When Hannah was in high school, we started “hanging with Hannah” and each of us wouldn’t schedule anything for Wednesday nights so we could spend it together. The middle of the week seemed to work best for both our schedules, and no matter how busy each of us was, we knew that we’d have Wednesday evening together no matter what. You may think “Wow, you only spent time with your daughter one day a week?” but when I look back on it, there were times I was working two jobs, she was in chorus, and also had a job, so I think we did pretty good connecting a good solid night one day a week as we usually were passing ships in the night.
Sometimes we would go to dinner and a movie. Sometimes we just went swimming at the gym. I loved those times we had together. So Monday night Hannah asked what I was doing yesterday. I told her that I was still doing my computer work, which mostly is rewriting old blog posts with SEO stuff, submitting stuff to Pinterest, and other stuff to drive traffic to my blog in the hopes of making some good side money on the side one day. She said “I don’t have school or work – do you mind if we hang out tomorrow?” Um, yes!
One of the benefits of “working from home” is that I can take a day off if I want and don’t have to ask permission to do so. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said, let’s get crafty!
We started out by having breakfast. I originally made a breakfast quesadilla with those 1 point Tumaro wraps.
Don’t do that. Once cooked those quinoa wraps taste like ass. So I basically scooped out the egg, egg white, purple cabbage (not onion!) and cheese and topped them on tostadas. Ah, much better 8 point breakfast.
When Hannah and I were at Walmart on Sunday (for two hours – that girl loves that store!) we wandered down the craft aisle because she’s working on a yarn project for work. As I was walking by, I noticed a small cross stitch kit. It was simple, black fabric and white thread – but it has all these coffee words on it. Here is a sneak peak on how it looks. Last night I finished the word “coffee” and the border. This is counted cross stitch, meaning you have no guide to follow on your fabric. I forgot how long and hard this was, but we had the best time.
Here is Hannah’s free hand embroidery:
I LOVED doing cross stitch when I was little. Here is one of my favorite pieces I did when I was 9 in 1977 – my Grandpa built this frame for it.
Just was I was thinking what I could fix for lunch, Hannah walked in, cash in hand and said she ordered us pizza for lunch. So sweet. We ordered from Marco’s pizza and it was delicious. My guess is the pizza I ate was 15 smart points.
Oh, did I mention we watched a marathon of Teen Mom 2 all day? That show is like a train wreck, but you keep watching it. It was a rainy, chilly day and to sit in the living room with my daughter, talking, crafting and watching reality t.v. while hearing the pitter patter of rain on the roof – was priceless! I am so happy that I’ve given myself the gift of time during this “semi-retirement” and I know I’ll miss stuff like yesterday the most once I find another job. For now I am just going to enjoy and appreciate it!
My Mom bought a giant pork roast at Mariano’s last week because it was only $1.50 a pound. The giant piece she bought cost $14 so she split it in half with me. I think she told me she cut hers into 14 pork chop portions. For my half I cut it into 8 six ounce chops, and then with the balance, made pulled pork in my Dutch oven yesterday. I just seasoned with Stubb’s Pork Spice Rub and seared it on all sides in a bit of grapeseed oil until all sides were browned, then added one bottle of Blue Moon beer and cooked it at 300 degrees for 3 hours. I meant to take it out at 2 hours because it was pretty lean pork, but forgot about it with all our craftiness going on.
You can see that almost all the liquid evaporated, but I am happy to say it was super tender and delicious. I had an idea to make pulled pork nachos for dinner, but Hannah was a little iffy on the pork, so I ended up using some of the ground beef I had and made ground beef nachos. I am counting my 2 ounces of ground beef as 6 points because of the fat content – my guess is it’s 80/20 or even quite possibly 70/30 – I did drain all the grease off though, which helped. My nacho plate was 12 points. Wouldn’t you know that Hannah tasted the pork as I was putting it away and declared it delicious!
As I was cleaning the kitchen with Hannah she said “do you want to still hang out in the living room tonight?” So that’s what we did. Jacob brought his laptop, the dogs found their spots on the couch, and we were crafty and watched t.v. until it was time to go to bed. All in all – it was a great day!
Question of the Day: Are you crafty? I had forgotten how much I enjoyed cross stitch!
Yes I am. I cross stitch, at the moment not so much as I used to do but the fun thing is that I thought about it yesterday and that I wanted to work on a project soon. I have about 12 unfinished projects :blush:
I started cross stitching when I was about 12 I think and never stopped.
I also used to sew, I even have a diploma for it but I didn’t like doing it anymore so haven’t done it in years.
What a great day to hang out together. R. and I have that “appointment” on Saturday nights. On weekdays he is usually in his garage working on his motors and I am at the house. But Saturday nights are “family” night.
I used to sew but haven’t in years. I also used to scrapbook and I LOVED it. But it can be a pretty expensive hobby. I didn’t really have time to do it anymore when I started working out (because I wasn’t really sitting at home on the couch watching tv all the time anymore and that’s when I used to do it). Sometimes I think about starting it back up…
I wish I was craftier. And by that I mean was better at crafting DIY things, not sneakier. LOL! (clearly I’ve had too much coffee this morning)
Um, yes, I am a little crafty. 😉
What a fun day!!! I used to cross-stitch a lot, years ago. Love that black background with the white thread; back when I was stitching, all you had was white and ecru. Hannah’s freehand is wonderful, and I love your old cross-stitch sampler, how charming!
Sounds like a great day with Hannah. Oh yeah, I am into crafting for sure. “Everything” is a craft to me. My longest living craft is making cards for about 20 years, but I used to sew, cross stitch, crochet, draw, paint, make craft stuff, gardening….you name it. But no, tried making money at it, to no avail. If I had to depend on all my crafts for living I would have starved. So I hairdressed and secretaried and that’s what paid the bills and fed me plus kept me in crafting.
I’m a total craft freak. I did numerous cross stitch projects in the 70’s and 80’s. Made embroidered Christmas stockings for the whole family, dabbled into quilts, and now I’m into card making. Wish I could make money doing it. I got my love of it from my mom and hope I can pass it on to my daughter. She’s getting a degree in graphic design, so maybe a little did rub off.
I wouldn’t say I was crafty by any means but I absolutely am head over heels in love with adult coloring; having ALL the colors in prismacolor pencils, markers, pens and chalks. I am fascinated learning how to blend, shade and make things look pretty on paper. My daughter is a great art teacher and helps me with techniques. It is SOOOO relaxing to put on the Chill Out station on Pandora and just dive into coloring. Love my art supplies!