Category: Gardening

Gathering Steam

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Welcome to the end of my first week back after the Big Spring Sickness of 2024!  Whew, it was a nasty bug—I’ve heard that multiple people in our area required medical intervention due to it.  Ugh, so much exhaustion experienced by all.  All in all, though, it was a good week full of good weather and a lot of productivity.

Top priorities this past week:

  • Prom Dressses
  • Garden tasks
  • Driver’s licenses tasks

Creativity

Ren’s Prom Dress:  I was still quite weak at the beginning of the week, so progress on Ren’s prom dress didn’t happen until Wednesday, but I put in about four hours of work and all of the basic elements of the dress (Bodice, lining, underskirt) are assembled in their basic forms and I can now move forward with attaching them to each other and doing finishing work.  The end is in sight!

Rachel’s Prom Dress:  I’ve not made any progress on this, which is extremely unfortunate because I was supposed to begin working on it in earnest this week.  We’ll get there when we get there.

Garden

I actually used some of the rhubarb this week, which was good because it’s starting to become a behemoth of a plant! We had a lovely rhubarb/mixed fruit crumble for dessert one night. Soooo good.

I got caught up on starting seeds and direct sowing seeds!  Renaissance helped me plant four different varieties of marigolds in one starting tray, and I planted sweet peppers, hot peppers, pepperoncini peppers, Big Daddy tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, slicing cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, zucchini, crookneck squash, broccoli, and cilantro in the other tray.  I still have a few spots open for some more seeds in the second tray, which I might use for some herbs. 

I transplanted my started pansies and delphiniums into the garden, but they’ve been struggling for weeks in their trays and I do not know what to expect from them in the future. 

I direct sowed the last bit of peas, and some Bells of Ireland and Four O’ Clocks.  I also went back and fortified the trellises with better staples to hold them to the ground for the peas and sweet peas.

Caring

Driver’s Licenses: Renaissance is officially a licensed driver!  WOO HOO!  We finally did it!  I took her to the DOL on Tuesday and she’s got the paper!  We are waiting for our insurance company to get back to us on adding her to our policy, and once we have that confirmation she’ll be good to go.  She can’t park on campus until she has proof of insurance, so we’re waiting on that task as well.  Michael is also replacing the brakes on the kids’ car this weekend so they can be extra safe.

Rachel has been studying every afternoon for her Driver’s Knowledge test this weekend.  It’s a good thing I made a note to make sure she was doing this—every afternoon has found her completely forgetful of the task AND I had to intervene at one point because she was playing video games while listening to a YouTube video about driving rules and considered it as studying.  Uh, no.  I’ve not been her favorite person this week because I keep insisting on nitty gritty studying tactics.  You’ll thank me when you pass the test, girlie.

Emily hasn’t done any practice driving because I’ve been too busy with getting caught up with life this week, but I’ve scheduled daily drives for the next six weeks to get her back up to snuff.

Regarding the bridal shower and wedding gifts, I think I’ll just return them to Amazon and then re-order them and have them delivered to the couple’s new address.  I still need to text the mom and get that figured out.

Renaissance and I sat down to talk about her post-high school plans and run the numbers.  She qualified for every merit and music scholarship available at the colleges, but we are just middle-class enough to not warrant any financial assistance via the FAFSA, so she was going to be on the line for $17,000-30,000 per year to attend the four-year universities she was thinking about attending.  That is simply not feasible for her, so she’s going to go with her alternate plan of attending technical college and earning an associate degree in culinary & pastry arts so that she can have a marketable skill that can then help her finance her future plans.  She was really torn between studying music or studying pastry, so either option was fine with her.  The pastry program is good in that she can then transfer to a four-year school and earn some sort of business and/or food science degree, if she desires.  I think she wants to eventually open a bakery of her own, and that she wants to work with local high school students and the community to offer educational opportunities and/or internships in culinary areas.

I’m disappointed that the money couldn’t work out for a four-year option.  I entered the financials into a copy of the spreadsheet that I had made when we did this for Emily two years ago, and I was appalled to find out that one of the schools they both applied to increased their tuition by $17,000 in just two years!  It’s bonkers out there, and it led to some very serious conversations with Emily this week in order to adjust her expectations for the future as well.  You just can’t expect an 18-22 year old and their family to cough out or sign up for loans in the amount of $120,000 for a college education at a Division 3 school!  That’s almost the cost of our first house!  Gross.  The technical school option will end up costing just $8,000 a year, which is a sum we can work with.  And HELLO…a pastry chef in the family?  That’s just cool.  Ren was also wise and applied to start in January so she can spend a few more months working to save up money to pay for it all.  If you know of any bakeries hiring, she’s looking!

