Starting another Blog and focusing on MY artistic side!

Well, here we are going straight into the New Year and I decided that I needed to  focus on myself for a change!  I have started taking stock of all my jewelry making supplies as well as the PLETHORA of broken old jewelry I have accumulated over the years.  This is a place I could go, I thought!  My sister and I have been thinking about coming up with a way to earn a little extra money and we've been considering doing "found object" restorations.  Amy is so good at getting something, cleaning it up and re-working it into something useful!  My niece's boyfriend also likes to find stuff in alleys and re-make them.  We started thinking about this and I was thinking of all my jewelry in various forms (made, un-assembed, and old, broken, etc) that could be marketed and Voila!

I have decided to start making jewelry again!  I have started to be creative!  Where will this journey take me?  Hopefully some place fun and profitable!  Even if it just gets me back into a creative focus, I will take it.  I am so looking forward to this!

http://transformingtreasures.blogspot.com/

What a fantastic family day!

I am such a proud Mom!  Christmas has historically been very hard on Mac.  She's been known to unwrap presents "accidentally" and such...........which led to years of not putting her presents under the tree until about 3 a.m. Christmas morning.  Well, this year was amazing!  We put her presents out almost a full four days before the BIG DAY!  And she stayed out of them, for the most part!  We did allow her to unwrap one smallish present each day for each day she stayed away from the tree!  What a success!

Today was awesome!  Mac had made something for each person in the family during her sculpting sessions.  She made Bumpa a glazed coffee mug complete with designs and green and white MSU colors, Nana got the most awesome Frog Prince Charming!  Brit got a picture of Priscilla, I got a "generic" girl picture (which looks curiously of Mac with longer hair), Amy got a hand print, daddy got a Hot Air Balloon!! (two parts), and on and on.......it was so fun!

Amy gave everyone the neatest finds from all the thrifting places she and Tommy (Chelsie's BF) go and all the presents received were given with love!  Most of Mac's stash consisted of clothing, books and art supplies.  We really tried to use recycled, re-used and re-purposed gifts.  The focus was on home made and not much money spent.  I think we all succeeded.  Even Barb was amazed at the gift Wes got her (wink, wink-which means I picked out).

We also didn't have a traditional meal.  I made sloppy joe's and Den made potato soup and we had LOTS of appetizers....it was such a nice, warm, relaxing day!  Great to see Brit and everyone.  Great to just chill out and relax.

I am so blessed that Mac took such care in making her gifts and that took precedence over worrying about what SHE received.  What blessings!  I am so glad to have this family, this day and these memories!

When is this Holiday over?

So I'm not the real Christmasy Christmas person. Look, I worked retail management for over twenty years and you learn to hate the whole time. People get bitchy, there's no time to celebrate and enjoy the time you do have and you slowly learn to despise the WHOLE ENTIRE SEASON!

Fast forward to now. No more retail! Christmas should be a breeze, right? I did all of my shopping a while ago because I made an agreement many moons ago not to ever set foot in a mall (or other shopping type establishment) from November 20 till January 1st. I just don't enjoy it. I hate crowds, I suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and anxiety and I gotta tell you, I totally lose it while standing in lines of any kind. So why do I find myself doing things like standing in line at the Post Office? (On December 16th)?????????? Why do I see myself scrambling for presents for some people?

Well, it's not for me. Not for MY shipping. Nope, this is for my husband and my mother in law who obviously didn't take advantage of shopping before the season. This should be no big deal right? Well, husband hurts knee..........MIL has the dawning that: "Oh, my Gawd, Christmas is next week.....what am I going to do?" What she means is: What are YOU going to do? Because who is doing her shopping? Yup, Cinder-freakin-Rella. That's who. Yours truly.

Why are some people able to get their stuff together and be proactive and others are sliding under the rolling doors at Mall Department stores on December 24th at closing time? (Oh, yea, it happened to me in 1985, working at Hudson's Department Store in Michigan.......here comes a guy sliding on his knees to get under THE CLOSING DOOR to buy whatever was in front of him for his wife. I'm sure she felt really special......and I hope she enjoyed whatever perfume he bought.)

