Happy Homemaker Monday: July 31, 2023

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We’re at the end of July, y’all! Oh, I just feel like I’m not experiencing summer ENOUGH this year. Hopefully we can cram some more summer fun into these last few weeks before school starts back up again.

Highlights of last week:

  • There’s been a lot of crafty progress made over the last week, including finishing up the knitted unicorn I’ve been working on for a while.
  • Ren and I are still showing up for our workout sessions. This last week’s sessions were rough, man. Owie.
  • We finally had our family portraits done! I think the last time we did portraits was nine years ago, so it was very overdue. Bonus: We took the photos at a blueberry patch and we got to pick some blueberries to bring home, too.

Things I Wished Had Gone Better:

  • I had Ren drive once last week, and Rachel did zero driving. I have to make these practice drives happen! I really don’t like doing them because they raise my anxiety like nothing else.
  • I’d say we needed to get out more, but we got out a lot for appointments and errands and stuff. Nothing fun. Hopefully we can do something fun in this next week.

The Weather Forecast:

Definite summer weather, a little on the warm side for my personal tastes, but nothing crazy like many others are dealing with at the moment. I’ll just be thankful for the sunshine and leave it at that.

As I Look Outside My Window:

Such a dry backyard. Michael applied the weedwhacker to overgrown parts of the garden, so it looks nicer out there now. Will I actually get to doing anything with it? I don’t know. But there’s some nice garden-y things happening in other parts of the yard:

The four basil plants are nice and healthy and we’ve been enjoying the lovely flavor that fresh basil gives to our meals.

There are three tomatoes ripening on the tomato plant at the back of the house. I’m literally the only person who is excited about this as no one else in our family even likes tomatoes. However, Renaissance makes incredible bruschetta, so I make sure to have fresh basil and tomatoes growing so we can enjoy that beautiful dish a couple of times throughout the later part of the summer.

I always have a random cherry tomato bush start growing in the gravel along the back of the house, and this year’s plant has green tomatoes now! I’m excited to have them ripen!

I don’t have a picture of the front of the house because it looks just the same as always, but I did want to mention that the baby birds have flown the nest. I’m surprised they left so soon. I’m not sure they were even hatched for a full week before they all flew away. Or maybe they were hatched and we weren’t aware of it for a few days/weeks? Or maybe they all got eaten by cats during their first day of flying lessons? We did see them perching in the bushes along the front porch, and one of them even tried to return to the nest when we (accidentally) startled it, but its aim was bad and it faceplanted into the porch eaves and fell back down into the bushes below. We checked on him and he was alright, but I don’t know if they could make it back to the nest at all. We haven’t seen any of them since that day, so we’re hoping they’re fine.

Right Now I Am:

Writing up this post before going to bed Sunday night because I won’t have time to work on it in the morning. Trying to plan out the next week.

Thinking and Pondering:

  • What can I cut from my to-do list?
  • What needs to be done for Ren’s birthday?
  • What am I going to knit next? Options include a teddy bear, or Halloween decorations, or a hat I need to design first.
  • What can we do for fun this week?
  • Do I want to can up some jams this year?

Listening to:

The creak of the upstairs floor as people walk around. A kid getting a drink of water from the fridge. The hum of the fans and air conditioner. Summer evening sounds.

How Am I Feeling:

Behind on a lot of things. Michael was really tired this last week, going to bed early almost every night, which was weird. I got hit with the same feeling yesterday afternoon, so I’m dragging and worried that the tiredness will follow me through the upcoming week. Working out is feeling better, despite how sore we can be after particularly intense workouts, so that’s a positive development. And I was able to connect with friends via text this last week and that helped to alleviate some of the loneliness I was suffering from the week before. The loneliness will take care of its self once school and PTSA stuff starts back up again, no worries.

On My Reading Pile:

Hee hee hee, lots of Christmas crafting books in honor of Christmas in July last week. And some knitting and crochet books in case I want to add some projects to my gift list.

On My TV This Week:

Not much. Probably a random movie if I’m feeling tired. I’m in a cottagecore mood, so maybe some Jane Austen-y things.

On the Menu:

Saturday: Steak Quesadillas
Sunday: Super Nachos
Monday: Pineapple Bacon Sausages, Corn & Zucchini Soup
Tuesday: Picadillo Tostadas, Veggie Slaw
Wednesday: Gyros, Tzatziki Cucumbers, Yellow Rice
Thursday: Pancakes, Bacon, Sausage, Fruit
Friday: Chicken Caprese, Caesar Salad, Pasta

Looking Around the House:

Still putting Rachel’s room back together, but it’s coming along.

To-Do List This Week:

  • Emily dentist appointment
  • YW Camp preparations
  • Send last of graduation thank-you cards
  • Driving practice (Blargh)

Devotional:

My word for this last week was STRENGTH, and my readings about it mentioned a lot that strength was born out of suffering, which really bothered me because I don’t like it when people dismiss suffering by saying it created favorable outcomes. It feels like that reasoning is used to downplay the extent of the suffering and pain, and excuses the actions of the perpetrator a little bit, and I’m never ok with that. So I thought about it a lot because I know that, in regards to building muscle, you do need to damage the thing that needs to become stronger so that it can heal into a stronger version of itself. And as I sat with that, I decided that it was healing that created strength, not the suffering. And the healing is all within the realm of the victim/self. Perhaps strength is the Universe’s reward for getting through difficulties? But I never want an abuser to be able to say, “Because of the pain I caused you, you’re a stronger person,” and feel good about themselves.

Also, healing takes time, especially if the injury was extensive. We live in a society that expects instantaneous healing and strength, despite nature not working that way at all…and that impatience with our own healing and the healing timelines of others only hurts us. Strength requires so much patience.

