Just Some Random Photos

I hate that I start every post with "there is nothing new to write about!" but that's just how it's been lately. With the COVID-19 quarantine, my days are pretty much the same every day, so there isn't much to write about.

Our governor in Michigan has extended our "stay-at-home order" until June 12th. It just keeps getting extended!

Anyway, I haven't taken a ton of photos lately, but here are a few...

Even though Estelle hasn't totally fallen for the kittens, she's at least tolerating them now. And this morning, she and Duck were very interested in watching the squirrels as they came onto the porch and begged for walnuts (only to go bury them in the yard).

Here is a photo of what the garage walls/ceiling looked like before I started working on it...

These are the soffit vents I had to install on the ceiling right above the walls...

And then this is after installing the soffit vents and insulation. The next step is the drywall on the ceiling.

I'd been wanting Eli to cut his hair short for a LONG time, but I don't force my kids to cut their hair unless they want to. Their style is their own. But Eli suggested a deal with me one day--he'd let me cut his hair short if I'd take him to the Metropark and stop at the bait store on the way. I felt so guilty, and I asked him over and over if he was SURE... and he said yes, it was fine. He wasn't going to be seeing his friends anytime soon anyway.

Here is Eli before his haircut...

And here is his "after" cut. I love the shorter hair!

He looks so grown up. I still can't believe how fast the time goes by after having kids.


Of course, I have a trillion "sleeping kittens" photos...

Tucking in with Jerry for the night:

Chick is SO relaxed... I wish I could sleep this soundly!

Duck was super sleepy when I brought him to Eli, but as soon as he saw Eli's colorful stuff, like his Rubik's Cubes, he was wide awake.

I get a lot of photos of the kittens sleeping with Jerry because I stay up so much later than Jerry does. The kittens love to sleep with him! They go up there all on their own after Jerry goes to bed. And of course they are there all night long--which is one of the reasons I get very little sleep!

I happened to be wearing a cat t-shirt today, and Duck was ALL OVER me--super affectionate, rubbing his face all over my face and hands. And then he finally fell asleep like this:

Brothers. They almost always nap together, cuddled up like this:

Chick came and kicked Duck out from his spot on my lap, and then Chick just stared at me adoringly, hahaha. At this point, I had to pee so badly... but as all cat owners know, you learn to hold it when cats are on your lap!

Tomorrow, Jerry is off work and I'm hoping to get some serious work done on the garage since he'll be home to help me lift drywall onto the drywall lift (no, that's not a typo). The drywall lift will elevate the drywall to the ceiling, so that I can screw it into place, but I can't lift the piece of drywall onto the actual lift itself.

I'm so excited to start getting stuff finished in there! I've been taping and mudding here and there as I go, so it's less to do after the drywall is in place on the ceiling.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

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A Huge Collection of My Crafts Through the Years (Part 2)

This isn't a very exciting series of posts, but it was fun going through photos of crafts I've made. I've always been a crafter, but didn't start taking photos of things until I joined Ravelry, an online knit/crochet community.

I think that was in 2007. From 2007-2010, I did a LOT of knitting and crocheting. I liked to do it at night while watching TV because it kept me from binge eating (this was when I was losing weight from 2009-2010). In 2007 and 2008, I did it while sitting with the boys playing outside or when they were napping. Anyway, almost all of the photos I posted in part 1 were knitting/crocheting, so in this post, I'll just share projects that I've sewn. I love to sew!

Up first... I loved these jeans so much! They were bell bottoms so I made them look a little retro by putting fabric patches on them and scuffing them up a little. I love how they turned out! They are too small for me now, unfortunately, but I saved them in the hope that I'll be able to wear them again someday.

This is an apron that I made for my sister for Christmas one year, and her husband modeling it :)

I used fleece to make covers for these cat pillows (which I also made). The covers are orange on one side and gray on the other. I got tired of a cat tree taking up so much space and being an eye sore, so I made some little shelves for the window to place pillows on for the cats to sleep. They love these!

When Jerry and I first moved into our house, I made valances for the windows. This one in the dining room always bothered me, because there are two red stripes on the far left!

One year, the kids were young enough to let me make costumes for them. I made a dog costume for Eli out of a faux fur fabric and I made a Batman costume for Noah...

These are some of the masks I made and shipped to blog readers all over the country.

This is a "gocket". I hate the name I came up with! It is goal + pocket = gocket. I made these and sold them on my blog way back in the day to earn money for my skin removal surgery. Basically, you write down goals and put them in this pocket (a magnet or a keychain).

