Challenge #42: String Some Popcorn

When I was a small child, say under the age of 10 or so, we used to string popcorn in December.  Maybe you've done it too; taken a big bowl of popped popcorn (no salt or butter), a needle and a long piece of thread, and made a popcorn string to decorate your Christmas tree. Sometimes we used to put our popcorn strings on the trees outdoors, as food for the birds and squirrels.

If you've never done this before, I challenge you to give it a try!  It's really easy, all you do is make some popcorn, and after it has cooled off, use the needle to poke a hole and string each piece through one of the biggest, strongest parts.

If you have done this before, I still challenge you.  Do it again.  Do it with your kids, if you have kids of school age.  Don't be afraid they'll get hurt with the sewing needles.  They might prick their fingers a time or two, but they'll get the hang of it.  And I doubt a few finger pricks will kill anybody.

Even if you don't have kids, if you are a young single person or an older person whose children are all grown up, string some popcorn.  Drape it on a tree somewhere, either inside or outside where you live.

Challenge #41: Use Up That Turkey!

It's the day after Thanksgiving.  What's in your fridge?  Leftovers?

I'm betting more than a few of us have turkey in our fridge.  Several pounds of it.  So, what do you do?

Well, if you are like my mother in law (yes, I'm going to slam her today), you just drag it out, meal after meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner, until it's gone.  The same blasted turkey, reheated over and over and over until the last (very dried out by now) morsel is gone.

That has never been my style.  While I do eat leftovers quite willingly, I have a bit of trouble choking down leftover meat. In my opinion, it's just never as good the second time.

Which is why, when I have meat left from a meal, I plan to use it in another meal that is totally different.  So, at this little place here, we never have turkey, turkey, turkey, in the days after Thanksgiving, just drug out of the fridge and microwaved until we can't stand it any longer.

Nope.  Tonight we are having turkey noodle soup (mainly because it can simmer while I am out hunting later this afternoon, and be ready to eat when all us hunters come in from the woods.)  Another meal, not necessarily even tomorrow, will be turkey pot pie.  Turkey sandwiches for lunches for those who like that sort of thing (not me--I'm picky).   Then, if there is any turkey left after that, the rest might be put into baggies holding 2-3 cups diced turkey and stuck in the freezer for meals next month.  Or, if there's only a few cups left, and we're not totally sick of turkey by then, we might have turkey tetrazzini on Monday.

Come to think of it, Monday would be an excellent time to make turkey tetrazzini; DD2's cheer/football banquet is Monday and I am supposed to bring a dish to pass.  It's a done deal. Turkey tetrazzini on Monday.  :0)

Get creative.  Use up that turkey.  Just not exactly the same way you ate it yesterday.

Challenge #40: Focus

This has been a tough week for me: starting a new job, yet keeping up with my normal house and homestead chores, and getting ready for deer hunting (which starts at sun-up tomorrow).  Staying focused on my personal to-do list and not getting sidetracked by other people's needs and wants has been difficult.

More than difficult.  It has taken immense concentration and determination on my part.

I mean, here it is, after nine p.m. on Friday, and I am just now sitting down to write this week's challenge.  I have been on the go since six a.m., and with the tasks of the day (mine and those tossed at me by others), I was really tempted to skip the whole challenge thing this week.

But then I realized that posting a Friday challenge is part of my routine, and what I've most craved this week was to be able to stick to my familiar routine.  So, here it is; this week's challenge.

Focus.  No matter what else is going on around you at the moment, focus on what it is that you want to happen.  What you want to do.  What you most need in order to feel like you are in control rather than being blown around in the wind created by others around you.

Focus.  Take five minutes to evaluate what is on your to-do list, toss off the things that don't really belong on your list, and circle or double underline the things on the list that are most important to you.  Then do those things.  The rest can wait, or maybe someone else can do them (if they don't really belong to you anyway.)

Here is what I had planned for today:

1. work (5 hours plus travel time)
2. do my big monthly grocery/livestock feed shopping (3-4 hours, including putting everything away once brought home)
3. cook dinner (1 hour)
4. get my deer hunting stuff set out for in the morning (30 min or so)
5. post this week's challenge

There were, of course, many additional things that came up in the past fifteen hours, and most of them I dealt with.  But as the day got late and the sun went down, I started to assert my personal list more than what others had listed for me. I felt like I still had unfinished business and was not totally satisfied with how my day had gone.  I decided that I had to do make my list a priority and delay any requests that would keep me from finishing my list.

