Monday Update

 Hi All! Some bad news. No stitching all week. I swear I really need to learn to better divide up my time. It's really frustrating. I had a lot of other things going on all week. Trust me I really want to stitch. And do everything else. How to divide time? That's what I need to figure out.

Another cement pouring weekend at the barn. Finished off the room we were working on last time...

My Uncle wasn't feeling well and didn't get to come help my dad. So I was able to help with the board that pushes the cement level. I was really happy to be able to participate and help out even more than normal. We also went to a band with my Dad and Bev Friday night. It's the same band that has performed on our deck at the campground if you remember those posts. Jeremiah had so much fun. They play a lot of older music and we really enjoyed our time. One of the band members is my Dad's Uncle. It was nice to support them and get a great show on top. 

This week I'm trying really hard to divide my time better. We'll see if I accomplish it. I will be starting the half hour a day thing Thursday for the start of October. So I better at least have that progress to share next post. Fred has Oct 5th through 9th off work so we are going down for a week long stay at our cabin. Can't wait. Dad is lining up plans for projects but we will still get down time too. So hopefully I will work in crafting time. 

Have a great week! Love yourself. Hope you find time for whatever makes you happy.

Monday Update

Howdy to all my fantastic readers. I'm behind on reading your blogs. I hope to catch up soon. Thanks for stopping by again. I have 3 more days added to the June Fairy...

5 hours and 39 minutes added so better than the week before. We had a beautiful weather weekend at the campground. It was nice and cool. No AC needed. About time!! We even turned out heat on in the cabin. We worked on a new section of cement...

I didn't get an after photo but the outside section are done now. Dad says that's easier to do so they don't have to wade in the wet cement. We will add the middle section this coming weekend. He will work on the walls during this week. He is adding the red metal to this section as well. It will be a storage area when finished up. We got our Halloween decorations all put up in our cabin Sunday. I will get photos when we go back down. I also was able to get more rows down on the Bear Latch hook and no matter how many times I told myself don't forget the photo guess what I did anyway haha. 

I'm participating in a 200 miles challenge. We can run, walk, bike or however just log those miles. I have logged 24 miles of walking since the start which was Sept 15th. The deadline is December 15th but you can finish it any time really. I will earn a cute medal when I complete it. I'm also in love with these challenge groups and games I have found online. It's so many motivation. Only problem is sitting on my butt and cross stitching doesn't help toward the goal.

I did sign up for something else stitching related though...

Just click on the image to go to the website and sign up. The goal is to stitch 30 minutes every day in October. She added some other fun things this time. I hope I can keep up. It will be great motivation to work at least 30 minutes right? I'm going to work on the Halloween Faces for the challenge. Hope to see some others join in. 

Have a great week! Love yourself. Smile. Hope we can all squeeze in some stitching time.

Really Late Monday Update

Oh well I'm here just several days late haha. We came home Monday from the cabin. The weekend was a blast. I had put two tiny days worth of stitching into the Beer Dragon before leaving. Not enough for any photos though. Trust me. Just a little over an hour worth of progress doesn't show much difference. This new me doesn't leave a lot of time for stitching right now. Trying to squeeze everything in is difficult like most people say. But I'm HAPPY and that's seriously all that matters to me. Stitching will happen just not my top priority right now. I did get 3 more lines into my Latch hook rug and totally forgot to get a photo of it before leaving the campground haha. 

So what can I show you? What we've been doing at the cabin. I showed you the new cement floor we started. Here is what we did with that area. My dad built a wall to make a section for Bev. The other side is storage for wood and tools for future projects. Jeremiah and I helped put in shelves with Dad and we moved all Bev's cooking storage stuff to the new kitchen storage room. Look at the difference...

The old room was dark and we were always hitting our heads on the boards above. It was very short. Probably a little over 5 feet high. Now here is the new room...

Told ya it was a huge difference. We could finally find things and didn't hit our heads once haha. We had several people come enjoy the campground over Labor Day. It's a family reunion kind of weekend for my step mother. We had 2 tents, 3 campers, and visitors through the whole weekend. The weather was beautiful. Finally not hot and sweaty. We even got rain a few times finally. Still need a lot more but some is better than none. 

