No wonder I always feel so rushed...

Would someone please remind me to slow down? Here's this week's
schedule, on top of the 50+ hr week at work...

Monday night: babysit 3 year old for friends (Keira's awesome and we
love her to death, and she thinks we're waaaay more fun than daddy!)
Tuesday night: 3 hours of homework and lectures
Wednesday night: dinner and Crackasonne with Carrie and Saul, and most
importantly, we finally got to meet Yvie!
Thursday night: 4+ hrs of lectures and homework (tonight)
Friday night: Dinner with the J gang et al
Saturday morning: lectures and homework
Saturday afternoon: run D&D game (um, I haven't found any prep. time
in this schedule yet...)
Saturday evening: dinner and games with Pat and Laura
Sunday morning: housework and any remaining homework
Sunday afternoon/evening: Randi and John (hopefully) finally manage to
get out here with all of us happy, healthy and safe!

Phew!

Some quick photos

I've spent a fair bit of time the last two weeks getting the downstairs bedroom setup as a study/library/craft room. And now, at last, I have a dedicated stitching space, complete with a new stitching chair! :) I have to get another footstool, and given how long I've been looking for one I like, I think I may end up making them myself. But I'll wait until it's warm enough to use the garage to do that!

I decided to let myself do some stitching for myself, mixed in with all the obligation stitching. I've joined a TW stitchalong and decided to start The Unicorn. Below is a photo of it after 5 hours of work. It's a few of the flagstones of the path, and it doesn't look like much, but I'm pleased with the progress.



Next up is Jen and Joe's wedding gift. Given that they're approaching their third wedding anniversary, I need to get cracking. In my defense though, I only got my hands on the pattern last fall. It's Arelate Studios' Te Amo, and Jen had planned on stitching it herself for their wedding. I'm starting in on it once I hit post. It's a quick, fun stitch, and doesn't need nearly the level of light and comfort of the TW. I expect it'll grow much quicker than The Unicorn! :)



And finally, a photo of our stockings from Christmas morning. We don't tend to do a lot of gifts for each other anymore, but I always look forward to seeing what Brian's come up with for my stocking. Mine's the bear one on the left (hanging on my dresser so it's there when I wake up in the morning), and Brians' are the two on the right. I stitched the farthest right one for him a few years ago and still love how it turned out.

Happy New Years Everyone

Just a quick update, I've lots more to type, but I'm going to bed soon. We're surviving but have been pretty sick over the holidays. Brian's got a very bad case of bronchitis, and went back to work too soon. Now he's off again, for at least 2 more weeks this time. He was coughing so hard New Years Eve that he tore the cartilage in his ribs! So, not good, but we're both starting to get better, and he's definitely getting much better.

As a result of being sick, and not taking any time off work, none of my holiday projects got done. But I did try to flake out, and I needed that. My next course starts this week, and it looks like we're going to have a great professor. At the very least we've had as much communication from him already as we did for the whole term last term!

I'm making a serious effort to manage my time better and get more organized. I *have* the time to do everything I want to do, it's just a matter of using my time effectively and not wasting it. A big part of this is making sure I get to bed on time and making the time to go early enough to read a half hour once there. I need that wind down time. Wish me luck!

Oh, and to publicly acknowledge, my weight on New Years Day was 205. I'm down 25 lbs from the point where I decided to fix it, and I'm pleased. I've a ways to go, but I'm getting there. That deserves a full post on its own, but who knows when I'll get to it! :)