In-progress Penguin Party quilt blocks made from pastel plaid flannel fabrics

The Penguins March on in October

October 24, 2025October 27, 20253 Comments

It is a stormy, stormy afternoon here in Western Washington; our first big storm of the season is moving in and it is drenching everything thoroughly. The leaves are being dumped to the ground by the torrents of rain, and the deafening drumming on the roof is drowning out all else.

In other words, it’s lovely!

Such beautiful, get-cozy-with-some-knitting weather.

Raindrops dripping from green fern leaves in an autumn rainstorm

Unfortunately, I don’t have any knitting in sight because the bug hasn’t bitten until now, so I might spend some time in the next few days figuring out my next yarn-related move. I am eyeing my Fair Isle technique books with the hope that maybe I can start working on my Better Days Ahead Sweater once again.

I have been working feverishly on Renaissance’s Christmas quilt this week and am so very pleased to announce that the penguin bodies are all complete! Yay!

Penguin Party quilt made with cool color palette of flannel fabrics

I still wish I hadn’t decided to make this in flannel because the material is not fun to work with due to its super-unravelling properties and unexpected amount of stretch in the fabric. Those two attributes make for difficulties in all the piecing involved in these blocks. But oh…this quilt is going to be EPIC COZY.

I’ve added another row to the pattern so it can be twin-sized instead of lap-sized. Ren and I are both wishing I’d gone with a more “Christmas”-leaning color palette, but then we both shrug our shoulders because we thought we were being incredibly clever with the icy arctic color palette, and you couldn’t have talked us out of it if you tried. I mean, if it really bothers me I can maybe just possibly make another more-Christmas-color-palette quilt for her in the future.

No work on other quilts this week because I’ve just got a bee in my bonnet about getting this one done so I can get Rachel’s done as well for this year’s Christmas. Fingers crossed for more stormy weather (that doesn’t knock the power out!) that will avail me of more cozy afternoons piecing penguins together in my warm, wonderful craft room.

It’s such a great time of year. I hope the weather is allowing each of you your best crafty life as well!

Linking up with:

Homemaking Goals for the Week: Prepping for Homecoming and Halloween, and other Autumn Vibes

September 29, 2025October 19, 2025

Good morning! It’s such a good feeling to start my Monday morning off with a planning session for the week! I’ve missed this part of my routine—there’s something about having a deadline to post about my plans that makes me far more likely to make the planning happen.

Conditioning

I’ve added two new categories to my homemaking planning routine: Conditioning & Currency. Conditioning encompasses the various categories of self-care that keep me healthy: Physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, social, etc.

Physical Goals this week: 3 swimming sessions, 15 minutes of sunshine/outdoor time each day
Spiritual: Pray once a day, read one article a day on LDS Circles (I’ve backslid a bit in this category over the summer and am slowly rebuilding my spiritual health habits. Slow and steady wins the race.)
Emotional: Go through my Morning Manna ritual each day
Intellectual: I am trying to transition to reading actual ink and paper books at night, rather than e-books and/or scrolling on my phone in bed. This is proving harder to do than I would have thought. So, for this week’s goal I’m going to shoot for loading my nightstand with three books to choose from in the evening when I’m tired and don’t want to think anymore: 1 fiction, 1 serious non-fiction/informational, 1 creative/beautiful. I also need to figure out where my phone is going to live while I’m sleeping.

Currency

Update my money book/register twice this week. The ultimate goal is to do this daily, but I fell out of practice over the summer, so we’re rebuilding. Everything else is pretty much automized, so yay.

Cooking

This week’s meal plan: It looks like we’re heading into some seriously autumn-feeling weather this week! Cooler temperatures and some rain means it might be time to start dipping into some soups and comfort food! Woo hoo! Yay for autumn!

Monday: Corn Soup with Bacon & Sage, green salad with Italian vinaigrette
Tuesday: Quesadillas
Wednesday: Baked Chicken Parm, Caesar Salad
Thursday: Waffles, Bacon, fruit
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Chicken Pad Thai
Sunday: Chickpea & Quinoa Chili, cornbread

Clothing

The regular upkeep plus getting Rachel ready for Homecoming. It’s that time of year! I’ll need to do the autumn wardrobe rotation soon, but Homecoming prep takes precedence this week. Also need to check with the kiddos to see if they need anything for their Halloween costumes. (Are they even planning on trick or treating?)

Cleaning

I’m still slogging along with the house decluttering. We did a phenomenal job of getting the kids’ rooms done over the summer, so I’m still very proud of that. I’m currently in the process of moving my home office out of my bedroom and into my craft room, which will require decluttering both of those worlds so they can fit into one room together. It is not a fun task whatsoever. But I’d like my bedroom to be less “business” and more “sanctuary,” so I’m making this long overdue move. I’ve been hit with all the back-to-school sicknesses in the past couple of weeks, so I don’t know if I’ll make any novel gains this week because I’m just trying to get caught up on the regular cleaning tasks around the house.

