It's just another New Year's Eve

 I've learned some things in 2011. One is do not save every cardboard box you ever get something in. This was the pile in Sam's front yard after we cleaned the attic! It took weeks to get it all out in the recycling. Ralph was crushing and tying piles each week.

This is a 20 yard dumpster. I ordered a ten yard, but they didn't have any available so they gave us a 20. It was filled from the basement and some from the attic. Junk. Broken ceramic, broken things, just junk. I knew Sam wasn't good at throwing things away, but had no idea it was this bad.

I kept the wrappers of all the yarn I used in 2011, and probably the last two months of 2010. Today I counted the wrappers. I used 93 skeins of yarn, ranging from 3.5 to sixteen ounces. A total of 613 ounces, or 40.9 pounds of yarn! That's a lot of yarn! I didn't keep track of how many afghans I made. Manda took about a half dozen baby afghans to give to her friends having babies. Some of the adult sized afghans were given as gifts, some are earmarked for different people.

In 2011 I read 141 books. 49 of them were on the Nook, Kindle, or my own books. The rest were from the library.

In 2011 I finally listened to my friend Roseanne and hired my niece to clean my house. One of the smartest things I've ever done!

In 2011 my longtime friend Sam died after fighting the good fight for ten years. I was able to go there every night for 6 months to perform a nursing procedure, so she wouldn't have to have the on call hospice nurse do it. My 19 year old cat, Miss Millie, also died in 2011. The two losses left a big hole in my life.

In 2011 I did very little sewing and/or quilting. I was so upset all year that I did a lot of crocheting, which is mindless once you get it going, which is how I used up so much yarn.

A big lesson from 2010 was Sick People Do Not Make Good Decisions. That was reinforced in 2011. I also learned (again) that as long as I have Ralph with me, I can do anything.

I hope 2012 is kind to us!
Holly