Yesterday I got a tiny little start on the Calendar Fairies....Remember those? Yeah I started JUNE! I sure dropped the ball on those didn't I? I hope to catch up before 2020 goes away....maybe.

Guess what though? I've lost 5 pounds and half an inch off my waist!!! So that's exactly where I've been lately. Working on me. I needed it.

Have a great week....oops weekend. Smile. Find time to craft. Hug your loved ones. Love Yourself!

Monday Update

 Just squeezing in my Monday update before bed. I was able to get one more day into Beer Dragon. 2 hours and 25 minutes more added...

Then it was time to head back to our cabin....no sad face though...we just love it there. Especially now with all the opportunities to take long walks and get our steps in. We've still been working hard. Here is the before and after of this weekend's work...

The part with the red metal will be the new kitchen storage area. Bev is so happy to move all the stuff over when it gets finished. I need to get a picture of the current room. It's so tight and the roof is really low and we keep bumping our heads when we walk in. This new spot will be wonderful!!

Jeremiah and me are going back down to make our long holiday weekend a little longer. Fred is taking us down Wednesday. Then he will come home to work till Friday and then come back down. We are looking forward to more time at our happy place. I'm hoping to find some time to work on my latch hook again.

Have a great week! Smile. Take time for yourself somehow. Appreciate the little things. Get those X's in.

Home and Trying to Get Back to Normal

Normal...What's that? I swear I don't know any more. I'm home. We came home Sunday the 26th like we were supposed to. I was buried in laundry. Ending up doing 9 loads during the week. All the bedding, towels, swim stuff, and our normal laundry sure added up. I felt so refreshed though. Jeremiah was so happy too. Our big party went amazing. We had 25 people I think if I added them all up right. 6 campers, 1 in a truck setup, 3 tents, our cabin and my dad and step mom in their room in the barn. It was Jeremiah's first time at our big camping bash party and he had a blast. He felt included and loved it. Mom came down Thursday and stayed till time to come home too. It was perfect. So needed for so many of us. We laughed and laughed and just loved each other's friendship.

It was sad to come home but it was time. Fred and I got to talking while I was gone and we realized we hadn't had a weekend alone since last year. So we fixed that. This past weekend we went down just the two of us. No kids. No dogs. It was wonderful. Fred has been working on fixing his self. Depression is an ugly beast isn't it? He got a pay raise. He got new hours that he has always wanted. Instead of getting out of work at 5:00pm he gets out 3:30pm. He loves it. He now understands yeah work is hard work but he's getting paid more at least. So it might be worth it. Plus the new guy has finally stepped up a bit and the boss has decided to pick on the new guy instead of Fred. About time. My stress level is doing a lot lot lot better. My depression has lessened drastically. I'm dealing with things so much easier I've noticed. Mom is doing great. We have all realized we need to be a team and do things together instead of pushing it onto me. I need help and it's okay to ask. I can't do it all like I was trying before. So I will breath and ask for help. I will say Hey I'm not okay. I will listen and hear and we will all do better. Sorry to bore any of you that doesn't want to hear about this but you know it's me and it's the truth and I'm going to share it. Maybe someone reading this feels the same way. Please Ask for help. Tell your loved ones you need them. Sometimes we all need to accept we really can't do it all. We just can't.

I've still only stitched ONCE! I know shame. But hobbies can wait. Life is so much more than just my hobbies. I understand that better. I did find some time throughout my vacation to work on my latch hook rug. Here it was the beginning of my time there...

Here is a reminder of what the set I got for Christmas will look like...

The one I'm working on right now is the bear. You can tell better with the photo after my progress...

I think I ended up with 4 days of progress and 29 rows added. I know I'm over half way. This is a nice project to work at while I'm at the cabin so it stayed there. Honestly I miss working on it. I look forward to getting another good day on it.

I'm really hoping this week to finally stitch again. I did start thinking about on what. I'm trying to remind myself to breath and work on what I want to work on. Yes I'm behind but I'll catch up....sometime. Plus they were just fun goals not requirements to be a good person.

I'm also so far behind on everyone's blogs. I will catch up. Or I will skip the ones I'm behind and see you in your next posts. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I'm hoping to be back to normal again very soon. I guess for those who have followed me for years though know I do get really busy this time of year. Just no traveling away vacations. This stupid virus has sure canceled a ton of our plans. No Vegas trip this year after all. We moved it from April to September and now just canceled it. Right now we are hoping to go next April if the world is better. So more cabin time is ordered I guess. We'll be fine. We sure love it there. Thanks for listening to my ramblings.

