Day 308 of 365

I'm done gambling. Not just done because I'm home from my mom's birthday trip to the casino, but done done. Done for a very long time.

I'm not a very good gambler. I love the thrill of winning - even the anticipation of winning - but the low of losing is just as powerful a feeling. I love having something that I can get so immersed in that I forget about everything else. But the losing times are miserable and I'm not interested in experiencing them anymore. So I'll do what is right.

I'm going to become one of those people who don't like to gamble. A couple of people I met at the casino helped me make that decision.

One gal I've met before. Every time I've been to the casino in the last year I've seen the same lady at the same particular penny machine. Last time I went I struck up a conversation with her and heard her "story". She's on disability and comes to the casino every other week and spends a few days each time. Each trip she plays hour after hour every day on that same slot machine. If I'm heading to the casino, she'll be there - and she was again this trip. I don't want to be that person whose life revolves around the casino, or even the person who is recognized as a regular.

The other gal I met last night. She was sitting at a penny slot machine next to me and kept repeating, "This is stupid." I didn't pay too much attention to her, but saw she had about three dollars in the machine. Then she told me she had put $100 in the machine and hadn't won anything yet. When she got down to a dollar left in the machine, she put in another $20 bill. She still was muttering about it being stupid. (I got the impression she was talking just as much about herself as she was the machine). $120 lost in a penny machine. I don't want to be that person who loses that much on one machine, particularly in pennies.

Knowing myself and my all or nothing way of being, I  made a conscious decision before I left the casino not to return. (At least anytime in the near future.) I have a full life here at home. I have activities that I can immerse in and forget about everything else.

When I got home, a package in the mail confirmed I was making a good decision. My two books ordered from Snapfish. One of all my donation projects for the year and one of my rose garden from this year.

I love the books and am proud of the work I've done and the pictures I've taken. The ten dollars I spent on the books is a much better use of my money than trying my luck with a slot machine.

Learn How to Make Fabric Tulips - An Easy Spring Project

In today's tutorial, we will learn how to make easy fabric tulips on a stem. This project is a quick and easy way to decorate your home and garden for spring.

For this project you will need:

• tulip fabric
• leaf fabric
• polyester fiberfill stuffing
• pinking shears
• Chopstick, wooden skewer, craft stick
• craft glue or hot glue 
• fabric clips or pins
• scissors or rotary cutter, cutting ruler, and cutting mat
• iron and ironing board
• sewing machine and matching thread
• marking pencil
• printable template from the pattern

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

Now available in my Etsy shop as a digital PDF download with step by step written directions, color photos, printable template, and link to the tutorial video. Click to find out more!

Looking for more springtime ideas? Check out some of our other projects!

Otherwise, join us as we make these quick and easy fabric tulips:

#EtsyCreatorCo

Day 331 of 365

I love bargains. And I love coming home and finding that bargains have arrived in the mail.

I've been spending a couple days with my daughter and haven't been home. When I got home I had three packages waiting for me. The first two packages were used books I purchased to do research on some children's books. $30 in books for eight dollars. But my third package was the best deal of all - a new purse from Coldwater Creek. I paid $14. The purse was originally $70. (Talk about exciting!)

Also exciting was the run my daughter and I made to another store. We ran across some gardening things at 50% off the last marked clearance price. We always like using a systemic product on our roses, but it is usually so expensive we might only do one or two treatments a year. With the 50% deal, I made off like a bandit. Our rose garden should look pretty darn spectacular this year.

I imagine checking out with a cart full like this you might think I would be someone who:
A: is a hoarder.
B: doesn't care about the environment.
C: is obsessive about a rose garden.

Obsessive about a rose garden is the right answer.

Day 164 of 365

I wish I could say I've regrouped, but I can't.

I wish I could say I have an eating plan set with less sugar and salt and smaller portions, but I can't.  I wish I could say I figured out the exercise thing, that I spent hours today in the rose garden, and that I feel very organized today.

I can't.

Because today was a day where I just vegged. No productive thoughts, no plans for how I'm going to balance home and work. Just a day home, doing laundry and working a bit in the sewing room.