I also think there’s two types of strength. The first one that I mentioned, which is a healing-after-injury kind of strength. I like to also call it “glue strength,” because it’s the strength that comes from putting something back together after it’s broken. The other type of strength is the preventative type: When you apply layers of protection or reinforcement to something to make it strong enough to withstand something. I decided to call it “insulating strength.” I think this is the best sort of strength to strive for, as it doesn’t require injury or pain to begin the process. We add strength to our spirits when we consume uplifting media, surround ourselves with edifying people, practice looking on the bright side and questioning the veracity of the thoughts in our heads. We insulate and strengthen our children with our love, kind words, protective measures, and efforts to make our homes welcoming and comforting. Insulating strength helps us withstand the pain and injury that life throws at us, and can sometimes makes it so that pain and suffering doesn’t even damage anything, if the insulation is thick enough.

Now both strengths have their extremes as well—extremes that end up causing weakness. If you insulate your children to the extreme and never let them experience hardship or difficulties, they won’t develop the necessary strength to withstand the rigors of daily living. (Oh my gosh, I saw a lot of this while student teaching.) And glue strength can only fix so much—there are injuries that are too extensive to heal.

Also, glue strength requires time to allow the glue to set; if you don’t give the glue time to set and then jump back into the type of situation that caused the damage, the injury will just open up all over again. (Also, maybe stop jumping into things that injure you?) Balance is required, and once again, patience.

This upcoming week’s word is: Connection. Ooh, I’m excited to ponder this one! With the last year being completely focused on getting through my Masters degree, I disappeared from my social life completely and I’m trying to figure out how I want to connect with people, and which people, now that I’m re-entering the realms of living somewhat normally.

Linking up to Sandra’s Happy Homemaker Monday!

If Eeyore was a Unicorn

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After having to suffer through the excruciating torture that is waiting for one yard of yellow worsted-weight yarn to arrive in the mail, she’s finally done! Hey friends, please meet Nilla the Unicorn…except that I’m pretty sure her name is Eeyore, seeing that everyone in this house only calls her that after she spent a while looking like a purple donkey because of the aforementioned yellow yarn predicament.

Rachel with her yarn haul at the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival in February 2019. The Nilla Kit is at the bottom of the pile.

The kit to make Nilla/Eeyore was originally purchased way back in February 2019 when Rachel and I attended that Madrona Fiber Arts market together. She fell in love with Nilla/Eeyore so much that she was willing to learn to knit to create her, so I caved and bought the kit. Interest waned, as expected, and she never touched it. However, with my recent obsession with Little Cotton Rabbits patterns, I decided to give Nilla/Eeyore a go to see if I even wanted to invest the energy in knitting up cute little animals, and seeing that I already had Nilla/Eeyore’s pattern, I started there.

It was an easy knit and, while I started knitting this with the intention of gifting it to my niece, I think Rachel is claiming it as her own because she stole it and keeps walking around the house shaking it like a rattle or styling its hair when she’s not shaking it.

It does have some pretty epic hair! The kit came with a mini skein of turquoise blue yarn for its hair, but I decided to use the scraps leftover from a hat I’d knit previously for Rachel (the yarn on the top of her yarn haul pile in the Madrona picture above), and added in some other colorful scraps from the stash along with some gold embroidery thread strands for a little extra oomph.

Details:

Pattern: Nilla the Unicorn, by Rachel Borello Carroll (Ravelry link)

Yarn: I don’t know, but I’m guessing Cascade 220 as it was mentioned as the yarn of choice in the kit, but I didn’t have the colors listed in the instructions. The horn is KnitPicks’ Wool of the Andes Superwash in “Semolina,” and the hair is a mixture of White Birch Fiber Arts 80/20 SW Merino Nylon Self Striping in colorway “Electric Rainbow,” some worsted-weight scraps in orange, fuchsia and turquoise, and separated strands of gold DMC metallic embroidery floss.

Needles: US 6 DPNs (I swear that everything I’ve made in the last however many years have been on this one set of DPNs. Seriously.)

Modifications: None, except using different yarn than what was supplied in the kit.

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All in all, a cute little project that has me thinking I might just want to fall down the rabbit hole that is Little Cotton Rabbits…we’ll see!

Ravelry Link to Project: maplesyrupmama’s Nilla the Unicorn

#craftygoals Check-In: July 2023 #3

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Not the most productive week, crafty-wise, but I did get some stuff done.

Last week’s goals were:

  1. Finish the Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt and get it in the mail!
  2. Possibly start on the Farm to Table Baby Quilt.
  3. Scrappy Thursday: Either keep working on the Mixed Berries quilt or start a scrappy Christmas gift. (I’m pretty sure the Leaders & Enders quilt is not going to be happening right now.)
  4. Use music lesson time for EPP and not phone scrolling. (I can’t really make a more specific goal for this quilt each week because it’s so dependent on so many different people’s schedules lining up.)
  5. Possibly finish Nilla the Unicorn.

Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt: Not finished, STILL. Everything except the label is done, and the label is even created, just not attached to the quilt. Sooo close, but…summer evenings just don’t induce me to do a lot of sewing.

Farm to Table Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt: Not officially started, but I did pull out the fabrics at some point this week to take a picture of them for some reason.