And now, with this post, I have crossed off the final item that I had planned to accomplish today.  If I hadn't made a conscious decision to focus, however, you'd be checking my blog today, and tomorrow, and Sunday, and being disappointed that I'd missed another Friday challenge because life got in the way.  And I would be frustrated that I'd let a Friday slip by without posting.  I mean, if I didn't like writing blog posts, I wouldn't have started a blog in the first place.  It's important to me.  It's a creative outlet.

Now it's your turn.  This weekend, or sometime this coming week, recognize when you are in a similar situation, and then decide to focus on what is most important to you.  Then do it.

Challenge #39: Use It Up

Looking around this week, and trying to conglomerate ever more stuff (DS1 & family still unpacking boxes that have been in my garage for going on six weeks now) into the closets, cupboards, and pantry, I am finding tons of things stashed here and there that really should be used, not stored.

Some of it is obvious:  the food stuffs and other consumables from DS1's house in South Carolina obviously need to be eaten, laundry washed with, behinds wiped with, etc rather than just being kept in a box or closet for months (or years).  Some of it is less obvious, like the miniature bottles of shampoo and conditioner that now take up an entire plastic basket under the bathroom sink.

You know, the sorts of little bottles that you find in hotel rooms when you arrive for a stay.  How many of you travel for work, stay in hotels, and bring home those little bottles of hotel shampoo, conditioner, and lotion?  If you are not the traveling one, how about your spouse or significant other?

My hubby has been bringing those home at least a few times a year, for almost twenty years now.  And, since the majority of his trips are corporate travel, he's usually staying in decent hotels, sometimes even really posh ones (in other words, salon-type products!).  Early on, he got into the habit of bringing home the shampoo, conditioner, and lotion bottles with him. Honestly, he started it because he wanted to bring the kids a 'treat' from his trips as sort of a consolation for him being gone from home so long, and we never had much money to spend on treats (or salon-type products!).  So, he'd bring them the unopened soap, shampoo, lotion, notepad with hotel name, etc.  They thought it was the coolest thing!

Even when the kids outgrew the novelty of the little bottles, DH kept bringing that stuff home because it was awful useful for tossing into an overnight bag when they would spend the night with a friend, or go to camp, or whatever.  Why lug an entire bottle of shampoo with you when you only needed two or three head-washings worth?  Little bottle it is.

But then, we started reducing head count (and shampoo use) at home as the kids grew up and left, yet at the same time, DH's corporate travels ramped up.  Now I find myself with dozens of the little bottles, all stashed in an overflowing basket under my bathroom sink.

At the same time, I find myself with normal size bottles of shampoo and conditioner in my shower that are nearly empty.  As in, time to add shampoo and conditioner to the shopping list.

Cue the light bulb above my head.  Inspiration!  I pledge not to buy any more shampoo or conditioner until I have used up every one of those little bottles in the basket.  By my rudimentary calculations, that should be sometime next spring, if not summer.


How about you?  What can you find stashed in the dark recesses of your home that you could use up rather than continue to store for 'someday'?

Challenge #38: Stand Your Ground

This post has a lot to do with a big change coming my way that I promise I will blog about in the very near future.  I decided to make it the topic of a challenge because, from speaking with others on the subject, it seems that quite a few of us regularly find ourselves doing things for people that we shouldn't have to, or allowing those people to make us feel bad about not doing things if we actually said, apologetically, that no we could not.

Stand your ground.  It is a concept that is not always easy for me, because I am, by nature, a peace maker.  I try to avoid confrontation as much as possible.  But sometimes, in some areas, I have to clench my teeth and stand up for what I think needs to be done.  Because otherwise I am overworked,overburdened, overscheduled, and overstressed.  Which is no way to live life.

How about you?   Is there something that you've been dealing with that you'd rather not?  That, honestly, isn't really your problem?  NMC NMM is a very popular acronym these days: Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys.  Meaning, this isn't mine to deal with, so I'm not going to own it or bother myself with it.

I hate to be cliche, so I personally avoid that widely used phrase.  I also hate it when people dodge personal responsibility and I think more than a few people spouting NMC NMM on a daily basis are using it to get out of things they should be doing,  should be owning up to.

But, in the past year, I find myself more and more looking at things people try to hand off to me and muttering under my breath "NMP" before attempting to hand it back to the person shoving it off on me. NMP being my own acronym for the words Not My Problem.

Co-worker can't find his car keys and will have to walk 2 miles to work? NMP.  It is not wrong of me to say "sorry, no" when my boss tells me I 'have' to go pick up said co-worker and deliver them to work on time (and possibly drive them home again at the end of their shift, which is not the same as my own shift).  It's not my problem that the co-worker might have to walk to work.  It is the problem of the co-worker, and of the boss who desires the co-worker to be there on time.

