February

Groundhog Day resolutions:
Every year I have Fiber and Personal resolutions. I felt no need for that this year, until Groundhog Day hit. I got a couple of minutes to myself, organized me yarn and mind, and came up with only a few:
* No buying yarn for the next 12 months. Unless I finish one special orange and rust sweater, then I will allow myself the yarn for another sweater, as one should always have a sweater in the queue.
* No book purchases, except for book club.

The above two have motivated me to read and knit what I have, like no other. Don't ask me why, but it's working. I have too much. I need less. I need more money. (We are inundated with education and medical bills.)

The third:
* No sweets, unless I make them. I've broken this tons of times already, but am eating less crap than I used to. Largely influenced by the books I've been reading about food lately.

Just spent the weekend in Las Vegas, a dear Aunt was visiting my newly relocated cousin there. My Aunt, my Father's sister, has had Alzheimer's for at least four or five years. It is heartbreaking, but with tears, I squeezed her hand and told myself that this was good bye to someone special. Growing up was hell. For many of us, right? This Aunt and Uncle were the ray of light. No matter when or how I was in contact with them, they left me in love. I never realized how important that was until this past few weeks, when I had to weight our health vs. going and saying good bye. (We're home with the flu now.)

The end. Lots of tidbit thoughts about Hebrew education, more yarn, food, etc., that hopefully I'll be motivated to post as time presents itself. Being home sick for three days definitely facilitated this posting! (On day 3.)

January

No classes this spring. Just some time for sanity. I hope. We have a pile of medical bills to pay, and I found that one class plus working full time was more than I could handle. Our first weekend off in January was more relaxing than the entire XMas break. I'm really into cleaning and minimizing right now.

November & December

We had seven straight weeks of houseguests, first my Father, and three days after he left my Mother-in-law arrived. On one hand, we survived. On the other hand, it was a difficult time. It culminated w/ a Friday morning, when I had to take a final exam, and decided that I had worked too damn hard and taken care of everyone else, threw in the towel, put my Mother-in-law on duty (old man out of town), called into work (I have an amazing co-teacher) and spent a few hours studying at me Starbucks before acing the final. On one hand, grades have never mattered to me. On another, I was fighting for this one, baby. I felt like I had some type of personal transformation moment that Friday. Dammit. I got an A. Wouldn't have otherwise, and it was my way of rising above a very taxing Autumn.

By Popular Request

Natalie, for you, darlingka:

I've been not typing very much. It hurts, tendonitis and all. I don't respond to emails as much as I used to, but am knitting more than I should and could, now that I'm taking a semester off from classes. I'll post my activities in segments, so as to not risk losing anything: