So, tonight's the big party, tomorrow a day of quiet. then Fred goes back to work on Tuesday. It's still going to be a busy week, and a COLD one. 

This week:

1) PARTY tonight!
2) Celebrate our 31st anniversary
3) Finish one book (TODAY, PLEASE! Three more scenes!)
4) Start another!
5) Type in changes to one of my edited books
6) work on edits for another
7) Set up preorder for Sunrise Over Texas, which just reverted to me
8) GET BACK TO THE GYM. I think I went ONCE in December. I should be able to get there 5 days this week. We'll see. 
9) Sew some things for the teachers that I told them I'd make in the fall.

​Whew! Okay, that's PLENTY.

Disclaimer: I haven't seen four movies that I really WANT to see. Fred was on vacation but we never could decide when to go, so...Jumanji, Coco, Ferdinand and The Shape of Water are still unseen.

These are the favorite movies I saw, theater and DVD, this year. Again, I'd do pictures, but this blog program...



10 Guardians 2--I wanted to love it as much as the first, but parts felt pandering. Still, Baby Groot.
9 Spiderman:Homecoming--Better than I thought.
8  Gifted--Romance Novel Material
7  Zookeeper’s Wife--True hero material
6  Hidden Figures--More true hero material
5  Moana--I think I watched this four times. It was a wonderful escape.
4  Beauty and the Beast--Also this. 
3  Dunkirk--Great movie, very little dialogue
2  Wonder Woman--Great movie. I cried.
1  The Last Jedi--Great movie. Did not want it to end. 

​What movies did you love this year?

This time of year, I like to do my Top Ten Lists. I didn't make my goal of reading 75 books this year. In fact, if not for audiobooks, I would have read maybe a book a month. I've just been so tired, I don't even pick up a book before I go to bed. That needs to CHANGE next year! So many books, so little time!

So here are the best books I read this year. I'd show covers, but ugh, this blog program.

10 Blame It on the Cowboy Delores Fossen--I've almost caught up on this series
9  Finding Mr. Right Now Meg Benjamin--love the "Bachelor" setting
8  Come Sundown Nora Roberts
7  Hold Her Again Shannon Stacey
6  His Perfect Partner Priscilla Kissinger--her debut book
5  Diamond Legacy Monica McCabe--romantic adventure, my favorite!
4  Worth the Wait Claudia Conner
3  Southern Spirits Angie Fox--an audio book, which added to the charm
2  Caroline--not sure of the author, but it's the story of Laura Ingalls's mother
1  Anne of Green Gables--my first read and I was quickly obsessed!

​What were your favorite books this year?

Whew! Made it!

This week is also Fred's vacation, so we're going to take it easier than I might if it was just me.

This week:

1) Celebrate with family
2) Meet up with friends
3) Finish my book
4) Sew
5) Take down most of Christmas decorations (except my dishes)
6) Go to the movies
7) Road trip! (At least one!)
8) Clean something big

Have a wonderful holiday and wonderful week!

Because I don't have ENOUGH to do, I thought I might try to make ornaments for everyone at school. I saw some cute ones on Pinterest. I bought felt last Friday and got to work Monday, and while they are cute, there is no way I can may 65 by tomorrow. I'm going to have to back every one of them, and I would like to stitch them as well, and there's not enough time. I know, I should have started earlier. Then last night I saw some cute mug rugs that I might have been able to do earlier if I'd started....but they're going to have to do without gifts from me this year. Anyway, here's what I made before I realized I wasn't going to meet my deadline:

OMG, y'all. This weekend I baked and sewed and baked and sewed....and not even as much as I wanted to, because I guess I'm getting arthritis or something in my thumb and it slowed me down. I did find out my sewing machine can sew on buttons, which is SO COOL and fun.

I've only had this brand of machine for 7 years....

Okay, so this is our last week with the kids. We're having a theme week, and today we're dressing like the Grinch. Thankfully I have a vintage Grinch t-shirt. 

I have tamales so I don't have to worry about dinner except two nights, and I have my Instant Pot ready for that.

This week:
1) Write. I wrote like a page all weekend, so I'm behind.
2) Sew. I am feeling a little manic, because I have a TON of Christmas fabric and some things I want to try, but not sure I'll have time to get to them.
3) Bake the cookies I mixed, plus the sugar cookies I bought, roll the sugar plums, make 3 more cookies by Saturday evening! Oh, and dog treats. I want to try to make dog treats
4) Make cranberries since Fred threw my last batch away.
5) Call vet for an appointment for Polka
6) My BIL's Christmas present
7) WRAP!

