It’s eerily quiet here. Abnormally quiet.. even dead quiet. Everyone is gone except for myself and Jack the cockatiel who has taken it upon himself to fill the silent void. After months of noise and complete absence of peace, quiet and solitude, I have the entire house to myself. All to myself!

Spurg is at work, as usual. Sydney went back to school today (she’s year round, so she goes for 3 months and then is off for a month) and believe it or not, even Nick has returned to school. Poor Nick took a look at a few of the other programs, and after spending over a month at home, he became bored out of his mind and decided to return to his old program. He’s 18 now, so legally, it is his decision. I’ve let him know that we can give it this one last try. He’s been back for a couple of weeks now and so far so good!)

Now. What to do with myself? There are chores to be done, dishes to wash, dinner to plan and bedding to be washed. I’ve started revamping the blog and have some work still to do here with layout and appearance. However, I am inclined to do only the necessary things today and take the rest of the time to enjoy myself! I think after a couple of months with one or both kids driving me straight up the wall and a total lack of being able to have some “me” time, I completely deserve it. It’s either that or I do something crazy like go on a mom strike.

Of course, the past few months have not been completely without pleasure in one form or another. And I must have done something right in life because Karma seems to be paying me back in kind. In December, I managed to win some yummy Tussah Silk hand dyed by Delia and oh do I have some plans for it!!

This was a prize for the “For The Love of Jack” mini draw in the Raffle that Delia is running to help Dave of The Merlin Tree raise funds to pay for much needed surgery for Yukon Jack who was badly mistreated. You can read about Jack and his rescue here. For those of you who are interested in a chance to win some yummy fibery goodness, yarn or even a Hitchhiker spinning wheel, there is less than two weeks left to donate/purchase raffle tickets. So far there are only 30 people entered, so chances are good! Delia also sent out a plea yesterday asking for bloggers to post about helping Jack in an effort to spread the word. For each blog that does this, she will add another prize per blog. So go and see the goodies you could win, spread the word (don’t forget to email her.. details on her blog!) and watch the prize pot grow! Should you feel so inclined to donate, please do so!! And to put my money where my mouth is, I will be doing a second donation this very afternoon!

In January, Lisa had a bit of a Sneaky Contest on her blog. And she wasn’t kidding! All you had to do to enter was leave a comment. What she didn’t tell us was that the Grand Prize Winner would be picked from the previous post comments! But she did us right as well! Second prize was picked from the comments left for the contest and guess who one? Yep. She never gave a clue about what the prize was and when I received it I opened up a box to find this!!!

 Yummy Soft and Gorgeous Alpaca Roving from North Star Alpacas

and some beautiful stitch markers!!! Thank you Lisa!

Now it does seem like I am on some sort of winning streak here. A prize for December and a prize for January. I am only entered in one contest for February and that is For the Love of Jack Raffle. With this winning streak, I’m feeling pretty lucky for the drawing on the 15th and I have my eye on a couple of goodies over there (would be thrilled with any of the prizes though as Delia’s work is absolutely amazing!), and here is where I am going to double dog dare you. I dare you to donate/purchase just one ticket for the drawing and take those goodies away from my greedy little fiber grubbing hands. Swipe the Hitchhiker away from my dreams and keep the fibery yarn goodness from joining my beloved stash. Be the one who blogs about it and teases me with how you have stolen it all away from me and the others!! I double dog Yukon Jack dare you!