A Work in Progress

The end is in sight for Quaker Christmas. (Looks like I have some ironing in my future!)  I'm hoping to finish this up over the weekend as my evenings this week are too busy for any stitching time.  Speaking of being nearly done, I'm writing this post at 7:30am when I would normally be at work and busily preparing my lessons for the day, getting ready to run off to an 8:00 meeting or catching up on paperwork.  But in my last week as a working woman, I've set the alarm for an half hour later than normal,  had a  leisurely breakfast and wandered into work around 8:30.  What's more, I've actually left at 4:00 instead of 5:00.  All preparation for my upcoming life of leisure.  I think I'll be able to handle it.

By my calculation, I have 37.5 more hours left in my working life.  That's right--five days from now I will be retired.  I've been quite surprised by the range of emotions that have arisen during the final months of my career.  I love being a speech therapist and that's been a huge part of my identity forthe past 34 years.  So, as much as I'm looking forward to having time to read, quilt and stitch (not to mention getting my house much cleaner and decluttered), I find that I'm sad as well.  I will definitely miss the students but I'm happy that the meetings and paperwork will be a thing of the past.  Blog posts have gone by the wayside the last two months as I've been preparing for this transition by spending long hours on the aforementioned paperwork  and meetings.  I managed to finish 40 hourglass blocks like these    that will be sewn to sashing like this to make a quilt for my daughter.  She goes to a college whose c...