2019 Project 365 – Week Fifty-two

I am reporting to you live from the Other Side of Christmas. It’s a lovely place from which I can view the events of this past week from the comfort of my recliner. (Note: Christmas is not actually over until January 6^th, and we will not actually take our tree down until, hmm, TBD.) Anyway, I have a lotta pictures for this week. Let’s get to it.

Sunday, December 22^nd                                                  

A woman from my church asked if I’d do an ornament exchange. Can you guess which is which? We were thrilled with our ornament!

Text conversation with Dr. M after church. He’s so funny.

I got the baubles together to give my coworkers.

I really need to quit running my fingers through my hair. Although it does make Dr. M laugh.

Monday, December 23^rd                  

The only picture from today – the lovely card my cousin’s family sent to us. Up with penguins! Down with bears!

Tuesday, December 24^th                                                      

We had Christmas with my family today. Went to Golden Corral for dinner (home of the BEST CHOCOLATE PIE IN THE UNIVERSE), and then went to my dad’s house to open gifts. He & Sue loved the blanket, and I was happy to get it out of my house (ha!). We were missing my two nephews, but we had a nice time.

This is a cross stitch I made my mother in 1991. It was one of the hardest ones I’d ever done – navy fabric + tiny little holes = CROSS STITCH DRAMA. There’s no way I could do anything like that today. I gave all of my cross stitch stuff away around 2008 or so.

Wednesday, December 25^th – Merry Christmas!                                                 

We had a lovely lunch with Dr. M’s dad and then spent some time with his aunts & cousin. I took a picture of my potato soup, but instead of sharing that, here is a card that Dr. M’s dad got. Made me laugh.

Thursday, December 26^th

From FB: “It’s not very cold tonight, but I decided to put the jersey sheets on the bed anyway. Wearing my Pebbles ‘do in case of a hot flash. In other news, I’m due for some color on my hair. I was thinking of going silver. Thoughts? Prayers?” I had 5 votes for no silver & 7 for silver (or at least to stop coloring my hair). What will probably happen is that sometime in January I’ll go to the salon & tell my stylist to just have her way with me.

Friday, December 27^th                                                              

Back to work today. I love the ingenuity of our IT team.

Saturday, December 28^th               

We had our 36^th annual college suitemate celebration. It was a lot of fun! Kim won the ornament exchange when she gave each of us a Mars Hill Sisters ornament – so cool! I wish my hair actually looked like that (except in silver. Maybe.). Dr. M made french toast casserole & it was the bomb.

This will be another weird work week with a day off in the middle. I’m going to my cousin’s NYE party with one goal this year: do not get knocked out of the ping pong tournament in the first round! Do you have any fun plans?

Merry Christmas!

My head is buried in my

yarn basket (ok, one of
my yarn baskets because
I am pretty much just
made of yarn at this point).
I am muttering about colors
and color sequences
and do I have enough time.
Christmas, despite all the hype,
sneaks up on a crafter
like one of those thieves
in the night.
 
And into my head
(the one in the yarn basket)
comes the image of the babe.
I know he comes to
set the prisoner free,
but right now I want to
take a squishy skein
of Bernat Baby yarn
and swaddle him safe
from danger.
If I could, I would
swaddle us all.

Come, let’s sit by

the Christmas tree

underneath this blanket

that I made, and sing

songs about the babe

until we feel peace again.

Let’s sing songs about the babe

until we feel joy.

Dana & Mike Rhyne

Christmas 2019

2019 Project 365 – Week Fifty-one

Did you know that Christmas is in 4 days? I have been in a bit of a crochet frenzy due to poor time management skills. I’ve pretty much dumped any and all other Christmas preparations on Dr. M (except the poem, as discussed last week).

Sunday, December 15^th                                                 

Our anniversary! I played hooky from church & we went to the matinee of the Nutcracker in Charlotte. We really enjoyed it – the sets are amazing and the performance was great too. Although I feel like I’m breaking some sort of Nutcracker rule, I will admit here that I could do with a little less Sugarplum Fairy. There, I said it.

