It is bad folks - I headed to my favorite house of sin Saturday - that is right- Hill Country Weavers and picked up yarn for another three hats. I started a hat Saturday night and had it finished Monday morning. I just can’t stop. Actually, I am getting better at putting it down.

But just today I was telling a friend how I LOVE the decrease sequence of a hat. It is like hiking - you go up and up and up for the view at the top. The decrease sequence is where all the shaping happens - it is just so fun. And don’t interrupt me when I am “in sequence” - it requires focus and I don’t want to stop until I have finished.

My name is A. Hedge and I have a problem - I should just start practicing…

I have much to share and no time - isn’t that always the case. The kids have their first visit to their school tomorrow morning. Chris is going with us and we will see how it goes. My boss gets back from her vacation in two weeks, so I need to make sure am I ready for the fall registration period as it will get hectic.

Then there is this binder in which I pretty much organized my life with color coded sheets of paper. Said binder got left at the house of sin, er.. knitting store, and now cannot be found. Three hours of work - the mourning continues, but the knitting eases the pain…

And at some point, I have to sit down and get into details about my kids - fascinating beings these two. And if I don’t get their nuances and idiosyncrasies documented,  they will be lost forever. Lord, knows I can’t remember either of them a year ago. Ask me if they were like this a year ago and I would tell you, ” I have no clue, check the blog…..”

I need to head to bed, but just wanted to check in. I also need to tell you about our new favorite recreational activity - kayaking. Chris and i were actually on the lake twice this weekend - we were sore as hell, but man it was so fun!!

Gotta get to bed!

Kayaking on LadyBird Lake at sunset with hubby and the kids.

No one on my shoulder bringing me fears Got no clouds up above me bringing me tears Got nothing to tell you I got nothing much to say Only I’m glad to be here with you On this heavenly heavenly heavenly heavenly heavenly day - Patty Griffin

The kids decided to create together. I think they both worked on the black drawing. Don’t know what was up with all the black that day. At one point i remember Tyler asking Quinn “is that how you feel, Quinn?” Don’t know - maybe it was a brief gothic or beatnik phase. They started this themselves and had a good time doing some drawing.

Quinn also drew everywhere on the wooden floors with said black marker. Thankfully it was all washable. She went nuts - I found more of it today that I had missed yesterday.

Last week, Daddy was gone for 2.5 days on a business trip. I had purchased this neat “While I am Away” box and corresponding, “I am Always With You” wallet from a friend who sells Once Upon a Lifetime products. The products had come in, so I decided the afternoon before Chris left to get them and do some fun stuff for Daddy.

I told Tyler that we were going to get Daddy something for the plane. Tyler wanted to go get Daddy, “A CD of the national.” “I was thinking more along the lines of a book, Tyler. Why a CD Tyler?” “Because Daddy likes CDs; he likes songs.”

I couldn’t argue with that - he knew is Daddy. I didn’t really want to explain to Tyler that Daddy uses mp3’s - and for the last few weeks he had been ripping many of our CDs for his iPod and that CDs are kind of passe and that Chris already had all the National songs. So we went to the bookstore and came home with a book and a CD of the national.

We also went and had some recent photos printed. Then the kids each drew a drawing for their Daddy and I asked them what they wanted to say to their Daddy and wrote those words down. The wallet was meant to be a surprise, but when a toddler has knowledge of a surprise, well, it rarely remains as such. Daddy was quite pleased.

I had mentioned the box to Chris and said he may want to leave a note for the kids or something. I had meant to remind him that night, but had forgotten and assumed he had too. He hadn’t. While he was watching the Tour, he drew the sweetest drawing for the kids and wrote notes to all of us on the back. He also got our USA map and put markers on it for where we lives, where Daddy was going and all the places that Tyler knew - The Guads, Steamboat and Arkansas (we are vacationing there this fall ,so he talks about it a lot).

Tyler loved it! He would ask “Where is Daddy’s box?”, carry it to a spot of the floor, sit down and study the drawing. He also enjoyed checking out the map (he is so much like his mama).