It was a really busy week, with a lot of important things happening, and I think it’s turned out well.  Hopefully this weekend sees a lot of time for sewing, weeding, and driving practice!  

Well, That Was Unfortunate Timing

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Nathaniel was sick for the entirety of Spring Break, and on Saturday I woke up feeling…off. Michael took Ren to the school for Daffodil Parades so I could get my energy up and meet them at one of the later parades, but within a few hours it was very clear that I had caught Nathaniel’s bug and was out of the running for anything beyond laying on the couch and watching television through bleary eyes. And so it went for the remainder of last week. And this last weekend. And today. I am having a heck of a time with this illness.

I’m hoping the exhaustion and relentless coughing starts to fade this week because I was supposed to finish Ren’s prom dress last week and this was the week to start working on Rachel’s dress. Stress levels are high.

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

  • Saturday: Chicken Shawarma
  • Sunday: Cheesy Ham and Potatoes for Nathaniel’s birthday
  • Monday: Dino Nuggets, French Fries, Mixed Vegetables
  • Tuesday: Crockpot Chili & Baked Potatoes
  • Wednesday: Cheeseburgers, Spiced Braised Rhubarb
  • Thursday: Crockpot Honey Chicken
  • Friday: Salad Bar

Clothing

Catching up after missing all of last week’s laundry.

Cleaning

Catch up, basic upkeep.

Caring

  • Renaissance passed her driver’s license test last week! There’s still a lot of paperwork to get her driving legally on her own, and it is a high priority this week. I am really looking forward to this development.
  • Rachel is taking her driver’s license knowledge test later this week, so helping her study for that.
  • Emily, possibly spurred on by the success of her younger sisters in the driver’s license department, has finally renewed her driving permit and is now legal to start practicing for her own driver’s license, so I imagine I need to start making time for her practicing, too.
  • Need to figure out a way to get the bridal shower and wedding gifts to the young woman who got married last week. I was too sick to go and she and her husband have headed back to school already.
  • We need to sit down with Renaissance and figure out her post-high school plans. She’s received news of the various scholarships she’s been awarded, the FAFSA is taking forever to process, and we just need to sit down and crunch numbers. Her high school is having their Decision Day soon where they celebrate kids’ post-high school plans, so it’d be good if she knew what she was doing by that date.

Creativity

  • Prom Dresses: I haven’t touched either of them since I got sick. So much work needs to be done this week. The extra yard of silk for Ren’s sleeves arrived safely last week, so we’re good to go there. I have two weeks’ less time to get Ren’s dress done because last night she got a text to look outside:

How cute is that?!?! Why weren’t Promposals a thing when we were young? He had good timing; we were just getting ready to have Nathaniel’s birthday cake, so he walked away from the incident with a prom date and birthday cake. On a frenzied prom dress-sewing note, though…the high school prom is two weeks before the church Spring Formal, so…I really need to sew faster.

  • Van Crafting Sessions™: I think I have a full schedule of music lessons this week and I have no idea what I’m going to do while I’m at them.

Gardening

  • The rhubarb is growing fast! Gotta start using it.
  • I didn’t do any planting last week, so I need to do both last week’s and this week’s planting and seed starting. We’re getting into the thick of planting season!

Celebrating

  • Nathaniel had his 14th birthday yesterday! I can’t believe my youngest child is starting high school next year. Where have the years gone?!?! Renaissance made him a Sherman Tank cake this year, in homage to his interest in World War 2.
  • Upcoming celebrations include:
    • Mother’s Day, which I don’t have to do anything for
    • My birthday, which I generally don’t have to do anything for
    • Memorial Day, which just means grilling some hot dogs and doing yardwork
    • Ren’s graduation, which is going to take a ton of work
    • Father’s Day, which I will also have to do work for.

I’m going to wait a bit before I get going on anything so I can focus on prom dresses.

Community

  • Band Parent meeting this week, with all the requisite paperwork and follow-up that goes with it.
  • There’s a Ward Potluck on the calendar from the email that the bishop sent out at the beginning of the year, but I’ve not heard anything else about it since, so I’m thinking it never materialized.
  • There’s a Relief Society activity this week about simplifying our lives, but it’s happening at the same time as a music lesson, so I probably won’t go.
  • Band performance for the seniors.

Alright, a big week with a lot of catch-up and I’m not feeling that great to begin with. Wish me luck! And look at this great photo of Renaissance in the Daffodil Parade, taken by a friend of a friend:

Spring Break Plans

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Woo hoo, it’s April! Smooth sailing ahead as winter releases its hold and we get to head into the lovely weather part of the year! Yay! This week is spring break for my kids, so we’re chilling at home with no plans to do much of anything, which is good because Nathaniel woke up on Monday morning with a 103 degree fever and he’s been camped out on the coach ever since, hacking out his lungs. This poor kid gets sick on every single school break. Sigh.

