Glutton for Punishment

Aaron's hand drawing from art class

Punishment and I are getting cozy these days.  I've got more homework that I know what to do with.  I'm working more hours which is really making it tough to keep up with said homework (last night I was up till 2am working on papers).  I've got a cookie swap tonight and I didn't have time to bake any yet.  I've got some butter out on the counter right now to soften and I'm going to whip up the dough before I leave, and have Dante & Aaron bake them up while I'm out...I apologize in advance if they don't work out.  I'm about half way through the last sleeve on the German kid's top down sweater.  This is a really good thing because GermanNana is very nervous and has called or dropped in on me twice now to check on it's progress.  For some reason, she was under the impression that it would only take a few days to knit an entire sweater for a 5-year old boy (in which case, she should have had time to do it herself...) and I've had to tell her twice now that I'm working on it, I have homework, kids, work, and family obligations, and that I'll call her when it's done.  She's a nice enough lady, but her nervousness is really starting to wear on me and I need her to relax before I hand the entire project over to her as-is (I'm doing her a big favor here, it would be nice if she remembered that).  Then I still have the vest to put together for a customer, and another one dropped a baby sweater off that needs to be seamed together, have buttons put on...oh yeah, and the sleeves need to be knit.  Honestly, I just don't know if I can get that done before Christmas.  I let her know, and she's grateful that I took it on and is understanding.  We'll see what happens.  So I've let the shop know that if anyone else asks...I can't do anything else at all until after the holidays.  That way I won't feel pressed to take on that one last project because it's an emergency and they're really in a bind and they really need this, and can I please please try.  Obviously, I need to review the chapter on how to say 'no' and stick to my guns.

While all of this excitement over work and homework is going on, I've been bombarded by design ideas and I haven't had time to knit any of them up to see if they work.  I've got lots of socks and mittens in my sketch book, and I just don't have time to get to them.  Maybe I should work on things in my sketch book while I'm in Cali for 3 weeks.  I've already got the yarn for one project, and I picked up some Comfort DK to knit a pair of Cocky! socks for my mom.  Now, if I could only find time to finish the gloves for my MIL, the new socks for my FIL, the socks for Dante, and the elephant for Carolyn.  Looks like I'm baking for everyone else for Christmas.  That's good too, right?