Category: Live Feed

Covid Christmas

Day 1 (Thursday- Christmas Eve): Josh and I drove to see my parents for Christmas, knowing that we would need to make extra precautions with COVID to stay safe.

We left 6 am EST and arrived 5:30 pm CST. Yep, 12+ hrs in a truck.

Good news, we brainstormed the dream of a ramen shop. We got very practical and the weather was quite cooperative.

We surprised my best friend Alex. She cried!

Day 2 (Friday): Christmas morning we a ate delicious quiche and orange rolls. Them video chatted with my brothers & Lizy in MN.

We opened presents and loved the thoughtful gifts from my mom and dad…. Including a special ornament

We had delicious chicken enchiladas for supper and watched White Christmas and Klaus while relaxing and decorating “ugly sweater” cookies.

Day 3 (Saturday): grocery shopping at local asian markets. Poke bowls & sushi for lunch.

Not pictured is the delicious Jambalaya my dad made us for supper. 😋 My inner cajun was so happy.

Day 4 (Sunday): coffee with our friend Andrew to meet his girlfriend. Bagels 🥯. A relaxing afternoon and then nachos with my best friend and play some Jack Box games.

Day 5 (Monday): Josh and I went for a walk and played pokemon. I played The Survivalists on my switch. My mom and I made sugar cookies. Then we binged some Netflix and played more games while dreaming up plans.

Day 6: Tuesday
We bought items for ramen supplies that we couldn’t get easily in Indiana.

We were going to meet friends for lunch but they were sick so we didn’t get to see them this trip 😦 we still ate at the tasty place they suggested.

My dad made us “Gold miner stew” for supper 😋 I’m telling you my taste buds were happy.

Day 7: Wednesday
My mom and I had coffee with a friend Cheri.

Josh and I prepared hot-pot for my parents for lunch.

Then we said goodbye to my SD peeps with some very terrible ramen.

Don’t be fooled by these photos, the noodles were inedible.

Day 8: Thursday – driving home! Left at 5:30 am CST (6:30am EST) and arrived 6:45pm EST. Josh drove the whole way!

Shout out to Brenda Sears for the Subway gift card. It felt like a healthy meal on the road.

Aaaaaand we were in bed by 8:30pm. We barely rang in the new year. Video games kept us awake.

Post-trip notes:

  • don’t be fooled. We spent much time napping, playing our switches, or watching movies with my mom. Mom introduced me to the Selena netflix show and we watched it all.
  • COVID was in the front of our mind with minimal adventures, social distancing, mask usage, and hand washing/sanitizer habitually.
  • I love visiting family but am so glad to be back in our home with our animals and our bed.

Sewing afternoon

We relaxed after lunch this afternoon and then Josh played some video games and I sat down to a Star Wars prequel marathon and some sewing.

Humorously enough, I had Star Wars fabric… multiple in fact… Yet I didn’t think to use that.

I needed to make something that wasn’t a mask for a minute.

Not pictured is a pikachu bag and the beginning stages of my first potholder.

Also not pictured is about 100 masks cut out and ready to be sewed.

Thanksgiving & a Sewing Afternoon

Working on a few masks: heart beats, american flag, bipartisan material, vintage patriot america, and not pictured is some buffalo plaid.

I have three styles I make:

1. Bandana, 2.  Form fitted/curved, and 3. Rectangular with pleats.

Originally I used ribbons for ties but I now have elastic and adjustable beads.

For interested parties I also add fog filters and nose support.

UPDATE: here’s what I’ve made in the past few hours

Four of these are for family. I’ll add some nose supports and fog filters as desired by the individual.

Visual Learner Rant

Friends! Here is a little silly rant for you:

I am a visual learner and love to organize history with imagery. As I’m attempting to review church history and the different reformations and heresies, I realized the lacking info-graphics.

I got this image here https://get.bible/uploads/familytreeofdenominations.png

I found this image depicting the family tree of Christian denominations with some time references. (Unfortunately, I don’t know who created the image. Comment the source and I’ll add a link)

This image is incomplete.

I want branches for heresies or branches out of communion with the Christian faith. I want a branch for thoughts that have died off i.e. Shakers.

Honestly, I want this interactive. Make it like Ancestry.com. Click on a part of the timeline and it expands to show you key figures, key thoughts, photos, etc. I would even consider adding a “peer-reviewed” section where others can log in and add things other scholars would review before adding to the graphic; much like the Wikipedia structure.

Headboard day 2

We put another afternoon into our headboard. We’ve continued to adapt our plans as we’ve seen progress.

Today we cut the sky pieces.

We adjusted some of the cuts as the tight fit moved things around a little.

Josh sanded.

We realized we needed some supplies so we made a quick trip to Lowe’s for some Boiled Linseed Oil, sponges, and french cleats. As of right now, we’re considering using the french cleats as our mount to the wall.

Then it was time for some Boiled Linseed Oil. Man! That oil really transforms a piece of wood!

We will let this try and then possibly add some pyrography of stars and a moon to the sky. First I’m going to do some test designs on a piece of scrap wood.

When the oil dries completely, we plan to add stains to sky and peaks. Then when that dries we will add the finishes.

As we assembled this project we realized the amount of weight was going to be more than we anticipated. We plan to add a brace to the back and use french cleats for mounting as they distribute the weight of an object evenly across a wall.

I am really excited to see the finished product and get it on our wall. Our current headboard is not comfortable for sitting up, leaning, & reading in bed.

One step closer!