2025 OneThing #50 - Make a Pillow for Viv from Lou Shirts

I got this one done by Tuesday! The internment for Lou (with honor guard) was at Fort Snelling on Wednesday, November 12 and I knew I'd see my sister-in-law. This isn't the most attractive pillow, but I had given away too many of his nicer shirts for family members to wear. (She asked me to make a pillow from his shirts.)

I had first used a navy blue pajama shirt with a slight white crosshatch pattern, but I discovered that the fabric was so thin that it just wouldn't do. So I made the back and heart out of a flannel shirt and a pale blue pajama top. There's a zipper at the bottom so she can take it off to launder it or to see the other PJ shirt.

I have been very much in "get 'r done" mode lately!

It felt nice to give this to her along with some other items. It was nice to honor my father-in-law and be together with family.

2025 OneThing #49 - Send Mail to SOLC Missionaries!

This has been in process for two months or more! We encouraged our congregation to write notes, draw pictures, share Scriptures, etc. on the third Sunday in September for our "Missions Minute." Our church currently provides monthly financial support to four AOG missionaries. Not very many people participated . . . but I still wanted to send encouragement to our missionaries.

Then my October got away from me with Lou's death and my own note-writing procrastination. I'm so glad I set this as my "One Thing" last week, because that (and a canceled sub job) helped me to follow through! 

I typed up the short message from the missions committee to each of the four missionaries, I got copies made of the picture of us, and I wrote my own four personal notes. I got messages into envelopes, addressed them, and brought them to the post office on Friday to mail. 

It feels good to have this finished! Now on to a new goal for this week . . .

2025 OneThing #48 - Make "Abide" Word

I've had the fabrics picked out for several months, but struggled with how to make the word look vine-ish. I finally cut out the letters and have decided to add more vine looks with stitching. This will be my final "one word" (I believe). Though I've enjoyed this process, I'm ready to move on. 

With this word, I have a total of twelve. I started during the 2014-15 school year with "Listen." That was followed by joy, hope, trust, love, choose, humility, grace, shine, selflessness, simplify, and now abide. 

 

My theme Scripture is John 15:4-5. "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." 

 

There are also the verses in Galatians 2:20 and John 15:1-8.

 

So far, I've cut out the letters, used some double-sided fusible stuff, and ironed it all together. I'll use a kelly green thread to stitch the outlines and then do some needlework with thicker green threads (probably on our next lake trip, since that's where my crazy quilting stuff is). I haven't decided what I'll do for / with the open spaces in the A, b, d, and e. One thing at a time, right?

Galatians 2:20, John 15:1-8

OneThing #47 - October Summary

This will be short because I never did the calendar for October! Lou died on October 3. His celebration of life was on October 14 (Betty's birthday). We had a very, very busy month. My "mantra" was "One Thing at a time." It helped me to focus on what most needed to get done. 

I didn't have a specific Scripture verse that I referred to, but I definitely prayed for God's grace! Here's a link to Lou's obituary. Viv wrote it. Angela officiated at his funeral service.

Louie and I have all of Lou's worldly possessions here, so I've been trying to work my way through them and move them on to new homes when appropriate. I've donated almost all his clothing. I'm working on the furniture slowly. Also sorting papers - ongoing. It's a lot.

There are SO MANY fun photos of Lou. I like the ones from his youth the best.

He was in football, choir, and drama. He graduated in 1948 from Grand Island High School, Nebraska.

2025 OneThing#46 - Lots of Stuff!

 Here are some of the things that got done the week of October 19-25, 2025:

• We got rid of the popup! A nice young man named Raymond (from Frazee) paid $75 for it and it's finally gone. He shared pics the next day - he had already stripped off all the camper parts and had it down to the frame, axle, and wheels. He plans to make it into an ice fishing house. Very cool! 
• I burned one grocery sack of Lou's papers with medical and/or financial info on them. It took a long time! I alternated some pieces of paper with some of the twigs from our brush pile. I have bag #2 almost full for the next trip to the lake. (Alex gave us an old burn barrel. It's super convenient for this.)
• I subbed for three days and worked extra to get the room cleaned up and info ready for quarter 2.
• Louie and I went to Wednesday evening prayer at church. That was nice.
• We did lots of lake stuff (unloaded the Fiero; transplanted some flowers, mint, and rhubarb; dug dirt to fill low spots; etc.) AND I did two jigsaw puzzles. 

