The school year is massively underway! Life is operating at a breakneck, nonstop pace!
Cross Country
We hosted the Cross Country team dinner before this week’s meet, and it was so much fun! If I could do my parenting all over again, I would have pushed for every one of my kids to run cross country. That group of kids and their parents are just the best sort of human beings. They all work hard, they’re all polite, and they’re a no-drama group who are always thankful for anything you do for them. I love that Nathaniel runs cross country.
We served a pasta bar with amazing garlic breadsticks, and Renaissance spent three days making custom decorated sugar cookies for the team. Nathaniel sure has a sister who loves him!
The meet went well. I always enjoy cheering with the other parents as we move from spot to spot on the course. I think Nathaniel finished fourth on his team, and, compared to this time last year, he is running faster. He’s not at a personal record (PR) pace just yet, but he’s steadily improving.
Relief Society Activities, Now Featuring Rachel
Rachel is serving on the Relief Society Activities Committee and she conducted the activity that was held this past week. She was adorable. It’s so funny to me that she doesn’t really like public speaking, but she’ll soldier through because, while she doesn’t like doing it, she fully realizes it’s not going to kill her to speak in front of people. Sometimes that’s the healthiest mindset for getting through something.
Pep Band
Another home football game, another potluck for the pep band! We did a chili and baked potato bar this time and once again had too much food left over. Better than the alternative!
It was also our Alumni Night, where we invited any and all band alumni back to play with the band for funsies. The turnout was a little smaller than we’d hoped, but Renaissance and her two band buddies decided to go and it was so cute to see both Nathaniel and Ren playing in the same band. It was a nice evening.
Rachel’s Graduation Quilt
Haven’t touched it. Not one bit. When would I have had the time?
Husband Christmas Socks
Still slogging away on ’em. They look good; it just takes a long time to knit socks for man-sized feet.
Gardening
We’re trying to tidy things up in the yard before winter arrives. We’ve cleared the area where I want to plant the bulbs, and then Michael offered to build me a raised bed there, so at the moment it’s a bit of a mess. AND…our plans for next weekend have changed drastically, so I don’t know if we’re going to get this project finished anytime soon. Eek!
There’s another busy week ahead of us, but it’s mostly really fun stuff! It’ll be fun to share with you next week!
Alright, fellow Christmas junkies, we’re heading into the fourth week of HHP!
Due to being really sick for the past week and a half, I’ve not had the opportunity to work on any of Week 3’s tasks, YET. I’m posting so that you can have the checklists for Week #4 somewhat close to its original posting schedule. I’ll debrief Week #3 with Week #4.
Week #4: Close to Home
Week #4 Cleaning Checklist: Kids’ Bedrooms
Declutter, clean, and organize children’s bedrooms.
Particularly with kid stuff, I like to list available items in my church Facebook group so that congregation members can take them if they’d like. No point in driving it to a donation store when my own neighbors might use it themselves.
This week is a great week to help children work through the process of decluttering so they can learn how to do it from a young age. The chapter on kids’ room in Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff, by Dana K. White, is such a good read for this sticky area of parenting. I started using her tips with my kids about four years ago and they have slowly built up the ability to do a lot of it on their own now. One of my kids even did their own decluttering session around Labor Day because “it [felt] like the right time of year to do it.” I guess end-of-summer decluttering somehow became a tradition for our family?! #parentingwin
FYI: I also do a BIG kids’ room declutter at the end of the school year/beginning of summer break. There’s not enough time to do as thorough a job as I’d like during this one week of HHP, especially against the backdrop of a new school year ramping up. I also like the “chapter closing” feel of doing a big declutter and clean at the end of the school year.
No children in your household? Use this week to tackle a bonus room or any other area this week, catch up on previous weeks, or take the week off.
Next week will be Guest Room week, and I’ve never had a guest room in my home, so I use it as another week for cleaning kids’ rooms. Because trying to clean four kids’ bedrooms in one week is insane. If you don’t have kids or a guest room, it’ll be another bonus week.
These two weeks are also good yardwork weeks, before the weather starts turning. I try to plant my spring bulbs around the Autumn Equinox (~September 21), which falls in this week.
Week #4 Holiday Prep Checklist
Seasonal Spruce-Up exercise: I LOVE THIS TASK; it’s something I do every year because it’s so smart. Do a home walkthrough and write down any home improvements, chores, or projects that need doing before the holiday season gets underway.
Once I have my entire list written down, I rank and prioritize the projects/tasks so I can tackle the most important ones first. I like to use Karen Lin’s Ranker tool to help me figure out what my true priorities are and then copy/paste the prioritized list into a document.
