Random Paper Scraps and Recording Things Here

I grabbed all my random desk papers and stuffed them in a bag to deal with up at the lake. One of those scraps made me stop and contemplate goals, timing, priorities. I thought I'd record it here.

 We hope / plan to tackle these "big" projects in 2026:

• paint Jordan house
• replace deck
• hire roofing & sunlight
• downsize stuff
• electricity to pole barn
• plans for building

 

 

So far, we're focusing on the electricity to the pole barn. I've started looking at paint colors and made a chronological list for the Jordan house. I'm continually working on downsizing.

 

I will just be curious at the end of 2026 to see how much of this we've been able to achieve. Now the scrap of paper can go away. 

OneThing #21 - FINISH MQ Raffle Tix!

Technically, I finished this one a week early. However! It has been on my to-do list for over ten months and the annual quilt show is in two weeks. I really, really, really wanted to finish it. I'm setting this to publish on Sunday, May 31 to keep me on track with my OneThing project.

 

The Minnesota Quilters have baskets of fabulous prizes (mostly or all donated?) and people can buy one dollar tickets to put in the various baskets to try to win the raffles.

 

MQ likes to collect the contact info of the entrants . . . but I'm not sure the info gets used. Or how it gets used. I put all the info into a database last year (from the 2024 show) and it seemed to go pretty quickly (or I'm getting super forgetful).

 

Last summer / fall, I was asked to again take care of the data on the raffle tickets. Sure! No big deal. I set up my Excel sheet with these column headers:

Last name

First name

Phone number

Email address

Baskets 1-15 (15 columns)

Mailing address

Additional info

 

Once it was set up and I had entered all the data for basket 1 people, I thought I was on a roll. I sorted by first name because that was quicker for me. I alphabetized the tickets by first name and had "new" names for each basket I did. The repeats were quicker - just add the number of tickets for whichever basket I was doing.

 

Then this project sat from about October through March or April. Dude! I needed to get back at it. I started bringing an envelope of tickets with me when I was subbing so I could sort them into alpha order to make it quicker to do the data entry when I was back home at my laptop.

 

I didn't actually track my hours, but I believe I spent 80-100 hours total on this project! IF I agree to do it next year, I plan to enlist helpers for alphabetizing them and doing the data entry. This was way more time than I planned to spend on a little helper project. There were approximately 4,000 tickets in the fifteen baskets.

 

Because I love to add pictures (and I've been assured that the tickets are no longer needed), here's what will go into the burn barrel:

 

It doesn't look like 4,000 tickets and 100 hours of work, does it? Ah, well. It's done and I'm happily moving on. 

2026 OneThing #20 - Plant freesia at the lake

I originally had set a different One Thing, but this one made more sense.

 

I had bought myself a pack of freesia bulbs in March when I saw them at Costco. Then my sister Ann gave me a pack for my birthday! (I love love love the smell of freesia.) I gave her some of each color (red, yellow, "blue" that looks violet) because 160 bulbs is a lot!

 

I planted some on the hillside to the west of our house in Jordan, but wanted most of them at the lake. 

 

I freshened up three pots with soil and put some bulbs in. A critter (my money's on the cute little chipmunk) dug them up TWICE. It didn't eat them, but after I planted them in the soil for the third time, I brushed out our German Shepherd and put a layer of his fur on top of the soil held down by some thin twigs. So far, so good.

 

I chose an area toward the north of our property by the bird feeders and planted more bulbs there. Louie said he likes to mow there and wants to open up more of the yard, but until he takes down some more trees, the little bit I planted isn't going to make a difference.

 

 

 

Then the last piece just makes me so happy! Out by the road, Louie used his chainsaw to cut some of the pieces of tree that Alex took down for me last fall. I've shaved bark off the trunk in preparation for my barn quilt sign . . . and we made a "bridge" over the gully and a "planter" out of the pieces of wood. 

 

Louie suggested putting down a layer of leaves first, then dirt. Done! 

 

I planted the rest of the bulbs there and I'm very eager to see plants grow and bloom. 

 

I'm not much of a green thumb person, so this was a lot for me! I feel really good about getting this done. We had two days of steady rain, so that was nice.

2026 OneThing#19 - Make Challenge Quilt Top (fail!)

I don't know why I struggled with this! The week was full of activity, but I really wanted to hunker down and do this. As it is, I'm blogging on Tuesday instead of Sunday. I guess I thought I'd still be able to get into my sewing room and make this happen.

