My title reflects my hopes that this new year will bring peace, contentment, happiness, and good health to us and to those who read this blog.
I have not written since mid-December because we traveled during the holidays and I did not have access to the Internet while we were away. So I will use this blog for a brief update on our lives.
I never can fully get into the Christmas spirit in Florida because we receive no snow and the weather is always too sunny and warm. Once we flew home to Green Bay, though, I longed for at least the warmth part of that statement. We certainly were greeted by a white Christmas once we were in Wisconsin. We had to travel three times while in the North, and thankfully the roads were clear each time that we had to drive any distance, but snowbanks lined those roads no matter where we went.
We spent Christmas Day with Lindsay and her family. Seeing Christmas through the eyes of a four-year-old child made much of the magic of the season come back to us. Thanks, Owen, for helping us recapture the anticipation and joy of the season.
A couple of days after Christmas we stopped in Wisconsin Rapids to see my mother, my sister, and my brother-in-law before driving on to Rochester to spend time with Stephanie. Lindsay and her family joined us the next day. We had a relaxing, enjoyable three days, although Stephanie's two cats may never be the same! The only downside to that trip was that the weather -- which was unbearably cold -- seemed to get even worse. We awoke to negative degree temperatures with wind chills in the -35 degree range. Temperatures that cold are dangerous and uncomfortable. The wind actually HURTS a person's face, and taking a deep breath is painful and paralyzing. Imagine gulping down freezing cold water too quickly. That's how a deep breath feels. Needless to say, we stayed indoors for most of that visit; thankfully, Stephanie has a large house that easily accommodated company.
While the snow was pretty, the aftermath of that snow is slush and dirt on the roadways. Everything was filthy and covered with salt. Sadly, the temperatures were still too cold for us to even wash the salt off the Lexus before we had to leave, so it will sit that way until we return in the Spring.
Before we left for Wisconsin, I had been battling a cold, and it caught up to me in the frigid North. I was able to get some medication for a sinus infection, although I am not sure how much it has helped.
I also had bumped my knee over two weeks ago. It swelled up, and I have been watching the swelling (which strangely never bruised) since that time. Two days ago, back here in Florida, I got out of bed and almost fell over. A trip to MedExpress and three x-rays later revealed a severe contusion to the left knee. Add heat, an Ace bandage for compression, and Prednisone to get the swelling down. I actually was able to take a short walk yesterday, so I took a longer one today. My knee let me know that it was not entirely happy with that decision.
The cold weather followed us south, so we are spending more time indoors than we really had anticipated. Last year when we returned to Florida, we spent the evening on the beach. This year, if we had done so, we would have been met with temperatures in the high 30s to low 40s. The beach will wait.
We want to get a new warp on the loom and to order out some yarn to try a few other projects. Stephanie picked out yarns last year that she wanted us to make into a scarf, so that is first on the agenda. Then I would like to try some tencel, linen, silk, and/or cotton to make a shawl. I have never woven a shawl before, so that might be a fun challenge.
I still have a small phone-holder project that I started before Christmas to complete, and we are spending the rest of our time reading, planning trips, and just relaxing a bit. I also have to seriously work on losing the three pounds that I gained while home in Wisconsin over the Christmas season!
When the weather warms, we will think about getting back outside to wash down the fence and to add to our very-bare landscape around the house. That work is therapeutic and certainly will give us more badly-needed exercise.
We hope all those actions will bring us peace, happiness, contentment, and good health in the new year,
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