Still alive

I don’t not want to blog, I just don’t really have anything worthwhile to say these days. Winter is the busy season at our small business and, thankfully, we’ve been busier than Mister and I can handle while still retaining our sanity. Some days that sanity is hanging on by the tiniest whisper of a thread but we can’t really complain, because booming business is what we need. Family was in town over the holidays, so we put their butts to work, ate too much food, and generally enjoyed the familiarity of having loved ones around. My brother and his wife headed home after New Years, my parents headed home a week later, leaving their German Shepherd puppy, Maggie, behind for a few weeks. So on top of standard busyness of our life, we’re now contending with two 7 month old puppies on a daily basis and we. need. a. nap.

We’ve also changed our hours so we’re open all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, with Tuesday and Wednesday off. Then I had the genius (stupid) idea to offer an After Hours line so we inevitably end up in the shop on our days off and its really all just one big blur. As you are partying it up and drinking or eating or napping or lounging your weekends away, we’re dragging our asses out of bed to head into work so I no longer really differentiate one day from another and I’ve lost all time to catch up with loved ones, so I’m pretty much the shittiest friend/sister/daughter in the world. I’m not judging your laziness/drinking-ness/eating-ness though, no. I’m jealous. Alas, soon summer will return and we’ll surely panic that the business can’t survive on this pace of customers! but we’ll have free time and Mister and I plan to ABUSE IT heartily. Nine months ago, had we known the pace of things that would bombard us this winter, we would have been joyriding our asses all over this state and savoring each others company at every moment. Summer is the LIFE and Winter is the WORK and we can just hope it all balances out in the end, I suppose.

Radio is finally turning into the dog that we knew she could be. She’s become a lover. She’s hilarious and sweet and so genuinely, unabashedly thrilled to see us each day, I’m thankful that we stuck it out through the horrors of puppy-hood to add this little member to our family. Radio finds everything in life to be a thrilling adventure and her enthusiasm is infectious. Unfortunately, I’ve taken our success with raising her as a sign that we’re ready for a family, so I’m constantly battling these inner cries of BABY! NOW! Actually, let’s be serious, they’re not so inner, because daily I ask Mister if we’re ready for a baby yet. We’ve rationalized a timeline that we’re both comfortable with, so I’m trying to keep the baby fever at bay. Mostly, I’m wildly offended that, try as I might, I can’t fight the nature of womanhood. What is this get married, want a baby nonsense? I’m better than that! Except… I guess I’m not. For now, I’m enjoying the prospect of meeting two little ones headed into our extended family as we speak. We have a young man coming in a few weeks on my side of the family and a little lady making her appearance any day now on Mister’s side of the family, and I’m giddy at the prospect of getting to spoil them both

On that note, I suppose I can ramble about the one thing, work aside, that’s consuming my time lately. After months off, I’ve taken up knitting again with ferocious dedication. There was the herringbone cowl from the most gorgeous soft merino that the puppy eventually destroyed. The same yarn had been frogged thrice before so I decided we weren’t mean to be at the time and set it aside in favor of other projects. I headed onto a series of toddler/baby sweaters because I wanted to try my hand at a garment, but didn’t have the patience to knit something adult sized. They’re adorable, of course, and ridiculously easy to pull together. I started with this basic yoke sweater and added some slight modifications to make a toddler sweater, toddler sweater dress, and a teeny little baby sweater with ruffle trim. Then I added a sweet little hat and these last two are headed off to meet their new owner very very soon.

Finally, I’m once again dealing with the life long struggle of on a diet/off a diet. I know, I know, it’s not a diet it’s a lifestyle blah blah. Whatever it is, my dedication is at an all time high for both health reasons (as in: baby, hopeful pregnancy) and budget reasons (as in: purchase home) so we’re eating at home more than ever. There’s been batches of chili and chicken pot pie, Mister’s favorite sloppy joes, immensely impressive salads, chicken corn chowder, morning smoothies and juices every day, a new take on oatmeal that still blows my mind, pulled pork, nearly non-stop roasted cauliflower, eating leftovers for lunch like a normal well behaved adult. It’s all very dull. I’ve contemplated sharing recipes, but we’re not doing anything revolutionary here. Mister likes straight up standard, delicious food. I like to take that food and make it slightly healthier. Then I track it and watch what I eat and, ideally, it all works out in the end. I’ve also contemplated reporting weight loss here for accountability sake, but then I fear this will veer into the weight loss/healthy living blog zone and of all things we’re doing, living healthy in a way that others look too for guidance is certainly not one of them. But here we are, with this topic at hand, so I’ll put it on record: 2 weeks in, 4lbs down.

So I’m at the end of yet another brain dump and I’m questioning again, what’s the point of this blog? We don’t have a house to work on, which are the updates I really love reporting. I may share our house hunting adventures, but it’s such a point of rabid obsession for me right now that I feel like I’m too close to the issue to make sense of it. I literally cannot stop myself. I obsess over listings and land and stalk websites and pick customer’s brains and it’s honestly so annoying but I can’t shut it down. I’m a woman on an mission and if we bring up the topic, you’ll inevitably just tell me to shut up.  Right now, our life is work and nothing more. I generally keep work off the blog because I’m overly cautious about the personal/professional mix and because, honestly, I highly doubt any of you want to read about ATVs and Snowmobiles and how I look up engine parts all day long.  The knitting continues as always, but I don’t really feel expert enough to take a teaching perspective. I’ll keep sharing the finished products as time and photography allow. I may post a recipe or two as time goes on. I have like… three… posts in progress about hair/grooming products, but I feel like those need to be accompanied by pictures.  Like, of my actual hair, that is, but the mere thought of mirror pictures seems so grossly self-indulgent that I keep shutting the idea down. Maybe I’ll just start posting randomass shit without concern, because I’m not ready to quit yet. It could happen.

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