When the Cold Arrives and Life Slows Down

{one of my dwarf crape myrtles}

The cold blew in hard this week. One day we had a mild, cozy fall day of 70°F, and the next day we were waking up to temps hovering around 30°F with a high of only 40°F. It was a shock, but honestly, I welcomed it. There’s something about that first real hit of winter air that slows me down in the best way. It makes me want simple meals, simple days, simple projects, and slower living.

We used the last bits of warmth to tidy up the yard and handle all the outdoor faucets, ours and Papaw’s. He was released from the hospital late last week and now has daily rehab. He’s still a fall risk, so they’re requiring 21 days of rehab to help build his strength back up. If I’m being honest, though… I think the whole hospital stay was a miracle in disguise.

While he was there, they discovered his blood pressure was 279/110. They had a really hard time getting it under control, but he’s now on medication and doing so much better. At first, they thought he might need a pacemaker, and I think that really shook my husband. He’s been blessed in a sense—he’s never really watched a loved one decline. His grandparents passed before he was born, so he never walked through end-of-life things with someone close. His only real frame of reference for a pacemaker was his mom, who received hers last December and passed in June. I think the idea of his dad needing one hit him hard.

But thankfully, Papaw didn’t need a pacemaker after all. He only needed a small monitor placed under the skin to keep an eye on the electrical issues in his heart. Those issues actually began a few months ago when COVID hit our family. It hit all five of us, with my father-in-law getting hit the hardest. It caused some arrhythmias, and Papaw wore a heart monitor for over a month. So this new monitor is more of a continuation of that care.

All of this, the cold weather, the health scares, the slowing down, has made me think a lot about what I’m doing here. My channel… my blog… the whole creative space around me.

My YouTube channel was originally founded on January 13, 2007, but I didn’t start posting videos until 2013 on that old account. I loved that channel. Truly loved it. That was also when I started this blog. Both brought me joy… until they didn’t.

My old channel was spammed during my very first live, and the spammer got the channel removed. I fought to get it back, but never could, so I started fresh with my current channel. Then, last year, that one was deleted for 24 hours because of “false reporting.” During the fight to get it back, I somehow ended up getting the old channel restored, too. But ever since then, it’s felt like one long uphill climb—trying to gain back momentum, trying to make videos that made me happy and videos that fed the algorithm, trying to compare and compete without meaning to. I got caught up in plugins that were supposed to help me grow, but all they really did was push me into comparison mode.

And I’ve been stuck in that loop for almost three years.

At the beginning of this year, I started to see that the pressure wasn’t working for me anymore. My joy was being stripped away. Then losing my mother-in-law happened, and everything shifted again. For a moment, I thought maybe I needed to pour more into YouTube, make it more of a job, make more content. But almost instantly, the comparison came back… and the joy slipped away again.

So here I am, 11 months into 2025. My shed is mostly finished except for the porch. My days look different. I have more time. And although I know I need to make an income, I’m also realizing that I’m okay with simplicity. I’m okay with slow days. I’m okay with doing things that bring me joy rather than chasing numbers.

I want this space—this blog and my channel—to reflect my love of yarn, my journey, and my heart. Honestly, it always has in its own way. But a new year is coming, and with it comes room for new rhythms and calmer living as I move through my mid-40s and eventually into my early 50s.

A life of simplicity.
A life of sustainability.
A life of using what I have, stash diving, and making things that make me smile.
A life of creating with yarn and with other mediums, too.

If that’s the direction you’re craving too… will you join me?

You can join in on this journey and live a life of simplicity with me here: https://www.youtube.com/@yarning4asmile

This week's Free Patterns are up on the YouTube channel today. There is also a Page on this blog where I will be linking them. I may go back and try to link some from the past as well, but going forward, they can all be found there: https://yarning4asmile.blogspot.com/p/pattern-round-ups.html