I’m late in publishing my plans for the week because Easter Sunday is a very busy day, Monday had me feeling rather poorly, and yesterday was our last good weather day in the forecast for this week so I spent it outside working on the yard. (Oh my goodness, that felt nice!)

We got all the trellises put up, planted some more veggies and flowers, and got the lawn weed-whacked and mowed so we could set up the badminton net. There’s still so much to do out there, but this big burst of work took care of the most pressing tasks. Whew!

But the weather is supposed to take a turn for the wet today, so I’m back inside focusing on the prom dresses, which sums up my plans for the rest of the week: SEW THE DRESSES.

So please excuse me for the shortness of this planning post, but I need to use my time on these dresses. I wish you all a lovely week!

Cake, Silks & Pi(es)

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I feel like it was a really productive week, which is always nice. My little routine of writing these goals vs. outcomes weekly posts is helping me stay on-track with what I want to accomplish each week. I’m really glad I’ve reinstituted these. Not only are they keeping me focused, but I really enjoy writing them and re-reading them, like a journal. I rarely re-read my handwritten journals, so I don’t learn as much from my writing in those. Blog posts can actually be searched by keyword, for cryin’ out loud. Wonderful.

Top priorities this last week:

  1. Michael’s birthday
  2. Garden
  3. WREF Scholarship application
  4. Prom dresses
  5. Resurrecting music practice time

Celebrating

  • Michael’s birthday went well, there was an adorable “Among Us wedding cake” made by Renaissance, and each of the kids remembered to get him a gift this year. We did not have steak and potatoes for dinner, as I predicted; he requested fajitas.
  • The potentially brewing project died a sure death this past week. I’m bummed because it would have been a cool thing to do, but I’m also relieved because it was going to take a lot of time and effort to pull off. Many lessons were learned from this experience that I can apply in the future when such a situation inevitably pops up again.

Gardening

  • Trellises are in my house, as are some other gardening items.
  • All seeds needed through the month of April have been secured.
  • Rhubarb is still small.
  • I did sow the cabbages, some alyssum, but nothing else.
  • My sweet peas are just barely starting to sprout! You really have to look for them, but tiny little tendrils are pushing out of the soil!

Community

  • Renaissance did indeed submit her application for the WREF scholarship! Oh gosh, the arrhythmias…she submitted it yesterday at 2:15pm or so, and the pop-up that came up to confirm submission stated that it was due by 4pm that day. We had planned to work on it that evening, but something came up and we moved the time to earlier, THANK GOODNESS.
  • Band Parent meeting went well and many things have been scheduled for this last push of the school year. I still have a few office-y things to do for that.

Creativity

  • At Home:
    • Fat Quarter Shop upcoming quilt: Sneak peek video was posted on Friday on Instagram and I’m aware that my videography skills/software need an upgrade. I had planned to finish piecing the top on Saturday and even cleared my whole schedule for it, but some of my children decided to mutiny against their Saturday chores and much time was lost on this quilt because it went towards dialoguing and disciplining. I’m still confused as to why that day went so sideways. As it stands, I’m about 2/3 of the way done with assembling the blocks.
    • Prom Dresses: The fabric for Ren’s dress has arrived and I am so in love with it. It’s GORGEOUS. The contrast fabric isn’t as flowy as I would have liked, but we’ll just have to make do because it was the only kind of silk they had that came in the color we wanted. FYI, Shantung silk is not flowy. Tell your friends.
  • Van Crafting Sessions™: Designing wedding shawls: Newsflash: I’ve not done this before and I’m not good at it. Yet. (#growthmindset) Time was spent wrapping my head around how to actually do this.
  • Resurrecting music practice sessions: Did not happen because I’ve had them scheduled for the evenings, but now that it’s light outside again we’re actually outside during that time as a family. I’ll need to figure out a different time of day for this.

It was a really, really busy week with a concert on Thursday, which was also Pi Day, so Emily made three pies and because we had three pies chilling at our house I invited Ren’s band friends over after the concert and we all ate pie until 11:15pm. Ha ha. I’m generally an introvert who really appreciates a solid sleep schedule and bedtime, but sometimes you just gotta spend some time with friends. It was a good choice, despite how tired it made me the next day.

I Forgot about the Prom Dresses

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I was so proud of myself last week for how well I had cleared my schedule so things could be manageable, and then over the course of one day so many projects came to rest on my plate. At least they’re all projects I’m excited about!

Happy Daylight Savings Time to those of you who are mandated to go through it. I’m feeling it! Hopefully the sluggishness wears off quickly.

