2026 OneThing #9 - Blog about Costa Rica

We went to Costa Rica with Brad and Amy Gustafson in April 2023. It was fabulous! I kept a journal while we were there, but I also had a little pile of maps, wrappers, and miscellaneous stuff that I kept intending to deal with. So even though it certainly isn't time-sensitive, I decided to set it as my OneThing and finally do it! We had Brad and Amy over yesterday (Saturday, March 7) but it wasn't completely done then for me to share with them. Here I am, on Sunday, March 8th, 2026, ready to wrap this up and move on.

 

My only "regret" from the trip is that I didn't go on a coffee plantation tour. None of the others were interested, so it will remain on a "Someday" list for me. I did thoroughly enjoy the coffee, though! Every single day. I have finally thrown away the bag from the beans we brought home. (Since then, Brad has given us another bag of Costa Rican coffee beans!)

 

I have pictures of all four sides of this bag in my Vacation / Costa Rica file. I have hundreds of pictures in there!

 

 

Only one part of a story from my journal (I'm so glad I wrote each day!):

Monday, 4/24/2023

 

We were trying to figure out where to go to get a boat tour. Our map isn't very detailed. Thankfully, Amy knows more Spanish than the rest of us and we were on our way. As we drove, a guy on a motorcycle pulled out in front of us! Later, he pulled off (to see a horse, I thought), and we passed him. Later, he passed us and waved us to follow. There was a big building with lots of tour buses and vans, but the guy kept driving and we kept following. I was confident we could have gotten boat tour tickets there, but I wasn't in charge. (Thankfully!)

We were laughing so hard at the notion we were following a complete stranger into a National Reserve . . . but then we saw the parking area, bathrooms, and pier into the river with boats!

Oh! We were at Villas Sol Resort in Guanacaste, and we did two days of the "all inclusive" option. If you tell me I can eat and drink as much as I like . . . oh my goodness! Did I ever indulge.

 

 

From my notes:

Fly in to Liberia

Resort is Villas Sol in Guanacaste

An overnight in Monteverde (pic at left)

Jenifer stayed at Dreams Las Mareas earlier in April 2023! (further north on the west coast from us)

We flew down from MSP to Houston (IAH) on flight #UA2345, then IAH to Liberia (LIR) on #UA1737.

Our return trip was #UA1516 from LIR to IAH and #UA1491 from IAH to MSP.

Brad booked the flights for all of us!

 

Videos:

Shuttle Bus Trip Top to Bottom (7:03)

Shuttle Bus Trip to Restaurant, Beach, and Front Desk (5:48)

Shuttle Bus Trip from Front Desk to Our Villa (2:00)

Random Monkey Video (:17)

 

I'm realizing that there is so much more I could include here (stories, photos, memories, etc.) But this is enough. I have my file folder with maps, a postcard I sent to myself, a Costa Rica wildlife guide, etc. And I have my journal, filled with stories and memories. One more photo here (because I do love photos) and then I'm calling this done. 

2026 OneThing #8 - Finish Sorting Cards and Envelopes

Praise God! I was able to complete the sorting and matching last Sunday afternoon! While we were doing our taxes, I sorted. I kept the cards I wanted to use. I filled a big envelope with Christmas cards and matching envelopes, another with birthday greetings, a third with miscellaneous special occasion cards, and a fourth with cards missing matching size envelopes along with extra envelopes. Woohoo!

 

These cards were in Lou's papers. There was a mix of cards that had been sent to Betty and Lou, blank cards, and random envelopes. It was a lot of stuff to sort through and took up a good sized space on the pool table.

 

Then on Wednesday after teaching, I went to Mala Strana in New Prague and found a lovely person in the assisted living portion of the building who was happy to take the cards! She also accepted a box of random "medical" stuff from Lou's possessions. It makes me feel lighter and happier to get rid of stuff.

So on Sunday, I set a new OneThing for the past week: Sort through recipe box. This one took me longer. I had a shoebox FILLED with recipes that I hadn't touched in over a decade. I don't even try new recipes very often! Right now, my recycle bag is filled with newspaper clippings, recipe cards, magazine pages, etc. I have a file folder with some recipes I'd genuinely like to try. I have a small stack of recipe booklets to put in my donate bag. I wrote a letter to my friend Kathy on the back of a printed out recipe (for molten lemon lava cakes - sound delicious, but I'm unlikely to try making it!). 

I'm not printing a photo of the box (before or after), but this has freed up approximately one cubic feet of space in the household closet in my studio. I feel good! (And I have a file folder of recipes to try. Perhaps I'll go through my cookbooks next.)

2026 OneThing #7 - Fix and Sell or Donate Cowboy Picture

One of my father-in-law's pictures was this interesting looking cowboy on a bucking horse in a rough wooden frame. The pieces that hold the backing on to the frame had all fallen off, so it stayed at our house when I got rid of other artwork. 

 

I knew I had a busy week coming up, so I set this as one small thing I could do to get something out of our basement.

Of course, that didn't work out! I did a little research on the artist Frederic Remington. I had hoped maybe this would be worth some money, but I was pretty sure it's just a print. It's also a bit water damaged. So it's just a question of putting it together and giving it away, right?

 

(BTW, it's called A "Sun Fisher" and was painted in 1895. It's a lithograph in a private collection. This is just a print.)

