Come Stitch With Me

On Mondays, I work as a literacy enrichment instructor for a local private school. This provides a purpose (and a small stipend) that helps keep me part of the happy retiree camp. I’ve had an absolute ball choosing stories to share and selecting the accompanying maker activities each week. Unlike my school librarian days where I had a budget (school and personal) to buy whatever I needed wanted, that is definitely not the case now. The school and I are both on a super tight budget this time around.

How do I handle it? Most of the books I read are borrowed from the public library, which means I have to plan ahead if I’m reading a holiday story. Craft activities are kept simple and re-engineered to use supplies already on hand. Yes, I do still buy some books and supplies (the new Pigeon book, green cupcake liners, small pompoms and red/white pony beads), but it generally averages out each month to what I’d spend on lunch with a friend. Books are added to Sadie’s READ library and leftover craft supplies are utilized in future projects. Any supplies left once enrichment classes end will be donated. It shouldn’t be much.

Here’s what we’re doing for for Christmas:

Week 1
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff (Reindeer paper bag puppet activity)
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh by Mo Millems
The Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas by Laura Murray (Gingerbread boy/girl ornament activity)

Week 2
Cobweb Christmas by Shirley Climo (Christmas trees made from cupcake liners)
Charlie and the Christmas Kitty by Ree Drummond

Week 3
Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Wilbur (Candy canes made from pony beads)
Crystal wreath kits and/or popsicle stick Christmas trees

One book I really wanted was the Legend of the Christmas Poinsettia, but it was unavailable. I’ll keep checking back and will slide it in on Week 3, if a copy becomes available.

Yesterday, I listened to the Retire Sooner podcast while out running errands. This week’s episode (#173) was about the how much good health contributes to a successful, happy retirement. The guest discussed how the USA pays the highest amount per capita in the world for healthcare, but our health stats are near the middle to lower tier of developed nations. He went on to list several reasons why he thinks this might be the case. Very interesting reasoning. Our country is more apt to “take a pill” to fix whatever ails you rather than doing preventative things that take more time and effort like eat a healthy diet and exercise. Of course Big Pharma, the food companies and the government all play a role in our health outcomes. He reasoned it would take politicians willing to do the hard work needed to fix our healthcare system and not be concerned about re-election before anything meaningful got accomplished.

So what can we do? We don’t know when our last day on earth will be, but people have a lot of power in their own hands to make sure they are as healthy as possible up until that time. The average age before aches and pains start to set in is 66. The average life expectancy is about 77. If you eat right, maintain a healthy weight. exercise/move and enjoy meaningful social connections, there’s a much better chance you’ll be enjoying a longer, active life in retirement.

This message really hit home. My recent physical was a mixed bag. I knew something was off going in, but couldn’t tell exactly what it was (menopause, BP meds, general aging). Side effects from my BP meds were reflected in some of the bloodwork, so we changed it. It’s taken two weeks, but I finally feel more like myself again. Increasing my water intake and getting outside for about 1/2 or more each day seems to have helped in addition to the BP meds change.

Don’t know about you, but I plan to be active and independent for as long as possible. My primary care physician told me a lot of that rested in my hands. Losing 30# and incorporating more movement (walking, yoga, dance, etc.) would have the greatest impact for me.

I write many of my own patterns and instruction sheets for the kid’s classes that I teach simply because most project patterns are written for adults – not 9-12 year olds. When I ran the Stitching Stallions maker lab at my previous school, our Friday sewing club members served as my unofficial pattern testers. I was able to tweak designs before teaching classes at Stitch N Quilt or the SQTM.

The students who sew with me in my home studio on a regular basis are referred to as my CraftLAB kiddos. Working with them gives me a really good idea of how long it will take to complete a particular project. They’re scheduled to make the READ pillow around the same time that the kids at the SQTM will in December. Fortunately, one of my CraftLAB kiddos wanted to make the pillow early. I am so glad she did! With everything precut and fused, it still took 90 minutes to complete the pillow and almost as much time to do the applique letters. Yikes! My “pattern tester” definitely informed my decision to contact the SQTM and advise that we needed to revise the schedule by extending the December project into January and rescheduling the January project to a later date. There’s no way I can reasonably expect the 6 students at the SQTM to complete this project in 75-90 minutes. To ensure student success, I’ll modify the project so the girls can cut their own applique letters using the SQTM’s die cut machine and use any extra time for them to make/stuff their own pillow inserts! A win-win because the SQTM has an abundance of polyester fiberfill!