My husband is ill and has been asked to self-quarantine by the doctor because he works at an international school. There are no test kits so the doc doesn’t want to see him. My work doesn’t want me to come in until things are resolved…. so we are hanging in there as best we can. We’re ok so far, really.
getting over the flu
haven’t been knitting or doing much of anything. mostly sneezing today.. as fun as it sounds. ;/
knitting by the book update 2/13
snowy weather and illness means i’ve had more time to knit lately! i’ve finished 3 of the horcrux washcloths and started a 4th.
so, i finally ventured out to the greatest yarn store to get supplies for upcoming projects. i’ve got yarn to finish all the horcrux washcloths, for the house colors mug cozies, the nagini lariat, the beaubatons capelet, and i jumped the line and bought a bag of yarn for the order of the phoenix throw blanket because it was such a good deal. at the moment i am slightly bored with the washcloths and keep reconsidering my plan to knit all of them, but i’m about halfway there anyway so i am going to try to stick with it. my plan is still to make items for each house when a project calls for it… at least through the scarves. when i get to more advanced projects, like the house cardigan and all the socks and such, i may pick one house and move on. i would go back and make the other houses later because of course i want to make all of them.
i’ve also finally packed away almost all the harry potter xmas decorations. i still have the house banners up because the dining room always looks so sad once i take them down. everything else is back in boxes in the closet waiting for next winter.
first project finished
i’ve finished the first horcrux washcloth and am working on the second. i finished the hufflepuff cup and have started the ravenclaw diadem. we ventured out today to get yarn and needles for upcoming projects and failed pretty hard. i was able to get approximate colors for all the washcloths and some to make an upcoming nagini project but that was it for yarn. i’ll have to head down to webs to get expensive yarn i guess. oh well, it will be much nicer yarn too so it’ll work.
more later, i’m beat and need to make dinner. cheers all! and happy knitting.
knitting by the book
it seems i got a late xmas present from my sweet husband. he bought me harry potter knitting magic and it just came out. i’m psyched that it seems to have projects of every level. i’m not an expert knitter by any stretch of the imagination so I’m starting with one of the beginner level projects.
i’ve been pretty much a beginner for decades so i think i’m going to try to use my love of all things harry potter to force myself to make real progress. i’m going to try to knit through the book, make all the projects starting with the simplest all the way through the most complex. i don’t know if i’ll be able to make everything, i have so much to learn, but i am going to try.
oh, and my computer is having issues, the shift key doesn’t work very often so hardly any capital letters. Its’s a pain.
Games and Goals @ the Library
I spent yesterday at the library with my husband. He runs a Pathfinder RPG for the tweens and teens once a month, usually while I’m working, I fetch snacks and print things for them because I’m almost always on the clock. Yesterday we reset the game to level one in the new Pathfinder 2.0 and started the new one shot module designed to teach players the new rules. It’s the same module we ran at home and the kids at the library jumped right in and did a better job sorting it out than the we did. ^_^
Progress is going slowing on all fronts around here. I’m not tending to my goals very well, except my reading goal which I’m still ahead in, I haven’t had time or money yet to get it together to work on things like soap or lotion making and it’s not exactly gardening season here in the North East. I’m also spending more time working on the upcoming Summer Reading Program than I’d have thought I would at this point in the year. The Cultural Council grants came through and it looks like I will get to offer both the stained glass and teen paint night workshops I wanted to. Yay! I thought I hadn’t gotten the painting grant but it was just late because of a typo or something in the council’s answer. For those 2 things I’ve just dashed off some emails to the instructors. What I’ve really been working on are my plans for other activities. I plan to run a Fairy Tale Writing Contest, plant some sort of fairy garden, offer a workshop on Wee Folk house-making, and hopefully a few other things as well. Last summer’s Book Cover Contest was a complete and utter bust and I am going to do my best to make sure the writing contest is a success. I definitely made some mistakes! (it was my first time running an SRP and my first time running a contest so it was inevitable I would mess it up pretty big time) How I will improve this year’s contest:
- RULES: I will NOT leave things wide-open. It turns out that saying “do whatever you want!” is not the best way to inspire creativity. I will make sure there are clear guidelines for what I want submitted.
