Spring is here this week, no matter what the calendar says. Tommy insists with all his might that March 22 is THE DAY THE SNOW GOES AWAY and that is that! He doesn’t seem to have noticed that the snow is already gone.
The wheel turns and the leaves emerge, the birds make nests, the ground greens up again, and the crocuses poke through and stretch up. All the aspects of spring come around again as they did last year. And the wind is blowing so strongly I am just waiting for branches to come sailing off the trees. Being surrounded as we are by middle-aged maple trees, this is a nerve-wracking prospect.
We have birds about. The usual sparrows are nesting in the garage-gutters right above the car, and the usual starlings are nesting in the broken-down brick chimney, which means the hatchlings are, or can be, inside the house at some point. They also nest inside the little roof over the unused front porch, through a break in the wainscoting. They are annoying beyond belief. I can’t think of a single positive thing to say about them, so I’ll move along now. We also have robins, chickadees, nuthatches, flickers, red-winged blackbirds, American Goldfinches, and Downy Woodpeckers. And “our” Sandhill Cranes are back in the neighborhood, looking for a place to nest. Last summer I had reason to believe that the female of our nesting pair was taken by a coyote. I don’t know if that means that Dad and Junior are back to help him look for a new sweetheart to lure back to his old nest, if the two of them are just going to hang out as bachelors, or how any of that works.
So it’s looking better and better outside — more sunshine and color — but the environment itself is still inhospitable and possibly fatal, especially if you lose your mittens. (Which I just found this morning, incidentally, after nearly getting frostbite yesterday morning delivering urgent Campus Mail with bare hands.) You certainly would be wise to wait a bit before doing anything as brave as cycling or running or even walking Out There.
I’m still viewing it askance after this mild winter. Everyone in Wisconsin my age and up shares that same spooked look that says, “We’re going to PAY for that mildness, somehow.” If we had a May blizzard we might perceive the scales to be in balance again. It’s not that we want it, it’s what we feel we have coming to us.
Spring break is coming, but it comes unequally to all. My own spring break is the last week of March, and my kids’ break is some time in April. Of course they couldn’t possibly happen at the same time. My spring break plans include revamping my work space so that I can file and track the technical manuscripts I’m going to start copy editing. I will take some Before and After pictures of my setup, just to document that I did something. I already have one manuscript I need to edit this weekend, and it’s taking everything I have to keep from putting 150 percent of my mental resources on the Office Makeover Project. Having a bunch of homework for each class of mine due on Monday is also helping.
I suppose it’s time to update my progress on my resolutions. Well, my grades are still up, I’m not exercising in any meaningful way, I’m working on my second Jayne Hat (for which I got new yellow and dusty-pink yarn yesterday), and here is a blog post.
Oh yeah — this coming Tuesday I will have a Teenaged Son. All I can say is Wow. His feet are as big as my feet, his hands are almost as big as my hands. His names are his grandfathers’ and his face is his father’s. He is half Star Wars and half Star Trek. My JC is gawky and geeky and opinionated and emotional and cool. I wouldn’t trade him for any other card in the deck.
He’s bigger than this now…. he’s come a long way since 2007. Love you, buddy.
I always knew I was my own worst enemy. No sooner do I vow to Get This Doctor Who Scarf Done No Matter What, I decide I just have to make matching hats for the mittens.
One hat down, another hat started, two hats to go.
But tonight, I swear, I will work on The Scarf. After tonight’s Top Chef and a round of playing the home game (eight key ingredients, two cooks, one dish each, no desserts). I mean, I only have 190 rows to go before I add the tassels.
So, of course, I started on some Secret Holiday Knitting too. That shouldn’t slow me down a bit, no sirreeeeee!
But other than that, the order should probably be Doctor Who Scarf first, Adipose, Tilting TARDISes Cowl/Scarf (did I mention that one in the last list? it’s lovely lace), Gigi’s Triangle Shawl, 198 Yards of Hell, and then whatever’s left. With, of course, Hats of Hilarity and Christmas Knitting tucked in between each of those projects.
Did I mention there is a birthday and a wedding coming up? And that I thought when school started I would be able to work on some quilts when I wasn’t studying for my Apple Hardware and OS Certification? Oh crap. I might find out I’m human after all.
Time/spacewise, I started reading the introduction of my scholarly edition of H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, only to discover his primary influence for the work was a book called Flatland published by Edwin Abbott in 1884. Well lo and behold, I have already bought Flatland, so after finishing the Time Machine intro I will read Flatland first. This is all because I finished Cosmos a couple of days ago, yay me.