Am I trying to put off the inevitable? The notion that maybe I really won't be able to maintain and focus on myself and others because work will infuse my every thought? The notion that, after 164 days of writing and taking pictures, I might lose what I know to be important?

Today was a day of more questions than answers. So I did what I do when I'm frustrated, confused, or am trying to avoid things.

Retreat (okay, hide) in my sewing room.

While I may not be making progress right now personally, in that room I can make progress on sewing projects. Like my latest baby quilt for charity. On Day 46 I had put the top together, but it took all the way until today for me to finally get around to finishing it.

Learn How to Make a Quilted Sunflower Potholder - a DIY Summertime Kitchen Project

In today's tutorial, we will learn how to make a sunflower potholder to decorate your home and garden for spring or summertime. This project is a great way to brighten up your kitchen for the warmer weather!

For this project you will need:

• fabric for sunflower
• fabric for center
• front and backing fabric
• paper-backed fusible web
• cotton batting OR Insul-Bright
• walking foot
• fabric clips or pins
• scissors or rotary cutter, cutting ruler, and cutting mat
• iron and ironing board
• sewing machine and matching thread
• marking pencil
• optional:  basting spray, stabilizer
• optional: fabric for hanging loop
• printable template from the pattern

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

Now available in my Etsy shop as a digital PDF download with step by step written directions, color photos, printable template, and link to the tutorial video. Click to find out more!

Looking for more potholder ideas? Check out some of our other projects!

Otherwise, join us as we make this cute sunflower potholder:

#EtsyCreatorCo

Day 986

The day is coming. The day I can no longer make it out and about. It became quite clear after a series of events today. Between phone calls and home and work and the doctor's office and the pharmacy and back home again things were rough every moment of the day. So when I got home I forced, absolutely forced, myself to the rose garden to take another picture of a bloomer. Because I know I may never, ever, for the rest of my life, be able to see a rose up close at this time of year.

Akureyri, Iceland

 Hello from Akureyri, Iceland! What a beautiful day.

It started last night when I woke up to go to the bathroom and thought I was getting a sunset picture. (I somehow missed that sunset occurred earlier at 9:45 PM. Oops.) Thank goodness we're so close to the Arctic Circle that the times don't really matter because it's still not getting very dark. 

11:04 PM

It was windy and so very cold but I bundled up on the balcony to search for the Northern Lights. Nope, even more than an hour and a half later it was still too light.

12:42 AM

My middle of the night adventure didn't stop me from being back out there just after 6:00 AM to watch us navigate the fjord as we headed to Akureyri.

Since today was my third and last visit of the summer I had to make the most of the day and squeeze in everything I could. My first plan was to go to the botanical garden but with the city bus A1 route only running once an hour it was going to take up too much of my day.

So for most of the morning I warmed my chilled bones by sitting in the sun on the balcony. With splendid views, of course.

I watched planes take off and land over the top of both my ship and the NCL ship.

What a beautiful ship

Remember, the airstrip goes right up against the water's edge - and right towards the cruise ships.

Photo taken on my June 7 visit

When I finally warmed up I headed back to the grocery store and replenished my stash of my favorite Icelandic snacks. 

These will be going home with me

Then I wandered the town taking tourist photos I missed on the first two visits. I started with the harbor area....

With three pictures of the NCL ship you'd think I had ship envy

and then went onto the Hof Cultural Center.

I rolled a little ways along the waterfront and headed up the hill to the Church of Akureyri, Akureyrarkirkja. They're redoing the steps so no one was climbing up there today.

I looked right and found the Akureyri heart.

I followed the pedestrian area near the heart and found all kinds of shops and restaurants and cafes. The color combinations were, well, colorful.

I was able to people watch and window shop before heading back to the ship. Taking photos of the heart shaped stoplights along the way, of course.

The blue sunny skies made for a spectacular last day here. Pure perfection.

Tomorrow we're off to Isafjordur, Iceland. See you then! 

Day 228 of 365

For some reason I'm not having much luck making zucchini bread.

