Blessings.

I slept really well last night. Or at least I think I did. I woke a little after 5:00 and gave the stuff in the dryer a few minutes more. Which reminds me that I need to go gather that up. Fifteen or twenty minutes' work would have all the laundry folded and put away. And a smaller mountain on the fallow side of the bed.

I have a small craft project for Primary today (something for me to do, not something for the kids to do, to replace items that were taken out of our Primary closet two weeks ago). And a drive by fooding of the elders later today. I am almost in the mood to cook.

I'll wait while you pick yourselves up off the floor.

The Scowl/Scollar is done, all but weaving in the ends and blocking. I am not sure if I am ready to cast on Knit Swirl. I will absolutely have to swatch first. And we all know how much I love that.

But you cast on 700+ stitches. A minuscule difference in gauge could give me something that would fit Audrey Hepburn or slipcover a couch. It's not knit traditionally in pieces or tubes. It's knit on the bias from the outside edges in. There's no way to try it on and check the fit as I go. And I have $200+ of yarn that may or may not frog well. (Noro Silk Garden.)

In financial news, when I spoke with my sister in law the other night, she told me there'd been a distribution from her mother's estate. Beloved's share was applied to the balance on the truck. So I now owe significantly less. There will be another distribution in two or three months which might zero it out entirely.

Pretty seriously cool.

At the end of 2011, for about six weeks, I was debt free. Then came wedding preparations, including the purchase of Beloved's ring. Size 15. Lotsa gold. And taking on his medical expenses last year. By the end of this year I hope to have only the mortgage.

When I am frustrated and discouraged about how long it is taking to settle Beloved's estate, I look at where we were financially the week he died, and where I am now, and I feel somewhat safer.

When I walked out of the Social Security office with the knowledge that I would have to wait several years for drawing a widow's benefit to make sense, I sat in Lorelai and howled in despair. Counting the mortgage, I was approximately two years' worth of gross income in debt.

And I just now realized that if I do achieve this year's financial goals, then when I start drawing my widow's benefit, I can throw it into principal payments on the mortgage and be entirely, blessedly debt free by the time I am 70. And could think about retirement and serving a mission. And doing a lot of good with the money that is now going into paying off debt.

Meanwhile, I will fold laundry and start swatching.