Tag Archives: everything else

I’m in Texas for Christmas, where the state motto seems to be “What recession?”. People here pay for other people to come put up their Christmas lights. You would be amazed at the light displays $5000 or $6000 can get you!

But the granddaddy of all Christmas lights displays is hosted by Chesapeake Energy. According to my mom’s hair dresser, this year Chesapeake spent $600,000 on putting up their lights, and they are spectacular!

My family went to see the lights on Sunday night so I could take some pictures, but I forgot to change my camera lens before leaving the house, so I had trouble capturing the scope of the display. After struggling for half an hour to get a shot, I realized I wouldn’t be able to show you what it looked like, so I decided instead to try to show you what it felt like. I know these pictures are a little weird but I’m really happy with how they turned out.

Whatever you holiday you celebrate, I hope you have a day filled with peace, laughter and wonder.

Back in November, I announced that I would be donating all of the money we earned through our Amazon affiliate links to Heifer International, one of my favorite charitable organizations. My heart is near bursting as I tell you that, through your support, we earned nearly $300, enough money to purchase two sheep and three flocks of chickens for families in need.

How you all inspire me! In fact, you’ve inspired me to commit to donating everything we make next year through Amazon’s affiliate program. Imagine the number of sheep we can give in a year!

Thank you. Thank you for all your support in what was an amazing year for the farm, and a very trying one for me personally. Thank you for joining our Yarn and Fiber CSA, and for your overwhelming support for our new project, The Shepherd and The Shearer. Thank you for helping us launch BY HAND Magazine. Thank you for making our commercial lines so successful, and for rewarding the local yarn shops who carry them with your business.

Thank you for your patience and all the kind words, the get well cards I’ve received in the mail, and all the “you can do it!” emails.

When people ask me how I get so much done, my answer is always the same. I have an ever-growing family of supporters who believe in me. You all make me believe I can do anything. 

Thank you for believing and for being a part of something that has become so much more than just a sheep farm.

I thought SNL’s tribute to the tragedy in Newton was terribly moving, so I wanted to share it.

I thought SNL’s tribute to the tragedy in Newton was terribly moving, so I wanted to share it.

Twice in the last week, women have volunteered to me that they stop wearing sunscreen when summer is over. And one of these two was a DOCTOR, y’all.

Seriously? Do people seriously not know that skin cancer doesn’t just attack in the summer? Is anybody unaware that photo-aging never takes a holiday? Come on, people! It takes less than 20 seconds to smear a teaspoon of sunscreen around your face and neck. Are you that busy? That you don’t have 20 seconds? No, you are not.

And please don’t give me that “It blocks Vitamin D!!!” crap. Is your face the only part of your body that’s exposed to the sun? Do you have, I don’t know, arms?  And I am speaking as someone who has a severe Vitamin D deficiency due to auto-immune issues.**

Just wear the damn sunscreen already and we won’t have to have talk about this again. Sorry to get all preachy on y’all. I hate having to use this tone of voice, but I do it because I care about you.

Also, if you were even thinking of doing meth, check out this perfectly HORRIFYING ad campaign that shows before and after pictures of people who used meth for as little as a year. (If you aren’t thinking of using meth and you have a weak stomach, DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK.) Unfortunately, the article accompanying this nightmare says that studies suggest this kind of shock tactic doesn’t actually work with potential meth users, although I don’t know how that’s even possible. I wasn’t considering trying meth at all and it sure as hell worked on me.

To sum up, sunscreen everyday, good. Meth, worst idea ever.

I’m glad we had this conversation.

** Edited to add: As my dermatologist says, “You can take a pill to get more vitamin D. You can’t take a pill to un-have skin cancer.”

 1.My dog is an old soul. Just look at those knowing eyes. Except when I was actually in a doctor’s appointment, Jack has been by my side 24/7 for the last two months. Dear Lord, how I love that dog.