Sister-in-law who lives 30 miles away wants my daughter to stay at her home for four days and take care of sister-in-law's dogs while sister-in-law is out of town because she doesn't trust her own 17 year old son to properly take care of them, and my daughter declines because she has school and work to be at those four days (10 & 15 miles from home in the opposite direction of the 30 miles away that sister-in-law lives)?  NMP.  It is not wrong for me to tell sister-in-law that no, I will not 'make' my daughter come stay at sister-in-law's house (with the son that is one year OLDER than my daughter!!) to ensure sister-in-law's dogs are well cared for.  Dog care and the behavior of the 17 year old boy is the problem of the sister-in-law, not me.  Nor is it the problem of my daughter who, apparently even though she is a year younger than her cousin, is more reliable and responsible.

It has not been easy to get myself into the frame of mind to evaluate something and declare it NMP.  But now that I've learned to do so, standing my ground has become easier.

Try it.  Next time you feel yourself being pressured into tending to something you are in no logical way responsible for, tell yourself NMP.  Or NMC NMM if you prefer.  Then say no and stand your ground.

Challenge #37: Give Blood

Yes, you read that right.  Go give blood.  Unless, of course, you have a health condition that prevents it, or your iron level is too low (like mine was yesterday when I went to the local blood drive to donate), go give blood.  It's not hard. All you really have to do is lie there, with a needle in your arm, squeezing and releasing a rubber ball for about fifteen minutes.  And what a difference that fifteen minutes can make to the life of someone else!

To find out when and where the next blood drive closest to your place of residence will be, check out this website: Red Cross.

Challenge #36: Make a Menu

I don't know about you, but I always feel better if I know ahead of time what I will be making for dinner.  Not just a few hours ahead of time, but several days ahead of time.  Most dinners require advance notice--either with meat to take out of the freezer and have time to defrost, or dried beans to soak and cook until tender.

Many years ago. . . Well, honestly, back in 2000, I had a menu that I made up for just about a whole month and followed it pretty well.  Over the years, though, I kind of fell out of the menu-making habit and tended to find myself trying to come up with a dish that either a) was made with hamburger, since I can take a pound of burger from freezer to finished cooking in 30 minutes or less; or b) utilized whatever sort of leftover meat I happened to have in the fridge at the moment.  That's when cooking is not fun.

Of course, back in 2000 I had a bunch of little kids and we were always home in the late afternoon and evenings, so each day I consistently had adequate time to spend cooking my family's evening meal.  As the kids grew, after-school extracurriculars were added in, as well as summer sports leagues, and it got somewhat more difficult to know a month ahead of time which days I had time to cook what. Menu making kind of fell by the wayside.

Now, however, I am feeling the desire  need to get more organized in the eating department and get back to planning menus.  At least a week at a time, if not two weeks or even most of a month.  There are still evening activities that go on, but it's not quite as crazy with just one child in sports and extracurriculars as it was with two to four of them.  And, she's old enough to drive herself to and from practices, meetings, etc, which leaves me more time for the cooking.

Plus, with DS1 and K2 here, I'm only responsible for cooking three to four nights a week!  That's only 12-16 dinners a month!  How could I not plan a menu with so few meals required of me?

How about you? Do you have a menu that you use?  Do you plan out a week or more of meals at a time?  If not, why not?

There are several approaches to making a menu.  Some people like to make a list of recipes that sound interesting, then go to the grocery store and get what ingredients are needed.  Others take a slightly different angle, looking at the grocery ads for that week, and making a menu based on the sale items for the stores they frequent most.  Still others, like me, tend to look at what ingredients are on hand (in the freezer, in the pantry, out in the garden) and make a menu based on those items.

What matters most isn't the method you use, but that you use some method and make yourself a menu.  Give it a try.

Challenge #35: Be a Mentor

From time to time, I find myself falling into a mentorship role.  Now, with DS1 and K2 moving in with us, I am entering such a time again.  So, why not challenge you to become a mentor to someone in your life?

You may have to consciously look for an opportunity to be a mentor.  Or, you may not.  You may all ready be slipping into such a role without even knowing it.  Most of the times I've found myself mentoring, it just happened.  Someone had an interest in something I do, or asked me about an experience I've had, and before I knew it, I was showing them the ropes or helping them through a situation similar to one I'd been through in the past.

Currently, K2 is looking to me for guidance in a variety of areas.  Living in the country.  Hanging clothes on the line to dry.  Cooking from scratch.  Juggling two young children. . .

