Fight over the mitts...and ticks?

I finished the first pair of mitts from the Saltwater Mittens book.  While they were still waterlogged and drying on the (now cold) radiator, both my twins started an absolute brawl over who would get them.  Needless to say, I've started a second pair.  In case you have this kind of near bloody enthusiasm at your house, I've provided links to the book.

In other news, I have been busy at work on helping edit a new edition of a Diabetes health book....

However, it's tick season...so another writer asked me some questions-- she was doing a piece on Lyme disease in Canada.  Here's a link to the piece in the Toronto Sun.  (Yes, I'm that person who had Lyme disease...) I've written a lot about it, but it needs a lot more media coverage in Canada.  Bonus for writers and editors out there: I got to use the insidious in a quote.

We're preparing for a big birthday weekend--my twins turn 8 soon.  They helped me shop for favours yesterday at the dollar store.  It's going to be a blast...a bunch of kids in the university greenhouse.  Wish us luck that no one backs into a cactus!

Spring break happenings

Kids are back to school today after a long break!  We did a lot--we went to the zoo, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Artsjunktion, and more.  We watched our pitas being baked to order at a new Middle Eastern grocery store, we ran errands, and both my twins played for hours, and spent lots of time reading and listening to audio books. One of my twins took on a big cleaning task and re-organized and sorted all their books and tidied the playroom, too... It was busy.

For some reason, I chose this time to try out mitts from the fabulous, new (and fast selling) Saltwater Mittens.
 This was challenging like asking me to serve snacks while doing a handstand and singing the ABCs backward.  I had a hard time following the pattern the first time round while also helping a kid with his knitting, or reading a hard word for him, or taking care of dogs and kids all at once.  Given our household chaos, I was maybe overestimating my multi-tasking skills.  These are gorgeous mittens though, and the book is well-worth checking out.

However, I have produced one mitt (here is a bad photo, before making the thumb) and I'm well on my way to making a second.  This particular pattern, Little Corner Boy, seems to work out well for our size at the moment, and I'm hoping to produce another three mitts so we can start next fall with some new mittens in the mix.  (Our old mitts are still in use every single day, but getting sort of ragged looking.)

While all this was happening, my article came out in the Vancouver Jewish Independent:
Dig more deeply into identity

Otherwise, publications have been a bit thin on the ground lately.  I write stuff, sure, but finding time to submit and getting things accepted seems slow these days.  I hope this post-spring break time is productive, because I also have to start getting ready for Passover, which starts in less than three weeks.  (Whew!  Where did the time go!?)