Tuesday Morning

It's a beautiful sunny morning. Every morning I feed peanuts to the squirrels and the birds. If I am late they sit on the deck and wait. The blue jays squawk and complain and the squirrels peek through the door and when they catch a glimpse of me they put their little hands up to their chests as if they are begging and give me the saddest eyes.

Watching from the tree to see if I have the 'goods'.

On the deck railing checking out the peanuts and deciding which one is just right.

Having a bit of a wash after breakfast.

This is the first time this squirrel has seen the camera. He was quite confused.

He did a little war dance all around the deck railing to make sure the camera knew he wasn't scared of it. Look at his tail. He was spinning it around so fast I'm surprised he didn't take flight.

He came in close to get a better look at it, then decided it wasn't worth worrying about and went to grab his morning peanuts.

A New Month

Every spring our tiny little yard is full of nesting birds. Each pair carves out its own little territory and then sets to work raising as many babies as they possibly can before summer ends and the cold Nebraska winter sets in.
This means the occasional baby bird braving the first few days out of its nest on our lawn. Or, in this case, under our deck.
At first he was really not impressed with me taking his picture. Even though I was quiet and kept my distance and moved very slowly I have many photos of him looking like he was frantically trying to escape a sure-death situation. Eventually, he decided I was more annoying than dangerous and posed nicely for me. He even followed me about for a little bit afterwards. Until mama bird showed up with a nice tasty leggy thing for him to eat. With such a banquet laid before him he obviously lost interest me.

Today's Priorities

There are so many things I 'should' have done today. So many things that would have marked me as a productive and hard working adult.

However, I chose to do something else entirely.

I woke up still feeling pretty sick. I showered, made a judgement call on breakfast (I skipped it, not wanting to deal with more nausea) and got a few little things out of the way. I am still doing most things from bed this week. Not my place of choice but I have learned the hard way that listening to my body is the best course of action. It's not really that bad, I can still get a lot done and I know that there were times B.C. (before Crohn's) where I would have loved to work sprawled out on my bed surrounded by comfy pillows and soft blankets, dressed in my favorite p.j.'s with a cup of tea right at hand. (Doesn't sound too bad put that way, does it?)

I started to make a list of things that I should do today. Patterns to check over, a design to chart out, a sketch to finish and writing, writing, writing.

My oldest daughter, Shelle, came in with her bowl of oatmeal and talked about work, how she was tired, how she had to drive Katy (my younger daughter) to the library for her volunteer time, drive Nathan to work, and then go back out and get Katy. She said she would rather be taking a nap and how she had to work a long shift to closing tonight. I smiled remembering how it wasn't so long ago that she would spend her summer sleeping late and complaining she was bored during summer vacations.

Between her 'taxi-driving moments' she hung out with me and I showed her some things I had found on the internet that I thought might interest her. We talked about the evolution of Sailor Moon and girl gangs in Japan and the different types of 'emo' there now were. We talked about how the words 'prep' and 'preppie' had evolved from when I was in high school.

When Katy came home Michelle went to catch up on things she had to do and Katy told me about her shift at the library, about giving out prizes to the little ones who had reached their summer reading goals and other things that had happened. She showed me the shrug that her friend had knitted and given to her.

She showed me an old movie she had found and shyly asked if I wanted to watch it. It was the 1979 Muppet Movie. How could I not want to watch it with her?

She ate lunch while we watched the movie and we talked and chatted and worn out I fell asleep 20 minutes before the end of the movie.

When I woke up Katy was baking cookies.

Nathan and Michelle came home soon after bringing with them a new, huge, litter box with a door flap. The cats are viewing it with great suspicion. I don't think they like the door. They seem to like staring out at the world from under the dome on their old one as they go about their business. Except for Oliver who glares mightily at everyone. Not that we stand around give the cats an audience when they have to tend to their little personal needs. Just something caught in passing.

Scott came home from work, hung out and decompressed for awhile and told me about his day and then went to the grocery store.

Katy and I played a few games of one of the many versions of trivial pursuit we had.

We talked about Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett dying on the same day. She said it was weird that a star she had grown up knowing had died.

