Tag Archives: Craft Shows

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Snow Gives Way to MUD

We had a very snowy February and March here in North Central Idaho.  Snow slid off the roof creating giant banks of snow on the side of my house and barn.  We plowed the driveway clear with the tractor this year, and created monstrous sized mountains of plowed snow all over our property. 

But now the sun is shining during the day, and the snow is melting off.  Thankfully it’s been a slow process so far…but nothing can stop the spring MUD.  Mud on the driveway where the sun hits makes for a slimy trip to and from the highway.  Mud where we park.  And ever so slowly the snow and ice is melting off too.  I may not be able to see the grass in my yard for several more weeks, but walk ways that have been plowed are melting quickly – I think we are down from 6 inches of packed snow (and let’s face it…ice) to just an inch or two in front of the house.  By the weekend I may see some gravel – or mud more likely.  But it’s progress!!! 

Now my prayer focus is that the weather continues to cooperate and our spring melt is slow and gradual, with cold overnight temperatures, and minimal rain.  You see, my house sits down in a valley along a creek bed.  As the snow melts above us, gravity does its thing, and the spring runoff fills our creek to capacity – and often over the banks.  We have lived here for almost 15 years now, and nearly every spring is wrought with worry and careful monitoring of the creek’s behavior.  Most years it is uneventful, with the water running high for a week, cresting over the banks for a few hours each day, and then receding.  But there are times when the runoff runs faster than we would like and the water level rises up to the house for a 6-8 hour nerve wracking stent before it goes back down.  As long as we have lived here, we have been lucky enough to avoid any water damage to our home – and we do carry flood insurance – but we know our home has flooded in the past.  There are 2 times that the water was high and we went through the house and picked up all the important stuff off the floor, piled things on beds, couches, tables, said a few fervent prayers – and went to bed.  We have been blessed to wake up to dry floors and receded water, but it humbles you in those moments.  You have to make quick but decisive choices about what really matters, and what will be just part of the mess. 

Isn’t that just human nature though, to worry about the things that are out of our control?  To spend hours planning for what ifs and then what – thinking that maybe if I have a perfect plan, and do all the right steps in the right order, I can influence the outcome.  Right???  No.  Really I can’t.  I can’t influence the weather.  I can’t alter the flow of the creek.  I’m not that powerful.  But I can have a plan to grab the dogs, a few essentials for myself and them, pick up a few things from the floor, and park my car on the top portion of the driveway – in case we need to leave quickly.  And that is in fact our plan – one we hope we don’t have to initiate, but we are prepared for.  It’s simple and without a lot of detail – because what will be will be.  If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that I can’t control everything, and there is no point to letting worry and fear consume me. 

These past few weeks I’ve been working on preparing for my spring craft shows.  I’ve been making soap, lotion, lip balms, salves, creams, trying to be diligent about keeping my database up to date.  I’ve filled and shipped a few orders, which is always nice, and have made sure those get recorded in the database too.  This coming weekend my plan is to spend a few hours back in the soap room and label and pack up what I need for the craft shows.  It takes a few focused hours to get that done, and I’m oddly looking forward to doing it and checking that off my list.  I need to make another couple batches of lip balm and at least one batch of my Courageous cream, and then the first weekend in April I will package up the last of the soap I need, wash my table coverings, and hopefully be ready for my first craft show of the season.

Spring makes me think of hope, new life, and new opportunities.  This past year has been a challenge for me in many ways.  Of course, a great physical challenge has been recovering from spinal fusion.  And now today, feeling fairly well recovered, I have time to think about what this next year has in store for me.  Spring time is also when I feel very connected to my MRKH family.  The annual MRKH Day in Ann Arbor is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I will not be attending this year.  I was able to attend last year, and to spend a week with my dear friend Chel for a much needed vacation, and it’s a trip I still think about nearly every day.  This year there should be an MRKH conference in Seattle, and I will make every effort to attend that one.  Obviously, Seattle is much closer for me making the travel expense more reasonable. 

