March Goal Update

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I have had a lot of time to work on goals in March. I will get on my soap box once again for goals. With all this extra time I've found myself with at home, I've know exactly the things I wanted to work on to better myself. Heck, I may get them done a lot earlier than December, and that's OK! 

2020 Goals 

Read 12 Books: 3/12 
The first book I read this month was Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. This falls into the category of beach read for me and it was excellent. Once I got 50 pages in I didn't want to put it down. It was fun to escape to Scotland for a bit and see who Eleanor is and what made her that way. Two thumbs up! 

The second book I read this month was Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I would have never picked up this most excellent read if it was not selected for Book 2 Topeka. That is a wonderful program put on by our library, where the librarians pick a book for our community to read together. Night Circus is a beautiful fiction book that is so well written I was sad when it was over. It is a 500 page book so being home-bound the last two weekends of this month is the only way I finished it so quickly. The first line and the last line of the book are the same,"The circus arrives without warning." This book will take you without warning. Not really a beach read as I wish I had paid more attention to the timeline in the beginning. The chapters move around in place a time. The two main characters are magicians who duel at a circus that only opens at night. If you like fiction books, this one will not disappoint. I would rate it with my favorites! 

Knit 4 Things (and no new yarn!): 2/4 
I have started my third project. A bigger project than I have completed in awhile, I'm making a vest called the Mielie vest. I have just enough Berrocco Vintage yarn from stash to make it. I hope my sister's cats didn't eat too much of my yarn!  


Make 2 Quilts : I have started Quilt #1

This month I got all of the interfacing on the T-Shirt squares to start my 4-H T-Shirt Quilt. It is looking like April will be 4 more weekends at home. So I have high hopes for my quilt progress. Just a technicality to point out, I just make the tops. I send them off to be turned into quilts. :-) 

Run 600 Miles: 162

I got 56 miles this month. So the good news is I made my monthly goal. The bad news is I fell off of my training plan for my April half marathon. When I found out it was a virtual race I was also having to figure out how to run my job virtually from home. There was a lot of stress and I stopped my training distances. This last week I was running 2 to 4 miles almost every day just to get my 56 miles. 

So I'm looking at pulling a PW (personal worst) for my virtual half marathon. I anticipate a lot of walking breaks! 

Save 2,000 Dollars: $965

I saved 265 this month. I had to do a little more spending at the end of this month than orginally planned. Having the boys home all week requires more grocery money and more eating out money. I can't cook every day! During this time of uncertainty, I'm more dedicated than ever to bulk up my savings. I plan to hit my $2000 goal and surpassing it! 

5 House Projects: House projects are on hold right now. Have to stay home to stay safe and part of that is keeping other people away from the house right now too. 

Put in a ceiling light in living room
Put in a ceiling light in my bedroom office
Get a new stove: Done Feb
Remove a scraggly tree
Get my Garage door working

Trying to remember all the things I should be thankful for.
We have a lot of play space around our house.
Very thankful for room for the boys and I to be outside.

I Have Confessions

You can file these confessions under, "only things Candi cares about". But, I can't continue to live with my lies so I'm coming clean!

I fell off the no new clothes bandwagon. On March 3rd I bought the cutest yellow Lularoe dress. What can I say? Yellow is my color! I got compliments when I wore it, so I know it was the right choice. Before I lost all will power and bought the dress two of my friends and I had been swapping clothes. We all had a Goodwill pile at home, so we compared our piles! I score an awesome cardigan and two dresses that I didn't buy. Yay for swapping!

I'm not letting my moment of weakness get out of hand. I bought my dress and now I'm back on the wagon. It was a good three months, let's see how my will power fares this time!

My second confession also has to do with my weakness around shopping. I bought new yarn. I wanted to make a hat for a particular person and I just didn't have the right color! I can't even tell you the last time I bought yarn, I honestly think it is when I went to the Dallas Fiber and Wool festival in April of 2018. So, I almost made it two years?!

My last confession is when I found out that my first half marathon of the season was changed to a virtual race, I stopped running. In two weeks I only did 1 treadmill run. That is my version of pouting. There are many reasons that my pouting was  a bad idea. First, there is still a race, we are just on our own. Second, I lost a lot of my conditioning. Third, I filled my running time with baking and eating cookies, very counterproductive! Lastly, I'm having to run EVERY DAY just to make my 50 mi/month goal!!!

