Potholders anyone?

Lillian has been a potholder making dynamo for the past few days, thanks to the kit given to her for her birthday by Aunt Jaynie. We now, after surpassing our own potholder needs, have to come up with some alternate uses/projects for the loom. Barbie has a new very-warm and durable blanket, the dollhouse is on its way to receiving a fabulous new rug and maybe if the weather stays cool we will all be sporting the latest in kid-craft fashion-the potholder poncho. I need to go and google a place to get more loops, my girl's on a roll!

Happy birthday asparagus!

I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and it's made me completely garden obsessed!
I've been pouring over my seed catalog and planning my spring plot, with hopes of having more success than last year. Even though I'd spent the entire week sick in bed (with Rob out-of-town the first part of the week) I threw on some clothes, over top of my jammies (of course), and slogged outside in the rain to survey the prospective site. After clearing some dead overgrowth and pulling some weeds, lo and behold what did I see? A lone asparagus spear, tiny and pink, peering up from the wasteland-that-shall-be-called-a-garden. I was overwhelmed with joy, even with the knowledge that since they had only been planted last year we wouldn't be able to harvest any spears until next year at least, more likely the year after. I did a little more clearing and found the original planting instructions, which I must have planted as well (maybe a misguided attempt to help the tiny rootballs survive their new environs, but alas, only potatoes have eyes!).
Well, I re-read the crumpled and soil-stained paper, and much to my surprise it described the contents as a "two-year old asparagus root". Which means that with this past year in the ground my asparagus celebrate their third birthday! We can eat asparagus this spring! I ran in to tell the kids the great news and found out that "asparagus is yucky" and they will definitely not be eating it.
Before launching into some lecture on oh, I don't know, maybe trying things before hating them, or the virtue of seasonal home-grown veggies, I paused to reflect and remembered that I don't even like asparagus all that much. I usually buy it a few times a year to satisfy Rob as it is his favorite vegetable (the plants, I remembered, were actually a Father's day present for him). We're all deserving of our own likes and dislikes; we'll be ordering the carrot seeds that Lillian has chosen and the heirloom cukes that Luca said he'd like to pickle. And Rob will have his fill of asparagus (hopefully) until next spring.