I'm going to deserve this vacation, just sayin'.

I couldn't decide which meme to use, lol!

When I was a teenager, I worked at Winn’s, a five and dime here in San Antonio. I started out working in the candy department (one aisle! But I was also on the register.) I lobbied hard to be put in the fabric department since I found myself back there most of the time anyway. This was a store where fabric came in flats, not bolts, and it was always cheap, the most expensive usually $3 a yard. 
Finally my dream came true, and instead of collecting a paycheck every two weeks, I collected a stack of fabric. Now, I told you, I love clothes. And teenaged me loved clothes even MORE. I don’t remember watching TV in those days, except MTV, and I always wanted to emulate what the musicians and dancers were wearing. So many nights, I’d come home from work around 8:30 and sew myself something to wear the next day. 


Now, I don’t work in a fabric store any more, but I do visit as often as I can (Winn’s, alas, is no more.) And I don’t come home and sew what I buy right away. In fact, my fabric stash is a little overwhelming. Fred brought me home a row of lockers, and the top three lockers are stuffed with fabric: flannel, holiday prints, western prints. I bought a cool basket at an estate sale and I have probably a dozen pieces in that. I have another basket and a wooden crate, and another wooden crate has projects I’ve already cut out. And I have an order on its way from equilter.com (they were on sale!!)


I saw a meme the other day that said that buying fabric and sewing are two different hobbies, and I’d say that’s accurate. One of rhe things my mom, brother and I love to do is find coordinating fabric. Not fabric that’s designed to coordinate, but fabric that we match—style, color, that sort of thing. That’s why my stash is so big. I buy something I think will coordinate and it doesn’t, so then I have to buy something to coordinate with that AND something else to coordinate with the original fabric. It’s a fun game that leads to an overflowing workspace. 


Nothing makes me happier than getting an email from equilter. I’ll try to save it until my work is done so I can browse leisurely, but I don’t always have that much self-discipline. My wish list has a hundred and fifteen items in it! (Better than my locker, I guess!)


Then there are the fat quarters. The week we came back from Thanksgiving break, I found myself at Walmart before school every morning, picking up something I needed. And I’d walk by the fabric counter and of course they had Christmas fabric cut in fat quarters, so I picked up about ten of those. I sent a picture of my cutting table to my brother the other day, saying I thought I might have a sickness. He thought I might be on to something. 


So yes, I think buying fabric and sewing it are two different hobbies (though I did sew a lot this week! I’m using up scraps right now, just as fast as I can! I can’t wait to share with you what I’ve been making!

Why I thought I could prepare for my Christmas show and keep up with the blog, I don't know! But it went off GREAT, AND when we walked out afterwards, it was SNOWING! In San Antonio! The kids AND parents were so excited. Teachers, too, to be honest, but it was a little scary driving home. But I wouldn't have missed that experience--seeing the kids see snow for the first time, driving through downtown while it was snowing. It was so beautiful. 

This week is CRAZY. CRAY. ZEE.

1) Second concert, this one with the younger ones, so I'll be practicing with them Monday and Tuesday mornings
2) Star Wars
3) Take a day off to go to Fredericksburg with my mom
4) Write 7000 words!
5) sew
6) start Christmas baking--I thinkI have all the ingredients I need!

The gym is out this week, too busy! 

This year I decided to take it easy on the Christmas program. We have an extra week between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but there is a parent night this Thursday, so instead of having an EXTRA night the teachers stay late, I'm combining one concert with it. (We split the school because the cafeteria isn't big enough to accommodate everyone so I do two concerts a year.) 

ANYWAY, it's just going to be a concert, no choreography, but we are going to play the recorders for one song, and we're all quite nervous about that. 

Also, Fred's gone back to work, I'm trying to get back to the gym, and I have another endeavor I'm doing for lunch duty, to reward the good kids, so I've been planning that this weekend.

AND I have my Etsy shop and my craft booth that I'm trying to stock with Christmas goodies.

Oh, and writing. I made it to 50K for NaNoWriMo, but the book isn't done. I want it done by New Year's. 

So. This week:

1) Gym 3 more times
2) Bathe the dog
3) Make soup bowl cozies
4) Write 7000 more words
5) My concert
6) Go to a concert at my brother's school
7) take more stock to the booth
8) Possible research trip.
​9) Faculty meeting

It sounds crazy but not as crazy as it was going to be. The stage is decorated, and there was going to be another meeting in there somewhere.