Day 371

I'm not a vegetable fan and I'm certainly not a carrot fan. But yesterday something made me change my mind about carrots. Well, at least one kind of carrot.

Every morning when I go to school I check with the school secretary to let her know I'm in the building for the day. Yesterday before I got a chance to turn around and go to my office, she stopped to show me her huge carrot. Her huge, gorgeous, vibrantly colorful carrot.

Even though she used the carrot last Easter and thought it was fine, she pulled it out again last Saturday. She needed something to do and didn't want to go to town and get something new, so out came her carrot. And she finished it. She's SOOO glad she did because she likes it even more now!

It was a quilted carrot tablerunner.

According to her, it was really a quick and easy project. It may have just taken her longer to pick the material out than to sew it, but it doesn't matter much. Whether she uses it as the tablerunner it is, or opts for a wallhanging option, it's the prettiest darn carrot I've ever seen.

Don't you agree?

Day 370

I had to give something up. To bike, to sew, to work, to keep trying to focus on the positive meant I had to cut something out.

Tuesday Tutorials.

I know they've been popular and I've gotten lots of warm and fuzzy comments about them (and I love those comments!), but I have to temporarily (or maybe permanently) stop doing them. It's a combination of time constraints and a lack of creativity. My creativity has been slowly draining away and what creativity I do have left I want to spend on trying new quilting techniques for the kids' quilts. And the time issue? Probably kind of obvious.

Trying to focus on the positive becomes another draining activity. I'm doing my best to keep my mind off rheumatoid arthritis issues. I hope my writing reflects more positive thinking this year than it did last year.

Something that is just like last year is the rose garden. On March 7 of last year (Day 5) I awoke to the rose garden covered in snow. Since yesterday's temperatures were in the 60s I didn't expect today, March 6, to see snow. But I did. Here in March, almost to the exact date, the garden is covered in snow. I didn't snap a picture of it this year, though.

I went with the Amaryllis that is blooming (again).

Day 369

I was oh-so-close to going to work today.

It wasn't a work day for me but I almost went in anyway. The pile of things that need to be done this week keeps growing and without the scheduled work days to do them, I am getting a bit antsy. But I held back. I did what I needed to do for me.

I stayed home. I stayed home and biked. I stayed home and worked at putting my sewing room back together. My mom and I are trading pieces of furniture - I get an armoire she doesn't need and she gets one of my bookshelves. The plan is to put the armoire in the sewing room, but it's not here yet. My daughter and her boyfriend are doing the switcharoo tomorrow so I'm in a bit of a holding pattern.

With the sewing room in a holding pattern my sewing is in a holding pattern, too. That one thing that grounded me, kept me thinking about others and kept my mind off my own issues isn't there right now. I need to make sure once it gets up and running again I get my behind in there.

I don't want it to turn out like the sunsets. For months the sun in my eyes over the computer screen bugged me like crazy. It may have bugged me, but it gave me the opportunity to see lots of gorgeous sunsets. Unfortunately now that I have curtains up I haven't even thought to look out the window.

I'm glad I caught what I was doing and started looking out the window again.

Day 368: Homedale, Idaho

It seems that if I'm planning on making an official cross country trip I need to start at one coast and go to the other. Being that I'm in Idaho, I guess it makes sense to start at the west coast.

My mom and I were talking on the phone yesterday, laughing about me probably having to do some multi-tasking. For as many miles and hours that I'll need to ride, I'll have to be doing something else at the same time. Something like biking and sewing.

While I didn't bike and sew at the same time today, I did bike and fold a couple loads of laundry. I don't think my husband was all too pleased that he had to hand me the items. I just couldn't figure out how to take things out of the basket, fold/hang them and return them to the basket, all while trying to balance the basket on my lap. That multi-tasking - and plenty of miles - wore me out so much today that as soon as I came upstairs I took a nap. I was darn tired!

But thanks to multi-tasking like that, in two days I've covered 33 miles so far. I was only planning on biking 11 miles to get myself to Homedale, Idaho but it seems I overshot it. So no story on Homedale, just a pic I took on my way to work the other day.

Next stop, a roadside attraction outside of Juntura, Oregon some 80 miles down the road from Homedale. Might be a while for me to get there. Or, if I can figure a way to sew and ride, maybe not.

Year Two Begins

Thanks to all who stopped by yesterday as I finished up Year One. It sure was nice hearing nice comments from the nice people out there!

Now it's on to Year Two.

With another year comes another goal. A huge goal. A goal bordering on unattainable. An I can't believe I'm aiming this high kind of goal.

It started with an inspirational story I saw about a guy named Steve. I don't know Steve but I read his story here. Steve joined an "Everest Challenge" where participants climb enough stairs to equal the distance up Mt. Everest. He was the first participant to reach the "summit", climbing up to 440 floors in a day. But that's not the most inspiring part. Steve did this while a patient in the hospital, not long after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

So it got me thinking. I can't do stairs, but I can do the exercise bike.

What if someone like me - someone who is looking for a lofty goal and needs to find a focus, someone who loves to travel but needs to stay close to home because of health reasons, someone who certainly could use some exercise and doesn't mind the exercise bike - rode that exercise bike mile after mile?

And what if those miles added up? Added up to equal a cross country trip?

So, here we go. I'm heading out on my exercise bike with specific towns, cities, and destinations in mind. I'm only traveling to places I've been before and I'm only "riding" on roads I've driven before.

I hope you join me as I head out on the year-long trip. You'll get to learn about this great country as I make my stops. Being that I've been to all 50 states, the possibilities are tremendous. Just check out the map of everywhere I've traveled!

Day 366 of 365/366

Today is it.

One year.

I have no words for how I feel about today, but I need to say thank you. Thank you for your support, advice, and words of encouragement. Thank you for caring, for reading, for commenting. Thank you for being part of my life for the last year. I wouldn't be in the land of the living instead of the land of existing without this blog and without the people who read it.

And if you've been here a while you know about my love of Peeps. I just couldn't resist buying something I found at the store for my special treat for today.

But an even bigger treat would be hearing from you today. Please leave me a comment - I really would love to hear who is out there!

Day 365 of 365

It should be the end. But thanks to good ole Leap Year Day, my days are off. To make it a full year, I'm going to have to go to 366.

So no celebrating today.

Just a regular schedule with my regular things. A to-do list that keeps growing.

Gotta get that sewing room put back together. Still have to get those computer cords tucked away in the den. Carpets still haven't all been shampooed and my kitchen and bathrooms are lacking their shine.

But that to-do list will have to wait.  I spent yesterday with my daughter and mom and spent the night.  We awoke to snow, snow, and more snow.  And it's still snowing.  So I am parked at my daughter's apartment with no internet access, dictating my blog over the phone to my mom.  It only seems right that Day 365 wound up being a family affair.

Until I can get home and post a snow picture (done!) this one will have to do.  An investigation outside yesterday shows that the icky kale wasn't the only thing to survive the winter.

 See everyone tomorrow for Day 366!!