When I was at the Purina headquarters, we made blankets to donate to an animal shelter. This wasn't exactly "sewn", but a tied blanket.

When I was losing weight, I saved my old jeans as they got too big so that I could cut squares out of them and turn them into a quilt to remind me of my weight loss.

This is incredibly ugly but super comfy! It's just a quilt made out of my kids' sweatshirts. Sweatshirt fabric is so comfortable that I wanted to make blankets out of them.

I made some orange throw pillows with fabric that I bought from Salvation Army. I just covered the pillows we used to have.

This is a race shirt quilt that I made out of lots of shirts I got from races that I did. I made the quilt top and then my sister-in-law, Becky, asked if her mom would do the quilting. She used a running shoe pattern for the quilting, and I LOVED how it turned out!!!

This is a sparkle running skirt that I made. I wrote up a tutorial for how to make it on this post.

This shirt has the CUTEST story behind it! Here is the post where I wrote about the story behind this shirt.

Jerry gave me a sweatshirt that said "Cookies" on the back with my favorite number (11). It got to be way too big when I lost weight in 2017, so I cut it up and turned it into a pillow.

This is a walker caddy that I made for Mark when he was in the nursing home. It doesn't look like anything without the walker! I don't know if he made use of it, but I wanted to make him something useful!

I wanted to make a Runs for Cookies shirt, so I wrote up a tutorial for how to add lettering to a shirt like this...

This is a "tea wallet"--you slide tea bags (in their wrappers) into the pockets, and then you can carry around the tea in your purse. That way, you'll always have your favorite tea whenever you are out and about.

Finally, this is a cover that I'd made for my Weight Watchers food journal. I included pockets for my required materials, like my weigh-in booklet.

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Again, I still have a ton of pictures of crafts I've made throughout the years... so I'll post them here and there. I really miss sewing! Now that I have some cute fabric, I've been looking on Pinterest for things to sew. When I'm done drywalling the garage, I can't wait to start working with fabric!

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TV Shows I've Been Watching During Quarantine

I'm not even going to PRETEND that I haven't been watching a lot of TV since Michiganders have been told to stay at home.

Sure, I've gotten a lot of other stuff done--I made what feels like a trillion face masks and shipped them out individually; I insulated and drywalled the garage walls (and now working on the ceiling); I've knitted and crocheted a few projects; I built a squirrel picnic table!; I purged a lot of junk that we had taking up space in the garage; and a few other things.

On the other hand, I've spent way too much money on Amazon (my wishlist is about half of what it was before--yikes!); I've spent many hours playing Best Fiends on my phone; and I've watched way too much TV.

Does watching TV while playing Best Fiends count as multitasking? Sewing face masks while watching TV definitely counts as multitasking in my book.

Anyway, it seems that everyone on Facebook is mentioning new shows here and there, so I thought I'd share what I've been watching during quarantine. It's worth noting that I don't really like comedies. I love documentaries, dramas, teen slasher films, and generally any thrillers. As far as TV shows, I mostly watch dramas. I can't even remember the movies I've watched, so here are some TV series...

In no particular order:

Nip/Tuck - This is currently streaming on Hulu. This show is rather old (about 15 years?) but I loved it when it first premiered on FX back in the day. I watched for years for this show to stream, and I was thrilled when it finally came on to Hulu!

In a nutshell: Two plastic surgeons are partners in a practice and each episode typically focuses on a particular client. Aside from that, there is quite a bit of personal drama--each of them have total opposite personalities, so their drama is very different from one another. Some of their patients and choices get them into trouble.

American Housewife - Normally I don't watch comedies, but this show is hilarious! And I can relate to it SO SO SO much. The main character's name is even Katie! If you are a housewife/stay-at-home-mom, you've got to watch this. (This streams on Hulu)

In a nutshell: Katie (the protagonist) is a stay-at-home mom humorously dealing with the ins and outs of motherhood. She jokes about the stereotypical moms with their skinny bodies, yoga pants, Fitbits, and green smoothies. She is very outspoken and unapologetic about what she has to say.

Gilmore Girls - This is the second time watching this series. Surprisingly, Jerry wanted to watch it, so I have been watching an episode or two with him in the evenings (or bingeing on it when he has a day off). I LOVE banter, and this show is the most perfect display of banter I've ever seen. (This streams on Netflix)

In a nutshell: A single mom who raised her daughter alone has a very close relationship with her, and they banter almost constantly throughout each episode. They live in a small town where everybody knows everybody, and everybody's business is public. The banter in this show is so quick and witty--I love it!

