YoP week 40

I have been MIA for about 2-3 weeks.  Of course, I knew where I was all along.  I was in the great state of Texas.  My son went to the East Coast to pick up his wife, who had been on active duty in the middle east for the past year.  Someone needed to take care of the children while he was gone.  Enter Mimi/Grandmom.  I love being able to just pick up and go when I am needed somewhere.  Retirement has managed to give me that freedom.  Hubby stayed home to take care of the critters and make sure my mom was visited weekly.  (What a wonderful man I have)

I took loads of yarn with me on my trip.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I guess I thought I would have a lot of down time to knit.  HA!  I knit on the plane ride there and I knit 3 evenings after the youngest went to bed and this some of what I accomplished:

I finished the other fingerless mitt for my mom.  I also made 3 more dishcloths in the DW pattern.  Those were left in Texas for the newly weds.  They only had one dish cloth and that just didn't work for me.  That is the extent of my knitting for 3 weeks.  Pitiful, huh.

I did knit on my plan ride back yesterday.  But it was just to add some more rows on my sweater.....................you know......................the one that seems to never finish.  I figured I have 5 more pattern sets to do and then I can start on the back.  I might have it finished by the end of the year......................not the YOP year, but the 2016 year.

I have not started any other projects, even though I had sock yarn with me on the trip and I was greatly tempted to cast on for another pair of sock.  Nope, I decided I wanted to wait until I was back home to do that.  So maybe this week, I will cast on a new project.

This coming week is going to see a large change in my schedule of activities.  I am joining in on the 13 week declutter your home project. ( https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/mary-organizes-declutter-challenge-14821413 ) I was suppose to start it on January 4th but life was not allowing that to happen.  So, tomorrow is the first day of my 91 day organizing challenge.  I am very excited to get into this.  

While I was gone to Texas, my family and friends got together and enclosed my Arizona room to help cut down on the heat that comes into the house.  I had ordered the french door and window for it before I left town.  I love it.  It doesn't even look like my house from the backyard.

This is the beginning of the project.  The open area used to be all glass.  We had 3 sliding glass doors that were 16 feet wide by 8 feet high.

The framing was a must as the previous owner had actually removed most of the supporting header beam when they enclosed the patio to make it a glass room.  We are lucky the roof never fell in.

The siding is up and window installed.

French door and doggie door installed.  What a difference it has made in the temperature in my house.  We normally would have had the air conditioner on by now, but the house is still cool enough without it.  There is still some trim work to be done and we need to paint the siding and window and door frame.  The inside still needs the texture applied to the drywall and have that painted too.

So, while all this work was going on................I was enjoying life with my grand kids in TX.

This is my youngest Grandson.  It is still winter in Texas................well at least in the house it was.  They like to keep the house very cool so we all walked around with sweaters and jackets on.  Once the parental units left, I turned up the thermostat about 5 degrees and everyone loved me best. LOL

This is my youngest two grand kids.  I was gifted with the grand daughter (Adelle) about 4 months ago when my son married her mom.  She is truly a gift to us and I am already head over heels in love with her.  The young man is Bryson, the youngest grandson.

These are two other of my grandsons.  The one on the left is Skyler the oldest of all the grands.  The young man on the right is Jadin.  He falls right in the middle of all of the grands. The young lady in the photo is Jadin's girlfriend.  A very lovely young lady and so much fun to be around.  I was honored that she liked being around me too.

Adelle and I went to the botanical gardens on Good Friday.  She had the day off school and the other boys where with their mom for the weekend.  This is a snowball tree.  My grandma had one in her yard in Iowa, but it was more like a bush than a tree.  I loved that thing.

This redbud tree had one of the garden workers and myself scratching our heads as to why it was blooming on the base of the tree.  It was very lovely though.

Our favorite part of the gardens was the butterfly conservatory.  This is Adelle with 2 butterflies on her arm.  I wish they had opened their wings.  They were a gorgeous bright blue color.

We also took a little time in the Japanese gardens.  We saw this pagoda and kind of thought it reminded us of a McDonald's sign.

Upon returning home we were greeted at the garage by this fellow.  No, I am not fond of snakes.  But I watched him for a little bit and decided he was harmless.  I took a looooong stick and picked him up and moved him away from the garage so I could close the door with him on the outside.  Found out, this is a gulf coast ribbon snake.  Part of the garden snake family.  He must have been young as he was only about 2 feet long and they get up to 3 feet long.

So that is what has been happening in my life lately.  I am home and glad to be back to all things familiar.  I think I will close now and go and see what project I would like to cast on next.  Maybe another dishcloth for my kitchen.  

Until next week.......Happy Crafting