Delegate where you can! When I ask someone in the family to do a task, I write it down on a Post-It and stick to one of my kitchen cabinets so I don’t forget to ask them about their progress. The Post-It stays on the cabinet and I keep “reminding” (also referred to as “nagging” by some members of my family) until the task is done. Then the Post-It note can go in the trash.
Declutter children’s toys: As our family heads into adult children years, there is more of this than you would expect. Specific areas to declutter include board games, video games/dead controllers, sports equipment that’s too small, winter weather wear, and sheet music that is from their elementary years. Arts and crafts supplies was a big one a few years ago, and also books.
Begin collecting stocking stuffers.
Hit the back-to-school clearance sales: Good sources for stocking stuffers, craft supplies, and wrapping and mailing supplies like tape and scissors.
Consult family and decide on Halloween costumes.
Start thinking about Advent calendars.
Start working on Christmas cards or letters.
Update birthdays and anniversaries in your calendar and/or task lists.
Continue working on handmade gifts. (Week 3 of 14)
Keep trying to find daily time to work on HHP. A little bit of time daily can get A LOT done.
The House & Holiday Plan was originally created by Cynthia Townley Ewer, and I use much of her original wording. She shut her Organized Christmas website down, so many people now post their own version. You can also join another Christmas planning enthusiast community at Magical Holiday Home.
It’s that blissful time of year when we spend quiet time at home tending to whatever happens to strike my fancy. Mornings are spent in the yard, talking to my little hummingbird friend when he hovers two feet away from my face while I’m drinking my morning tisane, and the sultry afternoons are spent in the craft room in air conditioned splendor. The squawking baby birds have flown from their nest tucked in the eaves of my neighbor’s porch, and I am low-key struggling to find new ways to get my family to eat ripe tomatoes and zucchini. I love late summer.
Rachel’s Graduation Signature Quilt
I was able to spend more time on this in the last week and the backing is almost completely done! As predicted, I ran out of the outer border fabric. I went to my local quilt shop to buy more, but they didn’t have any, so I put in an order at Fat Quarter Shop and it should be here next Saturday.
I shifted to working on the quilt front, which will be made from Riley Blake Confetti Cotton Solids that match the Crayola fabric I’m using on the back. I’m almost done cutting that fabric; hopefully I can piece the top this coming week? (Let’s be realistic, it’ll probably take three weeks…I don’t know why, but that’s just how things go in real life.)
Renaissance and I have been spending a lot of time together this summer, which has been awesome; we’ve even started watching movies and shows in the evenings in the craft room. That has been a big reason for the sudden action on Rachel’s quilt. I love this time with my girl. She works on her little projects, I work on mine, and we laugh at whatever we’re watching together. Most of the time we talk very little; it’s just nice to have another heartbeat in the room with me. I know I’ll cherish this extra time with her when I look back on this chapter.
Husband Christmas Socks
I did a lot of work on these this past week. These are the most complicated socks I’ve ever made (which isn’t saying much) and I am very proud of them. I think Michael will be very pleased with them on Christmas morning. I’m about 15% done with second sock?
Gardening
I woke up yesterday morning with an inkling to spend time in the garden and try to tame the craziness that it’s become after two years of being allowed to lie fallow. I figure, I may not get much out of it this year, but I can clean it up and it get prepped for an easier start next spring? That should work, right? Ha ha.
I came across a cute little bird’s nest tucked beneath the rhubarb stalks:
I have a cherry tomato plant that is sluggishly growing some tomatoes, and my container blackberry and raspberry plants actually produced a couple bowlfuls of berries in the past weeks. Not terrible for the zero amount of effort I put into them throughout the season.
According to my previous years’ notes, I could still sow some spinach, beets, turnips, and radishes for a little fall harvest. I’ve missed the date to sow carrots by a week or so, but I’m tempted to give them a go anyways. Wouldn’t it be lovely to get a little bit of produce out of this neglected garden before winter arrives?
I’m thinking about moving my blackberries or raspberries into the area of my garden where I usually grow beans. I think it’d benefit our family far more to grow berries than beans because we straight up like berries better and can’t get enough of them, while nobody around here is particularly passionate about beans. It seems like picking sugar over substance, though, so I’m having a somewhat Victorian moral dilemma over it all. I guess beans can grow the containers I currently have the raspberries in, so a swap wouldn’t be the end of the world…hmmm. It might not be the ethical quandary I’m turning it into in my head.
Autumn Approaches
I’m refusing to give space to autumn just yet. We’ve been so busy this summer that I haven’t felt like we’ve really gotten our share of the season! Hopefully we can find some meaningful ways to stretch out fully into these last days of summer break and be fully re-energized before school starts up again.