Caring

Getting Rachel ready for Homecoming.
General Conference is this weekend, so it’d be nice if I could do something special for that. It’s a busy, busy week leading into it, so I don’t know what I’ll actually be capable of doing.
It’s Week #13 in my 12 Week Year goal cycle, so I’m also deciding and planning my goals for the upcoming Autumn Cycle. I’d like to revisit my Life Vision plan and rework it, as the last time I updated it was in 2020 and things have changed A LOT since that time.
Nathaniel Driver’s Ed drives and tests scheduling
Make optometrist appointments

Creativity

Rotation Project: I am currently working on Renaissance’s Christmas quilt. All the penguins have fully formed heads! Next up is the wings and bodies. It’d be great if I could complete all of those this week.
Scrap Project: Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt. Why am I still working on this?!?! It’s gathering dust somewhere; the goal for this week is to unearth it and put in some work on the last bits of quilting it needs before it’s done. The resistance I am feeling towards this, guys…yeesh.
Crafting-in-the-Van Project: I am currently working on a Christmas EPP quilt that will look a lot like, if not identical, to the Tales of Cloth “Bonnie” quilt. I should probably count how many “blossoms” I’ve completed and extrapolate how many more I have to go. It’d be good to cut up the charm pack of Christmas fabric I bought a few months ago to add to this project and make sure I have enough fabric cut for the remainder of the quilt. I’ll get an hour’s worth of work done on it while I’m waiting for the kids at Mutual this week, and I’ll also get some work done on it during a kid’s dentist appointment as well. I also need a name for this project…Peppermint Blossoms EPP quilt.
TV Handwork Project: Uhhh, *checks notes*…huh, I’ve decided to unearth another long overdue project that I think I started working on back in 2005? Decluttering the craft room will have you finding all sorts of stuff! The embroidery floss has long since been lost or allocated to other projects because I thought I lost the instructions to this project, but I FOUND THEM while decluttering, so I really want to finish this up and be proud of myself for finishing a thing. I need to go shopping and purchase replacement embroidery floss this week, hoop the embroidery back up, and hopefully get some actual stitching done whenever I’m watching television/movies. This also needs a name…Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler.

Gardening

Yeah, work should be done out there. We’ll see. Michael went through the yard this past weekend and burned away all the weeds and it looks so nice and neat. There’s a FAT SQUIRREL that is snapping off the heads of all my sunflowers and stealing them away to his nest, so I’m leaving them up while he does his harvesting. All the herbs have bolted so I probably won’t try to save them.

Oooh, I’d also like to start up my countertop AeroGarden, probably with herbs or lettuces, because The Big Dark is creeping in and I like the extra “sunlight” that the countertop garden shines on us during breakfast and dinner time.

Celebrating

Put out the last of the September apple decorations that I still haven’t gotten to. (Oops.)
October starts on Wednesday?!?! *sighs* Alright, put out the Halloween decorations, too.
I’ll have to tell you more about my newest obsession when I get a chance: Whimsical Days, where I just spend a day getting ready for the next holiday/celebration. I generally have been doing them on Wednesdays, so with October starting on Wednesday this week, I’ll be focusing on Halloween this week.
Beginning of October means I need to send out some birthday cards to Canadian family.

Community

I’m not involved with a lot of stuff this year. I’m focusing on getting Rachel and Nathaniel to their various activities.
I am still in charge of music at church and we’ve been taking a little break after a jam-packed summer of music. I should do a debriefing on that because I’d like to do things differently next year. I need to get the Christmas Sacrament Program written up and submitted for approval. I also need to get October and November’s special musical numbers planned and organized. And get October’s sacrament hymns chosen and posted.

Top priorities this week:

Homecoming Prep
Driver’s Ed schedulings
Swimming & sunshine
Aerogarden
Halloween decorating
Church music stuff
Consistent time for creativity so I don’t go insane

As I look over this week’s plans, I’m reminded that homemaking is less about checking every single box and more about creating an environment where peace and progress can flourish. The lists keep me moving forward, yes, but the ultimate reward I’m aiming for is the good feeling that comes from making my home a place of care, order, and creativity. Here’s to a week of steady steps, small victories, and the joy that comes when we pause at the end of the day and see the good we’ve accomplished. Let’s get to it—one task at a time! And Happy October!

Trying to Work on the Sew Many Stars Quilt

December 10, 2024Leave a comment

Life is absolutely crazy right now with the upcoming band fundraiser, the church Christmas program, and plain old Christmas. I sat down at the end of November and planned out my crafty schedule for December, but have been only been able to put a pittance of effort into my projects because all the Christmas music is getting in the way! Maybe I need to call December a wash every year because Christmas music will always be a huge part of my Decembers?

I did get some time to work on the Sew Many Stars Quilt last week, which ultimately led to disappointment when I realized that the batting I had for it wasn’t large enough. So I’m waiting on a bigger batting to arrive in the mail, and it’s supposedly going to get here tomorrow. Fingers are crossed that there can be a couple of hours I can squeeze out of the remainder of this week to do a little bit of work.

My original schedule had me possibly finishing this quilt by Christmas Eve, but with no label, which I’d get to in the week after Christmas, but I do not know what to expect from this project at all anymore since losing out on the last week’s sewing time. We shall see…

Goodbye Halloween, Hello Christmas!

November 1, 2024November 4, 2024Leave a comment

It’s November, and right on schedule, it’s raining like crazy today. It’s pretty rain at this point—the brightness of the colorful leaves creates an impressionistic feel to the landscape, so at least we have that.

Top priorities this past week:

Halloween celebrating & traditions
Band Fundraiser Table Runners
Scheduling special musical performances for November
Finding a pianist for the Christmas program
Make some headway on the secret Christmas knitting
Rest when I’m tired or hurting

Celebrating

Halloween was fun this year. Not a lot of fuss, but Renaissance and I did manage to create our traditional chili in pumpkin bread bowls, which I wasn’t too sure was going to happen. She invited her friends over for another Halloween feast before Trick or Treating started, despite that they’re all adults now that don’t do Trick or Treating, and they hung out afterwards playing video games together and taking breaks to hunt down Rachel and Nathaniel in the neighborhood to jump scare them with light sabers. As one does…

I was a little sad going into Halloween this year because Ren and her friends have grown up and I was worried about Rachel and Nathaniel not having a group to go Trick or Treating with, but they put the word out that we live in a great neighborhood for Trick or Treating and some of their friends decided to come on over to do that here. It was nice. I love the chaos of having a gaggle of teenagers in my house on Halloween night. Absolutely love it—peak motherhood aspirations there.