Did I mention I made a bunch of mittens (and one pair of gloves) last month? I apologize, gentle Reader, for not informing you sooner.
Eldest wanted a pair of mittens that were the same color as Harry Potter’s cabled sweater in The Sorcerer’s Stone, and I decided to throw in the mirrored cables for free. of course, since I wouldn’t see him until August, technically I didn’t have the mittens finished “on time.” But I did everything except the thumb tips before he got home, and took care of those on the second night he was back. Yes, those thumbs are ginormous, and no, I’m not sure why. But my son tried on his mittens, pronounced them perfect, and allowed as to how there was plenty of room for growth. Every once in a while, your child gives you a reason to keep him. This was one of those times.
I’ve made a couple of knitting plans since finishing the mittens. One was to see how many unfinished projects I could finish while the Formula One boys are on their annual three-week summer break. Right now this includes:
• A Doctor Who Scarf for my brother, 80 percent complete
• A leftover Adipose doll from two summers ago, 90 percent complete
• Lauren’s Wristwarmers, umm, zero percent complete (I wound off one skein of the yarn I want to use), sorry Lauren
• A blue and green scarf made with alpaca sock yarn, maybe 30 percent complete
• The ironically named 198 Yards of Heaven shawlette, on Row 37 of 76. That sounds like halfway — trust me, it’s not.
• A garter stitch triangle shawl for my grandmother, about 20 percent done?
• Tyrone. 90 percent done, three years in timeout. Enough said?
Maybe it’s time for a poll, or some groupthink for a strategy to finish as many of these as I can before Christmas knitting starts to creep onstage.
In the meantime, I started knitting ribbed hats from the leftover mitten yarn, so the kids will have matching sets and I will have less yarn. I’m halfway done with the first one now. Since I did mittens from Youngest to Eldest, I’m doing hats from Eldest to Youngest. Because I’m the boss of me, that’s why. And because once you’ve set yourself a time-based goal, there’s nothing more motivating than adding additional tasks. Or something like that. Say hello to Hat Hilarity!
School starts on September 1, so naturally I have developed three new professional goals for myself. One, to continue the library science classes, but with a math and science focus. Two, to undertake self-study and get certification in Apple operating systems and hardware so I can snag a best buy job as a Counter Intelligence Agent. (Yup, the Geek Squad.) and Three, to get some freelance work or a part time job so I can afford to qualify for the bigger jobs.
The week after school starts, I’m also throwing that little party for a few fiber friends. I think we have about 50 UNWIND registrations so far, and are expecting a lot more in the next few weeks. It’s time to start working on the fine details of that one, and I’m glad it’s not a solo job any more.
Have to scoot now — need to work on a Scarf (or a hat), get some registrations processed, ice my hip (thank you bursitis, therapy starts Thursday morning), and get all the kids ready for a trip to take two of them to karate.
Leave it to my dear daughter to bring my mitten momentum to a screeching halt.
Well, anyway, I cast on July 17 and got a good start on the cuffs. This is much nicer yarn than I used for the last pair of mittens, and it’s much thicker, so it didn’t take long to make three inches of ribbing. By the evening of July 18 I had done everything except the thumb! See????
Click to biggify; the bright green line of yarn is a provisional area that allows you to pick up stitches later and knit the thumb, like so:
And here I sit, trying to figure out how best to pick up stitches on the “sides” of the thumb better than I did on the fingers, where I have some gaping holes to deal with. But there are plenty of more experienced and highly skilled knitters at my local group, and surely someone (BONNIE! JAN! LOIS! SHARON!) might be able to give me some suggestions.
Of course, with that tiny problem solved, the bigger problem will have the opportunity to emerge. YOU know what it is.
All together now —
“Creating an exact copy in a mirror image.”
Yup. But we’ll cast on those stitches when we get to ‘em.
In less knitterly and more spinnerly news, UNWIND registrations have hit 10 percent of the goal. Yes, that means 20 people have signed up. But keeping in mind that would have been 20 percent of last year’s attendance, and 50 percent of the 2008 attendance — that’s pretty good. The publicity machine is still being oiled, so watch out once it gets going! And don’t feel shy about becoming part of the publicity machine. (It won’t bark, bite, or even prick your finger with a spindle.) If you’re going, spread the word. Tell your friends. Rave to your LYS owner. Enlighten the poor clerk at the chain craft store.