Cooking:

This week’s meal plan:

  • Monday: Orange Chicken, Stir Fry veggies, Rice
  • Tuesday: CP Soup
  • Wednesday: Taco Pasta
  • Thursday: CP something, pie for Pi Day
  • Friday: Michael’s birthday dinner, which he has not decided upon yet. I’m going to guess it’ll be steak, baked potatoes, Caesar salad and herbed rye rolls.
  • Saturday: Pasta/Emily’s choice
  • Sunday: CP Corned Beef, boiled potatoes, cabbage, maybe some Irish soda bread

Clothing:

  • Maybe this will be the week that I finally conquer the folding pile.
  • Keep thinking about and making plans for Easter, spring and Rachel’s travel outfits.
  • Materials and supplies are going to begin arriving for making prom dresses for Renaissance and Rachel.

Cleaning:

  • I don’t have a definitive plan set, which I would like to create. Basic upkeep for the next few weeks.

Caring:

  • I’m really struggling to remember what I’d like to do here. I blame the sleep deprivation from Daylight Savings Time. Um, I need to care for my poor sleep-deprived brain by adjusting my sleeping ASAP. I’ve learned over the decades that sleep is #1. You mess with the sleep, you mess with everything.

Creativity:

  • At Home:
    • Prom dress prep—Dates were announced last week and I realized I had no plan whatsoever for making their dresses. We strategized over the weekend, and I think it’s doable. Ohhhh, the girls have picked some lovely designs and fabric. I’m really excited about these dresses!! Hopefully my “adventurous beginner/beginning intermediate” garment construction skills are up for the task…eek!
    • Sewing on the Fat Quarter Shop upcoming quilt—Sneak peek this Friday!
  • Van Crafting Sessions™: Planning out personalized wedding shawls because I’m a person who gets things done years ahead of time

Gardening:

  • Peas, trellises, etc.
  • Seed check
  • Rhubarb watching
  • Plant delphinium
  • Use up the herb jungle
  • Direct sow alyssum, cabbage, pansies, poppies, viola

Celebrating:

  • Michael’s birthday is this week! I hounded the kids to get him gifts, so that’s an improvement over last year. Problem is, I gave them all my ideas for gifts and now I don’t have any other ideas and no gift to him from myself. Sigh.
  • After a quick text conversation with my people last week, I don’t think we’re going to be doing anything for Easter, but I’ll follow-up this week just to make sure.
  • The potentially brewing project I mentioned at the end of last week is dying a slow death. I thought it was dead for sure, but a spark of life was breathed into at the last second. I will follow-up today to find out what is going on.

Community:

  • I am nagging Renaissance about the WREF scholarship that’s due on March 17th. I do not get the feeling that it’s accomplishing anything.
  • Band Parent meeting this week—Many of my concerns from last week are resolving.
  • I was sustained in a new calling for church on Sunday: Ward Music Coordinator. It basically just means I make sure we have music during sacrament meeting. I pick the hymns, make sure the music makers know what the hymns are, and I set up and support the special musical numbers. We have Stake Conference this week, so no pressure for me this week. If I went ahead and taskified this calling, it would make my life a whole lot easier over the next few months as I settle into it. I should also resurrect my own music practice times since I know that I will inevitably have to pinch hit some musical numbers on the fly when scheduled performers cancel at the last minute.

Top priorities this week, aside from sleep health:

  1. Michael’s birthday
  2. Garden
  3. WREF Scholarship application
  4. Prom dresses
  5. Resurrecting music practice time

Flare-ups Happen, It’s OK

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There’s not a lot to report for this week because I had to deal with a pain flare-up that required a visit to the emergency room early in the week and had me focused on pain management for a couple of days beyond that.  The good news is that I started feeling better yesterday and even managed to tough it out and go to Renaissance and Nathaniel’s band concert, and I was even able to go into work today.  Sigh.  Take care of your backs, people.  So many difficulties start to stem from an injury to your back.

Creativity

I always think I’m going to be able to make great strides in crafting when I’m down and out with a flare-up, but when I have to add pain meds to the mix I can’t craft at all, as crafting + pain meds never ends well.  Seeing that I’m pattern testing for other people, I didn’t want to touch those projects and potentially derail them beyond repair.  It’s something else when it’s only my time and materials on the line; I won’t risk others’ resources.

So I’m behind on my test knit for the Baking Doodle Cowl.  It’s about 50% done.  I’m planning to spend a chunk of time working on it some more over the weekend.

I haven’t touched anything else in the craft room, which is a major sad.  I did receive some packages of new materials for some projects, but haven’t even opened them.  Frustrating week!

