Fresh Slate?

January is the traditional month for change. New year, new resolutions, new opportunities to make changes to ourselves, our lives, our homes.

I've been thinking for a long time of simplifying. Not downsizing because we really cannot afford to move right now. But we do have a lot of stuff in our home we could do without. And there are other areas which could stand a little more focus and a little downsizing as well.

Last year, Wil Wheaton had a blog post about making changes in some small areas, tweaks to make his life better in health, creativity, and overall living. He called it a reboot and I suppose that's what I need to do as well.

I need/want to:

Increase my exercise. I've been diagnosed as pre-diabetic for the last few years and I need to get serious about losing weight and keeping it off. I lost 10 lbs last year, but got lazy and regained it. I have an elliptical and I need to get on it no less than 5 times a week for at least 20 minutes.

Increase my intake of healthy fruits and vegetables. I fell down on the job of making sure I was eating more healthy foods and decreasing my carb intake to help my blood sugars. I need to buy veggies and get them chopped up on the weekend so that I have something easy to grab.

Decrease my screen time in the evenings. I need to put down the computer or tablet and pick up a book or my knitting. I don't need to be mindlessly scrolling through crap when I could be escaping into a good book or working on a gift for someone.

Read a variety of books each month. My hope is to read at least 6 different kinds of books a month: non-fiction, my book club's selection, YA, mystery, Christian (fiction or non) and fiction (whatever fits the category like romance, general fiction, SciFi, etc). So I really need to put the screens away at night.

Knit more. I have yarn, I have patterns. I have friends and family who enjoy receiving things I make and to whom I enjoy giving. I need to make my list of projects, put the yarn into bags with the patterns and just grab one a month.

Decrease the clutter in my home. I need to get down to the items I love, have meaning for me or serve a purpose. I've decided to do Snail Pace Transformations' 30x12 Challenge so I can month by month decrease the stuff in my home taking up valuable space better used for loved items or nothing at all. I also determined to be mindful about where I was going to donate the items, to not just use Goodwill, but also Salvation Army and more local charitable thrift stores.

Purpose to spend time in Bible study. I really suck at keeping this up. I do well for a week or two and then find myself doing rapid catch-ups on the weekend to be ready for Monday evening Bible study.

The above is enough.

I'm hoping to once a month do a check-in post to see how I'm doing. Since I also suck at posting, we'll see how that goes.

A rare Saturday off

Since starting practicum last April, the majority of my Saturdays have been spent working at the store. Practicum takes up 12 hours a week which definitely reduces my availability to work more hours so I let the owners know they could book me for Saturdays on a regular basis. And they have.

But this month, I actually get two Saturdays off! An unexpected blessing which Rob and I took advantage of by going out to breakfast to our usual place, the Kitchen Table Cafe.

Health
No progress here to report. I didn't get up to exercise, but I did pop on to the scale. I was weighing in at 203.6 pounds on Monday which isn't unexpected as I have tended to go between 200 and 203 for the last few years. Remembering small goals is easier to focus on, I'm going to aim to lose 5% of my current weight as a goal. That means losing 10 pounds. As a reward, I'm going to treat myself to a manicure. I like having my nails painted, but I usually do it myself and it chips and looks ugly within days. Why not let a professional do it and enjoy it longer? The last time I had a manicure almost 5 years ago for my brother's wedding.

Knitting
I spent New Year's Day knitting on headbands for one of my nieces using the Whitney pattern. I was going to crochet a flower for them as well, but my crochet skills are seriously lacking. Instead, I went to JoAnn's and found a crocheted flower and a fun button to make into a pin she can add to any of the headbands.

I did attempt the crocheted flower one more time at Knit Night and was much more successful with the help of a friend. Once she explained the pattern, it was much easier to do. I didn't do the 3rd row called out in the pattern as it would have made the flower HUGE. I think I'll do a few more in different colors for her to change out her look.

Rob's Corps of Discovery hat will be cast on this weekend. I'd hoped to do it at Knit Night but the crocheted flower took up the time :)

Reading
I haven't yet grabbed a book from my shelf. I'm reading my library books and I need to read my book club book. I've finished The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen and The Funeral Dress by Susan Gregg Gilmore.

This month's book club selection is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. It was already checked out at the library, Barnes & Noble was too expensive and I didn't know when I'd be in to Portland to get to Powell's. But Amazon Kindle had it for $1.99 and that was just right.

Spiritual
I have made a point of getting up and getting my Bible study done before I do anything else in the morning. Mind you, it's a fairly quick study to get done (the week's lessons are broken into 5 days with four questions per day) which makes it easy to maintain at the moment. I've already completed the first week and am almost done with the second week. We start this upcoming Monday, so I am hoping to continue to be ahead of the game each week.

