Fresh Slate?

January is the traditional month for change. New year, new resolutions, new opportunities to make changes to ourselves, our lives, our homes.

I've been thinking for a long time of simplifying. Not downsizing because we really cannot afford to move right now. But we do have a lot of stuff in our home we could do without. And there are other areas which could stand a little more focus and a little downsizing as well.

Last year, Wil Wheaton had a blog post about making changes in some small areas, tweaks to make his life better in health, creativity, and overall living. He called it a reboot and I suppose that's what I need to do as well.

I need/want to:

Increase my exercise. I've been diagnosed as pre-diabetic for the last few years and I need to get serious about losing weight and keeping it off. I lost 10 lbs last year, but got lazy and regained it. I have an elliptical and I need to get on it no less than 5 times a week for at least 20 minutes.

Increase my intake of healthy fruits and vegetables. I fell down on the job of making sure I was eating more healthy foods and decreasing my carb intake to help my blood sugars. I need to buy veggies and get them chopped up on the weekend so that I have something easy to grab.

Decrease my screen time in the evenings. I need to put down the computer or tablet and pick up a book or my knitting. I don't need to be mindlessly scrolling through crap when I could be escaping into a good book or working on a gift for someone.

Read a variety of books each month. My hope is to read at least 6 different kinds of books a month: non-fiction, my book club's selection, YA, mystery, Christian (fiction or non) and fiction (whatever fits the category like romance, general fiction, SciFi, etc). So I really need to put the screens away at night.

Knit more. I have yarn, I have patterns. I have friends and family who enjoy receiving things I make and to whom I enjoy giving. I need to make my list of projects, put the yarn into bags with the patterns and just grab one a month.

Decrease the clutter in my home. I need to get down to the items I love, have meaning for me or serve a purpose. I've decided to do Snail Pace Transformations' 30x12 Challenge so I can month by month decrease the stuff in my home taking up valuable space better used for loved items or nothing at all. I also determined to be mindful about where I was going to donate the items, to not just use Goodwill, but also Salvation Army and more local charitable thrift stores.

Purpose to spend time in Bible study. I really suck at keeping this up. I do well for a week or two and then find myself doing rapid catch-ups on the weekend to be ready for Monday evening Bible study.

The above is enough.

I'm hoping to once a month do a check-in post to see how I'm doing. Since I also suck at posting, we'll see how that goes.

Quick update, anyone?

Well, I haven’t done what I thought I would several weeks ago which is write up the year so far. Books have continued to be read, a little bit of knitting continues to happen and I continue to allow other things to prevent me from blogging.

I have a book club meeting tomorrow – the first official “We’ve read a book and plan to discuss it” meeting. We chose C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. Surprisingly, we didn’t have that on the bookshelf so off to Powell’s we went to remedy this glaring omission. (There are plenty of others we lack as well, but this was a definite necessity)

I enjoyed this quick-to-read book. I had been concerned I wouldn’t enjoy it, the possibility it would be a slog to read or that it just wouldn’t speak to me. Instead, I’ve found myself re-reading sections and thinking about past bible studies, my own personality when compared to the ghosts in the story and am very glad it was chosen. I’m looking forward to tonight’s discussion with the girls.

I’ve knit the second Whirligig shrug. The first was knit for a co-worker’s new daughter, the second for my youngest niece. I need to wash and dry them, sew a label into them and wrap them up all pretty for gifting.

We’ve done a little bit of yard work. This year I actually managed to put flowers into the two planters we have placed near the front door. We planted a fir in the front yard that’s likely to get rilly rilly big, but hey, since we don’t plan on living in the house another 30 years, it won’t be our problem.

All right, enough chatting. Back to work.

It's November already?!

I can't believe it's already the last full week of November and the holidays are about to knock on the door. I knew the holidays were coming and have been thinking about knitted gifts for a select few, but I'm still woefully unprepared.

Let's see, Sean and Erica are expecting a little boy, Gavin, soon. Her original due date was late January and pulled in to mid January, but with the latest appointment (baby's going into a head down position and 6.5 lbs) we're anticipating her going at the end of December.

Erin's still in school, working an on-campus job and just took on a seasonal job scanning tickets at Snoqualmie Summit. She'll be down at Thanksgiving, but with the ski season opening up soon, I imagine she may need to go right back. She's coming down with her boyfriend, David, and staying at her mom's but we'll see her a bit.

I've managed to knit a hat and scarf for a gift basket, but neglected to take pictures (Lame!). I've finished a scarf for a gift and will be casting on for a hat for someone else's gift.

I've continued to read - I'm up to 78 books for the year - and the reading has interfered with the knitting.

There are photos from 2 events on the camera in need of downloading and touch-ups before I send out copies to people.

But bible study is wrapping up and that will give me back a few hours on Sunday and Monday to get these other items done.

I need to get back into regular blogging. I'm spending a lot of time at Facebook (Hello, Farm Town. I'm looking at you). I need to shoot for a weekly update. That wouldn't be too much would it?