Gardening

My little herb garden is now a jungle that will need some pruning over the weekend.  I can’t believe how fast these plants are growing!  Friendly note:  Don’t be afraid to use dill.  I cut the dill plant back to almost nothing last Sunday, it had replaced all that growth by Tuesday, and now on Friday it looks to be about three times larger than it was a week ago.  I’ve always been so afraid to use my herb plants, but this little countertop experiment is teaching me a lot about the hardiness of these plants!  The kids have been given total access to the herbs and are encouraged to decimate the plants for cooking.  I’m almost to the point of wondering if we even could kill these plants through culinary usage?  Could be a weird goal to set…ha ha ha.

The rhubarb is starting to unfurl legitimate leaves, so I believe I can start using it in a few weeks.  I’ll make rhubarb crumbles, make some rhubarb marmalade, freeze some rhubarb for making Blubarb Jam during the summer, and I also saw a recipe on Pinterest for a vanilla rhubarb jelly that looks enticing.  Which reminds me that I desperately need to clean out the pantry if I want to have any sort of room for canned goods this year.  The pantry is a complete disaster.  Oooh, I think I also have some sort of recipe for rhubarb-glazed pork medallions in a cookbook somewhere.  I like cooking with rhubarb because it has the added bonus of deep cleaning any pot it’s cooked in.  (Did you know it’s the secret ingredient in Bar Keeper’s Friend?)  I started a Pinterest board for rhubarb recipes a couple of years ago if you’re looking for some rhubarb options in the coming months!

No sprouting from the sweet peas or peas that I’ve planted.  I was supposed to plant another section of peas this week, so hopefully I’ll get to it over the weekend.  I’m doing a big experiment with planting times and starting seeds this year, so we’re going to just keep our minds open and remain curious about how things work out with these seeds.  I’d really like to establish a planting calendar that works specifically for our property, and the only way to do that is to start and experiment.

The started pansies and delphinium are doing…OK.  I need to thin them out and they’re going through water really fast, which is tough to stay on top of.  I had five delphinium sprouts two weeks ago, and now I only have two.  I struggle to get this type of plant started.  I’m going to start some more seeds over the weekend because I adore delphinium plants for their beautiful blue color and their unmatched ability to lend an “English cottage” vibe to the garden.  I think I spend about $15-20 for each plant when I buy them from the nursery, so starting my own will save me a lot of money.  AND they’re a perennial, so they come back every year!  The last ones I had were back in Utah; I haven’t wanted to spend a chunk of cash on them here in Washington.  They make me happy, so I’m reestablishing them in the garden this year.

My little delphinium twins

Celebrating

I had to drop one of the parties the kids and I were thinking about doing because I really needed this last week to make progress on it, and that didn’t happen.  I’ve made note of everything we were thinking of doing, and I’ll revisit it in the future.  The girls still want to throw a spring tea party sometime in April or May, and that is still doable with our remaining time frame, so maybe I’ll just shift focus to that.  Plans also need to be made regarding Renaissance’s graduation party, which will take place in June or July.  I still have time to get going on that; I just need to remember that it’s out there so I don’t commit to anything that will conflict.

And that’s what happened this week.  Some weeks don’t see a lot of forward progress, and that’s ok.  The nice thing about a flare-up is that they tend to occur many weeks apart from each other, so I’m looking forward to a handful of really productive weeks!

And congratulations!  We made it to March!  It only gets better from here!  More and more sunlight, we’ll just ignore Daylight Savings Time coming up in a bit, and more and more opportunities to be outside and enjoy the shift from cold to only slightly chilly!  I hope you have a great weekend and wish you all the best as you embark upon a new, hopefully sunshine-filled month.

CROCUSES!!!

Baking Doodle Progress & Too Many Other Projects

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Happy Friday, everyone!  So many people joked throughout this week about how long it seemed, even after it was a shorter week with the holiday on Monday!  Our week was busy with lots of school and band things—I may have practically lived at my kids’ schools most evenings this week!

Baking Doodle Cowl Test Knit:  I’ve made a dedicated effort to put in some serious time on the Baking Doodle Cowl test knit because I was pretty far behind at the beginning of the week due to losing most of my regularly-scheduled knitting time (ie. Sitting in the van during kids’ music lessons and rehearsals) to my kids being sick the past couple weeks and not leaving the house.  I’m now about 25% done with it, which is great, except for the part where I was supposed to be 50% done with it by yesterday.  There will be much knitting over the weekend.

New FQS Pattern:  I put in an amazing day of work on Monday and I can now boast that all my half-square triangles are sewn and trimmed!  I have another big sewing day scheduled for this upcoming Monday, which I’m hoping boasts some reality-bending wormhole capabilities that will allow me to progress on this at a phenomenal rate, hitherto unknown to mankind.

I am using the “French Quarter” fabric collection from Maywood Studios, and it’s going to be a lovely blue-and-white quilt. I can’t wait for this to come together!

