2026 OneThing #37 - Chair Aerobics 3+ times - FAIL

Oh my. I thought this was a fairly easy goal. The videos I use are 15-20 minutes long. I did a session one day. One. Day. All week long.

 

It felt great, but it's definitely not a habit yet! So now I'm not journaling in the morning. I'm not consistently exercising. I'm not being very disciplined about my devotional / prayer time. . . . Something needs to change.

 

Here it is, Tuesday morning, and I'm just now doing my "Sunday blogging." Ugh.

 

Since success builds success, I'll focus on last week's positives. Here are a few (in no particular order):

• I had a lovely lunch date with Emma.
• I baked some chocolate chip cookies.
• I brought Joyce a card and some flowers on her birthday.
• I consulted with Rose about the quilt for Morgan and Angela so now I have a plan.
• We got to have Morgan and the boys over for dinner on Saturday!
• I am blessed and have so much Praise for God! 

Because I love to include photos, here's one from the MQ (Minnesota Quilters) meeting on Saturday:

It's a money gift envelope, but I don't remember which Asian country it's from. I love it!

 

2026 OneThing #36 - Finish Reading Luke's Book - Kind of a Fail

So back in 2020(?), my nephew wrote a novel. He wanted some help with editing in the hopes of getting it published. I prefer to read a work first, then dig into editing later after getting an overall impression. He didn't really need help with spelling, grammar, punctuation as he is quite literate. Those are my strengths. But I found as I was reading that I didn't find it to be a compelling story. 

 

Then life got busy and I kept intending to finish reading it so I could talk with him about it. And I just kept putting it off. Then at a family gathering a week and a half ago, another aunt asked him about his book. I apologized to him for not following through and he brushed it off. But I felt bad. I never intended to ghost him about his book. So I found my folder with notes and made it my goal to finish the book!

 

I had read 47 chapters. But when I went to my Google Drive to find the story he had shared with me, it wasn't there. I searched several ways but couldn't find it. I texted Luke and he was lovely in his response. I would still like to sit down and talk with him about it. 

 

In my notes from our first conversation, he said he had two years invested in it. He said he had about 160,000 words and was "about" halfway done. I feel like a jerk for putting it on the back burner in my own time management for so long. 

 

So yes, last week's OneThing was a fail . . . but I tried. What I *did* get done was enjoy time at the lake, spend time with loved ones, and read. I've also done some cleaning. On to a new week! And I think I'll make time to visit with my nephew about my initial reactions to his book without being hurtful.
 

2026 OneThing #31 - Prep for Pahl Picnic (fail)

I'm really on a roll . . . of not successfully getting my OneThing done. I thoroughly enjoyed the picnic with my cousins, but I did not spend time preparing for it. My Pahl family notes, photos, etc. are not extensive, but it would be nice to share. It surprised me to realize / remember that my cousins are older than we four "Somers" kids (Not sure about Chris and Tom - they are about the same age). They have memories and stories of grandma and grandpa that I don't! I didn't realize that the "shack" to the south of our house on Aldrich (long since torn down) was the Pahl home before the "big" farmhouse was built! Jane told me that.

 

Here's a picture that Raymond sent to us four:

 

Front row: me, Barb (Kevin's), Jane, Ann, Louise, Julie, Tom

 

"Middle" row: Raymond, Linda (Mark's), Kathy (Chris's)

 

Back row: Louie, Kevin, David, Bob, Mark, Chris

 

 

Or in order of eyes: Louie, Jeanne, Barb, Kevin, Jane, David, Ann, Bob, Raymond, Louise, Mark, Linda, Chris, Julie, Kathy, Tom 

 

I did get other things done during the week. Specifically with family genealogy, we visited with Louie's cousin Chynne and now I have four more boxes of LaMoore history and photos. There's some really neat stuff, but it's a lot! Stacie has offered to help go through it. My basement is more full, not less.

 

One of my Pahl cousins commented that it was unusual for all eight of them to be in attendance. Many have lost spouses . . . Marilyn (Raymond's), Steve (Jane's), Chuck (Julie's ex), Becky (David's), Nan (Tom's) . . . and I'm not really sure about Bob. I feel as though I don't know my cousins very well! Next summer, I hope to be more on the ball. I had also forgotten that I missed the 2025 picnic. I don't remember why, but it's a priority for me moving forward.

 

Oh! At the quilt retreat that Ann won (A Place to Sew in DeSoto, Wisconsin), I put together the fleece pieces for a baby blanket / decrease my fleece. This past week, I snipped the seams for a finished baby blanket for Del and Jeff's new grandson Leon. Yay! I didn't take pictures of the finished blanket, but here are the "layout" pictures:

 

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! 

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.