This weekend will be taken up with household maintenance chores: replace a light switch, put away the Christmas ornaments (and also thin the herd of decor we don't use), picking out flooring for the bathroom repair work we are having done in February and some NFL football now that we're in playoffs.

Now off to conquer!

Happy Easter!

Tulips are spring to me. They're a simple flower with a short time frame to be enjoyed. They aren't fussy and high maintenance. They don't mind giving way to other showier flowers. They just grow, be what they are and then die away until next spring when it starts all over again.

It's Easter Sunday and families are gathering to enjoy a holiday dinner together. Rob & I are at home rather than heading out to Hillsboro because of the rotten cold I have. It kept me home today rather than going to Easter services and risk passing it on.

Rob said it was a great message today and I'm sorry to have missed it. They also did communion and knowing it's also Resurrection Sunday would have given it even greater weight and meaning.



Right now, Rob is pretending to watch TV, but he's really just napping in his chair. I'm tapping away on the computer, wandering around FB, Ravelry and Google Reader.

I finished a few knitting projects in March: a sweater for Gavin, a mug cozy for Rob, some legwarmers for Khylee.



I still have a hat for Samantha, another hat for Erin, and a baby sweater for a little girl due this month.

I've been doing a little bit of reading in March as well. A bit of a slow month for the books since I've only read three. All by Nora Roberts/JD Robb. The first was The Lost, an anthology with 3 other writers. The Robb story fit in with the Lt. Eve Dallas "In Death" series. It was followed by a library book, Kindred in Death. The last is an old Silhouette by Roberts, Enchanted. It brings back the Donovans from an earlier trilogy, but focuses on a different branch.

I did finish a library book yesterday, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. This was very interesting, humorous and a great break from fiction.

This Christmas Day, May You

Have loved ones to spend the day with


Be rich in blessings


Have a warm place to be


And food to eat


Merry Christmas!

A knitting FO and some weather

First, the good news: I finished the Christmas stocking.



Mailed it out to Chicago so that Miss G could have her first Christmas with a handknit stocking made by Auntie Gina. Knit on Denise size 8s with Wintuck and Red Heart yarns. Gingerbread boys are knit in Reynolds Utopia and the faces used the Red Heart. Red gumdrop buttons and the string of candy and the other little candies are miniature ornaments from JoAnn's.

Since I mailed it out, we had a little bit of snowfall that melted quickly in Vancouver.


But since that early snowfall this past week, we had a bit more yesterday:


Definitely not as much as one sister was expecting in Central Washington (12 inches!), but this morning we had a coating of ice as well.


Not what we wanted since Mom was driving up from San Diego. I tried to get out of PDX yesterday to fly to Sacramento and drive up the rest of the way with her, but had my flight cancelled due to Southwest's lack of working de-icers. Mom figured she'd then spend the night at her sister's home and drive up today.

Instead, she kept driving and ended up at my brother's home in Gladstone at 2am. She did stop along the way to put on chains and she'll drive the rest of the way to our house today. It's only a 30-minute drive in good weather, so it'll probably take twice that today.

But it sure is pretty when you don't need to go out.

Work sucks.

Not enough time in the day to do anything beyond the basics and even then, it feels like only half of those. A co-worker is going out on vacation for 4 days and while we're splitting his duties among the rest of us, there are only 4 in our department and only 3 that do actual work. So his vacation means there will be only 2 of us holding down the fort. Ugh.

Below is a pic of the Trellis sweater I knit for a co-worker's first child. She was always wearing cabled sweaters so this made sense to me. It's knit in Bernat's Cotton Tots. Picture courtesy of my camera phone.



Did I mention the new desk we bought a few months ago? Ikea's Mikael. Love, love, love it. Allows me to put tons of stuff around without cluttering it up too much.


You can see photos of the nieces and nephew, our wedding photo, the turtle planter I've had for over 20 years (Thanks, Mom!) and the little tortilla basket we use for office supplies.

And Mom, here's another grandson fix:


Art was changing him into clothes to go play in the water and Kruz looked bored with the whole process.

I noticed I'd forgotten to add a book to the list: Happily Ever After by Susan May Warren. Christian romance. I'm trying to branch out and read different authors and that includes more Christian writers. This was fun, interesting and enjoyable. Not a review to get you to pick it up, huh? Well, I liked the bookstore/coffee shop setting, the struggle with the main characters to accept God's grace for themselves even as they encouraged the other's faith (gosh, not something I struggle with at all *wink*) and that the characters felt compelled to hide portions of themselves even though they longed to pour out these areas of themselves and have them accepted. Don't we all wish for that unconditional acceptance and love from someone? Thankfully, we have God filling that very tall order.