Super Secret Project:  I have another project on my plate that didn’t materialize until just this week, even though it’s genius and I’m really annoyed that it didn’t occur to me until one random day during a random conversation with a few of my children.  I don’t even want to commit to it because I know I don’t have the time AT ALL—but it’s too perfect an opportunity to pass up, so I’m launching myself into the future, laughing hysterically and hoping I can pull this off.

Spring Tea Party:  The girls want to throw one, so we’re talking about it in loose terms at this point.

Garden:  The seedlings are coming along.  I had five Delphinium sprouts at the beginning of the week, but now I think I only have two.  I’ve rarely been successful in nurturing Delphiniums to maturity, so it’s not surprising.  Annoying and frustrating, but not surprising.

My little countertop herb garden is out of control and the plants are cramming into the light source every other day, despite my dedicated efforts to pruning them back almost every day.  There has been a lot of dill in a lot of recipes lately.  Michael’s not the biggest fan of dill, but thankfully, it’s not terribly strong when it’s fresh.  Perhaps he’ll acquire a taste for it with the insane amount he’s eating now.  Also, this experience is helping me to lose my fear of over-harvesting herbs.  I cut these plants back to practical baldness and you cannot tell in two days’ time.  It’s good to gain firsthand experience with that because I’ve always been scared to use the herbs in my garden in truly meaningful ways because I’m afraid I’ll kill them with each reaping.  I’m learning that that is absolutely not true!

Renaissance College Plans: We’ve received notification from two of the schools she applied to that she’s been accepted! She goes in this weekend to audition for a music scholarship, so fingers crossed that it goes well! She’s torn between continuing her study of music or going to a technical college in pursuit of a degree in Culinary Arts/Pastry Baking. We’re pushing her to just prepare for both, see which one will be most financially viable, and then make a decision from there. (And seriously, I wish I had known about the pastry baking option when I was young! What a cool career idea!)

New Week, Same Me, New Project(s)

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I like starting my Mondays off with a to-do list for the week and I like checking in on Fridays to see how well I did in accomplishing the things I said I’d do. I especially like Fridays where I get to post a finished project, so the Baa-ble Hat made me pretty happy. 

The last two weeks have seen a lot of illness in our home, so I’ve been hard pressed to find writing time. Thankfully, it looks like everyone is healthy enough to attend school this week, so I can come back to a more regular schedule—hopefully!

I received confirmation last week that I was accepted into the knitting pool for the upcoming release of Pacific Knit Co.’s “Baking Doodle Cowl” pattern.

When I threw my hat into the ring to become a test knitter, I didn’t think I’d get it. But, you miss all the shots you don’t take, so I’m taking the shots when they come my way. And, hey, they did decide to take a chance on me and I now need to complete a knitted colorwork cowl by early March, which means I need to tweak my projects list.

While we were sick, the kids and I started waxing eloquent over the parties we used to throw, and there may be some shimmery, slowly gelling into reality, kind of maybe plans to throw a party or two in the next few months as well. We’re obsessed. Don’t hate on us because we’re fun.

Two weeks ago’s list:

  • Finish the Baa-ble Hat
  • Start or pick up another knitting project for on-the-go crafting
  • Make a dent in the quilting of the Rainbow Coin Strip quilt
  • Put some time in on the Chatsworth Block of the Month
  • Start prepping fabric for Nathaniel’s birthday quilt
  • Start working on a new pattern from Fat Quarter Shop

This week’s list:

  • Working on the Baking Doodle Cowl pattern. I’d like to be done with the knitting by March 1 so I can have decent time to block and photograph without rushing in order to have everything ready to go for the social media post on March 5. That’s given me fifteen days to knit it up. So the schedule is:
    • 25% done: Sunday, Feb 18 (Haven’t hit that yet, but close)
    • 50% done: Thursday, Feb, 22
    • 75% done: Monday, Feb 26
    • 100% done: Friday, Mar 1
  • New FQS pattern: I had hoped to be done with the assembly of all the blocks by this point, but illness took its toll. The goal is to be done with them by the end of this week and possibly assembling the quilt top.
  • Start figuring stuff out on the parties front.
  • I need to taskify my current projects. “Taskify” is the word I use to describe the process of breaking down a project into its individual tasks and assigning due dates to each of those steps. It takes a lot of thought, but once you get it figured out and input it into your reminder/to-do list system, it makes it way easier to stay on top of everything and actually get stuff done. I’ve got a lot of the individual tasks and due dates figured out, but still need to input them into my to-do list app. I’m behind on a couple projects because I don’t have any reminders coming through about due dates.
  • Start spending some time in the garden when the weather is conducive. Time to start putting the gardening routine into place! I’ve planted the sweet peas and the peas, so I need to at least keep those areas weed-free. I’ve also started quite a few of my early spring seeds, and I’m looking forward to transplanting them at the end of March/beginning of April.

