Winter Blues

I have always struggled with the winter blues...some people call it seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. January and February are usually the hardest months for me because they're cold, windy and dreary. We usually have lots of days of sunshine but when the storm clouds roll in it can get dark and depressing. It took me quite a few years to figure this out. When we bought a house with huge windows on the south and I could get more sunshine I knew for sure that this was an issue with me. I felt so much better in that house. When we sold our house and were house shopping in town the need for good southern exposure was as important as any other requirement. I spend most of my time in my home, it needs to feed my body and spirit.
My sewing room on the other hand is in the basement in a room with no windows. I tend to feel claustrophobic in there and get depressed if I spend too much time down there. Someday we plan on moving the boys to the bedrooms downstairs. When we do I am planning on moving my sewing room upstairs where I can work in the sunshine.
Meanwhile we've had a few dark and dreary days. Some extra stressors have come up and I'm fighting the darkness that wants to grab hold of me. I'm tired, teary and angry all at once. And I'm not proud of myself at all. I just want to crawl into bed and stay there until spring.
So I'm taking my vitamins, drinking a bit of orange sunshine, turning on peppy music and I may even force myself to get over to the rec center and walk off some of the blues. What I really need is a fun night out chatting with friends, but that is hard to do around here because people don't seem to have time for friends. I'm determined not to give in...what do you do to fight the blues?

Preston is 7

Age 2

Age 6

Age 7

Keeping it Real

I would love to sit down and write a nice post about Preston's birthday and post some pictures but it's going to have to wait.  My to do list is growing exponentially and my bathroom is in serious need of cleaning.
So I will be back, hopefully sooner than later, and hopefully with a sense that my chores are done and I can write a bit without feeling as I'm neglecting my job.
Happy Tuesday!
Kris

Book Recommendation

My librarian suggested that I read James Patterson's book, Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas. What a good read. It was incredibly sad, and yet sweet.

I suggested to the librarian that she read Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. She was having a hard time getting into it when I talked to her. I'm anxious to see if she's finished it yet.

Thimbleberries Club

We have a very nice little fabric store here in town called The Silver Thimble. Every month they have Thimbleberries club and do a block each month. I had wanted to join for quite awhile and last year I actually remembered it before the first one started in January. My motivation for joining was that if I had to do a block each month I would actually get a quilt finished instead of another UFO project. It was a great idea, and it worked in principle. But then we got to November and the border. The thought of making 196 sawtooth blocks was a bit overwhelming to me and I lost momentum. So I have beautiful blocks made, I just need to get them assembled and finished up. (But then again, that is another story for another day, and I found a secret weapon that I'll tell you about later)
Tonight is the first Thimblerries meeting for 2011. I got my first month's pattern and the fabric. We have an entire month to finish it, which is good since I'm still working on all my other projects. This year's pattern is called Border Blast and I'm working in the Northern Lights colors.

You can get a better look at them here at the Thimbleberries website.

A side benefit from joining this club is that I have met a lot of really neat women who are all willing to share the skills and knowledge they've picked up. I know that this is a place I can go with my questions. And to be honest it's just plain fun!

Works for me Wednesday

This is a replica of my mp3 player. I actually have 3 different kinds but this is my favorite one. This little baby allows me to read books wherever I am, thanks to something called Nebraska Library Overdrive. This is such a great program. All I do is go to their website, enter my library's name and then my library card number. I choose a book I want to listen to and then download it to my mp3 player. All free of charge! If you live in Nebraska check it out and see if your library participates.
The one thing I really like about this is that I am able to listen to books while I'm sewing or driving or even folding clothes.
It definitely "works for me".

One more class

Tonight is the start of my last class I need to take the realtor's exam. I was hoping for something fun...the only class they offered was Real Estate Finance. Bummer, eh?
Well, I got my book and I'm actually getting excited about this. Although as a realtor I won't be making loans, the bankers do that, I will be able to offer my clients helpful information that could prepare them more for the buying process.
I am excited about getting this much closer to my goal.

Nothing to write about...

Life has been slow here the past few days, and after last week that's a good thing! Both boys have missed school due to some kind of fever/stomach bug. So I've been entertaining them and reading books while they watch the same movies over and over. It's been a nice respite for all of us.

But...I do have to say that January seems to be be taking it's sweet time to end this year.

