A great weekend, and a good day at work.

Loved the brunch on Saturday with 80% of my kids plus BittyBit (who is now nearly as tall as I). Picked up a few items after brunch while we were still at IKEA: bathmat for Middlest's bathroom, new area rug for his bedroom, a gnome/tomten for me to take to work and brighten up my cubicle, and maybe a couple of other things that I've already forgotten. Oh yeah. Red seat cushions for the straight backed chairs in the living room.

Then we went to the bead store in BigD, and I bought the makings for two pairs of earrings. While organizing the box that holds most of my beads and beading supplies, I found two larger Murano glass beads (red, of course) that I've popped in with the others. I made up the Christmas tree earrings from the kit (Swarovski crystals that are more bling-y than my usual preference but still cute). The other pair will have to wait for more inspiration. And maybe some gunmetal findings. I am almost equally into gunmetal and rose gold. A foolish consistency, and all that...

Went to a singles potluck followed by the First Presidency's devotional last night. Made brownies. Brought only half a dozen of them home, so Middlest got three and I took the rest to work for part of lunch today. Also brought home two slices of Marie Callender's coconut cream pie, but since I've had brownies today, my slice will have to wait until tomorrow.

I'm continuing to make progress on Leftie. I'm almost done with my third repeat of the seven color stripe sequence. Those tiny leaves just make me grin.

Today I wore my cropped Fair Isle sweater (the Michele Rose Orne one I knitted on the train while still living in Fort Worth) over some of my Gudrun Sjoden stuff. Totally knocked it out of the ballpark. I'd like to knit this one again in a plied yarn. The Malabrigo and/or Manos del Uruguay yarns are single-ply, loosely spun, and pill if you look sideways at them. I would also knit it in the round and steek the center front, rather than having a flobbity-jillion ends to weave in, as I did with this one. Oh well. I will keep the "sweater stone" people in business until there's nothing left of this sweater to swipe at.

Tomorrow I take Middlest to the rescheduled dental appointment. I'm taking the entire day off and foresee lots of happy knitting time but no actual Knit Night. I might even attend the Relief Society activity, instead. Don't faint.

When I was a RS president, I couldn't understand why someone who had served in that capacity would ever skip an option to get together with the other sisters. I get it now. I love the sisters in my ward. I don't have a best friend in this ward, but I don't really have time for a best friend at the moment. When I get off work, I want to come home, take off my shoes, my compression hose, my bra, my earrings, put on my PJs, and knit or read until I can't keep my eyes open any longer. My knitting group is wonderfully non-judgmental if I need to nope out on any given night.

I've had a nice visit with Middlest while eating dinner, and now I'm going to scoot off to my room.