Preparing for 2024 Reading Challenges & Week's Goals

Every year, pastor/blogger Tim Challies issues a reading challenge with four different levels - Light (13 books), Avid (26 books), Committed (52 books), and Obsessed (104 books). I enjoy participating because it helps me to read in a variety of areas and genres. And since I need the help of charts to keep me from being too scatter-brained, I made myself a chart which I printed up and plan to fill in over the next few weeks, hopefully mostly from my own unread shelves. This way I'll have a plan ready for the new year. Note that I did not even bother making a column for the Obsessed category?! 😁 I'm being realistic, mostly.

If you are also interested in this reading challenge, you can go to his website to look it up. I kinda wish he had some way of reporting what you'd read, but I realize that would take more of his time than he's probably got. If you want to copy the chart I made, feel free. I hope you can copy them and paste them into a spreadsheet or word document. If not, it's not too hard to make up something simple like this

I will also make up my list of classics to read and report on for the Classics Club. I'm currently doing pretty well with the reading part, but am very far behind in reporting. 😑.I'll have to work at catching up before the end of the year.

Speaking of catching up, I made absolutely no progress on my Scrappy Spools quilt last week. Sigh. But I did finish or make progress on some others.

These bottle cap trivets are backed with felt and were made using my yo-yo maker to draw up the fabric before I inserted the cap. I made several for gifting.

In the evenings I've enjoyed cross-stitching some little projects that I'll use as gifts throughout next year. The patterns are from Sweet Annet on Etsy and I'm really liking her designs and the clarity of the charts. I bought a bunch (10, I think) at once and am printing them up as needed.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do the scalloped stamp-edge outer frame or not. It depends on how they look over the little pieces of wood that I got for finishing them.

Another thing we accomplished this week was to put in a new "poop chute" under our mama rabbits because the angle of the old one wasn't quite doing the job. We got a roll of vinyl flooring that's 9'x6' and cut it to fit and slope well. So now I only have to take care of the unpleasantness once a week.

And this morning I put in the first nesting box since "Doenut" is due to kindle on Thursday and then "Dozey" on Saturday. Excitement!

So, this week's goals are:

Homemaking

* Continue dehydrating apples (hopefully faster than the rate at which they're being eaten)

* Bake a last batch of our favorite Christmas cookies and then quit eating sugar 

* Bake sourdough

* Try at least one recipe from "Indian-ish" by Priya Krishna

Homesteading

* Keep learning about growing vegetables indoors

* Put in Dozey's nesting box on Wednesday

* Keep an eye out for kits

* Be consistent with indoor shoots-growing

Crafts

* Scrappy Spools

* Continue Hobbit Hole X-stitch

* Mend daughter's zipper with fear and trepidation

* Prep wall-hanging for hand-quilting

* Plan next year's UFO finishes 

Reading

* Dark Clouds Deep Mercy by Mark Vroegop

* Mini-farming by Brett L. Markham

* Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher

And I want (yet don't want) to make myself go for daily walks despite the cold, snow, ice, and wind. We'll see how firm I am with myself. 😏

May your week be full of blessings and moments of pure joy.

 

A Little Late on My Goal-setting, but Better Late Than Never

 When I have extra raw milk from our cowshare, I often make paneer, an Indian cheese that's very simple, kinda bland, and really good with McCormicks roasted garlic and herbs sprinkled on top. Well, I decided to experiment a few days ago by dicing the cheese and setting it to marinate in olive oil, fermented garlic liquid, some chunks of said fermented garlic, and fresh basil leaves. I took a little taste this morning and it's quite good. I think I'll leave it a few more days to hopefully strengthen the taste. It would be fanstastic mixed with diced tomato, so I may get some at the store today. Sadly, 'tis not the season for fresh tomatoes around here.

In other news, my Lovey and I took a field trip to a quail farm Sunday afternoon to pick up eggs...

 (They're so cute!, but do not confuse them with candy eggs, as my daughter learned when she tried to bite into a raw one.) 

...and to learn about raising them ourselves.

The quail-raisers were so helpful and said we could call or text with questions as we move forward and will be happy to sell us some young birds when we're ready.