So Halloween is over, and with that comes Christmas. I absolutely turned on Christmas music this morning as I worked in the craft room!

And spare me your “Christmas shouldn’t start before Thanksgiving” sentiments: I’m Canadian; I grew up with Thanksgiving taking place in early October, so my internal Christmas countdown was programmed in childhood to start once Halloween was over and I’m not going to reset it ever because more time in Christmas Town is AWESOME. I take the requisite days off from Christmas prep to do a proper job on American Thanksgiving, and we are very grateful people who are capable of exuding a thankful attitude even while decorating for Christmas. I know, it may be shocking that such people exist, but we do! Everything is OK, gratitude will continue to exist in our home despite the appearance of red and green before Thanksgiving. If you’re a person who doesn’t do Christmas until after American Thanksgiving, cool. You do you. But do not come in here demanding that the only correct way to celebrate the holidays is how you do it. Because that is blatantly incorrect.

And further more, how do you think Christmas music happens? Do you think musicians wait until after American Thanksgiving to start practicing that stuff? Of course they don’t! Big preparations take time, and there is not a lot of time between American Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sorry/not sorry to pop your bubble on this concept, but many musicians start practicing their Christmas music in October, even September. I started planning and purchasing Christmas sheet music in August. That’s how Christmas music happens—that far in advance. Just be thankful (hey, there’s that gratitude word!) that there are people who want to shower others with so much Christmas cheer that they’ll voluntarily give up their time very early on in order to prepare for Christmas, rather than pointing fingers and snidely alluding that the Early Christmas Cheer people are materialistic gimme pigs. We’re actually spending more time in service to others by getting the Christmas Town Express going early, and that’s…decidedly unmaterialistic, right?

/soapbox (I’m so tired of this argument that, really, shouldn’t even exist.)

Creating

I have found time to start working on the Band Fundraiser table runners this week. I’ve got most of the fabric cut up and I’ve ironed what I have on-hand and have done the first round of sewing on one (1) table runner. I hope the future organizers of this event don’t get tired of the table runners and get rid of them in a few years. They’re turning out quite nice and could potentially last for years if they’re treated well.

I made a little bit of progress on the secret Christmas knitting, too.

Community

I am hitting some major walls with church music. I shall remain optimistic through this weekend and if things don’t sort themselves out I’m going to have to alter my plans. Once again, but for a different crowd this time, how do you think Christmas music happens? A big part of that is people being willing to be a part of church choir. If you’ve ever wondered about joining your church’s choir, stop wondering and just do it. We’re desperate for you. DESPERATE.

Healing

I’m almost there, I can feel it. I yo-yo back and forth between overdoing it and needing to take time to rest from the overdoing, which is always a good sign that points towards a “nearing full recovery” kind of thing. I’m glad I wrote about it this time around so I can look back and see the glacial pace and know that it’s completely normal. Six weeks of inactivity is a really long time. You don’t think it is when people throw that timeline around, but laying around for that long is mind-numbingly boring. I guess I should be thankful that I’m feeling like bursting my prison right as Christmas Season begins. What a glorious reward!

Highlights

Halloween was noisy and fun. I love hosting all these kids at our house.
I made a beautiful pumpkin soup this week that was so delicious.
The best idea came to me at church: At the end of each month, sit down with your spouse and schedule all your weekly date nights for the entire next month. So simple, but it’s literally never occurred to me. When I approached Michael with the idea, he improved it by saying we could align our four dates each month with the four goal-setting areas of the Church’s youth program in order to expand our horizons a little more. So, a date night dedicated to 1) Spiritual, 2) Intellectual, 3) Physical, and 4) Social pursuits each month. In months with five Fridays we’ll have a family date, which are the most expensive dates of them all, but you know, kids deserve some fun times out with their parents, too.

Lowlights

Renaissance got her car stuck in the mud when she went out with friends to a haunted house this last week. Thankfully, Michael came to her rescue. Where would we be without good dads?

Meals, Tomatoes, Pumpkins, Hopefully Some Sewing

October 28, 2024October 30, 2024Leave a comment

Recovery from surgery is going much, much better. I think I may be able to pull off a somewhat “normal” amount of activity this week. I’ve made the choice to stop taking Tylenol for my post-op pain because I think we’re getting close to the end and any amount of pain is a signal that I’m doing too much and that I should slow down rather than pop a pain reliever and keep going at the same pace. I know it’s a wise decision, but ugh. But hey…we are definitely getting to the end of this!

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

Monday: Tortellini in broth, Peasant rolls
Tuesday: Creamy Pumpkin Soup, European Boule
Wednesday: Roast Chicken with garlic, lemon & rosemary, Normandy vegetables, Rice pilaf
Thursday: Chili in pumpkin bread bowls
Friday: Taco Night
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Pork & Tomatillo Stew

Renaissance also plans to make a Butterscotch Pumpkin Pie.

Clothing

I am doing laundry pretty regularly now, but I can’t lift the full baskets of clothes. It’s not much of an issue most days because there’s almost always someone else in the house with me.

