Let the madness begin!

Today was my second day back at work full time. So far so good, except reading policy and bioethics papers for 4 hours in a row starts to make your eyes go blurry. The biggest bonus was finding out that the center closes for two weeks over the holidays. Enforced vacation time and no more worries about juggling the kids being out of school, priceless. Crazy evenings trying to catch up with kids, make dinner or walk the dog (Juan and I switch off), supervise homework, then violin practice , make the next days lunches etc. etc. not so much. A balance will be found!

I can finally post a picture of my latest finished object, the last swap in an almost year long swap with the members of my former knit and spin group in Illinois. This hat has Sarah written all over it!

Sofia looks pretty cute in it too, although the light could be better. I spun the yarn and then knit the hat and felted it. The red flower is from a sweater Sarah gave me long ago and the black velvet button was taken from a 1940's coat dress I no longer wear.

I've been sewing quite a bit and have everything to make this (I was the happy recipient of the one pictured, my last swap gift from Dorie. Ironically I bought Lotta Jansdotter's book the day before I got the bag, I now plan to make one for my mom.) and this. Both of them holiday gifts. Sofia made a place mat for herself from the Lotta Jansdotter book and I made this backpack.


My plan was to show it on my back, but it makes me look like a linebacker. Note to self: much longer straps next time. This backpack will go to some lucky kid.

A change is coming...

Since arriving in Texas I have been applying for jobs; many, many jobs. My criteria was that they had to be jobs I was interested in (lucky me to have the luxury to choose and to wait) and that they would challenge me. It has been a long and often depressing wait as I didn't even get interview requests for any of the full time jobs I applied for. The wait is over. I was offered a job last week helping to coordinate research in a center that investigates ethics and health policy and I accepted. The work will be intellectually stimulating, and will give me a chance to learn a lot about genetics and ethics as well as to do a wide variety of tasks, including a lot of writing, over the period of the three year grant. The fact that the information we gather will be used to make policy recommendations, and that I will be a part of making those recommendations in the third year, is especially exciting. I now have 4 weeks to get my house in order.

In the meantime I've been working helping international nurses get settled here and doing a minimal amount of sewing and knitting. Here's some proof:

I don't know if I have plans to be a better blog poster. I have been trying to do more living and less looking. I wish I was the kind of person who didn't get sucked into the whole blogosphere in an obsessive way, but I am. It gets especially bad for me when I'm down, which I have been since we returned from France, and I find that looking at the beauty (granted that little slice we're willing to put out there) and productivity of other people's lives just mires me more. Hence I try to stay away from the computer and I usually feel much better that way. Hopefully my horizons will broaden with a new job and some mental stimulation and I will be back here in the way I was meant to be.