Riverdale - I just started watching this one recently; I happen to love teenage dramas and/or thrillers, and this is a good drama. I kind of lost interest after the first season, though, so I don't think I'll finish it. (This streams on Netflix)

In a nutshell - The beginning focuses on the death of a high school student and the circumstances may be suspicious. This plays out throughout the first season. I don't want to say too much to avoid spoilers.

Dead to Me - Again, this is considered a comedy, but I really love this show! It's more of a sarcastic/dark comedy than your average sitcom. I adore Christina Applegate (ever since I watched Don't Tell Mom the Baby Sitter's Dead way back in the day and I wanted to be just like her, haha). (This streams on Netflix)

In a nutshell: A woman whose husband has just died by a hit-and-run is dealing with her grief by trying to solve his death (find out who killed him). She meets a woman at a support group and they become fast friends. There are LOTS of twists in just a few episodes--it will hook you in!

Tiger King - What do I even say? I watched it out of curiosity on the day it was released, so it was before all the hype. And I LOVED that there was hype! Because I was totally feeling the same way. (This streams on Netflix)

In a nutshell: Well, this one just doesn't fit in a nutshell. I just can't.

Ozark - I watched the first two seasons and was super excited to watch the third! I thought the kids might like the show, so we started watching it from the beginning as a family. (This streams on Netflix)

In a nutshell: A man inadvertently gets involved in a money laundering process for a Mexican drug cartel, and his family has no choice but to be involved as well. They move to a small town ("The Ozarks") and try to fit in as a normal family while the protagonist works to launder drug money. I kind of describe this as the money laundering side of Breaking Bad--rather than focusing on the drugs, it focuses on the money.

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So, that's what I've been watching! This doesn't count all of the teen horror movies I watched, too. I'm pretty sure I watched ALL of them in existence. But these are the TV shows I've been watching while I've been stuck at home since the quarantine started.

Feel free to share what you've been watching as well!

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RECIPE: Tortellini & Spinach Soup

This soup is so amazing! I'm not usually a huge fan of spinach, but I don't mind it at all in this recipe. And by using frozen spinach along with the frozen tortellini, it's easy to keep the ingredients on hand!

Here is a printer-friendly copy!

Ingredients:

10 oz. package/box of frozen chopped spinach
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups chicken broth
15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tsp. sugar
1 package (about 2 cups) frozen tortellini (regular or tri-color)
3 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper to taste


Directions:

Remove spinach from package and place in a bowl. Microwave on high until defrosted, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook until onion is translucent. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, and sugar. Bring to a boil, and add frozen tortellini. Reduce heat and simmer.

When the spinach is thawed, place it in a clean dish towel and wrap it--fold the sides and corners corners up, and then twist and squeeze it hard in order to get as much water out of the spinach as possible. Break up the spinach and add it to the soup pot.

In a small bowl, combine egg with parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine well. When tortellini is tender, slowly drizzle egg mixture into soup while stirring constantly (keep stirring to avoid scrambling the egg). Cook two minutes while stirring constantly. Ladle into bowls and serve.

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Kitten Update and Video

Thank you for the empathetic comments on the last post--it seems SO many people are in the same boat or can relate in some way.

It has been so hard to think of new things to write about lately. Even the projects that I loved working on are starting to feel mundane during the quarantine. I have so much more time to work on them, so they aren't as exciting.

I'm dying to start using my garage again, but the drywalling is going so slowly. There is a lot to do--I have to install soffit vents between the joists (36 vents total), then staple insulation across all the joists (the garage is 24 feet by 36 feet, so that's a lot of square feet to cover). And finally, I'll be able to install the drywall to the ceiling. Then tape, mud, prime, and paint. I don't know why I thought this would be an easy project!

Well, it's not that it's "hard"--it's just tedious and trying to move the ladder around all of the crap in the garage is a pain. I wish we had somewhere to store everything until the garage is done. It would go so much faster!

Anyway, Chick and Duck are as cute as ever! They've been super entertaining during this quarantine. I really wish they didn't like to sleep on my bed (Estelle used to sleep with me, and she won't anymore), but they are too cute to refuse. Last night, Duck laid across the back of my neck and slept there with his nose in my ear. I was actually able to fall asleep like that! The repetition of his purr was kind of soothing.

