2025 OneThing #9 - Post Ads for Impala Tires and Snowblower

This week's goal was a success. I took photos of these items on Tuesday (bitterly cold "off" day from school) and posted the ads on Wednesday. 

 

The tires were posted for free on Facebook and the clicks were almost instant! They came in so fast and I had four people expressing interest within just a few minutes. I had to mark them as "pending" because the responses to the ad were coming so quickly. Someone named "Alfredo" said he really needed them and I put them out to the curb. He and his girlfriend(?) came and got them that afternoon.

 

The snowblower has had some nibbles, but nothing serious yet. I dropped the price from $50 to $40. I would like it if Louie could recoup the cost of buying Tom a functional snowblower, but we're just ready to get rid of Tom's old one. More projects than time! Today, I finally put the ad on Craigslist (instead of just Facebook). One FB response was from a guy who's 80 miles away and has no transportation . . . what?

 

I purposely set this goal as "post ads" rather than to actually get the items gone. I learned from last week about setting realistic goals that I could accomplish. I hope to see the snowblower move on soon, but it's not a priority.

 

On to a new week!

2025 OneThing #8 - A Fail and A Lesson

My "One Thing" for February 9-15 was "Order trusses and telehandler." These are for our pole barn project at Strawberry Lake. I have not yet done those things (Fail).

The lesson is: set a goal you can achieve independently. 

Our son was working on the plans and specs for the trusses. He emailed it to us on Friday. He is incredibly busy right now with work and his own projects. I didn't even really know how to find someone to build custom trusses and I didn't make any phone calls because I didn't have the plans. Anyhow, I have the plans now and I have an idea of how to find a builder. But it was not a this week thing . . . 

I almost ordered the telehandler! I had one onscreen, the delivery date and pickup date, the address, etc. . . . then while talking with Louie and Nick on Thursday night some questions arose. Do we need a truss jib or not? Their website doesn't seem to show that as an option. Are we okay with the 233-1370 model or do we need the 233-1650 with the support legs? Louie wants to talk to his brother about it. 

 

I don't think waiting until next week will be problematic, but I'd rather set an achievable goal for myself! This isn't time sensitive (yet) but it's important to me. Since I'm calling this week a "fail," I'll put some of the little things I've been hanging on to:

I made two baking beads bags for two of my daughters-in-law. I had gotten the pie weights (baking beads) as Christmas stocking stuffers for them, but they weren't in reusable containers. So I made two of the yellow bags. The turquoise one was my model. It was my first time and I had to figure out the technical parts of the opening and double-ribbon closure. It was more challenging than I expected! (Done 1.6.2025)

I made a difficult phone call to a challenging person. (Done 1.6.2025)

I wrote "quilt query 4 sibs" . . . but I have no idea what that refers to now! (1.7.2025) Whatever it was, I did it. <Update on 3.2.2025! This was contacting Ina Mae's four living children (Jennifer, Cookie, Bonnie, and Scott) to see if any of them wanted the Christmas quilt and pillow shams she had made! I didn't feel right about donating them without checking with her kids first. Today in church, Bonnie brought me some glassware from her mom's house that none of them wanted. Scott and Catherine ended up taking the quilt and shams.>

Bow bin sort and donate (1.14.2025) I had a LARGE bin of bows (which I almost never use any more) and I put nice groups of bows into plastic bags to donate to Goodwill. The bows I have left are nice, a variety of colors, and fit in a Rubbermaid bin that's half the size of the old one! Most of my gift wrap these days consists of whatever cloth bag I've sewn and some tissue paper. Still, bows can add a nice touch to things. I just didn't need so many.

2025 OneThing #7 - Prep for Birthday Parties

I'm blogging this on Wednesday instead of Sunday because . . . life. It has been a very full last week and I'm playing catch-up today on a lot of things!

When I set a goal about being prepared for parties, it was about more than just Joshua's piñata. Since his "kid" party was set for Saturday morning, I needed to have that done. But we had planned for the Somers extended family party on Sunday afternoon, so I needed to do some cleaning and food prep (and make sure I had something for each of the birthday folks).

Alas! I got a call Saturday morning that Joshua had a fever and his party would have to be rescheduled. The piñata is ready for whenever that event happens. I wish it had turned out better . . . but since he's not had a piñata from me before, I hope he doesn't realize how poorly it turned out. (This tie fighter looks like JarJar Binks tried his best . . . but failed miserably.) I think Joshua and his friends will just have fun bashing it and getting the goodies.

I have decided to make a separate entry just about my piñatas over the years. They've been pretty fun!

I managed to get the house clean enough. Louie helped me on Sunday after church to take care of the last few things. I really do love having a clean home, I just don't love cleaning! It's looking pretty good and I'll try to keep it this way. (But not with a card table with gifts on it . . . that was just for Sunday afternoon.)

On to the next thing on my "catch up" list . . . and back on track to blog on Sunday.

2025 OneThing #6 - January summary

I've already mentioned how much I'm enjoying this experiment. We're up at the lake and I'm catching up on some blogging (and working ahead a bit on this). Here's my January white board:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would love to have it hanging on a wall somewhere, but for now it just lays on my ottoman in my sewing studio. I love to refer to it and am trying to get into the studio more often anyhow!

 

The Bible verse I used for January is 1 John 5: 14-15. "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of Him."

 

I am so grateful to God that He knows my heart and loves me. I'm glad He is still working on me, to mold me and shape me to be the person He wants me to be. I'm thankful for my slower pace of life at this stage and yet the bounty of opportunities to be active and involved. 

 

January has been a blessing. I am filled with joy and gratitude.

2025 One Thing #5 - Make a T-Rex Piñata for Joshua's Birthday

Well, I was not successful this past week. In a way, it took me longer to "recover" from vacation than I anticipated - putting things away, catching up on things, doing laundry, etc. But I also realized that I didn't have to have the piñata finished before his actual birthday; I just need to finish it before his "kid" party. That gives me another week to do it.

I also learned that he decided on a Star Wars themed party, so I'll be making a tie fighter instead of a T-Rex. I'm so glad I had only been gathering materials! I bought candy and little toys to put in the piñata this week. 

I looked at pictures of tie fighters in Star Wars books and snapped a pic at Target. (I wasn't thinking of spending nearly $100+ on a Lego set, but I may put some dollar bills in the pinata for Joshua to save toward buying a Lego set.)

 

I also blew up a balloon to be the main / middle part of the spacecraft. I won't make the side panels proportionally large and I want to attach them in a way that they can be knocked off by the little kids batting at it. (I think of the eagle I made for Lindsay and how the sturdy cardboard wings protected the body with all the goodies. The kids really had to bash that one up to get the treats.)

I've made a LOT of piñatas in the past, but not for a long time. I'm looking forward to bringing this to Joshua's party. Six years old. I love that kid!

 

I've gathered photos of the different piñatas in an envelope (which I shared with Morgan and Angela when I asked them if they wanted me to make one). I'm thinking it might be neat to scan the pics and post them as part of a blog entry. I love that Morgan said, "I forgot how many of these you had made!" He also told me he thought that Grandma Betty had been the one making them. Memory is a funny thing!

Although I love having a "One Thing" to focus on each week, I'm glad I made progress on this project and have another week to bring it to fruition.