A Quick one...

 Just dashing this post off before I go out to see a client today. Just took a break from work to go to my "happy place" on the internet - Ravelry. I am planning on visiting my happy place at home as well - the upstairs craft room:).  I organized by mumblety mumblety WIPs (29 of which really haven't been started yet, but I have the pattern and the yarn waiting).  I decided to organize my projects by name, using a number at the front and for those that haven't been started yet, an asterisk in front of the number. LOL it's still a LOT of projects.  Heaven forfend I don't have enough to keep me busy until I depart this mortal coil.

We've had some awesome and some awful things happen so far this year.  My dear brother lost his son to pneumonia - he was very ill, but like many in our country and many more in the state he lived in, without decent health insurance.  The ERs tend to look at young men in severe pain as drug seeking.  Sigh. So he went home.  And he died, leaving behind a little boy who will hear about how much his father loved him, but won't have more than the internal bodily feeling somewhere that somebody really loved him and is gone. I don't know how to even give my brother any words of comfort.  He is doing everything right - and did while his son was alive.  He made his kids a priority.  He moved jobs and homes just to be near them and to see them on a regular basis after he and their Mom divorced.  He always ended his conversations with his boys, no matter what, with the words, "I love you." Sort of a family tradition among us.  He will never get over this.  Nor should he.

My stepmother had surgery for a heart condition.  It was successful and I am so glad for her.  After four years of widowhood, she is starting to negotiate what life will be for her going forward.  I am so grateful to have her in our lives.

Our kids seem to be doing well. Thank God. The DH is well. Thank God. There are the usual moments of resentments and differences and that's OK. I'd worry more if there weren't.  I guess I'm writing about this just to say, cherish those times you have.  Be grateful for them. They are gifts from Heaven.

Work is fine.  It has its stresses to be sure, but I am grateful again to have something so worthwhile to occupy my days and to be a source of growth personally and professionally. 

Still knitting.:) In a couple of weeks, I'm going to be taking off for FL for a mini family reunion.  J's sister and BIL have moved to an assisted living facility and we will be going there to spend time with them. We're all getting up in years.   Beats the alternative, LOL! Thankfully, their daughter M, works there, so I know they'll be well treated. 

No cross stitch happening just now.  On the knitting front, I started Silverlining by Jennifer Steingass. I'm still on the yoke.  Finished up enough rows for the one ball of blue and have already started on the red worsted yarn that will finish the project.  I like the way the colors work together for a bit of a (US) patriotic theme, LOL.  Not much else new going on.  Will write soon.

Until then, God be with you 'til we meet again+