Ringing in the New Year!

Well - its been a few minutes again since I posted!  Lots going on and I seem to spend a lot of time cleaning up messes.....

That these guys and their dad make!!

And Shoveling snow....

That keeps coming down!  We are at about 5 feet now that it has snowed, but it did rain about a week ago so that settled it down a bit to about 4.5'!  Just a bit.....

We have started into the 7th year without Rye now and it has always been a little (or a lot) difficult to ring in the New Year and do what feels like leaving him a little further behind.....even though he really has gone on ahead! 

I did some christmas cards and a short letter that felt a little stilted but was a start, and didn't leave me feeling like I was completely drained.  If you didnt get one - sorry - maybe next year -if you did get one you are a lucky one! I didn't start it until about the day before Christmas though.  Its a small step in the direction I need to go I think.  It has not got any easier exactly, but we are learning to navigate the seasons a little better now, and to do what we need to do so others don't have such a hard time, maybe....

It was fun doing Christmas all over the place!  It was a bit exhausting but still good to start to have good feelings about the "season" again, and not so much dread.  I think Reed and Keyona ended up with about 6 different Christmas stops they needed to make!  Everyone needs a turn!

Kids and families came over for New Years, and we had food, friends, family and fireworks!  It was an amazing show and the fireworks from everyone all around us and on neighboring lakes was amazing!  It was like being in the center of a fireworks extravaganza!  Everywhere we looked we could see the joy of people ringing in the new year! 

 I actually stayed up literally all night!  Our last guests left at 5:00 am!  It's very unusual for me to not crash at about midnight!  I don't necessarily sleep well, but Im sleeping in short bursts.  Overall since the sinus surgery I am getting about 2.5 hours longer sleep, and higher quality sleep though so that is another baby step in the right direction.I had the sinus surgery (read about that here) in November and my nose is not only sensitive to cold - as I was warned it would be, but I discovered also to smoke!  I stayed in most of the night and visited with the insiders and watched fireworks from the porch with the Grammas.

Quilting is fun for me again and not just a way to save my own life - as it has been for the past years since.  I have recently started - joined a murder mystery that the clues are in the quilt.  Murder of the Viking.  Each month, we get a chapter of a book, a quilt  block(s) pattern, and some special directions.  It has been super fun so far even though I have only done one month!  This first month has been a doozy for difficulty!  If they are all this time consuming I probably wont stay up with the group!  I will try however!  I am currently working on blocks and writing in the same space at the same time!  Multi taskers are us!

It is also a funny challenge mystery since I have always said that I won't work with pieces less than 1.5" square!  Thats my smallest! Not doing anything smaller!!!  Annnnnnddddd........ some of the pieces in these blocks are 1" square or 1" strips!  Im good with the strips, but those tiny, tiny squares!  Ugh!  Changed my mind once the blocks started going together because I have fallen in love with it but...the dread was real to start with!

First set of "Murder of the Viking" blocks.  I have no idea what the clue is in these blocks!  Ill let you know if I figure it out!  I am also working on another mystery quilt that should be a short piece of work, as well as a couple of baby quilts.....and really about 20 quilts at a time!

Baby quilt with turtles on it!  I have been obsessed with teal, blue, green, and turtles lately!

I have also started to do some of the Home repair and upkeep that we have been putting off or just not doing at all!

My new lampshades - the old ones had been cracked and broken in the earthquake about 5 years ago - I had not been able to find anything that I liked to replace them so we had turned the cracked part towards the wall until the day came when finally something worked with our decor (the whole living area has the same light fixture designs)....Thank goodness!

This is one of the old ones - Im not sure they will even be good for anything upcycle - but you know Ill give it a good gosh darn try!  They made it 18 years and so I think thats not a bad return on investment so to speak!  The new ones are metal and so should last through almost anything that get thrown at them - even by Ike or an earthquake!

"Who?  Me?  I think not!"

I hope that no matter how your Holiday Season went, the ups and downs that always seem to go with that time of the year, that you are able to see the joy in the fireworks, the growing light, a full moon, or just a happy new set of lamp shades that an Ike and a Brix, can't eat!

Blessed Be 2023