So we're working on plans to turn our "barn," a former shed/chicken coop, into an aviary-style quail coop where we can hopefully also hang meat rabbit cages. The quail will turn the planned deep bedding/mulch into compost which we can take to the gardens as needed. I'm still working on figuring out costs for all this and how best to be frugal.

Since we've raised and butchered chickens before, and raised fiber rabbits (not butchered), I think we have plenty of experience to go into this endeavor. I'm also researching various plants and grasses to grow to feed them both to lessen our feed costs.

But, with all that, I've not been in my sewing corner much. Fortunately, I've been able to make pretty good progress on my hand-quilting in the evenings:

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Week's Goals

Since I have felt kinda scattered in my goal-planning, I just made up a simple planner page to kinda remind me of the areas in which I want to work as well as keep me on-track in them. So, here are my goals for this week:

I will daily take the week's goals and put them into the day's slots, or some I can assign ahead-of-time.

And I even had space for a cute Beatrix Potter clip-art to color while I plan. 😁

I hope your week is going smoothly and that you how great the love of God is, that he would send his unique Son to bear our punishments and to conquer death. We are blessed.

Monday's Musings and Goals

 It's hard to get a clear picture of this handsome fellow from my bedroom window, but if I tried to go outside, I'd scare him away (and I'd have to take all that time to bundle up). So, enjoy the pop of chubby redness amidst the snow and pine. He's nice company.

His bright color is such a pleasant sight during this long sunless spell we've been having while I'm fighting catching the cold that's going around and feeling lethargic.

But still, on to this week's goals...

Homemaking

* Make a big pot of chicken soup using frozen broth

* Continue this week's assignment of Joy's organizing challenge 

* Dehydrate more apples

Homesteading

* Continue research on meat rabbits and quail

* Empty shed as much as possible with snow in the way

* Assess seed collection and order any necessities

Letters to Write

* Aunt P.

* J.N.

* D.B?

Sewing/Crafting

* Continue APQ Challenge # 3 by moving more stuff to bookcase

* Baste Autumn Jubilee 2023?

* Finish crochet baby afghan if I can get more yarn

* Make progress on Everyday Embroidery

Reading

* Continue Dancing With My Father - Sally Clarkson

* Start Little Men - Louisa May Alcott

* Continue Irish Country Family - Patrick Taylor

* Start Beyond the Pellet - Boyd Craven Jr. & Rick Worden

Whew! I'm exhausted just looking at that list. I'm sure once I conquer this cold lethargy I'll be right at it.

May your goals go well this week.

New Year, New Goals

 Yup, it's been busy around here (still). I have made time to list some goals for the new year and I'm already being able to make progress in some of them.

One of those goals has been to do some topical Bible studies. Usually I do a read-the-Bible-in-a-year program, last year's being a chronological read through The Complete Jewish Study Bible.

It was very good to read a different translation than my usual since it caused me to pay a little more attention because the words were slightly different. I also enjoyed the study notes throughout and my eyes were opened a little more to the wonderful continuity and symbolism between the testaments and to how Jesus fulfilled not only a lot of prophecy, but also fulfilled the law and was the embodiment of much of the symbolism. Beautiful!

So this year I want to study a few things - the various views of the "end times," how to grow in being gentle and wise in speech, a history of Israel post-New Testament though also including the period between the testaments (hopefully reading Josephus's history will help), and look more in-depth into Jesus's "I am" statements (particularly in the Gospel of John. I believe I have my work cut out for me. I'm currently rereading the book of Proverbs, one chapter per day, as that covers a lot of needed wisdom topics.

Another goal has to do with decluttering, as it seems many of us need to do regularly. Only, I don't want to just move things around and organize them better; I actually want to finish the projects that cause a lot of clutter, or actually get rid of what is no longer needed or wanted.

So, I joined the American Patchwork & Quilting UFO Challenge, made my lists: 

12 Musts, 

17 Hopefuls (plus handworks which I usually do in the evenings while watching TV with huggy),

and a Dream On (to which I'm sure there will be additions).

Many of these projects will be tackled/enjoyed in my new craft corner, which ties in very well with the goal of decluttering and reorganizing. Since we finished the ceiling in the main part of the basement, I can now move my craft corner from a very cramped, disorganized, overcrowded corner of my bedroom down to a hopefully more organized and spacious corner of the basement.

