Hope you have a more relaxed year in 2022.
I am slowly putting my house back in order now that all of my guests are back in their homes.
Tons to do, but I can take my time.
First I washed all the towels and our laundry. That took two days.
Today I washed the bedding in the office and we put the bed back in the corner and brought back in my computer and other things I removed so kids wouldnāt get into trouble in there.
Tomorrow another room.
I donāt think I mentioned here that my garbage disposal crapped out right before Thanksgiving. The thing was only 25 years old, so I donāt know why it thought it was time to give up already! 
I have been able to manage without it until my brother can replace it, weāve just had to be careful to make sure nothing goes into the drain and all the dishes are well scraped before going into the dishwasher. Well, this afternoon (in the middle of the Zoom chat 
) my son started the dishwasher, then came in and got me because it was making a weird noise. By the time we got back down the hall to the kitchen, not only had it started making this horrible squealing, squelching noise, the sink was completely backed up and flooding the kitchen! So my son got my brother and the three of us spent the next two hours cleaning up the kitchen floor and counters, then we had to bail a couple inches of standing water out of the bottom of the dishwasher, and I washed the dishes in the bathtub because the sink wonāt drain at all. My brother and son are still in the kitchen taking the drain apart to see if they can figure out why it stopped so suddenly. I suspect that my sister put something down the drain that she shouldnāt have on New Yearās Eve. I did warn her that the disposal was broken so to not put ANYTHING down it, but she can be somewhat scatterbrained at times and doesnāt always take what her baby sister says seriously. My brother just came in while I was typing this up and said that it looks like the dishwasher probably needs to be replaced too (itās about as old as the disposal), but heās not positive at this point. We had already figured a new disposal into the household budget since it went out well before Christmas, but we hadnāt figured on a new dishwasher too, so weāre going to have to work that one out, at least I have plenty of yarn to knit out my frustration with! Happy New Year to my house!
My guests (my mother and father) leave on Tuesday. Then, @Hellokitten , I will start the same slow process you are starting! We will leave our Christmas decorations up until the feast of the Baptism of Christ, I think (one week from today). There will be a lot of putting back. Iāll start with the cleaning tomorrow, I think.
Bummer! It could have at least happened some other time than Zoom chat time!
You can always use your dishwasher as a big drainer while you save up for a new dishwasher! New dishwashers are so unreliable. I think I saw recently that the average life expectancy of a dishwasher is now five years. Weāve had a few problems with ours (about 7 years old) but between some cheap parts from ebay and video tutorials on youtube, hubby has kept it going.
One of the most valuable tips we got from youtube is that you should use a lot less detergent if you have softened water. That tip solved our leak problem.
I know, right? I so rarely get to go to the Zoom chats and I was pissed that I had to leave early!
My brother is an expert at keeping things running well past their life expectancy. He thinks that he might still be able to fix the dishwasher (YouTube and eBay parts are his best friends!) but the garbage disposal has definitely had it. Iām pretty sure we do have a water softener for the house because I know we have extremely hard water in this area, but I will have to make sure and ask him. I always use the dishwasher pods and fill the little āextra detergentā spot with cider vinegar because it really helps things both wash and rinse better. My older son always rolled his eyes and said that it didnāt really help anything. He moved out of my house for the first time in the middle of November and messaged me last week to tell me that he has noticed a big difference in how clean his dishes get there vs how clean they got here and asked for exactly what it was I used. I remember how my own mother had a sudden spike in intelligence about a month after I moved into my own place and was hoping I might be blessed with the same. Lo and behold, I did! 
If you do have a water softener, I highly recommend you use the liquid dishwasher detergent so you have control of the quantity. The pods are what got us in trouble. When we switched to liquid and put in half the amount, the leaking out of the door stopped. Our manual actually says to use less with softened water but we hadnāt noticed it until we had trouble and went looking for tips.
I talked to my brother and we donāt have a household water softener. Which makes sense because, as he reminded me, we use the vinegar because it helps rinse the hard water off the dishes more cleanly and keeps mineral deposits from building up in the works of the dishwasher itself. I knew all this, but have been really spacey lately! 
Happy New Year!
We are getting back to normal routine here. I have two projects to finish this week, a hoodie hat for DH and one sock. Also I plan to join a UnityKCAL on Instagram. Iāll share my progress here as well.
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I saw the unity kcal and told her Iād participate and then promptly forgot about it. Iām so glad you mentioned it. Thank goodness the first part is literally āDo what you want.ā Lol
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Making progress! One thrummed mitten completely finished. The other just needs the thumb.
Those are so cute and look super warm! 
Beautiful.
Those are great! And, now I have some idea what āthrummingā is! 
Looks fantastic!
Itās so cute on the outside!
This looks awesome!!!
Good morning! It is WIP Wednesday!!! What are you working on?
I started a declutter challenge, and Iām working on that. Trying to figure out the best way to store my fabric. Still. Trying something new again - weāll see how it goes. Something needs to happen to reclaim my space. 
Still plugging away at my sweater/jacket. Back, fronts, and sleeves are done. Need to pick out the cotton yarn and knit the inset pockets. Then knit the zipper band. Then block the pieces and use them as a pattern to cut the lining. Sew the lining. Sew the pieces. And finally, knit the hood. Golly ā¦ I still have a LOT to do!
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So pretty, canāt wait to see it finished. Love the cables and colors.