Cleaning

Cleaning is still a little difficult for me, so I’m keeping an eagle eye on the kids’ chores and not letting them get away with doing half-hearted jobs. I don’t think I’m anyone’s favorite parent right now.

Caring

I’m just trying to get back in the swing of making all the meals regularly because hungry people are grumpy people. There’s also a lot of office work to catch up on, so I expect to spend a lot of time on that this week.

Creativity

I am going to try my hardest to get some actual sewing done this week. The fabric for the band fundraiser table runners is here and I’ve pre-washed it all and am in the middle of cutting it to size. I’m a little optimistic that I might get these done quickly.

I need to really, really get knitting on the secret Christmas knitting project(s). Eek!

Gardening

The tomatoes. Oh, the tomatoes. The green ones are ripening on the counter, so that’s good. We’ll be using a lot of the pureed pumpkin this week, which makes me pleased. I’m hoping we’ll get the garden cleaned out this upcoming weekend, too.

Celebrating

Happy Halloween Week! The kids have costumes, I bought candy, and there are pumpkins for carving, but I don’t know if they’ll get carved at all. There is ONE carved pumpkin, so everything’s ok in a minimalist fashion.

Community

Pep Band potluck this week
The work continues to get ready for the band fundraiser
Ward Choir sheet music is arriving on schedule
I still need to find a pianist(s) for our Christmas program
I need to schedule the special musical performances for November and December

Top priorities this week:

Halloween celebrating & traditions
Band Fundraiser Table Runners
Scheduling special musical performances for November
Finding a pianist for the Christmas program
Make some headway on the secret Christmas knitting
Rest when I’m tired or hurting

Feral Choir Concert Toddler

October 26, 2024October 30, 20242 Comments

Seeing how I posted my goals for the week on Wednesday, the chance that I’d make significant progress on them was small. It’s just been such a busy week, and with needing to still rest when I start feeling tired I just don’t have a lot of time for the extra things. It’s a frustrating place to find oneself, but nothing terrible will happen as a result. I would just like to be able to do all the things, is that too much to ask?! 😉

Top priorities this past week:

Processing the garden harvest
Ward Choir logistics
Band Booster everythings
Walks
Secret Christmas knitting

Caring

Rachel had her first choir concert of the year on Tuesday and it was really lovely. I love seeing how much kids can do after only a handful of weeks into the school year. Even the freshman choir sounded great!

Unfortunately, the family that sat behind us at the concert had a free-range toddler who pulled out some of my hair, and when I turned towards whatever the heck had yanked hair out of my scalp the offender wetly sneezed directly onto my eyeballs.

Zero stars. Would not recommend. It got even worse later on when the toddler tripped and smashed its face into the back of my seat and screamed their anguish into my ear. I was very glad when the concert finally ended and I got to go home.

Nathaniel had his last cross country meet today and he did SO GOOD. He placed TENTH in his race with a time of 20:00.0. He wanted a 19-minute-anything time so badly, but alas…ha ha ha. Considering that he ran his first race of the season with a time of 23:03.0, I think he can safely be pleased with his progress over the season.

Garden

I think all we managed to work on after all the work at the beginning of the week was to get the last pumpkin roasted and pureed. I did go to the store and purchase ingredients to make Green Tomato Mincemeat, but the excursion made my incisions hurt, so I decided to rest a bit before continuing with my plans. Unfortunately, I started feeling crummy that evening, and I woke up Friday morning feeling awful and ended up sleeping most of the day away. I think I was fighting off whatever the Choir Toddler sneezed into my face. I needed to do a bunch of other stuff today, so I still haven’t gotten to the mincemeat.

Community

The church Halloween party was last night and Rachel and Renaissance helped out with the face painting. Renaissance also took over getting our van ready for trunk or treating once it became obvious that I would not be attending the party due to feeling so yucky, and she did a delightful job!

Ward Choir logistics were dealt with this week and we’ll have sheet music to sing from tomorrow as long as I remember to make copies in the morning. I also ordered all of the Christmas sheet music and expect it to arrive next week, and I could cry over how much it all cost, but if I can get everyone I want to help out with the Christmas program it will be amazing. I am very excited about the possibilities.

I did not get to Band Booster stuff, but it’s high on my list of priorities for next week. The fabric for the table runners should arrive Tuesday afternoon, so I guess I’ll start sewing up table runners on Wednesday or Thursday. (Boring! But needed.)

Health

I went on zero walks this week. Between getting over the cold from last week and dealing with the Choir Toddler flash illness this week I just haven’t had the energy to do much more than some halfhearted office-y work from the couch. I’m doing my best, folks.

Healing from my surgeries is feeling good. One of my incisions is healing a little slower than it should so I have to do some extra care for that three times a day, but it looks like it’s working and the wound is finally closing up. Grocery shopping really tired me out on Wednesday, so I’m still working towards having more energy. It’ll come back.

Creativity

I worked on my not-secret knitting for a little while before Rachel’s choir concert. Emily and I went on a little yarn crawl together in July and I saw a skein of self-striping yarn in perfect Christmas colors and I had to have it. I’m making some adorable Christmas socks for myself from it and adding in solid red heels and toes because it’s perfect. I’m almost done with knitting up the heel flap of the first sock. I love that you can take the downtime of daily life (like waiting for a concert to begin) and use it to get further along on a project, rather than wasting that time looking at a phone. More crafting in public is needed! Join the cause!

I didn’t work on anything else due to the aforementioned ickiness that prevailed all week. I’m falling so far behind! Fingers crossed for a healthy new week!