Here are before and during pics:

It's still very much a work in progress, but it is definitely progressing and I'm very thankful. I set this as my UFO Challenge for January, so I think I've gotten a good start. My sweet husband very kindly helped me move the furniture and is working on some full-spectrum lighting for me. I am blessed. He's going to be rather surprised that I rearranged our bed to be kitty-corner as that's not our usual arrangement. I like to keep things exciting. 😁

Another tentative goal for this year is to set up a rabbitry (again) only this time for meat rabbits instead of fiber rabbits. (Although, I am kinda considering having one of my keeper bucks or does be an angora so I can do both fiber and meat. More research needed.) Saturday Lovey and I went to a nearby rabbitry and learned how to do the butchering and came home with fresh rabbit meat to try. I had been worried that I'd have difficulty killing a rabbit since they are so much cuter than chickens which I've butchered in abundance. We were shown a quick, humane way to do it and I felt much better about it. Then after tasting the roast rabbit, I'm more eager to make the whole plan happen. So I've been commissioned by Lovey to get all the facts together, like set-up cost, gestational time, how many litters can a doe deliver safely within a year, and stuff like that. I'm on it!

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So, with these big goals in mind, here are my week's goals for Joy's Monday This & That

Sewing/Crafting - January UFO Challenge

* Keep moving stuff downstairs

* Unpack stuff and organize

* Keep crocheting baby afghan for eventual gifting

* Restart Everyday Embroidery

Homemaking

* Keep decluttering bedroom

* Reorganize letter-writing stuff (in bedroom)

* Deal with four pumpkins

Homesteading

* Research & write up rabbitry proposal

* Order more seeds for indoor salad shoots

Reading

* (Classics Club) Little Women, primarily audio

* (Israel History) From the Maccabees to the Mishnah

* (Christian Living) Dancing with My Father - Sally Clarkson

* (Fiction) An Irish Country Family

* (Bible) The book of Proverbs 

Whew! That's a lot of reading. Fortunately, I have lots of tea that needs drinking, too. And a comfy corner in my bedroom. 

Enjoy your day!

2021 Quilting/Sewing Goals

Today I discovered this Planning Party for sharing your quilting/sewing plans/dreams for 2021 and since I've been making my plans to get some stuff done as well as have some fun, I'm joining the party.

Here's how I'm setting up my plans:

Quilting plans

    Participate in Pat Sloan's "Home Is..." weekly quiltalong.

    Complete a UFO every month. We'll see how that goes. (I hope to make a list, check it twice, and                 stick with it.)

    Make a baby quilt for my grandbaby expected in August.

Embroidery 

    Finish the "Book Girl and Boy" wallhangings that my daughter drew for me

    Join (and keep up with!) Jenny's Posies Block of the Month

    Make wallhanging of her Vintage Kitchen blocks.

    Use completed embroideries that are stacking up as gifts throughout the year.

Other sewing projects 

    Catch up on the mending. Ugh.

    Make a tiny tea cozy for my single serve French press with which I make my morning tea for one.

    Finish a dress I cut out for myself months ago.

    I'm sure I'll find other fun things to make to sidetrack me. I'm an ADHD crafter. 😁

I hope I'm not being too optimistic with my time, but at least I have some guidance. And before I can get at these projects, I have to finish the moving and organizing project I started last week. I wanted to move the sewing stuff out of my bedroom because it just felt too cluttered and crowded. So it's mostly all in the basement now, in a little U-shaped nook my daughter and I created. It's just in piles now that need to be sorted and organized and downsized. So that's project #1, to be done this week.

Vacay! and Gentle Domesticity Catch-up

My girls and I were blessed last week to be invited to join my brother's family as they went camping in the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee (don't you love all those double letters?!). Though I was sad that my husband couldn't come along, I was happy that three of my kids could. And we had a fun, if not tiring, time hiking through the mountains.

We camped near an old settlement called Cades Cove, and enjoyed our self-guided tour through the valley settlement's restored farms and village.

