Bettacreek - New home? Plus a pic of some of the ladies here

[savingdogs]

Christmas stresses me out so much too, I have grown to hate it. So much expectation and hype. This year we really have tried to opt out of all exchanging. I'm only buying things for my closest family and mostly going with gift certificates so they can choose something themselves at the after-Christmas sales. Not very inventive but it makes shopping quick and they can get something they need or want instead of me buying something useless or cheap.

I hope you feel better! Maybe you need more light, we are getting to the short -day time of year.

 

[Denim Deb]

Have you been to see a doctor? You could have something broken in there. I know I was in a car accident a few years back. I kept telling the doctor that I was in pain, but the x-rays had shown nothing. He finally sent me for a bone scan, then called up and apologized for not listening sooner. I had 4 cracked ribs.

 

[Bettacreek]

I drank a second cup of my blues tea and I'm doing so much better now. This stuff is absolutely freaking wonderful. It isn't as strong as the St. John's Wort capsules, so it works better for me. The capsules throw me way off into manic world, but this tea gives me just enough to pull me out of my slump and into happy world again, lol. I started using it this summer though, so I will probably need more now that I'm not outside soaking up the rays. So this winter is looking up. A good man who actually supports me (instead of saying "why would you want to be a "effing" slug and not want to do anything and be miserable?" he says "hey babe, is something wrong? You've been quiet the past few days, I'm worried about you") and finally learning to figure stuff out (in fact, Jas is the reason I've really been determined about keeping it under control) is making things a lot different. Life still isn't peachy-keen but I can always seem to find good out of the most crappy of situations now.

As for my back, I'm not sure. I don't know what I did to it, I don't recall doing anything that would have done any damage to it. It hasn't been pinching like it was, I would stretch and it'd pinch and just hurt like the dickens. Now it seems like it's mostly muscle pain around it. I do need to call around, but once again, our phones are out (my mother had them come fix it two weeks ago, and now it's back out again).

My friend works at the church near my house. I'm not religious in any way, shape or form, but I've been doing some of their activities, simply because I like the whole "community" feel of it. The boys and I went down for their Halloween thing, and I'm going to be donating a bunch of soaps for their food bank this month (they get food from donations and the state program, but rarely get in much of the other necessities, such as toilet paper and other sanitary items, like soap). I'm hoping to be able to donate soap every month, and I don't see that it'll be too big of a problem. There are only 22 families at this food bank. One loaf makes 28 bars (I then use at least one as a tester), so one batch per month should be sufficient. I'm going to try to donate a variety of scents though, so that people don't get stuck with one type.
My friend texted me today and let me know that she signed us up for the toys for tots program. That will be so awesome. I certainly can't make anything cool for the boys for xmas. :/ I was going to do some treats, but wanted to get "real presents" as well, which was a bit of an issue. Now if I can swing for just a few presents, then they'll still have a "full xmas" like we had as kids.

 

[Bettacreek]

Next show is tomorrow. I think that one will be our last until spring. There is an indoor farmer's market each week about twenty minutes from my place, but I'm just not sure what the flow will be like. Our last show was pretty bad. Not many people showed up to the event at all, and I worry that the weekly show will have similar results.
I finally worked out a good recipe for a clay facial mask. Need to make up the label for it. I had to nix the baking soda that I wanted to use in it. It caused irritation in my skin, and I have pretty unsensitive skin, so someone with more delicate skin would have felt like their face was on fire. The new recipe is pretty nice. No irritation and it makes my skin feel pretty awesome (well, so did the other one, but the irritation is a definate no-go). The old recipe I'll probably still use for myself, as it did seem to really draw the yuckies out. The new recipe doesn't seem to be quite as good, but, again, the irritation...
I also nixed the gift basket idea and I'm going for gift bags instead.

The yucky mood is definately gone. At this point, I'm in a *slightly* manic state, which is the best mood I can be in. It's my "ass in gear" mood. I have to set up an appointment to get my tooth cap fixed (I suspected from the start that the dentist screwed it up, and now it's starting to bother me). Then I'm going to contact my old boss, who left work when I did. When I left, she specifically told me if I need a good reference or anything, let her know, and she'll help me out. She was the head boss at work, so a good reference from her is excellent. Then I'll use one of the supervisers who I was good friends with.

Anyways, gotta get my arse off of here and get cracking to get the craft stuff finished.

 

[CrimsonRose]

glad you are in a feel better mood! This weather is killing me... dreary weather always puts me in a dreary mood... Hope the craft show goes well!

 

[Bettacreek]

Finally did some research on cloth diapers. Since the boys started daycare and I have to buy wipes again, I realise just how much I liked NOT having to buy the damn things, lol. There are some really neat cloth diapers that are just like a disposable, and you use a liner. I was turned off once they started talking about scraping poop off the liners. So, not willing to give up, I googled ideas with paper towels to see if it was possible to use a liner and then just line that with paper towels so that you could just pull the paper towel off instead of having to scrape the washable liner. Now just to get the diapers and liners, lol. I will still have to get disposables for daycare, but they've been going through about four diapers per day there. Twenty diapers a week means that I can get away with buying about one box of diapers per month instead of two about every three weeks. I'll have to buy the paper towels, but ya know? That's a LOT of saved money and still not really any extra work. I'm scoping ebay for diapers. I'm not sure how many I'll have to get. We've got a ton of washcloth wipies. I think I bought two 18 packs. I can't afford that many diapers of course, lol.

 

[Bettacreek]

Some good stuff going on around here. I've heard of some calming tea that may help with mania. That'll be a little more "legit" than drinking a beer or two to try to bring it down, lol.

I also got a deer. The little spike that comes in the back was hit on the other side of the woods. The blood was all still fresh and the fur wasn't "stuck", but free-moving against the flesh, so some random guy helped me load it into the back of my Baja, I hung it (I used my entire weight, hung from the rope and pushed against the tree, etc until the boyfriend said to tie it to the car and pull... duh) skinned, gutted and then had the boyfriend come down to help me quarter it (I forgot how to do the ass end and was frozen so made him do it, lol). I still have to cube and can it, but I didn't lose any meat from it being hit.

Also start my new job tomorrow. I'll be a "personal care aide". I'm starting out at $.05/hr less than my old job, but with lots of room for raises, which my old job stopped giving people, lol. Plus it'll be a taste of what I'll be doing in school.

Haven't made soap in awhile. It was nice to have around for holiday gifts though! I've been slowly selling more each show, so hopefully by spring I can introduce a few more products and actually make some money at the shows, lol.

 

[savingdogs]

Good luck with the new job!

 

[murphysranch]

It sounds like you are do soooooo much better! Way to go!

I know you all talk about venison, but can you imagine that I've never had it? And we have cute little deer that roam around our property. But they are not big at all. Don't know what type they are out here in Northern CA.

 

[Denim Deb]

I almost got a deer right b4 Christmas. If I hadn't know the habits of deer, I would have had one! But, seeing as I was going 50 mph at the time, and not really wanting to mess up my truck any more than it is, as soon as the 1st one crossed, I slowed down. I missed the 2nd by about 2 feet.