And if you’re still planning to go but haven’t registered yet, don’t put it off! Knowing accurate numbers as we get closer to the party date will help everything go more smoothly. (And there’s still that Early Bird drawing if you register before July 31.)
After I stared at the red mittens for a few days, I finally got my act together and knitted their thumbs. After the sad experiences of my previous mitten-making stints, in which the second mitten invariably emerged from the needles as a 10 percent reduction of the first one, I wanted to be able to concentrate on what I was doing, keep careful track of my rows, and make sure the two mittens were as darn close to identical as I could make them.
So, I packed them off to Late Night Knitting at the Sow’s Ear last Friday and went forward. With the help of just a touch of Chocovine and some bites of panko chocolate. (Seriously, a dark chocolate bar with panko bread crumbs and sea salt. It’s hard to express just how yum this is.)
In the end, I was pleased with my efforts.
So, I went on to finish knitting Zoom, a swiffer cover made from dishcloth cotton. I haven’t seamed it up yet, but the Actual Knitting ended about 15 minutes before Late Night did. I was pleased with how that turned out, too.
The impetus for knitting Zoom is that last month the thin carpeting in our rented farmhouse was replaced with laminate flooring in the kitchen and dining room. And while I’m no longer obsessed with the thought of a rotten carpet, pad, and subfloor every time one of the kids spills a Capri Sun, I did quickly realize I was going to have to make something to help me keep it clean and dry. I’ve had a Swiffer broom for years, but I hated having to spend so much money on the little wipes. And they always dried out in their packages before I got to use them all. A reusable cotton cover made so much sense to me. Now, I almost have one. There are several patterns for this kind of thing; I selected Zoom because it had a little texture to it.
Anyway, then I pulled my 198 Yards of Heaven project out of the bag. It stared me in the face. It taunted me. You don’t have time to work on me properly, just enough time to start a row and thoroughly screw it up. What’s the matter, can’t you count? I put it back in the bag. There were more mittens to do.
Sort of. When I asked my daughter if she still wanted brown mittens, she said no. She had wanted brown woolen mittens with decorated backs that looked like either horseshoes, or initials made from yarn that looked like a cowboy’s rope. I don’t remember exactly. It sounded pretty complex to me, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. I was relieved to hear that she had changed her mind.
“What kind of mittens do you want, then?”
“Ones with fingers.” Oh crap. “Gloves?”
“Yes! Gloves! In purple.”
Now, the closest I’ve come to knitting gloves would have been…. oh, let’s see. The red mittens in the picture in this post. Well, I did want to please, and it was time to stretch and challenge myself a little bit, so I looked through my pattern files.
What I ended up doing was combining the measurements I’d taken for Jack’s hands (Colleen is older but slight, and Jack is younger but robust, and most times they measure identically) for the Fittin’ Mittens pattern with the recipe given in a Winter 2003 article from Interweave Knits called “Progressive Gloves.” There will be plenty of new things for me to learn, including the way the thumb is allowed for (you knit several stitches with waste yarn to create a provisional cast on you’ll pick up later).
I picked a pretty variegated purple yarn from the stash (Rhapsody from Dark Horse Yarns, a Merino Wool from Turkey of all places, an orphan skein I adopted from the Sow’s Ear last year), cast on last night, and immediately modified the pattern so her gloves would have ribbed cuffs. That I already know how to do.
I’ll need to measure her hand this morning to determine how far to knit before I put in the thumb stitches, and I need to know where her “finger line” is, but so far it’s been good knitting. The yarn measures out at 205 yards for 100 grams, so it’s big fluffy Merino. So nice to knit with after the Bernat sock-weight nylon/acrylic blend I just wrestled into a pair of mittens.
In other news, UNWIND registrations are starting to roll in. By the time I log in the new ones there should be about 15 out of 200. It’s all more real every day. Please, if you’re planning to come, do help me out by registering as early as you can so we’ll know better how much we’re planning for.
Mitten Four got stalled out for a while. I thought I was making great progress yesterday, then I looked a little more closely and saw some problems about an inch below where I was.
Uh-oh.
It was about twelve rows down and looked like a dropped stitch. Should I tink five rounds of stockinette, then an increase round in 2×2 rib, then goodnessknowshowmany rounds of 2×2 rib before I found the problem?