We also enjoyed some time sitting by the campfire and answering the question "Who from the past would you most like to meet and speak with?"

This is actually less than half of our group.

I chose Augustine's mother, Monica, who persevered for many years in praying for her son's conversion and salvation. He eventually became a great theologian and servant of the Lord. I want to be that kind of persevering prayer warrior (with similar results, I hope).

It was a great time of refreshment, of discovering how out-of-shape I am (wheezing up mountain sides will do that), of enjoying God's magnificent creation, of good fellowship with family and new friends, of giggles and loud singing during the long drive from Northern Michigan (bellowing the little bit of the song "Rocky Top" that we could remember as well as "Elvira"), and renewed gratitude to be home. We were greeted at home by the lovely sight (though actually ugly) of snow melting.

So, that's why I missed getting to post about last week's Gentle Domesticity reading. So now I'm rejoining on Week 12.

Our fearless leader, Jenny, asked some questions at the end of her blog post on this week's reading which I'll use as springboards for my thoughts.

*  Is your life patterned with rhythms, routines, rituals? If so, what stands out as those which rarely change.

I have had a variety of patterns throughout the seasons of life. Since I have homeschooled my six children, I've worked at having at least a rhythm to life, changing as needed, ie. when we've just had a new baby things change. Also, teenagers don't get up so early in the morning, so school start-times changed through the years, too. I've worked up chore charts to keep the home clean and neat as well as to teach the children responsibility and how to keep their homes neat as they grew up.

*  If you have struggled with disorder or dare I say it, chaos, in your home, has anything shared today given you a light bulb moment? What was it?

I don't think there was anything particularly new, just mostly nodding in agreement.

*  Perhaps you're someone who can wing-it in your domestic life. Are there still patterns within?

People have often said that I am an organized person when they see my menu hanging on the refrigerator, or the chore chart hanging nearby, but I think that I am not really a naturally organized person, so I need the charts and lists to organize me. I do naturally have a regular wake-up time and go straight to my quiet time with the Lord before I start the rest of the day. That has not always been the case; I worked at making that happen, and when I had lots of little kids who woke early, it didn't always happen.

I do like the order of doing certain things at certain times of the day or week, just to be sure that they get done. Yesterday I designed some weekly planner pages to keep me on track. I was trying to use a bullet journal, but that wasn't so great when so many of my jobs are repeated (ie. sweep the floor twice a week, clean bathrooms 2-3 times a week, etc.) and I'd have to rewrite stuff so often. 

So I'm making my general, repeated lists on the computer and leaving open spaces in which to write new projects/commitments. Here's a peek at my new page:

Not really fancy, but it does the job nicely and looks fairly cute. I can even change the images to fit seasons and moods. This doesn't include lesson plans; I chose to put them on a different page because it was looking to cluttered and hard to find things.

*  When it comes to the art of making or learning something different are you a gestator or do you jump right in?

Usually it takes me a long time to get at something new because I have so much that I want to try. I tend, however, to get started on something new and exciting before I've finished the previous project. (sigh) 

I'm working on that which is why my new fascination...

...still sits on the bookshelf several month after purchase. So, there's hope for me to get some projects done before starting new ones. 😄

Monday's Musing: On Homemaking

One of the beautiful things about homemaking for which I've always been thankful is the variety of things I get to do within that realm. I'll admit that some of my tasks aren't my favorite, but I get to move on to something different before long so those tasks don't usually get too bothersome. And I get to practice creativity on a number of levels.

Today's task involved beginning to organize and settle into my craft/school room. Having only one student now, I don't need so much space for studying and can devote more space to the crafting. And I recently moved almost all my fabric, paper crafts, paints, yarn, etc. upstairs from the basement as part of the home overhaul and remodeling we're doing but didn't have time to do anything more than dump it all into the new room.

So here's the reveal of the before pictures. Scary, huh?!

I hope within the next few days to be able to show you the much more organized and pleasant room for studies and creativity.

I also found my embroidery pieces from Jenny's A Year in the Garden BOM and sadly discovered how far behind I am. So I get to dig into finishing that project. Maybe I'll get an audio book or discover more podcasts to keep me company.

It's all part of being a homeschooling homemaker who enjoys the fiber arts.