Happy New Year!

I'm back after taking some much needed time to think about my priorities. It's still a work in progress, but I'm always going to be a work in progress and at least there's a little movement. 

To catch up, bear is now a legal adult. He can now buy a drink in a bar, undertake a legal contract and get married without our approval. He doesn't seem in a rush to do any of that, but I'll keep an open mind. He got a pretty good haul of gifts from family and friends and seems very satisfied. He's studying hard but still finds time for some social life. A few days ago I took him to a party and I'm still recovering from the drive. The party was in the middle of nowhere with an hourly bus service. I was happy to drop him off, and I would again, but with the nights being early this time of year and the weather, well, it was an adventure. I found myself on unfamiliar single track country lanes, twisting and turning around blind corners, in the dark, with the mist coming down. The speed limit was 60mph but I had no shame in dropping to around 25mph when no-one was behind me. As it was, I was holding up traffic for part of the way because I couldn't see what was coming next and I wasn't going to speed up for the sake of it. I was so glad that he got the bus home!

Then there was the 'please pick me up' text at just past midnight after he went to a New Year's Eve party. The weather was foul with the roads running with water. I'd rather drive through that than leave him stranded and I'm grateful that he trusts me to pick him up. DH joined me as we had a few concerns, but everything is fine. 

I finished a blanket. I'm not trying to sell or donate this as it's full of holes and mistakes. I had a nightmare with it and I'm not sure why. At the end, I played yarn chicken and lost. You can see where I ran out of red and had to use a leftover strand of orange.

I've been looking at the 'pantry challenges' on YouTube #threeriverschallenge. It's full of people who grow their own food and have all sorts of wonderful things stashed. I'm not trying that and I already have my next delivery booked for the 3rd of January. However it's a good reminder and I'm planning to make an inventory of what food I have in and make some plans to use everything up. I have a 10kg bag of potatoes (around 22lb) which I'm determined to finish. Yesterday we had Bombay potatoes and they were amazingly wonderful. We've also had Mustard Potatoes from this recipe.  

Writing stuff - it's not much, but I've finally posted on my writing blog with a bit of chat here. 

Hugs and good health to all.