Week Two Report: Where are my priorities?

Not on Fitness, I guarantee you that. Sigh.

Week two has come and gone (well, as good as gone) and I'm still not making my physical health a priority. I'm just NOT. I eat when I'm hungry (and not always the best choices), and I sleep when I want to (and not for enough hours each night), and I do not exercise. I do not. I have actively chosen NOT to exercise when I claim I want to "get healthy" and what I really mean is take up less space. You know, wear smaller pants. To be honest, I don't even have a plan. Actually, I do have a plan. My plan is to fill my day with so many things to do that I don't "have time" to exercise. UGH.

What about faith? Well, again, I'm so glad I don't earn salvation, because I'd be doomed. Ha! I'm really looking forward to getting in the routine of Community Bible Study, but no matter how uplifting some of the fiction is that I read (Brothers Karamazov is a doozy, y'all), I'm just not spending enough of my long summer days in the Word. I am grateful that I have always used my quilting time as prayer time, but I'm going to have to stop sewing for a little while and start reading and feeding my soul.

Family...Friends...Finished Project--these are my areas of success. We had a marvelous time at our "Christmas in July" sewing day on Saturday. I hung out with a different bunch of friends than my typical Monday night crowd. We ate too much, laughed a lot, and heard each other's woes and wisdom.

We had a surprise visit Saturday evening from Dennis's sister who is working in DC so she was able to catch the train down for a quick visit to see Gumdrop for a first visit. We had a Christmas dinner on Saturday night with all the children, and laughed at baby antics.  Family time continued on to Sunday morning. We went to 8:30 worship, then ducked out to Cracker Barrel for brunch and back to Mallory's house for more time to visit. After we took Claudette back to Wilson to catch the afternoon train, we managed to get the requisite Sunday afternoon nap, and I even got some work done.

This week, I had three client projects. I quilted two in the frame on Monday, and got their bindings attached by Thursday. Monday night I had a smaller crowd than typical, but it meant that Paula, April and I could try to outtalk each other. (I'm sure I won.) It was a red-letter night, because April arrived early and actually sewed! She's got a fun new project planned, so it's just a matter of practice and choosing fabrics for her, and she'll be off. Paula was working on the new project from Christmas in July, and I had a leftovers quilt to piece from scraps from Gumdrop's baby quilt. I guess my project was "new" but it also falls under scrap management. Either way, it was a stress buster!

My third client quilt for the week was a vintage top. I had a friend come over on Wednesday and bring me a large quilt her mom had pieced (probably in 1980 or late 1970s), so we loaded it and talked through the quilting process, then went out for a lovely lunch. That's two weeks in a row of successfully having lunch with a friend at least one day. It would be cool to do that 50 times in a row this year. Who's up for next week?

We had a spontaneous dinner invitation on Wednesday night at the Gwennaps, and it was so much fun to just sit and visit with Todd and Jenn and their lively bunch of children, who taught us that 'sert is the best part of the meal. It's so fun to know people who are just your kind of people...the same kind of weird as us. Even a generation apart. Oh, and Jenn is a great cook. Yum.

I started a new project for "Christmas in July" and got it pieced on Sunday evening. I had to order border fabric and flannel for the back, but both arrived on Wednesday, so it's ready to finish! Believe it or not, I'm running out of batting (at this rate!), so I've got to make a trip to town to buy two more 30 yard bundles of 80/20 and bamboo, my favorites. I think I counted five quilts for me that are ready to be quilted, and about that many client quilts in the queue. My sweet little machine is busy!

I still have a mountainous pile of projects waiting to be pieced and completed. My next two UFQs are a Civil War reproduction/traditional quilt, and my Celtic Solstice that has many parts to go. Stacked up and waiting for me are several bundles of fabric...a Christmas applique quilt, a red and beige quilt, a blue and tan quilt, some great Daysail fabric by Bonnie & Camille, a whole Halloween fat quarter bundle, and then lots more Scrumptious scraps. Speaking of scraps, I have an entire upstairs (two rooms full!) of stash fabric waiting for me to SLOW DOWN enough to fold and organize it. Scrap management is a bane of my existence, but I just have yardage that is in piles and I don't even remember why I bought it. That's the challenge of a 25 year old stash.

