Pumpkin Sunrise

Yesterday was 20 years since my mother passed away.  I like that this remarkable day is also the Feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi.  Twenty years have flown by, twenty years I've lived without her here on earth.  I'm tethered to her memory through my sister, my dad and my aunt.  I clearly remember thinking how I could not imagine life without her presence.  She was my go to person to ask for advice, not that I agreed with her or adopted her advice.  Yet, twenty years have been successful living.  Sometimes I get jealous of people who have moms.  But then I know people who are only children and are jealous that I have a sister. My mom was creative, smart but introverted.  She was not a risk taker and preferred making surefire safe decisions.  She was also stubborn and opinionated, both qualities I share with her at times when I truly believe I am in the right (I frequently am). Some people work on saying 'no' to others because they always agree and need to

I've got lots of happy knitting, are you ready?  First off, I started my sister's holiday hat, she loved the one I made last year so I'm making another in a different color.  I do love to knit the same patterns over again. Speaking about knitting the same thing over and over again, I started another cowl .  I'm trying to knit three more by the end of the month.  I really enjoy monotony probably due to the stress I experienced last month.   Having now stress is blissful and no stress knitting is even better! I finished reading Lord of the Flies  and while I'm glad I read the book, it really didn't do too much for me.  Let's just say there was too much savagery for my liking and pig killing isn't my jam.  And Piggy!!  My favorite character DIED and yet Jack who I despised, lived.  Oh the in-humanity (which is the point of the book I guess),  Yesterday, I started reading Catcher in the Rye  and starting from the first sentence, I love it.

Do you see that cupcake on the right?  Ah!!  It was vegan and it was delicious -seriously delicious.  We drove down to Ephrata Pa and had a lovely lunch at Scratch Bakes , not only was my egg bagel sandwich great, but the mood in the eating area was perfect.  The music was mild and unassuming.  (frequently it seems that restaurants want to blare the music).   After lunch, we met up with our daughter and son in law to tour the Historic Cloister . I enjoyed the tour but wished we could have had a guided one but the times were not convenient to our limited schedule.  Once we finished up in the museum store, we drove a hop over to Lititz, Pa .  I was impressed!  Lots of little shops to meander through, a few coffee shops to sit for a second to relax.  Unbeknownst to me, a yarn shop was there.  Our kids have been Lititz a few times and raved about it's quaintness.  I chose not to research for yarn stores, I was utterly delighted to stumble upon a yarn shop on the way to a musi

I'm in disbelief that another week has flown by.  Where does the time go?  I miss those days as a child and a day of boredom lasted forever.  I would agonize over how slow time went.  Now I'm stunned that lunchtime arrives briefly after what seems minutes from breakfast.  I guess when you follow a schedule that happens.  Time is fleeting, time marches on whether I'm busy or not, I want to savor the moments as they come.  I've been loving the temperate weather we've been having this week.  A little rainy, a little bit cooler and a whole lot of fall vistas where ever I look.  Finally the season of beauty! My husband has resumed playing his guitars after a long hiatus.  I usually go up to our bedroom to read with Frodo in tow.  Holly stays downstairs (probably relishing a dog free zone) with my husband.  I lay in bed reading and here faint guitar playing.  It's nice.   Everyone should have a hobby and everyone should have a passion.   My lo

The needles have been flying this week.  In fact, I finished yet another cowl.  I'm managing a cowl a week which is incredible.  I remember those days when I could not knit for five minutes and my back would be spasming causing me to be in the depths of frustration and depression.  I am loving this pain free knitting spree!  The gratitudes are endless. Anyways here is the teal cowl project page .  My shawl is coming along, I'm getting close to another increase row where the stitches nearly double.  I'm amused that I only noticed the subtle color change when I looked at this photo.  I'm enjoying this knit and it's my 'thinking knit'.  As opposed to auto pilot knitting, which are the cowls.  I've got to have a nice balance of both in my knitting arsenal.  How about you? Of course, I cast on yet another cowl, this time in burnt orange.  And if you are wondering, I am not tired of the cowl knitting.  I'm enjoying the mass production

glorious sunrise!  How was your weekend?  I hope pretty good, mine was wonderful.  First off, the weather has cooled off (finally).  I wore a jacket yesterday and today.  Autumn is trying its best to arrive, I welcome it!  The kids were here this weekend.  Our son arrived Friday night and we had a lovely meal together and for dessert apple pie.  buzz buzz  Saturday morning we took Frodo for a walk since the weather was cool.  The leaves are dropping and the quietness of the woods soothed me.  Our daughter and son in law arrived Saturday afternoon and shortly after their arrival we went to the local fair.  We took in the sights and sounds.  We ate fair food which sadly made me feel unwell last night.  I told you the older I get the less I can tolerate.  sheep!  baa baa Everyone left in stages today and my house is mostly put back together again.  I'm currently knitting my third cowl and hope to finish it soon. How was your weekend? 

Life is slowly returning to normal around here.  Well, a new normal around here.  After a flurry of high self imposed stress from worrying and my father in law passing away, I'm back to plain old normal days.  My gratitude journal is a crazy mix of thankfulness.  I'm all over the place with being grateful for good health, having electricity, the working AC and my routine in the mornings of utter silence while I sip my coffee as I plan the day. My longer commute to work twice a week has been a delight.  I listen to a podcast while driving and the time flies by.  I am still adjusting to working 5-7 hours a day twice a week.  The first three hours are good, but as we approach the lunch time hour - EEP - the terrible two-ness rears it's ugly head.  The poor Toddler Girl is feeling all the feels. I'm trying to be a step ahead, averting a tantrum, being savvy and sly.  I take pride that I can do this until there's a tantrum over something I am not anticipa