How Quickly.....

Sometimes it is just amazing to me how quickly life can change for you at the hands of someone else.

This week started off great. Daughter and Son and my little sweetie-pie came down for super bowl Sunday. We played games, ate a vast amount of junk food, laughed and had a great time. The underdog team won, which to me, anytime the underdog can win is always a good thing.

Monday morning came just like most Monday mornings do. I had bag orders to fill and ship out. Hooray! Tomorrow I get my sweetie-pie for her and Ama's two days of fun and play, things are good.

I get all my bags ready to ship, get a last minute request for a bag. It is to be a Valentine’s Day gift, it needs to go out today, still have time. That bag gets packed and I'm off to post office.

It's a fairly nice day, no snow, not too cold it's all good.

Then things changed desperately for the worse. As I approached the green light of the intersection and started through it someone ran the red light to my left. Needless to say things got really bad quickly. Unable to stop I hit the back of his car, was forced across the intersection head on into a light pole. Lucky for me I wasn't going very fast. I had my seat belt on, as I always do, and my air bags deployed. Those two combined saved me from being hurt too badly. My car on the other hand is a different story. Let’s just say, we will be car shopping.

As I got out of my car the "young" man driving the other car just kept saying, "I'm so sorry", "I'm so sorry". When I finally got out the words "what the *@#* were you doing" his reply was," I wasn't paying attention". Well, you know what? I had that figured out already.
What do you say to that?

Come Tuesday things were hurting a lot more. I spent the better part of Tuesday in the ER getting checked over. I ended up with neck sprain and strain, and contusion of the chest wall, it could have been a lot worse.

That's just how quickly your life can change at the hands of someone else.

I suppose the moral of the story should be: Make the best of each day you have!

The Wish List....

It may not feel like it now, but Spring is on the way.  Just ask my mail lady, she'll tell you.  You know how she knows?  Because more and more seed catalogs are being delivered to our box every day.   And so, the list begins.  Will everything on the list be bought? Probably not.  Will everything that is bought be planted?  Maybe. But, when the wind chills hit -20 it sure is nice to sit with a hot cup of tea and dream.  Dream of the sun beating on your brow, and all those wonderful flavorful goodies growing in your garden.   Yum..yum! 

 We'll leave the digging, hoeing, and weeding out of the dream. 

Production Has Begun...

I have been invited to be a vendor at the Madison Knitter's Guild Knit In this year.  I am very excited and have kicked myself into production mode.  Kicking into production mode means that other things become secondary re: cleaning, cooking, you know those fun things.  That's okay because I have a great support system that doesn't mind picking up the slack. Thank you DH. 

As you can see, it also means that my work area also becomes a state of disarray.

The Knit In will be held March 13, 2010 at the Bishop O'Connor Center in Madison WI.  The keynote speakers will be Ann and Kay, aka Mason Dixon Knitting.  It should prove to be a very fun day. So mark your calendars and maybe I'll see you there.  Stop by and say hey.

Today, as we returned from our errand trip it started to snow.  The oddest snow I can remember seeing.  It looked like Mother Nature was above us shaving a huge block of ice. Perhaps she's letting us know that this warm weather isn't going to last because she still has plenty of ice blocks to get rid of before spring.

Happy New Year

As I reflect back on the year, this time last year seemed awfully bleak for this household. DH lost his job along with thousands of others. With no income and savings disappearing quickly, one wondered what the future would bring. As you turned to others for support you heard over and over again, "well there are lots of folks losing everything". I know they meant well, but that is sort of like your Mom telling you to eat your peas because there are children starving in China. Did that make those peas taste better? I think not.



That's when my Etsy shop came about. Thank you to all that have had a hand in making it a success.



Winter came and went and spring brought a new job, way below the salary level of the last one, but a job none the less. Amazing what one can do without. Makes you wonder, do we really need all those "things" after all.  As long as I have yarn, knitting needles, roving, spinning wheel, and a little bit of dye, I'm good.



Then it was garden season. The weather didn't cooperate and it was a struggle to get our usual yields.

Fall came and it was time to start thinking about Christmas knitting. Last year everyone received sweaters, this year they all got hats. Which I think they were just as happy with. We were all together for Christmas and that is what is most important.



That brings us right back to the New Year. I have a HUGE pot of black-eyed-peas cooking for New Year's Day. I'm not taking any chances.



Happy New Year one and all!

Snow day..........

Everyone knows that you must have a clean house in order for Santa to visit. Here she is busy at work.  Might be a good plug for Dyson. Look, maneuvers so easily your two year can vaccum for you.  Do you think I should ask for royalties?   Anyway, she did a great job.  She actually had fun doing it.  Oh, how quickly that will change.

After our cleaning was finished it was time for playing. And play we did.  Cailin thought it was really great to throw snowballs at Ama.   She also thought it was really fun to go sledding, as long as Ama would pull her.  Otherwise, it was just way too much work.  Up the hill, down hill, down the driveway, up the driveway, and up and down the hill again.  Okay, that's Ama's workout for the day, enough.

As I watched my granddaughter play in the snow and dodging her vast amount of snowballs. I couldn't help but think of playing with my own two small children in the snow.  Then, falling in the snow meant laughs and giggles, now it means aching bones.  Where has the time gone.

Mother Nature...How do you like her now?

Well, as most of you have heard we folks here in Wisconsin got dumped on pretty well last night and today.  We ended up getting about 15 inches of very wet heavy snow.  Anyone who lives in a climate with winters knows that wet heavy snow means power outages.  There were several thousand of people without power today.  Lucky for us, we were not one of them. Along with the heavy snow and blowing winds, we also had snow thunder and lightning last night.   The question comes to mind, "you enjoyed Novemeber?"  Well here you go, how do you like it now?

This picture was taken from the same place I took last weeks shot. A tad bit different I'd say.

This is our clothsline that I was just using two weeks ago.

The fence around the garden.  The garden which it seems we just dug carrots from.

And at last, the lonely gazebo that not so long ago enjoyed  laughter and dinners under its roof.

The Beginning....

What a sad day it was, last Thursday we had our first accumulating snow.  Of course it had be knitting night that it arrived.  I found that there are a few die hard knitting groupies out there. 
It was just one of Mother Natures funny little jokes she plays on us.  She has yet a much larger joke in strore for us tomorrow.  She is going to wave her arms around, blow with all her might and produce 12 plus inches of snow with 40 mph winds.  Ain't she cute?