Cleaning blankets. The guest room. That antsy sense of can’t-hold-still when you’re preparing for guests.

After dinner, the puzzle: he told me too late that his puzzle enthusiast mother had always stuck to 250 pieces or fewer because otherwise they take too long.

Dang. Yes. Yes they do. I’d been too much a newbie to realize what 1000 pieces was going to be like.

That one piece of rutted driveway had been missing for a week, and the last few days we were not admitting to ourselves that we’d lost interest in finishing the darn thing given that we could never finish the darn thing.

The vacuum unearthed it near the back door this evening. Somehow it had tried to follow me out to go water the plants and been stuck in the carpet. Yay!

We got right to it and didn’t stop till it was done and it’s pretty and all those sky pieces drove me nuts and we never have to do it again.

And then since organization mode had totally taken over the day I pulled out all the small-project FOs. Hats, ends run in, those go here. Cowls, ends run in, here. Anything with the ends not run in all go in here for some day when I have a strong need to Finish All The Things.

Then there was the one I labeled Favorites. The scarf I made for his mother’s funeral. The silk one, just because. The red cashmere one I wear with a particular Ukrainian blouse that I love but whose neckline I do not. Easy fix. Plus one that’s going to a particular recipient and the Favorites label fits her (also because there’s no more room in the ends-already-run-in bag.)

It’s okay to keep some, he said, making sure I knew that.

Cooler weather is coming and people are going to need a little bit of human warmth. I think I’m ready.