Or….. since I did know where the problem was….. on the last stitch of the round….. wouldn’t it make more sense to just drop it and ladder it back up with a small crochet hook?
I put it off as long as possible carefully considered my options for about twelve hours. Which ticked me off, frankly, because I had to put a different project in my bag when I went out. Not that I would have time to knit anyway, since I would be driving and shopping with two little boys and wouldn’t have a spare moment anyway, but still. I wanted to be primarily monogamous with Mitten Madness, and this little dilemma was, clearly, Getting In The Way Of Progress.
I shopped, I returned, I mulled things over a little more. Finally I had a beer and felt emboldened to drop the stitch. Then I let the naughty thing think about what it had done, and took my time getting out the crochet hook.
And you know what? It took me less than a minute to fix the sucker. Since the dropped stitch was in the purl section of the 2×2 rib, all I had to do was turn the cuff inside out and — presto! — it was on the knit side, where I knew just what to do to bring the stitch back up. When I got to the stockinette section, I turned the cuff right side out again, brought the loose stitch to the outside, and kept bringing it up.
Then I had a few extra seconds to stare at my project with doubt that I had truly fixed it in that short of a time.
I’m still on track with Mitten Madness…. just need to finish a thumb at some point (later), and cast on for a mate (sooner).
What do you think, add the pawprints with duplicate stitch (which I’ve never done before) or a fabric marker?
The red yarn is Bernat Sox yarn, an acrylic/nylon blend with no wool at all. I got two balls of it for 99 cents each a couple of years ago and have been waiting to figure out what they wanted to be. I’m a little disappointed that it’s not wool, but it is machine washable and dryable.
In other news, it’s been terribly hot and humid lately. Only today has there been the arrival of some random thunderstorms that break things up a little bit. The main thing the rain is accomplishing is not allowing anybody to mow their lawns with any frequency. By the time the grass is dry again, we might be able to cut it for some very nice hay bales.
I’ve been working out again — found a new exercise plan which seems eminently sensible. I’m on the third week of the first six weeks and so far I’m losing weight, fitting into my clothes better, and feeling stronger and with more stamina. I’m trying to take walks for part of the cardio I need to do, and recently lengthened my standard walk from 2.8 miles to 3.6 miles. (I use www.mapmyride.com for this; check it out.) If I finish the six weeks well, I might feel brave enough to share the name of it. It’s nothing kooky like an all-cotton-candy diet; I just don’t want to jinx myself.
I’m also enrolled in an online course on Records Management, as a precursor to doing a Master’s degree in Library and Information Sciences. Not only is it a confusing course, I’ve been offline for part of it, and unable to access some of the reading materials for a larger part of it. Catching up is going to be tricky. I did acquire a brand new PC laptop to help out with this overall process, but right now that’s like trying to learn French on top of everything else. (Can I just say that Windows SUCKS and Steve Jobs was right? Ah, I feel better now.) I’m trying to do a reboot to my inner geek so all this can smooth itself out.
Whew! Time to make dinner for the two little boys (the other kids are out of state at the moment; long story) and cast on for Jack Mitten Two so I don’t lose my knitting mojo. I can do both thumbs in the same session.
Mitten Madness got off to a great start this weekend.
July 1: Locate pattern, needles, and yarn.
July 2: Knit first mitten and start second mitten.
July 3: Finish second mitten and start third mitten.
July 4: Continue third mitten, realizing that I am working with fingering weight acrylic/nylon instead of worsted weight wool, adjust gauge accordingly, and keep plugging away.
I said it was a great start, not a perfect ending. But it feels good to know that I’m already into the second pair of mittens. They really are very quick projects, and if I can keep the momentum going I can start on some wristwarmers I’m planning as Christmas presents.
Psst! Here’s the honest trust about Mitten One.
No issues until it was time to add 4 stitches at the end of the ribbing. For some reason I decided to add M1′s in purl sections. They made holes, but I was so thrilled at being able to knit plain for four rounds with big needles that that’s what I did. Then I tinked four plain rounds and the last ribbing round, did kf&b increases in the knit sections the way I should have in the first place, and all was well.
Anyway, the pattern I’m using for the plain mittens is Fittin’ Mittens by Nancy Lindberg. It cost me about five dollars and since I can’t even remember how many pairs of mittens I’ve already made from it, I surely have gotten my money’s worth out of it. It’s a gauge-based pattern, so you can use it to make any size mittens out of any size yarn. I have slightly modified the thumb gusset instructions because I like my kf&b’s much better than my M1′s. As with anything in knitting, your mileage may vary.
