A little progress

Managed only a half hour of stitching at lunch time yesterday, getting a bit more done on the Sue Hillis Santa with Noah's Ark. Hope to find some more time for serious stitching today but am not optimistic as the pressure of work is going to be severe.

This week's progress

I am about two thirds of the way through Sue Hillis' Charmed Santa #3 [with Noah's Ark], having only the upper portion of the ark, Santas' face/beard/hat and the top border to stitch. I have also finished cross-stitching the Pine Glen ornament for the online show doorprize competition. I haven't gotten as much done lately because the meds I am taking for my bronchitis make me more than a little high ... not a good condition in which to stitch.

It's been a while

Okay, I went into a funk ... a lot has happened since my last post. I had to euthanize my fox terrier, Jack ... we suspect contaminated pet food as the cause of multiple problems including renal failure, spontaneous bruising, vomiting of bile, among others. The same day that Jack died in my arms was the day I was informed that the Catholic parochial school in which I have my office will be closing in June. My job is not at risk ... I run the Religious Education program for parish children who attend public schools ... in fact, it just got bigger ... BUT without any increase in pay, secretarial assistance or resources. My program currently serves 600 children from roughly 350 families ... it will have to absorb anywhere from 50 to 75 more children next school year. The building will become my sole responsibility and basically, I will be the schnook who has to clean out all the storage areas of the debris left behind by the school and redesign the classrooms for my own use. Granted, the retiring principal of the school will handle the clearing out of records, electronics and textbooks and the teachers will take their own personal belongings out of the classrooms but anyone who has worked in a school building knows there is lots more "stuff" floating about ... everything from broken band instruments, to odds and ends of craft materials left by a succession of art teachers, to old costumes from every school play and Christmas pageant for the last two decades, to outdated equipment like filmstrip projectors/Karousel slide projectors/mimeograph machines/broken photocopiers, to all the seasonal decorations trotted out every year, etc. etc. The principal and the teachers are so demoralized that they have already determined that they will only perform the absolutely mandated chores related to the shutdown ... so I suspect I'll be the one taking down all the no longer relevant bulletin boards, disposing of the broken desks and chairs, deciding what to do with everything they leave behind because they neither need nor want it.

In any case I only returned to stitching somewhere in mid March ... and since then have completed the Sue Hillis Charmed Series Santas 1 [with Gingerbread Men] and 2 [with birdhouses] and am 2/3rds of the way through 3 [with Noah's Ark and animals]. I have also joined the 123stitch Secret Sister Exchange and have managed to get through the first round with only one late exchange and hope to get through my second round in a more timely fashion.
This second time around, I share some of the same tastes with my SS and will find it easier to pick out items for her.

My goals this month are to finish the 3rd & 4th Santas in the Sue Hillis series and to finish the April box in the Raise the Roof Crabby All Year piece, though I will have to do some serious frogging before I resume stitching on that last piece ... and to get back to blogging on at least a semi-regular basis.