I've been attempting to make more zucchini bread for a month now. I made a big bunch of loaves a while back and was planning on taking them to work to share. (I had promised a couple gals I'd bring them a loaf.) But those loaves never made it into the school building. For I had a meeting I had to attend before going to school that day. And that meeting wound up lasting all day long. Zucchini bread sitting in the very hot car all day wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. But these loaves were piled together in a bag along with my lunch. The density of the bread along with the weight of the lunch I never got to eat created smashed loaves. The loaves got carted home with me (and were bad enough I threw them away), with a promise to the gals I'd bring fresh, non-smashed loaves soon.

So a few weeks back I went to make fresh loaves. Shredded the zucchini and got the ingredients out. My flour canister was empty and no flour bags could be found anywhere. I never run out of flour or sugar. But back on Day 71 when my husband and I were talking about an anti-inflammatory diet we decided to stop buying flour and sugar. And we had gone used up what we had. So no zucchini bread.

Last week we went to the grocery store and I picked up flour so I could finally make the ladies some zucchini bread. Then we picked several zucchini from our garden yesterday. We used one in our full-of-veggies stew last night and were going to use one on the grill today. That left us many more to shred for zucchini bread today. I got them shredded, got the ingredients out and... I only had a bit of sugar in the canister and none anywhere else in the house. Just barely enough sugar for one batch of zucchini bread. But I have plenty of shredded zucchini.

Tomorrow the ladies will get their freshly made zucchini bread.

If I had more sugar, I would have made a dozen or so loaves and probably would have eaten more than my fair share. Thanks to no extra sugar in the house I kept from eating too much. And thanks to no extra sugar in the house I was able to take the time I had planned on using for zucchini bread making and baking to do some sewing instead.

Nine patch quilt blocks for my next little girl's quilt for Operation Kid Comfort.

Day 69 of 365

I feel like a slacker today.

I'm so far behind on everything. I thought I'd be farther down the road on the downsizing. I'm working at it quite often, but it isn't my priority so it slides. I'm falling farther behind on the quilt that's in the frame. I've worked on it a few days, but haven't even finished one section of it yet. My rose garden is full of tree seedlings that have sprouted after the seed pods dropped from the trees last year. If I don't watch it, we're going to wind up with a tree farm instead of a rose garden. My strawberries still haven't been weeded. And thank goodness my husband has been watering our newly planted vegetable garden, because I certainly haven't.

I don't know where the time goes. I spend an hour or two on the computer each day, working on the blog and printing recipes, coupons, and patterns. I exercise. I eat cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and cook dinner. I don't sit down to watch TV but a couple times a week in the evenings.

So where does it go? I can't get a handle on it. I spend time figuring out what I'm going to take a picture of. I walk across the street to get the mail. I take a shower. I get dressed. (Not in that order.)

I look back at the blog and know I've done a lot. And some days I'm excited about it. But today even that isn't enough to pull me out of my funk. Maybe I'm just tired. Or maybe it's because I know I only have a few days left to be home by myself. Next Friday is my husband's last day of school. Out for the summer, home every day, never leaving (unless I drive him). My private quiet time days are going to be gone, replaced with a husband who has no hobbies (unless you count watching sports on TV). I'll miss my quiet times, but I'm not sure I really deserve them if I can't figure out how I'm using them.

One thing that did take some time today will help me get one of my projects finished up. When I put backings on quilts, I've always used sheets. I made several kids' quilt tops a little while back, but wanted to put some brighter backings on them instead of the basic sheet colors I usually use. So I found a great deal (less than $15 for over 35 yards) on some solid colored fabrics on ebay a couple weeks back. They arrived today (there goes the downsizing) and I have them all nicely folded, ready to pick from so I can finish up these tops and get them out the door.

I just need to have something finished. Maybe then I can feel good about where my day has gone. Because right now I don't.

Exercise update: 23 for 23.

Day 684

When you're young you think you're invincible. You will live forever, work forever, play, go out, do whatever it is you do forever. In my husband's case, he thought he was going to teach forever. He knew retirement would come someday, but no where in the near distant future.