I just need to focus.

Where has the time gone?

It's been over a month since I last blogged. Facebook has taken over my life. It's so easy to hop on and see what little things people are doing. And I'm totally caught up in Hatchlings (find an egg! watch it hatch! feed the pets!).

But much has happened in the last few weeks.

March
* I went to Chicago in March and had a lovely time with my newest niece. Since she's only 4 months old (at the time), I also was able to spend time with her parents, my sister and her husband.
* I returned to Vancouver in time to sleep in my own bed and then head out to Ellensburg to visit our daughter. We spent quality time with her in the emergency room where she was checked out for a concussion from a car accident the night before. We went over items for her to do for her upcoming trip to Scotland, paid for Spring quarter and returned to Vancouver on Monday in time for me to . . .
* Teach at bible study that night and again on Tuesday morning
* I vegged out the next two days and then cleaned the house in time for my other sister to arrive with her girls for a quick visit. We had my brother's kids, her girls and our son overnight for a very full house.
* I was happy to return to work for the last two weeks of March.

April
* We went to San Diego to visit Mom and Dad and had the opportunity to see Kim, Tony and Giselle in SD as well.
* We learned first the delay of our daughter's wedding and then the cancellation of it within a 24 hour period
* Rob just celebrated his 46th birthday

I'm looking at the calendar and we still have an upcoming visit from my brother-in-law, 3 more weeks of bible study, another week off in May for me and an anniversary trip for us to Eagle Crest.

All of these things going on and I need to take my health back in hand. I keep going back and forth about doing WeightWatchers again and trying to get up the energy to workout. I need to, but the "want to" aspect is running quite low.

I have pictures. I need to upload and share.

Another time sucker

I've joined the black hole non-knitters get sucked into: Facebook.

Let's see, what do I need to keep updated?
Facebook
Ravelry
LibraryThing
LinkedIn
Blogger
SparkPeople

And that's on top of work, bible study, the women's ministries team, knitting group, watching TV, reading and knitting.

I'm seeing a trend here

It was the beginning of August (the 1st to be exact) the last time I blogged and it was a month before that when I'd blogged. There's plenty to say, enough to photograph, but man, I'm lazy.

I did go to my 20th high school reunion. Leslie (2nd from the right in the picture below) and I hadn't intended to stay long. 2 hours, maybe 3 and then we'd go. We got there around 7pm and I didn't get home until 1:30am.

This is a picture of a group of friends who were all in the same kindergarten class together - Dan, Megan, Leslie and Eric.

The nut in the back row is Jim - I can't remember when he arrived in BG, but like me he was a transplant from somewhere else.

I'm still pondering the decision by the committee to have dancing - they dimmed the lights and turned up the music (just like a high school dance), but no one was really interested. Oh, there were a few couples occasionally moving out there, but most people preferred to talk to one another.

It was nice to see the people who came, and I certainly didn't a chance to talk to everyone I wanted to catch up with, but I'm glad I went.

I've done some knitting as well.

Those are Coffee Cozies knit in Debbie Bliss Merino DK with size 5 needles. One done in pink with a mock cable and the other a simple rib decorated with a couple of ribbon flowers I had on hand. Tribble chewed a hole the purple one and it had to be repaired quickly since I had less than an hour to the time I was supposed to gift it. I filled the cup with chocolates and tucked the pink cozy inside.

The white and blue hats are knit in Cruz Azul colors for someone who works with Mom. The new mother is part of a family of soccer fans and Cruz Azul is their team. Knit in Bernat Baby Soft on size 4s. I used the basic patterns out of Ann Budd's Knitters Handy Book of Patterns.

The blanket is the result of the picture Miss S drew for her birthday blanket. Knit with size 17s using Caron yarns held doubled. It has a seed stitch border on all edges and it wasn't until I was done that I realized I could have carried the yarn up the sides for those skinny brown stripes. D'oh!

The last picture is the 2nd Pirate hat, knit for a friend of Erin's and gifted in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day. Knit with Wool-Ease on size 5's, it's more of a beanie type of hat. It's knit as a reverse of Erin's hat which was also modeled by Rob.

I'm in the midst of other knitting as well. But I haven't taken any pictures of those projects.

Here's one last picture for Nanny:

Upgraded and updated

Well, I moved to the new blogger format. Not bad. Still trying to get some things down. I'd like to be able to change the size of the font in the sidebar but have not yet been able to do so.

In the meantime, here are some pics:

First up is the Icarus shawl being blocked.

Pattern: Icarus by Miriam Felton from Interweave Knits, Summer 2006 issue

Size 3 and 1 needles (don't ask)

Knit in Rowan Kid Silk Haze

Recipient: Rebecca

Started back in early November, it bumped along quite nicely. I would make it again, but knit the entire thing with size 1 needles. It blocked out bigger than I wanted since the upper portion was done with the size 3 needles.

