RTT: Piggies & Patternless Hats

• I think we can all agree that Geico has a brilliant ad team.  This latest one, at least for me, takes the cake.  It won’t tempt me to leave USAA, but I must admit to uncontrollable laughter when I saw it for the first time last night:

• I knit a hat over the past few days, without a pattern.  It’s HUGE.  Giant.  Ginormous.  I read Yarn Harlot’s Knitting Rules! and went by her guidelines for swatching, determining size, etc.  Considering her expertise, I can only conclude that I messed up somewhere, probably in the math.  Or maybe I should have stretched the swatch before measuring.  The more I think about it, the more I think that’s the answer.  Jason or I could wear the hat, turned up at the brim, but…yeah, even then, it’s rather comically gigantic.
• Remember that list we made back at the beginning of the summer?  Surprisingly, we haven’t made a whole lot of progress on it.  I had been envisioning a summer full of boredom, during which we would NEED that list as an idea-maker.  The List would serve as a hero of sorts, rescuing us from bickering, frustrated doldrums.  Really, though, we haven’t needed it.
• We are knocking a rather large item off The List this week, however.  More on that tomorrow.
• I’ve never been one to fear change.  In fact, I tend to embrace it with glee.  Sometimes it manages to throw me for a loop, though.  A couple of weeks ago, the boys’ swim lessons were changed from Tuesday evenings to Wednesdays at the same time.  Every Tuesday afternoon about this time, I get antsy, feeling like I’m forgetting an appointment.  I now check my calendar more on Tuesdays than I do any other day of the week.
• Every evening, just after dinnertime, the ice cream truck drives through our neighborhood.  More often than not, the annoying music blaring from the speaker is “Greensleeves”.  Which, of course, is also used as the music for “What Child Is This?”  Which means that I’m finding myself humming Christmas music.  In July/August.
• That’s all I got.  Check out Keely’s place for more randomness!  (Click the purple button at the top of the page.)

Summer: Day 1

Happy Summer!

Yes, Wednesday was our last day of school, but today is the boys’ and my first day alone at home.  We were excited to host guests (hi, Sheri!) for a few days, and we miss them, but now it’s time for us to figure out our summer-at-home routine.

A few weeks ago, I saw this.  Which led me to this.  And a few minutes ago, the boys and I made this:

It’s by no means an exhaustive list, but it certainly is an exhausting one.  In a good way.  We have all summer, after all.

We got a start on The Gideon Trilogy today.  This year, I decided to read a series of books aloud to the boys over the summer break.  A trilogy seems about right, and the cover art grabbed me while we were walking through the book store last week.

We read the intro and first chapter today.  Nicolas wanted to read more immediately, but Kalen had already lost interest, which is fine.  At a [short] chapter a day, we should have no trouble getting through the entire series.

“Summer Reading” consists of completing three summer reading challenges from the book stores.  (No, we’re not counting the read-aloud in the challenges.)  Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Half Price Books all have programs wherein the kids can earn free books for reading.  Reading + free?  I’m in.  And so are the kids, whether they like it or not.  But let’s just assume they like it.  Because they do.  Most days.