Five Minute Friday- Connect

This week's word for Five Minute Friday is Connect and it is so appropriate! Ready...... here I go!

Since I have retired I noticed that I spend a lot of my time feeling disjointed and separated from everyone that I typically assoicate with. Even when I am visiting with my teacher friends, I somehow feel like I do not really belong there. I have also noticed that I have lost some of my connection with God. It is because of this that I selected my word for the year- CONSCIOUS.

My goal is to be to more conscious about what I spend my time on, actually being deliberate in my choices. I have set aside time each morning to connect with God through Bible reading. I am participating in a chronological read-through along with several other women on Facebook. I am reading and praying over God's word and trying to allow him to speak to me during this time.

I am also trying to be more conscious when I am with friends and family. I want to really BE PRESENT and connect with them- not just spend time with them. I want our time together to be valuable for both them and me, actually helping to strengthen our personal connections.

Lastly, I am being more conscious about my money. I am working diligently to pay down some of our debt that has accumulated over the years. I will make a little extra money each month by substitute teaching and I am setting that aside to go straight toward some of that debt. I have created a spreadsheet on the computer and I am tracking progress each month in order to help me further be conscious of my progress and to give myself some encouragement. Because I know that I also will want to spend a little, I have made a separate account for my "play" money. This is money that I started saving last year from my crochet and crafting hobby. I am adding to that whenever I make a sale, small though it may be. When the time is right, I plan to reward myself by taking some of that money and using it to redo my craft space, in the hopes that I can be more productive with my hobby and that I can reconnect with my creative side, something that has suffered in the past few years.

I hope to update everyone via this blog on a regular basis and use it to help make me accountable for my personal progress. Please come back and stay in touch. Check in to see how I am doing and give me a pat on the back or a word of chastisement, whichever might be appropriate. I would also love to hear your word for the year, if you choose to share.

Five Minute Friday- Surrender

Black Friday- the day when most of America is out shopping, trying to get the best deals that they can for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Not me.... no.... I have spent my day trying to make the clothes and hair for a Raggedy Ann and Andy doll set that a friend of mine requested quite a while back. The doll bodies themselves came together weeks ago- much easier than I expected, but not the clothes and hair.

My sewing machine has been on the fritz.... no tension, then too much tension, Threads breaking off right in the middle of a seam. I even had one calamity that I have NEVER seen! I had a bobbin literally break in two IN THE MACHINE!

After a bit of what my mother would call "belly-aching" I did finally manage to get the clothes finished. Then I set about the dreaded task of getting the hair done. The instructions that came with the pattern involved wrapping the yarn around a large 12X18 piece of cardboard, then gently removing those loops from the cardboard (keeping them intact) and sewing them to a base. I managed to get the loops off more easily than I expected, but trying to sew through all of that yarn created a huge headache (for ME... Not Raggedy Ann). I could not see where the fabric was beneath the yarn, so when I sewed it I got way off track.

One side of the yarn wig looks pretty good, but the other is just a jumble of yarn.

Here I sit now..... after a long day at the sewing machine. My back aches, my head hurts, and I am not much closer to having these dolls finished. I think the fates have spoken and they are telling me to call it a night.  Oh well! I SURRENDER!! In the words of Scarlett O'Hara..., "Tomorrow is another day." Perhaps things will go better then.  In the meantime..... anyone got any great tips on making a wig for Raggedy?

UPDATE

Oh what a difference a day makes! It is SO TRUE!!

I got up this morning with a fresh outlook, two new pieces of red cotton cloth, and my red yarn. Having read several posts on the internet I had some idea of how I could possibly make the hair work on these dolls and I finally was able to succeed!

Not too shabby, huh? I am pretty pleased with the final results, although I have already warned my daughter that when she has a daughter she should NOT be expecting a set of these dolls! LOL! 

Five Minute Friday- Common

Here it is Friday again and time for another round of Five Minute Friday journaling. This week's word is COMMON......

Ready..... Set...... Go!

I have always considered myself to be a very common, down to earth type of person. As a young girl and into my teenage years I even described myself as "homely". With my long, straight hair and plain clothing I did not stand out and I never really wanted to. I preferred to fade into the woodwork and just "BE".

Over the years however, I have come to realize that there are things that make me a very uncommon, unique person. I have my own unique way of organizing things; as a young mother I could tell whether one of the family had moved something on the coffee table by even a few inches. (Not so much anymore. I have mellowed with age. LOL!) When I am attempting to color match an outfit or home accessories I like to have a "perfect" color match. (This often gets on my son's nerves, as he is more willing to look at broader color strokes.) I just cannot abide certain food textures. Things that are too mushy, or too lumpy just do not appeal to me. When I eat a meal, I tend to eat it one food item at a time, not going back and forth with a bite of this and a bite of that.

I have been involved in conversations with other people as we discussed things that we liked and things that we didn't, our customary ways of doing things, and our own preferences about those little things that make us who we are. Often these conversations end with one person saying, "I just don't know how you do that", or "I could never do it that way."  It is at those times that I realize just how unique and uncommon I am.

