End of the Year Hustle

The family got through mom’s possessions.  We got them divided up, organized and sent off to the appropriate sibling or charity.  This includes the difficult task of dividing up her jewelry.  Saturday was a very long and emotional day.

Now I’m working on gifts and projects.  I had five student worker gifts to make – can’t say what at this point.  Since Sunday I’ve gotten four of them done.  I’m hoping to make the last one tonight.  I’ll take pictures of them as they are new patterns and then ask my husband to please wrap them. 

This is the rest of my immediate needs for crocheting:

  • 3 baby bibs – moved up because the publication changed the date for the issue they’re going in
  • gift for my daughter’s boyfriend – again can’t say
  • blanket for the woman who organized my blog post
  • slipper socks for my niece
  • scarf and hat set for a client
I think these are the immediate needs.  I am still working on a blanket for my niece which I may submit to the publication – I may be too late for the issue.  I have to check since they rearranged dates of issues.
I’m hoping to get all of these done within the two weeks.  After I get these done, I’m going to think about making things for the markets I’m hoping to participate in.  However, I have a lot of writing things to get done as well.  
I’m sure I’m going to be bouncing back and forth between tasks.  It’s all a balancing act for me to keep moving forward in both of these areas.  
I’ve been feeling too scattered so I wrote up a to do list for my writing.  I need to break down some of the tasks into pieces so I can check them off but I’m hoping with the list, I’ll be able to focus a little better and spend less time bouncing around and more time accomplishing things.  
Work is winding down for the end of the semester so this means I can think about more things.  I’ve also got a long eleven days off over the holidays.  I’m looking forward to this as I’ll actually have about three days in the house alone.  I’m hoping those will be productive days for writing.  On the days where I’m sharing the house with other people I’ll work on things like posting patterns on Ravelry or marketing as that is easier to be interrupted than writing.  
I’m also hoping to start going through some of the photo albums of my mothers.  This is going to be a task as there are dozens of them if not hundreds.  Without a doubt there are thousands of pictures to look through, determine if they are good enough to scan, and pick the ones the family will be interested in.  My mother was a prolific photographer who snapped shots of everything.  Collectively, we’ve already decided we can’t keep them all and there isn’t time to scan them all.  Still it’s a big job and will take time.  I’m hoping to take a few hours on one of my days off and work through a number of them.  
After I get done with the pictures, the next thing will be the slides.  This is going to be time consuming as well.  Both my parents took a lot of pictures.  This means I’ve got lots of slides to go through from the beginning of their marriage to about the 70s (I think).  This will be slow going as well.  
All of this should keep me very busy through the end of the year.  I’m hoping to rest a bit during my eleven days off and come back to my day job a little less stressed.  I’m also hoping to get quite a bit of work done while I’m off. 

Snow Day!

While the weather outside is cold and snowy, my plan is to work on more holiday gifts.  The last package went to the post office this morning.  Ken tackled the roads in his truck – I think my car would have gotten stuck in our road since we’ve not been plowed out.  We got about 5 – 6″ of snow and they’re calling for another 1 – 6″ depending on who you listen to.

The weather for today is supposed to be more snow.  The weather for tomorrow is supposed to be frigid with below zero temps.  This seems like the best time to turn on Netflix and work on a crochet project.  I’ve got two or three left to do for holiday gifts.  Then Ken gets to do the wrapping.

The meds for my sinus infection kicked my butt.  I’m done with them for now but I think the sinus infection isn’t gone.  It may be time to go back to an ENT to see if he’s got other options he can give me or better drugs.

I’ve been sleeping a lot.  I get up and do a couple of things.  After which I feel like I’ve run a marathon and want a nap.  I keep reminding myself this is my body’s way of telling me it’s healing.  I need to slow down and let my body recuperate.

Since I don’t do well with cold air, I’ll be staying inside and crafting.  I’ve got a number of projects to finish for the holidays and a few others to finish in general.  It’s something I can do while I’m resting.  Ken’s filled the humidifier with water and essential oils.  I’ll put on Netflix with West Wing or something else and crochet and nap throughout the rest of the weekend.  Hopefully by Monday I’m feeling more human.

Surprise for Grandma

Yesterday I took my mom and friend to Gays Mills.  The purpose was to get apples but there was an underlying purpose as well.  Vicki, my middle daughter, met us there.  We had a lovely day getting apples, having lunch, and chatting.

The fall colors this year are a bit muted.  Some trees are vibrant but mostly there are the muted greens and golds.  It was a lovely drive.  I hope everyone had a good time.

I came home with apples, cider, cookies, and salad dressing.  I got to spend time with a friend, my mom and my daughter.  It was a good day!

Today we’ve had a bit of excitement with our power going out for about an hour.  It went out and we heard a loud bang outside.  No idea what happened but we were without power.

I sat and crocheted after I notified the utility our power was out.  I saw on their web site that almost fifty people were without power so probably a transformer blew.  Now the power is back on and I’m at the computer for a little while.

Once I’m done with the computer, I’m going to work on holiday gifts.  I have a number of them done, a lot more to do, and some to do for someone else.  Next step for me, go to my craft room and gather up bags of the projects.