I’ve been thinking about my MRKH a lot in the past few weeks.  I’m sure it’s because I’m working on Courageous products, and the conference is coming up.  But it’s little things too.  I was invited to a baby shower for a tiny new blessing at our church.  This little one is a rainbow baby after 2 miscarriages, and the new mom is a lovely woman.  I bought sweet baby gifts, prepared my contribution for the lunch, but when the day of the shower came up – I just couldn’t make myself go.  Babies are beautiful and lovely to hold and squeeze…baby showers are hard.  So I took care of myself, and skipped the baby shower.  One of my MRKH sisters recently had a birth mom change her mind about giving up her child for adoption, and so I’m grieving alongside her and it’s hard.  This was one of my greatest fears when I was at a point in my life where adoption was an option on the table.  Could I withstand the heartache if my dream was shattered?  To be chosen, and UN-chosen?  And yet, another of my MRKH sisters is PREGNANT.  She received a uterine transplant, and now after her 3rd attempt of IVF, she is 12 weeks pregnant.  My heart sings for joy with her, and she is even posting adorable bump pictures.  What a medical miracle and a blessing from God himself.   I have 2 MRKH sisters and their families who had embryo transfers to their surrogates last week who are waiting to hear if they are pregnant – and so we wait with baited breath to hear the news.  All of these things recently in my life, and while I am gleefully happy and hopeful for the moms to be, the new moms whose dreams have come true – I am also recognizing these triggers and allowing myself to feel the pain of infertility…again.  

My peers and classmates are mostly done with creating tiny humans themselves, but now I am seeing them welcoming grandchildren into their lives.  A new chapter, a new generation, another layer of legacy they are adding to this world.  I look at my life, and while I’m not leaving a genetic legacy, I hope that I am leaving a trail of compassion, love, acceptance, service, and grace.  I am content in my role of mentor and not mother.  I know that I am making a difference in the lives of the people whose paths I cross.  I know I am living the life and love of my Creator for all the world to see.

Matthew 5 15-16
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Spring??

According to the calendar, it is officially still winter for another week. But we did change the clocks for daylight savings time, and the sky is actually blue today, so maybe…

This has been a heck of a winter here in the Pacific North West. We got most of our snow in February – but so far March has done it’s fair share of adding to the difficult morning commutes. I’m honestly not sure which is worse, a morning commute after a foot of snow, or a morning commute after 4 inches of snow. I’m grateful for the highway department who provides snow plows and ice melt, and generally makes it possible for me to get to and from work each day. I’m also grateful for 40 degree days and 20 degree nights with blue skies. This allows the snow to melt during the day, but slows it back down overnight – which ultimately helps me not be quite so nervous about spring run-off and the potential for flooding! We currently have about 2 feet of snow on the level, but mountains of snow banks where it’s been plowed off the driveway. While we often have some snowbanks left still thawing in April, I’m thinking it may very well be May before they all melt this year.

Speaking of spring…I’ve been spending my weekends preparing for spring craft shows. This past weekend (which I extended to a 4-day weekend!) I did quite a bit of production. 144 bars of soap, 120 tubes of lip balm, and an assortment of lotions, creams and salves. I still need to do a couple more varieties of lotions, but I’m feeling much more comfortable with what I have on hand preparing for the spring craft shows. Over the next couple of weekends I will spend some time actually packing up my craft show bins and getting things organized. My craft show trailer is currently surrounded by snow all the way around past the tops of the fenders, I am hopeful that most of that will melt off on it’s own and I won’t have to do too much to get it pulled out and loaded up. Just under a month, so I’ve got my fingers crossed!

It’s been 7 months now since my back surgery. I’m fairly well settled into a routine and feeling pretty normal. I’m increasing my activity level slowly, trying not to aggravate anything – and paying particular attention to my body mechanics and alignment. I’m able to do more yoga and more walking, and making sure I’m doing my stretches and exercises for my back and core regularly. In general I feel really good, and I’m looking at what I can be doing long term to keep myself healthy. I’m hopeful that as the driveway thaws out I will be able to walk at home more regularly – Bella sure enjoys it when we go for a walk, since it usually involves a ball!

