This and That

In case you thought maybe I had given up the ship, nope, still here. I have been just plodding along in my own way, doing my own thing. I have a love/hate relationship with the month of January. On one hand it is nice to have the mad rush of Christmas over, on the other hand, it is such an abrupt slow down that it is almost boring.

Last weekend we made our annual trip to the snow. I know if you are knee deep in the stuff and fighting it on a daily basis, this might not sound like fun, but every year, we load up kids, sleds and hot chocolate and head to the higher AZ elevation. We had a great time. The spot where we went was not crowded, having only one other family that had small children. We have been at this same hill when there were teenagers and pre teens and it gets a little dangerous for the little ones when they fly down the hill with abandon. The kids and all the grownups, except Nana, had a great time on the three new sleds Papa bought the weekend after Christmas. I thought about that pill that Sally Field and I take once a month for our bones and decided I had no business on a sled going down the hill lickety split. We played in the snow, then had lunch at Macky's in Payson, a family favorite place.

So, want to see something really sad? Last summer I had a fit about all the trash people had left around a lake where my great white hunter took the kids fishing. I could not believe folks would be so self absorbed to just throw it down for someone else to pick up or worse, to stay there forever ruining the landscape of a lovely spot. The bottom of the sledding hill had this pile of broken hard plastic sleds. As you can see there are several colors, so several sleds crashed, broke and got left behind. Higher up on the hill was a blue saucer sled, complete with a nice crack in the middle that someone just walked off and left behind. What is with this???

I believe as parents and grandparents, it is our job to teach the young ones the right way to do things. The best way to teach is example. What did the young sledders learn when Mom and Dad just walked away from their broken sled and left it there for someone else to clean up?




On a more positive note, I am still having a great time getting reacquainted with my knitting needles. Now a average knitter could have knit an entire sweater in the time it has taken me to do two pairs of slippers but true to my New Year's goal, I am having fun.

SueR asked if you needed four needles for this like you do socks. These are a two needle easy peasy beginner project. So here is a picture of a slipper before it is sewn together.



Here are the finished slippers. I have a order from "the Mama" (DD) for a pair for her and then I need a pair. I might be ready to move on to something else by the time I do those. I found a couple of patterns that I would like to try.