Warm Thoughts on a Cold Day

On top of the snow we got the other day, today we have sleet and freezing rain. Yay. Sr. Jr. had a dentist's appointment this morning, so after getting Jr. Jr. on the bus, I had to get him there and then to school, then off to Target for some last minute holiday stuff, to Safeway to pick up prescriptions, and finally home, to warm up.

Despite my fears, there was no fighting on the snowy early-release Wednesday. Both boys played together nicely all afternoon. Because of the whopping 2-3 inches of snow we got on Wednesday, on Thursday, the school's opening was delayed by 2 hours. We all got to sleep in a little. Since the bulk of the accumulating snow hadn't fallen until after dinner, we hadn't shoveled. I told the boys that I'd shower and make breakfast, then we'd all shovel. When I was getting dressed, Sr. Jr. asked me if I wanted an English muffin for breakfast. It turns out that he and Jr. Jr. had shoveled while I was in the shower, and now he was making breakfast for the three of us! Does anything warm a mother's heart more that a scene like that? They're growing up!

Without the yarn to finish up Autumn Rose, I had the chance to finish up the first Milkmaid's Stocking and start the second. I love the way this sock turned out.

My poor picture taking skills don't do the yarn justice. And, for the final piece of happiness for the day --

The last bit of yarn arrived for Autumn Rose so I can finish her up!

I'm still trying to decide what to knit next. The beauty of Ravelry is that it allows people to post pictures of their ongoing and finished projects. Many times, a picture of a project in a knitting magazine does not do the real object justice. For example, there's a pattern in the 75th anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting for a pair of cabled gloves. The pattern is knit in a slightly fuzzy, slightly sparkly gold yarn, and the photo doesn't show all the details of the pattern. When I first saw the magazine, I skipped right past the gloves, because they didn't look at all appealing. When I found pictures of the gloves knitted up by other people in more appropriate yarns in more detailed photos, I realized that the gloves were quite nice. I'm torn between knitting them up (or turning them into mittens), and starting the Swallowtail shawl.

Finally, since I've written about this before, I should comment on Mitt Romney's religion speech. I watched part of it, and found myself -- at the beginning -- nodding along and thinking that I liked what he was saying. He said that his religion wouldn't come into play in his decision-making as president; that one of the strengths of our country was religious diversity and religious freedom; that there were parts of all religions that he respected, etc. Then, as far as I'm concerned, he went off the rails. He declared that religion needs liberty and liberty needs religion. Sorry. This country is founded on religious freedom, which, as far as I'm concerned, means freedom NOT to believe as well as to believe. Much of the rest of his speech was devoted to the idea that the "religion of secularism" had gone too far in this country, and that more religion was needed in public life. Nuh-uh. This goes further to prove my point that there is a de facto religious test for president than just about anything else I've heard so far this election cycle. Secular does NOT mean amoral. Just because one doesn't believe in the Judeo-Christian religions does not mean that one cannot see the inherent moral value in the principles encompassed in the ten commandments, or in the idea that all men, women, and children have inherent value to be protected. I'm so sick of people equating non-religious with morally defective.