When I went to clean the glass, I noticed that the frame was a little shaky. One joint seemed to be coming apart. My husband is willing to repair it . . . but needs new wood glue. (Our bottles of it have congealed.) It is not a "today" thing, so I will have to be content with it being in progress instead of DONE.

I told him that although I think it's a neat looking piece of art, I would love to give it to his sister who actually has horses. And who might appreciate the connection to their dad (and possibly Aunt Barbara?) because we think it might have come from her place in Arizona. But honestly, if he wants to keep it and display it, that's fine with me.

So this One Thing isn't finished, but it's toward the top of the queue. I had a good week, but it was pretty busy. I'll have to choose carefully for next week's OneThing and see if it's something I can actually get done! 

 

(BTW, last week's dog bed is sitting around, waiting to be donated. That's also not a today thing.)

2026 OneThing #6 Sew Dog Bed to Donate

I use a "bag" made of flannel sheet to line a basket in my sewing room. Any random small scraps, threads, batting, etc. get tossed in there. It has taken a few years, but I've filled it up. (Actually, I think it has been several years. It has definitely been since pre-Covid that I filled one.)

I sewed it shut with my serger then decided to make a sturdy outer bag with a zipper. It's not very elegant, but I hope to donate it next weekend at a pet adoption event. 

 

 

 

This is my "new" scrap collection container.

 

 

 

 

This is the full bag, ready for me to stitch closed.

 

 

 

 

This is the finished bag and the stuffed bag, ready to be put together.

Titus didn't climb onto the finished bed, which surprised me. But he "posed" with it for scale.

That gets some stuff out of my sewing space. Now I just need to donate it (along with some gently used toys Titus doesn't really care for.) Getting rid of things! That's my game.

OneThing #5 - Rough Drafts of Estate Documents

Making wills has been on my list for almost twenty years! I got a wonderful book from the library about a decade ago - Quicken's WillMaker - and made a will for myself. But I feel as though this is something Louie and I need to talk about and decide on together. We said we would do it by Thanksgiving 2025, but had attended a session on wills vs. trusts and weren't sure which route was a better choice for us. After meeting with a legal guy (free advice), and some conversations with others, we have decided to make wills rather than create a trust.

But that's where we stopped. I brought various papers and a book with me to help with the process (up at the lake) to finally draft our wills. I already have a health care directive, but Louie does not. When I tried to get him to have a conversation about this, we had some words. I finally said that this is very important to me and I can go ahead with my own will and my own health care directive (which is already done, but I can review and revise it, then make sure Alex has a copy as well as my doctor's office). 

He conceded that if we were to die together in a car accident, we would leave a terrible mess for our kids and the state of Minnesota would get to decide how to disburse our assets. Theoretically, we will select a DIY option this upcoming Thursday and proceed with creating our wills. Once we have the documents, we will get them notarized and give copies to relevant people. 

I'm going to call this OneThing done-ish. 

 

Technically, I have my rough draft will (from more than a decade ago) and my HCD. 

 

Sigh. This has been a tough one for me to make progress on . . .  

 

This book is one that I've had for a long time but have not read completely or recently. Might be time to put it on top of the reading list.

And pray that we have a successful conversation on Thursday!

OneThing #4 - Make Binding for QFO quilt

I'm so glad I set this as the goal! I want to spend more time in my beautiful studio and this was manageable. I picked up a quilt and the binding fabric when I was at the MQ quilting retreat a few weeks ago. 

I pieced together enough pieces to make 324"+ and pressed it in half. I used quilting clips to attach it to the quilt to make sure I had enough. Done. 

 

I thought about stitching it on, but decided to go with a "OneThing" done. Boom.

 

The fabric in the middle is what is left of what I got from MQ.

2026 OneThing #3 - Downsize Boxes of Books 2 to 1

I actually started with "Read & Pack Away 2025 Christmas Cards," but I just did it on Sunday afternoon last week, so I picked this one.

Louie had gotten two boxes of books out of the garage attic and I thought it would be easy to downsize them. It wasn't. I love books and I love to read! But I made this my goal and I don't read as many hours a week as I used to (and I get things from the library often). To read every book in my house would take a really, really long time.

So I took books out and put them in piles: ones I really want to read, ones I want to read but may watch the movie instead, ones I want to read but if they're still sitting around in two years I can donate, and a few that I definitely wanted to keep so I removed books from my bookshelf to donate instead.

Here's what I had to bring to Half Price Books:

Some of these books are ones I had on my bookshelf when I taught English in the 1990s. Others were ones I had rescued from library weedings. Some I don't even know where they came from but I just don't need to keep every book I've ever encountered!

After I was done with that, Louie brought a third box down from the attic rafters. I may need to get really vicious about what I keep and what goes. Last night, I offered my son and grandsons first pick on Captain Underpants and similar type books and Great Illustrated Classics. There are still plenty left. I plan to finish box #3 and perhaps remove some more from my bookshelves. I have a lot of books!

Louie retrieved three or four books from my box of rejects. Bird books and SciFi / fantasy still call to him. I also have three stacks of books for other people in my life to consider.

I helped a friend last week and got two bags of books from her to donate to Half Price Books. Between those and my box, I got about $32 and quite a few books they wouldn't take! 

 

I'll probably drop the rest off at a Better World Books dropbox. I had thought about putting them in Little Free Libraries, but there are too many to get rid of.