Scrappy Thursdays: I decided to keep going on the Mixed Berries Quilt because I’ve been waiting to work on this one for FOREVER and I’m not feeling any of the other quilts right now. I cut and sorted all the blue fabrics for the large blueberry blocks, got one block’s worth of purple fabrics cut, and started on red. It turns out that I don’t have a lot of purple scraps, which is weird because I know I’ve bought a ton of purple fabric over the years because it’s Rachel’s favorite color…hmmm, methinks I need to go dig out the box of fabrics that Rachel curated for the quilt she was working on during the pandemic. I’m thinking there might be some purples hiding in that box.

Smitten Quilt: I was so good and used all 2.5 hours of music lesson time to stitch away on my EPP and I finished up another combo block of small hexies.

Nilla the Unicorn (Knitting): She’s done! Time to write up a blog post about her!

Alright, let’s talk next week’s #craftygoals:

  • Get the Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt out of my house
  • Start sewing like a mad woman on the Farm to Table quilt
  • Keep plugging away on the Mixed Berries quilt.
  • Find the Rachel box and see if she’s hoarding purple fabrics.
  • Keep using music lesson time for EPP. It’d be good to get another combo block done.
  • Knitting: I have no idea! I was going to order yarn to make a Little Cotton Rabbits pattern, but then the yarn was going to be $85 and that just gave me pause. I could knit from my stash…ugh, so boring. Or I could start moving forward with some Halloween decorations I have on my mind, OR I could start moving forward with designing and knitting a hat I have on my mind. We’ll see…

Well, that’s it for the #craftygoals July 2023! Still getting my feet planted beneath me for a solid crafty foundation, but I have high hopes for a more productive August! See you next week with a new month’s list of projects!

Happy Homemaker Monday: July 24-30, 2023

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Another beautiful summer week has come and gone, busy and yet unhurried. The dichotomy of summer is interesting that way. I like having this Happy Homemaker post on my to-do list for each Sunday because it gives me a chance to reflect on the last week and firm up my plans for the upcoming week, so I’m going to personalize some of the prompts to my particular wishes this week.

Highlights of last week:

  • Renaissance and I are making good progress on our strength-training and hiking goals. We are complete newbies and starting from absolute zero, but we’ve shown up consistently 3-4 times a week for the past month for our scheduled workouts together. That’s something to be very proud of! I especially love our trail walks together. There’s just something about summer morning walks in nature that are absolutely wonderful, and I get to share it with one of my favorite people. I love that we’re doing this together.
  • Rachel’s room was officially emptied! I was anxious about this and it was so nice to complete that step!
  • I finally quilted the baby quilt!
  • Peach milkshakes
  • Planted some flower seeds just because I could. We’ll see if they’re successful come…August 1-7-ish?

Things I Wished Had Gone Better in the Last Week:

  • Workout fatigue is real. I wish it didn’t impact my days so much. I think it’s improving slightly, so at least there’s that. Until it does improve, I need to simplify evening tasks because I am just out of energy by that time of day. I know this will be worth it, but it’s hard to deal with the exhaustion while my stamina builds up.
  • Cancelled a lot of Ren and Rachel’s driving practices because I was tired or something came up. I’d like to schedule these for earlier in the day, but we just don’t have that time available in the mornings right now. Gotta make it work.
  • We didn’t get out much this past week. The field trip I had scheduled in my head turned out to be a 2.5 hour drive away and none of us were interested in 5 hours of driving that day. I feel like we’re getting bored of our immediate area and we’ve visited so much of it already. I’d like to come up with a new plan. More nature walk/hiking, perhaps? Maybe I need to move field trip day to a different day of the week so we can get an earlier start? Our schedule is going to go through some major change-ups in the next few weeks as different activities end, so it might be possible.

Alright, onto the regularly schedule HHM prompts:

The Weather:

Looks like a perfect week, temperature-wise! Last week’s forecast seemed pretty ok, but it was much warmer every day than originally guessed, so I wonder if it’ll actually be bordering on too warm this week as well?

As I Look Outside my Window:

Aww, cute little Rachel was doing her weeding for the day when I stepped outside to snap a picture. She’s been really consistent about weeding and the garden looks much better for her efforts. I really appreciate her work out there. I think the grass is starting to get a little greener as the increased watering begins to show its value? I’m hoping to plant a few more seeds just to see if they’ll work. We could have a few flowers in the autumn.

The baby birds in the nest up to the right of the swing post hatched this week! They’ve already grown a lot in the few days they’ve been out of their shells. Mama and Daddy Bird are flitting back and forth non-stop to keep the babies fed and it’s so cute to hear the babies’ thin little squeaks when food arrives.

Right Now I Am:

Sitting in my craft room typing up this blog post, listening to Rachel hammering away in her bedroom as she constructs the new shelves we ordered for her.

Thinking and Pondering:

  • I have a lot of thoughts that I’m processing right now! I’m “in the swirly place” as I call it, with a lot of thoughts and feelings swirling around that I’m trying to examine and unpack.
  • With the push to give kids more autonomy and practice with making their own choices, I’m wondering if we’ve taken it too far and are expecting behaviors above the developmental abilities of their ages? Kids aren’t great at making solid plans, coming up with an attack strategy, and following it through. They need it modelled to them and they need to be shown how to do it. Then they need to be slowly allowed to take control of one thing, then another. It’s not a “sink or swim” kind of thing.
  • A Facebook memory popped up where I shared an article I’d read five years ago:
  • Upon reading it again, I’m thinking about the importance of service and socializing. We Brookes are an achievement-oriented people and can produce a lot of dopamine for ourselves, but we’re not known for doing a lot of service or connecting with others and I’m wondering if concentrating on those two categories would improve our lives and happiness levels? (I think this article was from the Costco Connections magazine, Summer 2018? I have no other info to go on.)
  • Being self-disciplined is a solitary road to walk.
  • I think I might be a little lonely right now. Which makes sense; I’ve only socialized with my husband and four children for the past three weeks and that’s not healthy. Summer is weird like that. It feels super busy, but with everyone going out of town and the like, it’s actually hard to connect with other people.