But when you get sick, really sick like he was, your perspective changes. It changes who you are in the present, it changes how you look at the future. It shifts your priorities. Life becomes too short to squander it away. Too short to be wasting your time on things that no longer matter. Things like a big house.

At one point in our lives we had been dreaming of retiring to Arizona, but then figured retirement would come and go and we'd still be right here in Marsing. Sitting in our 4 bedroom, 3 bath house on a large lot with a rose garden, a vegetable garden, a shade garden, and a perennial garden.

With his illness came clarity. A new dream for retirement.

2 bedroom, 2 bath, very small yard. In a 55+ community in Boise.

Tonight we took a huge step (a leap, really) in securing a future where the important things matter. Where bigger isn't better.

Our new home. And a bonus for my mom - a place for her to live until we're ready to head to Boise.

Day 122 of 365

I really am not interested in taking a break from making the baby quilts for charity. I do enjoy it quite a bit. There are a couple other sewing projects I want to work on, too. I'm not sure I'll be doing any more quilts or those other projects anytime soon.

There's a little problem with the gardens and the house.

The garden problem is an obvious one. We had to let the high school kid we hired to help us around the yard go and our daughter hasn't been home much. My husband doesn't like a schedule or responsibilities in the summer and with my back (and other body parts) being on the fritz, it's getting difficult to keep up with the weeds and the rose pruning. But the gardens are in desperate need of some attention so I'm going to have to spend more time out there when I can.

The house is just as big a problem.

I've really slacked on the cleaning. I'm not a clutter person, so it's not like there are dishes in the sink or clothes or books or magazines all around. It's the cleaning part. The mopping, the scrubbing the toilets and sinks, the vacuuming, the washing of the windows. Physically it's been tough to do those things for quite some time. And again, our daughter hasn't been around much to help out. When I was working we used to have a cleaning lady come once a week, but that was because we just didn't have much time to clean. But now it's not about the time, it's about the ability to do the work. And having the cleaning lady come back wouldn't make good financial sense.

So now the gardens and the housecleaning need to take priority over the sewing. It's a priority I'm not sure I can maintain. I already tried giving up the sewing on Day 80 and that time it only lasted until Day 96. We'll see how long it lasts this time.

I will certainly miss my time in the sewing room and miss turning out quilt after quilt. I finally finished up the last of my charity baby quilts to send out to Quilts for Kids today. I'll be sending off five quilts to them. I made two from my own fabrics on Day 101 and Day 107 and three from their free fabric kits on Day 120, Day 121, and today.

Day 80 of 365

Now that the quilts are gone, I've decided to close up my sewing shop for the summer.

I really don't have a sewing shop, but I've used my sewing machine more in these last couple months than I have in probably the last five years combined. But the sewing room is a disaster with all the bits of pieces of fabric left over, and all the different colored threads around, and batting pieces, and ... The list goes on and on. So I'll be cleaning it up in there, organizing it all pretty, and then not messing it up again for some time. I do still have a couple small projects I'd like to get to, but nothing like doing five quilts in five days. What was I thinking?

I know what I'm thinking now, though. Now that the weather is warmer, and the gardens (and the weeds) have been calling my name, it's time for me to focus on something else for a bit.

Every year I do that anyway. For the past 17 years I've been working full time, crazy hours, bringing work home with me. Usually around the first or second week of June or so, I'm out of school and ready to leave it all behind. And ready to focus on the outside stuff. Since my husband had his last day of school yesterday (and I'm not working), I'm ready to start that outside focus now. A whole month early.

Focus on the outside of the house and the gardens. Focus on watering and weeding. Pruning and clipping. And on harvesting the vegetables we planted.

Like radishes. Our first thing planted back on April 1 is the first thing we got to eat from the garden today.

Exercise update: 34 for 34.

Day 287 of 365

My great-grandfather used to have a collection of postcards he kept in a desk drawer in his living room. As a little kid I used to go through those post cards whenever I visited.

When I visited my grandmother who lived next door to us, I used to go through something in a drawer of hers, too. Something of great interest to me. In her kitchen one of her drawers was a designated junk drawer. Pens, pencils, matches, screws, magnets, papers, and lots of other little things were in that drawer. For a girl who liked to organize (me), sorting through the junk drawer was quite fun.

