Summer On Its Way
1:28 p.m. - 2012-05-07


We are having a warm week and the AC has even been on for an afternoon or two. Luckily, the nights are cool. We've been starting the plants, pulling the many weeds, especially the huge grass that comes up between the bricks in the walkways, and getting ready to have the garden tilled. So far I have started the squashes and cuks, the basil and herbs, and lots of flowers.

For several weeks, I was busy sewing stuff for a sale at church to raise money for a shelter for girls. Their dorm needed new flooring, and we raised enough to provide that for them. Now that that sewing is done, I am cooking today for a family that has a new baby. I've never provided a 'meal-on-wheels' for a family before so it is interesting. I asked my daughter for advice, since she does this for her church, and she gave me lot of hints. I decided to go with what I know and am good at cooking, so I am making a big pot roast, homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans with bacon, homemade rolls, and cupcakes with mountains of chocolate frosting. I made the pot roast yesterday and just have to heat it up today. The cupcakes are done, and the rolls are in the oven now.

In between cooking chores, I am sewing a series of blouses for my daughter using a pattern that she likes. She is going to go on a trip to Texas to see her college friends this year, so she needs some sleeveless tops for the killer hot weather. I've made three so far, and one more to go. This is also part of my sewing room cleanup and destashing. My sewing room looked like the Grand Canyon with huge stacks of plastic bins full of fabric and yarn and patterns. I went through all the patterns and fabric and discarded what I knew I would never use which was easier than I thought it would be. Now the room is wide open and I love it. It makes me want to sew and knit, just because I can. I'm going to take the discards up to the thrift store in Sebastopol, the patterns having already been donated to local shops in town here.

I got a new exercise machine, a little 'Stepper' that I like quite a bit. At first I could only do about 50 steps, but now I do upwards of 1000 a day in several sessions of about 500 each. You can vary the resistance, so it is really more of a workout than just climbing stairs.

Got to go check my rolls in the oven.....