May Goal Update

My heart hurts this weekend. I need to research how I can help my community in very important matters of public health and racial justice. These are heavy topics and heavy times. While I research how I can help my neighbors I know how I can help myself. Keep focusing on my goals I set in January. These goals make me smarter, healthier and more financially stable. You can't give from an empty basket so it is important that I still work on my basket of resources. My mind, money and health are all my resources. 

Take care of yourself friends, and then help those around you! #blacklivesmatter #publichealthisimportant #wearyourmask 

2020 Goals 

Read 12 Books: 6/12 

This month I read The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. It was a great read both as a youth development professional and as a parent. This book really did nudge my heart and mind to give the boys more freedom this summer. I don't have to bike with them, they are free to explore the neighborhood and they can stay home while I run errands. I was babysitting kids when I was Daryl's age, why had I not been giving him that kind of responsibility. It touched on a lot of good topics and it was very good. 

I also read The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson. This books has been on my "to read" list for a long time. It was not however what I was expecting. I really didn't know it was a story of North Korea and a peak into that life. It was a twisted tale that was a very good read. I could see why it is so popular, but for some reason I thought it was about an orphanage. That was probably 15 pages in the whole book. 
 

Knit 4 Things (and no new yarn!): 2.75/4 

Still working on my Mielie vest. I have the body done! I just need to knit the pockets (this is a must) and do all the edging. Might finish this in June. I don't like to knit when it gets too hot, so I'm not making any promises! 


Make 2 Quilts :DONE May 2020

You guys! I technically have finished this goal. My 4-H T-Shirt quilt and a baby quilt are at the quilters right now. I had over half of the baby quilt done years ago, but I finished it this month. So I'm counting it! Yay Finished goal #2! 

Run 600 Miles: 253

I got  56  miles this month! I will not give up on my 600 mile goal for the year. I had a really good month and the boys have been riding their bikes with me. That has been so fun. Daryl even got up at 6am once last week to do a morning run with me. Daryl can do a 3-4 mile route on his bike and Alex can do 2-3. They are also my security and warn me about dogs not fenced in. :-) 


Save 2,000 Dollars: DONE April 2020 

I'm still saving even though I accomplished this goal. I put away $480 this month and that was after my ceiling light install in the living room and changed out the ceiling fan in the dining room. Yay me! 

5 House Projects: I did a project in May! An electrician put a light in my living room and changed out the ceiling fan in the dining room. How can a small change make so much difference? When it gets dark I can now just flick on the light in the middle of the room instead of turning on three different lamps. I'm so happy! 

Not sure how many more of the other house projects will be done. The word furlough is being thrown around at work on how budget cuts will be handled. Me and the boys will be ok, but I do these projects with cash. Some might have to wait till 2021. That's ok! 

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

The whole family is reading more right now, I love it! 

My living room has a light! Yay! 

My latest sewing project was a bed for purl. 
It is filled with the T-Shirt pieces leftover from my quilt.

Back on track with my running, it feels good!

Memorial Day Weekend

Add this weekend to the list of things that are sooooo different this year! Normally this is a weekend we try to all get together as a family. We have cookouts and take the cousins places to play together. While people were able to gather in small groups in Kansas this weekend, it was too soon for us.

My mom is living with us now and I'm making all of my decisions knowing that she is a part of my bubble. Anyone that I see or interact with is also in my bubble. So I'm trying to make the bubble smaller for my mom.

With all that said my oldest nephew and my mom's first grandchild graduated high school this May. My sister was having a small gathering for him in Lakin and mom and I made a plan to attend. We decided to head up early and hug him and his sister (8th grade graduate) before everyone else got there. Our plan was successful and we celebrated our crazy good plan with Braums milk shakes in Great Bend on the way back!

It was also a big trip for Purl. I believe this was her first stay in a Hotel! Since my sister's cats eat yarn we had to get a hotel room for one night. LOL it was because I'm allergic to cats, I just glare at them about the yarn!

The rest of our weekend we hung around the house. The boys and I are all participating in the Summer Reading program. We have set our goal at 12 hours of reading for each of us this summer. If all three of us make the goal we are going on a fishing trip. Some place out of state, we want fish we don't know. :-)

I hope you all had a peaceful and happy holiday weekend. I hope you did something special, even if it was not our normal special!

Grandma with the Graduates! Cadence is not really that tall
she had tall shoes! 

So proud of you Canyon! 