We have our own junk drawer here at home, too. Typically the bulk of the drawer is made up of screwdrivers, pliers, a hammer, nails, screws, glues, candles, and such. We haven't cleaned it out in a long time so if you were to open the drawer today you'd also find a pair of gloves, some weatherstripping, a school bus candle holder, razor blades, washers, a sprinkler repair tool, garden labels, a flashlight, a watermelon plaque, and dozens of other little bits of pieces of things. It's in desperate need of some organization. I made three trips to that drawer today but not to organize it.

I intended to put together what should have been a quick and easy project today. When my daughter was home last week, I had her help me put a cork bulletin board in my sewing room. It used to be her board through high school and college and had bits and pieces of stickers around the frame.

My first trip to the junk drawer was to fetch the Goo Gone, which turned out to not be in there. Sometimes I use it in my sewing room, but after checking there I came up empty. (I think I probably took it to school and forgot to bring it back.) The second trip to the junk drawer was to get the paint scraper to help get the stickers off.

With a clean frame, I used some fabric to cover the bulletin board. Sprayed some basting spray on the cork board and applied the fabric. After some wrangling and re-cutting and re-piecing I was able to use up every available inch of the fabric piece to get it to fit on every available inch of the board. Then I began to staple the fabric down around the edges.

On my first press of the stapler, my stapler broke. I grabbed another stapler (not like we don't have others around), but this particular stapler wouldn't go all the way into the cork. Hence, the next trip to the junk drawer to get the hammer so I could slowly tap, tap, tap the staples in.

The bulletin board is finished and my junk drawer is still a mess. 

Day 124 of 365

I like where we live.

When we first saw this house on one of the listings our real estate agent gave us, we passed it over because it was two levels. Even back 12-13 years ago, I was having problems with my knees and wasn't looking to live somewhere with stairs. But she encouraged us to take a look anyway. The owners had just finished the basement, it was in a nice neighborhood, and you could see the river.

On a rainy day in the spring, we took a drive to look at the house. It had carpeted non-steep stairs to the beautifully finished basement. It had a big backyard with nice shade trees, a couple of places for a garden, and a view of the Snake River from the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

We bought it.

We had been living in the country for many years. We were used to the open spaces and the quiet. The down side to living in the country was being since my husband doesn't drive, I would have to chauffeur him back and forth to his school. For several years we lived 10 miles from his work. I'd take him the 10 miles to work, turn around and backtrack to go 15 more miles my work. Then at the end of the day, I'd have to do the same. At that time he was also coaching sports, so I'd be making runs at 10:30 at night to get him after basketball and football games. Some of those late night drives were in blinding snowstorms. Thank goodness those days are long behind us!

This house we live in now is in a town of fewer than 900 people, and is less than a mile from his work. The librarian from his school lives across the street and gives my husband a ride to school every morning. We're close enough that he'll walk home in the afternoons if the weather is cooperating. Most all the folks in our neighborhood are retired. We get the benefit of city water, sewer, and trash.

But I think I appreciate this place more on the 4th of July than any other day.

Our town has a very nice fireworks show that is launched from the park by the river. So on the 4th of July celebration night (the 3rd of July this year) we don't even have to leave the yard. No crowds, no parking worries, no hauling chairs. (The only hauling of chairs we do is when we bring the chairs from the back patio to the front yard.) Two chairs, one bottle of mosquito spray, and a blanket is all we need to enjoy the fireworks from our front  yard.

And the camera.

Happy 4th of July to all!

Day 9 of 365

It all started with the cat.

Kitty. Putty. Sissy. Depends on who is calling her.

Every year, my daughter asks for a new calendar for Christmas. She used to want Harry Potter, but for the last few years it has been a cat calendar. Now that she's living on her own in a different town and we have Kitty-Putty-Sissy staying here with us, we decided to create a calendar of her cat. A different picture of the cat every month with some cute caption.

