Winter Projects and a Day at the Gym

It's been a long cold winter. There have been no moments of getting outside to trim bushes or pick up sticks and debris in the yard because there are mounds of snow in all the gardens. Even the yard has been too deep with snow until the last couple of days, but I still can't walk around out there because the melting has created huge ponds. Fortunately, our house sits a little higher than the rest of the yard, but it looks like a castle with a moat all around it! And the water table is so high right now that we have little streams in our basement running toward the drains.

So cabin fever has fueled my desire to do something besides reading after dinner. I've taken several trips to Jo-Ann Fabrics and searched the web for fabric and yarn. I learned to crochet while I was in college and made quite a few sweaters, scarves, hats, blankets, afghans, etc., but it's been many long years since I've taken up hook and yarn. In fact, a couple of years ago, I gave all my crochet hooks to one of my daughters.

This time around, my first attempt was a child's hat. Christy made quite a few of these hats and I liked the pattern, so I bought the pattern for myself and attempted it. Here it is on a very cute little model!I also made a scarf for myself. It seems like I haven't lost the touch!I think Andy has been a little bored, too. He is working on our "yellow" bathroom, the one off the foyer. When we built that part of the house, we put in a door from that bathroom into Mom & Dad's bedroom. However, in all the 5 years that they've been here now, they never used that door. In fact, they put a curtain on that wall in their bedroom and placed a bureau in front of it. So we decided to take out the door and replace the shower stall with a full bath tub with shower. It seemed more practical for our upstairs guests. The shower stall was so small that even I was uncomfortable when I used it. Several weeks ago, Andy took out the door and closed off the space.

Then this last past Saturday, Andy and a plumber friend took out the shower and put in the tub. The water is hooked up and it's usable, but there are still some finishing touches to be done.

Before
The door is gone.

new tub

Several months ago, the girls decided they wanted to make an effort to get together once a month so they could visit and the cousins could play together. In January we hung out at Christy's one day. February got away from us, but today we went up to the gym where Amy works and spent a couple of hours there. Unfortunately, 3 of Christy's kids were sick during the night and she wasn't able to join us. After we ate a nice lunch that Amy provided, we spent the rest of our time at the pool. Andy and Amy went in with Chase. He loved it. Amy took Joanna in the water, but she kept trying to climb out of the tube she was floating in. And Kira didn't like the water either. In fact, she had an allergic reaction to the chemicals in the pool and her little tummy got all red and itchy.

It was so much fun being together. Chase and Joanna were so excited when we arrived, then with all the swimming and playing, I heard from the mommies that all the kids fell asleep in the car on their way home. And I confess that I closed my eyes and slept for about 15 minutes, too.

Even as much as I've enjoyed getting back to crocheting and have a couple more projects I'd like to work on, I'm ready for spring. Can't wait for warmer weather and a few more colors besides white, brown and gray.