It was a full week and I am glad it included time at the lake! Reading over this, I realize it's not in chronological order. Too bad! I'm moving on . . .

 

2025 OneThing #45 - Miscellany

 I haven't even wiped off my September info and written October in yet!

Here are some of the extra things I've done:

We donated furniture from my father-in-law's room to Bridging in Bloomington. What a great organization! They use volunteers to help with donations, repairs, etc. so that people moving from homelessness to a place of their own can have furnishings and household items. It feels good to donate to them! (And to get rid of things we don't need.)

 

This desk was purchased by my sister-in-law Del and I thought about keeping it in my sewing room. But I am terrible about cleaning and the open shelves are dust collectors.

 

Lou had lots of lovely photos of family members on them. He also liked the pull-out drawer shelf thing.

A few people have commented on how cool this furniture design is . . . art deco, maybe? Sure, there might be a flipper who would love this and give it a new life, but I just wanted it gone.

Lou kept his socks, underwear, etc. in here. It's pretty heavy but the veneer is pulling away in places. I just didn't want to invest more time and energy into this.

The nightstand was sturdy and easy for me to carry alone. It went with the other two items.

I have two pieces of his furniture that Viv said she wanted but she didn't have time to deal with on the day of the funeral.

I have another eight(?) that I'm going to try to sell. Louie is going to keep at least one of the filing cabinets to put tools into up in the pole barn.

Next, I'm tackling the clothing. Everyone who wanted a shirt was able to take one. I've already loaded five bags into my car to drop off tomorrow. There's plenty more here to deal with!

2025 OneThing #44 - Know When to Say When . . .

My plan for 9.28.2025 was to write about sending letters of encouragement to our church's missionaries. That still has not happened. I had good intentions! But I spent many, many hours at St. Francis Hospital with my father-in-law and more time with him at Suite Living. He passed away on Friday, October 3rd at 2:19pm. We are in the thick of funeral planning and pretty much everything else has gone by the wayside.

SO this entry will cover 

• 9/28 - encouragement to missionaries
• 9/30 - September summary
• 10/5 - week of thinking I would be working on my "Abide" fabric word . . . 
• 10/12 - not setting a new goal for this week that's already half over (Hence the title of this entry.)
  

 

I have no idea what my "OneThing" will be for October 12-18. The funeral is on 10/14. We have something planned for each day of the week. Right now, Saturday, October 18 is my only unplanned day for the entire week. Sigh. I have to focus on my blessings because my life is filled with them!

Here's the sign I put up at church inviting people to share with our missions people:

Some people did write notes, but I haven't done my own yet and I think I should just wrap that up and mail whatever we do have!

I love snail mail but I recognize that not everyone enjoys that. Still, I had hoped for a more robust response. We gave people four weeks to participate.

Here's my calendar for a few weeks (I thought I was getting back on track!):

 Actually, weeks one and two went well. It's funny how much of a difference it makes when you rely on the Lord instead of yourself!

I'm also happy with the gift for Benjamin, but I can't believe I didn't get a single photograph at his birthday party!

My verse was from Galatians 6:9-10

 

 

 

 

Here's my fabric for my word for this school year:

My sister Ann expressed some confusion about this word. To me, it's best explained by John15:4. "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." 

I want to daily seek God's presence. I want to dwell in the shelter of the Lord. When I try to do things my own way, I end up frustrated / exhausted / defeated. 

Abide is the word I want for this school year! It's also my plan to stop doing the One Word after this school year. Perhaps I'll get back to quilting one of these days.

It's too depressing to take a photo of my house's piles of papers, photos, clothing, etc. And there's still more at Suite Living! We're almost done removing Lou's personal effects. After that, we'll take out the furniture. As usual, we have more to do than time to do it!