weekly gratitude

• Probably one of the most important THANK YOU's is for my cousin Tommy. He is breathing fresh, natural, not out-of-the-tank oxygen. And looking better than ever. Can't wait to see him (in real life) soon!

Photo taken by my pops

• Thank you for a week off from teaching. I have loved sleeping in, watching the Today Show, knitting, seeing friends, taking care of Agnes Louise, making dinners for my husband, reading books, having time to do homework. I feel refreshed. 

• Thank you for a long term substitute job! I start Monday and although am a bit nervous, I am excited to move on to the next step of having my own classroom. 

• And the most important thank you for the blessing of what today is and what it means for the true Christian faith...

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." - John 16:33, 17:1-3

Day 1 - Here we go

I'm not overweight. I get it. BUT (and I say this a lot) I desire to be the best 26 year self I can be. I feel like I should be in the best shape of my life and I'm not. Why not? Well, I used to blame this, but I can't anymore. It's almost two years since the accident AND I've had the hardware out since last July so there are simply no more excuses. But I'm also busy with this and this. STILL, I should make time. It's not like I'm busy with this or this yet.

So here are the events I have to look forward to to encourage me to workout...

May 12th - running a 5k.

May 26th - one of my best friends is getting married. 

June, July, August - swimsuit, shorts season.

These three things and the simple fact that I want to be fit all serve as my motivators for working out and getting in shape.

And yes, I have the awful "before" photos but I don't think they'll ever see the light of day UNLESS I have some great "after" shots to show the world. And still, then, they will probably never see the light of day.

Here's what I found that I plan to employ to help me out on my journey. 

Happy Wednesday to all!

The original before photo from my old work's
"Biggest Loser" weight loss contest.
 This was taken more than 2 years ago.
Before the accident.
Before grad school.
Before a lot of things. :)

Mason Jar Sewing Kit

Thanks to spring break, I finally had the time to gather the materials and create my mason jar sewing kit that I have been wanting to make for awhile now. Here are the materials you will need...

And then Agnes hopped on the table. Bad Agnes...

Take the sealer off the Mason Jar and trace the sealer on the cardboard.

 Ta-Da! I can trace!

 Then take the fabric and measure out one inch from the sealer for the fabric. I didn't have a compass (which probably would work best) so I made dots around the edge at the 1 inch mark on my fabric.

 Fabric with the 1-inch dots. (Plug in your glue gun at this point).

Cut out the cardboard and the fabric. Make sure you cut the cardboard on the INSIDE of your line as this cardboard will need to fit in the mason jar lid. 

Get some fluff! But not too much fluff. This will create the pincushion for your sewing kit. 

 Stack it like so: Fabric, fluff, cardboard. Get the lid ready to go. 

Grab your warmed up hot glue gun and glue the inner rim of the lid and quickly press the cardboard and fabric into the lid. Hold in place as it dries & cools. 

Once it is dry, hot glue the extra fabric on the cardboard. I had a bunch of overlapping fabric and cut out what I could before hot gluing. 

Once your lid is read, hot glue the sealer and flip it onto the lid. Hold in place while it dries. Make sure the ridges of the lid are visible so that your new lid will screw onto the Mason Jar. 

 Finished product! The jar is ready to be filled up with spools, needles, and scissors. The lid is ready to be used as a pincushion!

Progress

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret about me and T$. We're NOT the world's most organized individuals and we're downright messy a lot of the time. Not dirty, just messy and cluttered.

I know, I know...what in the world?!

I'm sure your entire perspective of us has changed.

If your entire world just crumbled around you, I am sincerely sorry.

No, wait.

If you know us at all you probably already knew that secret. And you probably know that it's really not a secret.

But here's the real secret, T$ and I WISH we were more organized on a daily basis and are diligently working towards that goal. The first step on our organization journey was to purchase a home with room to grow (check) and the next step is to organize this new, wonderful abode to meet our organizational  needs. For me, an item has to have a home to live in for me to want to put it there.

Here is the story of the closet. Our previous home (a one bedroom apartment) may have been very tiny but it housed an extremely large walk-in closet in which I promptly shoved all of my clothes and shoes (and sometimes sacks of rice and potatoes) into. It was nice because I could shut the door and pretend like nothing behind the door existed except each morning and night when I wrestled with it to produce an outfit (or a cup of rice). Our new home has a much smaller closet, even though it's a much larger home. This has proved to be a challenge to my "style" of shoving everything behind closed doors so that it looks clean because now everything doesn't fit unless it's perfectly folded and put away.

The only before shot of the closet when we first moved in. All marriage counselors reading this...don't worry, the TV was only temporarily in the bedroom. It has since been relocated downstairs. 

Thankfully, T$ is far along on the path of organizational self-awareness and realized we needed a fix to our situation. We decided a change was needed. So I took all out clothes and dumped them into the library or on the bed to give my husband room to work (I'm a very helpful wife).

We had to sleep on our pull out couch a few nights as our bed was preoccupied. 

Library not being used as a library. 

Once the clothes were out of the way, T$ measured out and designed a new closet layout.

T$ - beholding his creation of plywood and nails and glue.

The drawers - eager to be filled with properly folded clothes. 

 He then carried it up the stairs and installed it with the help of Mr. Jefe Kaas.

I helped by purchasing these drawer organizers from Bed, Bath, and Beyond with my 20% off coupon in hand...

Our visiting kitten, Agnes, also did her best to pitch in and help...

It's still a work in progress (finished photo to come at a later date) but it's already improved the quality of our life together - no more fighting with the closet to come up with clothes to wear or where to find it. Our library is also looking forward to being utilized as a library once again. No Costco sized bags of rice here.