Here is a video of the kittens wrestling with each other. They do this a lot--totally entertaining themselves. Chick is the one with longer hair and Duck is the one that falls off the bed.

Phoebe still hates me since we got the kittens. Most of the time, she won't let me touch her and sometimes she'll even growl and hiss at me. I have just been trying to be extra nice to her, hoping she'll come around eventually.

Estelle has gotten more tolerant of the kittens, and I can tell she's very curious of them; but her pride just won't let her admit it. When she thinks I'm not looking, I'll notice her go up to one of them and smell them or she'll sit and watch them play. I really miss having her sleep on my legs all the time! The second I would sit down, it didn't matter when or where, she'd be there to sit on me. She hasn't done that at all after we got the kittens.

Still, I find it hard to believe that Phoebe and Estelle won't fall in love with these two:

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And with that, I'll leave you with this post that I saw on Instagram by @behaviorhack. I really like it! I actually like this account a lot--full of great life lessons!

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Weight Loss Anxiety: The Monkey On My Back

Oh man, last night's post... haha! I woke up and immediately went to read it because I wondered if it even made any sense. I was deliriously tired and could barely keep my eyes open. I think the lack of sleep finally caught up with me yesterday. I started to write my post and then fell asleep while writing. When I woke up, I was in a total fog.

I really wish that I was able to sleep like a "normal" person. I wake up at roughly the same time every day (6:30-7:30-ish?) no matter what time I go to bed. So the logical reasoning would be to go to bed earlier. But my mind and body are just NOT tired. Reading a book usually helps, but I just can't find one that is pulling me in right now. I need to start a fast-paced thriller.

Anyway, I started to write this post yesterday, but after falling asleep, I knew I couldn't finish it, and I saved it for today...

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Yesterday, I woke up with a sore throat. It wasn't so much "sore" as it just felt like I had a big lump in throat and it was hard to swallow. This happens a lot when I have bad anxiety.

Lately, I've been feeling anxious quite a bit. It's the kind of anxiety that has no rhyme or reason... it just is. It's there all the time, and it's frustrating to try to figure out what is going on. I even shared this video on Facebook to demonstrate what it's like to live with constant anxiety, and while it's hilarious, I think it's pretty accurate! (If you watch with sound on, it's even better)



Watching this video is as close I can get to describing what anxiety feels like!

Anyway, the "monkey on my back" is what's really making my anxiety flare up--and that "monkey", as stupid as it sounds, is my weight.

The higher my weight climbs, the worse my anxiety gets. I may not think of my anxiety being related to my weight, but when all is said and done, I know that it really is. Having a blog that has been known as a "weight loss blog" for nearly a decade feels like I'm a fraud. I can't give advice to the many people that ask me for advice, because I just haven't found the answers yet. And I probably never will!

Here it is, 10 years after losing 120+ pounds, and I still haven't found the answers.

Every day, I wake up thinking that this is the day that I'm going to turn things around (something I remember very well from when I was 250+ pounds) and then sometime during the day, I make the decision to "just start tomorrow". This alone causes me anxiety, because it's something I always used to tell myself!

"Just starting tomorrow" is a fad diet way of thinking. And I don't do fad diets. The only time I was successful at losing the weight was when I made the decision not to do anything I wasn't willing to do for the rest of my life. (Those things may change, but the fact remains that I shouldn't do anything temporarily just to lose weight.)

I have given it a try countless times in the past couple of years to get back on the wagon and eat well and exercise. I may manage for one day, maybe two... a whole WEEK if I'm lucky and well prepared. But that stupid monkey on my back is always there.

I never stop thinking about my weight, and it's SO STUPID--I know that. Logically, the thought of having my weight on my mind all the time is ridiculous! But I just can't help it. After all these years of people noticing and talking about my weight loss, I know that it's obvious I've gained weight. Nobody says anything about it, but they have to be thinking it when they see me.

The photo below is from a recent game night with friends via Skype. I was super self-conscious when seeing them for the first time in forever. Luckily, they are the kind of friends that don't care the slightest bit what my weight is.

I know I sound like a broken record by saying that I want to get back at it; I want to lose the excess weight; I want to feel my BEST again. However, I just can't seem to get my mindset to where it needs to be in order to follow through.

Jerry and I have this inside joke where we say, "Just throw strikes!" when people say things like "Just think positive!" or "Don't worry about it!" Because in watching our kids play baseball through the years, I can't tell you how many times I have heard coaches tell the pitchers to "throw strikes".

