How do you spell relief?

VACATION!

Yes, vacation started today at 2:13pm :)

Feels soooo good to be on vacation again today. I don't know how you people with real jobs can handle having to work until Christmas!

I have a lot of papers to grade in the next 2 weeks, but I plan to pace myself and work for an hour a day until everything is done. I think 16 hours will get everything finished up so that when I go back to work I can ease into finals and be ready for the new semester with no stress.

So far tonight I have quilted two quilts and taught my 15 year old daughter to knit. I'm working on a fish hat for my son. There is a website, deadfishhat.com where you can get a free pattern to make your own dead fish hat. My kids fell in love with these fish hats and now I have orders to make them as soon as possible. My little guy and daughter want the shark hats and my son wants the normal fish hat. I'm starting with the normal one because the shark is a variation of the normal and says, change this and adapt that. I'm about 1/3 of the way done with the first hat. I can work for about an hour before my hands start to cramp. I haven't knitted in a while so I have to build up muscle strength again. Maybe I will get the first hat done by Christmas. I have a lot of TV shows to catch up on and it is supposed to rain for 10 days straight! Ugh.

I've also not posted anything for the last week because things have been busy around here with Christmas concerts and school and my little one getting Strep throat last weekend and just general life. I did manage to quilt two more quilts during that time somehow. My goal is to have 100 quilts done by the end of the year so I need to get busy.

My birthday is on Tuesday and I can't wait to open my present. I think I will open it in the morning. My kids say no, but I'm the mom right? I have the whole vacation ahead of me and I really want to play with my new toy. I'm afraid that if I do open it, housework will stop and no grading will be done and all of my scraps will be cut in no time!

Sunday was Binky Sunday and I had a great turnout. Lots of people showed up and took all of the quilt kits I had cut out (70 of them!) and are going to sew them and bring them back so I can quilt them up. I got one sewn together--too much talking going on. When I am at home, I can sew a quilt top in 30 minutes. It took me 2 hours on Sunday to sew it :) OOps...

I need to have my daughter help me sort and cut more fabric for more kits. Good thing we have 2 weeks off and it will be raining so she will be home.

My oldest comes home from college on Monday. I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it!