Okay, so what's up for week 3? Well, my dear brother John and his two beautiful daughters are arriving on Sunday. Mira is running in the NATIONALS in Virginia Beach. That child can RUN. So, he's going to be in and out all week long, plus we may spend two days up there so we can actually attend a race or two. I'll have quilters over as usual on Monday, and for a few of them, it'll be 3+ weeks of "catching up" because July was crazy-busy for all of us.

Saturday is August 1. I don't know if that's the magic number I was waiting for to get my act in gear with exercise and diet and quiet times...but we'll see if my priorities begin to shift. Obviously I can't get any busier...but I can definitely find some balance. Stay tuned for the report from week three.

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!

50 Weeks to 50

I had a square birthday at the beginning of the month (you know, 7-squared?), which means a birthday ending in a zero is just around the corner. Due to craziness of life, I was away on a mission trip on my typically-self-reflection-filled anniversary of birth, and then have had a wonderful first half of July with family in town to celebrate my perfect mom and her own day-ending-in-a-zero. Plus, her little sequel/namesake was baptized on Sunday, and D's cousin and family stopped by for two days...anyway, fun family times ensued!

But I finally had a quiet day of meditation and reflection yesterday (which is what I call days when I stay home and do laundry), and set some focus areas for the next fifty weeks as I approach the magic number of 50. When I set goals, it's really about budgeting my time. I have a terrible habit of looking around at bedtime and asking, "What did I do today?" but if I really, really work at it, I can schedule and achieve actual desired outcomes each day...little things that add up to the life I want to live over the course of a year. I have been using the Passion Planner, and I really like the calendar and planning features, especially when it comes to brainstorming what I want five years from now, or a year from now, or just three months from now.

First, my priority category is FAITH. I've gotten so busy this summer that I've been saying things like, "Hey, God, great day, thanks for it!" and crashing off to sleep. Or, "Hey, God, today's got a lot going on, so hang with me and hold me up, 'kay?" But generally I like to have a bit more theology in my life than that, so I'm ready to set aside time and schedule my day around our date time together. Once CBS starts back in the fall, I have Thursdays with the ladies as part of my routine, which in turn pushes good quality study and reading on my daily work. But I include in this category all the things I do to lean fully on the Gospel every day, including things I do to love on other people and to love my city where God has placed me. So, I'm stepping up my charitable works and my social involvement in areas that are important to me, and that's all part of my FAITH.

Next, FAMILY. You'll notice that three of my five categories are relational, and that's typical of me. I set all these relational goals, then I focus on the ones I "can control" (when will I give up the mythology that I am in control of anything????). Anyway, I am prioritizing my FAMILY over the next year. It's not that I've ignored my family. Hey, I home schooled my kids, and I love their husbands, and I have seen both my sister and parents already this summer...and my brother is coming next month. You only have to follow my Instagram to know that I adore my beautiful granddaughters, Gingersnap and Gumdrop (so cool they have aliases). But I want to be more intentional in our relationships, so they go on my calendar first. Plus, my girls have gotten very busy with their active lives, and it's only fair and respectful for me to treat our time together as precious. Scheduling them in regularly is important to me. You'd think that since we all live in the same town we see each other routinely, but that is not the case without intentionality. My FAMILY deserves more than an occasional text of a funny meme.

After that...FRIENDSHIPS. I have lived here eleven years (next month), and I have been blessed with some long-time friendships. Not only do I have the Sugar Creek Quilters who come over every week, and who have raised teenagers with me, married off kids with me, and become grandparents with me...or at least continue to do life with me...but I also have an amazing church family, a sweet small group, and precious friends through D's flying club. I'm going to focus on being a better friend, and intentionally make time to deepen those relationships. They are my people.

Okay, so after the relational areas...what are those mythical areas I can control? Well, I'm calling it FITNESS FUN, but I'm not sure my brain believes it yet. Even so, I'm scheduling my Whole9Life around all the areas that I need for physical and emotional balance. You know I'm human, right? I'm not sure I remember that all the time. It's one reason I "retired" from teaching, because often both the organization and I forgot that I was human. Turns out, I'm still forgetting. So, you'll see me set aside time for nutrition, training, sleep (who needs sleep? Oh, I guess I do.), stress management, socialization, getting my nature on (natural environment), personal growth, fun & play, and temperance. Yes, temperance. If you wonder about these categories, check out Whole9Life. You've probably heard of Whole30, because it's all the buzz right now, but a balanced life is way more than nutrition.