More Cabin Time

Guess what we stayed here. Wohoo! Now we are here through July 26th. Wow! I've been here since June 10th. Only bad part....I've stitched 1 time. That's not really bad though. I really really really needed this break. I can tell you all I'm feeling so much better. I left the stress behind finally and I'm just enjoying the time. I have my latch hook rug here with me and I really want to work on it. I hope maybe today. Time is just flying though. I start my day relaxing and then I notice it's time to make lunch. Then somehow dinner. Then bed. But my days are so full of all good things. Love. Laughter. Happiness. Crafts can wait for me to be ready for them again.


Just wanted to send my lovely friends this update though. I'm here. I'm happy. I'll be back I promise.

Cabin Time

Yep we are still here hiding from the world. Still having a blast.

My boys and I. We did have two friends come stay the weekend with us last weekend but we are back to just us 3 most days and we love it. We play games. We watch movies. We talk each others legs off. I can't say it enough. I love our time together. The above photo we are playing a board game from Dungeons and Dragons called Dungeons. It's a very fun board game. We kept stopping to talk though and it literally took us all day long haha. No stitching yet. Maybe today. I'm finally really really missing it.

1 friend is coming tonight to pick up her camper and leaving tomorrow morning. My husband and Damein's dad will show up Thursday after work. We keep joking about how we refuse to leave Sunday....we are supposed to....we don't want to. I didn't figure we would be serious about it though. I said something to mom about being worried about crying myself home Sunday and she said Why don't you stay? What?? Really?? So we'll see. We have another big event planned here July 22nd. So I could stay until then to help get ready right? We'll see. So I'm checking in. I'm still alive. No worries from my faithful blog friends please. I'm off to catch up on your blogs now.

I'm here!!

Hi Everyone! I'm sorry for the delay in my posting. I'm still here. Wow what a few weeks it's been. Mom, Jeremiah, Izzy and I came down Wednesday the 10th to hide from a repair guy. Mom headed home Friday morning I think that week. Jeremiah and I stayed and Fred came after work for the weekend. We went home Sunday like normal. Monday we did some things and then back down Mom, Izzy, Jeremiah, and I came to our cabin. The rest of the work at our house was going to be finished up. It was finished successfully Tuesday the 16th. Which was fantastic. Finally fixed. Plus not near as expensive and we were thinking it would be. Jeremiah and I stayed here at the cabin (Yes still here currently!) to help with preparing for a big party over the weekend of the 20th. Lots and lots of physical work but we had a blast. Mom headed home Tuesday the 16th. Fred came down Wednesday to take Izzy home. Here is how she felt...

Poor girl was exhausted from all the walking and enjoying the outdoors. She is honestly ready to hide at home for a bit. Mom said she doesn't even hardly want to go out to potty haha.

Our big party was a success. It was HOT but we had a blast....

My Dad's uncle is on the left side of this photo. He belongs to a wonderful band. This is our 4th annual Elshire Bash and it was just wonderful. We had probably 75 people show up. Being outside it was perfect for social distancing as much as you wanted to. In this county too they have only had 2 deaths from the virus so it's doing great here in the country.

Getting ready and all the home repairs made for a lot of stress. Sunday the 21st everyone started leaving. I made the decision to keep my godson Damein though. So yep Jeremiah, I, and him will be here at our cabin. Until the July 4th weekend. Yesterday I finally could feel the stress leave me. I relaxed. This vacation is going to be exactly what I need. Last night I received a very sweet email from a dear blog friend. She was worried about me. I've not sounded like my normal self the last few posts. She is right. I was getting very depressed. Tired. Nothing was making me okay. Stitching and reading blogs was just not something I wanted to attempt even.

