Gathering Steam

April 20, 2024April 21, 2024Leave a comment

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

Top priorities this past week:

Prom Dressses
Garden tasks
Driver’s licenses tasks

Creativity

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

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

Garden

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

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

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

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

Caring

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well, That Was Unfortunate Timing

April 15, 2024April 15, 2024Leave a comment

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

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

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

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

Clothing

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

Cleaning

Catch up, basic upkeep.

Caring

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

Creativity

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

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

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

Gardening

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

Celebrating

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

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

Community

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

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

I Dream of Muslin

March 25, 2024Leave a comment

It really is unfortunate that prom dress sewing lines up with getting the garden started. I’m still trying to figure out how to make both of them work together, with preference leaning towards the dresses because I can always come in a little late on the garden. This week will see that preference leaning towards creating the muslin for Ren’s dress, and hopefully more than that.

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

Saturday: Beef Stew
Sunday: Cheeseburgers & Fries
Monday: Spaghetti
Tuesday: TBD
Wednesday: TBD
Thursday: TBD
Friday: TBD

Clothing

Stay on top of the laundry. I was looking at Nathaniel during church yesterday and I think he needs a new wardrobe because he grew again. I had to buy him a new pair of running shoes, two sizes larger than the last pair I bought him in JANUARY. I don’t know how he is not in constant pain with the rate at which he is growing right now. Also, he’s now wearing the same size shoes as Michael does. Maybe one of my children will actually end up taller than me.

Cleaning

Basic upkeep because of the prom dresses.

Caring

I need to buy a wedding gift and a bridal shower gift for one of Emily’s friends who is getting married in the next few weeks. It’s incredibly weird that my kids’ friends are starting to get married. Wasn’t ready for that.
Need to figure out what Emily’s plans for the next school year are so she can apply for things at the right times.
Driving practice for all three girls so maybe they can take their driver’s license tests over spring break.
Might meet a friend for lunch.
Parent Teacher Conferences this week. I don’t know if I should even bother going, especially after hearing what quite a few teachers had to say about parent teacher conferences while I was doing my student teaching—the parents whose kids are doing fine are the ones who show up and there’s little to say to them, and the parents whose kid are not doing well and who really need to talk to the teachers don’t show up at all. Conflicted.

Creativity

At Home:
- Renaissance’s Prom Dress: As I write this, I have just finished altering the pattern and cutting the first (and hopefully, only) muslin for Renaissance’s dress. That is the hardest part of the entire process, so I’m feeling good about things today. I taskified the dresses last week and, according to the schedule I have planned out, I’ll be on-track to finish on-time if I’m able to finish sewing up the bodice completely this week, which is totally doable if things go as they should. I didn’t know what to do about preparing the silks for sewing, and the internet had very conflicting information on that subject, so I just gave Silk Baron a phone call and had a lovely, candid chat with whomever answered the phone that just made my day. They convinced me to not prewash and just stick with dry cleaning the silk, and to also really consider using dress shields, so I think I’ll follow their advice on that.
- Rachel’s Prom Dress: I think we have everything we need, materials-wise, for the dress. We picked up the oh-so-pretty fabric on Saturday and had a lovely girls’ morning together. I love that bonus of sewing for the girls—we have to hang out together to do it right, and it inevitably leads to more hanging out. I have also preemptively ordered some crinolines for her so I can see ahead of time if they’ll be complimentary to the gown as I’m making it up.
Van Crafting Sessions™: Not really feeling the wedding shawls at this time. I have more time this week for van crafting, so we’ll see how I feel about stuff at the end of the week. I did feel a pull to start working on the Smitten EPP quilt in the past few days, though—I might head that direction.

Gardening

I do not have time for this! Usually I can pop in and out of the house and plant this and weed that, but with most of my time being spent on the prom dresses I’m worried about getting dirt on my hands that could potentially transfer to the dress materials. Maybe I can work to get ahead on the dresses this week and use any free time to go get stuff done in the garden.

Celebrating

Renaissance received her acceptance letters from both Pacific University and Linfield College! Now to wait for scholarship decisions. The late FAFSA has been such a headache.
Easter’s this Sunday, and I have no plans whatsoever. I don’t even know if I’ll get to the point of making plans. We have a ham and we’ll cook it. Maybe I’ll put Easter treats on the girls’ radars and they’ll take care of it.

Community

Band Festival
Choir Contest
Engagement Party for a lady at church that conflicts with something else that I hope ends up being cancelled so I can go to the party instead. Why is there always something responsible that you’re signed up to do when a party comes along? However, having been on the receiving end of RSVP back-outs because something better came along for the invited guest, I stand firmly on the hill—nay, am willing to die upon said hill—of honoring your previous appointment commitments despite how enticing a later invitation may be because it’s really rude not to.
Church Easter Brunch: I’ve signed up to bring fruit. Michael wants to sign up to bring biscuits and gravy, but I am going to leave that entire project to him, rather than commit in my name and have it potentially fall through and embarrass me.

Top priorities this week: