Finding the Thyme

I searched the cabinets, I knew that I had some thyme and I only needed just a little. It's a small addition, only half a teaspoon, but to a large pot of homemade chicken noodle soup, it's that one little extra that makes all the difference. I pulled a kitchen chair over to the upper cabinet where the spices are kept; crawled up to have a better look, and searched far in the back. "What are you looking for?" my husband asked, "thyme" I replied. "Do you think you'll find it in there?" he laughed. Not "TIME", I explained. And yet, that's something that I am constantly trying to find more of! If I can squeeze any extra minutes, or hours, that I can use each and every day, I try to use them wisely.  Maybe it's "found time" to stitch up a quilt block, do another load of laundry, bake a loaf of bread or sweep the porch. I admit to being very scheduled and, probably, a bit rigid when it comes to self-imposed routines; the kind that are all task-based. Over the last few months I've found myself sitting on the floor beside Augie when he eats his meals, as a puppy this totals three meals a day. We've never had a dog before who didn't gobble his kibble down the minute it hit the dish. Augie requires some coaxing; he's definitely not food-driven. Once he settles in at his bowl, he'll eat if we stay right there on the floor beside him. At first I thought "I don't have time for this." But, as time has gone on, I realize how much I look forward to this bonding time with my puppy. In the whole scheme of things, it's a very short amount of time spent, but it truly does make all the difference to Augie. Where else can that little bit of time have an impact? A phone call to a distant friend? An extra minute spent in conversation with a lonely church member after worship? A short, impromptu, walk in the neighborhood on a pleasant afternoon? There are places in even the most rigid of schedules (mine) for some unplanned relaxation of the timetable. Just like half a teaspoon in a large pot of soup, it's that something extra that can make all the difference. Oh, and yes; I did find the thyme and the soup was delicious!

    Life is Good!

Spreadsheet Required

We had the youngest two grandchildren for a few days last week, it was wonderful and BUSY! They're in the third and first grades now and they both have lots of fun activities besides school. Our son had emailed me calendar items to add to my daily schedule as reminders but I find that I need a spreadsheet. It's the way I visualize and plan. It might be antiquated but that works for me, and so, I created one. It worked like a champ! I knew at a glance who needed to be where and when. If it had just been the kiddos and their schedules it would have been one thing; but, during this time, I had a bit of oral surgery and construction began, full bore, on our porch project. Things were hopping at Chez Goodneedle!

The oral surgery was done under sedation, a first for me. I had cracked a molar clear through to the root and a plan was devised, over several steps, to prepare for a dental implant. The tooth was extracted and a bone graft was set in place all while I snoozed. I don't remember a thing about leaving the dentist's office that day or anything (I suppose that's good!) until I woke up sitting in the car in the Chick-Fil-A parking lot (Mr. Goodneedle was bringing lunch home for the work crew that day). I've had a follow-up visit since; all is well. I'll have the remaining stitches removed in a few weeks' time. 

Here's where we stand today with the progress on our porch project, we're roofed in; Mr. Goodneedle is busy with wiring and doing the things that he can do as we move forward. We will, eventually, have ceiling fans and a tongue-and-groove ceiling, (as well as screens) this space will be much loved and well-used come spring and warmer temperatures.  

Our dress-loving six-year-old granddaughter maneuvering around the rink at ice hockey practice!

So, back to the grandchildren-sitting and my spreadsheet: except for Lynnleigh's art lesson the day of my afore-mentioned surgery (there simply wasn't time to squeeze it in!) neither Gregory or Lynnleigh missed a beat: they were at school, their respective music lessons, Daisy and Cub scouts and ice hockey practice. Homework was completed, meals were on the table at the correct hour and baths and bedtimes were accomplished on time and successfully. This New England girl absolutely loved watching them skate! Truth be told: I am a HUGE hockey fan!! Their gear bags are, literally, as big as they are and the only mishap last Sunday afternoon was losing a glove somewhere in the melee associated with leaving the ice at the end of practice and getting all their gear off and in the proper duffle bags while they chased around to find the candy-bearing coach who hands out treats. I'd still consider our time as temporary surrogate parents a huge win! As Mr. Goodneedle stated: "keeping children is a young persons' sport!" Clearly, we're not too old yet! It's been quiet around here since they returned home. And now it's Thanksgiving week-- bring it on, I can't wait to have them back here again!

Life is Good!

Wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving!

Up next: There IS A Simpler Way!

An Expression Of A Deeper Order

Since my last post here, life consisted of, what I thought to be, a long string of events (random or otherwise). I struggled to keep up, it seemed as though I was hopscotching on one foot from one square to the next and barely keeping myself upright as I was doing it. There were momentary respites, here and there, exceedingly brief and all too fleeting. "Breathe", I kept reminding myself, "just breathe". I have been wearing many hats: wife, mother, grandmother, daughter-- all at the same time. In the course of the last four weeks we sold my in-law's home, said good-bye to our son's precious canine companion: Diesel, hosted my parents for a two week visit, kept our two youngest grandchildren during our daughter-in-law's scheduled surgery and recuperation, transported little ones to and from their designated schools and activities, celebrated our next to youngest grandchild's seventh(!) birthday and through it all endeavored to keep up with laundry, get meals on the table, and maintain a house that was, somewhat, clean and tidy. All of a sudden, it seems, life has slowed back down and a quick glance out the window reveals that the seasons have changed during all of the hub-bub of activity. Yes, through it all God has been there; strengthening, supporting and  revealing Himself in the most glorious way. This, from a Bible Study I am preparing for today: "we have talked about marriage and family as a vocation or calling from God. This calling is lived out within the struggles and trials of life in this world as God gives us to others as people to count on and receive help from." Today, my husband is spending his time at home doing all of those long postponed projects now that we have only one house again, our son and his family have begun to heal the hole in their hearts by welcoming a new furry friend into their lives and home, family relationships have been strengthened and fortified while making memories through time spent together and, our daughter-in-law is resuming her normal activities once again and daily life is settling back into a familiar rhythm; all while bathed in the resplendent golden glow of autumn (lest I forget who's been in control all along)! 

Thanks be to God!

Life is Good!

photo credit: Bill Voigt 
quote credit: Mary Alice Monroe, from The Butterfly's Daughter

Settling In...

There are many new things settling in at Chez Goodneedle over the last few days, aside from the fine layer of sheetrock dust that has managed to cover everything that doesn't move. Our youngest two grandchildren are spending a few days with us, they arrived on Friday and have settled in just fine. The ceiling repairs continued on Saturday, much to the delight and entertainment of the little ones; it was not an easy task to keep them out of the way of the work crew, they wanted to watch everything that went on. New schedules have settled in for Mr. Goodneedle and me, these revolve around meals, rest times (not nearly enough for us!), school hours and outdoor energy-expelling sessions. We're all settling in quite nicely to this new, short-lived, routine. Since bedrooms have been lost temporarily to the ongoing repair work, Gregory is sleeping on a cot at night in Nana's sewing space. This is what I found this morning after the children left for school. Hannes is settling in too, he loves having the children here. It's very quiet this morning, a fragile and brief peace has settled in around me like a gentle affirmation, it is energy-giving. Before long they will noisily burst through the door again, full of laughter and happy smiles, loving hugs, and the news of the day; their return can't come soon enough for me. Nana and all the dust will be waiting, except for those paths where little feet have zipped through the house and the designs on flat surfaces that curious fingers have traced, momentarily obliterating one powdery layer while awaiting the next.

Life is Good!

  

Goodbye, Summer!

Today, as I sit here wearing a pair of white slacks for the last time this season, I am thinking about how quickly the summer has sped by and stare in disbelief at a newly turned calendar page... how on earth can it be September already?  Back in April, when my parents were visiting here, they bought us a small Black-Eyed Susan plantling... I remember the anticipation associated with its potential blooming as I set it into the garden. Well, that little plant took off and grew and bloomed with complete and glorious abandon; it didn't happen overnight but slowly, one day at a time, it got bigger and brighter and better! This plant turned out to be so much more beautiful and vibrant than I had even dared to hope; that's the same way I feel about this summer's passing. Let's face it, all time seems to speed by at breakneck velocity the older we get, but these last few months have been filled with happy days and priceless moments that defined my summer of 2014 as one even better than I had ever dreamed possible! Labor Day has always represented a major shift in my mind; either it was the end of summer for me and a new school year or it was that for our children when they were still at home. New schedules for fall, new classes, and the end of lazy, summer days used to bring a certain and distinct sadness to my heart and mind.