There is a reason that my children are media free right now - images are powerful. So today Tyler is messing with the radio in out room (it usually plays static when Quinn sleeps) and Tyler hears a talk show about hurricanes. I can here it too and remember that there is a tropical storm in the Gulf.

Well, I bring Tyler in to the computer and say we will check out the radar. See I am a weather dork and have already gotten my son into checking the doppler radar when anything is going on weather-wise. Well, I head over to the weather channel and there is a weather forecast video. So I pop up the video so we can here the forecast.

While I was in disposed, Tyler clicked around on some other videos on the left about hurricanes. And watches one that talks about the damage they do. He sees a roof get blown off, talk about glass windows breaking and talk about houses being damaged. At this point I am at the computer and pretty much shut off the videos. He wanted to see more, but i told him I thought he had seen enough.

The rest of the day was all about hurricanes. He was really scared about them and I kept telliing him we were far away from where they are. He kept saying, “I know!” I realized that he was worried about the people who were near the storms and I think still worried about us. Especially when he heard Port Aransas mentioned because that is where we head to the beach.

Well, when Daddy gets home, he starts up again. He goes to the computer and shows Daddy the Hurricane Tracking map and is asking Chris about it. Then Tyler says this, “is that the sad path where the people were?” My sweet boy - he is so concerned. Then there he was asking about glass breaking and “the glass could poke through people?”

Wow - he is really thinking all this out. What can happen? What will happen to the people and the houses? And we told him that the people would go to safer places and they would not be there for the storm. I think there was a part about the county police making preparations because then he wanted to know what would happen to the fire and police people.

Part of me has to laugh that of all places - it was the Weather Channel whose images freaked my child out. No, it wasn’t the movie Red Dragon (Hannibal Lector) that was on at the mail place that he stared at 1 minute before the people realized they needed to mute it. And the part he saw was scary, but he never said word on about it.

Part of me melts for my child who is so worried about everyone else. My child that these days seems to self-centered is showing a wealth of compassion and concern. I told Chris I thought he might have nightmares because he was really, really concerned.

Tomorrow the storm will make landfall, but I may just not say anything lest he catch an image that reinforces any fears or concerns. Every day is an adventure - you never know what you will be presented with….

Then I head to the knitting store and start many knew projects, I get busy at night with chores and whatnot, and lately, I have been plain tired. Chris and I are both somewhat confused and frustrated by our fatigue lately.

Are we getting old? Have we lost our endurance? He and I are both pretty productive people and a lack of energy just doesn’t work with out lifestyles.

I have about 100 too many things that I want to accomplish this fall. I feel like I spent this year shedding every extra-curricular thing I was involved in only so I could start it up again.

At least I do so with fresh ideas, renewed vigor and enthusiasm instead of a feeling of dread and resentment. Maybe I just needed some time off.

Keep checking back because i have like 5 other blog posts sitting in my head just waiting for me to have the time to get them out.

Oh, and I the above project was a vest for my Mom. Well, sadly, I have almost finished the front part and it doesn’t fit her. I am new to knitting clothing and I understand that there are a lot of tricks and know-how and experience that go into making a knitted fitted garment. So, I guess I am just getting started there. On the upside, it looks like that vest will fit me perfectly. Wow, I am making something for myself - what a novel idea!!

Remember all the new recipes I was going to try out this week? They were all awesome and fun to make. That black bean and mango salad was a perfect combo of flavors. The vegan nacho cheese was really impressive. I think I could sneak it by a non-vegan with no problems.

The question of the week last week was whether or not I should go vegan. That same night, I found three different vegan blogs with a plethora of amazing recipes right up my alley. I don’t like using a lot of processed foods and although i will use tofu and tempeh occasionally, I prefer to stick with grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts and spices…and almond and sometimes soy milk. I think that is what I like about vegan recipes - they are just so fresh. I mean - mashed potatoes and zuchini tacos - yummy! I will post some of the blogs I found in case you want to peruse them.

I think I am trying to lean as far vegan as I possibly can. We will see - I have a strange coming together of principles..maybe someday I will have the time and patience to delve into it here. For now, pics of the meals.