Merry Christmas...

Old photo with new edit.  

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas.

2018 word of the year and goals...

Two thousand seventeen was not my most productive year...all that time reading, I guess.

My mother always said, "Have something to show for your time."  She was not a big fan of reading for that reason...very hard to read and knit (or sew or bake or clean) at the same time.

I had already decided not to do another reading challenge this year (not that I won't be reading).  Then I started thinking about what my focus for the year should be, and the word 'produce' popped into my head for many reasons.

• I feel the need to be more creatively productive.  (see definition verb 1 above)
• There are jobs needing doing around the house.  (see definition verb 2 above)
• I need to work on my health.  (see definition noun 1 above)

With my word of the year being 'produce,' here is my goals list for the year:

Attempt to reset sleep patterns -- this means I will strive to be early(er) to bed and early(er) to rise.

Eat breakfast -- that is my main health goal for the year.  I've decided to try a breakfast smoothie as a way of getting more fruits, vegetables, vitamins/nutrients, and fiber into each day.  

Be more productive both in work and creativity -- chores and art covered by the same goal?  Yes!  Produce!

and continue to:

Write it down -- continue with weekly listing goals and to-dos...this is the best way of keeping me on track and making progress  

Finances -- focus on frugality, weekly blog post for accountability (It did keep me thinking about it when I knew I had to blog weekly, so I guess I will keep it up.)

Home -- Swiffer one room daily 

Reduce possessions -- Divest myself of ten large items (furniture, etc)  I can't think of one thing that I managed to get rid of in 2017.  I will list items this year.

Quilting -- complete ten quilts/quilted projects  (keeping this at ten, though I only finished 4 projects last year)

Read the One-Year Bible

52 Letters in 52 Weeks

And with that I will wish you all a very Happy and Healthy (and productive) New Year!

2017, the highlights...

My 2017 year in review!  

✫  RUDY:  Such a good boy!  Could not ask for better.  Still working on things like jumping on visitors and barking at squirrels and deer, but it will come.

✫  HOSTING:  My best friend since childhood came for a brief visit.  Oh!  I hope she had as much fun as I did!

✫  TRAVEL:  We logged 5000+ miles on our fall vacation.  It was lovely.

✫  COOKING:  Still doing a lot of cooking, and packaging individual servings to freeze for Carey to take to work.  I came across a new family favorite with Dublin Coddle, and I even tried my hand at Egg Rolls this year (not that I serve those two things together).

✫  WORK:  I worked 270 hours this year.  Doesn't sound like much, but works out to about a month and a half if I had worked them straight instead of a day here and a day there.  I'm required to work a minimum of 100 hours annually to keep my part-time status, so I did two-and-a-half+ times that.

✫  QUILTING: 

My 2017 goal was to get ten projects completely finished this year.  I finished up four projects: a throw, a baby quilt, a twin quilt, and a table cover.  Several others are very close, but those will be held over for next year.  

✫  BLOGGING:  I posted 169 blog posts.

✫  READING:  I slightly more than doubled last years reading with 67 books this year, 52 of which were part of the Popsugar 2017 Reading Challenge.  It was definitely challenging with categories that I would not have chosen on my own.  I did really enjoy the challenge, but I need a break, so I'm not committing to a reading challenge for 2018.

My favorite book read this year was...The Old Man by Thomas Perry.  I rated it 10/10.
Others that I rated 10/10:
     The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
     Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
     The Diary of Mattie Spenser by Sandra Dallas (this was a re-read)

There were also quite a few that I rated 9/10.  And unlike 2016, there were very few clunkers this year.

And that's another year completed.  It was a pretty good one; glad I was here for it.

Graduation 2017...

2017 graduating class (center in blue)

Today was high school graduation day for Bobby and Chandler.  How did it get here so fast?  The ceremony was held in a neighboring town at a university arena.  The graduates were seated on the floor of the arena in blue caps and gowns...571 graduates I believe.

Chandler accepting his diploma

Chandler was close to the front of the group.  Why, oh why, didn't I take some test shots of classmates ahead of him to practice the timing?  The photographer there at the front was taking photos of each graduate, and the school is supposed to send them to the parents, so maybe we will get a better photo of him then.  The photographer's flash went off exactly when I took this, and it really washed out my photo.  They had them moving pretty fast, so I only had one chance.

Bobby accepting his diploma

 Bobby's turned out better.  Pretty fuzzy...but then I was about 40 yards away...at least you can see his happy smile.

Bittersweet.  So proud of them both, but such a big step into their future of being out on their own.

Bobby and Kasey

We took Bobby and the family out afterwards for lunch.  (Chandler was with his mom today.  Ah, the trials of modern families.)  Tomorrow they will both be at a barbecue in their honor at Kasey and Beau's house, but Carey will have to be at work, so will miss it.  I told Kasey I would bake some cookies...or cookie bars, actually...so I'd better go get started.  Kasey is just hoping the rain will hold off.

2016, the highlights...

I was going to rerun the format I used last year for the year-end review, but man were my first posts of each month boring!  So I'm going straight to the year's highlights.

✫  RUDY:  Nuff said.

✫  HOSTING:  The other Kathleen came for a whole week!

✫  COOKING:  Between eating more of our meals at home for frugality, and preparing desserts for Sunday family dinners, I did a lot of cooking this year.  

✫  QUILTING:  Even though they are not quilted and bound, I did get four quilt tops assembled this year (three of which I'm still thinking about adding borders to).  

My 2016 goal was to get six completely finished this year.  Yeah, that didn't happen.

✫  WRITING:  I got my name (and article and photographs) in print and was paid for it!

✫  BLOGGING:  I posted 192 blog posts.

✫  READING:  I read 33 books this year; down from 37 last year.

The best book I read this year was...The Widow's War by Sally Gunning.

I gave up on so many books this year.  Some I was really enjoying, but just couldn't concentrate on reading long enough to finish, but I may give them another try in the future.  Some were just too bad to waste time on.  I can't pick a worst.


And that's another year completed.  It was a pretty good one; glad I was here for it.

Thirty-nine years ago...

April 17, 1976

Wow, we were babies!  I was eighteen; he was twenty-two.  My dress was too long, because I had to go barefoot rather than wear the heels the dress had been hemmed for.  I had broken my foot a few days before the wedding.

So much for the naysayers who said it would never last.  :)