A two-year hiatus, but still alive and loving life

The time it takes to write blog posts simply hasn't been a priority for me over the past couple of years, however don't think that the business of life has taken a turn for the worse.
Quite on the contrary -- Life is FABULOUSLY busy with my three extremely active girls!  And I'm truly loving (just about) every crazy second of this hecticity!

The household now has a Senior, 7th grader and Freshman, ALL extremely active playing volleyball in the Fall, basketball in the Winter and Track in the Spring, additionally softball for Candace in the Summer.

As for most people, the realization that we have a graduating Senior this year is a bit surreal and downright crazy to fathom.  The ol' cliche "time flies" has never rang so true!!!!!!!

Cass has certainly committed herself and has been self-driven to achieve seasonly and yearly goals over the past year, both for herself and for the betterment of her teammates and the school.
Parents are usually defaulted into being proud of their children; with these three, it's so easy to follow that default :)

On the crafty side of things......
OH BOY!  Opening admitting that my quilting room NOR my crochet needles have seen much action of any sort for the past year.  A T-shirt quilt is slowly in the making for Cass's graduation, but other than that, there simply hasn't been much ambition to fire up the sewing machine.  There IS time in my schedule, however.... "ambition" is truly the key word.  Much of my evening time is devoted to editing athletic photos for the girls' teams and updating the school's athletic Facebook pages.
My sewing machine and needles will always be there and ready for whenever the mood strikes;  until then, I've gotten over the initial guilt of backing away from that part of my life.

RUNNING update --

This hobby, on the other hand, is (hopefully) going to be taking front and center stage again after having some downtime since 2013.  No crazy plans for another marathon, but reaching a healthy running stage is a goal I hope to achieve again.

For now, that's where I'm at......
Happy 2019 to all!

Forever in our hearts:  Shadow (June 2006, August 7, 2018)

2018 Family Trip - Badlands

Cassie turns 16

Our dear Cassie turns 16 today

Therefore, I spent the evening editing a seemingly 'nothing spectacular' photo of her from a few weeks ago...

Straight out of the camera...

A crafty crop performed...

And after a few photo enhancements via photoshop... a lovely print-worthy image

The side-by-side

Yah... I'm enjoying this new life-long-learning skill ;)

Cassie turns 15

Fifteen years later, and the 19 inch lil' baby stands at a height of 5'9"...

... with no boy friends in the near future!  WHEW!

Her sister isn't far behind her either.....

... check out this gem we found while cleaning out a dresser drawer!

The difference of a week

Gone is the winter jacket, snowpants, boots, hat and WINTER gloves...

Replaced with spring hoodie, shorts, tennies and a SOFTBALL glove.

Recall the picture from last Saturday in almost the same location of the yard ;)

This morning's rain subsided and left us with a dreary Spring day, but we're not complaining too much. The snow is almost melted, and the ground is fairly dry, so the girls are outside enjoying some snow-free entertainment.

Caitlyn was asked to feed the goats with some bread scraps we had in the kitchen.  I think she heard "tease the goats" instead of 'feed the goats.'  

Goofball!  When they jumped up on her, she partly squealed and screamed, so Candace went a'runnin' to her rescue.

Eventually, Caitlyn stopped teasing them and they were each rewarded with a slice of bread.

The chickens are out-n-about somewhere in the tall weeds.  They have only been venturing out of the coop for a few recent days; otherwise, they stayed cooped up literally all winter long.
There are only 4 remaining hens after we lost some of the hens last Fall to predators... and then we lost our rooster last week.  :(  We never were able to determine how he died.
The hens we have are laying eggs again -- YAY!!! Farm fresh eggs can finally take over those bland store-purchased ones!

Wait----scratch that!  We have FIVE hens!  In the fall, when White Mama hatched out 4 babies, ONE of them ended up surviving; only after we put it in safe-keeping with the ducks.  Three of the other babies all died, and we never were able to determine why/how they died either, although my hunch was that either the rooster or the other hens were SOMEHOW involved >:{

Today, the duck-raised-hen was introduced with the other hens;  I hope those girls treat her nicely and allow her to work her way into the clutch.  She's been laying eggs this past week too!  So, all five of our girls are doing their job.  BUT, without a 'man' in the group, we know there will be no more babies being hatched despite having two known brooders.  Therefore, Paul went out and brought home 10 baby chicks yesterday (5 Rhode Island Reds and 5 Barrocks).  We actually are hoping at least one is a rooster!

He wants jelly

The raspberries were ready for their first harvest today!

Thankfully the weather was SUPER cooperative!  Overcast for most of the morning and coooooool! :) Low 60s.  I wore a long-sleeve shirt even.  And thank goodness for that!  Being the first picking, I moved branches in every direction and pulled an enormous amount of weeds.  My shirt helped protect my arms against all the scratchies.