I don't have to schedule a 'lesson plan' to do this kind of mentoring, I just need to go about my day-to-day activities, and be willing to answer questions or give a step-by-step explanation of what I doing and why I do it like that.

Of course there are other ways to mentor too.  Take a look around your community; most likely there are groups that look for volunteers to spend time with youth in need of attention, or someone to read to the elderly, or people interested in tutoring both child and adult students, or to teach English to immigrants.  There are also groups who look for free or low-cost speakers to come in and give talks on a variety of subjects; perhaps you have a hobby or an area of expertise that would make a great presentation.

Be a mentor.  It's not difficult.  You'll be glad you took the time.  And so will the person you mentor.  It makes a difference in their life, and yours too.

Challenge #34: Get a Clear View

This week's challenge is inspired by all the cleaning and rearranging going on lately at this little place here in preparation for DS1 and crew's arrival with a household worth of stuff.

Get a clear view. . . In other words: wash your windows!  I've been giving mine a good cleaning, inside and out.  I have tilt-wash double-hungs, but I confess to very rarely actually using the tilt feature when cleaning them.  Normally it's just the insides that get sprayed and wiped clean.

This time, however, I'm remembering how to slide them down, tilt them in, and make the outside panes as sparkly clean as the inside ones.  Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I did have to read the sticker on the upper part of the frame to refresh my memory exactly how the tilt-wash works.  Thank goodness I didn't give in to DH's desire to peel off those stickers once the windows were installed nearly 13 years ago!

Hopefully you have tilt-wash or easily accessible windows too.  If so, this challenge will be so much easier.  If not, well, I challenge you to find a ladder, and a bucket, and some rags, a hose, and maybe a squee-gee too.  Wash those windows!  Wash 'em good!  You'll be amazed at what a difference washing the outside, and not just the inside, makes.

One caveat:  this may be dangerous for birds.  I had one fly into the window yesterday.  That hasn't happened in years (which tells you how long it's probably been since I washed the outsides of the windows).  Poor bird.  At least it didn't seem to be hurt much; it hopped up and flew right away.

I like to use a 50/50 vinegar and water solution when I wash windows.  I have a spray bottle with vinegar water in it that I use for cleaning just about everything.  So, when I want to clean the windows, I just grab that bottle and a couple of old newspapers.  Newsprint is hands down, the best for streak-free, lint-free windows.

Challenge #33: Go Bunny Hunting. Dust Bunnies, That Is.

The weather is turning cooler here.  We have begun our transition back to a life where more time is spent indoors than outdoors.  Which means it's time for me to catch up on all the housework that got let go during the busy gardening and canning season.

Time for dust bunny hunting!

In other words, it's time to stop sweeping (or vacuuming, if you have carpets) around the furniture, and do a good thorough cleaning underneath.  I don't know about you, but at my house dust bunnies seem to breed rampantly under the couches (yes, plural, there are two in my living room; got to have enough seating when the kids come to visit) and beds.

The other day I was looking for a curtain tie-back that had fallen down behind one of the couches during the high winds that arrived with last Friday's storm, and when I peeked underneath said couch I was rather grossed out by the fuzziness of my wood floor.  Definitely time for some bunny hunting.

Plus, the population at this little place here is about to increase (more on that next week, I promise!), so there will be some moving of and rearranging of furniture in the next week or two in preparation for our population explosion.  Excellent opportunity for bunny hunting.

How about you?  Seen any dust bunnies at your place lately?  Or have you been afraid to look?

Let's gather our 'weapons'--brooms, vacuums, mops--and go (dust) bunny hunting!

Challenge #32: Stop Procrastinating

I almost titled this one "Challenge Yourself" as in Make-Your-Own-Challenge.  But, I figured when it came right down to it, what I was going to tell you was to stop procrastinating.

You know, that one project (or maybe two) that you kept saying you were going to get done, but so far this year it hasn't happened yet.   If it's an outdoor project, in need of warm and dry weather, you are probably running out of time.  So, you should just bite the bullet and get it done.

For example, we were going to stain the deck and the front porch.  Last year.  DH power washed the deck in preparation to stain it.  But then he never got around to figuring up how much stain we needed to buy, so I never went and bought it.  And then suddenly it was winter.  Can't stain the deck, in Michigan, in the winter.  So, we put it off for this summer.

Early this summer, DH power washed the front porch in preparation to stain it.  We were really going to get it done this time!  In fact, we were going to do it before hosting the family reunion in late July.

