Random + sickies

I haven't posted in so long in general, even though I wanted to post more often this year.  It was one of my goals.  Something about marketing and growing my business and all of that.

Basically, I've been battling sickness now for I don't even know how long.  It started late last year, with general feelings of weakness and nausea.  I thought I had everything from diabetes to high blood pressure to stomach cancer and beyond, but finally I got tested for H. pylori bacteria, and it turns out that was what was wrong with me.

I'm in the middle of a course of antibiotics right now.  Feeling weak and tired all of the time doesn't make for a very active craft life.  I've had days at a time in which I felt too weak to even hold my own head up, much less sit at a desk and make things.  Those days I've had that weren't too overshadowed by pain or issues were such a blessing to me, and I've been making things a bit at a time, as I felt better.

I felt really great over this weekend, but completely crashed last night and "woke up" this morning feeling just as bad as I ever did at my worst.  ...If you understand that by "woke up", I mean I managed to make myself mobile enough to take care of bathroom things and take my medicine, then almost immediately crash onto the couch again.  I worked REALLY hard this weekend, between Easter dinner and my mother-in-law visiting (which is a good thing) and I ate too much at the Easter dinner I made.  I think that's what my problem was this morning.  I had a cat nap on the couch and put some drops of peppermint oil in my water and I'm feeling on my way to better again.  Obviously, I have enough energy to sit and type this post, and while that may sound incredible, it's a huge improvement.  I feel so grateful these days to even have the strength to unload my dishwasher or put laundry away and, let me tell you, I never thought I'd ever be grateful to do either of those things.

I've made things slowly, but haven't taken many pictures.  Here is a random assortment of those pictures I happened to have in my phone, and which have happened to be uploaded to my Picasa, so I can put them on the blog without too much trouble.  It's just a random compilation of shots of my life over the last couple of months, with captions.  These are all either things I've made, or things I can be grateful for, or things that made me happy.  It's good to dwell on these things.  ^_^

I was at my Wednesday morning church group for I believe the last time I felt well enough to go, and I got a text message from Adam.  He said, "I miss your beautiful face."  I had my table hostess snap a picture of me and I said, "Here it is!"  ^_^  I love my husband.

I got all of this sock yarn with coupons at JoAnn.  I love the Patons Kroy sock colors, but it always strikes me as expensive to spend $6 for a 50g ball of sock yarn even though I feel no pangs dropping $20 for 100g of Malabrigo at Tempe Yarn and Fiber.  But Patons isn't Malabrigo, as any knitter knows, so I wait for coupons to get it.  It made me happy.  ^_^

I felted my River Stones purse, pattern by Yumiko Alexander.  I haven't finished embellishing it at this point.  I can't wait to finish it!

Over Spring Break, we got supplies to make paracord bracelets and my sweet Thad did SUCH a good job on his very first try.

He was so proud!  It was fun to have a day of crafting with him.

At my latest doctor's appointment, I was filling out the medical history paperwork and this question was on it...  How would you not know if you were married?  I laughed at the fact that the alcohol question was right after, and right after that was the smoking question.  There was an "unknown if ever smoked" box to check on that, too, and I was laughing so hard.  I told my husband, "If you can't remember if you've ever smoked, then you probably smoked WAY TOO MUCH."  Anyway, again, these were some funny moments I got even as I felt bad.

I started a new doily, inspired by my friend's circular shawl knitting.  I don't want a circular shawl, but I was so charmed by the patterns that I decided to start a doily to use up some leftovers of 100% alpaca lace yarn that has been staring at me from my newly organized scrap yarn display.  I love it!

For Easter, my sweet Thad dressed up and when he walked out, I couldn't believe how grown up and handsome he looked.  This, right here, along with his brother, are the two best things I've ever made, and they are a constant source for me of joy and fierce, fierce pride.  These boys are amazing.

I have a lot of other great things to share (like, for instance, how cute Elliott looked in his Easter clothes!), but, again, this was all that was in my phone.  Every day there are reasons to laugh and smile, if we only keep ourselves ready to seize them when they come along.

I'm off to crash on the couch again, watch some Murder, She Wrote, and possibly knit some more on a shawl I'm making for one of my friends.  She's going through a lot more than I am (even though I'm not really going through very much... I think it's more the long term feeling of it than anything for me, not so much a severity) and I want her to have something to make her smile, too.  Keep us both in your prayers.

Oh, and I thank God for knitting and crocheting right now.  I can still do either of those things while crashed on the couch and watching Murder, She Wrote.  ^_~  Knitting and Netflix Instant!  I love it!