Oh, it's good to be back~

How has everyone been?  Our computer finally died and it took us a while to get back up and running.  In the meantime things have settled down some. 

Last night we had Kiah's parent/teacher conference and it went really well.  He has been doing so much better~ better behaved, doing his homework more independently, and listening the first time. We have been giving him Synaptol, Omega 3's, magnesium, and some melatonin to help him sleep better.  Now if I can get my husband to get on the regimen since he suffers from ADD also and has all of his life.  Yes, it proves to be quite an adventure doing anything with my fam.  The boys with their ADD, granny with her dementia and me, I am no saint myself.  I suffer from anxiety so bad I don't drive.  So yeah now that the HIPAA privacy policies are no longer needed and everything is out in the open. 

I have had the luxury of getting out a couple times this past few weeks and had a blast  at our annual Halloween party.

     Beginning of the Party~                       

As I digress~

     Hiking Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve~

      Have you ever seen a bird like this?  Look at his beak~

    I just about ran into this spider after I was freaking out and running around crazily because I swear I felt      something crawl in my shoe.

                                      Natural Bridges State Park~  

            

I finished up all my ornaments for the 2 swaps I am in.  Now it's on to planning my son's Baseball Party, finally being able to participate in Julie Pritchard's Texture Town, and hopefully getting more listed in my sorely neglected Etsy store.
How 'bout you what have you been up to?  What crafting plans do you have for this holiday season?

I am sorry.......

It has been very hard for me to get back in the swing of back to school things.  Kiah has been having trouble staying focused.  This caused a lot of problems last year.  I thought we had it pretty much controlled by the end of the school year.  The doctor said if he did have ADD it was a slight case and he didn't need medication.  The school said he didn't qualify for any support because his IQ was too high.  Well here we are this year and the teacher is already hinting at putting him on medication.  Not those exact words but I am not dumb.  He is always trying to get me to let him stay home, saying he hates school.  He has a lot of friends and does well on his work.  We just got some of the standardized testing scores home and he is basically in-between basic and advanced.   In math he is so close to being advanced; so what the heck!  We have started him on a vitamin regime and I am in close contact with his teacher.

Besides that things are picking up at work.  Which is good I was really starting to worry.

Here are a couple of crafting things I have done to stay sane along the way. 

A soldering class with my friend Raquel.  It was a fun technique to learn but will take a little more practice and a new higher powered soldering gun.  Oh my God when I typed that I heard the Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunting sound.   Yeah baby more power.

My Orange mixed media canvas

And some cards I made for a challenge at Stampington & Co.

I wasn't sure about the top picture at first but now I really like it.  She is the Goddess of Our Burning Desires.  The butterfly and image of the woman came from The Graphics Fairy.

These photos are from my camera phone that's why they look so washed out.

Hope all is well in your land

Sorry this is a rambler~McDonald's Coffee High

 Wow, it's been almost a week since I last posted.  It shouldn't seem so busy. Especially since we only have a couple kids in the daycare.  It has been really hard on my mom and I for the last couple months.   We will have parents come to look at the daycare, but we never get a call back.  I think it is for various reasons: old dog, wanting educational based care, cheaper care.  Whatever it is, we're hurting and wondering if we should even still do daycare.  My mom has been doing daycare for 20 years and I have helped her for at least 13.  I love being able to work with her because it enables me to also care for my son and also my dad's mom.  And who doesn't love working from home (or mom's home).

I have hope that my little online shop will flourish so I can really do what I love and not have to worry about not having very many kids.  And that in lies a bunch of stuff I not sure I can handle. 

I should be jumping up for joy because I finally made another sale.  But instead I felt discouraged, frustrated, and to tell you the truth plain stupid. 

I have been doing a lot of reading on entrepreneurship, Kelly's workshop, Deepak Chopra. There has been a lot of questions like, "If you could do anything, what would it be?", "What is the one main thing that's calling to you?" Or implying it's better to pick one thing to specialize in.  But thinking of just one thing makes me feel like I have Crafter's ADD. My mind jumps from one photo, scrapbook page, vintage item, sewing pattern, clay brick, paint bottle.........I could go on and on.  I wouldn't want to have it any other way.

