Week 1 Report: Focused on Finishing, Friends and Family

Last week, I shared that I planned FIVE areas of focus for the next fifty weeks:

1) Faith
2) Family
3) Friendships
4) Fitness (and I lied when I called it FUN)
5) Finished Projects (50/50, new and previously-begun)

So, now that the first week of intention is over, what did I do?

I had ONE day that I made my quiet time a priority. (To be fair, the week isn't over, so I might make it three days...but it's not looking promising. Sigh.) I don't have a legalistic requirement to "do" things to earn my salvation (and thank goodness, because what a wretched person I am!), but it sure would be nice to do what I intend. You know the verse...the very thing I intend to do, I don't do, and the very thing I plan not to do, well, that's what I do. #goodcompany I'm very grateful to the extremely edifying and enlightening teaching at worship last weekend, and a wonderful Sunday School discussion on intergenerational relationships. I also had a full day of preparing for Community Bible Study's children's ministry craft projects, and got to spend that day with Mallory and the girls as well. I'm a fan when the areas of my life allow for multiple focuses at the same time. It was awesome to see how well Gumdrop does when passed from person to person for hours. She's a really chill baby. Her redheaded sister was and is not, but she had a great day playing with older girls all day.

My family and I had a great week. I spent a couple of days with the Grands, especially last Friday morning with both girls while Mallory got a much needed break, and then all afternoon with the three of them. I got to hold a sleeping baby for more than two hours that day, and that is a perfectly wonderful use of my time.

 Gumdrop sleeps with her eyes open. I can't decide if it's self-defense. It's adorable, anyway.

Dennis and I had a lovely date night with a nice dinner thanks to a not-yet-spent Christmas gift card, then Ant-Man at the movies. We had a great time serving our first Community Crossroads Center dinner meal (formerly known as the Greenville Community Shelter), along with good friends and our precious Maggie.

I have fabulous friends. Paula stopped by Monday afternoon to visit after her weekend away at a wedding. Barb, Liz and Laura all came over on Monday to sew and visit at our regular Sugar Creek Quilters, and Barb is nice enough to bring Ricky for Dennis. Just as the others were leaving, April arrived, and we had a great time catching up and planning her next project. Then Tuesday, I had a great lunch at Coffee Shack with my sweet friend Ainslie. We had much to celebrate and share and catch up on and cry about. We agreed that we should do that more often, so I'm putting it on my calendar again next month. It's nice to be in a stage of life where I can set some lunch appointments. We also had fun friend times with our EAA crowd on Thursday evening.

Then there's fitness. I did NOTHING. NADA. SQUAT. No, no squats. Anyway, I am still just as fluffy and lazy as I was a week ago. This is an area that I must change my mind about, or I'm going to be exactly as I am (or worse) in 49 more weeks. So, more on that next week!

Finally, as far as finished projects go...well, this month has been PHENOMENAL. I finished Maggie's Cross & Crown quilt (named "Yellow Roses, Lakeside"), Bev's Alphabet Soup, Scrumptious Squares is all bound and ready to gift, and my to-do list has only two partially-pieced projects on it! I counted SEVEN quilts I finished this month, despite travel, family visits and lots of time with friends and family. My focus was really on OLD projects, not new ones, but I do have a few project piles ready to be started.

Yes, I routinely have on one sock. So what? :)

In fact, tomorrow I'm hosting "Christmas in July" with my quilting friends (and am expecting a different set than were here on Monday, so that's fun in and of itself!), and I'm starting a new project I've collected for my house. It's "Gingerbread Village" from The Quilt Company, and it should be very challenging.

I'd say week one was a great week...and perhaps it was too busy to also make fitness much of a priority. (Says the queen of excuses...) There's always next week!