I will be okay though. Thank you so much for caring. I'm okay. Just needed to get past some crap. Honestly I worried myself in there too. Stitching is a great escape but my brain just wouldn't cooperate with me to concentrate. I have it here with me. I have lots and lots of time since the boys love playing Xbox together. We also have a stack of movies, some board games, and D&D to play. But I really hope to stitch again soon. If not though it will be there when I have time again. Right now relaxing and stress releasing is my number 1 priority. Yesterday was a perfect day. The boys played. I watched some Netflix shows I had downloaded on my laptop and I did NOTHING. It was wonderful. We had a delicious dinner then watched a movie together. We shut the movie off and was ready for bed at 11pm. Then we started talking. Talking about everything. At 4am!!! I finally said Oh my we better get to bed. It was perfect.

Thanks for caring about me. You are a true friend Rachel. I appreciate you very much!!!

Now I'm off to continue relaxing. No worries no more. I will be okay.

Quick Monday Update

Sorry this one is going to be quick.

First and most important for the people who have been enjoying the robin babies with us. This is what we seen when we got back to our cabin on Friday...

We are empty nesters. We got the nest all cleaned up. I looked online and they don't normally come back to their original nest. So we are saving it to remember our neighbors and how much fun it was to watch. We didn't see them around. We hope they have found a safe place to hide out till they can fly away and have a full life.

The guys got busy Saturday and Sunday on two projects...

They made Grandma a full length table for her kitchen addition. Fred even jumped up and sat on it to show how strong it was. It will work great for all our yummy things and her crock pots that she brings.

They also started a lean-to on the barn. They are going to move a leaky trailer that is stored inside the barn under here when they get the metal added to the roof. It will make a huge area inside the barn for Bev to spread out her odds and ends.

I have been stitching. I finished the May Fairy finally on Tuesday. Of course I just realized I don't have a photo to share. It was only a few days late. But she is finished and I love her.

Another photo I don't have to share is my 99 Bottles. I started on my delayed May 4 Bottles. Got two done Wednesday. Worked a teeny bit on Thursday.

Still in the fun cycle of so much cabin time and boy it's just getting more and more. Mom, Jeremiah, Izzy and me are going down Wednesday to hide from a repair man that is coming Thursday to fix our AC. Might as well stay till Sunday right? Then we are hoping to hear more about when the other repair will be done. So a lot more cabin time in my future. Oh darn right!?! We love it down there!

Sorry for the short update. Take care of yourself please.

Monday Update

Guess what no stitching since my last post. Yep still stress but I will survive. No other choice.

We had a lovely weekend at our cabin. Here is a baby Robin update...

 They are getting their feathers and sure growing big. I bet they will be moving on soon. They were sure fun to watch grow up.

We had another large project to do over the weekend. We built a new deck area connected to my Grandparent's cabin. She had a trailer that sat beside their cabin but it had a very steep ramp to get up onto it. So we all thought it would be better to make her a new area to use for storage and cooking goodies. Plus another covered spot to sit if it's a rainy day. Look at what the guys put together...

 

 

 

Just perfect! It was a lovely weekend. Nice and cool. Now it's getting hot again. No news on our home repair. Waiting on the company to get the parts they need.

I am finding myself having a hard time concentrating again. What a crazy year we've been having. This virus craziness. Now the riots and so much sadness in the world. Our city has been having a lot of riots but luckily we are safe where our home is located. Just sad to watch. I'm trying not to pay attention but I guess I am one way or another. I picked up my May fairy once last week and put just a very very few stitches then sit it down again. I really hope I can focus soon. I miss my stitching. Just can't focus. I tried to read blogs. Just too many words and they don't make sense. It will pass. I know. I just need to breath.

Stay safe. Stay happy. Stay healthy. Thanks for stopping by.

Really Late Monday Update

I'm still alive. Just busy and life just keeps throwing things at me. Yesterday was a crappy day all around. Even my dad called several times with things going wrong for him. We have a major house repair ahead. Our AC coil has a leak so our AC quit just as we had our first 90 degree temp days. Lovely. Also finally fixing this drain in our garage that has been not draining for years now. Which means we can get a new water heater so that will be a nice bonus. Most the time Jeremiah ends up with a cold shower toward the end of his shower routine.

Anyway I'm ahead of myself. Let me go back a bit first...

I posted on the 19th. I had two more days of stitching on my Mill Hill Maynia after that...

Tuesday I worked on Happy Camper and added 30 minutes for a make up day for the 16th...

I also put some work into the Pizza Slice and finished up the beading. So Wednesday I FFO the Pizza Slice...

