Happy New Year....

What?  Am I late?  It's already the third of January?  Oops. Well, actually I did know that, but I've been snuggled down pretty securely in the house during these cold snowy days.  But look outside today.

It's a beautiful, but chilly blue sky today.  This, once again, is the view from the back deck where I stepped out in my robe and slippers to take a photo to show you.  I've had a very lazy morning today.  I've had difficulty sleeping again, which has happened periodically since I was around 50 years old.  In talking to other ladies, it's not an uncommon occurrence and now that I'm not working outside the home any longer, I can just "roll" with it.  So this morning after Dennis left for work I went back to bed and actually slept another hour.  By then it was about 7:00 a.m. and it was cold, so for the first time in a long time, I grabbed my Bible and climbed back into bed to read there instead of my normal routine of showering, dressing and sitting in my chair with a cup of tea.  You know what?  It was kind of fun!  Like playing hooky as a child.  I still read my Bible so does it matter where I did it?  Nope!

Now I'm up and have vacuumed and dusted the bedroom and living room and getting ready to go to Hobby Lobby which is right down the street from me.  They have "I Love This Cotton" on sale this week, so I thought I might pick up a few skeins of it.  I can also wander around and look at beautiful things while I try to get my steps in.  It's way to slippery to walk outside these days.

I took the picture below on Friday.  At that point I think it had snowed at least a little bit every day for at least 11 days straight.

Dennis took the day off on Friday because work was so slow, as it usually is between Christmas and New Years, and we went to get a permit renewed at the courthouse.  My little CRV gets around wonderfully in the snow and ice with it's Blizzak snow tires.  But...others don't do so well.  Right after I took this picture a jeep passed us on the left going way too fast.  He spun two complete circles and then went off the road, just missing several other cars while he was spinning.  He also just missed a power pole and a garage.  People were following way too close and we were almost rear-ended at least three times that I saw.  What is wrong with people?  It's not like we never have snow and people don't know how to drive.  And what's up with the huge hurry?  Although we had several other errands, we decided that we, and the car, would be much better off at home.  At the end of the day the news reported over 175 crashes on Friday alone.  And it wasn't even that slick!  People need to slow down!  Okay.  Enough of my rant.  Sorry about that.

 It was beautiful.  But I'm thankful for blue sky today.

I've been hibernating inside most of the time watching videos and knitting.  This is my view.  As I said before, I leave my snowmen out for awhile after the holidays.  My little camper stays out for a month or two longer too, even though Santa is waving from the roof.  It reminds me that I'll be back at the lake before too long.

I do have a couple of finished objects.  I made this scarf for another one of Dennis' co-workers, Paula.  It's really a brighter yellow but looks rather faded here.  Blame it on the cloudy day that I took the picture!  I just used a simple garter band on all sides and the body is k2, p2, alternating every two rows. It's about 6 feet long.  I really like it and will definitely use this stitch pattern in other things.

 I finished a pair of socks out of Paton's Kroy sock in the "blue rag" colorway.  Look how well the stripes match until the toes.  I didn't do it on purpose and I have no idea why the color is off on the toes.  Oh well, no one will see the toes anyway, right?

I started another pair of socks too.  These are made with Regia yarn and I love the pattern that it's making.  I'm gong to finish the heel flap today and then put them in my carry-on to knit on while flying to Omaha on Saturday.  I want them past the heel flat so that in case of interruptions I can just knit round and round.  Notice I'm back to my dpn's.  I like the magic loop method okay, but I always go back to dpn's.  They are much more comfortable for me to use.

We're heading into the deep freeze that is Nebraska for a week.  Dennis will be there for his birthday  for the first time since we moved to Spokane in 1993.  That will be nice for his Mom.  We'll have a late Christmas with Mandy, Brad and Piper too.  We had a new little great-niece born over New Years weekend so it will be fun to see little Madeline Elise.   It will be a busy week, trying to fit everything in.  Plus, we're flying Alaska there and United home.  United has some strange restrictions on carry-on luggage.  Apparently my purse counts as my carry-on!  I usually take a little hand-held bag that holds all of our medications, my Ipad and my knitting onboard with me.  We're trying to figure this out.  We'll have some Christmas presents, plus snow boots, clothes for both of us all in one large checked suitcase.  Traveling in the summer is much, much easier.  Less bulky clothes.  And I am a very light packer too.  I don't take many clothes at all.  We really don't want to pay for another checked bag.  Hmmmph.  It's much easier to drive. 

We are both looking forward to Dennis' retirement when we can drive wherever we want to go.  If the weather gets bad, we can just stop.  No timeline to follow strictly.  I used to love to fly.  All over the world.  Get me a ticket and off I would go.  I flew to London and Japan by myself.  Several times.  I've flown all over the U.S.  But it's NOT fun anymore.  They pack us in like sardines and the security is not fun.  Especially now with my pacemaker, because I can't go through the regular detector anymore.  And they overbook most flights now, because sometimes people just don't show up.  Then people get kicked off the plane because they've overbooked.  Not fun.  Am I ranting again?  I don't mean to.  Just trying to explain why it's so much more fun to drive and stop whenever you want to.

BUT....we are looking forward to seeing our girls again. 

And how about all of you?  Is the new year treating you well so far?  I'm going to try to read more this year.  I used to read several books every week.  Now, because I'm always knitting/crocheting, my reading has all but stopped.  So, although I may not get as much crafting in, I'm determined to read more.  That's one of my goals.  My big one however, is working on the "fruit of the spirit" in my life.  As you can tell with my "rant's" in this post, I can definitely use it.  For those of you unsure of what I'm taking about it will involve cultivating love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. These are found in Galations 5 in the Bible.  I also want to make prayer a bigger priority in my life. 

I hope you are all having a wonderful week.  Jamie did something to my Ipad while he was here, so I'm going to TRY to post while I'm at Mandy's next week.  We'll see if it works.

This is my favorite Bible verse and I'm going to leave it with you to start this new year of 2018.

"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.  Isaiah 40:31

Blessings,
Betsy