Uh-huh.  We were.  Honest.  But, you know, it's still not done.  Still haven't bought the stain.  DH still hasn't figured up how much we need (and I really, really suck at that kind of thing--figuring linear feet and translating that into volume of liquid needed to cover the area).

Just the other day he was telling me that we need to get the stain bought if we were going to stain the deck and the porch this year.  We're running out of good weather.  We both know once October gets here, a colder wetter season sets in.  A season in which you don't get a dry deck and a warm day to stain and a couple days of no precipitation/heavy morning fog for the stain to dry well to happen all in a row like that.

I reminded him that he needs to do the math and let me know how much stain to buy.  Otherwise I'm going to have to do the best I can with that kind of geometrical figuring (I hated Geometry in school, it hurt my brain much more than advanced algebraic functions did) and we'll either end up with way more stain than we need, or not quite enough.

He and I both need to stop procrastinating.  I really could look up exactly how to figure how many gallons and parts of gallons it would take to get the project done.  Or, he really could take all of two minutes and do the calculating himself.  Either way, we'd be able to go buy the stain, and be ready to apply it while the weather  is still favorable.

What have you been procrastinating about?  How much time would it actually take you to get it done if you stopped dragging your feet and making it into a mountain rather than the molehill it probably is.

Stop procrastinating.

Challenge #31: Can It (or Freeze It, or Dehydrate It, or Ferment It. . . )

This week I have been really busy with canning, freezing, and otherwise preserving food.  So, naturally, when I was contemplating what type of challenge I wanted to post on Friday (that would be today), my thoughts turned to food preservation.

There are so many ways to preserve food and store it for future use.  And, with vegetables being in full swing right now, and orchards starting to get in on the fresh food action too, there won't be a cheaper time this year to acquire many different kinds of food than right now.

Don't tell me "But I don't have a garden, or fruit trees."  That's a poor excuse.  Farmers markets are in practically every town anymore.  Not like ten years ago when they were mostly quaint old memories or something you had to drive a long ways to get to.  Most readers will be able to find one within a not very far drive from where they live or work. There are websites with lists and lists of farmers markets all over the U.S. that can help you locate one.

And even if you can't find a farmers market close enough to shop at, the produce sections of the grocery stores are full to bursting currently.  Prices on abundant in-season food are low.  Buy now.

Don't tell me "But I don't have a canner."  There are other ways to preserve food.  You probably have at least some freezer space, don't you?  Before I even moved out of my parents' home, way, way back in another lifetime, I froze a few veggies in late summer.  It's not difficult, and thanks to the internet, instructions are close at hand.  You don't even have to own a Ball Blue Book anymore to be able to look up how to prep just about anything for the freezer.

In addition to canning and freezing, some foods take well to dehydration (either in an electric dehydrator, your oven, on trays in the sun, or even in your car on a bright sunny day!!) or fermentation.  I don't have a lot of experience with either of those, outside of dried apple rings and sauerkraut, but, again, instructions abound on the 'net.

Challenge #30 Take a Book, Leave a Book

About two years ago, I noticed a strange looking--well, maybe not strange, it was just a strange thing to appear where it did--cute, a cute looking large wooden box hung on a telephone pole next to the driveway of my neighbor about a mile away.  This box had a door on the front with a window that took up most of the door.  Looking through the window, I could see that in the box were books.  Lots of books.  Two shelves full of books.

Underneath this box was a sign, with letters large and visible enough to be read from the road:

Take A Book, Leave A Book

Hmm, I thought, that's neat.  What a cool idea.  A place where neighbors can swap books at their leisure, and without any worries of someone else seeing (and possibly judging) their reading preferences.  One of these days I'll have to find a book at home that I don't plan to read again, take it over there, and see what title in the box I might want to exchange it for.

But I never got around to it.  In my defense, it is located in a direction I only take about 20% of the time I leave this little place here.  So, not like I'm driving by every day.  And the majority of the times I did drive that way, I had forgotten to bring a book with me to leave in place of the one I might take.

A few months after seeing that strange cute box down at the neighbor's, I noticed a similar one go up a few blocks down from the church I attend.  Slightly different design and paint job, but still a box with a front door, big window on the door, two shelves of books, and the big sign:

Take A Book, Leave A Book

Intrigued, I did what most people these days do, and I Googled the phrase.  Seems this Take a Book, Leave a Book thing is huge.  Like, you can find them in neighborhoods pretty much all over the United States, and even in other countries.  All free, all on the honor system.  You bring a book you wish to swap, and in exchange you may take home a book from the box that interests you.