Methinks some homemade ice cream needs to happen, yes?
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!
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.
I don’t know what it is about summer that makes it difficult to stick to a schedule. Is it the lack of places to be, the pull to dawdle and “waste” time, the fact that I have large chunks of time to work on things without being interrupted, or the heat? All of them? None of them? Perhaps we will never know. Regardless, I have time in my schedule to write two blog posts a week this summer, and I often find myself so busy with other things that I choose to do the other things rather than sit down and write. It won’t hurt much in the long run, but I do enjoy re-reading posts and I’m robbing myself of that future pleasure by putting off the writing each week!
Rather than write a regular end-of-the-week kind of post, I figure I’ll do one big swooping review of summer thus far…
Cooking
I’m doing my best to cook things using stuff from the garden, but we had a ton of leftovers after Renaissance’s graduation party, so we ate leftover for 2-3 weeks. Now that we’ve worked through the leftovers, there’s been more garden cooking. The herbs are really starting to come into their own, so I need to remember that they’re available to use!
Renaissance baked up a ton of stuff for her party, and then made some really cute patriotic cookie arrangements for the Fourth of July.
Clothing
One of my goals is to teach the girls some basic clothing sewing over the summer so they can have a better understanding of how clothing fits them and also because it’s a great skill to know. I just taught Rachel her first lesson today and she seems to understand it pretty good.
Cleaning
Graduation party cleanup is taking forever because I bought serving items that need to be assimilated into our household and it turns out our household is pretty full of pretty serving ware already. I think we’ve officially gotten to the point where we need to do a major house purge. Makes sense; the kids have all graduated to new levels of childhood/adulthood, and the life we are currently living is very different from how things were three to four years ago. I don’t know if I should do a full-on Marie Kondo-esque purge, or just attend to the most troublesome spots and make do…I’m leaning towards the latter because I just don’t want to deal with too much. I feel like I can’t handle a Marie Kondo purge this summer.
I did institute a new thing: Catch-up Fridays: For two hours each Friday afternoon I work on the most overdue tasks on my to-do list app. I finally framed up some prints I bought last autumn and was even set to hang them up, but someone walked off with my nails and picture hanging supplies so I’m stuck until I go on my errand run next week and buy some new nails. Hmph. I think Catch-up Fridays will help me feel way more productive by the end of the summer. Crossing those severely overdue tasks off the to-do list just feels so satisfying!
Caring
The girls cannot find jobs. I have them applying to a bunch everyday and they don’t get any kind of responses from the companies. Emily’s been invited to two interviews that didn’t result in anything, and Ren and Rachel have been on one interview each that didn’t pan out either. A lot of people are saying that teens are having a hard time finding jobs because minimum wage pay is so high here in Washington that adults are staying in minimum wage jobs instead of moving up the career ladder and opening the minimum wage jobs back up for the kids. Maybe that’s what it is, I don’t know. I just know that between college tuition rates being out of control and my teens having a hard time finding any kind of employment, post-high school education is becoming very difficult to fund. Ren is hoping that once she turns eighteen next month she’ll be a better job candidate. Fingers crossed.
Creativity
I altered a flower girl dress for a friend and it went well. Now that it’s done I’m trying to learn tambour beading. It turns out that setting up a slate frame takes forever, so I’m stuck on that step until I’m done with it. And then I don’t know what I’m going to bead after, so I feel like I’m flailing at the moment.
My creativity mojo is kind of non-existent at the moment. My instinct is to freak out when that happens, but I’ve had bouts of no creative mojo and I know all will be eventually be well. It’s just a supremely uncomfortable feeling. I feel like I can’t commit to anything because I’m really anxious about the future and whether or not I’ll actually have time to work on projects. And I have completed quite a few really big projects this year already, so maybe I just need a rest. It’s feeling pretty good to be cleaning up the house and working in the garden, which are both areas I had to neglect over the last two years while I did my master’s degree, so maybe this summer will just be about straightening all the home and garden stuff out?
Also, I was just called to be our ward’s new choir director and I feel like I’m not entirely on top of that just yet. We’ve had a couple rehearsals and we’re working on the newly-released hymns, and I kind of resent that my choir pieces have essentially been chosen for me with all these new hymns coming out and needing to be performed before they can be used as congregational hymns. I need to find time to work on my own piano and vocal practice so I can pitch in some more with church music, but…the fire isn’t there right now. Music just feels so stale right now; just more of the same things I’ve been doing for twenty years. It will be nice when this heavy cloud begins to lift.
