The Owl Craze and Chronic Pain

Howdy Dynamos!

I am the first to admit that I'm pretty late to the owl craze.  I was an early adopter on the sparrow madness a few years ago, and frankly, it became annoying when everyone I knew had all the same stuff I did.  I'm not into matchy-matchy (ask Jake how many times I've told him to change his shirt because we were wearing the same color).  Mostly I like one-of-a-kind stuff.  I march to the beat of my own electronic drum machine.  But the damn crochet owls have worn me down with their extreme cuteness.

I made Mims an owl bookmark. She's got reading homework this year (20 minutes every day) and anything I can do that makes it more fun for her to get out a book is good for me!

I've been fooling around with some tiny owls, trying to make some that would be tiny enough to wear as earrings. (I used craft thread and a size B hook for these, to give you a sense of scale.  I should have put something in the picture to help you visualize it, darn it.  The small owl in the center is about the size of the end of my thumb.)  These are still a little large, but they would make a cute necklace.  I'm also thinking that they would make a pretty cute zipper pull...  The purple one is just the right size to make a key fob that you won't lose in your purse.  I need to make a trip to the craft store.  I sort of jumped the gun by posting about this project.  I'll write it up as a pattern when I get the kinks worked out.

Completely off the topic of crochet, I have recently discovered that I'm allergic to everything yummy in the world.  I have had these stabbing pains in my abdomen for the last couple of years every time I ate.  Sometimes they would be so bad and intense the pain felt like it ran down the inside of my leg all the way to my knee.  It's funny what you learn to live with.  I realized that I wasn't any good for my family, living with constant pain.  My temper was short, and I was unable to be flexible when things didn't go as I had planned.  I didn't want to be that kind of mom, or wife.

So I've removed wheat and dairy products from my diet and most of the refined sugar too (but that's only because most of my sugar was eaten with wheat and dairy... mmm, cookies...).  If you were wondering, the first few days were not fun.  But now that it's been a few weeks, I'm finding a new normal.  My stomach pain stopped after a couple of days and it hasn't returned.  I can't remember when the last time was that I went this long without it.

Okay, this part is weird, but I've got to mention it.  Jake and I have stopped having arguments since I started eating this way.  We went from not being able to spend more that two hours together without it turning into World War 3, to maybe having a slight disagreement once every few days.  Weird, right? We were laughing about it yesterday, and I thought it was worth mentioning.  Now, I'm not claiming that eating this way fixes serious marital problems, but I think that if one person in a relationship is in chronic pain, or living with some sort of extreme stress, it's very hard on the other person.  We realized that neither one of us was getting the love and support we needed, since I was using all my 'extra love' on just being pleasant in normal situations, and frankly, he was tired of me being hurt and sad all the time.  Our marriage has been a bumpy ride, but it was never as difficult as the last few years have been.  It hadn't even occurred to me that my health and the health of my relationship were so intertwined.  Taking care of myself has brought me benefits in so many ways.

So let my story be a cautionary tale.  If there's a way that you can take better care of yourself this weekend, do it!!!  You'll be a better partner/parent/sibling/bff to the people who love you!  And yes, if yarn therapy is what makes you feel better, I give you permission to indulge yourself!

xoxo