Spare Time

Our days are busy and full around here.  Although Papa Pea and I are both home most of the time, we actually don't see a lot of each other during the day as we've both got our own separate responsibilities and chores on which to focus.

We have breakfast together to start the day, touch base at lunch time, and then again at dinner.  After that last meal, we're both off in different directions to tie up the ends of whatever we've been working on that day.

If all goes well, we end our day in the living room catching up on what's been happening and discussing the plan for the next day.  I'm settled on the couch with either some kind of handwork or a book (usually a novel), and you'll find Papa Pea most often going through old files of his, reading, tossing, or updating (doing this was a big goal for this past winter, but it seems to have seeped over into this summer, too) or reading.  He's a voracious reader in his quest to gather knowledge, learn and satisfy his innate curiosity.

It takes about fifteen minutes (sometimes considerably less) for one of us to start yawning (which, as you know, is highly contagious).  In my case, these huge, uncontrollable yawns cause my eyes to go blurry, then tears start running down my face with each succeeding jaw-cracking yawn.  (It's so bad I actually have to keep kleenex in my robe pocket for mopping up.)

Nine times out of ten, I'm the first one to say I cannot keep my eyes open one more minute, I say good night and shuffle on back to the bedroom.

I tell ya, it's an exciting life we lead around here.  And goes to prove that at least for us, once we stop moving, it's all over. ZZZZ-zzzz-zzz . . .

However, all that being said, I do have proof that a few minutes spent each night sometimes produces results.

This is a soft, soft, oh-so-soft knitted baby blanket I recently finished.  The yarn is machine washable (a must, I think, for a baby blanket that will be used).  It's that chenille-type yarn that's on the market now.  I knit it in a simple basket weave pattern and it turned out a bit larger than I had envisioned.  (But that's what happens when you don't have a pattern and wing it.)  It's more of a crib-size blanket, I think, measuring about 32" wide and 40" long.

So often when I give a baby quilt or blanket to a newborn, there's a two or three-year old sibling that I like to have something for so he/she doesn't feel left out.  I found a pattern for these little knit "kittens" that were fun to make.  Only about 7" tall, soft and easy for little hands to grasp.  I fiddled around with different embroidered yarn faces for them but couldn't come up with one I liked so decided they would be "Amish kittens" with blank faces!