Reflections

My new year started with a barrage of firecrackers and sixty pounds of terrified dog leaping onto the bed at midnight. How about you?

These are the moments I am not the tiniest bit heartbroken not to be First Human in the hearts of the local canines. The next morning everyone woke up like the apocalypse did NOT just threaten, and so I found my thoughts drifting, as they always seem to at the beginning of the year, to reflecting and to planning.

This probably doesn’t surprise those who have been reading a while, but I like using paper planners. I like notebooks and lists and pens and constantly tweaking my organizational systems in the never-ending hope that one day I’ll finally stumble upon one that fits my life and brain perfectly and PRESTO! Chaos will be managed. I’ll be sure to let you know when I find it.

One thing that does not aid this endeavor is leaving the spanking new planner in the house in which you are not currently residing on the first of January. If ever there was a day to have that tool at your fingertips, it’s January 1. Mine’s gathering dust motes on a table under the window. With the matching pen set.

It’s not a complete tragedy, because like any good system, I have redundancies and backups. I may not have remembered to shove the pristine, begging-to-be-used, new 2026 planner in my bag, but I do have spare souped-up notebooks that will serve as stand-ins for planning for the moment. I don’t need fancy pens, but I confess to being a sucker for a snazzy notebook.

That weakness goes back to the days with several young kids, minimal brain bandwidth, and an idea shared on an online message board about to-do lists. The gist of it was to use any kind of notebook you like and keep a running to-do list going. No categories, no priorities, no “weights” assigned to anything. The key (don’t laugh, it works!) is that you could never allow it to go beyond three pages full. When you were in danger of needing a fourth page, it was time to buckle down and knock some things off a page so you could rip it out and drop your page count. Yes, sometimes I cheated and rewrote my list when things were desperate, but for the most part it was a good system both for jotting things down before I forgot them and for actually getting things done. Several of us did it together so there was some good-natured accountability with our “notiebooks” and tasks. Good times, and I did learn to appreciate a good notebook.

In any case, planning is not going to have center stage for a few days, until I get back to town and retrieve that planner.

Instead, I’ve been reflecting on the past year through the lens of gratitude. For me, it’s never a bad idea.

This is a time when I am especially happy with how easy it is to document life with my cell phone camera. I took a few moments to quickly scroll through photos of the last year to goose my memory a bit. We tend to remember the big events and the more recent events easily, but how many forgotten gems are stored in our photo libraries? Loads, for me. They helped me focus on three areas I’m especially grateful for this year.

I’m Grateful for a Creative Outlet

Even though I would characterize this year as somewhat alarmingly chaotic, there was still plenty of time and opportunity for me to create.

I’m thankful for the therapeutic knitting time, but also for the truth that many of the things I made were especially meaningful for one reason or another. From baby gifts to memory items to “I love you” gifts, several of these (some not pictured!) were a special treat to make or witness being made, like Greg’s first dishcloths, or the blanket he and his mother made on the peg loom he built for her.

I’m Grateful for the Expansion of the Wee Flock

Every once in a while, I do a mental double take at the thought that yes, we really do own sheep, and yes, some of them actually live here.

We started the year with Mr. Darcy, the Valais ram, Mr. Knightley, the Merino ram, and two lovely Merino ewes. I think that adds up to four sheep.

Well. Sale Barn Auctions happened. Then there was a baby lamb. And then a fence tragedy happened, and an emergency trip to Arkansas happened where the number two transmogrified into three which somehow became four and now we have fourteen sheep and I’m not taking any questions at this time.

But I am very grateful for this season and this opportunity to learn about caring for these creatures. It is humbling to come to terms with my own ignorance, and wonderful, too, as I am loving the process of learning about and from these sheep.

I’m Grateful for Opportunities to Grow

And boy, howdy, have we had them, personally and professionally this year!

This was the year Beast to Blanket went from a class that I taught privately to a published curriculum offered to the public, designed so anyone can teach fiber arts in their educational setting. I got to expand the lessons and try out some new material with a home school co-op class in the Spring, and the students’ and parents’ enthusiasm was so encouraging to me as we worked on this project that’s so dear to my heart.

We networked with local yarn shop owners in the U.S. and Greg even visited with some overseas while on work trips!

Greg’s been chief guinea pig for all fiber arts lessons while we worked on the curriculum, learning to knit, dye, felt, and use a Trollen wheel. Meanwhile, he’s shifting his vocational focus to his Business Coaching.

And did I mention we’ve relocated?

LOTS of opportunities for growth!

And really, I am thankful for all of it, even the chaotic parts of the past year. We crave the calm, but we know that growth happens in the busy, too. And when the busy eases up a bit, we look at each other and marvel at our full and fascinating (to us!) life. Not everyone would be enchanted by shoes with sheep poop on the bottom of them, hands stained with yarn dye, or strategy discussions about curriculum conventions in the spring or the best place to put a wool drying rack when we wash the fleece we brought back from the last trip to see the grandkids and the rest of the flock.

It’s been a challenging year, but one full of things for me to be thankful for. I hope your year was full of good, as well, and you are able to join me in looking forward to the New Year with hope and optimism.

Greg’s Got Questions

Thank you to those of you who participated in the poll two weeks ago!

The winning question was: As someone who didn’t spend much time away from the engineering part of the Kansas State University campus during my college years, I’m going to need some help with the “Lady Catherine de Bourgh” reference. Who the heck is that and how do you pronounce her name?

Lady Catherine de Bourgh (pronounced like the first syllable of the word “burger”) is a character from our beloved Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. She is the cranky, arrogant, domineering, pompous, wealthy sister of Mr. Darcy’s departed mother.

She has firm opinions about everything, including how everyone in her orbit should submit every detail of their lives to her whims and directions. She believes herself to be the epitome of dignity and propriety when she’s actually mostly controlling, self-absorbed, and a bit ridiculous. Dame Judi Dench and Barbara Leigh-Hunt gave her spectacular portrayals.

Greg’s Questions for This Week:

Here are the questions up for the vote this week. I’ll answer the winner in the next newsletter. (As a matter of procedure, the poll function takes you to another page to submit your vote, so if that happens to you, you’re on the right track!)

Question 1: What makes using a physical notebook better for you compared to digital methods? Since I know you do use both at times, how do you bridge the gap and get the most out of both options? Also, with the 3-page max list method, was there a minimum font restriction? I’m flashing back to my engineering exam days when the professor would allow us to use a single 3×5 notecard and my eyes could still read my nanofont printing.

Question 2: For those not familiar with home schooling, what’s a “co-op class”?

Question 3: “Transmogrified” – real or made up? Asking before our next Scrabble game.

Happy knitting,

Kiersten J