Gardening
The garden is a source of joy for me this season. I’ve been really good about consistently maintaining it and the effort is definitely being repaid in terms of produce, flowers and beauty. I harvested the last of the lettuce this week and tore out the spent pea plants. The Napa cabbages are almost ready to harvest, the mini carrots are also getting close to picking, and the rhubarb keeps producing. The squashes are all starting to vine and bloom, which is exciting! I have some corn plants popping up, and my peppers, tomatillos and tomatoes are blossoming a ton as well. There’s a lot of potential brewing in that little space in the backyard!
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I planted green beans and winter squash in the newly-vacated pea plant bed this morning, and planted random sunflowers in any blank spaces that I felt needed something growing in them. Sunflowers have had a tough year contending with the slugs, as the slugs love newly-sprouted sunflower greens. I’m thinking about getting my starter trays out again and starting the rest of my sunflower seeds so that I can put them in once they’re bristly enough to deter slugs and then I can have a plethora of sunflowers for autumn color. I also want to start some broccoli.
The nasturtiums are blooming so wonderfully, the Shasta daisies are starting to bloom, the marigolds are growing leaps and bounds, and the aforementioned herbs are scattered throughout and give off the best scents when you brush by them. Rachel harvested the French Lavender this morning and we’ll make wreaths from them this week for the doors. I love the smell of lavender wafting through the house!
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Celebrating
The Fourth of July came and went. I made patriotic Jell-O and it was wolfed down in a matter of hours. It’s so good! Nom, nom, nom.
As far as celebrating summer goes, we’ve not done much. Maybe I should come up with some ideas.
Community
Renaissance and Nathaniel signed up to be in the orchestra for a production of “Guys & Dolls.” I’m worried that it’s too much for Nathaniel’s ability at this point. Renaissance is straining to keep up, as she’s playing three different instruments for it. I’m hoping that this is a “sweet spot” of difficulty for her that has her coming back for more when it’s all over, and not a “that almost killed me and I’m never doing it again” kind of difficulty that turns her off of musical accompaniment in the future.
Ward Choir is still in its infant days. As always, we have way more women than men, so I think I’m going to have to morph into recruitment mode and stalk dudes, which I really just don’t want to do. Maybe I’ll wait until school starts? Summer is often so hit and miss with families going on vacation anyways. We’ll just plough through new hymns throughout the summer and it’ll be enough. We’ll set our sights on making choir magic in the fall?
I want to start some sort of social group that meets once a month or so. A couples’ potluck group, or a creative women’s group, or something. Or just invite some ladies over one evening. I’m feeling the loss of all the regular socializing at school events and I’m feeling pretty isolated. I feel like friends are a necessary ingredient to an enjoyable summer. Every season, really, but this season–without its enforced socializing that school throws at us in autumn, winter and spring–needs shared laughter and sweet drinks in the sunshine with favorite friends.
Maybe everything is in a “nearly ripe” stage at the moment, and after all the hustle and bustle of school’s end, graduation and Ren’s recital, normal feels a little flat in comparison? I may be feeling a little off-kilter, but the weather is beautiful and we do get a lot of free time for reading, naps, and daydreaming, which ain’t that bad. There’s a couple of things planned in August that should be fun, so I’ll just keep showing up and cleaning up the cobwebs that have formed in the past couple of years and hopefully feel better for it. I would really like the Creative Mojo to come back, though. It’s so unsettling when I’m not up for creativity. It will return, I know that. Maybe I’ll read some more on the hammock in the next week. Chill out some more.
Best wishes to you as you go about your summer experiences and memory-making!
While I am very pleased that I didn’t throw Renaissance’s graduation party until two weeks after graduation, I also feel like our summer vacation didn’t really get to start until now after the party is finished because we were so busy with putting the party together. I spent this past week trying to summon up the will to do anything and then just gave up because I figured it was my body’s way of taking a break after many, many months of non-stop activity. All good things, of course, but it’s been a lot and recovery is an important part of the wellness cycle. I’m hoping I slowed down enough and rested enough that I’ll be good to go for the rest of the summer.
I have missed my little weekly posts to begin and end each week, and I’m hoping I can get back into a routine that includes writing them. The past six weeks were really busy! Here’s the plan for the next week, as we really sink into our true summer schedule:
Wednesday: Cheeseburgers (Because Rachel has been asking for them repeatedly), Shaved Summer Squash & Peas,
Thursday: Hot Dogs, 4th of July Jell-O, etc.