Highlights

When Nathaniel came running over the crest of the hill before the finish line in his race, way before I expected to see him.
The huge smile on Rachel’s face when we handed her the bouquet of flowers after her choir concert.
How cute the van looked after Renaissance finished decorating it for the Halloween party.
Emily brought me Panda Express for lunch one day as she came home from running errands because she thought I’d like it.

Lowlights

The Feral Choir Concert Toddler :::squinty side-eye:::
Two illnesses in one week

Despite all the illnesses, I AM getting stronger and feeling better each week, so that’s good. Michael and I both are really excited for how much better I could potentially feel in my daily life once I get all healed up. Ugh, the amount of pain and lost days I’ve had to deal with for the past ten years is gobsmacking. And it could just be over now. Maybe. That’s incredibly exciting. We shall see…

I’ll leave you with a photo that Nathaniel texted me while he was out on a run this week. I may not be getting out a lot to enjoy this beautiful autumn weather, but my kids send me pretty pictures of it, for which I’m grateful. There’s always happy little glimmers to make one smile…

Busy with Harvesting

October 23, 2024October 30, 2024Leave a comment

Last week’s decision to have little goals to work towards each day was a great success! I felt like I was going to be physically ill at the end of Monday and Tuesday from the effort, but by Wednesday I could do each thing each day with relative ease. Unfortunately, I caught a cold from one of the kids and the symptoms began manifesting on Thursday evening, so I didn’t get much more done after that point. I felt much better by this last Monday and have been slowly ramping up efforts yet again. It’s nice to actually do stuff again!

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

Monday: Pizza (Michael)
Tuesday: Corn & Zucchini Soup, Whole Wheat Rolls
Wednesday: Beef & Pumpkin Stew that turned out terrible, so I converted it into a Beef & Pumpkin Curry that was more than decent
Thursday: Pork & Tomatillo Stew
Friday: TBD
Saturday: Marry Me Pasta, Salad
Sunday: TBD

Clothing

Just trying to get strong enough to handle doing laundry again. The goal is one load a day and I’ve met that goal once thus far this week.

Cleaning

Cleaning is still a little strenuous for me, so I’m doing light tidying. The kids don’t like that I’m noticing messes now and I’m coherent enough to keep on top of them to clean up after themselves. They’re good kids, but geez, if they aren’t going to be nagged to clean, they are not going to do it. I could worry unnecessarily about this, but I was the same way when I was their ages, and I got my act together at some point. I’ll just keep nagging and hope they sort themselves out in the future.

Caring

When I was cutting up garden vegetables for freezing, I took the time to dice up some of the green peppers, and added some onion and garlic to the bag so Michael could have a ready-to-go bag of diced veggies for when he makes roasted potatoes for breakfast on the weekends. It’s a little thing, but I hope it makes him feel loved. He hates chopping things because his hands are better suited for brute strength activities and not so much for fine motor things like dicing vegetables.

Creativity

I did not finish a penguin block last week because I got sick. I also realized that I’ve been having a hard time with this quilt because I’m making it out of flannel, which I’m not enjoying piecing with at all. I’d like to sit down and calculate whether or not it’s feasible to finish this quilt before Christmas decorating season this year—if it’s not feasible I might move onto something else for the time being.

Oh…I will need to move onto something else for a little while. The decorations for the band’s big fundraiser are looking more than tired and we’ve decided to replace the table runners this year, which I’ll be sewing up. I ordered the fabric today, so I don’t know when it will get here, but I’ll start working on those once the fabric arrives.

I also need to keep going on the secret Christmas knitting. I was supposed to be 50% done with one project last weekend, but I’m only at the 25% mark. Eek. I do have a fabulous excuse, but still…I like to finish my projects no matter what.

Gardening

There was a Freeze Warning issued yesterday and I made the decision to just harvest everything in the garden, ripe or not, seeing that it’s the end of October and true freezes can legitimately start happening now. I had hoped to focus on getting caught up on office type things this week, but Mother Nature forced my hand and I’ve been processing produce for storage. Mostly chopping and freezing things because canning feels like it would be too much at the moment. I think I will try to can up some Green Tomato Mincemeat tomorrow, though. I’ve read good things about the recipe, and there’s a lot of green tomatoes sitting on my counter. I’m absolutely chuffed over the garden’s output this year. It’s easily my best year of gardening ever; I just wish I had been strong enough to can a lot of the veggies because that’s one of my goals in life. I aspire to have the pantry full of jewel-toned jars of homemade yumminess lining the walls. It’s always such a beautiful sight.

See that huge zucchini in the box? It yielded twenty-two cups of shredded zucchini! That’s a lot of future zucchini bread!

Celebrating

The girls are helping with the church Halloween party and Renaissance cut down my corn stalks after we harvested the corn and she’s planning to tie them up nice so they can be placed on the front porch as decorations. Rachel ordered herself a costume from Amazon and Nathaniel has come up with the laziest costume that will still work for him, so we’re covered on costumes. Yay, Halloween. Should probably buy some candy to hand out.

Community

Ward Choir: We’re changing our meeting time and I’m meeting with my pianist this week to discuss Christmas music. I was not able to attend our last/first rehearsal because I wasn’t feeling well, so a friend ran the rehearsal, for which I’m very thankful. I am really hoping to be done with feeling poorly and get these Christmas rehearsals going!

Band Boosters: We had another fundraiser planning meeting this week and made a lot of decisions. So much work to do! Music programs in our schools do not happen on their own, folks! I am thisclose to creating vinyl lettering for my van’s rear window that has a Venmo QR code for people to donate to for the band. People donate to bachelorette parties, why not music in our schools? I truly wonder if that would work…?