There is even a website with a map and list of locations where they can be found (apparently if you would like to start one, you can register it with this group.)  Officially they are known as a Little Free Library. If you click on the link, you can read all about how they started, how they work, how to start one in your area, how to build the box (if you desire) or how to order one, and you can access the map to see if there is all ready one (or more!) near you.

So, this week's challenge to myself is to go down the road to my nearest Little Free Library, and then Take A Book, Leave A book.  My challenge for you is to go do the same if you know of one near where you live, work, shop, or worship; or, if you aren't aware of one, go to the website and look at the map to find the location of the one closest to you.

It's a win-win.  You get to swap a book you no longer want for one that you do.  For free!!  No money involved!  Or, if you don't see anything on the shelf today that you are interested it, you can still leave a book or two you wish to be rid of (decluttering, anyone?) and then come back at a later date and see if there is anything new that you would like.

What are you waiting for?  What in the world have I been waiting for?!? Get out there and
Take A Book, Leave A Book

Challenge #29: Help Someone

Some people call this concept "Pay it Forward".  I guess that is supposed to have a warm fuzzy ring to it.  To me, when I hear 'pay it forward', it makes me think of owing something. Like I have to do something good for someone else in order to settle some debt I'm not even aware I have.

I like the phrase "Help Someone" much better.  I don't owe anything.  A good deed isn't something I do because I'm trying to make up for something bad I did (or might do in the future).  A good deed is something I do because, well, I want to.  Because I desire to be of aid to someone else.  Not because I have to, or someone told me I should.

When I am grocery shopping, and I help another shopper find an item on the shelves, I'm doing it because I see that person having a need I can fulfill.  Same thing when I'm shopping and I ask if I can reach for something on a shelf that is above the height of a little old lady (or sometimes a little old man), or a person in one of those motorized shopping carts.  Or when I see a frazzled mama with tired kids in tow heading to the same checkout lane as myself and I tell her to please go in front of me, even though her cart is much fuller than mine.  She obviously would appreciate getting out of the store all that much sooner than if I were to race in front of her so I didn't have to wait for her to empty her cart and pay for her groceries.  I do it because I would want someone to extend the same kindness to me if I were in the same predicament (searching but not finding, trying to reach but just can't, trying to get home with my shopping-weary offspring, etc).

It's the old golden rule:  Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

There are many ways we can be of help to others, not just the few grocery store examples above.  I'm not going to list more, because I'm sure you can think of plenty on your own.  Just look around you, think of people you know, places you go, and ideas will come to you.

Call it 'pay it forward' if you must, but for this week, I challenge you to help someone in some way.

Challenge #28: Do a Puzzle

August is well known for sweltering hot days.  Around this little place here, we get sweltering hot usually interspersed with pop-up thunderstorms.  Both of which make getting outdoor work done kind of difficult from time to time.

So, if you find yourself in either a day so hot that it makes you pour sweat while you are buck naked sitting still, or a day that is raining so hard working outdoors would be like trying to garden or do yard work in your bathroom shower, take advantage of the situation.  Take a break.  Do a puzzle.

I love puzzles.  I cannot remember a time in my life when I didn't do puzzles. Picture puzzles.  Word puzzles.  Number puzzles.  Even those puzzles that are sentences or quotes that have been put into a code.

I just love puzzles.  My kids, too, like to do a variety of puzzles.

As a result, we have jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, word-searches, Sudoku, logic puzzles, etc at our house.  Perfect for grabbing on a day that is too hot, or too rainy, to get anything done outside.  Better for your brain than watching TV or a DVD.

This week I challenge you to choose some sort of puzzle, take advantage of a day (or evening) with sticky, oven-like temperatures, or a deluge of rain, and sit down for a while.  Do a puzzle.  Exercise your brain instead of breaking a sweat.

Challenge #27: Get Your Butt in a Boat

Mostly, this is a challenge from myself, to myself.  I have not yet been in my kayak this year, and here it is the beginning of August all ready.  Here in Michigan, August is pretty much the end of canoeing and kayaking season, because the water (and the weather) tend to take a turn to the cold side in September.  And for me, personally, September is looking pretty booked; too booked to head out with at least one other person (never canoe/kayak alone, just in case something bad happens out on the water), for a float. So, it's now or never, as far as me and my kayak spending some quality time together goes.

How about you? Do you have a boat (canoe, kayak, rowboat, motorboat, etc) that has been neglected this season?  Or, do you happen to be one of those lucky people who has a friend with a boat that they keep inviting you to go on, and you keep turning them down because, well, honestly, you don't really have a good reason for turning them down?  Or, is there a boat (canoe, kayak, etc) rental place in your general vicinity--within an hour or so--that you could acquire the use of a boat from?