Forethought. Some have it and most don't. Get some..........and try to shop year 'round. You might get some thoughtful and less expensive gifts. At the very least you will feel better come this time of year!

Happy ChristmaKwanzaaHanukkYuleAshuraBodi Time!

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukka, the Festival of Alcyone or Yule, you know this materialistic time of year is really hard on special needs kids.  At our house we have learned that it's just too hard to keep hands off of presents so the tree shall remain present free (at least for those people named McKenna) until Christmas morning.  Magically they will all appear!  Safely hidden well away in various sneaky places outside of our household until then!  We learned this the hard way over the years!  Can you say unwrapped early???  Very, very early?

Well, it is hard as a child to learn patience, but patience seems to be a never-quite reaching thing in this household!  The excitement of the Season can be quite the unraveling, in fact.  So we try very hard not to focus on the date and to distract as often as possible.  There does seem to be some creative awesomeness to her and making her presents for each person has seemed to distract her from her usual over-obsession.

Perhaps there is hope!  For one thing, we've always taught that Jesus rocks but that Christians tend not to always be the best example of the MAN.....We are spiritual and believe in God(s) (dess) (desses)!!! But we have been trying very hard to teach all faiths and rituals to Mac.  We believe that if we raise her to be Spiritual that she will choose the best path for herself amongst one or several religious ideologies..... on her own.  I have been trying to share memories of my times with friends and church with her......and she knows most of my issues with the religion I grew up observing.  I'm glad that she can "try on" ideas and celebrations to see what she likes.  And by teaching her several different religious tenets we can distract her further from remembering the date of the traditional observation which will bring the family together for gift giving!

Perhaps in her rituals she will begin to understand the enormity of choices she has in Worship.  Perhaps teaching compassion as opposed to a fixed ideology will serve her better than my religion served me.  I believe she will always have faith and will find her way herself.  And the presents will stay hidden and wrapped this year!

Happy personal observance month!  Enjoy your family no matter what!

A Very Stop Motion Animation Christmas To You!

I love Joel McHale.......and who can resist Chevy Chase?  So "Community" which stars both of these wonderful actors is good.  What could make it better?  Well, to wake up being a clay animation figure, right?  Stay tuned for a very special "Community" which airs on NBC this Thursday at 8/7 Central.  I got to watch this as part of one2one network.  The whole episode.  Before it airs!  Luck, you betcha!

ABOUT THE EPISODE:ABED'S UNCONTROLLABLE CHRISTMAS
IN THIS SPECIAL STOP MOTION ANIMATION EPISODE, THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS IS LOST AND ABED’S INTENSE FIXATION ON CHRISTMAS CONCERNS THE GROUP

When Abed (Danny Pudi) wakes up in stop-motion animation, he takes it as a sign that he and the group must re-discover the meaning of Christmas. Meanwhile, Jeff (Joel McHale) and Britta (Gillian Jacobs) become growingly concerned about Abed's mental health and enlist the help of Professor Duncan (John Oliver). The group undergoes hypnosis to explore Abed's winter wonderland and soon unravel the truth behind Abed’s madness. Chevy Chase, Yvette Nicole Brown, Donald Glover, and Ken Jeong also star.

I've got to tell you that I've never watched this show previous to watching this episode.  It was kind of interesting never having seen the show before watching this specific show which consists of Stop Motion Animation.But I'll be tuning in to watch it now!

Mac watched it with me and we both agreed that it was very funny and contained a really good message about friendship.  Our reality is what we make it and all the stress of the Holiday season can bring about a myriad of emotions.  How we chose to deal with this stress will likely determine how we do anything else in life:  friends can be family!!!!  What a wonderful Holiday message.

So if your family isn't the "perfect Holiday Norman Rockwell painting?"  Whose is?  Forget about  it and hang out with some friends!  Oh, and don't forget to tune in this Thursday to NBC 8/7 central for a really nice reminder to stay sane during the Holidays!

