My daughter is on spring break this week. I guess technically so am I--from taking and teaching classes, at least. So starting on Friday night my younger sister and I started a marathon craft night that spilled over into a craft weekend followed by a Monday morning craft time with my daughter. I had one primary goal: to deplete the supply of fabrics in my overstuffed scrap box so I could actually shut the lid on it. (I have this huge box of cotton scraps accumulated starting clear back in high school.)

So I made tops for three quilts and seven or eight lined gift bags. But then I had to buy batting for the quilts and fabric for the bottoms and ribbon for the bags. And a better cutter. And a lot of thread. And guess what? Fifty bucks later, after adding the leftover batting and fabric to the box, I now cannot shut it at all.

Yet while I utterly failed to accomplish that goal, I also created some fun stuff that I could measure. I don't mean literally, though I can do that, too. I mean I can see the tangible result. In most of what I do--parenting and teaching--I see zero short-term result. So while I need to make more room in the closet, I do have the satisfaction of knowing I started and finished something I can actually see.