Why did I ever stop? I love the taste, Luis loves the taste (that's saying something), it's so unbelievably easy to do. Really, the breadmaker saves like 30 minutes of work, and kneading the dough is fun. Anyone want a breadmaker that only needs a $5 part to make it workable again?

Our digital camera took a dump last week. It was four years old, and starting to go, so it wasn't a surprise. We were just hoping to get a few more months out of it. We had a Sony Mavica, pretty cutting edge at the time as it had a disk drive in there, and you could just pop in disk after disk instead of having to dump the pics into the computer. Memory cards appeared on the scene about 6 months after we bought it. The disk drive was on it's last legs, and crashed last week. Luis is drooling over the new Sony T1, this tiny little thing that will set us back $650 when all is said and done. Ouch. We went to Madison today so I could see and touch the cameras, to see what's out there. He's right, this T1 is the camera for us. It has the features I want, it's sturdy, easy to use. The only other cameras I liked (another Sony and an Olympus) were not much less money, and they weren't quite "the one". I hate it when he's right.

On Monday, I start doing childcare. I'm not thrilled about it, TBH, but it'll help out a really great couple, our chiro and his wife. They have a 3 month old, and last month their childcare plans fell through. The money can be socked away as insurance against another long layoff for Luis next winter.

There was a fiber arts fair locally last weekend, and I convinced Luis to go with me. Turns out there was a park right behind the building, so Luis took the kids to the park as it was a gorgeous day, and I got to oogle yarn all by myself. Amazing. I watched a woman spin for a while. That looks like so much fun. Someday, when the kids are older, I want to learn. I went looking for a set of size 7 add naturas, and did find them, at the Meilke Farms booth. I've been looking at Meilke Farms website for, gosh, nearly 2 years now, so it was surreal to meet them. There was also a vendor of rovings who was also selling some yarns to thin her personal stash. I bought two large bags of cotton aran weight yarn for $2 per bag. There should be enough in there for a stripey sweater for Isabella and Vincent each.

I was just reading the new Knitty articles while swatching this yarn finally. It's been having to wait because my size 8's are tied up with the Meadow Flower Shawl and my size 9's have Rosemary's Sweater on them. Today on our way back from Madison, we stopped at the Sow's Ear in Verona so the girls could have cookie and I could fondle yarn. Luis hadn't been in there before with me. He was quite impressed by the yarn swift in action. I picked up a ball of sock yarn at 40% off, should be perfect for a pair of socks for Isabella, and a set of size 8 bamboo circs. I've learned that my tension is much tighter while purling, especially while working on addi turbos with cotton yarn, so I've been expanding my collection of bamboo needles. The tension difference isn't as great when I work on bamboo needles. Hey, it's not a bad thing to have a couple pair of circs in the same size, is it?

I'm loving spring. It's so nice to be outside, to let the kids run. Vincent is once again eating dirt this year. I had hoped it was just a one year thing, but nope. I have to keep an eye on him by the garden or he'll start chomping away on it. I'd like to get the peas and broccoli planted soon, along with the lettuce and spinach. Time to start working with the earth.