I hope you’ve got some projects on your radar for this week that make you excited! I’m so happy that we’re seeing signs of spring everywhere! I spent an hour in the garden yesterday with the kids and it was so nice to feel the (mild) sun on our skin and to move our bodies and smell the dirt. Winter’s almost over! Good luck this week!

Happy Homemaker Monday: August 14, 2023

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First and foremost: Happy birthday to Renaissance, who is a whopping seventeen years old now! She’s heading into her senior year of high school and I’m just so proud of her and all that she does. She’s a hard worker, she’s smart, she’s talented, and she’s kind. What more could one ask for in raising a child? I’m all sorts of sentimental as we enter into the last year of her childhood…parenting is so bittersweet. I love having children in my home and I am dreading when they all fly from the nest.

Second and next most: Sorry for skipping last week’s entry! It was just really busy and I couldn’t get to the computer for something like this. My #craftygoals update on Friday was written on my phone while my husband drove somewhere, that’s how difficult it was to get anything done on the blog!

Highlights of the last two weeks:

  • We did a lot of driving practice this week and I’m starting to see a lot of improvement and an increase in confidence. I might just turn out a driver or two after all!
  • I tried out a new bread recipe this week and it turned out really well!
  • Renaissance and I have made time to stitch together after lunch most days and I absolutely love it.
  • Nathaniel helped me with my photoshoot for the Patriotic Baby Quilt and we had fun doing that together.
  • The kids helped me update the garden and it’s looking really nice now!

Things I Wished Had Gone Better:

  • Everything’s been going pretty well. Busy, but nothing to complain about. Finishing up a quarter is stressful and not a lot of fun, but this one wasn’t crazy and didn’t have any monster/stupid assignments, so it was fine…just took lots of time to complete.

The Weather Forecast:

Oh. Yuck. But it could be worse.

As I Look Outside My Window:

I am so proud! Renaissance and I sat down on the Friday before last and hammered out her birthday party plans and I realized that letting the garden “lie fallow” was no longer an option because I’ll be hosting her party in our backyard in a few weeks. So we made plans to go find some plants that Saturday, and as luck would have it, happened upon a very good clearance sale on them. We smashed plants into the back of the van, headed home, rounded up all the Brookelets, and were done three hours later. Garden with your kids while they’re little–they become extremely efficient at it in their teenage years!

Right Now I Am:

Winding down after a busy day and smelling the air as Michael makes dinner.

Thinking and Pondering:

  • Hospitality vs. Entertaining
  • Schedule changing in order to open up time for other interests
  • What the heck am I going to do with all this free time in the next week, now that summer quarter is done?!?!

Listening to:

Evening sounds. Movement upstairs. Things being moved, air being breathed.

How Am I Feeling:

Content, and a little excited about the upcoming week and its lack of responsibility!

On My Reading Pile:

Due to two weeks ago’s devotional topic of connection, I bought a handful of books on hospitality and friendship. I’ve been reading through them and gleaning ideas. They’re scattered all over the house and I pick them up as I putter around and read a few lines here and there.

On My TV This Week:

I never really know. Maybe some stuff that requires thinking because I’ll have the available bandwidth since I’m not studying the days away.

On the Menu:

Nothing because my regularly-scheduled meal planning time was taken up with driving and picking up kids from a million things, and then all the studying. I’m just going to wing it, because it’s a weird week anyway.

Looking Around the House:

The living room is clear of Rachel’s belongings, we did it! It will be short-lived, as Michael got a bee in his bonnet about building a loft bed for Renaissance and it will have to be built inside her room because it won’t fit through her door once it’s assembled. So…yeah, Ren’s stuff will soon overtake the living room and she’ll probably have to sleep on the couch for a week or two. But loft bed/desk combo! Totally worth it.

To-Do List This Week:

  • Plant lettuce and spinach
  • Should decide if I’m going to make jam this year or not; schedule it if I am.
  • Go do a fun thing that I especially want to do–quilt museum?
  • Work on Renaissance’s birthday party stuff
  • RELAX. I always use my breaks to “catch up” or “get ahead” on stuff, and darn it, just take a freaking vacation, Cara!

Devotional:

My word two weeks ago was CONNECTION. I was so looking forward to learning more about connection and figuring out a way to connect more with people in my life, but I mostly just came to the conclusion that I am not very good at connecting with others. I am greatly inspired to become better at this skill, so I ordered some books on the subject, which I’ve enjoyed reading.

