Happy *cough* New Year! (Achooo!)

Happy New Year friends! 
At the risk of sounding ancient, the more years I see, the faster they seem to roll by me. It seems impossible that it is 2017. Anyone else? 

Of course, I started the new year with a bang: sinus cold! I've been fighting something ugly for the past two weeks now and I have to say, I'm ready for it all to be over. I'm finally on the uptick I think. I hope. My house is a sea of tissues and half empty water glasses. My almost two weeks of vacation was spent putting a Laura-sized divot in the couch and finishing a few TV shows. Not all bad, but now that I'm finally starting to feel better, it is time to join the land of the living...and get to cleaning up the house. (And eventually back to running? I mean UGH but also, do I miss it? Mostly no. But a little yes, too.)

Christmas holidays weren't all bad of course, just intensely busy. Little and Big Sister (husbands and kids) were all able to come home for Christmas. It was loud, it was crazy, it was hilarious and I wish we could have had more time together. 

Guys. I finished that sweater that I've been working on for almost two years! I've already gifted it but I'll see if I can snag some pictures of it and share them with you. Without a big project like that in the background, I'm feeling a little ... sad? But it won't last for long because I'm working with a friend to make a blanket for her living room sofa. It involves a lot of math (that she does mostly. Thankfully.) and counting rows and such (that's mine). The exciting thing about it, though, is that it is something she and I designed together. The first time I'm truly working a large project with a self-designed pattern. I'm nervous but excited to see how it will turn out. I finished a bunch of other projects for Christmas presents and such, so I'm a little in-between knitting adventures. With the freezing weather we've been having lately, I have been in the mood to knit a warm hat for myself. I'm also halfway through a fingerless glove pattern, which besides the blanket, is my only current work in progress. It is a challenge with cables, so I'm in love. The biggest challenge is going to be adding thumbs to it. And well, I've never done that before and it is incredibly daunting. 

I keep track of my reading over at Scattered Wits, but if you were following, I didn't meet my reading goal last year. And I'm honestly doing okay with that. Yes, I was bummed. (Maybe more like a lot.) But one of the reasons I didn't finish was because the larger reading project I had going was reading through the New Testament in a year. That one? Yeah, that one I finished. It has taught me so much about Jesus and the way he asks his followers to live that it felt like I was learning about him for the first time. And Paul's letters have to be some of my favorite books in the New Testament. So this year, I reduced my reading challenge by half and will try to make it through the Old Testament. So that's my biggest challenge this year. I mean, besides the thumbs. 

We've had two snows so far this year. If I hadn't been sick and partially unable to breathe, I was seriously considering a snow walk. I've always wanted to do one of those. We had a light dusting today and there is a call for freezing rain tonight. The weather continues to be frightful, but it is off to work for me. (In the whole "being sick for two weeks," I haven't been cooking too much. Dinner tonight will be very interesting...)

A brand new year with so many new things to come. Some of them are planned. Most of them? Probably not. This year feels like a good year to be extra hopeful, to keep my eyes open and heart ready for whatever happens. New adventures. New friends. More old friends. More life. More joy. 

Once more onto the breach, dear friends, once more. 

Is summer almost gone already?

DId the last six months just fly by for anyone else? 

No? 

Just me then. 

I've been doing my thing, working two jobs, trying to keep up with my reading challenge for 2012 (35 books in a year. I'm only one book behind schedule, for the interested, but I hope to get over that one soon. Just picked up and started getting into a YA science fiction that is going to be great. I can just tell.) and keeping up with the family's very busy social calendar. 

We had a wedding (!) at my house this past June. Which is crazy, if you know my family and our house. We live on a hill and have nothing that screams "flat and easy place to have a gorgeous event!" --but somehow (grace, elbow grease and pure determination by the bride) it all worked together and turned into a Pinterest-worthy wedding. (My mom actually created a blog to pin from so you can see all the deets over at her blog. It is a work in progress, so be patient.)

After the wedding we had about half a month's rest before we started planning my big sister's baby shower. I think after the wedding, mom got artsy-creative and we did a lot of the decorating ourselves. We made a baby welcome banner out of brown paper bags and stenciled with "welcome baby ogle," repurposed wedding decorations for the shower and created a menu of yummy summery treats, which included cake parfaits. Whoa. It was a good time. We might not have surprised the mommy to be, but I think by now we are getting into the habit of throwing really good parties. 

Things have finally calmed down and once again it is work, work, work. I've been having quite a few weekends at Old Navy and I am reminded how much I really love my job. Yes it is stressful to be on my feet for 5-9 hours. But I work with a bunch of great people, and   I get to meet a lot of interesting people. Some of them certifiably so, but some are just your normal bit of interesting. 

Has your summer been crazy? What have you been up to?