Listening to:

Rachel hammering away on things in her bedroom. The squeak of the floor in one of the bathrooms as someone takes a shower. The clink of a spoon against a bowl in the kitchen. Morning sounds.

How Am I Feeling:

Frustrated, lonely, and tired. Not the best combo, but completely understandable given what I’ve got going on right now. The workouts and decluttering are wearing me thin. I’m going to schedule a week off from decluttering once Rachel’s room is finished because I’m tired of my living room being full of kid possessions. The workouts will continue because eventually I’ll crest this hill and feel energized. I’ve got a few feelers out to connect with other human beings in the next couple of weeks as well, so that should help with the loneliness.

On my Reading Pile:

Library books went back to the library and I just couldn’t find anything I wanted to read to check out. Perhaps I’ll check out a bunch of magazines over e-loan? That seems to be the level of reading that I’m up for right now.

On my TV this week:

I started re-watching Clarkson’s Farm 2 because it makes me happy. If it weren’t for my back injury, I think I’d like doing a lot of farm things. I’ve been inspired to get out in my garden more, so that’s good.

On the Menu:

I don’t have a menu planned for this week because there was a church BBQ on Saturday that I had to get ready for during my meal planning time and then Michael drove straight to Costco from the BBQ because he didn’t want to drive home, wait for me to plan meals, and then drive somewhere again. So we have food, but no plan as to how we are going to use it.

Looking Around the House:

I see light at the end of the tunnel regarding decluttering Rachel’s room, so that’s nice. The craft room is getting tidier, so it’s nice to be in there again.

To-Do List This Week:

  • Haircuts
  • Dentist appointments
  • Family portraits
  • Maybe figure out a way to use up the rhubarb
  • Rachel’s bedroom finishing
  • Keep planning Ren’s birthday party
  • Driving practice sessions for Ren and Rachel
  • Plant sunflowers
  • Some sort of field trip. It’s Nathaniel’s week to pick the location.

Devotional:

My word for this last week was “power,” and I really didn’t like sitting with that word and its implications. I think, in my experiences, I’ve mostly dealt with power in terms of lacking it. I’ve thought a lot this week about what it means to have power, how it’s decided who gets the power, and what should one do when they either have or lack power? These were not warm and fuzzy ponderings.

One thought that I liked was that there is power in cultivating good character. You can be poor, you can be unwell, and you can be victimized, but you still have power in choosing the right. I had some experiences during my student teaching this last year where I saw the importance of always choosing to have good character and how easy it is to let one little blip of a bad moment absolutely ruin a reputation of goodness and how far-reaching and difficult it was to recover from that blip. There is immense power in maintaining your good character that will serve you well once ugliness and meanness come to their full fruition and everyone realizes how terrible the situation was. You keep your power when you refuse to stoop down to levels of spite and aggression. You are powerful when you are honest, when you are trustworthy, and when you calmly assert what is right and true and fair, even if it doesn’t benefit you.

This upcoming week’s word is: Strength. What is strength? What is not strength? Is there such a thing as too much strength? How do we become stronger physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually? Is it ever OK to choose weakness over strength?

Linking up to Sandra’s Happy Homemaker Monday!

#craftygoals Check-In: July 2023 #2

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Hello again, my crafty lovelies! I missed a couple beats on the crafty check-ins, but I’m trying to get back into it again. I do this every year: I think that summer vacation will mean lots of downtime and I’ll use that downtime to sew and knit and embroider and paint and all the happy creative things that make my heart sing, when in reality summer vacation is doing a lot of stuff with the Brookelets and trying to get the house cleaned up and ready for the next school year. Not an actual lot of time for crafting. AND THEN I think, “OK, well, just wait until autumn and when the kids go back to school because then you’ll have time for crafting.” But nope! That’s when pep band, drama practice and everything else starts. The teenager years are busy, busy, busy!

The Big Declutter 2023 Project is still going big in our house, so that’s cutting into crafty time tremendously. Also, the kids have become obsessed with spending time together as a family in the evening, and I had scheduled the bulk of my sewing time for the evenings because they normally do not want to spend time together after dinner…so…yeah…even less crafty time happening because I’m choosing to spend time with my kids when they ask for it. It’s weird and I don’t know how long it will last, but I’ll show up for every minute until it ends.

Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt: I officially started and finished quilting it today, so major progress finally happening on this project! I ran into a lot of problems getting my new machine set up, and the craft room was a disaster that needed some decluttering, and then blah, blah, blah…took a while to get going on the quilting. After I’m done writing this post I’m planning to head back into the craft room and trim it and hopefully get the binding done today. I’d really like to get this into the mail on Monday.

Scrappy Thursdays: I started working on my Farm Girl Vintage “Mixed Berries” quilt this week! I have background squares and stem squares cut for all sixteen 12-inch berry blocks.

Going forward, I think I need to boot the Clementine Quilt out of the Scrappy Thursday line-up because I simply don’t show up to work on it when it’s its turn. I am not gelling with this quilt right now, and I think it needs to be back into hibernation so I can get some actual work done on anything else. Clementine’s time will come, eventually.

Next week I’m supposed to work on the Leaders & Enders quilt, but that might change because I have no plan whatsoever for it and I’m eyeing Christmas on the horizon and I’d really like to start on some Christmas gifts. We’ll see…

Smitten EPP Quilt: I pieced my first of many of the small hexagons into a large hexagon filler block, and started working on the second one. I need to cut some diamonds for the filler blocks. I work on this while I’m sitting in the car at my kids’ music lessons, so it limps along in the summer due to last-minute cancellations and the like. It’ll pick up steam in the autumn when lesson schedules are consistent again.

