Those Days In Between Christmas and New Years

I thought that the holidays this year were going to be difficult. I miss my family down in Florida, and we couldn't afford to go back so soon. I assumed that Thanksgiving and Christmas would only heighten my loneliness.

Instead, I found myself feeling grateful to have a family that can make me feel special and loved from halfway across the country. And so happy with the life that we are slowly building for ourselves here. We had wonderful friends to host us for both holidays. They weren't the same as they had always been, but isn't that why we came?

And the snow..! It is just stunning and the fun of it is not yet losing its appeal for me, even though I can barely keep my balance on the ice, and even though my husband almost died this morning when he spun out and crashed into the guard rail. He would say I am melodramatic, but I am not. I knew as soon as he was ten minutes late this morning that he was in a ditch somewhere, and he was.

The car does not look awesome, but he is fine, so who cares.

I learned to knit this month! I've knit four dishcloths and am moving on to a scarf! And otherwise accomplished very little. Almost nothing, really. But I did mail my Christmas presents on time.

Post-Nano Haze

NaNoWriMo has ended, and I find myself with more time on my hands than I had last month. NaNoWriMo felt.. very important this year. It was my second year of participation and my second win. I am under no delusions that the collection of short stories that I created is at all well-written, or would hold any meaning for anyone else. But the act of creating it did feel important, even vital, like awakening a piece of myself that has been dead for many years. Markedly different from last year, when I thought, well that was fun, let's never do that again. So I will continue writing short fiction, even if no one will ever read it but me. Dan has been pushing me to share things I write here, and.. I just can't, right now. I can't explain why things I make up are more meaningful to me than things I don't, but so it is.

The other thing I will be doing with all this extra time is being crafty! Making things can certainly be a creative endeavor, and it has long been a desire of mine to be a generally more useful person. I squarely place the act of making things I will actively use within this category. It's also far less personal and something I actually feel as though I can share in public.

So today I got out some scrap fabric and tools, and started playing a little. Here is my workspace.

... it's the floor. The bundle of white and pink fabric sits on top of a wee ironing board, about six inches off the ground. 

I opened the blinds of the front window in an effort to occupy Brian, since he is glued to my side all day long and the joy of looking out the window is the only thing that will distract him for any length of time.

It worked for a little while.

There is a reason everything I own is covered in a fine layer of white hair.

So let's see how far I get in this workspace with this dog.

In conclusion, here is an unrelated picture of me looking like a ghost. A GHOST WITH UNFINISHED BUSINESS.