National Apron Day, and other things.



(my beautiful Mother, on a tandem bike with her sister, in an apron, having a good time!)

I love National Apron Day!

I love the looks on people's faces when I'm sportin' a festive apron out in the marketplace. Some look away, like, "oh, my. I don't think she knows she's wearing an apron." Some are just curious, and when I tell them it's Wear Your Apron Day, they say, "how cool!"

Today it will be filling the gas tank (gas is at $3.62, and I'll get 20 cents a gallon off at Kroger), the dollar store, Wally World, and the florist, ordering a corsage for Alvin Fernald's prom date this Saturday. This evening will find my apron at the softball field. Three of my boys are playing on the church team. Spreading the apron love in my little corner of the world.

I finished my second semester with another 4.0 GPA. It's fun to challenge myself to get all A's. I wish I could have grasped this concept at age 17...

Now for summer. It's kind of scary how much Hope I am putting on this summertime. So many, many things on my list--decluttering, reading, quilting. I want to do them all, but just like any other time of year, the amount of things I want to do cannot physically be done. And I am an all-or-nothing girl (cue Ado Annie singing "with me it's all or nothin'...), so it is difficult for me to give anything up. But that just sets me up for frustration. Can you see the little hamster on the wheel, goin' nowhere fast?

I remember the summer between my seventh- and eighth-grade years. I decided I wanted to read 100 books that summer. (it was slightly easier because school years were 170 days as opposed to the 180 days they are nowadays, so we had twelve weeks of summer instead of ten.) Most of the books I read were about 325 pages long. I read 350-400 pages a day. And that didn't mean I didn't do plenty of other things, as well. Lazy days with my bestie Vicky. Bicycling, ice cream, and Dark Shadows on tv. But my weekly visits to the Bookmobile (before branch libraries, the library had bookmobiles that came to the neighborhoods) was the highlight of my week. The librarian soon learned what kind of books I liked, and made sure there were ten or twelve selections "just for me." I kept my list on the back of my bedroom door with several columns: date, title, author, and number of pages. I ended up with about 107 books, and was very, very proud of myself.

I was thinking about that summer the other day. It made me sad on one front, knowing I will most assuredly never be able to read 100 books in a summer again. (I can't even imagine doing that in a year--that would be nine books a month!) But that accomplishment reminds me that I do well when I keep a log of things I've done. So maybe the answer is to keep logs--one for reading, one for quilting, one for decluttering.

It. Just. May. Work.  But, first I am making three costumes for the play/recital Blackeyed Susan is in in three weeks. She is dancing with a small Christian company, so the costume budget is limited. We got as many things as we could at the thrift store, but I'll be sewing for several days.

But then--watch out!