Friday: Ribs, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob
Saturday: French Bread Pizza, Caesar Salad
Sunday: Panzanella
Clothing
Laundry is pretty caught up on the daily stuff; I still need to fold and figure out some of the other season stuff and do a wardrobe rotation to make sure all the cold weather clothing has been put away and all the summer clothing is out and in use.
I’m altering a flower girl dress for a friend’s daughter and it’s going pretty good thus far. I’ve basted all my alterations into the dress and the girl came over today to make sure everything was fitting correctly before I put in legit stitches, and it looks really good! I just took the very top of the side seam in a little too far and it’s going to rub her underarm too much, so I’ll let the alteration a wee bit there. Time to get going with permanent stitching!
Cleaning
Finish cleaning up the graduation party, which will require:
Decluttering and cleaning the pantry so I can find space to put the new chafing dishes and drink dispensers that I purchased for the grad party.
Let’s be honest here, those two things would be absolutely amazing to accomplish in just one week, so I’m going to keep it at two items on this list.
Caring
Driving lessons for Emily & Rachel, scheduled and everything
Spelling lessons for Rachel & Nathaniel, because that’s what we do in the summer
I’m teaching the lesson tomorrow for Family Home Evening and I’ll be walking the kids through the “Getting Things Done” filing system. I’ve come up with a great way to help them keep track of their incoming mail and schedule their stuff and keep track of their chores. I’ll write a post in a few months if it actually works well.
I need to find out more about the Fife & Drum Corps that I want Renaissance and Nathaniel to join.
Creativity
Much of my creativity time will be taken up by the flower girl dress alterations. I’m glad I’m doing it, but it also reminds of why I generally say no to these requests—I don’t have a lot of creative time and I’d like to use it for myself. No regrets on this particular commission, but it’s a good reminder.
I will be teaching all three girls the basics of garment sewing this summer with the end goal of Rachel being capable of stitching her own homecoming dress. I’m excited about this prospect because…
I am going to be learning a new skill over the next couple of months that should take my dressmaking abilities to new heights: Tambour Beading. Tools arrive today and I’ve made a promise to myself I won’t start playing with them until I’m done with the flower girl dress, so hopefully I can speed through the alterations this week so that I actually get to start learning how to do this beading technique ASAP. I am SO EXCITED!
I need to check in on the various quilt blocks I sent out into the world for Ren’s Signature Graduation Quilt. There were a handful of last-minute cancellations on attending her party as well, so I might reach out and see if they want quilt blocks to sign.
I need a Crafting-in-the-Van project because summer music lessons will be starting up this week or next. Obvious options include: Smitten Quilt, Beehive Embroidery, Roses Hexagon EPP Quilt, and the Star Spangled Diamonds Quilt (I think this is too big for van crafting, though). My heart wants a new project, preferably embroidery and/or historical costuming-related. I am really not in a quilty mood right now, or knitting, either.
Gardening
It is looking so beautiful. I am so glad for every hour I’ve spent out there to get it ready this year because the view is absolutely worth it. I take a thirty minute break every morning after I wake up the kids to sit in the backyard and watch the birds flit about and feel the sun on my face. I love summer mornings.
Keep harvesting the peas, which are coming fast right now. The peas I planted on President’s Day weekend are massively producing, and also starting to fade a bit. The peas I planted near St. Patrick’s Day are ramping up production and will take us through a few more weeks I think. It was a good experiment with those dates. The peas I planted in April haven’t amounted to much at all. I’m not sure if I’ll get any pods off of them.
The lettuces and spinach are producing marvelously right now, but we also have so much cut lettuce left over from Ren’s graduation party that we’re not using the garden lettuces at all. Hopefully we can plough through all the leafy greens before everything goes bad or bolts.
Everything else is in the growing/maturing stages: Zucchini, Summer Squash, Tomatoes, Roma Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant, Tomatillos, Hot Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Bush Beans, and lots of herbs.
There’s also some corn coming up, along with some pumpkins. I’m really excited for these two crops. Corn is always fun to grow, and I bought a purple variety this year. Hopefully it’s tasty. And pumpkins are just delightful.
Celebrating
Still cleaning up graduation stuff, but it’s coming along
Happy Canada Day today! I don’t do anything for it anymore because I have a lot to do for the Fourth of July, but I still like to wish people a happy Canada Day when it rolls around.
Fourth of July Jell-O preparations will commence tomorrow. I need to make sure we actually have everything we need, but that’s also something that can be remedied the day of if need be.
Pioneer Day is coming up and I’m not sure if we’re doing anything for it. Church is having a potluck or something and I think I saw something about a pie-making contest, which I’ll need to mention to the girls because they will absolutely commit.