Nilla the Unicorn (Knitting): I’ve made it a goal to knit for thirty minutes after lunch most days. Renaissance bought a cross stitch kit on one of our excursions in recent weeks, and so she joins me outside each day as well and we stitch in the sunshine together. It’s one of the best parts of my day!

Since my obsession with the Little Cotton Rabbits has not died down, I decided to do a test run with knitted animals and dug out a knit unicorn kit that I bought four or five years ago for Rachel at the Madrona Fiber Festival that she never got around to knitting up and I’ve been working on that. My family has named it Eeyore and insists that it’s a donkey because it turned out that I had no yellow worsted-weight yarn scraps to make its horn and I’m waiting for my KnitPicks order to arrive so I can do that.

So that’s it for the last two weeks. #craftygoals for the upcoming week are:

  1. Finish the Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt and get it in the mail!
  2. Possibly start on the Farm to Table Baby Quilt.
  3. Scrappy Thursday: Either keep working on the Mixed Berries quilt or start a scrappy Christmas gift. (I’m pretty sure the Leaders & Enders quilt is not going to be happening right now.)
  4. Use music lesson time for EPP and not phone scrolling. (I can’t really make a more specific goal for this quilt each week because it’s so dependent on so many different people’s schedules lining up.)
  5. Possibly finish Nilla the Unicorn.

Happy Homemaker Monday: July 17-23, 2023

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Thank you all so much for your comments on my last Happy Homemaker post! I’m so grateful for the opportunity to join a supportive community of people who love making their homes beautiful.

This last week was a busy one and I didn’t get on the blog like I wanted to, so my apologies for the lack of crafty posts. It is not an indicator of change on this blog; I simply didn’t do any crafting last week because we were so busy with decluttering and summer activities. I’m hoping to do more crafty posts this week, but Rachel’s bedroom declutter is taking longer than I thought it would because that room is a grotto of thingamabobs and whatsits, and…yeah, taking longer than I thought it would. Believe me, I’d much rather be crafting.

Anyhoo, on to this week’s Happy Homemaker post:

The Weather:

I know I shouldn’t complain about the heat because so many other people are posting much warmer temperatures in their parts of the world, but 80s in the Pacific Northwest can be a lot. I just keep saying that I’m thankful for AC and move on with my life. I’ve had to start watching my basil and tomatoes because they’ve been showing some heat stress, and the hydrangea is requiring a lot more water to keep from wilting. But it sure is nice, when compared to rainy and gray February, to have hot sunshine on my skin when I step outside…just need to be careful to not spend too much time in that sunshine!

As I Look Outside My Window:

I cut some daisies for a bouquet this week, but left them outside overnight so I didn’t bring bugs inside the house. And then I liked them on my porch table so much that I just left them there. I love to watch fat lil’ bumblebees in the lavender, and my Parrot Echinacea is getting ready to bloom soon! The poor grass is struggling, even after we increased the amount of water it’s getting each day.

Right Now I am:

Thankful to finally be done with homework, and enjoying a simple day of rest after too many activities last week! I’m also smelling the most delightful smell because Renaissance decided to bake an Almond Maraschino Chiffon Cake. She’s reducing the maraschino juice for the glaze right now and it smells amazing.

Thinking and Pondering:

  • I think I need to do less on Sundays. It’s become a catch-all day of the week, which isn’t a big deal, but I got really good at being productive and efficient with my time throughout grad school, and I’ve transferred that work ethic and prowess to regular daily living and I’m getting a lot done each day. To the point that I really do need a day of nothing to balance it all out or I’m going to implode.
  • Which means I probably need to un-commit to a few things…you know how you’ll finish something HUGE and then, because you suddenly have a lot more time to give to other things, you just say yes to everything? I’ve done that. Not so much to other people, but definitely to myself about projects and ideas. I need to have a sitdown with myself and make some decisions so I can calmly remind myself that we made a calculated decision to not do that thing because XYZ.
  • It is just so nice to be home and busy with house projects and decluttering. We’re just a little hive of activity and things are looking better each day. Love it.

Listening to:

The kids talking excitedly about the last round of GarticPhone that they played.

How am I feeling:

Pretty good. Things are going good right now and I’m thankful!

On my Reading Pile:

Nothing has really changed since last week. Haven’t read much.

On my TV this week:

Hopefully nothing, the weather is too nice to be sitting inside watching television!

On the Menu:

  • Saturday: Spaghetti, Garlic Garlic Beans, Summer Salad, French Bread
  • Sunday: Citrus Grilled Pork Roast
  • Monday: Hot Dogs, Broccoli Slaw, Potato Salad
  • Tuesday: Tacos, Beans, Fixin’s, Rice
  • Wednesday: Leftovers
  • Thursday: Sandwiches, Carrot & Celery Sticks, Green Salad, Chips
  • Friday: Chicken Satay, Thai Cucumbers, Rice

Looking Around the House:

The front room is full of Rachel’s things and piles of stuff that people are finding throughout the house to get rid of. I’m getting overwhelmed by it, but I know if I just keep plugging along with this work, it will eventually end and I’ll be so happy with the end result. I did do some cleaning in the craft room because my hands were tied in every direction forward unless it got cleaned. Hopefully I can start sewing again this week.

