Coming out of Hibernation

I had grand plans of making more frequent posts this year, but then we entered the first week of January. I returned to work and my husband flew off on a four day business trip but two of my children remained at home on winter break, causing our household to enter a sort of limbo . They stayed up half the night and slept most of the day away while I maintained a more normal schedule. And what was up when my daughter announced that her friend was coming over on a Wednesday night and they commandeered the family room just as I was going to get settled in there with my stitching and the DVR? That never happened on a week night when she was in high school!

Then there was my feeble attempt at imitating Michelle Kwan . We had a small snow storm the first Friday in January. Our driveway was mostly clear by the time I came home from work and walked out to get the mail. Unfortunately, I stepped on the one and only patch of ice and my foot flew out from under me. Next thing I knew I was flat on my back on the cold blacktop screaming so loudly I'm sure I was heard in two counties (not such an exaggeration--the house at the end of our street is in a different county). When I realized that my son was in the basement playing a video game and would never hear me and that my daughter was out with the car and could potentially swing into the drive and run over me, I was motivated to sit up and assess the damages. Nothing broken, but I had a heck of a bump on the back of my head and the mother of all headaches. My doctor, who sends me for tests for every other little thing, advised me to ice my head and take Tylenol. Thank goodness she was right, but the episode slowed me down quite a bit. When I complained about my lack of energy the next day, my husband took the opportunity to remind me that I'm in my late fifties and I shouldn't expect to recover quickly. Talk about adding insult!

But now the children have been shipped off to their colleges and my husband and I are beginning to resume life as we began to know and love it when we first became empty nesters. It was particularly wonderful this morning to not have to worry about getting any one else out the door when school openings were delayed by two hours.

I'll leave you with a photo of the quilt I made for my older son. It's a Terry Atkinson pattern called Urban Cabin and is made with some Kansas Troubles fabrics. Hope it's making him warm and cozy on these cold nights.