I made it into a magnet for our house refrigerator. Wednesday I also got to work on another new start from my Mill Hill Maynia pile. This one is Land of the Free...

I really enjoyed this one. I might use some birthday money I received to buy the other two from this patriotic set. How can I not have the whole set??

I packed stitching to go with me to our cabin for the holiday weekend. Then I did NO stitching at all. It was just a relaxing, busy, family, and friend filled weekend. No time for stitching was found. That's okay. It was worth it. I'm not going to make up those days.

We were able to get the last pieces of main metal on the barn. Just corner pieces and roof touch up left. My baby robins sure changed a lot...

I did see that one of the babies eyes were open so that was really exciting. They are doing great. My boys were together again...

My godson and his dog Lily and Jeremiah enjoying time together on the deck. It was a very lovely weekend indeed. It ended up hot hot hot but we had a great time anyway. Definitely another great campground weekend.

So my Mill Hill Maynia has probably came to an end officially. No time to catch up. I've had a crazy stress filled week. So today I'm doing this update and then getting busy on my May Fairy which still isn't finished. Don't worry though my Mill Hill aren't going too far away. I have a feeling they will be coming out more to play. We'll see.

I hope everyone has a great rest of your week and upcoming weekend. Yes we are heading back to our cabin but it should be a more relaxing weekend. We'll see. Honestly I need it.

Should Have Been a Monday Update

I'm in a cycle. Go to the cabin. Come home. Monday do some chores. Try to catch up on emails and reading blogs. Post an update. Tuesday is finishing up blog reading, laundry, and grocery shopping. Wednesday is packing and finishing up things that need done before we leave again and hope to squeeze in stitching time. Thursday we leave again. It's a blur but it's a nice blurt. I feel far behind. Slowly but surely I catch up....I think haha.

Lots to talk about so hang in there.

First an announcement. I'm not finishing the Critters SAL. I really thought this SAL was going to be all animals not just bugs. I was going to stick with it but time is special and I have SOOOO many other pieces that I want to work on. So out with the projects I don't really really want to finish. The next one was just announced and it's mushrooms. I don't see myself wanting to do that one either so I won't finish the year of SALs to be entered into the drawings anyway. No worries onto to the next project....projects...seriously we all know I didn't need more options anyway haha.

Mill Hill Maynia Update: I'm still LOVING this one. Right now I have 3 days to catch up on *sigh* but I honestly LOVE working on these every day. So let's see which ones have came out this week...

Monday -- Seaside Sampler

Before Progress...

I got 1 hour and 13 minutes into Day 6 on this one...

Tuesday -- Summer Breeze Day 3 on this one...

Before...

After...

I also worked on the May Fairy some more...

 Wednesday -- Camping Out Day 5 on this one now...

Before and After...

I also took time to work on Beer Dragon because I love it so much and it was my birthday afterall. I put in 253 more stitches...

This piece is definitely a reason to give up on the Bugs SAL. I never want to put it down.

Thursday -- Snowman with a Cardinal was picked. We headed down to the cabin Mom, Jeremiah, Izzy and me. I did get stitching time while watching a movie and TV in the evening with Mom...

Before and After...

Friday morning mom headed home. It was just Jeremiah, Izzy and me. It was lovely. Jeremiah and I watched a TV series on DVD called Titans. We made it through a bunch of episodes and I had stitching time on Friday's pick...Life, Liberty...

Before and After...

Saturday and Sunday ended up with no stitching time.

Cabin Life: Here is the baby Robin update...

Friday we had one tiny baby ready to be fed and one egg that hadn't hatched. But Saturday...

They were both huddled together and ready to grow. I can't wait to see how much they've grown this week when we get back down.

Dad and Fred have been working hard on the big barn on the property. We've been adding new red metal to the outside and boy it's making a huge difference...

Just that little bit on the right of the barn doors left to do. It looks amazing. Hard work but sooo worth it. We are heading back down Thursday. So I need to get this update posted, get caught up on all your blog posts, and get packed up. I've been doing laundry the whole time I've been writing up this post don't worry haha. 4th load in the washer now. Gotta love laundry it just never leaves us alone for long.

Stay healthy. Have a great week. Happy Memorial Day for all my US readers. We are going to enjoy our long weekend with friends and family at the campground what better place to celebrate.