Last, but certainly not least, is a category I'm calling 50/50 FINISHED PROJECTS. It's going to include room for new projects and completion of previously begun "unfinished" projects. What first comes to mind are my art/quilt projects, but it has implications for all other areas of my life. I'm going to divide my work time pretty equally between finishing up projects I've designed and begun, and starting new projects that excite me.

So, here's the wrap up:

Five Areas of Focus in 50 Weeks to 50

1) FAITH
2) FAMILY
3) FRIENDSHIPS
4) FITNESS FUN
5)50/50 FINISHED PROJECTS

I'm going to use this space to keep me accountable and evaluate my trajectory toward 50 as the weeks go. That means probably one post a week, which will more than double the length of this blog. The 50/50 posts will more than likely end up over at Island Time Quilting instead of here, and I'll leave all the angsty-personal stuff for this space where I just say whatever I think.

Oh, and like all good goal-setting posts...this all starts next week. Ha! My birthday falls on a Friday next year...but I'll start weeks on Sundays, so I'll be in my 50th week when I hit the magic number. I'm okay with that.

If you are local, and you want to join me on any part of this adventure, let me know! Community Bible Study meets on Thursday mornings at Grace Church from 9:45-11:45 this fall, and follows the school calendar pretty closely (so you get breaks for holidays). If you are my friend, let's schedule lunch! Or shopping! Or just coffee, if you are busy. And if you want to change the direction of your FITNESS FUN (face it, I mean feel better, sleep better, snore less, eat delicious food, and get real exercise that causes you to sweat), read It Starts With Food. I'm reading it again to see what my brain needs to believe to get serious about healthy living.

And as always, Quilters...I love to see what you are doing, and you know I'm going to post about mine. Sorry for your luck if you don't like quilts.

50 weeks to 50! (You should see the goofy things I'll write as goals for 55...)

Evening Prayer

O Lord, who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights; Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness, and true holiness, to thy honour and glory, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Morning Prayer

In the darkness of unknowing,
when your love seems absent,
draw near to us, O God,
in Christ forsaken,
in Christ risen,
our Redeemer and our Lord.

How to recap a month...

I can't believe a month has gone by since I blogged! It's been a busy one, but surely not that busy. Just a normal kind of busy for us!

Let's see...I will hit the highlights: quilting, exercise and health, family and friends, and good books. Because, if I am honest, that's pretty much my life.

In quilting this month, I completed two UFOs, unfinished quilts from years past that I'd abandoned for different reasons. One I finished and mailed to my mom, and another I finished and kept for myself. I also quilted three large client quilts. Finally, I designed, pieced and quilted a special quilt to raffle to benefit Bahamas Habitat. I spent Mondays sewing with my friends in the Sugar Creek Quilters (who meet at my house), and had a couple of fun shopping outings to Goldsboro and little Washington. I ended with the "shop hop" to the stores in Morehead City and New Bern last weekend. Oh, and I bought several new tools and pieces of fabric online this month. Hmmm, all of that deserves a blogpost of its own...I'm going to have to get better at this.

So, we continue to eat nothing except real food, following a Paleo-template, focusing on fresh foods as much as possible. So many delicious meals this month...we shared a couple of them with our children, and I got to cook a few at my in-laws' home while we visited. Traveling presents some challenges, but we just make the best choices available to us as they occur. We are now on week four of P90X3, the "transition week" at the end of phase 1. I love everything about P90X3, but especially the 30 minute time commitment. The big excitement for us this month was being featured at the Whole30 website as a "success story." Our story is still being written...but we have lost 120 pounds without trying that hard, and it's great to say that so others can make simple changes to get big results.

http://whole30.com/2014/02/weight-loss-whole30/

We ended up spending ten days on the road visiting Dennis's parents for the end of January. It was a nice long visit, and because I traveled with my Bernina, even when we were snowed in for three days, I managed to make some quilting progress. We even got to visit his aunt and uncle, which included some mighty fine hamburger steak and sweet potato fries at a little country grocery store grill. We had all the kids over for dinner when we got back, and were surprised to realize that was the first time all seven of us were together since Christmas! Gingersnap turned two this month, but between our colds, Maggie & Matt's flu, and our trip...we didn't all get a real celebration.

