Grateful Monday

Anole
Originally uploaded by sunasak

The little anole depicted here shows why I am grateful today for my 15-year-old son, Beccano. He has been quite patient with me the last couple of days while I obsessed over the completion of my wedding shawl. First, he went with me to the fabric store to buy t-pins, and he happily looked at all the buttons, notions and fabrics. He even expressed a willingness to look at MORE fabric when I asked if he needed to leave. He wanted me to make him "disco pants" out of some awful sheer, shiny rainbow fabric, and swore he'd wear them to school, so I sorta scared him by sitting down and finding a simple pants pattern in the pattern book. He said, "I honestly didn't think you'd find one!" Plus, he sat there while I looked at ideas for wedding dresses. Quite the saint.

After that, he helped me block my shawl, which involves tediously threading thin wires through holes in the knitting, then carefully pinning the shawl to the correct shape (using those t-pins). With my shoulder pain, it was great to have some help on the awkward angles.

The task was made more pleasant by breaks taken to watch a cardinal sit on her nest, and hoping she'd fly off so we could see her two pale blue eggs. The cardinal family conveniently built their nest right outside our guest room window, so we have a "human's eye" view of the whole thing. The angle couldn't be better. Good ole Beccano is the one who found the nest. He is so good with nature. (I'd have a photo of that, but I am not good at taking pictures through window screens.)

The anole photo is because as soon as he woke up today, Beccano was asked to photograph me at many angles in the wedding shawl (photos on knitting blog). He was much more interested in capturing this guy. I was happy to see one of the wasps I have been fascinated by lately, so I got a bonus photo of it. These are BIG wasps, but very docile and calm. Beccano says he and his friend used to follow them, and discovered they live in holes in the ground. I can't believe how good he is with nature. I wish he could become a field biologist.

I did make the boy meatloaf for dinner last night, which was good. It's for dinner again tonight. Tuba Boy was with us last night at dinner, and he'd had WAY too much caffeine at work, so he was practically bouncing off the walls. I am happy to see him much calmer today! Perhaps last night's much-needed rain helped him settle a bit.

Me? I am waiting for the phone to ring. It did ring once, with another contract possibility. I applied for it, since I am not counting on anything until I have signed a contract. Thanks for reading, and happy Monday to all.