Here are Tommy’s mittens for this winter. He wants them to be Blue’s Clues mittens, so I will be duplicate stitching a pawprint onto the back of each one. It might be cuter to do them on the palm side, though.
Eagle-eyed readers will notice something very special about this pair of mittens — they are the same size. I even counted the rows (since it seems to make a difference). Who knew?
After last year’s failed attempt to make timely mittens for everyone in the family, I decided to adjust my game plan. Waiting until people actually need mittens does not grant enough time to make a pair for everyone. There’s also the problem of Christmas knitting backing up into the early fall knitting schedule.
“Hmm,” I thought, “I should have made these mittens in July.”
The more thought I gave it, the more sense it made. Mittens are pretty quick projects, and unless you’re making woolen gauntlet-length versions, they’re too small to ever even hit your lap. (And I made the Dragon Scale Gauntlets last year, so we already have those.) You wouldn’t want to knit a woolen afghan in the summer, but a little mitten? Or even a big mitten? During a road trip in an air-conditioned car? No problem!
I cleverly told all my friends about my plan to knit all the family mittens in July, and they’re ready to call me on it.
Now. I didn’t say that mittens would be the only thing I would knit. So you may see me working on one of a few different projects, such as the ill-named 198 Yards of Heaven shawlette, or my Tilting TARDISes Cowl (which I’m making as a scarf due to neck-based claustrophobia issues), or the Doctor Who Scarf for my brother…. you get the picture.
But the mittens will have priority, and I’ll strive to provide a progress shot every time I publish a new blog post.
First up: “Blue’s Clues” mittens for Tommy.
In other news, this year’s Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival Saturday Night Afterparty has been cleverly renamed “UNWIND.” The cost is just $10 per person and includes a professionally cooked hors d’ouvres buffet. Remember last year’s party on the Festival grounds? How the doors were open for air and let in the flies? How everything smelled like sheep? How we had to put away our own folding chairs? How some people’s cars got accidentally locked in the parking lot? Well. THIS year the party is being held at the ballroom of the JC Plaza Hotel and Conference Center (formerly the Johnson Creek Comfort Suites). We are going to be all fancy schmantzy and even have access to a cash bar. Bring your wheel, bring your needles, show off your purchases, maybe win a door prize.
Here is where you can download your reservation form!
Firstly and most importantly, the Connor Caps project was a huge success. In three weeks, knitters and crocheters from around the world contributed 145 hats to help support Connor in his fight with brain cancer.
December 5 was Hat Day at the school, and I had to leave early to get all the hats there. Unfortunately, I was just inside the city limits when I realized I had left one box of fleece hats at home. They had been sent from Hawaii, and represented the largest number of hats sent in by a single person, so I couldn’t leave them out. After a few moments’ panicked thinking, I realized that what I had to do was keep going, let the helpers start stringing up the rest of the hats, hope someone would take care of my two younger boys, and dash back home (ten miles away) for the fleece hats.
It worked out perfectly — the preschool teacher took Big Tom as well as Jack, and by the time I got back to school, all the rest of the hats were clipped to a clothesline that ran the length of the school gym.
The hats weren’t the only thing going on. The school principal kept everything moving through an intensely emotional ceremony. She explained about the Connor Caps project and how it had come together, then let Connor go up and pick out his own hat. Then each class from kindergarten to the eighth grade came up for hats. I made a little movie of part of the “hat sorting” and I’ll try to post it here. The quality is not great, since I made it with my little digital camera, but the emotions are what really show.
After all that was done, it was only 9am, and Jack still had school. It took me a full thirty minutes to convince Big Tom that he needed to come with me, and to convince Jack that he needed to stay at school until I came back for him at the regular time. To help me recover from the emotions of the morning, I went to the nearest quilt-shop-with-a-yarn-room and bought the prettiest and softest yarn I could find. I could only afford three balls, so I hid the rest of the dyelot and told the clerk not to sell the rest to anyone else.
Soft and pretty "reward yarn"
When I got home, there were more hats waiting for me. Even though they didn’t get here in time for the ceremony, they’re still part of the program, and if anyone wants to contribute hats they are still welcome. We came just ten hats short of making one for each kid at school, and I think the staff members would like to have hats too. If you’re interested and able, please contact me for the mailing address.
