Let it go and knit zen mother

It's my night tonight which means no dish-washing, putting kids to bed or tidying up for this girl. Instead it's 4 solid hours of Amanda time. My plan is to do some reading and blogging and then go for a run soon. After I clean up from that I'm thinking it's time to pick up that Kirin shawl and get to knitting already. After 4 disasterous attempts to get the thing going I think I finally have it. I've knit up to row 23 and still have the right number of stitches before and after the centre stitch. It isn't a hard thing to knit. Sure there are 2 new stitches to learn but they're both based on knitting and purling. It's the concentration required to follow the pattern and make my fingers do what the paper is telling me to. (I feel this nasty feeling of Deja vu like I've said all this here before...) I can do this!

But not when I'm being distracted every 5 seconds. Moms, you know what I mean. What is so magnetic to children about a mom sitting down and pulling out her knitting?? Suddenly someone is hungry or can't find something. Suddenly their sibling is doing something that is so incredibly annoying that they have to let out an ear-piercing scream of anger and frustration right when you're trying to remember what S2K means and execute it. Sigh. But I digress.
I can feel the unsettled air upstairs. It's one of those nights when both kids are rumpled up and need to be smoothed down. It's a good night for a movie or a bike ride together. I know this sitting down here in my little corner but I'm not sure His Lordship knows it and there is sort of unspoken rule that the  parent off-duty does not intervene. Kind of like when your children are babies and Dad is spoon-feeding rice cereal into the constantly-moving infant and getting it everywhere and you know the trick to getting the food in the mouth and it's so easy why can't he see it but you can't say anything because it will put a dent in his Dad-self-esteem and that will be very bad for both of you. Kind of like that. So I have chosen to ignore everything upstairs because I can and I'm allowed to. Like Barbara Coloroso says: If it's not life-threatening, morally-threatening or unhealthy let it go.
And instead I'm going to knit and make beautiful watercolour art-cards for my Etsy shop.

(some doodles)

If you'd asked me a year ago: "do I paint" I probably would've snorted and said only walls or toes. Funny the paths life leads you on eh?