I, on the other hand, would have never made it out of the pool

The thing about my husband us that he's dedicated.  Or some (I) might say stubborn.  Mule-headed. 

Before the race.

 But that behavior, while maddening a lot of the time, serves him well.

So that's why, when he told me he wanted to participate in a triathlon I knew that he was going to take it seriously. 

He was going to train.  And train.  And train some more.  He worked out twice most days, for an hour each time, running or biking or swimming.  We completely changed the way we eat, eliminating most foods that don't do us any favors - including, for the most part - beer.  And pasta.  And potatoes.  And cake.

We've both grown unnaturally fond of almond butter and kale.  But not together.  Mostly.  I think he made smoothies out of them a few times.

Transition area - where he started the bike ride.

He's lost 20-25 pounds and gained the ability to not only finish a triathlon, but also excel at it.

Beginning the bike ride.

The man placed second in his division.

Back from the bike ride.

Let me say that again - the man, my husband, who has never competed in a triathlon before - placed second in his division. 

He killed it. 

Setting off on the run.

I'm not one to be too mushy on here, mostly because I'm afraid it will come out sounding ridiculous and fake and whatnot.  But my husband is an inspiration.  I look to him for fitness advice and when I feel most like giving up and saying screw it, mostly when working out makes me feel like I'm never going to be in the type of shape I want to be in - I see him striving and running and working so hard to achieve something.  And I push myself a little harder.

Almost done!

(Recently I've discovered zuzkalight on youtube.  I love her and hate her all at once.  Also my sore muscles thank her.)
 

If you look closely you can see Christopher almost at the finish line. 
And that's Sebastian running after him.

And being at the event last Sunday and seeing all those other people who you can tell spend a lot of time trying to be the best they can be was amazing.

Of course, we celebrated that night with beer and cake. 

After the race.

And as a present to him I forgave him all those Sunday mornings he left me alone with the kids so he could train.

You are welcome, Christopher.

Accepting his trophy - which Sebastian is storing
in his bedroom next to his own soccer trophy.

(I'm ridiculously proud of him.)

Homemade Friday: Sebastian's Snowflake Hat

In case anyone was wondering, and I know that you were, my Great Caffeine Afternoon Explosion yesterday resulted in poor sleep and weird dreams wherein I was in California with my mom and somehow met friends who had driven there from Kentucky in four hours.  I also possibly witnessed a murder, or at least a bad fight.

So worth it?

Totally worth it.

The hat I have to show you today is one that I was knitting for my Etsy shop.  However, I made the mistake of trying it on my son to see what size it was, because it was kind of supposed to be for a baby, but ended up much bigger than I expected.  As you can see:

But Sebastian decided he wanted it to be his.  And I couldn't very well say 'no' as I hadn't knit his hat yet this winter.  So Sebastian's Snowflake Hat it became.

The colorwork design came from Vogue Stitchionary Volume Three.  I love books like that, because it allows you to create your own patterns using the designs in the book.  And I like to create my own patterns.  It gives me a bit of pride, you know?

I'm also extremely fond of Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns books, which I've used over and over again.

The yarn is Knitpicks Swish Worsted in Lava Heather and Squirrel Heather.  I knit about an inch and a half of 2x1 ribbing, then a row of contrasting color, then a couple rows of plain stockinette stitch, then started the snowflakes.  After I was finished I knit a plain row, then decreased evenly every row until I had a small number of stitches.  Then I cut my yarn and pulled it through the leftover stitches a few times, tied a knot and weaved it in.

Now, lest you think I am a knitting wizard, as I fear that many of you already do, let me show you the inside of the hat:

Awesome, no?  I'm relatively new to colorwork and haven't yet figured out how to prevent that sort of thing from happening.  But my plan is to pick up stitches around the bottom of the hat and basically just knit another hat, a plain one this time.  That would make the hat reversible and also hide the mess that you see above.

Sebastian approves.  His look of boredom tells me so.

I think my children are happy I'm caffeinated as well, because I am much more patient

I've decided that ridiculously strong french press coffee at 2 p.m. while I sit on my front porch waiting the bus to drop Sebastian off from school is the best idea ever.

It may have something to do with my daughter who thinks that sleeping is stupid and so wakes up at weird hours, like 5 a.m., and won't go back to sleep and my husband waits until I've already gone up and semi-comforted our precious angel and come back downstairs before telling me that he was getting up anyway and could have gotten up with her instead of me.

Thanks, Christopher.  That was super helpful.

So I've been dragging all day, even after my morning dose of coffee.  But that coffee isn't thick, french press coffee.  So as I prepared myself to sit outside, which is my favorite part of the day because I am alone, sitting outside quietly knitting, I decided to make some coffee.  But I didn't want to make a pot because it seemed wasteful for just a cup.

And I'm so glad I opted for french press.  (I'm also trying to see how many times I can type 'french press' in one entry, and how many words I can write about coffee.  Because coffee is delicious and life-affirming.  Especially french press.  French press.  French press.)

But strong coffee in the afternoon makes me feel like a human again, instead of an exhausted mutant.  And it also makes me feel slightly less aggravated.  Like, I've been interrupted just now no less than 58 times to fetch my children random snacks and I'm still not wanting to lock the door and lock them out.  I mean really, you'd think that sitting them in front of the television would offer enough of a distraction, but no.

So strong coffee in the afternoon makes me want to accomplish things.  I've been plugging along pretty steadily making things for my etsy shop, but I've been pointedly ignoring the quilt I'm making for Sebastian.  Sometimes it just seems overwhelming, you know?  But I'm close enough that I think the super tedious part is behind me.  So I dove in this afternoon.  See?  Progress:

Notice the Tardis fabric? It makes me smile.

And I also decided to finally mix up the cream that's been sitting in my refrigerator and make some butter.  My sister gave me a bunch of milk that I needed to skim and pasteurize, and so I had an over-abundance of cream.  I made the mistake of pouring it all into the mixer at once and made a helluva mess.  But fresh butter was the result.

Butter.  Almost.

Strong coffee in the late afternoon even makes me want to blog when more often than not by this time of day I've already given up on finding the time to write.  Of course, I should be making dinner, as is evident by my starving children.

So I'm going to go now.

But just know that I am cooking dinner with gusto and boundless energy.

(Of course we all know that I'm either going to come down from this caffeine high at 7:30 and crash, or I won't be able to sleep all night long and will, once again, repeat the non-sleeping cycle.  I'll keep you informed as I'm sure everyone is waiting impatiently to hear how my evening went.)

Etsy is the place to be

So I finally opened an Etsy shop, as you can tell from that widget thing that's to the right of your screen.

And it's a little ridiculous how much fun I've been having making things for it.  I've mostly made jewelry, but there are a couple of hand knit hats, and I'm working on more.

I told my husband that really, that's my dream.  That's what I want to do with my life.  I want to make things and sell them.

I haven't actually sold anything yet, but I have high hopes.  Or at least a positive attitude?

I'm not the best at self-promotion, but here's the link to my shop:

jaimalaya

Or you can just click on that little Etsy box on the right.

Stop by and take a look! 

And if you like, share with friends.