New Year!

Happy New Year to all our friends and family! 2009 was a spectacular year - the highlights being the purchase of our land and welcoming our wonderful daughter, Flora. The last few weeks have been a nice wind down time. Less hours at work due to the holidays, and I've had a 2 week break from teaching too, which frees up my time after work. In 2009 one of my goals (documented here last January) was to learn to crochet. I started it, but as it goes, it fell to the side. During my pregnancy I vowed to crochet - that didn't happen. During my maternity leave I vowed to crochet, the closest I got was getting the yarn and hook out. It then sat on the end table in the living room for the next 2 months. Frustrating. I want to learn, but time always seems to have the last laugh. I told Tim that during the last two weeks of the year I NEED to crochet....and he made it so! He reminded me and helped me find time. And, I made my most complex project yet - a hat!!! I love it! It's warm, and cute - at least I think so. Also, the great thing about this project is that it gave me confidence I needed to keep crocheting. Another thing is that I feel as though I'm actually "getting" it....before I was just following the instructions, now I get why I'm doing things a certain way. It's exciting to think about new projects - I have a few planned for 2010. Tim has put in a hat request, so I am going to make his next. Here is my project (Tim's won't have the flower):

P.S. The blog has a new look. The white text on blue background got too hard for me to read...seriously, I'm getting old. Hope you all enjoy the new look. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Game/Reading Night

When Flora was born, we felt our days and nights completely change in pace. As it was, we didn't do much TV viewing during the week. If we are watching the TV, it's either Thursday night "Office" or a movie we've rented from Netflix. But, sometimes we would find we had a moment, and the tv would go on for lack of better things to do. Now, we have a better solution: Game Nights! We are finding that it didn't work to say that these nights are always Monday and Saturday, but we have been trying to spend at least one night a week playing a game together (usually after Flora's sleeping...she's not into Scrabble - yet.) Games are fun, and generally require some thought. Both good things :) We usually end up playing our favorites - Scrabble, Sorry, Spite and Malice, Farkle....this last weekend we played Monopoly for a change of pace. First, I kicked Tim's butt, and then he kicked mine. Here's a snapshot of how the first game went. Me on left, Tim on right.

We hope to keep this up as a family tradition - games, at least once a week! Having wind-down time is so important when it seems like all there is to do is working, running errands, and keeping busy one way or another. Games have been a way to unwind, while having fun, not just sitting in a vegetative state in front of the tv screen.