God has molded each of us into the person that he wants us to be. He gave me my delight in chocolate, my need for order, and my unwillingness to choose sage green when I wanted a dusty green. I am NOT as common as I would like to believe. Regardless of this, I can rest in the confidence that I am God's perfect product!

Five Minute Friday- Test

Today I begin a personal test--- a test of my patience and (to some) a test of my sanity.

One of the crochet skills I have developed over the last twelve months is the skill of doing C2C crochet. (For those of you who are not in the know, that means corner to corner crochet.) With this type of crochet I create a grid pattern on graph paper of whatever design I plan to make. I then crochet tiny blocks of color, starting in one corner of the design and working diagonally across the remainder of the project.

The catch to making this work is the use of small "bobbins" of yarn which I add in each time I encounter a new color in the design. Because of the intricacies of some of my patterns I sometimes find myself working with several bobbins within a single row. The upside of this type of crochet is that I can create a blanket with almost any design I wish, as long as I can create a graph for it.

One my most difficult graphs to date was a police car blanket I created for a dear friend of mine. It was a true test of my patience and my sanity. As I worked my way across the graph I drew lines and labelled how many stitches of each color I would need in that row. Even with my careful graphing and counting, I still managed to mess up. The problem with that was that I did not catch my mistake until I was 5 or more rows PAST THE MISTAKE! This required me to pull out all of those rows and to back up to the point where the problem was.

So.... why do that? Why not just crochet a simple little blanket with straight rows of color? Surely that would be just as appreciated..... While that might be true, I enjoy the challenge of the whole thing. How much detail can I put into the graph? How far will I get before I do make the inevitable mistake? How long will it take for me to actually finish the project? Some people would definitely say that I had lost my mind, but I love to test myself and see whether I actually can complete the project.

The personal payoff for me is twofold: the personal satisfaction that I get when I actually pass the "test" that I set for myself and the joy that I see on the recipient's face when they receive the finished project. Just look at the photo below....

How could I NOT attempt something that would make someone so happy?

Pardon me now.... I have to go prepare my bobbins for this "test". I will post pictures when it is finished. 

Five Minute Friday- Collect

I have heard it said that everyone collects something. If you ask my husband, he would say that I collect craft supplies: mainly yarn and scrapbooking paper. (He would not necessarily say that I USE it.) If you ask my daughter, she would probably say that I collect owls. (Our Christmas tree is covered with them.)  If you ask my son, he probably would have very little idea what I collect.

Personally, I would like to think that I collect friends and good deeds.

I have always been one of those people who wants to go out of my way to help do things for the people I care about. Whether it is a little card, a smile, or some warm words of encouragement, I always try to do what I can to make their day go just a teeny-tiny bit better.

When I retired I knew that I would be spending some of my time crocheting and crafting in order to stay busy and to make a little money. But, I also made it my personal goal to try to use my skills just because someone needed it. Over the past year I have been keeping a record (collecting a list) to make me accountable to myself. I have made cups, sweaters, cards, and stuffed animals. Some of those have been gifted to people I know and care about- friends who needed a bit of encouragement. Some of those have been donated to organizations who used them as door prizes or give-aways.

I have really enjoyed seeing the smile on someone's face as I give them something they had no idea they would be receiving- a little something to just say, "I am thinking of you. Someone cares." I suppose that I have also been collecting those smiles.  When I have a bad day and things aren't going well, or when I am working on a project and things just don't seem to be turning out right I remember those smiles- those friends along the way that I was able to uplift, if only for a few moments.

Colossians 3:17 says

With each smile, friend, and good deed that I am able to collect along my way, I whisper a quiet "Thank you Lord, for bringing this opportunity into my life and allowing me to live this moment."

What about you? What do you collect? I would love to hear from you. Drop me a quick comment below.

Catching Up On Rest

I just visited the Five Minute Friday blog and learned that the word for this week is REST..... Rather appropriate considering what I planned to post about this week. (Although I am PRETTY sure that it will be longer than a Five Minute blog entry.)

Last Sunday was not only Father's Day; it was also my sweet hubby and my 23rd anniversary. Knowing that it was a doubly special day I knew that I needed to plan something extra special. Glenn had been talking for at least a year or more about his desire to visit the Museum of Appalachia located in Clinton, Tennessee. He has always enjoyed seeing the way things used to be here in the Appalachian mountains and is even working to help set up a Pioneer Village right here where we live.

The tough part was going to be getting Glenn to actually take the day off and just rest. He is a VERY hard worker and often over-stretches himself. He loves to help community and church groups, as well as the local schools with any project that he feels in beneficial. All of this piles stress on top of the stress that he already feels and takes up much of what should be free time.

I decided the best way to get him to just give up a day was to conspire with our two children. Our son NEVER wants to go anywhere with us. He has reached that age of early adulthood where he has begun to find his own interests and therefore his own recreational things. On Friday night we told Glenn that we had decided to go the frugal route for Father's Day this year. We cooked him a meal, including cake and presented him with a single card and his "gift": an air popper for popcorn, some corn, and seasonings. (He loves popcorn, but usually burns it in the microwave.) I followed that up with a simple request. "Keenan wants us to go somewhere with him tomorrow. You know that he NEVER asks us to go anywhere with him, so I really think we should go." Needless, to say, Glenn agreed.

