April goals update:
I didn’t set any real goals for April because: global pandemic. Smart move, past self! April felt both very long and very short at the same time. Social distancing definitely has a weird way of messing with my sense of time! I lose track of what day of the week it is pretty easily, although I do still enjoy the slight distinction that the weekend brings since I don’t have any telecons. But I usually can’t come up with the date without spending a moment of thought and counting forwards or backwards from the last time I knew what the date was! Heh.
April wins:
+ Easter. We had a really nice day full of treats and egg hunts and egg dyeing.
+ Virtual classes. I’ve taken virtual art classes and virtual cooking classes and am loving the fact that these are available now! I’m sure they are tougher on the teachers than being able to have a class in person, but I hope at least some level of this kind of thing continues even after the pandemic has waned.
And while I DON’T hope for any continuation of virtual elementary school in the future, Emma has really enjoyed her once-per-week zoom session with her class. It’s something she looks forward to with great anticipation!
+ Cleaned my sewing room. Participating in the Spring Clean Your Studio blog hop was great motivation to get my sewing room/home office cleaned up better than it has been in quite a while. (Plus, it’s been a whole week and I haven’t junked it up again yet! Ha.)
+ Getting outside. The weather has been good, and we have taken advantage with lots of nature walks and bike and scooter rides. Charlotte in particular has gotten a lot better at bike riding in the last month and can easily ride our 1-mile neighborhood loop. Her balance on her scooter is significantly improved as well. (I had a passing thought about trying to ditch her training wheels…but that may be pushing it for now.)
+ Love the Run You’re With. I signed up for this Another Mother Runner training program and have enjoyed the bit of structure it adds to my runs. I am doing the run/walk track and did the first of four virtual races last weekend. It was a 5K and it went well! The next virtual race is May 16.
+ Made and mailed masks to my family. Ah, something I never expected to do until a month ago. I used some of my favorite space-themed fabrics because why the heck not.
+ My job became permanent. I was promoted a couple months ago but for reasons, it was a “temporary” 1-year promotion. The intent was always to make it permanent, and happily that happened a couple weeks ago. I hadn’t expected it this soon, so it was a nice surprise to get from my boss during this weird work-from-home time.
+ Started the 100 day project. My motivation to jump into a big quilting project has been lacking, but I am absolutely loving making a fabric postcard every day. It’s relatively quick to make something so small — I can make one in 20 minutes if needed, or spend a little more time to make something more complex. (This one has been the most time consuming so far, and probably took a bit over an hour.) It’s satisfying to have a finished piece. And it’s been super fun to mail them across the country and world to bring a few smiles during this crazy time.
May goals:
For the last several weeks, I have been using an Instagram story template from Get To Work Book to identify 3 things each day to take care of. These are small, manageable tasks like going for a run, mopping the kitchen floor, doing something fun with the girls, etc that help me feel like I’m not losing my days to a haze of telecons while the kids zone out on their iPads.
That method has been really nice, but I also think I have the bandwidth to work on a few larger goals in May.
+ Finish & file taxes. I’m pretty much done, but have been procrastinating, especially after the filing deadline got extended. But we are getting a refund so there’s really no reason to keep putting it off!!
+ Start an email newsletter. I have been wanting to do this for a while now, and with the enthusiasm around my postcard project, now seems like a good time! This will be heavily quilting-focused, but I may throw in bits of life and space stuff as well. My intention is to send one email newsletter per month, sometime within the first week of the month. I will be sending a free quilt pattern to anyone who signs up. If that sounds like fun to you, sign up here!
+ Make a STEM quilt. I’ve been talking about this for months — making a quilt to enter in the Science and Math of Quilts exhibit at Quilt Festival this year — and the time has come. The deadline is May 28. (Also, fingers crossed that coronavirus is manageable by October and Quilt Market/Quilt Festival can happen!)
+ Attempt to get some summer childcare plans in place. This is a big “if” at the moment, but I am crossing all fingers and toes that there will be a few options available starting in June. Summer camps, daycare, or just finding a single person able to babysit at least a couple days a week?? We shall see.
Onward we go into May!
Playgrounds are open there?? That is really nice.
It’s the small neighborhood playground right next to our house. They had put cones/caution tape over the climbing equipment but nothing on the swings, so we used ’em. (And they recently removed the cones/tape from the other stuff too when the state stay-at-home order expired.)
I wouldn’t take my kids to a big public playground right now, but I will absolutely let them play at our neighborhood playground. Is there risk? Sure. But probably low.