Being Creative

I have been trying to make a point to be creative often, almost every day if not every day.  With the weather getting nicer, I am spending more time outside with the kids.  I have been able to bring some projects outside with me, which has allowed me to create as well as allow my kids to be outside which they love.

Recently, I have been making dolls, or at least attempting to make dolls.  I remember loving dolls as a child, especially the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that my grandmother made for us.  I remember having life-size Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls as well as small ones.  I was lucky enough to have a Raggedy Ann doll for my daughter and a Raggedy Andy doll for each of my sons, made by my grandmother.  I actually have to make a Raggedy Andy outfit for my twin son's Raggedy Andy.  I am hoping to create some dolls for charity, as well as for fun.

 My attempt at a Waldorf doll

Baby Bows Doll in the outfits that my twins came home from the hospital in. I still need to make one for my oldest!

A sleepytime doll that I made for my niece for her Christening

The more I create, the more I realize that I love doing it.  I know that I need to make time to have this as part of my life.  I am hoping to make being creative a major part of my life, and not just something that I do when I find the time. I know that I need to start spending time actually getting good at a craft before I move on to something else. There are many times that I think that I have ADD, seriously, and the creative arena is o different. I flit from one project to another, never committing to fully learning and fully succeeding at the one I am working on. I want to stop being average at the things I create and start being proficient at it.

 I also want to start getting more creative in my cooking.  The farmer's market in town is starting in a couple of weeks and I hope to start buying more local foods and start being more creative with it.  Between my BRCA2 gene mutation (I think I have decided against surgery, at least for now) and my son recently being diagnosed with PDD NOS, I really need to watch what we are eating.  My goal is again to eat more local and to eat way more fruits and veggies (little to no animal protein for me due to the BRCA2 mutation), and decrease, maybe even totally eliminate gluten and dairy (we again have greatly reduced it, but not totally eliminated it, both my oldest and I are sensitive to it).  Part of my problem with cooking lately, is that I am bored and not feeling very creative with my cooking.  I am hoping to get inspired by going to local farmer's markets and even just walking around.  I am hoping to find some good cookbooks and some good online sites that can help to inspire me.

I am hoping to find a job at the end of the summer that will be able to take into account my love of creating.  I am under no illusion that there may not be anything out there like that, but I would love to try to find something.  I still have a few more years before I go back to work full time.  I hope by then, I can figure out how I can do work that I love instead of just working for a paycheck.  I do like being a social worker, but I don't love it.  My husband thinks that it is just because of fear of doing 1:1 counseling, but that is not it.  I don't know that I want to do 1:1 counseling! I'm not really sure I know what I want to do, but I really want to wake up and want to go to work.  Hopefully I can figure out a way for that to happen.

Amy

Some Progress

So I have made some progress with my diet changes.  I have been having a green smoothie every day, at least at some point during the day.  If I can eat it for breakfast, it really helps me to think about what else goes in my mouth for the rest of the day.  I have actually been able to lose a few pounds.  Nothing grand, but my docotor noticed it when I took the kids to their appointment today!  I need to make sure that I keep drinking my raw green smoothies and then coninue to make more changes as time goes on.  I need to continue to remove dairy from my diet and now I need to add gluten to that for both me and the kids.

Eliminating dairy for the kids has been an absolute success in my mind.  Michael is breathing better, sleeping better, more social, less skin issues etc.  Why would I ever give him dairy again?  The other two kids are also not ingesting any dairy either, but there have not been as marked chages in them as with Michael!  Eva Rose is not gainign weight like one would expect, but really seems to be doing well with every day life.  The boys are still on the small side, but seem to be growing on their curve.  Their doctor said that their head circumference is on target which is a good sign.  I'm really not worried.  I have come to realize that I don't have chucky monkey babies.  I have small skinny active babies that just would rather be on the move than eat.

As of right now, I am exhausted.  I really need to make a point of going to bed early tonight.  Befoe I do that, I really need to plan out my grocery list for tomorrow.  I need to have a plan in place to buy the food that I need for the week and not over spend on things that will just get wasted.  I need to plan some meat meals for the kids so that they will have a little bit better of an intake.  I need to plan more bean meals for me and my husband.  I need to plan some non dairy, non gluten desserts/snacks that will help keep me on track and do better for the kids.  Hopefully another post soon will be total progress, not just some.

I really need to work on my for my swap.  I need to get some tuck in together and get the package ready to mail.  I love doing swaps since it forces me to complete projects.  I have so many projects in the works it isn't even funny.  I'll just keep plugging away and hopefully get some more completed!

Amy