But Rebecca was thrilled with the result. She had wanted a shawl to take with her on a cruise for those dressier nights, the color needed to be dark but shiny and the Rowan KSH Night worked just right for this.

I offered to knit it for her since there was no way she'd get it done it time. As it was, I barely got it done - I blocked it out Thursday night and she left Saturday for San Diego.

Back in early October was Miss K's 4th birthday:

I did knit a little purple sweater for the Bitty Baby her Nanny and Aunties bought for her and had started on a matching sweater for Miss K.

But time got short and the sweater is still on the needles. It's going to be finished for Christmas and gifted to her then.

She was princess for a day at her party. Rob & I had great timing: we were late enough to miss the madness of games & lunch with a bunch of small children, but just in time to witness the opening of the presents and get some cake.

And just for kicks, here's Kruz in his Niner get-up.

Well, tell me something I didn't know

Your Birthdate: July 6

You tend to be a the rock in relationships - people depend on you. Thoughtful and caring, you often put others needs first. You aren't content to help those you know... you want to give to the world. An idealist, you strive for positive change and dream about how much better things could be. Your strength: Your intuition Your weakness: You put yourself last Your power color: Rose Your power symbol: Cloud Your power month: June

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

The things I learn about myself

You Should Get a MD (Doctor of Medicine)

You're both compassionate and brilliant - a rare combination. You were born to be a doctor.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

Your Hair Should Be Blue

Wild, brilliant, and out of control. You're a risk taker with an eye to the future.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

Your Blog Should Be Blue

Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere. You tend to avoid conflict - you're more likely to share than rant. From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

I knew I was royalty

A strong-willed herald of causes against injustice, you passionately strive to right the wrongs around you.

Somebody has to save our skins!

Leia is a character in the Star Wars universe. See her character entry at the Star Wars Databank for more information.


(Although the husband would say I was more of a royal pain. Found this over at Theresa's blog.)

Not a surprise to my family, I'm sure

You are Julian of Norwich! It's all about God, to
you. You're convinced that the world has a
happy ending. Everyone else is convinced that
you're a closet hippie, but you love them
anyway.


Which Saint Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I need to start me a band

My Aliases

Your movie star name: Zingers Ray

Your fashion designer name is Regina Rome

Your socialite name is Beana Portland

Your fly girl / guy name is R Woo

Your detective name is Cat Battle Ground

Your barfly name is Chips Ahoy Cape Cod

Your soap opera name is Elaine 176th Street

Your rock star name is Butterfingers Cheetah

Your star wars name is Regsmu Woojas

Your punk rock band name is The Overwhelmed UFO

The Amazing Meganame Generator

What Book Are You?

You're Catch-22!

by Joseph Heller

Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you
see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense
of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an
ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You
could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of
people.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Props to the sis for finding this!

Too Too FUNNY!

Apparently some things learned stick with you

Advanced You scored 100% Beginner, 93% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 66% Expert!

You have an extremely good understanding of beginner, intermediate, and advanced level commonly confused English words, getting at least 75% of each of these three levels' questions correct. This is an exceptional score. Remember, these are commonly confused English words, which means most people don't use them properly. You got an extremely respectable score. Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it! For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 54% on Beginner You scored higher than 22% on Intermediate You scored higher than 39% on Advanced You scored higher than 30% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

I'm mentioned!

Yay!!! I got a mention on Norma's blog entry for today. She's knitting some Fuzzy Feet and wanted feedback yesterday and I'm mentioned today!

Woo hoooo!

3rd time's the charm, right?

Well, I have settled on the final name for this blog.  Certainly took me long enough.  Started with "Just One More," changed to "Yarn and Books = Happiness" and then while looking at stitch markers on Ebay and reading the blogs today, it hit me.

Yarn Pig.

My yarn stash is on the smallish side IMHO, but constantly threatens to rage out of control.  Books, the other yarns in my home, are everywhere since Rob & I are excellent customers of our local bookstores.  We have six 5-shelf cases and two 3-shelf cases.  Filled.  And that's after we culled our collection and donated 3 boxes to Goodwill.  And I need still more shelves!

As for the pig reference, the accumulation of the yarn and books definitely points to piggy tendencies, but so does the pig-shaped piggy bank collection I endeavor to enlarge each year.

So, Yarn Pig it is.  Long may it live.

Trying new look

Well, I'm trying to make modifications to the design and add elements I want (like progress bars on the current knitting projects). But I'm having difficulty seeing it when I save. It previews just fine, but perhaps my beginner status with HTML is coming into play here.

Hmmm.

New Journey

Well, I've closed my eyes, drawn the requisite breath and taken the leap of faith into the unknown world of blogging.

So far, so good.

I'm hoping to keep family and friends up-to-date on the doings of my household, the projects I'm itching to complete to give as gifts (although I hope they can't figure out which gift to which person) and the general musings of my head and heart.

Let's hope they find it all worthwhile.