To-Do List This Week:

  • Hopefully finish gutting Rachel’s bedroom, reorganizing it, and putting it all back together. I’m not sure if this can be done in one measly week.
  • Keep planning Ren’s birthday party.
  • Driving practice sessions for both Ren and Rachel.
  • Buy birthday gifts for Renaissance

Devotional:

My word for this last week was “energy.” As I thought more and read more about it, it seemed that the message I needed to get out of it was that wherever my energy goes, that’s what grows. I kind of hijacked the idea of “energy” with the idea of “focus.” Focus takes energy. Putting my energy into gratitude and optimism? I feel more grateful and optimistic. Focusing my energy on worrying and bad memories? I get tenser and more stuck in thinking about those kinds of things. Once I figured that out I would catch myself when I’d start ruminating and switch my thinking to happier topics. It’s weird that it works so well to change your train of thought to a different set of tracks.

I’m thankful that I realized this little trick this week because decluttering forces you to deal with all sorts of stuff that also can trigger some very unwelcome thoughts and memories. It’s been a long week of feeling the burden of past negative interactions, and I could have easily hunkered down in fixation on them, but I kept saying, “Nope!” and moving on to something else that plays an actual role in my life right now, rather than getting into a slurry over things that no longer matter.

This upcoming week’s word is: POWER. What does power mean to you? How can you harness power for good?

Linking up to Sandra’s Happy Homemaker Monday!

Happy Homemaker Monday: July 10-16, 2023

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(Note: I wrote this yesterday [Sunday] because my weekdays are super busy and I’ve no time for blogging on Monday mornings.)

I came across the Happy Homemaker Monday link-up last autumn and earmarked it as something I wanted to do once I got done with grad school because I’m still a homemaker at heart who loves to make my home comfy and beautiful. I love reading through Sandra’s thoughts and her enthusiasm for taking care of her home and family, and it’s hard to find blogs like that these days. So here’s my first, of hopefully many, Happy Homemaker Monday posts:

The Weather:

We have some lovely summers here in the Pacific Northwest, and we are in the middle of some great weather right now. It was pretty warm last week, so this little bit of cooling is welcome. It will make our afternoon activities much more bearable.

As I Look Outside My Window:

  • We are “allowing” the garden “to lie fallow” this year because I was too busy with school to get out into it during the spring, but it’s making me a little squirrelly to see it be so fraggly. The kids have their weeding chores and the weeds are slowing being eradicated, so that’s good. I just have to keep telling myself that this is a not gardening year. ((shudder))
  • I did go buy some basil plants and a tomato plant because it’s just not summer if there’s not basil and tomatoes in my garden. I now visit them every evening after Michael and I get back from our after dinner walk. Makes me happy.
  • I missed the window for harvesting my lavender. I was going to try my hand at making lavender wands this year, but alas. Oh well, it’s still very pretty to look at.
  • I love our super shaded front porch so much. The kids and I have been spending a lot of time out there eating ice cream, drinking drinks, working on hand projects…it’s a great little spot that doesn’t get sunbaked and is hidden from the view of people walking by on the street.

Right Now I Am:

Waiting for my Lime Curd Bars with Coconut Crust to cool on the counter so I can bring them to church for our “Linger Longer” after meetings are done. Michael is giving one of the talks in sacrament meeting today, too, so I’m thinking about ways to make it better.

Thinking & Pondering:

  • Renaissance’s birthday party
  • How to explain/teach goal-setting to teenagers
  • I’d like to throw a Mother/Daughter Halloween tea this autumn
  • How in the world will I organize Rachel’s bedroom after I gut it this week?
  • Do I just quilt the Patriotic baby quilt on my regular machine, or do I go forward with cleaning off my cutting table to make way for the Big Boy sewing machine with the super throat that I bought last summer? I think a cutting table clean-off would require gutting the craft room, and I can’t gut more than one room at a time or my house will burst into flames and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The kids’ bedrooms are the priority right now, so I think I have to quilt on my regular machine, which I’m not very excited about.

Listening to:

My main man, Claude Debussy, as I try to keep the energy chill in the house on this beautiful summer morning.

How Am I Feeling:

Last week was a huge disruption to my routine, as most holidays are, and I still feel a little off-kilter. Sleep hasn’t been great for various reasons. I’m hoping this all evens out in the upcoming week. I’m excited about the improvements I’m making in the house. I wish it wasn’t such hard work, but it is definitely worth it.

On the Breakfast Plate:

I used to be much cooler, breakfast-wise. Now it’s just a protein bar, pills, and caffeinated water before yoga, followed by a protein shake after yoga. Renaissance makes me an egg sandwich on the mornings that we work out together.

On the Lunch Plate:

I still hate lunch. Dumb lunch, interrupting my work flow. However, I’ve been grilling up a few chicken breasts every other day so the kids can add chicken to whatever they’re eating and up their protein intake. I’ve been noticing that they are ingesting very carb-heavy meals and I’m trying to curb that tendency.

On the Dinner Plate:

(Sunday) Michael will make tacos tonight!

What I’m Wearing:

My favorite pink gingham shirtwaist dress, which I wear to death and will eventually need to reverse engineer to recreate a million more.

On My Reading Pile:

On My TV This Week:

Hopefully nothing; I like to keep my television watching to bad weather days. I did binge-watch some Clarkson’s Farm last week when I wasn’t feeling well.