- Examples: I will absolutely make sure I have at least 2-3 examples of what submitted tales could be like. Last year I had no examples whatsoever because I was swamped and kept putting off working on it.
- Publicize the contest outside the library with flyers in the local middle schools and high schools, with a press release and with a very nice flyer I have been working on for ages already.
- Prizes: I will tailor the prizes to the contest and not offer the generic one-size-fits-all prize I attached to last year’s book cover contest.
Sometimes it’s a little overwhelming learning this job as I go but I think I’m really starting to get the hang of it after a whole year. The collection is coming along. I’m starting to find areas of nonfiction to focus on that I think will interest local teens and be of help to them, I’m still working on getting more clear direction from them on what sorts of fiction they want in the collection. I put out surveys and got a far number of responses that were pretty diverse so I can only make sure I try to order a wide selection of books across all the genres at this point. The budget is such that I can’t really order more than 1 or 2 of any genre each month but I am able to supplement that with donated books sometimes. People who love books are so generous to the library, I often get books that have just come out within a few months in perfect condition, it really helps. I’m making progress in the programming I offer too. After each one I sit down and sort out what worked and what didn’t and why. I think about what I could change to make it more successful or about why it failed.
I love this job and I want to make sure my boss feels like I am worth the chance she took hiring me. In my job description it states that I am to run at least 2 programs per month, one being the Teen Advisory Board and one other of my own devising, and that attendance should ideally be 3, 4 or more teens (we are a small, rural library, larger libraries probably get a lot more participants). Starting this month, with the new year and all, I am offering every month:
- Teen Advisory Board: pizza, small projects, and talking about what interests those who show up. I usually get 4-8 teens for this.
- Pathfinder Role Playing game: 4 hour session, snacks provided, usually attended by 3-4 players.
- Monthly Movie: tied to the summer reading theme, this year fairy tales, with free popcorn. My first and only screening so far had 7 attendees.
- Book Boot Camp: a book club where we each read whatever we want within a certain genre and discuss them over cocoa and baked goods. (I’ll switch that up if I’m still running it once it gets warm out) This month will be Mystery and it happens next weekend. I believe I have 5 sign ups but we’ll see if anyone shows up.
Last year at this time I was running TAB and attempting to continue the Young Writer’s group started by my predecessor. Unfortunately the writing group fell apart in short order and it took me a few months to begin to offer my own programs. So, progress! I am definitely doing better than I was a year ago and I’m still working on it so I have to be happy with that.
very small update
Things are going fairly well in my little world right now. I am scrupulously avoiding thinking about those things that would break the dam and focusing on the good, the improving, and personal growth. Currently my job is going well and I have things planned out for more than 3 months plus the Pathfinder game, TAB, monthly movies, and Book Boot Camp planned right through December. I am getting things together for Summer Reading and am very pleased that I can offer a stained glass workshop for the teens due to a grant from the Cultural Council. !!! I didn’t get the grant for the painting workshop but I think I’m going to look into a cheaper option for that one.
I haven’t been getting to much crafting but I have been reading right along, writing is spotty too and I feel like I may have stretched myself a little thin. Ah well, perhaps I will adjust my goals a little. I’m cooking more, again, keeping us from resorting to eating out much. I still need to plan a bit better, might have a handle on that for this week. Time will tell.
Rain for Australia
2020 is 4 days old and Australia is burning. The fires are cataclysmic. Australia needs help. I’m nobody so I can’t do much but I’m joining with many others to put out intention to bring rain to Australia. Today @ Noon Eastern Standard time many folks will be casting spells, praying, sending out vibes, wishing, all together, joining our wishes in one voice: rain for Australia. Join if you can or do so whenever you can. Or give to the charities trying to help the people and wildlife affected by the fires.
Half a billion animals and 18 people are dead so far. There are other fires burning in other places too. The world is full of problems we all need to work to solve. I’m promoting this one because I came across a specific mention of a time I could work with, something I could do.
2020 day 3
I have read every day of 2020 so far. I wrote a fair bit yesterday, blogged here, started a recommended Tarot Journal on paper. Also started learning about Tarot reading, so double duty there. My reading is also doubling as working on learning to garden properly. I feel so efficient! ~_^ I managed to work in a little crafting yesterday, I ate pretty healthy, and failed to make progress on any other fronts, which is fine, I need to pace myself and be realistic. Fighting my instincts here. This is day 3 of just kind of winging here, on the goals, I may need to set an actual structure up at some point.