That night he tried several times to get one of us to let out the secret location, but all he got in answer to his question, "Where are we going?" was a single word, "Distance".

The next day we set out bright and early with Glenn posting this on Facebook: " My family is whisking me off to some unknown destination...Should I be happy or worried??? Hey, I still love them!!! "

We had prepared 4 cards, each with a clue inside. Glenn was given one every 30 minutes. When he got the first one he started posting the clues on Facebook as well and friends back home started trying to guess the secret destination.

Kari, my daughter, had prepared the clues and had really gotten creative:

You are in for a mountain of fun!

You won't be the only 10 I see on our anniversary!

This town is a great CANDIDATE for a road trip!

You won't be sawing any logs today, but you will be seeing them!

By the time we got just outside of Clinton, Glenn finally figured it out. He was having just as much fun with the clues as we thought he would have with the trip.

The day was a great one for us all and a much needed rest. Viewing log cabins is not really up Keenan's alley, but I truly think that he got into the whole experience too.

By the end of the day, we had all decided that we definitely need to do something like this again. Rest is one of those things that we can all use more of and it is even better when we get that rest together as a family!

Five Minute Friday- Want

Time again for another Five Minute Friday.  For more information about the Five Minute Friday be sure to click on the link to the right.

This week's word prompt is- WANT.

Right now in my life I want one thing- rest. I have just finished teaching my third week of Summer Boost Camp at the local elementary school. This involves a full day of activities 8:30 to 2:30 daily, with kids ranging from rising 1st grade to rising 5th grade. It is constant teaching, one group in- then out to allow another one to enter the room. Three more weeks of this remain ahead of me.

To top it off, this week has also been our church's vacation bible school. I am the resident craft teacher. Every night I have had groups of 12 to 14 little kids, many of whom could not follow my simplified instructions or who managed to drop their finished creation, sending beads or gravel tumbling out all over the floor- thus requiring us to take more time to recreate the original piece. Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy working at VBS and I love doing God's work, but it can get very stressful and definitely very tiring!

I come home from school, rest for a few minutes, then jump back into the car and head to church for the nightly program. All of this constant activity has really worn me out! 

I WANT to sleep in late tomorrow. 

I WANT to enjoy a leisurely breakfast when I do decide to leave my bed- preferably some wonderful pancakes or waffles. 

I WANT a day to just stay in my jammies and do what I WANT to do.....

What I am going to do instead is get up bright and early tomorrow morning and go geocaching with my daughter. She saw online that it is geocaching day or something like that and that there is a special button you can earn for finding caches that day. The tired mommy in me wants to say, "Don't you know I am too tired to go traipsing around looking for tiny little boxes with strips of paper inside?" The sentimental mommy in me knows that this may be one of the things that we won't get to do together much longer. She is growing up and will soon be geocaching with friends, boyfriends, and- one day- her own little family. 

So, tomorrow morning when I WANT to stay tucked under my covers I will get up, shower, and put on some nice sturdy shoes- preparing myself for a day full of looking (and hopefully finding MOST of the caches we look for).

Oh well, there is always NEXT WEEKEND to look forward to, right?

Uh oh- I almost forgot..... next weekend is Father's Day!........ SIGH.

Five Minute Friday.... Expect

A lot of people have been asking me, "So.... is retirement what you expected?" I respond with something rather bland like, "To be honest, it has not really sunk in yet." Then I go back to what I was doing and, in my own quiet moments I ponder the question.

If I had to honestly answer the question, I would have to say that I have not REALLY retired yet. (That becomes official on July 1. That is when the school's fiscal year ends, so I am on contract and paid until that point. Because of that, it is the marker that I am using for actual retirement.) To complicate matters even more, I am working 6 weeks of summer school, beginning next Monday. It adds a bit to my retirement and it keeps the school system from having to train someone else for the reading program.

I may not technically be retired, but I have to say that retirement is just as wonderful (so far) as I expected. I expected to be able to sleep in without setting an alarm and I am so happy that my body clock is already adjusting to that. I am able to stay up a bit later with family and sleep in a bit later each morning. 

I expected less stress and, (so far) that is happening. My biggest stress has been trying to decide what to cook each night and what to crochet or craft next.

I do expect that I will get a teeny bit "bored" from time to time, so I am preparing myself for the idea that I may have to take a part time job doing something. I am, after all, still young enough for a second career and still healthy enough to make the most of it. 

I once read a quote that said, "Expect nothing and appreciate everything." I think that kind of sums up my expectations for retirement. I hope to appreciate every minute of free time or family time that I am given!

This post is my attempt at participating in the online "Five Minute Friday" writing group. I discovered it quite a while back, but I never seemed to have the time to commit to participating. Now I do! 

For more information about the group, you can click on the Five Minute Friday button on the right. I would love for some of you to join us!