I’m still eating cleanly and well – tracking my food daily and noticing/correcting patterns as necessary. The scale is still working itself down slowly and I’m trying to be disciplined about making a weekly meal plan and sticking to it. This helps me to not cook the same old thing over and over again, but also makes me think about what is in the freezer that needs to be eaten. A couple months back I went online and ordered a binder for organizing my recipes. It came with an assortment of page protectors, scrapbook style pages, and pages to fit recipe cards. After about 3 marathon sessions, I managed to get most of my recipes into the binder with some semblance of order. I often cruise around recipe blogs looking for inspiration, and print off recipes that entice me. I rarely follow them to the letter, but it at least gives me a good place to start….and if I like my modifications, I generally make notes about what I did. So now I have a binder that has all my recipes in mostly one spot. I of course, still have my cookbook collection – but all the family recipes that have been handed down, and all the magazine clippings and internet printed recipes now all live together in the binder.

For Lent this year I’m reading a book called 40 days of Decrease by Alicia Britt Chole. Each day has a scripture reading and mini lesson, a passage about Lent, and a focus on something to fast for the day: Regrets, Tidy Faith, Rationalism, Isolation, etc. It’s been an interesting read so far, and a good reminder of love, self-care, discipline, and sacrifice. It’s a great way to focus my daily devotional and bible study time, and to get a fresh outlook on scripture passages and stories I already know well. The more I immerse myself in God’s word, the stronger my faith becomes, and the more I see the relevance in my own life – as God planned it of course.

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Thinking about the future

Have been doing my physical therapy each morning like a good little patient.  Making sure I spend time walking throughout the day, do some gentle yoga a few times a week on my non PT days.  The more I move, the better I feel.  Standing around, sitting around only makes me stiff and uncomfortable.

My PT Danielle has still been out sick after her trip, so I have been bounced around to whomever is available in the meantime.  I’ve seen some assistants, some PTs, and then last week none of the openings would work with my schedule, so I did my exercises on my own, and scheduled a deep tissue massage.

Now this is no foo-foo spa type massage, although I enjoy those too – but a deep tissue massage to really get the muscles, and more importantly the nerves to release.  I was a mess, holding lots of tension deep in my muscles from months and months of pre-op sciatica spasms, and then the whole post-surgical lock down of all the muscles trying to protect my back.  Chronic pain will do that, you just tighten everything up without thinking….but at some point it needs to release.  Jerry spent a good hour and some change starting with my feet and working up to my shoulders and upper back.  I had knots deep in my calves, thighs, hips, butt, and beneath my shoulder blades.  He was able to get most of them worked out, but it left me with some pretty tender spots for a few days as they healed.  I’m feeling better now, but anxious to get back to m PT appointments with Danielle.  Hopefully no more last minute cancellations for her.

I’m anxious to work more on flexibility and strength building – I know I need the core strengthening and stability, but I’d like to work on rebuilding strength and flexibility, and find some things I can integrate into my preferred yoga and walking and spin bike work – rather than just the clinical do this many reps of this particular exercise.  I know I need both, but I’d sure like to feel like I’m adapting to real life again.

I’ve also been preparing to get back to soap making.  I need to order a few oils and supplies, which I will do this week, and then hopefully next week I can make a batch or two of soap.  I made the decision not to do any craft shows this fall, which feels a little strange honestly, but I knew I needed time to heal completely.  My intent was that I could then take the time this fall and winter to stock back up on soap, and be ready for spring without all the normal chaos of trying to squeeze it in.  I have a couple orders for Courageous MRKH soaps that I need to fill, an order of foot cream I need to make, and then just start working on restocking and getting caught up on production for spring.

I feel like I’m making good progress, able to think less about the specifics of recovery – and more about what my future looks like with a fused spine.  How to regain my strength and flexibility, and get back to “normal” life again.  I’m a week shy of 3 months post op, so about 12 weeks post op now.  You know you are far enough down the road to recovery when you think of how many months instead of weeks!  I’m feeling good.  Still have some tired and sore days, still have some days where the nerves are pissed off and I’m uncomfortable.  But they just serve to remind me to be kind to myself, use my ice, rest when I need to, stretch when I need to, and MOVE when I need to – and to rest.

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