I love Sunday. We skipped church (again) this morning and I just cleared the breakfast dishes after making a yummy oven pancake that Judah helped me mix up. Lemon juice, confectioners sugar, butter and nutmeg mixed in to the batter -- delicious. This along with applewood smoked bacon and blood oranges made a perfect lazy Sunday meal.

It is COLD outside. 28F which is the reason for blowing off church. No way is it worth all the bundling up and subjecting myself to freezing weather. So, I'll just renew my spirit by the fire today, needles and yarn in hand.

I'm in manic knitting mode this week. My trip to Cape Town, South Africa is coming up in a few weeks, so to relieve some of the stress of such a complex trip, I'm all over the place in my projects. I'm making a pink mohair poncho (a lovely deep rose shade) with little bobbles that is found in the new Vogue Knitting On the Go book (the yarn and book gifts from my friend Morgan). Ivory wool/mohair socks for my Mom. Blue/ivory/grey/red socks for my Granny and just picked up some Trekking XXL sock yarn #104 (blues) for my cousin who is freezing way worse than us at college in Wisconsin. The pattern I am making for my cousin is the Jaywalker. Size 1 needles which are essentially the width of a toothpick.

We have been really good about eating at home for the past month - no dining out at all. We dined out last night with friends at a Brazilian restaurant where Judah will actually eat without pulling a "picky toddler" on me. He loves home-cooked Brazilian food, so I suppose I should learn to cook it. The restaurant was having a Carnaval party later that night, so was decorated with green, gold and purple throughout, making it quite festive.

I am happy that tomorrow is a holiday - my office celebrates Presidents' Day, so I'm hoping to read and knit and watch the paint peel. I'm reading "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova, an intriguing vampire story.