Purl likes the travel life! 

When it wasn't raining we played tennis! 

Everyone wants Grandma on their team.

Happy Graduation Daryl!

Tonight was Daryl's grade school promotion to Middle School! The teachers and principal did a very nice Zoom presentation to celebrate all of these young people. It was also the last day of virtual school so both boys were wound up! 

Kelly and I asked Daryl how he wanted to celebrate. He asked for Ice Cream Cake and Steak. His wishes were granted. Good Job Daryl, Middle School is going to be fun! 

Yay Daryl! 

It took 20 pictures with these two goof balls to get
this one. This was the best they could do! 

Grandma Rosie Picture

Last Friday, the books got book ninja'd!
We are going to read the One and Only Bob together!

His got his wish, Ice Cream cake! 

Happy Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a peaceful mother's day. Mine did not start too great. I decided to get a morning run in so I could relax the rest of the day. I was a mile away from the house when I rolled my ankle. I do this frequently, and normally don't fall. That was not the case this morning. I fell so good I slid into a chain link fence. I knew it was worse than normal because even when I do fall I pop right up and make sure no one saw me. I still looked around to make sure no one saw me, but there was no pop up.

I found my phone that flew out of my hand and guess what? I called my mom! Happy Mother's day, come get me. We got a good chuckle out of the whole thing. I'm a little sore, but very disappointed how small my injuries are. They hurt really bad for a skinned knee and hands!

I made lunch for Mom and the boys for Mother's day. It was a proper ham dinner with a lemon curd tart for dessert. I made the lemon curd myself! I used frozen phyllo dough because why would you ever try and make that. Mom and I really liked it, the boys just wanted the raspberries. Oh well.

This afternoon I finished another quilt. This one was just missing borders, I think I made the main part of it in 2005 or 2006. I was going through all of my sewing stuff last week and I found two unfinished baby quilts. This "fairy godmother" quilt has a home it can go to this summer. So I finished it. I don't know who it was originally for, but that's ok!

It was a pretty great day even if it did start with a spill. I know I'm not old because my mom laughed at me. It you fall and people look real worried you are old. If they laugh at you, you are a-ok!

My Mother's Day tart! 

The boys made me and Grandma Rosie a cake for the occasion! 

My Fairy Godmother quilt

I added two borders, I wish I had enough rainbow
fabric to go all the way around. But I was a
little short.

My skinned knee, it hurts worse than it looks. 

Sometimes Your Border needs a Border

I finished quilt #1! Well I finished as much as I do. I will send it off for the actual "quilting". I put on the first border that had the corner pieces, then I realized I needed another border. I wanted to protect my corners that I had worked so hard on. Can you believe that, I start cutting out T-Shirts in December and have been cutting and sewing for two months. My favorite part of the blanket is the four little corner pieces. LOL

I didn't have a lot of plans when I started my 4-H T-Shirt quilt. I think it turned out great for no plans. The only downside, is it might be a touch big for a Queen bed. Also, I only have 2 4-H T-Shirts left. No worries, I'm going to be getting another one in a month for virtual camp! Let the 4-H shirt collecting begin again.

My corner piece that is a part of the first border. Then the
blue fabric is the second border. 

So big I can't really take a picture of the whole thing. 

All the thread I had left. I was playing chicken on the last border. 

Yard Projects

One flower bed down, two to go! I wish I had a before before picture, when Grandma Rosie started pulling all of the weeds out of the bed. There are three beds around my house but this is the big one that covers two sides of the house. Grandma Rosie pulled weeds, I put down some weed block plastic then we used 12 bags of mulch! I decided I didn't want to put any flowers in the ground this year. They just get lost in the weeds. I am going the planter route this year. See if I can manage to keep them alive!

Other things done this weekend, made more masks for errands, read my book, laundry and watched the boys play outside a lot! It was a bittersweet weekend. My yard looks so much better and I spent a lot of time with the boys but this was supposed to be Spring Show weekend.

I shouldn't have been home all day Saturday and probably would have been recovering most of today. My 4-H'ers are missing lots of stuff, I just hope they are savoring the extra time with their families. Next summer when we are running between ball fields and livestock barns I can remember this time when all we had to do was pull weeds and ride bikes. :-)

Daryl loved putting the flowers in the planters. 

Between all the yard work I got a porch delivery from my virtual 5K last weekend!

Before mulch

The after 

still some more weeds to pull before weed paper and mulch

So much better!