Oh yessss that is exactly how I feel…FREE!  I am done, finished, over it, not gonna go back… I am now officially retired.  OMG I have been planning this and waiting for this and it is here!  The last few years of work were seriously misery!  The joy of being home, of being free to just be, to pursue my own dreams, to just live a life filled with peace and calm; it is heaven!  Each day as I realize this is my new life, I feel a tingle of joy running up my spine!!

But not all is quiet around my sweet cottage, as I have a new visitor who has come to stay.  Jackson, my 10 year old grandson will be living with me for a bit.  He is as excited as I am!  As I raised all girls it will be interesting to have a boy around the house.  We have is room all set up an he is enrolled in the neighborhood school.  It is an adjustment, but all is good and it is nice to have a child in the house again.

His first week end and he was off to the coast with the hubby so I could get some much needed stuff done.  Misha has taken right to him and is thrilled I brought her a boy for Christmas, silly doggie.  They are best buds and loved exploring together.

With the house quiet (I did not realize how noisy one boy can be) I got busy and got the latest Etsy sales processed and ready for the mail.  With retirement I will once again start  bag making on a regular schedule.  I enjoy the process and it gives me a nice little bit of extra spending money!

With all this wonderful time I am busy knitting and stitching.  I have been catching up with all my favorite podcast and this year’s vlogmas by my fav podcasters, as well. It is so lovely to sit and do my own handiwork while watching podcasts by other kindred crafting spirits!  In my knitting time I finished up the sleeve on Mimi’s sweater and just have to do the front ribbing.  I also cut out a cute kitty dress to match the sweater.  I am making everything quite large so it will fit this spring.

I have been collecting kits and fun projects for some time.  Pulled out this fun project by Moda fabrics as it was just fitting for the season.

Since I committed to spend less time on my electronic devices I have so much more time.  In place of puzzles on the devices, I have been working my way through my puzzle stash.  I had forgotten how dearly I loved to puzzle.  I imagine I will now be rediscovering many things that I used to love!!  Jackson loves to work on the puzzles with my and is very good at finding those hard to find pieces.

On Saturday I got some happy mail!  These adorable dog collar covers, treats, and ornament are from dear Louella who always sends me the cutest ever ornaments.  I have a special tree just for those ornaments!

I also received this darling cross stitched ornament from another dear friend.  It is just so sweet!  Oh how I love all the handmade cuties!!

Well it is time once again to begin my yearly review of the previous year and choosing a word/theme for the upcoming year.  I discovered Susannah Conway’s free tools for doing just that about 3 years ago and fell in love!  I have been choosing a word off and on since 2012, I think it was.  It is just an enjoyable exercise in digging a bit deeper into your self and where you currently are and where you are headed.  I so thoroughly enjoy working my way through each Unravel Your Year workbook and looking back at past ones (I keep them all neatly in a binder of course).  These can be found at https://www.susannahconway.com/unravel/.

One of the most wonderful things about not working is that I now have time to explore my local area.  Imagine my delight when I happened upon this amazing store!!  I went to the Willamette Heritage Center as they have a myriad of darling shops along with a museum with one being a yarn shop.  I found my yarn but also this amazing new shop.  Oh look at all the wonders!  I have only dabbled a bit in working with wool but do have many supplies and patterns.  New rabbit hole to jump down for sure!!

This was the actual reason I went to the center.  I have been wanting to knit this smocked dress by Debbie Bliss and with Mimi I now have an excuse.  I found this lovely aqua blue and it will be just the thing!

I love how it is knitting up!  I am forcing myself to knit continental on this project.  I have always thrown my yarn and you just cannot do that if you want to do color work. I figure this is a perfect project to learn on as it is a lot of stockinette stitch.  I have the knit down pretty well, but struggling still with purling.  It just all feels so awkward when I am so used to throwing the yarn.  But I will persevere and not give up!

While out and about I also stopped by the thrift shop to find some books for Jackson.  I found so many wonderful volumes for him and for myself as well!  I absolutely loved home schooling my daughters so looked for some books on fun learning activities.  I found some treasures and will incorporate learning and experiments into our after school activities.  I think that one of the greatest gifts we can give our children (and now grands) is the great joy of learning.  It is all about finding our interests and running with them with lots of hands on activities.  I also scored a bread machine off a local free site as Jackson enjoys cooking so it will be fun to experiment with different types of breads.

Today Jackson brought home a home made ornament.  Oh how I loved the handmade gifts from the girls!  It immediately took pride of place on the tree!!

And so I embrace all the blessing and changes that have become a part of my journey.  I revel in my new found freedom and face each day with gratitude for this blessing!

Oh happy days, indeed!

Patricia