On the Menu:

I meal plan on Saturday mornings, so my plan started a couple of days ago:

  • Saturday: Italian Sloppy Joes
  • Sunday: Tacos
  • Monday: Spaghetti, Green Beans, Caesar Salad, French Bread
  • Tuesday: North Carolina Pulled Pork (new recipe!), Corn on the cob, Broccoli Slaw
  • Wednesday: Steamed Buns, Stir Fry Veggies, Marinated Cucumbers, Rice
  • Thursday: Leftovers
  • Friday: Cedar Plank Salmon, Baby Potatoes, Caesar Salad, Rolls

Looking Around the House:

We’re in the midst of decluttering the kids’ bedrooms. I’m pretty much finished with Emily’s and Nathaniel’s room, but some of their stuff is randomly strewn about the house. Everything’s messy after a year of grad school, but this summer is the antidote to that messiness and we’ll crawl out from underneath the weight of the clutter by the time school starts back up.

To-Do List This Week, beyond the obvious laundry and like:

  • Start gutting and deep cleaning Rachel’s room. Oh, this is going to be a BIG job.
  • Move forward with plans for Renaissance’s birthday party
  • Go to the DOL and renew Renaissance’s driver’s permit
  • Driving practice sessions for both Renaissance and Rachel
  • Maybe plant some seeds in the garden for autumn crops?
  • Get graduation cards and thank you cards sent out

Devotional:

I’m experimenting with a new spiritual practice of choosing a word each week and pondering on what that word means to me, character-wise and in practical application. This week’s word is “energy.” I’ll report on what I came up with next week.

This last week’s word was “sunshine,” and I didn’t spend a lot of time with it because I was feeling crummy. But I do love that it’s a word that describes something tangible and also can be applied as a positive adjective.

What does it mean to me to embrace sunshine in my life?

  • Physically: Getting as much of it as I can during these summer months and being oh-so-grateful for it because I know I’ll miss it dearly come January, February, and March. Being careful with it because too much of a good thing can be very harmful indeed.
  • Emotionally: Making the choice to look on the bright side of things. The last few years have been an interesting experiment of watching people become what they fixate upon. I am more and more convinced that focusing on the negative just breeds more negativity in one’s life. You don’t have to scream about all the bad things in the world all the time in order to change them. Better to stay calm, be cheerful and cordial, strive to make things beautiful and lovely, AND work the proper channels to fix what’s wrong. Screaming doesn’t help things, but writing letters, voting, and contributing funds to important causes does. Better to do those things quietly and live your daily life gracefully so you can be a bringer of sunshine to yourself and those around you, rather than making people dread interacting with you and avoiding the causes you’re passionate about because you’ve soured them towards them with your ranting and seething. I accomplish much more positive change when I’m calm, collected, and cheerful, and our home is such a lovely sanctuary from the stress of the world when Mama is content. My husband and children deserve a safe place to land each evening.

Well, that’s everything. What a delightful exercise in noticing what’s going on around me and contemplating my actions for the upcoming week. I enjoyed writing this post! I wish you all a beautiful and productive week ahead!

#craftygoals Check-In: July 2023 #1

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Hello Lovelies! How were your Fourth of July celebrations, my American friends? And how were your Canada Day celebrations, my Canadian friends? Those are the only ones that come to mind at the moment, so I apologize if I missed anyone’s big international things. I can only keep track of so much!

We did basically nothing beyond grilling some sausages and hot dogs and then driving around to look at fireworks and get bit by mosquitoes. It threw off my sleep schedule mighty bad and I’m reminded of why I choose not to be a night owl. CARA DOESN’T DO STAYING UP LATE.

Just thought I’d pop in and figure out where I am with the crafting so I can have my head wrapped around where I’m going with things in the next week. Here we go:

Patriotic Mini Chiffon Baby Quilt: The top is complete, I’ve got the backing and batting cut, and all that’s left is basting, quilting, and binding! I’ve hit a bit of a snag with quilting that I’m trying to figure out, but it’ll be fine. My friend actually had her baby on July 4th, which is just so ridiculously on-brand for their family’s patriotism, so I’m sewing like the wind to get this made up quickly and out the door. Nothing bad will happen if it takes longer, but you know how it starts to feel with baby quilts for babies that have already debuted. Apparently I haven’t taken any photos since I finished the blocks though, so no photos for you this week.

Scrappy Thursdays: I finished the blocks for the Brickhouse quilt! Now on to picking out fabrics for sashing and borders and then assembling all that. I won’t come back to this until the first week of August, but it feels great knowing that all the blocks are pieced!

Smitten EPP Quilt: I finished the last full block and laid it out in the living room to figure out placement and what colors I’ll make all the extra little bits. There’s still a lot of work to be done on this quilt, but I’m really enjoying the process.

New Rabbit Hole: As I was working on the Patriotic Baby Quilt this week, I got to thinking how I’d like to add some more handmade items to the total gift and thought about the idea of knitting up a little stuffed animal to include. I dived headfirst into that rabbit hole, decided I’d quickly knit up a free pattern that I found, and then the next morning looked at it all again and decided that this was not the time to make this happen and that a quilt is plenty enough gift.

HOWEVER, during my mad dive into stuffed animal knitting territory, I discovered the most cutest knit designer who keeps a blog and it is just so beautiful and inspiring and it makes me want to reclaim those glory days of blogging so very much: Little Cotton Rabbits. Oh my gosh, do I love reading her blog and, once things calm down and I can indeed include little stuffed animals with baby quilts, I am going to knit up every single one of those little patterns (Ravelry link) until my fingers bleed because they are beyond cute and I’m weirdly obsessed with how quintessentially British they are. My whole family is sick of hearing me talk about them, but I’m not going to stop talking about them anytime soon.

Alright, happy crafting to you all in the upcoming week! Find time for the things that make you happy!

#craftygoals: July 2023

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I feel like the Tinman squeaking out, “Oilcan, oilcan!” as I recommence with old bloggy habits. It’s the beginning of a new month, so let’s discuss some crafty goals, shall we?