Renaissance’s eighteenth birthday is coming up in a little over a month. No idea what we’re doing, should probably get on that.
Community
Ward Choir is on my mind as we get it started up. I like to have them perform once a month, so we’ll be hitting the rehearsals hard. I’d also like to start figuring out the Christmas program ASAP so I can get music ordered and have everything ready to go in September/October, depending on the difficulty of the pieces.
Hymns have not been chosen for July because sacrament meeting topics weren’t chosen when I was looking yesterday. A reminder text was sent.
Need to do July contacting with ministering sisters. My two companions are both moving out of state this week, so I’m also waiting to hear who my new companions will be. I’ve asked for it to be my own daughters, so we’ll see, I guess.
I have a couple of books about decorating and entertaining that I like to read from time to time, and I just read the summer chapter from The Collected Cottage and I’m all revved up to do some summer entertaining, but I don’t know what to do. That beautiful chapter just makes me want to have friends over and enjoy the beautiful weather while we can, but it’s a leap to invite new people over and everyone is so busy with travel and houseguests during the summer. I guess I just need a mentality of “Just keep asking until someone says yes?”
I’m sure there’s Band Booster stuff I should have my eye on, but I gave myself the last week off and am uninformed at the moment. I’ll have to reacquaint myself and start touching base with the other band moms.
Top priorities this week:
Finish cleaning up the graduation party, which will require:
Decluttering and cleaning the pantry so I can find space to put the new chafing dishes and drink dispensers that I purchased for the grad party.
Flower girl dress alterations.
Fourth of July preparations. Mmmmm, Jell-O.
Ward Choir prep.
It’s the time of year for enjoying the weather, and thankfully, I’m solar-powered so the sunshine helps me get loads of stuff done. Happy North American Country Day that you celebrate, if that pertains to you, and I’ll talk to you again soon!
Big week ahead! I’m starting to feel really worn out by everything, but I’m trying to ignore the feeling and just enjoy everything that’s going on. Next week will be much less busy and I’ll make sure to take some time to rest and recover, but until then I just gotta keep going!
Cooking
This week’s meal plan: Don’t judge me, it’s going to be an extremely busy week where I’ll only have about thirty minutes to throw dinners together.
Monday: Costco Chicken Alfredo & Mac ‘n Cheese, Green Goddess Salad, French Bread
I cannot find Michael’s khakis, which he needs for graduation. Where could they have possibly gone? Super annoying. I’ve looked in all the places they should be and in places they could be and nope.
Continually monitor the wrinkly-ness of Renaissance’s graduation robe after each thing she needs to wear it to this week and re-iron as needed.
Cleaning
I didn’t even get to the toaster last week, so…don’t hold your breath on any of the other things!
Caring
All eyes are on graduation this week, so everything that isn’t that has been rescheduled for dealing with next week. Oh! Michael and Nathaniel needs haircuts before graduation. They look like shaggy dogs right now.
Creativity
The graduation signature quilt blocks are halfway assembled and they may stay that way through the graduation party. What’s done so far is enough for them to be serviceable at the party, so I’m going to spend my time on more pressing things and circle back to finishing these blocks when I have time, which may not be until after the party.
I need to start sewing up the bunting for the grad party decorations. I just think it will add the nicest touch.
Other grad party decoration preparations will probably wait until next week when I have more time.
Gardening
I need to kill some slugs. As predicted, they’re gobbling up the petunias. If I could just remember to buy slug killer at the store, I could easily move this problem to a much more positive outcome.
Still need to get the Three Sisters planted, but we’ve got an atmospheric river pouring on us right now and the weather’s not set to clear up until graduation ceremony day and I will be beyond busy during that time. Maybe I can get to this on the weekend? Same to the front porch plantings and figuring out what the heck I want to do with the front yard plantings.
Celebrating
There’s so much going on this week—Baccalaureate ceremony, a choir concert, and graduation! There’s still a lot that needs to be done for some of these things, but we should be OK.
Community
I can push most of this stuff to next week and I am actively trying to do so. I did reach out to my ministering companions to try to set something up for next week and one of them has gotten back to me, so that’s a start.
With the release of the thirteen new hymns I have some work to do on the music front at church and I got a bit of a start on it yesterday with good outcomes. Someone recommended that I join the “Music Callings Resources” Facebook group for good ideas, but so far it’s only seemed to be a big bunch of squabbling complainers who are personally offended that the Church didn’t pick their favorite song for release, and if it’s not that kind of person, it’s the super annoying “I know more about music than you do” people who enjoy flaunting their musical knowledge and elevated opinions. I’m hoping it’s just a little agitated over there because of the announcement, but I’ll leave the group if, after my 30 day snooze wears off, it’s still a lot of the same a month from now. What an absolute downer of an experience.