Honestly, we've never rented boats, so I have no idea what they cost per hour, or day, or however that goes. But I'm guessing it wouldn't be a whole lot more than what a fast food dinner for the family costs. Or a few hours at the movie theater.  And what would create more long last memories of a good time:  renting a canoe for an afternoon, or taking the family out to a burger joint or the latest cinematic release (that you could watch, for free or nearly so, once it comes out on video)?

Get your butt in a boat.

Challenge #26: Go To The Beach

Here's a summery challenge for you:  find a beach somewhere and go to it!

Maybe this is easy, for you live within walking distance of a lake or an ocean.  Or maybe there is one just a short drive away.

For other people, getting to a beach might be a herculean task.  Maybe you have to plot out an entire day on the calendar to get to a beach and back.

But that is why I decided to make it a challenge; because even though I live in Michigan, the state surrounded on three sides by water, I live in the lower middle, where it's a bit of a drive to get to the shores of the big lakes. And, I confess, most of the small lakes around here with beaches aren't all that interesting, and usually very crowded with what our family (living in the sticks, as it were) refer to as 'city people'.  Not in a derogatory way; just as an identifier:  "all those city people from Lansing (Detroit, Ann Arbor, etc)".  Meaning simply that that particular beach is the only one within an hour or more and will be crowded with every beach seeking member of the metro population.  Not like the more spacious beaches of the big lakes, and definitely not like the beaches of Lake Superior, way up in the top of the Upper Peninsula.

I think that is where DH and I got spoiled on wanting quiet, sparsely populated beaches--those few years we spent living in the U.P.  It was after we moved back downstate that we got so picky about having a beach that wasn't full of 'city people'.

I digress.  Back to the topic at hand!

When my kids were little, and I wasn't working outside the home for hours and hours every weekday (so, like 1998 to 2002), I often took them to a nearby rural state park with a small beach that wasn't full of city people. The beach itself wasn't anything exciting, but it was water, and sand, for a hot day and you weren't cheek to jowl with a bunch of other human beings who were also seeking water and sand.

We would get out one of my big rectangular laundry baskets, load it up with beach towels and not-yet-inflated swim rings, as well as sunblock and snacks.  It made the perfect beach tote for a large family: everyone's necessary gear fit into it, and it could be hauled by two of the kids if my hands were filled carrying smaller siblings.  We also took water or lemonade in our gallon sized thermal jug.  With those things, we were ready to spend a hot afternoon relaxing at the beach.

Then we moved to this little place here.  Neither DH nor I knew of a beach within a half hour drive of our new home.  I also worked until one o'clock every weekday, and part of the afternoon on Sundays.  I stopped taking the kids to the beach for those two reasons.  Unless we were on vacation, my kids didn't go to the beach again until their late high school years, when they would be invited occasionally by friends to drive about forty-five minutes to get to the favorite 'local' one.

Well, when we were in South Carolina earlier this month for Toad's birth, I finally went to the beach again.  I confess, it had been two years, since DH and I's short trip to Myrtle Beach, since I'd been swimming or just sat in the sand and relaxed.  And, when DD2 suggested it--let's take K3 and go to the beach!--I resisted at first.  Unfamiliar area, the ocean and it's currents, so many people, yadda yadda yadda.

But she talked me into it as a way for K3 to run and make noise and have some fun when her life had just changed dramatically with the arrival home of her new baby brother.  Now she had a super tired Mommy and Daddy, and people dropping by all the time, many of whom were telling her to sit still and be quiet around the baby.

So, since grandmas are such suckers for wanting their grandchildren to be happy, I agreed.  I even drove!  A feat in itself since DH usually does the driving/navigating in unfamiliar areas.  But he and DD1 had left the day before because both of them needed to be back to work, while DD2 and I stayed a few extra days to help with the whole 'bringing home a new baby' thing. So if DD2 and I were taking K3 to the beach, I needed to drive us there.

And you know what?  I had fun.  I had so much fun on that beach with K3 and DD2.  It was so enjoyable (and, being a Monday after the holiday weekend, the beach was pretty empty) that it made me wonder why I didn't make an effort at home to get to a beach at least once a summer.

Hence the idea for this week's challenge.

Go to the beach.  Even if you think it's a lot of trouble to get to.  Even if you aren't excited about going.  Just go.  Do it.  Pick one, make time in your schedule, and go.  You can thank me later.