Monday, December 16^th                 

Back to bauble production. These baubles have some, um, interesting color combinations due to using up scraps.                

Dr. M’s view from his recliner.

Tuesday, December 17^th                                                      

Have you heard the story about the three wise snowmen? Me either.

Wednesday, December 18^th                                                        

It was a hot chocolate kind of morning.

Thursday, December 19^th

I finished listening to Neil Gaiman reading his book The Ocean at the End of the Lane. He did such a good job that I listened to him read the acknowledgements even though he said I didn’t have to. It’s a great book!

Friday, December 20^th                                                              

Alexa said that it was Ugly Christmas Sweater day. I wish she was always this helpful when I’m trying to figure out what to wear to work.

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS BLANKET! It only took me about 365 days to do it. Also, this was the blanket that I made from yarn given to me by a friend. It was his mother’s yarn. There were 11 skeins. That little wad in the picture is all that is left from those skeins. Whew! (You might see this blanket again if I can find a place to take a better picture.)

Saturday, December 21^st              

My annual picture of our terribly cute little nativity.

I started to comment on the weasel sheep & Dr. M yelled, “It’s WESSEL SHEEP!” (Absolutely hilarious Frozen reference) He hasn’t felt good today (we think maybe he’s allergic to glitter? Our Christmas cards had a LOT of glitter & he single-handedly got them out the door this week), but he has made me howl with laughter several times. Note: I realize that the weasel wessel sheep actually look like possums.

Tomorrow is a very churchy day, and I still have some crocheting to do. And then work on Monday, and then I’m off for three days. I look forward to spending time with family and friends. Do you have any special plans for the holidays?

2019 Project 365 – Week Fifty

Today has been productive and fun – and I only had to talk to Dr. M, so my introvert batteries have been recharged. On the other hand, I finally wrote the annual Christmas poem (it was my turn – hope you’re ready for a festive dirge!), so I might not have much to say here. Hahahaha!

Sunday, December 8^th                                                 

Close up of ornaments on my church’s tree. Peace is my main goal in life, so I made this my FB cover page.

Monday, December 9^th                 

I’ve been reading Sarah Bessey’s Advent devotionals this season. Seems fitting that my candles are unconventional to go with these fierce and unconventional readings.    

Tuesday, December 10^th                                                      

Running late this morning I spent precious time I didn’t have trying to get a piece of debris off of my nose. It was a freckle.

Wednesday, December 11^th                                                        

The moon!

Thursday, December 12^th

I finally started using the gift from my prayer sister. I still believe I got the best deal of everyone. Sweet!

The moon!

Friday, December 13^th                                                              

My lunch was super healthy - until I added a hunk of cornbread as big as my head. Worth it!

Dr. M’s brother gave us the crocodile ornament, so it’s getting pride of place on the tree this year in his memory.

Saturday, December 14^th              

While I did some cleaning, crocheting, and poem writing, Dr. M decorated the tree! It’s as eclectic as we are.

Tomorrow is our 29^th anniversary & we are going to see the Nutcracker in Charlotte. I’m very excited – almost as much for the car ride with Dr. M as for the ballet. It will be fun spending time with my favorite person. Are you doing anything fun?

2019 Project 365 – Week Forty-nine

I’m just going to admit it up front: I have had a weekend full of people (all lovely, but still…) and I’m not sure that I have any more words to expend here. So this might be very brief. Or, like an overtired toddler, I might start blathering on. Who knows? We shall see.

Sunday, December 1^st                                                  

My cousin and her family finally joined the church that they invited me to almost three years ago (where I am now on church council and the chair of the Green Committee – apparently I’m hastier than they are).

It was my brother’s birthday so my dad took us all out for dinner. That salmon was good!

Monday, December 2^nd                

Dr. M did a bit of decorating. We have no idea who gave us this, but we are enamored. It now lives in Dr. M’s bathroom.         

