It's Friday!

It's Friday!  And you know what that means?  Tomorrow I get to see Miss Piper.  And her Mommy and Daddy of course.  That's assuming our flight will be able to land in DC and they can get to the airport to pick us up.  It sounds like a doozy of a storm will be hitting there tomorrow.  We plan to be on our way to the airport here by 4:00 a.m. for our flight.  We have to leave our car at the off site parking and take a shuttle to the airport itself.  It all takes time.  We're still having gorgeous weather here.  Maybe we should exchange our tickets and have our girls come here instead. :-)  Ellen will be here early tomorrow morning and spend the week with my Chloe.  Oh, how I miss her when I'm gone, but I know that Ellen spoils her even more than I do and watches the house very nicely for us.  She has just moved into an apartment less than a mile from us, so it's very convenient for her.  She really likes to stay here and have laundry facilities and a house for awhile.  Usually, she has a little dinner party here for friends from church while she has more room to entertain.  We don't mind, especially since they're our friends too!  Ellen is an amazing cook and is in the planning stages for our church Easter breakfast which she oversees most years.  Yum!

Look what Mandy sent me yesterday!  This cute little picture of how smart little 2 year old Piper is.  She arranged her doll's shoes right next to Mommy's boots.  So sweet.

I thought I would show you the room where I do most of my knitting and crocheting in the winter.  I don't remember ever sharing it with you before.  Neal built these bookcases for us right after we built the house.  He made all but the center shelves adjustable so we can move them around as needed.  We have LOTS of books.  I made that dove last summer in Portland with Mandy.  She made a bluebird.  It's string wrapped around nails.  I re-read lots of these books over and over.  Some I have had since childhood, although I have been giving most of those to the grandkids.  I also took 7 big boxes of books to the thrift store this winter.  Trying to simplify a bit.

The gas stove that my chair faces.  You can tell how much Chloe loves this spot, the warmest in the house.  The railroad lantern was given to us by our elderly neighbors when we were first married.  They were tossing stuff as they were moving into a retirement home.  I have no idea how old it is.  She also gave me her ironing board which I still have.  So much heavier and better made than the ones you can buy now.  The white bear next to the fireplace is mine from when I was a little girl.  The grandkids love to play with it. She's missing an eye and her fur is threadbare in many places, but she is very well loved.  I remember sleeping with her every single night.  Nothing could scare me when my bear was there.  :-)  On particularly cold days, you find Chloe with her nose right up to the stove, almost touching it.  I love my cozy little room.  I call it the cave, although it has two big windows.  You can barely see one of them on the left in this picture.

This is a book from our "library" that I've been re-reading this week.  I want to be better about intentionally opening our home to others and I'm looking for pointers in this book.  Reading about how we've changed as a culture, especially since the advent of television is very interesting.  

This is the progress on the blankets so far.  I had wanted to have them done before we left tomorrow, but that ain't gonna happen!  I've been crocheting on them several hours a day all week, but I always miscalculate just how much time they take.  Having to rip out 4 rows last night didn't help.  I was busy talking to friends and realized that I had started the color striping in the wrong order.  Ooops.  No one could believe that I just ripped the rows out.  They said no one else would know.  But I would know, so out they came.  I'll just have to finish them when I get home.  This the first time I can remember not having to look at the pattern at all to make the blanket.  I guess after making hundreds of them, it's finally sinking into my brain!  But I'm not lugging these big things on the plane with me!  :-)  I have a half finished pair of socks and some dishcloth yarn that I'm taking along.  Small projects that are easy to carry around.

And finally.  Have you ever looked in your attic?  I heard scuffling on the roof yesterday, actually we've been hearing it for awhile and really hope it's on the outside.  So I got out the ladder and poked my head up through the little hatch in the office ceiling.  This is what I saw.  That circle is the flashlight beam.  And there are piles and piles of a sawdust like material all over the attic floor.  There's another entire house up there!  Anyway, I didn't see any sign of critters which is a good thing, right?

I need to finish the laundry and water my plants.  I hope you are all staying warm and cozy.  I'm planning to spend a lot of time playing with Piper the next few weeks but I will try to check in on your blogs too.

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans." Proverbs 16:3

Blessings,

Betsy