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 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.
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.
It made sense to focus on this since I only planned to be home for Sunday through Wednesday morning. I had a great time at the quilt retreat and I hope I was a blessing to others. It was my first time hosting and Ann was my co-host. We had a good time and I think we did a fairly good job. There were only 18 quilters including us, so perhaps fewer people made it go easier. (Typically, there is room for 24 plus two co-hosts. And typically there is at least one person who is a bit of an irritant.)
KSTP's Joe Mason and his camera guy Jason were there to interview Merle about Quilting for Others. It was unexpected to me! The "So Minnesota" episode will air in about a month.
Below are some pictures of other people's projects.
I am going to say that this goal is both Achieved! and also In Progress . . . But let me explain.
When my father-in-law lived with us from March 2013 - September 2017, he eventually moved to an apartment in Northfield. He left behind twelve boxes of papers, which I spent a lot of time sorting through. Some papers were shredded, some recycled, some saved for family history / posterity. Records from Asbury United Methodist Church (now Living Spirit), including employees' full data with social security numbers - I brought to the church office.
Then my sister-in-law emptied her Maple Grove home to move up north and I agreed to take the seven boxes of items she had from her parent's home - mostly photos, yearbooks, cards, etc. I sorted through enough of it to get it down to four boxes which are still sitting in my basement.
Then in August of 2025, we moved Lou into assisted living and his wife into a different apartment. Because his wife will throw out anything she doesn't personally see a need for, I tried to grab all Lou's stuff on his behalf. Then he died on October 3, and all his worldly goods came to us.
Here's what my basement looked like shortly after his death:
There were several boxes on the far side of the pool table. There was a lot of clothing; that and his furniture were the first things I tackled for donation.
I had put some things out in the living room on the day of the funeral for people to choose what they wanted. It was sweet to see how almost everyone selected a shirt of his to keep for themselves.
Now I've made a lot of progress and here's what the pool table looks like:
A lot of the stuff on (and under) the pool table is mine, but the white bins have files of papers for the Mohrs and LaMoores. I have done an initial sort through all Lou's papers (and there were a lot of them!). I am fascinated by some of the historical and personal items. It will take longer to completely finish this, but I feel good about the progress made. I didn't take a picture of the white table because more than 40% of the stuff currently on it will go to family members at Leech Lake this weekend. (I'm setting this to publish shortly after midnight on 1/11/2026.)
I also have a card table full of various office supplies. I anticipate that it will be empty within less than two weeks. I have a quilt retreat next week, so my basement will probably not change much for a while.
I haven't completely finished my main goal for the week, but I've made tremendous progress. (Technically, the goal was to have a studio rearrange plan, which is done . . .) I remembered to take a "before" picture!
Louie and I had picked up a "new" piece of furniture from a K-Bid auction I won a few weeks ago. I knew I needed to make room for it (and get rid of stuff) before we could put it in here, so it remains in the garage. Here's a pic of it from my auction:
The front door panels include two large and this small one, except one of the big ones is missing and the other is broken. It will be easier access if I just use fabric, though, so I'm not fussed about that. I love the drawers! So much storage space!
So I hauled much of the loose stuff out of my sewing room and piled it in the guest room and hallway. I donated the old cabinet on Craigslist . . .
I then took a photo, loving the wide open space. I shared it with my siblings with the caption "It's amazing how nice a room can look when you remove most of the crap!"
I love my siblings and our group chat . . .
Then I decided to start sorting my scraps for a scrap quilt and use two of the drawers to hold the loose pieces and the stitched together pieces. It's still in progress and I know I won't keep them this neat and organized, but it's also helping me get rid of fabrics that are not nice for quilts. I'm also putting too small pieces into the ragbag / dog bed container and larger pieces back into my fabric bins. This process helped me get rid of the three-drawer plastic rolling cart.
It was nice to listen to my audiobook and press scraps. As I said, I'm not done but it's coming along!
Toward the back is the loose pile of scraps with the sewn-together blocks closer. The drawer nearest is the "done" strips with light at left, medium in the middle, and darkest to right. Again, this won't last, but it's a good reset to this scrap issue.
The four brown rubber squares on the floor are the furniture "feet" we bought for my new cabinet. I think I'd rather have it perpendicular to the door (parallel to closet) but then I have to find a new home for my project bins. This angle works well for "traffic flow," but I think it's too much wasted space by the door / closet area and that doesn't make sense.
Anyhow, here's my December calendar and Scripture:
From Matthew 25:35
"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in."
When I read these words, I think of Jesus' followers saying, "Lord, when did we . . . ?" and Jesus answering, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
2025 has been an interesting year, full of challenges and joys. I've really enjoyed blogging about One Thing each week, but I think the monthly summaries were superfluous. I think in 2026, I won't change much. Just one thing per week and a reflection at the end of the year. I like not setting my "one thing" too far in advance. Sometimes things come up and priorities change.
I briefly thought about keeping these, but in my desire to declutter, that just seems crazy!
Happy New Year, everyone!
On Christmas Eve, I was able to hand out all except the two I had originally prepared for! I was able to drop those off at their house today. Blessings galore! There's nothing fancy, just stuff like Chex mix, caramel puff corn chocolate chip cookies, etc. It was fun and a worthy goal for the week!
Today's only Friday and I've finished my one thing! I may get started on next week's goal . . .
This was definitely the focus for my week! I didn't get everything done that I had hoped to . . . (no fresh baked cookies for stocking stuffers, etc.) but we had a lovely gathering yesterday!
I love my family so much! I told them that my gift was having all of them over together and that happened. We had a bonus - Olivia! She took our family photos. Here's the "silly" one after my cherished "good" family photo. We told Olivia to go ahead and take it with Titus' butt in frame.
I joke that food is my love language, but it is a way that I try to say "I love you" to my family. We got to eat plenty, play games, read books, and just generally enjoy our family Christmas. On Christmas day, we'll host the Somers family. All of our sons have other plans that day. The extended LaMoore Christmas is in January at Leech Lake, but not all our "kids" can make it to that, either. I absolutely love when we can all get together!