Some of the bushes are producing amazing raspberries this year :)  YES!

Pay no attention to that bowl of candy! :D

3 hours later, 5 quarts have been picked.  And there are still BUKU BUKU TONS out on the bushes yet!!!!  I think our patch has outgrown our family.  LOL.

The other day when we were nibbling some of the ripe berries off the bushes, I commented about needing to pick up some more pectin for jam.  

And Paul says..."Let's do jelly this year.  There are always so many seeds in the raspberry jam."

So, I'm giving it a try!

I have never done a cooked recipe before.  

I have never used cheesecloth before.  

I have never "juiced" berries before.

LOL

I crushed them.  I wrapped them in cheesecloth.  I squeezed and twisted it.

And now, I have it resting over a bowl to drip, drip, drip any additional juice that wants to become part of our jelly.  I'll work on the jelly a bit later.  But for now, I want to simply put my feet up for a bit.

And then I remembered about the Shutterfly address that was given to us parents to keep tabs on the girls at STEPs camp this week...  By the looks of the pics, she's having fun.  I had no doubts.

Cassie's "Red" team;  she's the tall one in the middle.  No surprise there :)

And the silly shot

The entire STEPs group this week;  Cassie is the 5th red from the left in the back

And we didn't realize one of her classmates was signed up for this week too!  Carley.  Yay :)

Cassie on left and Carly on right;  eyeing up the Ropes Course 

Cassie and her roommate, Molly, and one of the counselors holding a safety rope.

TOTALLY looks like she is having a blast!

"So where does this rank on your obsession scale?"

asks Paul, as I lazily crocheted away on Candace's Aron throw last night...

LOL!    DUH!

Candace's Aran throw is now half finished;  3 days in.  I've worked through 1092 yards already, using Red Heart Super Saver yarns.  I simply need to say....I don't know if I'll use this yarn again for such a big project.  It's coarse to work with.  :{  It's scratchy, and just ..... hurts....after hours on end of continue crochet.  But I still am holding faith that it'll soften after it gets washed.  Does yarn have a 'sizing' agent added to it, similar to fabric, to keep it stiffer while working with it???  

We shipped Cassie off, safe and sound.  She is SUPER DUPER DUPER excited about the week!!!!!!! I met her roommate briefly before shipping back out for the two-hour drive home.  She seems like the sweetest lil' thing!  AND, I'm patting myself on the back!  I held off the tears!!! LOL.  I felt them coming on;  NO CLUE why!  Stupid hormones we mothers need to deal with.

Alrighty.  Candace and Cailtlyn have been dropped off at summer school. Paul is off to work.   Laundry is underway.  Dishes are done.  Animals are catered to.  Garden given a walk-through.  So, I plan to sit with some more crochet for a few hours, keeping up with laundry at the same time.  Later on after summer school, the girls and I plan to pick our first batch of raspberries and make some jam, all before heading out for Caitlyn's softball end-of-season party at 6:00 tonight.

Happy Monday!

I feel like it's been forever since I've posted...

But I know that Forever is a long time...

This really says it all.  Life is good.  Busy, but good.
I haven't sewn in weeks;  even last weekend after returning from my parent's house one day early with the HOPES of sewing on Sunday.....it didn't happen.  I read instead.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  In fact, I read THREE whole books over the Thanksgiving weekend, and it was heaven!  I have missed getting lost in a good story.

Cassie's 12th birthday came and went on Wednesday.  Paul had fun picking out the re-igniting candles, and amazingly, after lots of patience a few more than a few blows, they all remained unlit and we commenced to gift opening.

The daily rituals have been fairly redundant;  wake up, school, try to fit everything in in the evening that can fit, and then repeat.  I've worked some Junior High basketball games; it's always enjoyable to see students in a different light outside of the classroom.

So yeah.  I'm SUPER glad today is Friday.  As badly as I would like to just sit and sew, I actually have other relaxing plans for the evening.  Paul is taking the younger 2 up to visit the in-laws;  Cassie has a friend over for a late birthday get-together and they want to go skating.  SO, I'm not up for skating, and the skating place is in a town 30 miles away.  What to do, what to do......I AM up for relaxing in a movie theater (and finally use up a gift certificate that's been sitting for a full year!).  Therefore, I'll drop the girls off in just over an hour, and then kick back at the movie theater to watch Skyfall.  Going to a movie by yourself is okay, right??? :D

Happy Friday

No sewing for me...

Cass and I are heading out shortly for a SUPER-DUPER FUN DAY of Wisconsin State Volleyball.  We're both enjoying a relaxing morning right now at "Grandma's" house, who just so happens to live smack dab in the middle of the state, halfway between our house and Green Bay, where the State tournament is happening.  

"Aunt Jenny" (my sister) lives just north of Green Bay, and being a former HS volleyball player herself, she is planning to meet up with us too!  