A not so pretty week

Sunday morning we woke to a couple of inches of snow. It wasn't much snow and the roads weren't bad so we left for oue daughter's home. About 70 minutes into our drive the traffic on the interstate came to a complete halt. It was very scary to come through a mist of blowing snow to see trucks and cars all screeching to a stop. We could see about 100 yards up that there was an accident. So we all sat and waited. And waited. Finally hubby got out and talked to some people who had walked up to the accident. There were 10 semi trucks and 5 smaller vehicles tangled up and blocking the entire east bound lane of the interstate. The amazing thing is that no one was injured. We continued to wait for someone to come move the trucks so traffic could get going again. At this time we'd let the boys out and we'd all run around the van and stretch our legs. After four hours we saw the first tow truck come. People were getting tired of waiting, some people were running out of gas...so a few SUV's decided to cross the median and turn around. After a few people did that, one man took his snow shovel and dug a path across so that he could cross in his car. Then a few more cars went. We had been hesitant about trying it because we were afraid that if we got stuck we'd be in a worse predicament than we were already in. But we followed the cars and went back west until the next town. The traffic was backed up for miles. There were also quite a few more accidents, one looked pretty bad but I never heard of any injuries.
We finally got to our daughter's house at 6:00 pm. What usually takes us 3 hours took 9 and we were all pretty tired and cranky by the time we got there. Amazingly the boys were very good the whole time we were sitting there. I know they were getting hungry but they didn't complain. Alex had a meltdown during the last hour of the drive, but I couldn't blame him...I was tired of sitting too.
Then Monday came. We had to be in Omaha by 11:00 to see the neurologist. We got up to find several more inches of snow had fallen in the night. We got out of town and the roads had been cleared but were pretty slippery. It took us longer to get there than usual but only about half an hour. The clinic called us as were driving there and said they were closing early, could we come on Tuesday instead. To say that I was annoyed would be putting it mildly. But we were in town, we had another appointment in the afternoon and probably would get home really late so we decided we'd spend the night and see the neurologist on Tuesday rather than make another trip. About an hour later they called back and said they had decided to close on Tuesday too so could we come on Wednesday. This is where I got a little owly. We live 5 hours away. When we make these trips my husband has to take time off of work and it's costly to drive that far. We have to include meals out and sometimes hotel rooms. And here there were asking me stay another day?  To top it off we were in a store that was open and busy. The mall parking lot was full. The roads had been cleared and it was barely snowing! I was ticked. I really wanted to yell at this girl...but of course she was just the lowly office girl it wouldn't do any good. She hadn't made the decision.
You would think that would have been enough bad news for the day wouldn't you? But no, of course not. We thought Alex's incisions were healing really well, but they weren't. Apparently the sutures that are supposed to stay deep to help the muscles graft in are trying to come out. We aren't supposed to be able to see them, but we can. So, we're going to give them some more time to see if they'll stick. The dr said Alex's body could be rejecting them because they're foreign tissue. We have to wait a few weeks and see how they look. Either they'll stick, or they muscles will graft and he'll have to remove the stitches...or we'll have to do surgery again. We'll know more in 3-6 weeks.
We came home, or we started to...after 3 hours on the road it started getting really rough and slick so we decided to spend the night in Kearney. That turned out to be a good decision because hubby's parents and two of his sisters were there for a class they're taking. So we got to spend some time with them.
Yesterday we came home and had much better roads. We got home and the front door was frozen shut. As hubby tried to get the door open the door handle busted. Meanwhile Preston who had been feeling car sick started to vomit. Thankfully he made it outside the van.

This morning I woke up and prayed and decided that life is all about attitude. I was going to focus on the good and not let all this get me down. Yes, we're broke, but we're healthy. Yes we sat on the road for 4 hours but we were safe and alive. Yes, Alex may need more surgery but....okay, hard to find a positive about that one. But I wanted to try not to dwell on the negatives...

Then hubby's pickup wouldn't start in the cold....no problem...we'll cope.

Then I washed clothes and my washer broke.

Really Lord? This week? Today? I know...perspective and attitude...counting my blessings...or at least trying to.
I think I'll just go to bed and stay there until February or so...

Back to Omaha

The little man has a follow up appointment with the surgeon in Omaha on Monday. We were fortunate to get an appointment with the neurologist on the same day, thus saving ourselves another trip. When you drive 5 hours one way, that is a big deal. Anyway, Alex's eye looks great and I'm anxious to see if the dr feels the same way.
The best part of going east is that I get to see my kids in Hastings on the way. We'll spend the night there tomorrow night and enjoy some quality time. I'm sure hugging that grandbaby will be on the agenda.
There is a storm coming in, so I'm praying for good weather, dry roads and safe travel.
And if I'm really lucky I can talk hubby into stopping at the bakery that has the really yummy cookies before we leave town. (smile)

My Word for 2011



I feel like the last 6 years I have been in survival mode. Some years were better than others, but still, I have been putting my gears in four wheel drive and slogging through the mud, slipping and sliding all the way.

I have decided that I need to be more deliberate in the way that I live my life. If I don't like the way that it's headed than I need to figure out how to change it. Now I know all things can't be changed...some things have totally upturned our lives and we had no choice about it all. But I think my attitude makes a big difference in how I let these things affect me.

Now to my word:  THRIVE

When I think of thrive I think of success, of growth, of positive attributes. I want to thrive in my relationships, in my personal life and mostly in my spiritual life. I want people to look at me and say, "wow, Jesus really shines through her!" Now that's what I call thriving.