I’m currently reading a gardening book and a mystery novel. Our first Book Boot Camp is going to be Mystery so I should really get cracking on that sucker. My TBR pile is ridiculous.
Reviewing my goals this morning I realized that I have no professional goals listed. I need to think about it for a bit but I think I should have some of those. Right off the top of my head, one basic goal is just to have my programming planned out and publicized at least 3 months in advance, beyond that I need to figure out what else makes sense. Maybe to try to take in one seminar a month or something on professional development? I should have goals, some kind of plan, or vision for my job. That seems awfully grown up.
Oh, hilarious development yesterday, it turns out my youngest had school yesterday and I blithely let him sleep until 1 pm thinking he didn’t go back till Monday. Ha ha ha! I am such a bad mom! Oof. My husband thought so too and, apparently, so did lots of other parents from our kid’s school… the one that prides itself on communication but is really bad at it. Yeah. I just don’t feel too bad about it. I mean, it ate up one of his allowed sick days, but I think the school must have been pretty unclear about this winter break. If it was just me, sure, my fault, but the school was, reportedly, a ghost town yesterday so I’m not taking it on. My kid wasn’t exactly broken up about it either. LOL
I’ve got a new trick for getting him out of bed now! My old method involved loud, poor singing, bright lights, and getting the dog riled up. Now I bring him tea or food. How civilized! I should have thought of it sooner. I bring my husband tea, and occasionally breakfast, in bed every day. He used to get breakfast in bed every day, if you can imagine. That fell apart at some point, I think 18 years ago when I was pregnant. It’s been sporadic-to-rare ever since. Maybe I’ll start that up again? Add the boy to it and bring up tea and breakfast on weekdays. Hmm, maybe I will, it always made for easier mornings for my husband, and it made him feel super appreciated, loved, and looked after. I suppose I worry about spoiling the lad and giving him insane expectations which his future partners will hate me for. Hmmm, maybe we’ll try a limited test of it?
2020 First Days
It’s January 2nd and I spent most of yesterday cleaning, decluttering and reading. A good day. I like to use the first week or month of the year to clear things out and make space/raise energy for growth and learning new things. This year I have a long list of skills I want to develop.
- lotion making
- soap making
- gardening
- foraging
- mending socks and other clothing
- weaving baskets
- cooking with a bamboo steamer
- candle making
- sewing clothes
- learning to interpret both Tarot and Norse Runes
I’ve set my reading goal for 1 book per week and intend to read mostly nonfiction that will help me learn all these new skills. I’ll sprinkle in some fiction for entertainment/escape doubling as me reading along with the book boot camp I’ll be running for the teenagers. I set my sights too high for reading in 2019 and didn’t make my goal. (60 books) I did manage 1 book per week so I feel like that’s fair. How much can I really ask of myself when I have so much on my plate? Other sorts of goals I’ve set for myself for 2020 are:
- Getting fit
- Eating much better
- Reading daily (however much)
- Writing Daily (blogging, fiction, poetry, whatever)
- Decluttering down to a more beautiful, manageable home
- Creating/Crafting daily (fiber arts, painting, etc)
- Making more time for intimacy & alone time, including sex, with my husband.
That last one: seriously, who would have guessed it would be more difficult to find time for the 2 of us with young adults in our home than toddlers?????? WTF?
I also want to slow down and be more present in my life. Hilarious next to a list of goals and activities I know. But I think I can do it. It has to do with how I approach all this learning and all these goals. The Danish practice of hygge is kind of what I’m thinking of here. I just read The Cozy Life; by Pia Edberg and I think it’s helped me shift my perspective, given me a new idea of how to keep moving forward without putting too much pressure on myself. Believe me, I will not be beating myself up if I fail to learn some of these skills, I am a master at changing tack and dropping things I don’t need or don’t serve me, I am always reevaluating. 2 days into 2020 and I already didn’t write yesterday. ^_^ I did read though, so there’s that. Now I’m off to continue cleaning and decluttering.
Gen-Xer Remix 