As far as books I've read this month...you'd think I was too busy to read. Au contraire! I read C.S. Lewis's An Experiment in Criticism for our book club group (but was forced to finish it after our discussion). Excellent thoughts on what makes a good reader and what makes a good book...or even a great book. I confess that I read more than my share of easy books, just for the delight of the story. But I read a few hard books, and some of them are also good. When Dennis and I drove back from south Mississippi, I read Janet Evanovich's Takedown Twenty (the latest of the Stephanie Plum novels) aloud to him as he drove. I have one to go in the Divergent series. I'm saving that one for our next trip. I am rereading a couple of Madeline L'Engle books I treasure, and of course, still journaling my way through the Life Journal reading plan.

I make no promises that I will blog daily...but I am cutting back on my Facebook time during Lent, so as the season approaches, you'll probably see more of me here.

Today, at the Manor, we enjoyed another snow day...

Quilting Quietly

I had every intention of participating in "Wordless Wednesday" yesterday by posting a picture on the blog. Never got around to it, so my wordlessness was pictureless as well. After Bible study last night, I ended my day with a fun read: 101 Most Influential Characters that Never Lived. A neat list of fictional characters that changed history, including Hester Prynne, Lady Chatterly, and Buffy. And a bunch of others. I may be in love with Scribd, my new "NetFlix for books" reading app that allows me to read all sorts of things that are normally outside my desire to pay for...it's more like having a library to browse.

I spent yesterday working on UFO1 of the new year. I have planned four of my unfinished quilting projects for this month's calendar, and actually scheduled them so that I could get them done. Happily, I'm right on schedule with the first one. It took all day to get the borders attached and the backing ironed and the binding pieced, but it was in the frame and ready to go first thing this morning.

Of course, first thing this morning was "The Challenge," day four of  P90X3, a pull-up and push-up routine that made noodles of my arms, and pretty much ensured I won't be lifting even a tea mug tomorrow. Then after our workout, our typical breakfast of egg, bacon, avocado and banana. I'd worry that we were in a breakfast rut, but sometimes we mix it up with an omelet or scrambled eggs with spinach and sausage. One thing we have noticed is how our daily workouts ensure we drink enough water. Both of us drank two bottles while we worked out this morning, and I had two more through the course of the day, along with several cups of hot tea.

Anyway, Dennis had several appointments today, so he was out and about running errands, and I had the day to myself. I set up my frame, chose my thread, and got ready to stitch. The pattern I'm quilting is more intricate that I'd expected, but lovely, and so it took a long time to get the first row in place. Then I realized I'd have to wind a bobbin after every row! I think it's worth it, but time will tell.

The second row gave me challenges, however. I didn't pay close enough attention to placement, and it was nearly an inch below where I'd like for it to be. By the time I caught it, I had about a foot of stitching to unsew, or as quilters call it "Frogging" because we rip it, rip it. I frogged for longer than I wanted to, but began again about three hours later. I took a break in the middle to eat the last of the venison chili and a blood orange. So delicious. And somehow in all the quilting and frogging, I also managed to do all our laundry.

I had a student to tutor this afternoon. I've had so many Algebra 2 and College Algebra students this year. I find that tutoring is the best of both worlds for me. I get to breathe a little math, and I don't have to grade anything. Plus, with just in time tutoring, students are motivated to learn.

Tonight we had a great dinner of sweet potato fries (in coconut oil), wilted spinach, and venison sausage. It was delightful. Dennis always ends his evening meal with a smoothie, but I rarely need anything after dinner. We have very different metabolisms. I'm grateful that he's home with me, because many days, he is the only reason I eat.

After dinner, I've settled in to get the quilt "halfway" quilted. I mainly like to get the top off the floor, if possible. I've begun floating my tops on the frame, and I really like that. I only roll the backing fabric on the rollers (the belly roller and the uptake roller), and I just lay the batting and top on there to float until it's quilted down.

In the Bible reading for today, Abraham and Sarah again, plus much foretelling of Jesus' death and resurrection, and the apostles don't get it. It's okay. I don't get it most of the time either.

That's all for today. Quilting, Laundry, Exercise, Food...a little Jim Dale reading to me while I stitch. Ordered more thread (and hope I don't run out of the thread I'm using on this quilt before the new spool arrives!). Tomorrow looks very similar.