Earnest alert

"I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history.

I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsom in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.

I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. . . .

I still believe that we shall overcome."

-- MLK Jr. (1964)

Back to our routine

We survived the lo-o-o-ng week off from school with a minimum lots of bickering. We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner, with only a minor cooking crisis (which really wasn't a crisis at all): the aluminum pan that the turkey sat in sprang a leak which went unnoticed until it was put in the oven. Immediately, broth went all over the bottom of the oven and started to smoke. So we took it out, turned off the oven, and after securing a new pan and wiping out the oven, started again. The turkey was fine, if done a little later than we expected, and we enjoyed our dinner.

Friday dawned bright and early with the promise of Pink Paint-a-palooza. Tom's dad is a painting contractor and Tom worked for him during his school holidays, so Tom knows a fair bit about painting. He was meticulous, patching, priming and double-coating everything. One nice thing about all this yarn-dyeing is that it's made me much more confident about picking color and trusting my instincts about what looks right and what doesn't. The original color we picked (in consultation with Little Miss, of course), was called Easter Pink and had a lavender-ish cast to it. However, when we saw a sample of it on the wall, and saw what the furniture looked like against it, we realized it was not right. The furniture has a finish called "Vanilla" and is creamy. We needed a pink that was warmer. Several small samples later, we settled on Ribbon Pink.

Knitting was slow this weekend. I worked on some swatches, and made a little progress on a baby sweater I'm knitting (don't have much time 'til the baby arrives), and played around with piecing a baby blanket for the next Afghans for Afghans deadline.

Now it's back to our routine. I am definitely one of those people who needs structure in order to function optimally. I find lack of routine to be disconcerting, and I've even noticed that when I go away on vacation, I tend to create a mini-routine wherever I'm staying. At the shore, for example, I would get up, go out to pick up a coffee and the paper, and come back and read it, every day buying the coffee and paper at the same place. I could go all psychological on you, and talk about how I grew up in a house where my father's drinking made it impossible to rely on stability in our day-to-day life, blah, blah, but at this point, I yam what I yam. I was starting to feel discombobulated after a week with no school for the kids so I'm happy to settle back into our pleasant daily routine.

Which mean I've already fired up the dyepots for an update on Monday, December 3 (that's a week from today). I'm playing with some worsted and DK-weights so you'll have to let me know which ones you like. If I can, I'll do some more sock yarns and some roving, too.

Next post: another No-Bull book review...

Happy Thanksgiving (if applicable)

From our (messy) house to yours:





I count all of you most of you among my many reasons for which to give thanks.