We ate dinner and watched the Muppet Movie again so I could catch the parts I had been trying to watch with my eyes closed and we played Disney trivia pursuit. We played the adult cards this time and I was amazed that my 'little' girl knew so much in both of the trivia games.

We played a couple of hands of Uno afterwards and I promised to play more board games with her tomorrow.

Sometimes I'm not sure if the time I spend talking with my girls, watching movies with them, playing games, looking at pictures and things on the 'net does the most good for them or me. I do know I cherish those times and I am pleased that I ignored my first impulse to stick to my schedule and get other things done because, right now, I feel like I had a full, satisfying and accomplished day.

Something With Meaning

A long time ago I purchased the URL Somanystories.com with an idea in mind. I wanted to tell the stories of real people. But, I backed out and the site went through many different incarnations. I was trying for what I thought people wanted. It never worked for me. Sometimes the site would be popular but more often it would fall flat. That was to be expected. None of what I did was what I really wanted to do, my heart wasn't in it and when that happens, things just don't work.

It's hard to put something that means so much to you out there because it can be rejected, it can fail, it can lose its way.

People are going to look at it and judge it and stomp on it and in a way they will be looking at me, judging me and stomping on me. However, I also know that some people will look, judge, and like it.

The interesting thing to me about this is the whole time I was working on it I never thought about its possible popularity, I just wanted it to be easy to update and easy to read. I wanted it to work for me.

And now, as I go forth to add my stories and take a chance and talk to other people in the hopes that they will add their stories my only concerns are that I can do the site proud. That I can bring it to what I envision it without getting side tracked and losing the vision.

Even harder, I am baring my soul to the world and I'm going to ask people, the majority of which have problems communicating, to help me bare their souls to the world.

I believe this site has merit. I believe So Many Stories will help people, will give people a voice and I believe that what I am trying to do is important.

Even better, I now feel settled and balanced and ready to move forward. I have my little Etsy site up, and I'm working on content. It took me a bit to narrow it down to just a few things to sell because I love making everything but that isn't realistic. I am happy with my choices of bags, shawls, beaded things and dolls. These are the things I like to make best and feel confident with my designs.

I have So Many Stories finally launched and I can move towards something that I feel is so important. Hopefully destroying myths, and giving a voice to those that sometimes have trouble finding their own voice.

And of course I have my beloved Crunchy Bits and through it, all of you. A wonderful thing indeed.

AUUGGHH!!! I broke it!

Hang on to your hats, we're going to recode again.
I was trying to remove the stupid 'read more' code after talking to a few people and a couple of comments I decided to get rid of it.
With the read more code I was trying to reduce download times for image heavy posts, however, it seems that the whole read more thing irritates people more than download times.
Bear with me, I'll get this done quickly and we'll be up and running again.

Believe me...I promise to leave it alone for a good long time after this. For my own sanity as much as for yours.

All Done...

Mostly done. Done with the set up with Crunchy Bits. Everything should work off of here here, now, I hope. If something is giving you issues, please let me know. Especially the 'read more' function. I am having the worst time with that. If anyone is an expert on it and could give some pointers I would so appreciate it.
Now, all I have to do is....

I have been re-working So Many Stories. I am going to use that site to give a voice to adults who have Autism/Asperger's and their family and friends. The early version should be up soon.
I've also been trying out different ideas and patterns for Paisley Rain. I have been trying out different things with the materials I have at home so I don't go off buying things that I won't/don't need.
These are some of my earlier ideas:



This is a decorative pillow. I am thinking I am going to rework the pattern a little and make a few variations of this. I like it. It's a happy thing.




I love free form beading and I tried out a few different ideas with this piece. Still not quite right.



Two little dolls. I am reworking these in different sizes, styles and fibers. Oh, and there will be beads from time to time, of course.



This was just so cute and sweet, how could I resist not making her?


This is my favorite silly thing that I have made so far.

Making A Few Changes

I have so many different things going on that it has been hard to keep up. I've decided to have a centralized location with Crunchy Bits as the hub. To do this I need to make a few changes to the blog. Which is what I am doing right now. It should take me a few hours, so please be patient and hang on, and everything will be up and running soon.
I hope.