Put Your Thinking Cap On!

I think I knit this hat last spring - I am fairly sure anyway (there is no pattern - I just made it up).  I was browsing through some old photos on the computer and just came across this one.  Do you keep all your photos on the computer?  My son loves it when I print out photos for him (some times he picks photos I would have deleted, but if it makes him happy...).  Kids like to have photos to put in an album, put on the refrigerator, hang in their homework space... so I make the effort.  This summer I think I have done an extra good job of taking photos (and handing the camera over to him) AND then going to the store, sticking the chip in and printing out a batch.  Plus, I am going to make him a "Summer 2012" scrapbook.  NOT that I have time to make a scrapbook, so I will be transferring our favorite photos into 1 album on the computer and then uploading them to Snapfish.  Love Snapfish!!!  There you go!  A nice, little photo book of photos that mean something special to him that he can show to friends, keep in a desk draw, whatever.  It won't live in .jpg land forever!
*
But where was I going with this post?  Oh yeah, my thinking cap.  I just ran across this photo of the hat and it made me think of my Mom.  She liked to say... "put your thinking cap on".  I was 28 when I lost my Mom to horrible cancer.  But I know she is watching over me and telling me - "put your thinking cap on".  And I have this sweet guy (who is a great bear-hugger) counting on me...  

we have a complicated international living situation (this is not really through self-choice, immigration issues are complex), a declining economy for the self-employed, rising airline ticket issues, my husband who had a 3 kilogram cancerous tumor in 2009 just hasn't regained his energy (although he remains cancer-free, thankfully!), AND I am running the business and going to school to get a teaching degree (so far I have been able to maintain a 4.0 GPA in hopes of getting scholarships), plus making sure I get a lot of quality family time... I am not complaining believe me, but at times it gets to be all a little bit overwhelming for me... especially as our family time is rapidly coming to an end and soon we will be in different countries again.  Hopefully the plane tickets go down in price and I can go visit, at least over the Christmas holidays.  I guess the message from my Mom is to put my thinking cap on about how to improve our situation a bit even though I feel like I am doing everything I can!  So stay tuned - I am going to put my thinking cap  on!