Some observations:

  • Food is often a part of connection rituals. Yet another reason to be a good cook!
  • Most people I know are just too darn busy to eat a normal meal, let alone a meal that’s meant to be enjoyed and drawn out with conversation.
  • The parent-of-teenagers stage might be a difficult time to work on connecting with others because we are just so stinkin’ busy, too. Trying to line up two families’ schedules to do anything together is near impossible.
  • Connection often begins with MY efforts to reach out, and not the other way around. If I’m sitting around waiting for someone to reach out to me, I’m going about it the wrong way.

My word for this last week was TRANSFORMATION, which was a cool one to think about.

Some observations:

  • A transformation is often preceded by a period of discomfort or feeling like you no longer belong or have outgrown your surroundings. If you’re aware of this order of events, it might make the discomfort less scary. Maybe even make it exciting?
  • Transformation is almost always a positive thing, so embrace the change with enthusiasm, even in the messy, difficult, and uncertain parts.
  • This reminds me of this last year–my Pinterest algorithm became very “academia-aesthetic” as I progressed through my master’s program, and I’d always wanted to be “that way” when I was a young girl, so I decided to just go with it this last year and it was so much fun! Embrace the aesthetic of what you’re doing! It makes it prettier and more enjoyable!
  • Transformation is less scary if you have an end destination that you’re working towards.
  • Your past, pre-transformation, is nothing be ashamed of. It got you to and through your transformation, so be proud of where you’ve come from and what you’ve overcome.
  • We often speak of transformation as if it’s a sudden and drastic thing, but it’s really not. Transformation is a process that requires a lot of patience. The only way you appear to “transform” to someone else is if they haven’t seen you in a long time. Your everyday acquaintances probably won’t notice the changes because they are incredibly subtle and spread out over a long time. That’s OK. Doesn’t mean the changes are any less transformative.

This upcoming week’s word is: Abundance. Well, as a white, married, middle-class, college-educated, mostly stay-at-home mother of four living in the American suburbs, I will freely admit that I possess a lot of abundance, and I am very, very aware of the abundance that I enjoy. I wonder how this word will shape up as a devotional?

Linking up to Sandra’s Happy Homemaker Monday!

December Morning in the Garden: Thoughts on Resting

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I should have cleaned out my garden back in October, but I was still healing from foot surgery. Now that my foot is technically well enough to handle yard work it’s been raining or super cold. But all that leftover foliage mixed with a cold and misty morning sure makes for some lovely photos.

I love noticing the flow of nature, and for the last few years I’ve tried to emulate its rhythms in my own life. Winter is such an interesting idea–time to rest. In a society where we’re all working and recreating non-stop and trying to launch a side hustle at the same time, rest can be an elusive concept.

I’ve always appreciated the concept of the Sabbath Day and its insistence on slowing down once a week, but I’ve always had music callings at church, which meant Sunday was one of my most busy and dreaded days of the week. Yes, I love music; but that doesn’t downplay the stress and anxiety that comes with organizing and performing said music. I stepped away from and declined all the holiday music commitments this year, and I’m so glad I did. No rehearsals, no dealing with sore throats, no pounding heartbeat before a performance…just calm appreciation of the season.

I was sick last week with some little thing that is now creeping through the entire family. As much as I resent the missed opportunities to get ahead on the Christmas crafting, it sure was nice to Netflix and Nap during daylight hours. I’m reminded of the 12 Week Year insistence of including free time in your schedule (Breakout Blocks), and I’m realizing that I’ve forgotten to do that since my foot surgery. (Sitting around for six weeks straight will make you feel like you’ve had ENOUGH free time, thankyouverymuch.) I suppose I should make a note to include a block of free time in my week. It’d be nice to do some Christmas baking.

But, ugh, the guilt that comes with resting and doing something just for the enjoyment of it. There’s always more I think I should be doing! Unfortunately, I’ve learned over and over again that if you don’t make time to rest and heal, your body will force you into it with sickness or injury. I’m finally accepting this universal truth and making room for it in my own life. The earth rests every winter and the moon wanes every month–why do I think I need less rest than them?

I like the idea of taking a break in the winter to rest and nurture myself and my family. Christmas festivities infringe on that a bit, but the weeks after Christmas are beautifully quiet. The new year invites reflection and planning while wearing snuggly socks and sweaters. We dream up our vision for the coming year while nurturing our bodies with hearty soups, like we’re infusing ourselves for the work ahead. I love the winter months when they’re spent in quiet activities. Taking a break in the winter is such a lovely ritual.

Because March and April will roll around soon enough and next year’s garden will need planting. It’s a lot easier to do when you’re excited about it because you’ve had a break.

(It’s also a lot easier to do if you’ve cleaned up the last year’s garden before your break…my fingers are still crossed that I can get to it…wish me luck!)