This is a photograph of my own daughter in 1981 on her first day of Kindergarten, looking at it, even today, still brings a lump to my throat.  My own children returning to school was always a bittersweet day for me when they were growing up, I wasn't a Mom who looked forward to summer's end, not one bit. Tomorrow my oldest grandson will sit in a Kindergarten classroom and this little girl, now the mother, will experience those same emotions that I felt back on this day 33 short years ago. Change happens, it's inevitable, but it happens ever so gradually, every single day! There are those markers that signal the transitions in a BIG way... like Labor Day screaming "summer's end" in our faces, or the first day of a new school year, but also happening at the same time, almost invisibly, are those quiet, daily, transitions as each hour and day slide one into the next. All of a sudden I've become acutely aware of time's passing as I stand, looking back at a string of yesterdays and realizing how precious every day, month and season has been... and how, just like that multi-bloomed Black-Eyed Susan demonstrated to me, they slowly combine and evolve to produce memories of days-gone-by that are so much more wonderful than I had ever even hoped that they would turn out to be!

Embrace today, change will occur tomorrow... it might be a big one or you may barely even notice it, but it will happen. This evening I'll hang my white slacks back in the closet one last time, it's my way of telling summer good-bye. I'm not sad anymore, though, today I am grateful. Why? Because today, on this last "official" day of summer, I find myself looking forward eagerly; ahead of me are a string of tomorrows that each hold the promise of something so much better than I can even imagine, or dare to hope.

Happy Labor Day... it's all good!

Life is Good!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

There's a certain urgency about those last, waning days of summer. As Labor Day approached and that fall calendar loomed there seemed to be a much more deliberate effort, on my part, to make every last summer minute count for something! Maybe it's a throw-back to those inevitable "how I spent my summer vacation" assignments of days gone by, or maybe it's that recognized realization that at this time of year, when school begins again, there's that "starting over" opportunity.

Whatever it is, there's been a surge of activity around here resulting in projects seeing new beginnings. One such project is really three in one. The strip pieced quilt blocks (above) and the tumbler pieces (right) are combining to become Chicken Soup quilts #1 and #2 for gift giving at Christmas. This summer I amassed a very healthy low volume fabric collection. I ended up with enough fat quarters to begin construction of not only these two (in the 60" X 80" size range) but also had sufficient leftover scraps for three hundred 60 degree diamonds to stich up this, a keeper quilt too! By the way: cutting all those strips and diamonds took days to for me accomplish, while cutting the 400+  tumbler shapes took about one hour with the Accquilt cutter! Take a look at that little hen piece and the words "she quietly chuckled" printed below, my feelings exactly about using the ever-efficient die cutter! Directions for that Sunday Morning strip-pieced quilt mention acheiving a random look by throwing all the strips into a brown paper bag, and mixing them up well, and simply grabbing them out one at a time for stitching together in that fashion. Well, I'm here to tell you, that random isn't easy for this quilter! I do love the results but I find myself second guessing every single selection!

The dining room table continues to hold the photo archives, what a major project this has become! Each photo triggers a memory and it has taken much fortitude to avoid repeated trips down memory lane and stick to the path of organization. The piles grow taller as the identification and documentation, year by year, goes on. I recently saw some first day of school photos on Facebook with kiddos cleverly holding large ordinal numbers displaying their school grade. Oh, how I wish I had done something similar when our children were younger! I have many "1st day" photographs that are undated and struggle to differentiate third grade from fourth or even fifth! Sigh. The urgency behind completing this project has become the fact that I can't clean any of this up until the task is done; setting this up front and center in our home was the best idea, there's no avoiding this responsibility anymore once it's spread out before me!