Well, DUH--what do you think the pitcher is TRYING to do?! So, when people tell you not to worry about something, it's like telling a pitcher to throw strikes. I'm TRYING not worry about my weight, but it's just that monkey on my back that won't let go.

I've written goals up to my eyeballs, I've planned out my diet and exercise for days, weeks... and I just can't seem to stick with it. I have a case of the "fuck its"--"Oh, fuck it, I'll just start over tomorrow". And even though I can clearly see this, when it comes to following through I fail miserably.

I have this nagging thought in the back of my mind that pops up quite frequently. I know that my weight shouldn't control my life; I know that my weight gain doesn't make me less of a person; I KNOW that I shouldn't care what other people think. But it's a lot easier said than done.

Because my weight loss has been so public, I feel like my weight GAIN is going to be just as public. Most polite people won't say anything about it, but I think it's pretty obvious and hard not to notice. Sometimes I want to mention it just so that they don't think I'm in denial.

I'm really starting to get worried that I'll never find my determination again. I want to be as disciplined as I used to be. I miss that sense of control. Right now, I feel like everything in my life is out of control and it's stressing me out.

I think a big part of it is that everything feels so difficult in the beginning. I've gotten used to eating junk food and skipping the healthier foods I used to eat--my palate has literally changed so that I don't enjoy those healthier foods anymore.

I also used to love to cook and grocery shop. Over the past couple of years, I've gotten to the point where I hate doing both of those things.

Running feels so hard. What used to be a piece of cake (running a 9:00 minute mile) now seems impossible. Running a 12:00 minute mile feels difficult! I honestly don't care about my pace right now--I'm completely over the mentality of "I used to be fast!"--my biggest desire is to run regularly and have the easy runs feel easy again. I want to feel like I'm making progress.

With running feeling so hard right now, it seems overwhelming to get back into a routine.

I'm tired of talking about losing weight and my goals and not really putting into action the plans that I make. So, I've come up with some solutions that may make things easier. I'm not saying I'm committing to these right now, but I'm trying to problem solve a little.

1) I don't HAVE to run. I can always do a walking program to get back in the habit of going out and exercising. It'll feel easier and maybe I'll eventually choose to add some running. That's exactly what happened when I was losing weight in 2009-2010.

In 2010, I think I weighed about 160 in the picture below. Jeanie and I walked the Indy Mini (a half-marathon) together. I trained for it by walking for 12 weeks. Walking is good exercise, and shouldn't be discounted. At the beginning of training, walking five miles felt tough! My feet were killing me. But walking the half-marathon wasn't bad at all--nothing like the previous two years. You can read about them here: 2008, 2009, and 2010.

2) I can make a menu for the week that is very simple to cook. Things that I don't have to spend 20 minutes prepping and use a bunch of dishes and make a mess in the kitchen. Grilled cheese and tomato soup is easy!

3) I can designate Jerry and the kids to each cook one day a week. That way, I'm only cooking for four days instead of seven.

4) I can slowly adjust my palate back to healthier foods. When losing weight in 2009-2010, I was still eating junk food--just smaller portions. I also made a couple of healthier changes (like having grapes instead of chips with my sandwich).

5) Eat at regular intervals--I do best with eating four times a day, four hours apart.

6) I really don't like making lunch, and a lot of times I'll just skip it and then eat way too much at night. So I can start buying frozen meals that I actually enjoy (yes, there are some good ones!) and eat those for lunch. They are simple and I don't have to cook--I can just throw them in the microwave.

7) I can make ahead meals for the slow cooker (and freeze them) so that I can just take it out of the freezer and throw it in the slow cooker and not worry about cooking that day. When our kitchen was torn apart for remodeling, I spent one Sunday prepping TWENTY meals for the slow cooker. We discovered some recipes that we really liked!

8) Drink more water. I know that I am chronically dehydrated and I really dislike the way it makes me feel. The solution is obvious--drink more water! I used to drink three quarts a day out of sheer habit. This should be an easy change to make. Even if I don't change anything else, I think this will be helpful and I'll feel better.

So, those are just some solutions that I think will make me feel better about myself. I think if I do some of theses, I'll get rid of a lot of this anxiety, too. Making positive changes always makes me feel good.

I don't want this post to sound negative--I really don't. I just wanted to write about my anxiety getting worse as my weight goes up. An introspection.

And after writing this, I wonder if it's not just my weight, but my actual lifestyle that causes the increase in anxiety. If I was eating better and exercising, I'm sure my anxiety would decrease dramatically even if my weight doesn't change.

