Adrift

It's been quiet around here lately, but not so quiet in life.  The last few weeks have been a blur of travel, family, friends, holidays, babies, funerals, and more airports.

I'm trying to settle in to 2012 with a new frame of mind, but I'm having trouble getting to where I want to be.  It's all a process, isn't it?  A moving target, keeping me forever on my toes.

I don't know where I am in my life.  In my career, in my city, my financial situation, my health.  Lots of unknowns ahead, and hopefully lots of answers to be had in the new year.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family.  We walked (or ran) the Berbee Derby 5k Thanksgiving morning, had a Thanksgiving feast, watched the Packers win, spent time with family and friends and generally had a great time and ate a lot of food.


"New" Vintage sweater purchase for the husband:

Custard!

Dinner and drinks at Graze on the square:

Brunch at Sardine:

Best coffee in Madison:

Festive

Thanksgiving wrap-up to follow.

A week ago today...

I was here:

Some other highlights of the past week(ish):

Papas loco at The Mission

The scene at Urban Solace

Corned beef and hash at Cafe 222

Waiting...

Double double protein style, fries, Dr. Pepper.

Homemade chicken pot pie with gluten free biscuits.

Completed mitten garland for the holidays.

I've been fighting some sort of creeping crud all week since I got back from my trip.  I've been pretty much securing the couch to the floor all week.  It was good for knitting time and for catching up on early episodes of Glee, but that's about all it was good for.  I'm ready to feel more energetic, and hoping I've turned the corner, as I have lots to do before we leave for Thanksgiving.  

Excess

Last week we went to Kentucky for a wedding and spent a couple days visiting the distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.  8 distilleries, 4 tours, 2 additional tastings, in 2 days.  We brought home a table full of bottles.  It's crazy.

Add to that a wedding and visiting friends in two other cities, all two hours apart, and it was a whirlwind of a weekend.  I'm still recovering on Wednesday!

Yesterday, I finally used a Groupon for a local yarn shop to pick up some Cascade 128 super wash bulky.  Isn't it pretty?   I think I'll use it for a Shalom cardigan.

Today, I spent some time finally organizing my fabric collection.  I'm trying to fit in all my new vacation purchases!  Here's everything I bought on our New England vacation in September:

Completely ridiculous, I know!  The aqua floral and the blue/green pea pod fabrics are both home dec weight.  The kitchy kitchen fabric will be come an apron, the brown/blue paisley a blouse, the blue paisley in the back is flannel for pajamas, and the red/green leaves is cotton I bought to make a Weekender Bag before I bought the home dec weight fabrics.  So now I'm not sure how I'll use those three.  The blue, gray, light blue, and green yarns are Quince & Co, all of which are awesome!  The blue will be a Girl Friday, blue/gray will be double heelix socks, and the green a cabled hat for me.  The berry colored yarn is Great Adirondack and it will be a Whisper Cardigan.  Eventually.  Phew.  The rest is patterns and notions for those patterns, including that awesome vintage sock book.  So, you can see why I needed some organizing!  Here's all the space I have for fabric - it's overloaded!

I've got blueberry banana bread in the oven for the husband - it's the last of the wheat flour in the house.  Hope it turns out!  And I'm turning leftover chicken, butternut squash, potatoes, and brussels sprouts into hash and eggs for dinner.  Looking forward to it!

Officially

In my first official act as (Temporary) Housewife, I made The Husband blueberry muffins this morning for breakfast.  Not just any blueberry muffins, though.  Blueberry muffins with cream cheese and blueberry jam filling.  I used this recipe, and it turned out pretty well.  I omitted lemon zest because I didn't have it and I used frozen blueberries, tossing them with a little extra flour to coat before adding them to the batter.  I was even organized and mixed up the dry and wet ingredients separately last night so all I had to do was assemble and back this morning.  That was great, except that the batter was really cold and difficult to spread in the cups.  I'm told they still tasted delicious, though.  (Being the gluten free half of our household, I couldn't eat them.  The Husband saved two for tomorrow and took the rest to work for his coworkers.)

In other news, I'm discovering this housewife business isn't for wimps.  While today, being Monday, is my first official day as the TH, in reality, I started housewife duties this weekend while The Husband worked overtime.  After two days of chores, dishes, and lots and lots of laundry, I'm ashamed to admit I woke up sore today.  I think it was hauling all the laundry up and down the stairs (basement laundry, in-building) and scrubbing the bathroom on the same day that did it.  Phew.  Sad, but I am beat today.  On the bright side, with the laundry done, the rest of the chores are relatively light.

The Temporary Housewife

Today was my first day as a housewife. Even though it's a Saturday, it feels like a weekday with the Husband off working over time.

I wasn't a very good housewife today, either. Though I suppose it was just the first day, I have time to improve. It has been raining and snowing all day, so I decided there were some chores that could wait until tomorrow. Or Monday. Or really, whenever it's not sleeting.

(Sidenote: I'm amused at the uproar caused by the weather...where I grew up snow on/before Halloween was not uncommon. We planned costumes to fit over snowsuits for trick-or-treating.)

I started the day with a mug of hot tea in my pajamas and robe while I read the paper (we get the Sunday ads as well as the Style, Travel, and Comics sections early. Don't ask me why.). I lounged on the couch for awhile, watched some College GameDay; it was great.

I even managed to get some actual housewifery type chores done, dishes, a little laundry, changing the sheets, rearranging the ridiculous cookbook collection. That sort of thing.

And I discovered that superbulky yarn is good for super quick, super easy projects. (Okay, I already knew that but have an aversion to any knitting needle larger than a 9.)

(Preliminary test post...will edit with photos later.)