A coworker (Jan) took the day off of work yesterday to head to State Vball since her daughter's team advanced to the tournament last weekend.  Yes, a bit awkward to some that she works at one school, but has children attending a different school, but that's just the way Geography and job placement works sometimes.  Anyway, I digress.  There were loads of texts from Jan yesterday, keeping me posted on results and other goings-on.  Sadly, they have not advanced to today's finals :\  But maybe it worked out for the best???  Because today she is in the middle of the state watching her son's team play the next level of Football Playoffs.  Wowsas.  Busy lady.  

And one funny----the Packers are playing at home this weekend, and I guess they were out-n-about yesterday.  At two different times, Jan texted me "OMG.  Tramon Williams is eating right behind us."  "OMG.  Troy Aikman just walked past us;  he must be announcing the game on Sunday."   LOL.  She's such a football groupie.

Although no sewing is happening, I'm extremely okay with the plans that lie ahead today :)

Happy Saturday.

Some quilting for MIL

Since my quilting frame was finally open again, I loaded a quilt that my MIL requested for me to finish up for her. The fabrics are absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!!!!

I chose a simple pantograph---really simple. Start-to-finish: this quilt took under three hours to load/quilt/trim.

The other evening, Paul fried up some freshly caught pan-fish (oh yes. YUM!!!!!!) and he double-dog-dared Cassie to eat an entire wedge of lemon.
The FUNNY thing though.......notice that completely eaten wedge on her plate. Yeah...that was her FIRST wedge from the dare. And the face she made was so hilarious, that I said DO IT AGAIN for the camera!!!!!!!!!

Rummy, Speed, and Parcheesi

Admittingly so, I am avoiding heading downstairs for quilting. I'm simply not in the mood....

Instead, I have been teaching Cassie how to play 500 Rummy (a game with many variations), how to play Speed (another good 'ol fun time game with many variations!) and we've played a board game of Parcheesi.

Now, she is kicking back with sister Caitlyn to play the Wii, and I think I'll dive into one of my Kindle books.

Please don't be disappointed in me :) But quilting.....nope.....just doesn't sound good today.

Thank you all! Finally, a full post.

You are all amazing! So amazing! Thank you all for your concern and caring words over the past few days. I am breathing lighter now; merely trying to do what I can when I can and the best I can. "Time heals all wounds," so I am patiently waiting out my time for this one.

In the meantime, I am trying to keep life on a positive track and keep my mind occupied.

I never got around to posting my progress from last week; I finished up about 40 (?) of my string blocks; not trimmed yet, but de-papered. I attempted to sew some more yesterday, but due to the fact that it was such a mindless task, my mind kept drifting back to the upsetting moments from earlier this week, so, I turned everything off and tried finding things to keep my mind occupied. Paul was just about to leave for some winter shopping for Caitlyn and Candace, so I quickly got dressed and bummed along with the family.

The rest of the day, I forced myself to "get into" a new book that has come highly recommended. The first chapter was SOOOO hard to get through; I kept drifting away from the words and then found myself re-reading the same paragraph over and over. But finally, I drew up a bath, relaxed with the jets on full-blast, and hunkered in. Chapter 1 did not appeal to me; many words were unrecognizable to me since they were Swedish-related terms. It was just hard to follow, characters were introduced and I struggled keeping names straight.

Even at the start of Chapter 2, it was discipline that kept me reading.
However, by the end of Chapter 2, the story was finally making progress and I was slowly getting hooked. I am now through Chapter 3 and am looking forward to some reading later tonight.


I could have read some today, however, sadly, much of my day today has consisted of this. Now that I've come to grips and peace with many of my school tasks, today's hours in front of the textbooks and Standards were quite tolerable.


Back to last week: it was filled with turning our house into a Christmas house. The tree was trimmed...


and the Nativity scene was set up, and other Christmas decorations were set up around the living room. We (I) am NOT an outside decorator (yet). Too much work.

Another event of this past week was Cassie's 11th birthday. She told Grandma "anything with wolves," so that is exactly what she received. Wolf calendar, wolf figurine, wolf puzzle, wolf tie-your-own fleece blanket. She was in heaven.

And from us, she was given a Kindle Touch; part Bday and part Cmas present. Prior to her opening it, I downloaded the Hunger Games trilogy as part of her present as well; she is well into Book #1 already, a week later.

I hope this slump is nearing an end. It's absolutely amazing how, within two weeks, I've gone from "life is awesome and couldn't be any better" to ..... THIS! I've read a lot of quotes on attitude lately, and I am mentally listening to my own attitude and trying to turn it all back around to the positive side of life. I don't like controversy. I don't like being grumpy and depressed. And I CERTAINLY don't like being considered "insubordinate" when I work so hard at my job.