That looming fall calendar that I mentioned above signals the return of Quilt Ministry on Thursday mornings at church. The stewardship committee has requested tri-fold information boards from each standing committee and ministry to be on display as part of this years Stewardship Fair for their Every Member Response campaign. I began on Saturday and got this much done, (yes, this has been a long-standing summer assignment!) Hannes would like very much to be a part of our display, I believe he'd be a great asset in recruiting new members; today I will add selected photos, quotes, and the remaining information to the board to round out the Quilt Ministry's presence and plan to get it all set up down there tomorrow. A trip to the local Scrapbooking mecca for cardstock is on today's agenda; it's difficult shopping there while wearing blinders as I am always bumping into things, but that's a necessity! I avoid that place like the plague only because it represents yet one more path that I don't ever need to venture down; but, oh, how tempting that diversionary route appears to be! And so...one more summer is, officially, in the books; and what a wonderful summer it's been. 

How did you spend yours?

Life is Good!

Tension, A Delicate Balance

If you sew, you know the delicate balance that is required between the top and bottom threads to keep the tension harmonious. It's the same thing with our daily lives. Our schedule, often too crammed-full, is the thread that holds the day together and when the tension gets out of whack our health suffers. Such was the case yesterday; I've been busy, but was staying afloat (surface tension), or so I thought. A headache started building at church while laying out quilt blocks. I drank some coffee, thinking that caffeine would help, but by that point it was like tossing a thimbleful of water on a forest fire... too little, too late. The drive home was excruciating, the sun glinting off the hood of the car might as well have been daggers straight to the brain. The pain took up residence over my eyes as illustrated above, and held on; aspirin, ice water, and a dark and quiet room in which to rest were my weapons against the unwanted boarder. Today is a better day, there is a dull ache in the back of my neck to remind me of my head's former tenant but I can manage and get some things done, although I have adopted a somewhat slower pace, I'll be back to full strength soon. Take it from me, balance your daily schedule as though you were adjusting your sewing machine. You can't keep tightening up in one area without making an allowance elsewhere; something will snap... believe me, it's all about give and take.  I'll return, I have LOTS of show and tell from this past week, and it's all good!

Life is Good! 

Monday's Mission: Scheduling

This a follow-up post to the one last Monday on time management. I know at least of few of you have kept time logs for the past week, or at least for a few days. By this time you know where your time is being spent, you can identify those time 'wasters' easily enough and you can also recognize the sections of time you spend on necessary tasks and chores. From here the hard part begins, sorting out what needs to be done from what you want to accomplish and fitting it into a schedule on a daily basis. Pictured here is a daily schedule format sheet, this is the exact page that I use; every day! You can download this page here, or find one elsewhere that will work for you. The page itself isn't as important as writing the schedule and making it happen! This is where a habit starts to form. I begin my schedule the night before, with broad strokes; I add details in the morning and take great delight in crossing them out, each and every one, when they're done. For me, the cross-outs symbolize accomplishment. I keep the sheets stacked on a clipboard and at the end of every day the top sheet is crumpled up and tossed away. Is every sheet completely crossed off every day? No. Sometimes a task or two might remain, they're the first things that go on tomorrow's sheet! I follow my task plan according to the times assigned down the left side of the sheet. Since you've done time logs, you have a good idea how many hours to assign to a given task. Once and a while I will miscalculate how long it's going to take me to get a specific chore accomplished and that will throw the schedule off. That's when tasks may accumulate and have to be moved to the next day. Either that, or, more than likely, it's an unexpected event that will occur and disrupt what you have scheduled; that happens too. Be kind to yourself with flexibility, don't stress over moving chores from one day to the next, or even the day after that. Life happens! Now, those places where you spent wasted hours last week with little or nothing to show for it, perhaps it was on the computer, maybe it was watching TV; remove them, not only from your schedule but also from your line of vision! These are the distractions that will be your undoing, they're your personal time gobblers. Fight back! Lock up your laptop or unplug your cable, this is the toughest part of all; but, it's not forever, and it will help you establish productive structure to your day. You'll be able to reintroduce these things again soon, in moderation, just try as hard as you can to stick to your schedule and don't honor the enemy by giving them a place in your line-up. If you really want to get organized it takes discipline; this distraction eliminating step will jump start your engine and you'll be on the road to all those places you've wanted to go in no time, with fuel to spare! Next week we'll take a look prioritizing and realistic goal setting (remember your stated objective?), but for now your goal is to schedule your days, one at a time; allow yourself some flexible breathing space too. You're doing great... you're on your way!

Life is Good!