Top priorities this week:
Graduation and all of its associated events
Keep everyday life afloat in the midst of all the graduation stuff
Graduation is really here! I remember my mom friends being all “it’s going to go by so fast!” at the beginning of the school year, and while I think we kept so, so busy this year with all the fun that a senior year brings, it is weird that graduation is actually here. I think I’m still recovering from the epic prom dresses, so graduation feels like it popped up out of nowhere! I was telling Michael this morning that I’m so glad there’s all these graduation warm-up events before actual graduation because, based on how much I’m tearing up at these pre-graduation events, I don’t think I’d make it through the actual graduation ceremony with any sort of composure if I was just thrown into it without any of this other stuff happening first. Emily’s graduation was a big deal, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t really involved with her activities and peer group because we were still kind of new to the area, COVID was still impacting things a bit, and she wasn’t involved in as many things as Renaissance is. Graduation feels so much bigger when you actually know the kids who are graduating and have a lot of memories with them. My cup runneth over…see you on the other side of this week!
Alright friends, we are gearing up for the true craziness of graduation and end-of-school season. I’m a little jealous of my Utah friends who are already done with their kids’ school year, just as I’m only really beginning to get going with the end of ours. At least all the work is comprised of good things, right? It’s busy, and busy isn’t a bad thing.
Cooking
This week’s meal plan:
Monday: Memorial Day BBQ
Tuesday: Orange Chicken bowls
Wednesday: Pork burritos
Thursday: Leftovers/Something easy
Friday: BBQ Chicken
Saturday: BBQ, etc.
Sunday: Warm Goat Cheese and Chicken Salad
Clothing
Just keep trying to get on top of the laundry
Tailor Rachel’s new church dresses, if I can find the time
Go through bag of boy clothes that I found in closet and see if they’ll fit Nathaniel
Rotate out cold weather wardrobes, if I can find the time
Make sure everyone has clothes for graduation
Check fit of Ren’s recital dress, make plans for tailoring if needed
Cleaning
Clean oven
Clean pantry
Clean toaster (Let’s be honest, this is the only one that has a shot at being completed this week!)
Caring
Try to do more drives with Emily, but the schedule is super tight this week
Caring will be accomplished simply by making sure everyone is fed and showing up to things on-time this week
Creativity
I’d like to be 25% done with Renaissance’s graduation quilt by the end of the week.
I need to start working on the bunting for her grad party decorations
I’m learning how to make graduation leis as well, and would like to finish three of them to hand out at graduation next week.
Gardening
Goodness, am I glad we did all that work over the weekend. Good job, Memorial Day Weekend Brooke Family!
Need to plant the berries in containers
Need to plant corn and beans. I might throw pumpkins into the same patch to test out the whole “Three Sisters” idea. Kids are onboard to find out if it truly works.
Need to play front porch containers.
Lawn feeding
Celebrating
Renaissance will get a lot of opportunities to wear her graduation cap and gown throughout the next week. I didn’t realize how many different things she was going to be doing in that getup. I’ll have to stay on top of steaming/ironing the gown so it doesn’t look wrinkly.
I need to do a lot of ordering of supplies for the grad party.
Get creative work done now so I can free up time to work on food later.
Taskify food preparation
Submit rental orders
Respond to people who have offered to lend supplies
Get recital program squared away
Community
I’m about to have another calling in the next week or two, whenever they officially call me, and I’ll need to organize that. I’m going to ease into that calling rather slowly because I am monstrously busy right now. I should have told them I could launch into the calling following Ren’s grad party and to hold off until that date, but I wasn’t thinking at that moment. Sigh.
I need to get June’s hymns squared away and posted
I have new ministering sisters and assignments and I need to make contact and figure all that out
Band Boosters follow-ups
Check on available water bottles for graduation
Top priorities this week:
Graduation & recital clothing
Graduation quilt progress
Party decorations & ordering progress
Planting last of plants in garden
June’s hymns
Alright, off I go to do all the things! I wish you a productive week as well.
I cannot believe that it is still the month of May. So much has been going this month that is seems like it’s been two months in one. What a busy, fun time of year!
Top priorities this past week:
Get grad party invitations out
Get Christmas tree down
Garden
Cleaning
Laundry
Celebrate
Graduation party invitations are almost all mailed or delivered, yay!