I'm going to think about a couple of changes I can make that will help me to feel better about it. To feel like I'm at least doing SOMETHING. The weight isn't going to lose itself. And how can running get any easier if I'm not putting in the effort to do it? If I don't make any changes, nothing is going to change!

For the next three days, I'm going to have two goals:
1) Drink 2 quarts of water
2) Go for a walk or run on each of the three days (even if it's just a mile)

That's it! If I can't do that, then I have bigger problems than I thought ;)

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Oops!

I was in the middle of writing my blog post, which I named "The Monkey on My Back", and I actually fell asleep while I was writing it! And right now, an hour later, I'm fighting to just keep my eyes open. So I figured I'd save the other post for tomorrow or another day. It's a rather vulnerable post, so I want to make sure it makes sense and I don't think I trust myself to do that when I'm this tired.

I scrolled through my phone to find a photo--any photo--to post here as a place holder. I couldn't find anything! This is the worst cop-out ever for a post, but it'll have to do for now. Just looking at this photo from a couple of weeks ago makes me long for my bed, haha. (I already posted this pic)

I don't know what is wrong with me--my lack of sleep must have caught up, so I'm going to take advantage of it while I can. Sorry for this non-post post--I've kept up my streak of posting every day in 2020 so far. I haven't missed a day!

So while this is seems lame, I just had to do it. I'll try and finish my "real" post tomorrow!

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Just Another Lockdown Monday

I literally feel like I have nothing to write about today. The last couple of days have been so... boring, for lack of a better word. The weather has been very rainy and windy, we are still on "lockdown" in Michigan, and I have been SO tired that I haven't had the energy to work on much.

The kittens are seriously like having a new baby in the house! Thankfully, we don't have to wake up every few hours to feed them during the night, but they definitely feel the need to wake us up because they want to play. I'm lucky to sleep longer than an hour without interruption. But they are so stinkin' cute that I can't even be mad about it!

And then during the day, when I simply cannot sleep because my body won't let me, the kittens are more than happy to take over. Case in point:

Yesterday evening was fun because a blog reader (who I'd never met or even really been in contact with) drove down to pick up a couple of masks. The mail was taking SO LONG to deliver the masks, and since she lived about 45 minutes away, she decided to make the drive with her niece. It was fun to get to talk to her (although it felt odd that we had to chat from a short distance in the driveway to maintain social distancing).

Today, I was so tired that I didn't accomplish much. I did remove Eli's mattress from his bed so that I could vacuum really well underneath it (he has a queen-sized bed that is against two walls, so cleaning underneath it is really difficult). That was satisfying--I won't even describe the amount of dog hair that was under there.

Lowe's delivered the drywall and insulation for the ceiling in the garage. I'm SO overwhelmed at the thought of finishing the ceiling. I bought a drywall lift (it was actually cheaper to buy one than to rent one for a week) so that will be super helpful. But cutting around light fixtures and the garage door contraptions everywhere is intimidating.

I'm going to wait for a nice day, move lots of stuff out onto the driveway, and take my time with it. I'll also wait for when Jerry is off work so that he can help. It isn't the hanging of the drywall that is a challenge--it's getting everything out of the way and moving the clunky ladder around that takes so much time and energy!

I made a couple of kids' masks today. Becky asked me if I could make one for Luke and Riley, so I found a pattern that is identical to the adult masks I've been making, only it's for 2-5 year olds. I made two for each of them. The masks are so tiny and so cute!

Here is a photo for comparison in size... on the top is an adult mask and then Luke's and Riley's masks are underneath:

I found the pattern for the kids' masks here, but I didn't make it this way--I made it the same way I did the adult ones (here is the tutorial for making adult face masks). So I just printed out the first page of the kids' masks and used the "face" piece alone.

I have a feeling they are going to be too big (especially for Riley--she's so petite!) but hopefully they will fit. I'm going to bring them to their house tomorrow. If they're too big, they can use ties to hold them instead of the ear elastic.

Anyway, that's about all that's been happening here. I'd like to say I'm going to start prepping the garage tomorrow, but I'll probably only do that if it's a nice day. I like to work in there with the garage doors open.

I'm SO ready for this lockdown to be over! I'm going a little stir-crazy. I've loved having the time to work on projects that I ordinarily wouldn't have so much time for, but there is only so much  to do before it gets mundane.

Well, I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy! I'm thankful that my family has been good so far.

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