My last #craftygoals post was way back in February 2022, and the goals from back then were:

  1. A clothing item: Nope
  2. Finish the Rainbow Coin Strip quilt: I got pretty far on this; it’s basted and ready to be quilted.
  3. Continue/maybe finish the Far Far Away quilt: I worked on this a lot during last year’s summer quarter of classes and it’s up to the point where the rows are pieced together, but just the rows, not the entire quilt top.
  4. Complete the Brick House blocks #5-8: I just checked the bin for this project and I have completed twelve blocks and have the strips finished for blocks #13-16. No recollection of when I did that, but I have physical evidence that it happened!
  5. Complete the Clementine Quilt Along blocks from Months 3 & 4: Looks like I finished Month #3.
  6. Start the Berry quilt: Nope. I’m eager to get this one started, as I’ve had this quilt idea in my mind since I first received my Farm Girl Vintage book forever ago.
  7. Start the HST Leaders & Enders quilt: Doesn’t look like I did. I honestly have no idea what I’m going to do with these HSTs, but I’ve got a million of them. Maybe just a totally scrappy thing? We’ll see.
  8. Finish Michael’s Building Blocks socks: Finished and blogged!
  9. Find a new hand-stitching project: I dug out my Smitten quilt, which I never mentioned on the blog before this, and have put a lot of work into it over the past year. I’m almost done with creating all the blocks and can start putting the top together soon.

So now that we’re all caught up on all of that, let’s set some goals for this next month:

Time-Sensitive Things that need Working on ASAP:

Patriotic Mini Chiffon Baby Quilt: A friend is having a bae-beeeee! I spent a little bit of time in the last week cutting fabric and beginning to piece this quilt. I had hoped to have the blocks completely done by today, but I’ve got all of next week to assemble the top and it should be fine.

Farm to Table Mini Chiffon Baby Quilt: Another friend is having a bae-beeeee! She’s not due until August, though, so I have a little more time to get this one done.

Things to Work on after the ASAP Projects:

Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: I’m still warming up to full-steam-ahead sewing speeds, so I’ll be extremely happy if I manage to get both of those done before the end of the month. IF I find myself with extra time on my hands, I’ll unearth the Rainbow Coin Strip quilt and start quilting it.

Scrappy Thursdays: I’d like to resurrect Scrappy Thursdays and start making a dent in the scrap bins. Rotation will be:

1st Week: Brickhouse Blocks 13-16 (Finish)
2nd Week: Clementine #4
3rd Week: Finally start the Farm Girl Vintage Berries blocks
4th: Leaders & Enders HSTs

Hand Stitching:

As far as hand stitching projects, I’m working on the Smitten EPP quilt during the kids’ music lessons and I’m quite near the end. It’s feasible that I might get all the individual blocks completed by the end of the month. Then I have to start connecting them. Whoo boy, that’s going to take a lot of time. I’ll work on that in the car until it gets too big to be a car project, and then it will have to become a craft room project.

Keep in mind that I’m also doing a massive declutter & deep clean of the kids’ bedrooms during this time, so my time is very limited! Wish me luck!

An Organized House: Thoughts on the House & Holiday Plan

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Years upon years ago, I discovered the Houseworks Holiday Plan, which would later be renamed the House & Holiday Plan. It was originally published on the OrganizedChristmas website, which has since shut down. Since I’d printed out all of the schedules, checklists, and printables in 2011, I was still okay to continue with my tradition of following the plan each autumn, which I’ve attempted to do every year.

I’ve never completed the entire plan. I think I’ve been attempting to complete it since 2005 or 2006, and I’ve never made it all the way through because there was no way to complete those room-specific decluttering and cleaning tasks in the one week allotments when you’ve got four children and you’re dealing with back-to-school activities. I was thinking on this predicament during one of my planning periods during the last week of teaching school this year and realized I could just start the plan earlier and schedule extra time for decluttering the kids’ bedrooms. Don’t you just hate it when you have such a simple idea that really should have occurred to you, like, a DECADE ago?!?! Ugh.

The house is destroyed, which was the expectation after spending a year studying and student teaching, so at least things aren’t worse than originally planned. Regardless, there’s a lot of work to do to get things back in shape around here. I hit the “go” button on the House & Holiday Plan this last week and will use the extra time to get things reorganized over the summer. I’ve allocated two weeks to each kid bedroom, my bedroom, and the craft room for a total of ten weeks of decluttering, deep cleaning, organizing and, hopefully, a little redecorating and prettying up.

I started with Nathaniel’s and Emily’s shared bedroom this week because: 1) It’s got the most stuff in it, and 2) We never did a thorough clean out/declutter when Emily went off to college in the fall because she decided at the last minute to live on-campus and I actually packed up her stuff while she was at class before dropping it off that evening. Yeah, I packed up my kid in less than twenty-four hours. (Last summer was super stressful!!) I was too busy to deal with the leftovers and it’s been waiting for me for almost an entire year to get back to it. Well baby, I’M BACK FOR IT.

I like to completely gut a room when I’m doing a deep clean–take out every last thing, physically touch everything à la Marie Kondo and decide if it’s going to be kept, donated, or thrown away. This means that my living room is currently holding every physical possession of Nathaniel’s and Emily’s. So, another mess in order to deal with the original mess. *mirthless chuckle*

But, man, does it feel good to empty out an engorged room, rearrange the furniture, deep clean that sucker, and then judiciously bring things back in. *satisfied sigh*

So that’s what I’m up to right now, and I plan to come back next Friday/weekend and show you some pictures of something organized. I do much better when I have deadlines, so there it is–let’s get a bedroom put back together and prettified.