Happy Monday! It’s been a few weeks since we had a weekly goals post and it’s time to get back in the routine. I confess I am feeling a little slow out of the gate today. We just finished our sunniest June ever with over 82% sunshine. This is unheard of around here. I think average is in the 63% range. Now we are in the midst of a 10 day stretch of temperatures in the 90s.
Caroline and I are both trying to keep positive attitudes, but all of this sunshine, heat, and humidity on top of everything else is really wearing on us. If you think of Caroline, would you please pray for her? We have been stuck at home for four months now. There is really nowhere to go and nothing to do. Now that it is so hot, there is even less to do because it’s not even pleasant to take a walk. There is nothing to look forward to. No church, no volunteering, and not knowing if homeschool co-op will really happen in the fall. They are planning on it, but given our governor (Michigan) I have no hope that we’ll get a normal homeschool co-op year.
During the first several weeks of the lockdown, David was drowning in work. We barely had time to think about the lockdown because he was so busy. All of those projects have ended and now for the past few weeks he’s been on the other end of the spectrum – not enough work lined up. If you think of him, please pray that the Lord would guide him to work, new clients, etc. Our business doesn’t qualify for any of the government programs that have been set up so finding work is our only option. Please pray for the Lord to provide.
Honestly, our whole family could use your prayers. We’re feeling rather down, to be perfectly honest. We’re praying and trying to keep a positive attitude. Caroline and I need to get in gear with homeschooling, but neither one of us really feel like doing anything. I don’t mean to be a downer in sharing this. I simply want to be honest. We’re all weary.
Cross Stitching
Yesterday I cleaned out a storage bin with my counted cross stitch materials, books, magazines, floss, partially completed projects, etc. I was able to whittle it down quite a bit. Some of it I’m keeping and some is going to Goodwill this week. Most of my floss is old, but it will still work fine for little projects I might want to work on. If I decide at some point to take on something larger, I will buy all new. I cut up the partially completed projects I will never finish and washed all the Aida fabric since it smelled like it had been packed away for some time. I need to check it over and decide what I might want to keep to possibly use. Aida fabric isn’t expensive, but given how many crafting supplies are still in short supply I decided to hang on to what I had.
I have to give a shout out to Kim at Nutbrown Cottage. KIM!!!!! I saw someone took a link from your site and went to see it since I didn’t recognize the website name. But I saw your picture and was so happy to see you! I’ve thought about you often over the years. Part of the reason I’m mentioning this under cross stitching is because Kim is working on one of my favorite old patterns from Cross Stitch Country Crafts. (I have that issue in my pile.) Make sure you go see her pictures of Gathering Honey. It’s such a lovely project. (And I love her site design. So cozy!)
My Goals This Week
I’m still working hard with David on updating all of my printables in the shop so I’m spending a lot of time on that.
I’m also finishing up all the details on the website redesign. So I’m not going to set any grand goals this week around the house.
Goal 1 – Finish going through my cross stitch stuff. I’m mostly done, but need to decide which magazines, books, etc. to keep and what to get rid of.
Goal 2 – Go through my last sewing storage bin. It is mostly full of fabric. Whatever I am going to keep (which will probably be all of it) needs to be washed and restored in a container that breathes better.
Goal 3 – Order sewing and cross stitching supplies I might want before they run out again. I need to order thread especially. I have a lot of fabric and very nice old sheets I have plans for, but my thread supply is low.
Goal 4 – Continue organizing my crafts and sewing materials in my office. I’ve been slowly working on this while listening to podcasts.
What do you have planned this week around your home? Please leave a comment and share what you are working on. If you write about these things on your own blog or website, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your post about what you are doing around your home. I won’t be offended! If you have a good recipe to share on your site, feel free to link to it as well.
Artwork: “Buckinghamshire House at Penstreet” by Helen Allingham
Head Down, Blinders On, Antennae Up – Multi Topic Update
I’ll be praying for you.
I need to get back to organizing my sewing/school room. It’s getting better, but it definitely needs more work. So that’s on my to do list.
In general my goals for the week are lots of writing, and then using our carpet cleaner once the replacement part comes in.
Praying for you and your family as well!
My goals this week are:
1. Catch up on vacuuming in the living room
2. Do a few of Flylady’s “28-fling boogie” decluttering runs
3. Restart a refinishing project.
Hello Sally;
My prayers and best thoughts go your way, for your loved ones and you.
Every year in the new year I had “slump” in spirit and energy, especially in home learning with my dear ones. I disliked this so much. We are in low light days, extreme cold, and very little to do that time of year. Thank goodness there was tons of snow to play in. It bothered me and I felt guilty. The father of lies attacked me each and every time.
soul goal 1 = in His word
goal 2 = new recipes (pasta salads, Italian chicken or beef, bbq), treat
goal 3 = 4-7 short jobs each day
goal 4 = American music history, Hebrew (will continue with listening/repeating and leave writing for later)
goal 5 = shorten/mend some pants, start a teddy (I found some beautiful cuddly fur)
Will keep you and yours in my thoughts and prayers. We have been trying to catch up with things that need to be done. Our refrigerator broke down. We had just gotten a lot of groceries. Mot of the things spoiled and had to be thrown out. We ordered more groceries when our new refrigerator came. We had to wait a week to have it delivered. I had to go for an eye exam in order to renew my license. Tomorrow I have to pick up my glasses. I was not thrilled to have to go out. i wore a mask and gloves. I usually do not go out. Hope to do some cleaning this week. We did change the beds. It is hot here and not much rain. Stay safe and well.
Marilyn
Sallie, thank you for mentioning to pray for those specifics for you and your family. It has been very,very hot here too (we are likely getting similar weather to you), finally broken a bit by a thunderstorm last night, but it does make it difficult to do much during the day, I find, and being outside has been really unpleasant. I feel a little silly saying that because I know there are much hotter places in the world than where we live, but still … Because we’ve had so many days of heat and humidity, my goals seem to all relate to getting back to my garden, which I was really enjoying a very few weeks ago, but has gotten a bit more out of control. I’d gotten in some good time watering in the later evenings, but watering and picking strawberries, raspberries and tomatoes is really all I’ve done for some time now.
This week my goals were simple but time-consuming – I’m partway there.
1. Weed the perennial/pollinator garden
2. Weed vegetable areas (I mix and match, so those also contain some perennials)
3. Snip the heads off of wilted peonies and some other plant that was beautiful last month, but has tons of dead heads and whose name is escaping me.