"Planning is bringing the future into the present

so that you can do something about it now." ~Alan Lakein

Friday Is...

...cleaning day at Chez Goodneedle!

Somebody hates Friday; especially when the vacuum gets dragged out. Cleaning day includes stripping the bed and washing the sheets. This is where I found Hannes this morning, in the coziest spot he could find, despite the hubbub going on around him. He made himself a quilt "nest" on the floor until the bed gets made back up. This is where he'd prefer to stay; at least until Saturday arrives!

Life is Good!

One Plus One...

equals two.

Two rows done.

I'm halfway there.

...and back on schedule...!

Life is Good!

Prepped And Basted...

I have fallen behind in my appliqué block-of-the month workshops; so far behind, in fact, that I needed to work on three at a time this week to get myself caught up before the next workshop on the 6th of July. For the last two days I have cut and pressed and stitched down the pieces all in preparation for hand appliqué. Whew! I have set aside tomorrow for piecing the sashing strips (tiny blocks on point) and I have an idea in mind for one more little bit of extra pizzazz before setting these blocks... yep, accent piping! I have learned my lesson regarding scheduling on this project and my plan is to stay caught up from here on in; I'm halfway there. I may have fallen but, thankfully, I can get up!

Life is Good!

Blocks Lacking Attitude

I pieced all the background blocks for this Be-Attitudes (click) quilt last Saturday. This is as far as the progress has gone, I have blocks... but no attitude! The applique elements will happen, in time. Like a diver who went too down deep, I've been kicking as hard as I can for days, to resurface; to breathe! This week has been full of various and assorted dis-associated tasks, each screaming for attention, they have kept me submerged; held me, just below the surface. I've managed to break free this morning, only to have a disaster in the kitchen. The pineapple-angel food cake that I baked for tonight's dessert has collapsed, flat. If it were just my husband and me for dinner I wouldn't be worried, but the whole family is coming . I'm attempting now to resuscitate this "pancake" by turning it into something else, something akin to a trifle. We'll see, I can be quite creative when the need arises, I'm lucky, "opportunities" abound! I found a sweet treat while out shopping yesterday, aren't these just the cutest? A little sugar always has a positive effect on my attitude! And so it goes, if all else fails I suppose I can serve these kisses for dessert!

...one thing at a time...
Life is Good!

Schedule?

I am schedule-driven, I admit that. Friday is cleaning day, no exceptions; but I can learn to be more flexible... particularly where my grandson is concerned! I spent the better part of this past week at Mason's house, helping out. On Thursday, my daughter and I loaded up the baby and she brought me back home; I kept Mason for a while yesterday, as she had an appointment here. Yep, it's true, Mason can absolutely interrupt cleaning day at Chez Goodneedle, any ol' time he wants! I am reminded of this cross-stitch sampler that I stitched for my son's nursery twenty-eight years ago. (I have no idea what happened to the actual framed sampler, but I did locate the chart.) Definitely words to live by... "babies don't keep"... ain't that the truth! And now, today, I'm off to annihilate a few dust bunnies; it hardly seems fair, they won't be expecting an attack on a Saturday.

Life is Good!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

Change is at hand. I don't deal with well with change, I am a Lutheran after all! There's a lot of truth in the old joke about how many Lutherans it takes to change a light bulb: 9--One to replace the bulb along with a committee of eight to discuss how much they'll miss the old bulb.

This photo has nothing to do with my own personal change, but it is all about reform; Lutheran humor, I couldn't resist!

My husband retires on the 30th of June. Everyone I know has given me coping tips. I really don't think I'll mind having him home all day everyday, we've done this before... his first "retirement" yielded us this house! OK, so he likes to keep busy. So do I. My own daily schedule may get tweaked a bit, I've never exactly stopped what I was doing to fix, eat and clean up after lunch. That will be a big change for me, I'm used to eating a sandwich with one hand and machine quilting with the other. I'm going to have to develop more flexibility, I think I can do that, I can learn to bend. I may not win any limbo contests but some flexibility would be beneficial for this old Lutheran, don't you think? I might even throw caution to the wind and start cleaning the house on Mondays! Ha, just teasing, I haven't lost my mind, no need to worry.

Life is Good!
...and getting better by the day...