So as far as etsy goes.  I would like my shop to be like a gift shop of sorts.  Some vintage items here, natural body products over there,  with my other crafty whatevers interspersed.

I became enamored at the possibility of making collaged canvases with the ton of ephemera I have collected over the years.  Some being images that I have cut out of various calendars/books/magazines.  But then came the issue of copyright, since I have no way of remembering who the images are from.  Granted I can just make them for myself but what fun is that.  Copyright laws are so obscure and hard to figure out anyways.  Anyone have any advise or a link to some that are easy to understand?

Lately I have been posting my business-type stuff to-do list here on Mondays as a form of accountability.

1. Practice driving!  (I know I am almost 30)
2. Change shipping on etsy.
3. Fix up shop page- policies, bio, what-nots
4. Work on website
5. Finish up tutorials

 I feel like I can babble on for days but I'll spare ya.

Hope you all have a good week!

This picture above in my take on the Echo challenge - Stripes.  You can visit the group here.

Overload....

The last couple weeks has been an whirlwind. On Monday the 8th we had an appointment with Kiah's doctor. It was to discuss Kiah's difficulty focusing. The doctor showed me this chart with all these numbers and lines all over the place. I couldn't have been anymore confused. I could not understand it at all. From what the doctor says there is a high probability that he could have
ADD, but a low probability for psychological disorders......Okay. If anything he would have a very mild case of ADD. The Rx for that is less video games, discipline, and scheduling. Easy for them to say.

I took it really hard. What I heard was it's all up to me. If I thought it was going to get better; no, it's going to get harder. I don't know what I expected... some powerful magic disciplinarian words that would, all of a sudden, make him a good boy? Or some sort of miracle drug that would make him a perfect student with a zpd of 5.5-6.5. I ended the appointment by saying how happy I was that Kiah had not gotten sick in over a year. Wish I had wood to knock on cause a couple hours later he had a fever.

The next morning I broke down and practically started crying when I had to call in his absence. Kiah is very prone to fevers, he even gets them when he has allergies. His temperature was 99.3 but if your temperature is above 99.1 you can't come to school. Just thinking off spending an extra 6 hours with him almost sent me over the edge. I know that sounds mean and awful but sometimes I have to use everything in me to literally not run away.

Because he was sick on the 9th he missed his second grade performance "Peter Rabbit". I was upset about this too, which added to my near emotional breakdown. We were planning to leave almost an hour early so we could get good seats because last year were in the nosebleeds and could hardly make him out in the sea of 1st graders.

He ended up going to school Wednesday, staying home Thursday, and going to school Friday.

We have been trying to adhere to the doctor's orders of 1 hour of game and t.v. time. Surprisingly I think it has been helping. Kiah has been very well behaved and we have been able to spend time together having fun. Which is a lot better than screaming and hollering at each other.

Last Saturday we had Linsey's 26th birthday. I planned out a Woodland Tea Party theme. I started planning it a couple months ago. I would make all these decorations from recycled materials and take such good pictures of it someone would want to feature it their magazine. I know....high hopes. It all caught up with me too fast. I did manage to go to the Dollar Store and get a bunch of fake flowers, butterflies, and streamers. I also made some really awesome flowered headbands for all the girls. They turned out so cute and were super easy to make. At the Dollar Store the headbands were 4 for a dollar and I already had a ton of fake flowers. I just arranged different flowers petals together and held them together with a brad. Then glued them to the headband with E-600. I also bought a bunch of stuff at the last minute from Bake It Pretty. I could look at their site forever, they have have the cutest things. Party success good food, good company, good time. I wish I would have managed to snap a pick of my cool Dollar Store decorating. Talk about cheap and it did kinda look like a woodland wonderland.

On another note I couldn't be more shocked more than a 1,000 views on my Flicker. I feel like all these years of taking pictures and wasting money on cameras, and all that comes with it, has finally paid off. It really makes you feel good when you can wake up in the morning and see peoples comments and awards. It truly is amazing and for that, Kiah behaving, and being able to celebrate another one of my sister's birthdays, I am truly grateful.