Monday – mud&string

IHEARTMONDAY

At the risk of being tarred and feathered by the present workforce, I have to say that I love Mondays. Let me tell you why: Monday mornings are a happy reminder that Mr. Iknead and I are retired. We are learning how to “not work”; for us, this means deciding to go out to lunch on a whim, or watching that movie/episode that we’ve just never gotten around to, looking outside to check the weather and not thinking “OMG, it’s raining/snowing/sleeting/storming and I need to get a move on this morning, just in case.” and instead, thinking “OMG, it’s raining/snowing/sleeting/storming and I think I WILL have that extra cup of coffee now.” My apologies if I’m gloating, I don’t mean to; it’s just that all this is so new to us, like opening a present each and every morning and knowing that it’s going to “fit” perfectly.

MUDSLINGING

Remembering one of my pottery goals this year, I snapped a few pictures last time I was in the pottery studio.

This one should be ready to trim today.

(Don’t know whose backside that is.)

This may be our new fruit bowl.

I see a possible yarn bowl.

This one’s a wild card. What do you see?

BACK INTO THE POND

This is the reason I frogged a nearly complete sleeve that seemed to take FOREVER on the Mariella Cardi –

Ladders, ladders everywhere

The pattern called for DPNs and for once, I actually followed directions, resulting in ladders between every needle. So, I gritted my teeth, bought a size 5 circular needle, frogged and restarted. It’s going much better, thank you. How come I try to delude myself every time I see a glitch that a) it will block out, b) I’ve made a mistake I’m calling a design feature and/or c) really, no one is going to notice? This delusion carries me until I’m within spitting distance of completion, then the glitch rises up, gives me a smack upside the head and says, “What were you thinking??” Thus, the frogging and restarting, with all the required fuming and sighs. Whew … I feel much better now.

I think somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. Eleanor Roosevelt

GETTING A JUMP

I’ve decided to try to get a jump on Mondays by getting a few things accomplished on Sunday night. Mondays have metamorphosed into a way crazy day – class from 9 to 12 in the mornings (which you can bet on winding up around 1 instead), laundry, errands that should have been taken care of over the weekend but didn’t and then the miscellaneous stuff that catches you by surprise – like trips to the vet, Hobby Lobby (which technically is a fun trip), phone calls, service calls, etc. Then you count the time that I spend totally obsessed with whatever I’m obsessing about on that particular day. Yesterday was the sewing machine. Got my little pocketbook made, all it needs is a shoulder strap and lining; will post when totally complete. As an aside – I think I’m going to really like this sewing thing. I plan to check out some patterns for crafty things on my next HL run.

MEANWHILE

I’m a little embarrassed that it has taken me three days to complete this post. I’ve made a decision to totally consign Mondays as Get Absolutely, Positively, Nothing Done Day. With pottery class really from 8:30 to 1:00, there’s just not a whole lot of day left to tackle anything larger than maybe loading and/or unloading the dishwasher or doing a load or two of laundry. This means I’m letting myself off the hook for things that can wait until another day or maybe even be scrubbed from the to-do list that I always have going. I think I’m going to reinstitute a rule I had when my kids were growing up, the rule that says unless there’s blood or vomit involved, I don’t want to know about it. Yes, there are exceptions, but that’s pretty much how it always went down. And ya know what? My kids survived and even thrived.

GOING POTTY

I’m calling this poor, sad, not round and not even oval, plate “The Plate Only A Mother Could Love”.