The month of November I spent going through our pictures of the cat and finding ones that would match up for different times of the year. Her in the leaf pile in the fall, in the rose garden in the spring. I decided for December the cat should be under the Christmas tree. I waited until we put up the tree, took a quick picture of the cat under it (no presents under the tree yet), and took my film to a one hour photo.

When I picked up the pictures an hour later, much to my surprise the picture showed the cat under the tree with presents around her. Wait - are those our presents from last year? Yep. We have gone the entire year without needing to get film developed. An entire year of less than 24 pictures worth taking. What the heck happened?

Now, we're a family that traveled a lot when I was working. Been to all 50 states, cruised to Hawaii twice, cruised to Alaska three times. Sun Valley every year. Arizona for Spring Training. Las Vegas or Florida or Texas for Christmas. And during all those vacations, took lots and lots and lots - thousands - of pictures. Some days I would go through an entire roll of film. We have dozens of scrapbooks filled with pictures of the beautiful places we've been.

Except now that we're home, not traveling, we have nothing? Nothing to note, nothing worth capturing?

And that's what got me started thinking about this picture a day thing. A take-a-picture-every-day-to-see-that-you-have-lived kind of thing. I cannot and will not believe that my/our everyday life is not as important or noteworthy as any place we've visited. In our vacationing life, we have taken pictures of race cars, of baseball stadiums, of signs in gas station windows. And we must now have pictures of our real, non-vacation life. Daily pictures that might help me find the good in the day, that might help lead me back into the land of the living instead of the land of the existing. Thus began the documenting of my days.

And how's Kitty-Putty-Sissy doing? Today, she's hiding her eyes from the sun and sleeping away. 

Day 150 of 365

You'd think as much as I hate lizards (I wrote a bit about those on Day 101) I'd hate frogs, too.

For some reason they're not the same.

I think it's because of the bad experiences I had with lizards when I was a kid. In contrast, the experiences with frogs weren't so bad.

When I was growing up, we lived next door to my grandparents. At our house and my grandparents' house, there were frogs that hung around the faucets out front. Baby frogs and grown up frogs. I used to pick them up and play with them. (The baby ones were especially cute.) When we went camping, we used to swim in ponds and lakes and catch tadpoles. I remember at least once bringing some tadpoles home, hoping they'd turn into frogs. They sprouted little legs, but never made it to the frog stage.

When our daughter was little and we went to an aunt's cabin, she caught frogs. We have a picture of her, probably no older than four or five, with a plastic cup full of frogs, just as proud as she could be.

She was pretty excited when we moved into this house and found out there were frogs around here. In the basement window wells, in the rose garden, hopping along the paths.

The frogs are long gone now, though. We've taken out some plantings they liked to live around and our gardens aren't as damp as they once were. My daughter turned to playing with worms. Even as a teenager working in the garden, she would get excited if she ran across a worm. And boy, do we have some big worms!

No frogs, no worms, and certainly no lizards around here right this second.

But turtles? Yep.

Day 435

I needed to escape. Flee, run away, hide, decompress, de-stress. I needed to clear my head and get my mind off of work. Knowing I had today and tomorrow off probably spurred my interest in escaping.

These last few weeks have been a marathon. Early mornings, late nights. 12-14 hour days. Even my weekends were not immune. My life has been juicing, work, juicing, work. My exercise bike has sat dormant for most of those couple weeks. I haven't even been able to carve out an hour between 5 AM and 11 PM to get on the bike. It's not like I haven't tried, but once I sit down to work after dinner I look up and it's dark and hubby is already snoring away.

When I used to work full time, our place of escape was always Jackpot. Gambling, whether we won or lost, always took our minds off work. And today I was oh-so-tempted to drive down. Distract myself with the pile of magazine reading I have to catch up on, distract myself with the book I started and haven't finished, and distract myself with the slot machines.

And unfortunately I gave into temptation. I figured driving a couple hundred miles from home would give me the distance I needed. Except on the drive down a work phone call happened. Then when I got checked in the room and was digging in my purse, a message that I needed to call school. Again.

It's my own fault. Next year I need to set some guidelines about contacting me on my days off.

I really don't want to feel so desperate that I have to spend my time here instead of my garden.