Tuesday, December 3^rd                                                     

I took a couple of things in to decorate my office.

Wednesday, December 4^th                                                        

Dr. M put the tree up! My dad had found this angel at his house & decided that I needed it. The reflection of the tree is lovely, but also confusing. One of my friends on FB said that at first she thought we had decorated a cactus. Ha!

I said goodnight to Hilda the sheep (from our Manor Farm calendar).

Thursday, December 5^th

Dr. M took a last swipe around the yard, mulching leaves, and then put the mower on the trailer so he could take it to his dad’s house for the winter (he has a shed).  

Friday, December 6^th                                                              

Our local University (Lenoir-Rhyne – we’re poor relations) was in a quarterfinal championship game so city employees wore red & black in solidarity. I’m in the back in the group picture, standing on the edge of the fountain & almost falling in. Fun times! Sadly, LR lost the game – but what a great year they had!

Saturday, December 7^th              

For reasons unknown to me I signed up to manage our Prayer Sister program this year & organize the annual brunch. This mostly involved putting a note in the church bulletin & begging my cousin to basically figure out the decorations. She did great! It was a pot luck, so that part was easy. We had a lovely time. We hope to grow the group, but it was nice to be able to fit around this one table this year. My Prayer Sister liked the scarf I made her. Whew! (I got what I consider to be the best gift of the day, but I will share it later. I’ll just say that it made my bag lady heart go pitter patter).

Today was a busy day: singing at the nursing home, then at church I did about four things during the service, then we had our annual meeting, and then we had an emergency church council meeting because our pastor resigned. His wife got her dream job in Pittsburgh, where they’re from. They recently had twins so I’m not surprised that they want to be closer to their parents, but we will definitely miss them!

Has your weekend been nice & relaxing, or are you wishing (like I am) that you had another day off to recuperate?

2019 Project 365 – Week Forty-eight

Oh what a lovely week! A little bit of work, a little bit of family, and a lot of time at home. Perfect!

Sunday, November 24^th                                                 

Lots of pictures today! First of all, I posted the first picture on my Enneagram 9 group asking if I had to leave the house today. The majority vote was no; however, I went ahead & went to sing at the nursing home (although I did play hooky from church).

I was helped along my journey by listening to this lovely lady read her book. SO good!

When I got home I used a youtube video to figure out how to deal with a pomegranate, and then I made a weird recipe using eggs & acorn squash. It was ok.

Meanwhile, Dr. M spent some time with his dad & took some gorgeous photos on his way home.

Monday, November 25^th               

One of my father-in-law’s cats amongst the leaves.

Tuesday, November 26^th                                                    

Dr. M was laughing at me & basically forced me to take this picture. What? #whoworeitbest

Wednesday, November 27^th                                                        

Dr. M tried to capture Venus & Jupiter. This is through the double-glazing, so not perfect, but picturesque nevertheless.

Thursday, November 28^th

Happy Thanksgiving! We “only” had 41 at the feast. It was a great time, even though I cut my finger, broke two nails, and fell down in the driveway (I’m fine). Much thanks to my cousin Julie who pulled this off with a lot of skill & grace!

Friday, November 29^th                                                              

I put some of my pomegranate & slivered almonds on my oatmeal – delicious!

And speaking of slivered, here is a moon sliver served up by the Moon Man.

Saturday, November 23^rd             

Our 2020 calendar of our favorite Instagram dog came today!

I’ve been making more baubles. They’re kind of weird colors because these are the colors I have & I couldn’t find any others in stores around here. If I do this again I will plan ahead & order what I want!

Well, back to work tomorrow. PLUS I have a WW weigh-in and that won’t be pretty. I would appreciate some thoughts and prayers. And while you’re at it, go ahead & pray for people who really need it: the homeless, the folks who are fighting addictions and disease, the ones who are affected by gun violence, the people who are marginalized in our society (because, you know that’s where Jesus is anyway & he might like some help).