Top priorities this week:

Processing the garden harvest. Ren and I have ploughed through a lot of it already, but still need to figure out what to do with the tomatoes that are over-ripe, under-ripe, and green. We also need to puree a pumpkin, and I want to oven-roast the green cherry tomatoes to have on-hand for adding a handful to soups for extra flavor, etc.
Ward Choir logistics.
Band Booster everythings.
Walks. They stopped happening while I was feeling unwell, so I need to get back in the habit.
Secret Christmas knitting, because I’m behind on it, but also because it forces me to take a break during the day and I can feel that I’m sometimes a little more tired than I should be due to the harvest processing.

I wish you all a happy and productive week! It’s so nice how good you feel when you’re able to dig in and just get some work done! Ren and I worked hard this morning in the kitchen and while we were eating lunch she sighed and said, “It’s just a good day. I did work that matters and that I like doing, and I’m eating a lunch that tastes good. That’s a good day.” I just looked at her and felt so proud. She gets it. Life is a lot of work, but a lot of the work is really enjoyable if you let it be enjoyable. Hopefully this beautiful time of year brings you numerous opportunities to enjoy the work that’s being asked of you!

Inching Along

October 14, 2024October 15, 2024Leave a comment

I’m still recuperating from surgery, but starting to feel like I might just live after all. It’s been four weeks since my first procedure, and two and a half weeks since the second. I have to keep reminding myself of that second date because I can easily remember the first date and I get discouraged that I’m not further along in my recovery, but then I remember the second date and I feel better about where I am.

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:
Monday: Orange Chicken Bowls (Renaissance)
Tuesday: Beef & Pumpkin Stew, if I have the energy. If not, quesadillas made by someone else.
Wednesday: Beefy Pasta (Ren or Emily)
Thursday: Pizza
Friday: TBD (Michael)
Saturday: TBD (Michael)
Sunday: TBD (Michael)

Clothing

We’ll see if I can handle doing any laundry this week. I tried a week or two ago and could load clothes in the washer, but that was about it. Michael’s been good about keeping the laundry caught up, but it’ll be good to take over that task from him so he has less to worry about. Trying to fold and put away clothing will once again be a focus.

Cleaning

I’m still restricted quite a bit in my activity, so I shouldn’t be doing much cleaning. If I have the energy for it I try to wipe down the kitchen table and counters after breakfast. At some point that should become an easy task again, right? I’ve also been puttering around in my craft room, putting away a thing here and a thing there. I tire extremely easily, so there’s not a lot getting done, but every little bit helps. Maybe I can aim to clean the kitchen surfaces each morning, put away a certain number of things in the craft room each day, and spend a set amount of time (5-10 minutes) each day unearthing my office desk from beneath the mountain of paperwork that is currently camouflaging its existence?

Caring

I’m still healing, but also trying to regain energy, which is a tricky balance to strike. I’m trying to walk further distances and/or go on more walks each day, and that’s going relatively well. I’ve added in Stretchy Calf Raises to the end of all my walks in an attempt to fend off any plantar fasciitis that may be brewing as I’m sure my muscles have atrophied everywhere and I do not want to have to deal with plantar fasciitis on top of everything else.

I complained to my doctor about being bored out of my skull at my last check-up and he suggested I allow myself to read as much as my heart desired. I think I read nine books and seventeen magazines last week. I’m getting tired of reading. Kristin Hannah’s The Women is excellent. I can’t read anything else by her while I’m recovering though—she writes the most heartbreaking stories and I feel like I need to avoid the downers right now while my body is trying to manufacture warmth and light and healing vibes. It’s hard to convince your cells to rejuvenate when you’re feeding your mind and heart a bunch of tension and sorrow.

I don’t have any extra space to care for others right now. Which is ok. Stinky, but ok. I do need to remember to reach out to my brother on his birthday. Which reminds me that I should get back into the habit of checking my To-Do List app each morning, if only to make sure I’m not missing any important reminders.

Creativity

I’d like to start doing some creative things each day. I’ve got the time, and it would require me to sit and stand up, which is good for helping me regain my strength. Major Post-Back Surgery of 2015 vibes going on here, but hey, that’s how I ended up making my Farm Girl Vintage quilt! I would almost start another Farm Girl Vintage quilt now, but there’s a lot of other projects that I really should work on instead.

Complete a penguin block for Renaissance’s Christmas quilt
Spend 30 minutes each day doing some Christmas knitting

Gardening

There’s not a lot that I can do in the garden, which is so beautifully overgrown and ripe that it hurts. Michael and Renaissance are doing their best to use up what we’ve got out there, for which I’m profoundly grateful. Renaissance has processed two of the pumpkins into puree and Michael has been picking my tomatoes and peppers and cramming them into everything he cooks for us these past few weeks. I grew a boatload of beautiful San Marconi peppers—they’re about ten inches long each and a vibrant red that just makes you happy to look at them. We ate the purple corn I grew and it was really good—when you cook it, the purple turns black and grey, which made for excellent Halloween-ish corn on the cob. Renaissance called up a friend who really likes making salsa and gave him four pounds of our tomatillos, which he was really jazzed about.

This may not be a great food storage year for us, but we had fun in the garden throughout the summer and we’re doing the best we can with the harvest. Hopefully this surgery solves all the problems that have made it difficult for me to process harvests and spend extended time in the kitchen to do canning and preserving. Losing out on this harvest is worth it if I can do the work in years to come.