 

I did iron fusible interfacing to some of my silky type fabrics . . . and I cut out a large square for each of my novelty / theme fabrics so I can fussy cut the 4 1/2" center of each star. But that was it.

 

Since I love to celebrate successes and share photos, here are two!

 

I had saved a LOT of toilet paper tubes to make little seedling planters . . . and once again, did not do any planting. I brought them to NPHS to give to the teacher who does an environmental studies class. I had subbed for her last spring and the students and I were folding newspaper to make planters. I hope she can make use of these! From now on, my cardboard tubes are heading straight to the recycle bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had three old style camp chairs (wooden frame with canvas seat). I had planned to repair the two that needed it, but honestly just didn't want them. Long story short, a lovely person from St. Paul drove out to get them AND a bag of fabric scraps from RaDon, AND three chaise lounge chairs from our garage attic that I didn't even know we had! It felt so amazing to re-home all those things! 

 

I wanted to share a link to her site. She must sell these, right? What a talented person! 

2026 OneThing #18 - Prepare Guest Room

I'm blogging on a Tuesday instead of two days ago . . . but I did get this one done in time!

 

I moved the sewing room stuff that has been "temporarily" living in the guest room back into my sewing room. I vacuumed and put some things away. Then my grandsons stayed overnight from Friday to Saturday! Such fun!

 

After they were up and dressed for the day, I got linens into the laundry, put fresh sheets on the bed, stored away the toddler bed, etc. I didn't get the bathroom scrubbed well, but everything was "clean enough" for my sister-in-law on Saturday night!

 

The guest room was ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took the heavy winter comforter off the bed, but Del got a bit chilly, so I'll re-stock blanket options for her room.

 

 

 

 

 

My sewing room needs help.

 

 

The green chair is being re-seated, so it can return to the lake.

 

 

We love hosting and it makes our dog pretty happy, too. Layla is staying with us for a full week! Del is in Canada for work right now. Life is good! 

 

More projects than time, as always! 

2026 OneThing#17 - Clean and Donate Small White Resin Chair

No small child has used this chair in a very long time. I brought it in from the deck about a month ago and put it in my laundry room to scrub the outdoors dirt from it. It moved from the floor to on top of the freezer onto the laundry baskets and back again. So I finally set it as my last week's OneThing goal!

 

I forgot to take a before picture . . . but it was pretty filthy. It isn't spotless by any means, but it's presentable. I had asked my oldest son if they wanted it for little visitors to their firepit. That was a no thank you. I asked two of my friends with small grandchildren if they wanted it. No thank you.

 

So tomorrow after work, I'll drop it (and some other stuff) off at the Hands of Friendship thrift store. I hope someone can put it to good use.
 

2026 OneThing #16 - Write Notes for PRMS Friends

So this came about when on an errand run, I dropped off my PRMS Trailblazers shirt at the school. I figure there might be someone like me who wants to wear the school clothes without spending too much money on them. This was my third (and hopefully final) time dropping clothing off!

 

I don't know the secretaries, but I saw Ryan Newell and had a great time catching up with him! In fact, as much as I am super glad I don't teach full time any more (and most especially in District 112), I really do miss some of the wonderful people I got to know in my eleven years there.

 

So I decided to look at the staff directory. There were 24 people I knew from my years there. Only a handful are people I used to be pretty close with, but I decided to write notes to all of them. I got most of them written while subbing Monday and Tuesday, and a few more waiting in the dentist's office Wednesday. I had originally planned to bring them with me to the lake to finish, but then I decided to just "Get 'R Done!" 

 

After my root canal, I drove to my son's house and dropped off some stuff, visited with my daughter-in-law a bit, and got the clean lake laundry. Then I drove to PRMS and sat in the parking lot to finish writing notes. When I was done, I went into the office and explained my idea. I borrowed the secretary's stapler and attached a Gummy Bears or fruit snacks to each note (and left some for her and her co-worker in the office), then went grocery shopping.

 

I didn't take a picture of the notes, but here's a shot from a few summers ago when Joshua and I got to visit another former PRMS friend, Kerri Shaughnessy. I have been so blessed by so many excellent teacher colleagues over the years! That makes me want to reach out to Mary Verbick . . .