We have other projects planned for helping and comforting Connor and his family. The details are up at the Connor Caps group on Ravelry, but I can post them here, too.
Next there was a pilgrimage to Sinsinawa Mound. For some reason I had thought this was in the Eau Claire area, since it was described as being 2-3 hours away from Jefferson. Boy was I wrong. We went through some new Wisconsin territory for me, and I took a picture of the Verona exit from 151, just to prove there is something past it (that’s how I get to The Sow’s Ear). At one point our charter bus was stuck behind two Amish men driving their buggy home from Sunday Meeting. When we were at the spiritual center, I read on a flyer that it’s “just a ten minute drive from Dubuque!”
The day at the center was amazing, and there’s no way to adequately describe it all. I could refer you to read what Connor’s mom wrote in his CaringBridge journal — but she says the same thing.
It started snowing and squalling on the way home, and since James and I were in the first seat of the bus, we had an excellent view of how dicey the whole drive was. We were able to watch DVDs on the way out and back, and after the second movie ended, the kids decided to sing Christmas songs the rest of the way home. I can think of much worse road trips with schoolkids!
I found out later that when Connor’s family got home that night, other friends had put up their Christmas decorations for them, and they came home to a beautiful display of sparkling lights. They really are getting support from all quarters.
What comes next? Oh yes, Christmas knitting. I took a couple of projects with me (what? It was going to be as much as six hours on a bus!) but the only one I worked on was the Christmas stocking for my brother. I got a ton of it done, including almost finishing the colorwork section. After that it really picked up speed. It arrived at my parents’ house yesterday, and he doesn’t have it yet, but I can show you a picture. Even with the cuff folded, it came out to 27 inches long.
Ben's stocking
There really wasn’t any other requested knitwear to make for presents, but I did send out an Everlasting Bagstopper (i.e. cotton market bag) and make some dishcloths. In the meantime, I started working on a Season 16 Doctor Who Scarf as part of a mini knitalong. On Ravelry I became acquainted with a woman who finished her Season 12 Scarf as she sat with her dying mother. She was using the same yarn I had used and we both had lots of leftovers, so when she decided to make a Season 16, I started one too. I believe it’s the longest scarf, and I know I’ll run out of yarn at some point, but there’s no deadline. It’s all about community and support.
I also had a meetup at Thanksgiving time, with Christine (“akasha”) from one of my Ravelry groups. We met at a yarn shop (go figure) and I found the perfect tweedy yarn to start collecting for another variant on a Doctor Who Scarf. Talk about no deadline. And then, on Thanksgiving Day, I wore my Scarf all day long. My brother was impressed and eventually asked about it, and the upshot is that I’ll be making a machine washable version for him. Just yesterday I bought the bulk of the yarn I’ll need for it. I want to buy a special circular needle for the project, and I’ll get started after I find it.
I made another pair of the cotton footies in shades of blue, and gave them to James in his stocking. They’re a little big yet — I made the adult size — but at the rate he’s growing they will soon fit.
And after getting heavy snows and bitter cold and brisk wind, I decided to make everyone in the family a new pair of mittens, in wool this time. I started with Big Tom, and made a pair of baby blue mittens in Dalegarn Falk, using the Fittin’ Mittens pattern and adding a green Norwegian snowflake to each mitten. Jack’s are next. He wants an Autobot logo one one side and a Decepticon logo on the other, and on the other mitten he wants….
So, what’s on the needles now?
A Season 16 Doctor Who Scarf. The bamboo socks, newly restarted — transitioning to the toe color on one sock, with the other one watching curiously. Not Jack’s mittens yet, but soon. There are also seven (I think) other WIPs. One is a Secret Holiday Project that didn’t come close to getting done, but the others are familiar (cough Tyrone cough) if you’ve been reading this blog for a while.
Ugh, it’s driving rain right now and it’s melting our snowbanks down so everything will be ice when the temperature dips again. And the sky is thick with fog. Yuck yuck yuck! I’d rather it were cold straight through winter than to have this freeze/thaw/sleet junk, especially when we have most of the day booked for a huge Round Robin family eatfest today. With four little people to get in and out of the cars from house to house, it’s not easy, but we’ll do as much as we can.
We all had a blessed Christmas and I hope you did too! Stay warm and dry…. I’ll be back in a few days to make insanely optimistic New Year’s resolutions. We’ve all got to have a tradition, and that one’s mine.