I got to review this show as a part of my involvement with one2onenetwork!  Lucky me!

Happy Humming and Turkey!

So we are humming around here a lot these days.  This was picked up while at the hospital this fall and continues with us.......but she does it when she's happy, so I guess the Humming Turkey Day is okay!  Thanksgiving was the best ever in terms of food and fellowship!  The happy humming girl went to spend the night with the  Nans and Pops (AKA Nana and Poppy AKA Bumpa!) and life is good!

Today, Den's Aunt and Uncle came in all the way from MN to spend some time with us.  Wes wasn't doing too well so we ordered in for dinner.  We had much recollecting on the D family's past years as well as a few of my memories of spending T day with my M family.  I sincerely miss running into my Grampa's house, grabbing coffee with a lot of creamer and sugar and a cookie out of the box, quickly finding a seat and seeing how long you could stay there before you had to pee......see seating was a premium at Grampa M's and if you peed then you might stand or take a lesser wanted seat for a while.  I remember that I preferred sitting with the adults at the large Oak round table as opposed to going outside with my cousins. 

Now in the summer, there were grapes to check for ripeness on the vine or Garter snakes to scare younger ones with....but fall and winter?  Yup, sitting till ya had to pee was the way to go.  The adults played cards and told stories about things THEY had done as kids.  I loved all the stories!  They were like little tidbits of heaven.  Hearing how "Butch and Rusty" (My Dad and Uncle Russ) would have their jeans slung so low that they would get in trouble, and their cigarettes rolled up in their sleeves while on the prowl in downtown Hastings!  Or the antics of Marion and Shirley.  One never knew what stories might spill and I for one did NOT intend to miss a single one!  You never knew when a good one would emerge!

I remember all the smells; food cooking, cigarette smoke so thick I'd have to go out in the snow bank for a while because my eyes were burning, laughter, sadness, waiting for the bathroom, waiting for a chair (luckily everyone had to pee at some point!).....Christmas traditions like the "white elephant" auction!  There was a Buddha lamp that made the rounds for years!  Such joy was always in the air.  I was always happy there!

I wish that Mac had that big of a family around her.  We went there every Sunday afternoon like clockwork.  Cousins, more cousins, Aunts, Uncles, assorted friends, always at least thirty people.  I am really missing Gramma and Grampa M.  I think this year more than ever.  I see Mac growing up still with the White Elephant fun but without tons of family around.  I wonder if it will affect her.  I wonder if the family traditions will fade with time.  Will she keep them alive in her family?  Will Chelsie and Brit?  I think so.....I hope so.....I wish I could sit around that big Oak Round Table one more time and listen to all the laughter!

Finding out just how much damage was done....

Well, after a couple of weeks "homeschooling" with an internet school, I've come to the very sad conclusion that my daughter's previous school has not given her the education she deserved!  I really wonder where she would be if we hadn't pulled her out when we did!  Basic things seem to be missing from her knowledge base.  Things that I guess we hadn't noticed!  We knew there were issues with math, but she doesn't know where to position letters on the lines, which makes her capitalization difficult to decipher, and her knowledge of punctuation is so-so.  I guess because she's been typing on the computer since three might be responsible for a lot of it, but WOW!  Shocker!

I keep explaining to her that I'm not MAD at her for not knowing this stuff, that I'm frustrated that she wasn't taught correctly, but to her it seems like I think she has flaws.  It saddens me.  The good news is that she tested out extremely well on all subjects thus far.  I think it's that it's safe to say that due to her intelligence she's going to be fine!  I'm just glad that we're teaching her.  I'm feeling less overwhelmed about this teacher role I find myself in and happy for my OWN intelligence.  I see now that I can do no worse than the AZ Educational system.

Didn't we know how to tell time on a clock face by fourth grade?  Didn't we know how to write out letters and numbers?  Hmmmmmmm.......I think in some ways technology isn't such a good thing!  Happy Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for a daughter who has gifted intelligence and a DESIRE to learn.  Without it I wonder where she'd be!