Three steps forward, two steps back.

ust a few days before Justin left I picked up a new stash of super colorful alpaca and bamboo yarn. It was definitely a splurge but I knew that it would be something fun and new to work on and occupy my mind in these first few days/weeks.
Now, it's not as if I don't already have about 5 unfinished projects going on already--and I am making slow progress on them--but I hit a roadblock on this one project in particular that really frustrated me, so I shifted gears from knitting on that one to starting a crochet baby blanket in my new yarn.
I love crochet for many reasons, one of which being how quickly it works up. I only sat down with this blanket maybe three or four nights for a couple of hours to get this far, and I guess I got so wrapped up in enjoying the mindlessness of it that it's taken me this long to realize I made the blanket way too wide for a baby blanket. I tend to do that...my blankets are always gargantuan. I was tempted to just keep going on this one and have it be a regular throw, but with the yarn being so pricey and my original intent for it to be for the baby's room, I'm going to go ahead and take it all back apart.
The past couple of days have felt like that in more than one way. I have been keeping myself busy and getting some good things done, but somewhere mid afternoon or evening time I sometimes hit a wall. I guess it's when I get tired enough to really sit down and stop to think, but sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the amount of things to do around the house, and by my fresh feelings of loneliness. It's not crippling or anything, and I do feel like I'm making progress, but like the blanket, I sometimes feel I've taken three steps forward only to have to take two back. Still, that's one up for the day and that's not bad.
It's hard for me to grasp that tomorrow will be August. That means I've got a bit over two months until the new little one arrives, and that's a tiny bit stress-making. Her room is a catch-all for toys and diapers and the crib is full to the brim of junk I needed out of the way. I have about an eighth of the painters tape on the wall where I intend to paint some stripes, a chair that needs re-upholstering, prints to frame and hang, clothes to sort and wash, and a better storage solution to find for Evie's toys that now occupy the middle of the room. That's a lot, but it wouldn't feel so overwhelming if it weren't for the fact that just about every other room in the house needs some TLC too.
On a side note, Evie is now claiming Justin as an alibi for other mysteries...when her second tennis shoe went missing this morning she exclaimed, "Daddy...tookit...Af-gan-stan." Turned out, it was actually in the kitchen.