February is a month of beginnings

[tea_and_toast]

Two weeks ago I gave birth to a healthy baby boy. One week later, more or less to the hour, nearly everyone at my company was laid off. I haven't gotten a message about it, which I'm told is because I'm on (unpaid) maternity leave and there are legal issues the company doesn't want to get into. But there almost certainly won't be a job for me when I get to the end of my leave.

Right now I'm in the throes of dealing with a newborn, so sleep is a distant memory and tears pop up constantly for no reason. Or, if not no reason, then insufficient reason. For the first two weeks I did nothing in the way of crafting or even cooking. I like to think we're making progress, though, and the baby is growing and will pass this stage someday. So a look at what I did right before he arrived.

Obviously, I baked bread, as shown above. Also I made granola for cereal and a loaf of oatmeal bread, as below. The oatmeal bread I made the day before I went into labor.

The garden is in bloom, which is nice and requires no input. It needs lots of weeding desperately and just tidying in general, but we're taking that slow.

We put in lettuce seeds and pea seeds a while back (December?) and now we have lots of lettuce to eat. The peas are coming soon; they've got flowers.

I made lasagna with roasted zucchini and sausage.

I made a teddy bear hat which I still need to actually try on the kid.

Also a pair of corduroy baby pants from a scrap I've had for years and years. I was organizing my fabric in that week I had off before the baby came. It was likely the most productive week I'll have for years.

I started a new pair of socks, with a finer gauge than my first pair. They'll be red, with a blue cuff, heel, and toe. If I finish them before moths eat holes in them, that is.

I worked a little bit on the worsted-weight hexipuffs. They're probably going to be a cushion for the rocking chair, except I can't get time to work on them now.

Also I worked on the sock-yarn weight hexipuffs. I may finish making a blanket out of them before I turn sixty, but let's not make any promises.

And I started and made lots of progress on a baby afghan.

So. Right now the door is wide open on my future, and at the same time impossibly far to reach. Fortunately I have all those late night feeding sessions with the kid to think it all through.

Also, we had a dozen robins in the backyard the other day. Robins! That's one of those mythical species they have in fantasy novels and places like England.