Dear Friends, Happy October!  How time has flown as we now enter into the fourth quarter of the year.  I’d like to share with you an update or review of 2018 and my word of the year “Ease”.  When “Ease” was placed on my heart, I never knew what it would entail.  At the beginning of the year, when I chose “ease” as my word, here is what I wrote

In thinking what EASE means to me, in my mind, ease doesn’t mean easy.  Instead, ease means being a little gentler and kinder to myself.  It means giving my cares to God and letting Him do His work in me.  Ease means love.  It means slowing down and seeing beauty.  It means enjoying the moment, being present in the moment and giving thanks.  Ease means saying no sometimes as well as the opposite in saying yes and acceptance.  It means releasing; releasing the Bee club, releasing myself from addiction to sugar and releasing excess weight, releasing myself from clutter and releasing anxiety.  Ease also means love; loving myself, loving my family and loving all who are in my life – which includes you.  And finally it means to do all these things with out anxiety, guilt or anger.  Ease has me rewriting my goals and plans for 2018.

I have truly been trying to appreciate each and every day.  Our oldest daughter will say, “I have to get XYZ finished, not having it finished is causing me so much stress.”  I’m sure she has picked that up from me.  How I wish I would have taught her, yes, you do need to finish XYZ, but it shouldn’t cause you all the stress.  It is the journey, the day-to-day we need to appreciate.  The day-to-day is our life and every day holds value and goodness and although this sounds cliche, we need to ‘enjoy the journey.’  And enjoying the journey is what I’ve been trying to do.

I last updated you on April 3 and you can read that blog post here.  You can see below what I had planned for the spring and summer and in red is what was actually accomplished or how I want to move forward.

• I’ve lost 16 pounds – 14 more to go – I’ve lost another 8 pounds, 6 to go.  I have found that eating sugar just doesn’t make me feel well.  I crave it and then regret eating it afterwards because of how I feel.
• Get out of the house more and be around those who share similar interests – I’ve enjoyed my monthly sewing club, see the mini quilt above.  I took a Jelly Roll Rug class – Fun!  I’ve attended the monthly local women’s business group when I could.
• Continue exercise 3 times a week minimum – Most weeks.
• Continue eating healthy – I do well for about a few weeks and then fall off the wagon, then do well for a few weeks and repeat.
• Continue studying autophagy and try some occasional short-term fasting – I have tried fasting until 6:00 PM maybe 6 or 7 times.  Then at 6:00 have a good sized healthy meal.  I actually feel pretty good when I do this and a crazy thing is I’ve found I sleep really well on the nights that I do this.  I continue to experiment with this, fasting until different times of the day.
• Continue reading – I’m finished with my good books and need some more recommendations  I don’t think I’ve read a single book since I last wrote this.  I read a lot, just haven’t been reading books lately.
• Spend regular time outdoors – the yard needs lots of attention now that winter is coming to an end. – Yes, but not as much as I would have liked.
• Continue monthly applique classes at the sewing store – scheduled – Yes, unless I was out of town.
• Attend Michigan Embroiderers Spring event – scheduled – Yes and that was so much fun!!  And I will be speaking at the Spring 2019 event!!!
• Attend a Kimberbell event – scheduled – It was cancelled.
• Trip to Phoenix to see my in-laws – scheduled – Yes!
• Weekend trip to Mackinac Island here in Michigan for our anniversary – scheduled – Yes!  Such a wonderful trip and if any of you ever get the chance to go to northern Michigan I highly recommend it!
• Host a dinner in our home everyone who went to the Holy Lands with us – scheduled – Yes, done!
• Plan birthdays for my children – one in May, June and July – Yes, Done!
• For my Embroidery It business
  • Blog more here – I’m feeling a calling to do more writing on this blog – I haven’t blogged as much yet I still feel compelled to blog more.
  • Continued monthly sew-alongs – Yes!
  • Continued free weekly alphabet letters – Yes!
  • Plan the Embroidery It Birthday Party – Embroidery It turns 4 on June 20th – Nope…Sigh.  There was too much going on at that time.  I considered postponing it but even that didn’t happen.  I created several designs for it and I’m thinking I’ll just hang on to them until next June.  I’ll be ahead of the game.
  • Plan to have new designs out every couple of weeks – For the most part.
• Continued caring for my family and my mom’s needs – Yes

Other things that happened since April that were not originally scheduled have been:

• Christy Wright was in Grand Rapids and I attended her Business Boutique conference
• Restarted Weight Watchers
• Bathroom remodel
• Drove mom to Kansas City for my Niece’s graduation
• Attended an Anita Goodesign event
• Our oldest daughter Katie became engaged – Wedding July 2019
• Had various family members visit
• Two short trips – one to Kentucky and another to Hershey, PA with one day to Washington DC
• Moved two of the kids back to college

It has been a lot, and I’m trying to enjoy each moment and each day.  It’s the journey friends.  It’s life and I’ve only been given one, so I better use it the best I can.

Now in moving forward, here is what’s on the docket.

• Lose those last 6 pounds
• Continue to get out of the house monthly for a sewing or embroidery event or class – I have a great local store and I found an amazing fabric/sewing store in Lansing, MI which is only an hour drive.
• Continue to exercise 3 times a week minimum and walk daily
• Continue to do my best to eat healthy
• Try to get outdoors every day to either walk or spend time in the garden while the weather is nice
• Host an Oktoberfest party for hubby’s co-workers
• Become a certified barbecue judge – Random I know, but hubby wants to do this, especially when he retires so I’m going to get certified with him so we can do this together.
• Attend the Michigan embroiderers Fall event
• Continue playing handbells at church
• Hosting Thanksgiving at our house for my brother and his family.
• Hosting Christmas at our house with my in-laws visiting.
• Continue caring for my mom’s needs.
• Plans for Embroidery It this year
  • Blog twice a week
  • Continue sew-alongs but increase to 2 times monthly (one new design, one past design)
  • Continue YouTube videos
  • Free weekly alphabet letters
  • A new design every couple of weeks
  • A Christmas embroidery event
• Future plans for Embroidery It
  • Write a book – I’d like to compile all the sew-alongs into a book.  I have no idea how to do that but I can learn.

Friends, this is my wrap up over the last several months.  As we enter into the last three months of the year, I plan to both finish strong and continue to embrace “ease” while enjoying the journey.

Wishing all of you much love,

Nancy

be creative daily and live life beautifully