The Christmas trees are officially dismantled and stored away until November. For future reference, Future Cara, it only took an hour to take down the giant Christmas tree, so stop dragging your feet about it in the future. And also, Future Cara, you are freakishly busy from January through May for the next four years, so take down the Christmas stuff before the New Year. Just do yourself that favor. Please.
Garden
It’s radish season! I need to spend some quality time with my mandoline slicer in the next weeks. We’ve not eaten a lot of radishes as a family, but boy howdy are my kids going to get some exposure in coming days! I purposely planted a purple variety in the hopes that it will make Rachel happier about eating them.
One of my big plans for the Memorial Day weekend is to get the garden and yard cleaned up and we spent a big chunk of yesterday doing that. There’s still so much work to do, but we got a lot of the worst of it done so I’m hoping that tomorrow’s work will see it through to the end of everything.
There are so many signs of potential in the garden right now from the little bits of work that we’ve been doing up until now. It’s so exciting to watch spring burst onto the scene. I really, really love seasons and how everything changes and has signs about new parts of life on the horizon. There’s so much excitement in nature!
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Cleaning
Prom preparation messes have been cleaned up. I also ordered a storage box for fancy hair accessories so we can store them out of the way during most of the year and be able to find them easily when the next dance rolls around. Ren and Rachel have amassed a beautiful collection of formal hair accessories over the years, and it’d be a shame to lose them.
Prom dress construction has almost been cleaned up. I just need to clean up the leftover fabrics and I’m dreading opening the tote bins of apparel fabric and potentially finding out there’s no room for the prom dress scraps. I’m making myself write that down because it’s such a silly reason to be avoiding a task, and hopefully, by writing it out and acknowledging how ridiculous it is, I’ll be extra motivated to just bite the bullet and get this rather simple task done.
My back was hurting a lot this week from overdoing it in my Tuesday workout, so I didn’t get a lot more cleaning done. I traded off for getting a lot of office work and grad party planning done.
Clothing
I made a little bit of a dent in the looming folding pile. It’s nice to reclaim the space that’s been storing the laundry bins of clean clothes .
Highlights
Nathaniel had his last Cross Country meet this week. All season long he has consistently run his 2 miles in 15:55-16:05 minutes. All season long. After his last race he quickly logged on to the website that reports their times and a look of disbelief and then joyful surprise crossed his face: Somehow, even after having to take a week off of practices due to being sick all last week, he shaved off an entire minute and finished his race with a time of 14:55! He was a very happy boy for the rest of the evening.
Renaissance had her final band concert and it was such a great evening. She had a solo in jazz band, the entire concert was fun and upbeat and sincerely impressive with the music each group was playing, and then we had a reception afterwards with cake and treats and a tear-inducing slideshow of the seniors throughout their band years. I really, really love being a band mom and I’ve really enjoyed all these years of helping her make music with her friends. It is incredibly sad that this part of her life is over. I think the only thing that keeps me from being downright depressed about is seeing how excited she is to begin the next phase of her life and her pastry chef training.
Emily and I went out for lunch on Thursday and had a great conversation about her future plans. I don’t want to get my hopes up too much too early, but it feels like she’s starting to get to the end of working through some of the hang-ups that have been plaguing her for the past couple of years and is getting ready to surge forward into adulthood. Sometimes you just need a little extra time to sort stuff out, right? It’s scary to allow that time to take place, but we might be getting to the end of the tunnel. At any rate, she seems to be less anxious about things, which is such a relief. The high schoolers that were in the thick of it during COVID have really struggled with a lot of stuff ever since. Perhaps normalcy is starting to catch back up with them finally?
On Wednesday, when my back was twinging the worst, I gave myself permission to go down a research rabbit hole, partly because I was in too much pain to think logically and partly in the hopes that doing crafty research would help me relax and send the message to my muscles that they could also relax. I spent multiple hours tracking down as much information as I could about bead embroidery and beaded embellishments because I want to continue making formal dresses, but I’m finding that even if you make a gorgeous dress it often needs a little dose of embellishment to truly make it sing, and I think the skill of bead embroidery would be absolutely fantastic to fill that void. I’m thinking about dedicating time over the next year to learning the skill so I can apply it to next year’s prom dresses.
Lowlights
Wednesday’s back pain. Totally did it to myself because I was enjoying my workout on Tuesday and decided to go for far too long in it. Consistency and moderation win the race, not frenzied extremes. This is a battle I fight in my soul on a daily basis.
I hit a flock of baby birds with my van as I was driving to work on Friday. Not my best Disney Princess moment.
It was a really good week, despite the few setbacks. This really is a lovely time of year and I’m excited for what’s coming our way in the upcoming weeks! End of school year is exciting, exhausting, and fun.
