Happy Thanksgiving and Goal Update!

Like most people the Manor stayed home for Thanksgiving. Grandma did almost all the cooking, meaning she ordered a family Turkey dinner from Dillons! :-) I did make a pecan pie and a Jello salad because there are just a few things that you have to have. We all colored some placemats and enjoyed our meal at the table. Daryl was excited to then watch Football all afternoon. That made a very nice background for my traditional Thanksgiving nap! 

It was small and I missed my brother and sister and their families, but it was still a good day to stop and think about all the things I am thankful for. 

2020 Goals 

Read 12 Books: DONE SEPT.  2020 12/12 

Knit 4 Things (and no new yarn!): DONE Oct. 2020 8/4

My yearly goal was to knit four new things and I actually knit four hats this month! I did buy some new yarn but it was at Joann's and I had a coupon. So eh, what the heck. I finished one Barley hat that I had started but ran out of gray yarn, I finished it with Yellow. This actually turned into a trend. I made one half black and half gray hat and another gray and yellow hat! I also made a rainbow stripe hat out of some sock yarn scraps for my friend Morgan! I have to keep my friends' warm! 

Make 2 Quilts :DONE May 2020

Still working on quilt number three......

 Run 600 Miles:  DONE NOV 2020 668

I ran 70 miles this month! I actually got my goal on Nov. 1st with my half marathon. But I'm enjoying all the progress I'm making with my running so I didn't want to stop. I even did three long runs (after my half) on the weekends. The last one with the encouragement of my friend Laura. Hopefully running with friends will keep me going during the winter. That has always been the hang up for me about running. It just gets boring when you are on the treadmill all month. 

 

Save 2,000 Dollars: DONE April 2020 

Saved a whopping 60 bucks this month! Yay! This is actually an accomplishment because Christmas is paid for all with cash and we still had 60 dollars to spare. This means I should have even more to put away next month and that seems weird...but when you plan ahead I guess you can still save money in December! 

5 House Projects: I didn't do a house project this month and I won't for the rest of the year, but I did clean my gutters and hang Christmas lights. Grandma helped me with the ladder and even the boys got up there to grab some leaves. It took Daryl some time to screw up his courage but Alex just flew up the ladder, leaned off of it further than I liked and flew back down. I would say Daryl might be afraid of heights but he has always just been more cautious. Once he saw Alex climbing the ladder he took a deep breath and did it. As a family we got it done! 

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 Done September 
Plant two new trees  Done October 

Our Thanksgiving Table! 

Who did the best on their placemat?

This is Daryl's but all he colored was the hair on
the two girls. I did the rest! 

Grandma's!

The sock yarn hat that I made for Morgan!

Yes, I have about 10 hats, but I'm keeping this one anyway! 

Make your happy!

 Today Grandma Rosie, Daryl and I put up the Christmas lights. Because time doesn't matter and months don't exist. One thing that will happen is it will get super cold and I wanted my lights up before that! I also needed to clean the leaves out of the gutters and I only wanted to get the ladder out of the garage once. 

I will wait to put up the inside decorations but these lights outside are making me happy. I need some happy as it is getting darker earlier, getting colder and I still can't be with all of the people I want to be with. So, I'm still doing the things that I can that lift my spirits. Running, watching The Office and now decorating for Christmas! 

As COVID rears it's ugly head again I would encourage you to find the things that you can do that make you happy while you stay safe. Knitting hats works, I have a lot of friends and they all need a hat. If you need me I will be home, knitting, maybe drinking some wine, probably watching the office! It will be easy to find my house. It has the penguin (Pepe), Llama (Lenny) and Flamingo (Maria) having a party out front! They will be there till February. 

Two Races and Two Hats

At this time last week, I was freezing in Kansas City waiting to start my second half marathon for the year. If it has been this weekend, the temperature would have been perfect! But it wasn't snowing and on Nov. 1st you have to consider that a win. I drove myself, ran my race and took my tired butt home. Having someone to watch me finish is nice but I can do things by myself too!  

My race in Manhattan I lined up with the 2:15 pace group and felt that they really helped me not go out too fast. I chit chatted most of the time and was laughing and having a good time. Since that race I have been running faster on my own so I decided to leap frog the 2:10 pace group and I lined up with the 2:05 group for this run. I have never spent the majority of a race trying to keep up with my pacer! There was very little talking and when the pacer told me at mile 10 "If you feel good, you should just go!" I said, "I don't feel good." LOL 

I ended up speeding up at mile 12 and finished with a 2:04 time! My PR is from May 2014 and it is 1:56:28. Not sure I will ever get back there but getting under 2 hours will be the goal for 2021! 

Daryl ran a political race last week. He decided to run for 6th grade rep for Middle School Student Council. He had to record his speech and all the 6th graders watched the speeches and voted. His speech was right out of a 1950's presidential campaign. I gave him a hard time for ending his speech, "God Bless You! and God Bless America!" I told him I didn't think that was going to resonate. But he proved me wrong and was elected one of the three reps out of six running. Way to go buddy!  

For some reason I caught a knitting bug and I have been turning out hats like crazy! After finishing my fingering weight hat last month I casted on with worsted weight. I was so giddy about how fast it was going I finished it in five days! Then I gave up looking for more gray yarn and finished another half done hat with yellow yarn. On Friday, I cast on another fingering weight yarn hat because I need to slow down a bit. LOL! 

GOING TO KNIT ALL THE HATS! 

39 degrees and here we go!

Two Hours later I was ready to go home! 

Photo Credit to Ariel, she takes great photos!
Pattern: Barley Yarn: Universal Worsted and some scrap yellow 

Pattern: Christian's Hat Yarn: Paton's Wool

Newly Elected Daryl enjoying a celebratory steak dinner!