DD2 & K3, heading to the water

shrimp boat, coming in closer as the tide came in, covering up most of the beach 

(same boat that is barely visible in top right corner of the first picture)

Challenge #25: Count Your Blessings

I almost hate to title this challenge as such, because counting your blessings seems to be rather a trite phrase and practice touted by those self-helpers (and zealous religious persons) when a person is feeling overwhelmed by the events in their life.

Trite or not, it is an exercise I do when I feel myself focusing more on the negatives and 'have-tos' than the positives and 'want-tos'.  So, today, I find myself mentally counting my blessings.  Maybe you want to write yours down as you count them, I sometimes utilise pen and paper in my blessing counting.  But this morning, I am mostly busy doing other things with my hands, so it is a list in my head that I am creating.

Such as:

1. I am blessed with wholesome, homemade bread.  (We are down to our last 1/4 loaf, so making bread is high on today's to-do list for me. And since I don't want to buy that chemical-laden stuff called bread from the store, I must make my own.)
2. We have been blessed with abundant rain this season.  (So much so that the lawn needs to be mowed and the weeds in the garden seem to grow knee-high in just a day or two. And the hay still stands, a month late in cutting.)
3. I was blessed with a week and a half of having K3 at my house.  (I am cleaning up and stowing away the books and toys she played with while here.  Missing her too, but oh so glad for that tiring time I got to have her with me. Long distance grand-parenting is hard on the heart.)
4. I am glad to have a garden to weed.  (Really.  Even though my back, legs and one elbow are stiff and sore from all the weeding I've done in the last two days and there is still so much more to do before I'm caught up, I realize that many people are not able to have a garden at all, and here I am with nearly a quarter acre!)

See what I am doing?  Instead of overwhelming myself:  "oh woe, I have to make bread", "oh woe, the lawn needs to be mowed again--and the hay is still not cut--because it keeps raining about every second or third day", "oh woe, I miss K3 and look at all this stuff I have to put away", "oh woe, the horrible weeds in my garden, I'm never going to get them all", I am focusing on how blessed it is to be given these tasks and situations.

If you are feeling overwhelmed at all today, count your blessings. It's hard to count them and not feel some glimmer of joy. 

Even if you are content right now, count your blessings.  It will make you feel even better. 

As so many things in life are, it's all a matter of attitude.  (How's that for some more trite rhetoric?)

Challenge #24: Go on a Picnic

When was the last time you went on a picnic?  Eating fast food in your car or on the bleachers at your kid's little league game doesn't count.

No, a picnic needs food prepped and packed from home, plates, napkins, and a blanket.  It requires you to sit on the ground.

It's been a while since I actually did that: sit on the ground and eat food that was served on a blanket.  Usually when we eat outdoors we use a picnic table or the little wooden folding camp table that a neighbor made us years ago as a thank you after DH gave him some rough sawn pine boards.  But what with having K3 visit this week, I'm doing all sorts of things that I haven't done in a while.

Pb & j, lemonade, cookies, some fruit, and a blanket in the yard. Easy peasy picnic!

Now it's your turn! Go on a picnic (pb & j optional, you can eat fancier if you'd like, but don't forget the blanket!) and you can leave the yard if you wish.  ;0)

Challenge #23: Make Dessert

This should be a challenge that everyone can participate in.  I can't imagine anyone out there in the wide wide world who might be reading my blog and is unable to take part in this challenge.  It's not limited to those who have children, it's not limited to a certain gender, it's not limited to those who live in rural areas. It's not limited to those who have animals, or gardening space, or crafty aspirations, or cluttered closets.  This is a challenge without prejudice, lol.

Make dessert.

There it is, in all it's glory: make dessert.  Whatever your heart desires.  Or, maybe whatever you have readily available.  Right now, for us at this little place here, it's strawberries.  We have enough strawberry preserves in the cellar to last another year or two, so I'm not so concerned with 'saving' the strawberries that ripen daily this week and next (and then that's about it for my personal strawberry season) for jam making.  Instead, we are eating our fill of them.  Strawberry smoothies.  Strawberries on my breakfast granola (yum yum yum!  and yum again!).  And of course, strawberries in desserts.  Last night was parfaits made with chocolate pudding, fresh strawberries, and freshly whipped cream.  Pure decadence!

Plus, this Sunday is Father's Day, and most people I know have some sort of special meal for their dad or their husband (ie. their children's dad) on that day.  Add dessert to that meal, and you've got this challenge wrapped up.  One of those no-brainer kind of things that you can look back on and feel a sense of accomplishment for without actually having to add in a herculean task to your all ready busy life.

Besides, who doesn't like dessert?