Living in Two Seasons Instead of Four

We used to have two seasons in this house, Christmas and not Christmas. I realized this morning when my mind was spinning at about 4 AM those seasons have changed. We now have sprinkler season and non-sprinkler season. 

Sprinkler season means we stay home, garden, and tend to the lawn (and the weeds). Non-sprinkler season means it's time to bring out the suitcases, the passports, and get ready to head out for a long cruising adventure. Get those sprinklers blown out and we are outta here! Even though the sprinklers did their part yesterday, we won't be doing ours. Because of the health of us, the country, and the world we'll have to wait a bit longer. Thanks to Princess Cruises' easy-to-initiate COVID cancellation policy we have a nice chunk of money just waiting for us when we're healthy and strong enough to use it. (During non-sprinkler season, of course.)

So on this cold and cloudy forty degree day instead of dreaming of snorkeling I guess I'll be moving into the non-sprinkler season Christmas season. 

Christmas projects, here I come.

Soon-to-be snowman and Santa mug rugs.

Day 203 of 365

Someone asked me the other day if I know the family I'm making these latest kids quilts for, the ones with the pictures in them.

Nope. Though, after making these quilts, I kind of feel like I do. The pictures in the quilts tell the story.

The family has a black and white dog. The oldest girl has a nice, new bicycle. She and her dad have been to a butterfly garden. The little boy plays with a set of jumbo Legos. Dad is in the Army, like Folgers coffee, and once got his red truck stuck in the mud.

But right now dad won't be helping with the bike riding, won't be playing Legos, and won't be getting his truck stuck in the mud. Dad is deployed and the kids are missing him.

So quilts are on the way. Quilts with sewn-in pictures of the kids and their daddy. Quilts that will, hopefully, help them remember their dad until he gets back home.

I feel blessed to be part of such an important project. I've decided this will be my go-to quilt charity and am requesting to "adopt" another family.

If you have any interest in joining me, visit Operation Kid Comfort to let them know you'd like to help. You can use your own fabrics to make the quilt or you can request one of their free fabric kits. The quilts are quick and easy to put together and are a great opportunity for us to support the children of deployed servicemen and women.

Day 168 of 365

I finally broke it.

Yesterday I got home after a long day's work after 6:00. Then, I

• Posted my tutorial and picture of the pocket tissue cover.
• Had dinner.
• Hemmed my husband's pants.
• Made sugar cookies.
• Guided my daughter in picking corn and digging potatoes.
• Decorated sugar cookies.
• Made salsa.

Then tonight I got home after a long day's work after 6:30 and I:

• Had dinner.
• Tied my husband's tie for tomorrow.
• Finished up making salsa.
• Posted my blog.
• Tried on clothes my mom gave to me.
• Packed for my overnight trip to my daughter's tomorrow night.
• Paid bills.

Something was missing from both those days.

After 120 consecutive days I broke my exercise streak. For two days in a row, I have not ridden my exercise bike.

It was a conscious decision. A hard decision.

I could have (maybe) got myself downstairs and on the exercise bike for one short mile like I've been doing this last week or so, but didn't. I couldn't face another day of doing a half-hearted attempt at keeping the streak going.

I knew I could not dedicate the energy/stamina/focus to bike as long as I should. On these work days, I've been barely squeezing in a mile. I've just been going through the motions.

If I'm exercising, I need to put my all into it. And I'm not.

I'm not giving up exercising all together, but I am giving it up right now, temporarily. Hopefully no more than just this week. For quite some time before I started back to work, I was biking anywhere between 3-5 miles a day. I need to again find the dedication to ride like before.

But I'm exhausted - both mentally and physically. If you've been on this journey with me, you know I've been exhausted like this before. I feel like I can't catch a desperately needed break. I know in a few short weeks my schedule will be more manageable, so I just need to hold on.

I'm grasping with every last bit of energy I have.

I did do a good deed, though. The sugar cookies I made yesterday were for the school secretary, who shared some onions (hence the new batch of salsa) and carrots from her garden with us. So I returned the favor with some tomatoes from our garden and some carrots from my oven.