Whew, I've cleared my conscience. I know you all don't care, but I just might sleep better tonight! LOL

I had to steal the boys tonight for a drive thru date! 

No worries we ate it parked in the parking lot! 

Need 12 miles before the end of the month. Ugh 

The dress that broke my will power. It is so cute on me! 

My 3rd Dress #2

I started this Dress on January 20th. I had a little bit of trouble with the pockets, because I don't read directions, so I put it in time out. All I had left to do was the neck binding and the hems. So I spent some time at the sewing machine today and finished it! Yay!

Also, while I was sewing I had the boys write letters to some of my sister's residents at her long term care facility. While that sounds like a warm and fuzzy activity, it was not smooth sailing. Turns out it is hard for kids to write to people they don't know. We figured out a few lines that work and they finished one card each. Let's just say I got a little yell-ey when I told them they both had to do more than one. Perfect mom I am not, but six letters were written on old Christmas cards. Reaching out AND using what we have in the house!

Finally, I will leave you with a friendly tip. If you bake 3 dozen chocolate chip cookies and have two kids they will last approximately three days. (PS-Alex isn't eating them!) Buy your chocolate chips accordingly!

I have had this fabric since I worked at JoAnns in 2009!
It's a little crazy b/c I always bought the stuff that went on sale
for $1 or $2 a yard. 

Photo Credit to Daryl, had the cutest photo
bomber ever! 

Daryl is not my usual baker but he had fun! 

Making my own bias tape like I learned at Dress School! 

A Lot Of Little Things

I'm not going to blog about staying close to home specifically, however this opportunity has given me a chance to appreciate some things I may not have before.

The first thing that brought me a lot of joy today was a new wallet I ordered early last week. I got it on Etsy and it is AMAZING! Even better than the pictures, it has pockets for four different budget items. That way I can put the cash in and when it's gone, it's gone. Should keep me more accountable than my debit card.

Spending so much time at home had me realizing how badly my "new to me" table needed new place mats. I loved the Christmas ones I made, but those got put away last month. So, I found some awesome yellow and blue fabric, and tonight I finished them. Eeek, they are perfect! This new table gives us more elbow room and is not wobbly. We are enjoying it.

Lastly, I am working from home on the weeks I have the boys. In between setting up web meetings, answering e-mails and editing the fairbook we have been trying to "learn stuff." Alex and I try to see how many subjects we can get in a day. Today, we got in reading, PE and science! It might have been more like arts and crafts with science tomorrow. But before you can erupt the volcano you have to build it! 

What we are going thru now is completly new, and not easy. I will do my best to distract with funny boy stories, Purl pictures and new projects! Feel free to distract me too!

Reversible place mats! Eek

Cutest wallet ever! 

Pouring our Volcano! 

The Height of Adulting

I got so excited today that I have to scream it from the mountain top. My new stove is here! All four burners work, I tested them. It is so pretty that I haven't even cooked on it yet, I just can't do it. LOL

The delivery guys could not understand my squealing. One asked if the other one died on me, and I said nope! I just finally had the cash to buy a new one. If new appliances making me giddy wasn't enough, on Saturday I bought my very first...bedskirt! How does one get to 37 without having a bedskirt? Some things we will never know. When I got my new Alpaca sheets last week I decided I no longer liked seeing my box spring. Hence a bedskirt.

Am I not the most adulty adult you've ever met? I'm also making progress on my book goal. I read 100 pages just today of "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine." It is some delicious fiction, and the author is keeping a secret about Eleanor, I'm hooked. I'll read it some more after I publish this blog.

Also, on Friday we celebrated Alex's July birthday at school. It was the last day before Spring Break so it seemed like a good day to bring in donuts and a game. I adore Alex's teacher this year, and his classroom is a lot of fun. Alex always picks donuts for his classroom treat, and I made him get up at 7am so we could go buy them. I told him the sprinkles would be all sold out if we waited till we left for school. Sprinkles are obviously the best. :-)

Alex's class singing Happy Birthday to him! 

Playing Hoola Hoop relays! 

My old stove, that I am happy to see go! 

My pretty new stove!!