No. Empty Nesters Do Not Have More Time.

When I envisioned my first spring as an empty nester, I saw myself leisurely working in my gardens while I listened to the ball game on the radio and sipped on a fresh glass of iced tea. What a dreamer! I'm still running around trying to catch up with my to-do list. Even without kid-madness, I'm not getting to all the things I should be doing at the change of seasons.

Not to sound completely befuddled, I have made some major advances on clearing my calendar of obligations. The biggie is being able to check off some "final meetings" of a few volunteer responsibilities that break for the summer. It's been a little like finals week, and I am inching closer to summer vacation. Lucky it's Friday so that I can take a breather for a few days.

Happy Mother's Day! Always a nice holiday since it actually coincides with the reason I get to celebrate in the first place. My son doesn't really like it when his birthday and Mom's Day are on the same day--attention hog!--so he should be happy this year when they are a day apart. We'll head up to see him for both. Since it's finals week and no one is too interested in birthday partying, spending the day with Mom and Dad doesn't have the shame attached to it as it might otherwise have. I think we might take in the new Star Trek movie at some point over the weekend. Seriously, who ever thought I'd be anxious to see a movie with Spock in it, but it's getting incredible reviews. And I'm sure eating will be a significant part of the celebration as well.

Last night I finished off the left front piece of my Bobbled Braids cardigan. The pattern recommends blocking the pieces before attaching the sleeves with a 3-needle bind off. I've gone ahead and done that in the "big blob of knitting" phase instead so that I can soak the whole works and not have open stitches to deal with. On to the sleeves, which I think I'll knit together--as in, at the same time. It's a little awkward and heavy towards the end with two sleeves on the needles, but the payoff is worth it when you're done and have two perfectly matched sleeves. I've been reading ahead trying to figure out how to knit the front bands since I shortened the length of the sweater. Spacing the buttonholes in the cabled band will take some thinking. Horrors, I might have to do some math.

Enough! That list isn't getting any shorter by sitting here writing about it. My freshly mopped kitchen floor is dry, so it's back to work for me.