Celebrating

I’m not sure what my kids are doing for Halloween. I think Michael’s taking care of it? And, honestly, the kids are set up with their teen accounts on Amazon and can just order a costume if they want one and I’d approve it. They know this, so I’m not going to worry about it. If they forget, they can throw something together from what we already have around the house. I’m not going to stress about Halloween this year.

Community

I was supposed to resume ward choir practice this week. I pushed it out another week because I knew I didn’t have the strength. We’ll be starting up this Sunday. It’s going to be rough. I need music for them to practice, especially Christmas music. My contact in the bishopric was released and now I need to go through whoever the new guy is. It takes a while to figure things out. I had hoped to do a big Christmas program this year, but I’m now leaning towards a more simplified one because I know I’m stretched too thin. Getting caught up with life is going to take a while.

Band Boosters are chugging along without me. Sigh. I mean, it’s what you want to happen, and they are all exceedingly capable women, so everything is good. I’m just sad that I’m not there with them. I get extremely bummed out about missing out on it all, but so very thankful that they’re handling everything just fine.

Top priorities this week:

Complete 2 walks a day, with 10 Stretchy Calf Raises at the end of each of the walks
Wipe kitchen surfaces after breakfast each day
Clean up 10 things in craft room each day
Spend 10 minutes clearing off office desk each day
Spend 30 minutes doing Christmas knitting each day
Finish 1 penguin block by the end of Sunday
Fold and put away 1 load of laundry each day

So that’s me. Just trying to get up and moving again. There’s a lot of hope and a little bit of budding excitement that this surgery may have drastically improved my quality of life, given that my back doesn’t hurt anything like it used to and I’ve now gone a full four weeks without a pain flare-up. I just need to be careful with my recovery and find that delicate balance between enough rest and enough activity. Patience, patience…

Surgery Update

October 5, 2024October 5, 20241 Comment

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear my friends, there’s been a lot that’s happened in the past couple months. I mentioned “flare-ups” quite often in my Domestic Diary posts—flare-ups that started up two or three years ago and would sometimes land me in the emergency room because the pain was so intense. At first they were every few months, then every other month, every month, every three weeks…it’s been truly awful.

We started to get the ball rolling in March to get me in for a surgery to make the flare-ups stop, but my insurance denied the surgery until I’d tried alternative methods to manage the condition. Three months later, the alternative methods hadn’t made a dent AND I’d racked up two more ER visits, so they finally approved the surgery.

Which led to the next problem of trying to find someone to perform the surgery. There’s a doctor shortage here in Washington, and also a huge backlog when it comes to surgery because there’s not enough surgeons and their calendars are so full that they’re scheduling procedures two to four months out. Michael got sick of the wait-and-see and took a day off of work in July to phone every surgeon within twenty-five minutes of us to try to get an appointment with them. He phoned thirty-something offices, left messages with each one, and only one office got back to us. (I am amazed at the level of unprofessionalism that exists here in Washington State; it’s not just the medical industry that acts like that, it’s almost everyone.)

However, as luck would have it, the one doctor that phoned us back was the doctor that was #1 on Michael’s research list of surgeons, so we were pleased to go meet them and get things moving forward. It turned out to be a great decision: While the surgeon I was already working with was predicting a surgery date of late October through early December, the new surgeon said they’d definitely get me in by mid-October. Then their secretary called me up in early September and said that something had come up and a spot had opened up in mid-September and did I want it? I enthusiastically said, “YES,” and our family launched into surgery prep mode with about a week’s notice. We were too excited to care about the condensed timeline. Mom might be able to function as a normal human being soon? We were all in! Yay!

My surgery date came and went with all the normal happenings. Getting cut, removing things from your body, and getting stitches hurts, so I was in a normal amount of pain as I set off to recuperate at home. Most of my friends who have had this sort of procedure said they were feeling pretty normal again with a week or two, so I set my sights on feeling more like myself in that time. Unfortunately, I started feeling a little worse on Day 5 of post-op, and then worse every day after that until I was just lying around feeling lethargic and nauseous. On Day 9 of post-op I finally spiked a fever that necessitated a trip to the ER, where we discovered that one of my organs had exploded. I was taken into surgery to do what could be done to clean up the damage.

I started my healing process again, only to go back to the ER four days later with early signs of sepsis. (That was a scary experience that I might talk about later, or I might not.) I was pumped full of antibiotics, watched over carefully through the night, and released in the morning to once again recuperate at home.

So I’m on Day 19 & 10 of post-op, and Day 5/6 since the mini sepsis scare. As we were driving home from the last ER visit I received a spiritual prompting, weirdly, to not recuperate in my bedroom because the stairs would be too much for me. So we’ve set me up in the front room on our hideaway bed and I’ve spent the last week watching movies and desperately trying to rally the strength to do, well, anything. I’ve never been this tired and worn-out in all of my life: On top of everything else, I’ve become severely anemic, which has me feeling like I just don’t have any gas in my tank to do anything.

But as always, there’s glimmers of beauty and love amongst the pain and despair. Michael has turned himself inside out on a daily basis with caring for me. I’ve no shortage of snacks, drive-thru runs, clean clothes and all the needed supplies to help me heal. He’s taken over my carpool duties as best he can while still going to work, with other members of the carpools unhesitatingly covering any leftover deficits. He’s set up the projector to cast my movies onto the ceiling so I can still watch something when I’m too tired to sit up enough to watch a normal TV screen. The kids love the whole “TV on the ceiling” experience, so you’ll find us laying on our backs on the front room couches most evenings to continue working our way through the “White Collar” television series. There’s been such sweetness amongst all the bitter.