Pictures to make it up to you

To start, yes I have been knitting. These were the most recent - baby bonnets. The pink on the left was made with Erin's pattern from LB Microspun. The one on the right is Tahki Cotton Classic noodled together from other patterns with simple eyelet pattern.



I did add ribbon to both hats, pale pink for the pink bonnet and hot pink for the white.

We (I) had plans to work in the yard this weekend. Clear out beds, lay down weed fabric, plant some shrubs. Draw up plans for a pergola-like thing down the west side of the house. I'll still do some of that, but it's not going to be as fun since we can't pack the Forester up. Erin had a slight accident:



Hit on the passenger side of our only (!) car while going to her Mom's to pick up more stuff. We live in Vancouver, her mom lives in SE Portland so this was the furthest Erin had driven by herself since getting her license.

It doesn't look like much until I explain that the other 3 tires are actually straight. This tire is pushed in and angled. Insurance had the car towed to a reputable shop and we'll hear from them on Monday. In the meantime, we have a lovely Neon from Enterprise.

On an upnote:



Don't you love a kid who enjoys his meals?

Like a knife to my heart

My poor car!

So I'm walking out to my car this morning, planning my day. Get to work early, run the reports, work the issues, leave early since Rebecca's coming over for Craft Night.

Ran into a small problem though. It didn't look like I'd be able to tell what speed I was going. Someone apparently needed my gauges more than I did. After checking if anything else was missing, taking pictures and trying the Sheriff's office, I took a few minutes to cry.

This car, my lovely 1993 Honda Civic, was the first car I'd ever purchased. I've been the only owner and we have shared over 209,000 miles together. We have been violated.

At least they were nice and left the screws behind.

Weeds are really low on my gardening priorities when you see these sprouting up in the lawn instead.

Spring 2005 is coming! This is 3 weeks before the official start of the season

Mixed Blessings

It's been a mix of a week here.

Good: Tuesday Rob went to the Polk Cty courthouse to review his paperwork to change the child custody and support with the X. They'd filled out the paperwork themselves and Rob sent it in, but someone called and said, Nope, not filled out right. So down he went to review it and someone else told him it was filled out correctly the first time. We should be hearing something back as early as next week.

OK: Work was better this week. I wasn't struggling as much to stay focused and working on the important things. Which is good because I don't want to have another 1:1:1 with my manager and her boss. Nothing bad, just uncomfortable in trying to understand why my performance had been lacking of late.

Bad: Our water heater is leaking. Rob's replaced one of the valves thinking that was the issue, but it's still leaking. So, it's looking like we're going to have to shell out for a new one. We could really use the money for other things, but hot water is highly important in my book.

I've done a little more knitting on the Berry Freeze, but I'm going to have to set it aside to crank out a baby sweater for a shower on the 29th.

I also need to work on my Bible study - Trusting God (Even When Life Hurts). It's been soooo helpful. I've found myself praying more and being thankful that God is truly in charge of ALL things and He's working for the good of His people in ALL ways, at ALL times. We don't know His plans and even the bad things that happen are for our ultimate benefit. That's the difficult one, you know? We want a HUMAN understanding of God, and He's not human. He's GOD.

But the best thing I learned in last Monday's study? God is so in control of the entire universe that even Satan can't harm us unless GOD ALLOWS IT. Even Satan is subject to His will. That is so incredibly awesome, it puts a smile on my face. Just read Job to see that in action. I'm really looking forward to this week.

Well, the hubby's not feeling well and I'm hungry so I'm signing out. Time to eat more, knit more and watch Shaun of the Dead with Ben & Jerry. YUM!

11 Days to go

11 days and then Kim will be on her merry way to Chi-town.  I'm taking two days off  then; one to see her off and two to clean up after her.  I'll miss her, but probably about as long as she'll be missing us.

In the meantime, our water heater leaked and our dishwasher is still on the fritz.  Rob drained the water heater and we've refilled it since we couldn't find any loose connections.  We're going to keep an eye on it for the next few days and hope that it was just a cry for attention due to our lack of regular maintenance.

My cousin's son, Zach, arrives either tonight or tomorrow for a few weeks.  He'll be good company for Sean since they have similar interests.  But I have no idea what to feed two teenage boys, only that it needs to be in massive quantities.

I've been working on the matching cardi for my niece's doll and I have to say that it goes much faster than I expected.  Of course, her sweater only took 2 1/2 weeks, so this should take only a week.  And I only have a week to finish it and hers, seams and buttons included.

I believe I've settled on the pattern for my mom's Christmas gift.  It's from Knitters Spring 04, the Evening Breeze pattern.  I have a beautiful dusty mauve silk/wool blend to use.  I'm getting pretty excited about it.  Of course, it won't keep her warm in the winter, but I think she'll appreciate it anyway.