Thursday, October 13, 2011

Everything is on the Back Burner

School has absolutely taken over my life. There seems to be little time for other things. I have not quilted a stitch, or knitted since starting school. The only reading I get done are the Text Books. I am constantly exhausted. But there is a silver lining on the horizon. I am making good grades, and I am enjoying it immensely. I am already dreaming of the future, and wonder where I will get a job at. I am hoping hospital right now, but that might change over the course of the next year, and I also have to see if I receive any offers from somewhere.

Besides dreaming of the future, and working toward the realization of those dreams, my husband and I decorated the front yard last weekend. We grew these pumpkins ourselves, and are pretty proud of them.


I am about ready to call it a night here. So I will keep this short, but will update again soon. Hopefully I have some pictures to show of something I accomplished. Otherwise I might have to scan in my graded papers to show off. But who wants to see that? LOL

Thursday, September 22, 2011

... I never promised you a Rose Garden.

This blog is about all the things in my Rose Garden. As we all know, there are sweet smells, pesky bugs, and prickly thorns. What a great parallel to real life.

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In my Rose Garden did a Pumpkin grow. OK, actually several, but the big one is what matters. T and I enjoy growing Giant Pumpkin, and taking them to Weigh-Offs. Last night was a Weigh-Off in our region, and we placed 5th place with 868 lbs. Not the best we ever grew, but still pretty good sized. I am proud of it, although T was a little disappointed, because he just expected more.

Another thing is, I am starting back to School on Monday. I am excited and frightened at the same time. I am excited, because I love learning, and eventually I will be joining back into the work force. Which will be a big boost to my self-esteem, because it will get me out of the house. Don't get me wrong, I know how lucky I have been to be able to stay at home all these years, and take care of my family. But with the kids growing up, and going their own way, it gets a little lonely here at home. So going to school, and then work will be a great way to see some people other than on TV. The scary part is all the adjustments that will have to be made. I always admired working mom's for their ability to do it all. They go to work all day, clean their house, cook for their families, show up on time for all of their kids activities, and don't look one bit frazzled. So I wonder, how do they do it all? Well, I am about to find out. I guess it is all a matter of priorities. My knitting and quilting will have to slow down a little, I already reconciled myself to that fact. With the housework, and cooking dinner, I guess my family will have to lend a hand. They are so used to me doing it all, it will be quite a change for them. But I know it will all be for the better. Because this is something I wanted to do for a few years now. We all know, if Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy, and I know, this will make me happy.

On the quilting front is not much to tell. I have a top in the works, which is Eleanor Burns' Buckeye Beauty Pattern, in Twin Size. But it fell a little to the wayside, because my sewing room is a little torn up after I went to a quilt retreat last weekend. But when I came home, T agreed that I could move my sewing room down into the Basement. Of course like most Basements, it needs a good cleaning and sorting out first. So quilting is a little on hold right now, until that is taken care of.

With the knitting, I have so many projects on the needles, it is not even funny anymore. I can't start a new project, because I am running out of knitting needles. Most worked on patterns are the 5-hour Baby Cardigan by Bev's Country Cottage, and a Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann. No, I am not expecting, thank heavens, but a friend of J is 5 months along, and J thought it would be nice if we both knit a few baby sets for her friends baby to bundle up the precious little girl. I will probably share pictures as they get done.

With the walking now. I am training to enter 5K walks starting Spring 2012. At least that is my goal. So I am starting to give my Treadmill a dusting off. I usually use the Walk at Home program from Leslie Sansone, but realized that it is not suiting my purpose. Although it is a great system for weight loss, it is only walking in place, which uses different muscles as when you propel yourself forward. It was a great help to lose the first 15 lbs. now that I have gained endurance it is time to get on the treadmill, and start improving my time. A 5K walk is the same distance as 3.2 miles. As you can see, not a world shattering distance, but enough to keep me motivated to train. It would be a great achievement to me to cover that distance in 45 min or less. Right now I am taking about 1 hour to cover the distance.