 2.We are doing a really cool giveaway on the BY HAND blog right now. You can win a $50 gift card to a store I’d never heard of till recently and am now obsessed with.***

3. Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Bourbon Caramel Sauce. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that there are lots of steps. They are all easy.

 ***Sorry! I confused everyone. To enter the BY HAND giveaway you have to leave a comment over on the BY HAND post. MY BAD! I’m going to move the first two comments over to the right spot, but from here on out, your comments must be on the BY HAND blog post.

Remember that movie from the 1960s where, in order to save the life of a nearly-assasinated diplomat, a submarine and it’s crew is shrunk down to microscopic size and injected in his bloodstream? No?

Does this refresh your memory?

Well, this morning, I’m having a microscopic submarine and it’s crew injected into my bloodstream. Metaphorically speaking.

My gastroenterologist, who is nine shades of awesome, wants to sort of front-load me with a whole, whole lot of the TNF blocker drug that I am about to start taking, and in order to get the go-ahead from my insurance company, he must provide them with photographs of my small intestine.

Since the small intestine is 20 feet long, the only way to get those pictures is for me to swallow a camera the size of a (very large) pill. The aptly named PillCam will spend 24 hours in my body, taking a picture every 3 seconds and sending it to a hard drive I’m wearing on the world’s ugliest belt. It will take a total of 870,000 images of my insides, like some kind of relentless, digestive tract paparazzi.

This technology is just fascinating, really.

It is also really, really, really expensive. But not quite as expensive as the drug injections themselves, which is why the insurance company is requiring the additional testing before they pony up the money for the medication which will add up to a staggering total over the rest of my lifetime.  Staggering. Scientist could probably come up with the technology to shrink a submarine and it’s crew to microscopic size for less money than this drug is going to cost my insurance company.

I have to say, I am incredibly grateful that I have health insurance right now. I’m even incredibly grateful to my insurance company. I strongly suspect those words have never been typed in one sentence before. I probably just set off an alarm at Google HQ for screwing up the internet with a brand-new, never-to-be-used-again search term. But it is absolutely true. They have been much more Santa Claus than Grinch during this process, and approving this drug protocol is huge.

You can read this blog from now until doomsday and you will never, ever find me saying that I am grateful for getting sick. I know a few cancer survivors who can honestly say that, but they are better people than I. I have hated every single millisecond of this experience. If I could wave a wand and make all of this go away,  I would do it in less time than it took you to read this sentence.

But.

But being sick, and feeling miserable and tired for six months has mellowed me a bit. I am less reluctant to allow people to see my vulnerabilities. I am less quick to turn down offers of help.

I have also developed a depth of empathy that I am embarrassed to say I was sorely lacking. Before I got sick, I had all the empathy of a group of 6th grade boys, which is to say, none. I saw people who allowed illness slow them down as weak or just sort of unambitious. I am mortified that it took getting ill myself to see my own absurd attitude. I was dismissive of other people’s pain, even if it was only in my head.

This disease has humbled me and made me a better person. I am grateful for that.

If you were ever thinking about moving to Texas, do it in December. The weather is positively GLORIOUS here- sunny and 70 degrees. Like California weather.

What more could anyone ask for?

Wait, you want more?!?

Fine.

How about a picture of a goose eating pumpkin?

Done and done. I’m a big believer in giving the people what they want.

I do need to ask you for a favor today. I need you to cut yourself some slack. I need you to accept compliments with just a “thank you” and not a list of excuses for why you don’t deserve them. I need you to hush the judge-y, mean-girl voice in your head. Today, I need you to treat yourself the way you treat your very best friend.

If you’re having trouble, just think of the goose eating pumpkin. It will hereafter be our symbol for treating ourselves with kindness!

Can you do this for me, please? Can you try? And can you pass that request along to all the people you care about?

I would be most grateful.

I wore myself out today working on a project for the BY HAND blog. Go check it out over there and I’ll be back here tomorrow.