Friends have come out of the woodwork to help with everything. And goodness, when did everyone get so good at cooking? We have eaten like kings as dear friends have dropped off dinners and treats. Our refrigerator (cup) overfloweth…what a wonderful problem to have. I’ve had visitors to help pass my very empty time, and I just feel so loved and seen.

Even the prompting to set myself up on the couch bed has paid off, too: I simply don’t have the energy to go up and down the stairs multiple times a day, so it was a very good decision to set me up downstairs. An extra bonus is that, from my couch bed, I have a view of my garden. My garden may not end up being processed into food storage this year, but goodness me, does it bring me joy, and it continues to bring me joy as I gaze out upon it longingly as it flourishes and ripens in the golden autumn sunshine.

With me being situated near the front door, the kids are able to interact with me a whole lot more as well. I was feeling rather lonely during my time recuperating in my bedroom. It’s nice that your kids will figure out how to solve their problems on their own while you’re healing, but lack of human connection can really make a person feel down. It’s nice to be right there when they get home from work and school; they’ll sit down and talk with me for a few minutes as they take off their shoes and it lifts my spirits to connect and know what’s going on in their little worlds even while I’m not involved in my normal capacity.

And now my medication is kicking in and it’s becoming a little difficult to piece words into sentences, so I’ll end here for now with the hope that I can write some more in the upcoming weeks as I (hopefully) continue to heal through completion without any interfering events.

Evidence of Life

October 21, 2022Leave a comment

The weather has done its thing where it finally shifts from dragged-out summer to definitely autumn, and that always puts me into a reflective mood. Another year is beginning its spiral towards completion, while at the same time being in full-on chaotic upswing due to the steady hum of a new school year and the holiday season sneaking up behind us. It’s a weird little time in the calendar year: A constant pull between calming down and ramping up.

I’ve not posted much this year. I made a decision, many years ago, to not post while feeling overly emotional or snarky, and every time I’ve broken that rule, I’ve regretted it. So I heeded the wisdom of a lesson learned the hard way, multiple times, and kept myself to myself and focused on my children. It seems to be the most winning of strategies when I’m working through difficult phases of life. We had a quiet spring, a quiet summer, and were ready and refreshed to tackle what autumn had in store for us, and wow, autumn has not held back on amazing moments. I’m so glad we were in prime form to go with its energetic current of events.

But then the rain (mercifully) started up this morning, and I decided to take a pause on this Friday and still myself after so much rushing. The kids are doing so good right no; it’s so great to watch them blossom. That blossoming comes with a lot of driving them around and last-minute schedule changes, but remember how two years ago there was nothing for them to go to? This frenzy is evidence of life being lived. I’m so grateful that we’re in this moment of time, moving on from what was a very difficult couple of years.

I don’t write a lot here because I’m not creating a whole lot of stuff these days. I don’t know what to write about to you all anymore. I struggled with this same conundrum years ago when I shifted out of homeschooling–what do you write about on a homeschooling blog when you’re not homeschooling anymore? I tried to morph into a homemaking blog, but readers abandoned me in droves, so I packed it up and called it good. Thankfully, I was getting going with the crafty stuff, and that created this blog. But here we are again, with no crafting happening, and me wondering about what to write about now?

I am busy with my children. I am busy with cooking, laundry, and cleaning. There are blogs enough out there that talk about those topics, and they’re not really topics I feel like I have much to write about–we all need to eat, we all need to not be naked, and we need to keep ourselves and our homes clean enough to stay healthy. It’s not a calling in life–it’s just life, regardless of your relationship and parental status. Everyone eats, everyone wears clothes, everyone cleans. I don’t know how to craft essays about those topics that will make us feel better about them.

But maybe I’ll try. It’s nice to have a written record to read in future years. (I go back and read through my homeschooling blog once or twice a year because I dearly love reminding myself of the cute things the Brookelets were doing during their elementary years!)

And maybe I’ll find time to craft again in the future, but it’s not looking like my time will open up anytime soon. I knit a little when I watch TV, and I have a knitting bag in the van for when I’m waiting to pick up kids, but it’s slow progress and nothing like when I was actively trying to create content for this blog and Instagram. (It’s so nice to take a break!) Most of my favorite craft bloggers admit they now have teams helping them produce content, and I refuse to try to keep up with it all. We have so many quilts in our house, and the kids no longer want new winter hats each year–there’s just no demand in our home for most of what I craft anymore, and that’s ok…it was fun while it was desired. What is needed from me right now are the basics and the logistics and they are all-time-consuming. We are making hay while the sun shines on these awesome teenage years!

It’s a great time of parenthood, and I do not resent how much of my time it is taking to help my kids flourish. This is what we’ve been working towards all these years and it is Go Time now. All the preparation, all the lessons, all the learning…it’s all coming into play as they start taking their very own footsteps out into the world and start showing up for themselves at the things they’re choosing to continue…and I am the woman behind the curtain, making sure they show up on time in a clean, healthy, and calm state. It’s just so much fun to watch it all come together in these precious moments.

So that’s what’s going on here, and I’ll share what I’m comfortable sharing when I have the time, but it’s hardcore busy around these parts right now, and I have very little knitting to show for it.

I hope you are all having a fantastic autumn season (spring for you southern hemisphere folks!) and I wish you a beautiful season of joy and contentment to help refill our precariously-drained wells after so many years of isolation and suffering. Enjoy living life again!