A New Year....New Goals......New Dreams

A very Happy New Year to you all!  Hope it's off to a positive start.  Been busy around here for the last week.  Had a quiet New Year's Eve, just BH and me.  New Year's Day the same; made a nice dinner of  Filet Mignon (thank you son in NY!), shrimp cocktail, baked potato, broccoli and garlic rolls.  Yummy!!  Son in NY sent us a box from Omaha Steaks.  Lots of great meats and treats!  Love it!

Well then it was on to getting back to reality.  Paid bills on Monday and started undressing the house and tree.  Of course, with this, you know there's cleaning to be done.  Packing away all the decorations, gathering up all the boxes, papers, gifts, etc.  A place for everything and everything in it's place!  The dusting, vacuuming and a few extra loads of laundry.   Finally everything is done; we're back to normal -- like it never happened.  Except when I pay the bills.  Then I realize that it did, indeed, happen!  Yikes.

Anywho, it's over.  A new year has begun.  As well as thoughts and plans of things to come.  I'm back to spinning.  Working on the 5th bobbin, plying. Sunday I skeined and washed 7 bobbins of a medium blue yarn.  Last weekend I finished the color-stranded earflap hat (I call them Laplander hats).  Still have to turn the hem, attach the I-cords and give it a wash. Thinking about what to spin next; what to knit next; maybe bring out all the dyeing equipment.  Hankering to do some dyeing.

But all this will have to wait till next week.  Going to daughter's on Monday to undress her apartment.  Then shopping for a new recliner for her, as well as new sneakers.  I'll be staying overnight there because of a dentist's appointment on Tuesday.  The office is halfway between her place and ours.  We always try to consolidate our trips to minimize gasoline usage.

Tomorrow we're going shopping -- to spend our gift money!!  Woohoo!!  And wouldn't ya know it ---- our little big box store has the folding table on sale this week.  Oh, it's been on sale a few times before Christmas, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend the money at that time.  It's a 4 ft. long resin, legs folding flat under it.  Perfect for my new sewing table.  Can't wait to get it set up and get started on some projects for next year.  Quilts to be exact.  I'm itching to quilt again.

BH had a couple of things he wants/needs.  A couple of trickle chargers for the vehicles.  Hopefully to keep the batteries from going dead when it's -20 degrees.  We're gonna give it a try anyway.  Neither vehicle has a "plug-in".  If you don't know about this, find someone from Minnesota, South or North Dakota and ask them.  You'll be awakened to a ritual you probably never knew existed -- an be very, very grateful you live in a temperate climate!!  Oh yeah.  It's quite the ordeal.  If you do live in the tundra regions, I can see you shaking your head "yep" and rolling your eyes.  You know what I'm talking about!

This has been a weird winter so far.  Weird and wonderful!  Just enough snow to cover the ground; cold enough to freeze that snow and make it treacherous for walking and oh so cozy in the house with the wood stove running 24/7.  Temps keep fluctuating from cold to moderate.  Hey, 40 degrees predicted for tomorrow!  High 30's through the weekend.  I'll take it!!  It can stay like this for the next 3 months.

So my goals for this year, as of today, are such:

1.  To spin the wool and knit 3 sweaters - cardigans because they get more use than pullovers.

2.  At least 2 of these sweaters will have color stranding across the yoke. You know, like Norwegian sweaters.

3.  Make a quilt for everyone. That's 2 couples, 2 singles and 2 grandsons.  That makes.....6...quilts.  They don't have to be "bed" size.  "Lap" size works well too.  (see, already I leave myself an "out" to keep the momentum going).

4.  To spin at least 1 complete batt and one of the storage containers full of wool.

5.  To paint the family room.  Yep.  I've been trying to get this done for over a year.  Always a plan.  Never a completed job.  But this year......   .   I told BH the other day that I want to get this done in March so when Spring and Summer come, I'm not holed up in the house rather than being outside or traveling.  Good plan, eh?

6.  Also want to rip off the wallpaper and border in the hallway and re-paper, border and paint it.  Want to do the  wallpaper that looks like plaster designs; you can paint over it.  We did  this in the bathroom and it turned out very nice.  The current paper in the hallway is on the upper half of the wall only, then the border, then the bottom of the walls are painted.  Will do the same with new paper.

7.  Clean out the old farmhouse; organize stuff for a yard sale (or many); get rid of all the unused, unwanted crap.  ie: throw it out!   This has been on the "to do" list for .....3 years now.  But this is the year!  I'm serious.  Trust me.  It's gonna happen.  No.  Really.

8.  We're going to travel this summer.  Yeah.  We've been saying that for the last 2 years.  But this is the year.  Absolutely.  No question.  We're gonna do it.  For sure.  No "ifs, ands or buts".  Come hell or high water.  It's a plan.

9.  We have these photo albums, purchased many, many moons ago.  With the intention of constructing one for each of the kids beginning with their baby photos all the way through the years.  For Christmas.  One of these years.  Well, this will be the year.  We're gonna bring out all the boxes of pictures, purchase cases of printer ink, reams of photo paper and carts full of "scrapbook" embellishments.  Yep.  Check it off.  It will be done.  This year.  For sure.

10.  In the same vein, it came to me this season that I would like to put together an album for each one of the kids of my mom and dad -- their grandparents.  From the time they were very young, through their 61 years of marriage, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  A rememberance for each family.  This is a goal I would like to achieve this year.  We'll see how it goes.  And if it doesn't get done before next Christmas, at least it will be in the planning stage.  Always on my mind, on my list.  Until it's done.

Now I should save this post.  So as the jobs get done, I can look back at this and think "well done!"     Or......."well, that wasn't done.....again".

Anyway, it's a new year!  Some new goals; some old.  But always dreams!!!

Hope your year is off to a fantastic start!