Shopping online or your local small business?

I own a small business and I shop online.  I support the 3/50 project with my business and in practice with several small local businesses and I shop online.  I am an Amazon quick fix junkie for some things.  I can have a quick shopping fix right from my desk or my favorite chair if I choose.  I know.  It’s a problem.  Sometimes it’s a budgetary problem.  Sometimes it’s an “I live in rural America and this thing isn’t available here” problem.  I’d rather this item of the moment was available at my local department store, but it’s a specialty item.

When I work on a project, I love the touch and feel the craft materials I use.  I have not had success choosing materials from a catalog or an online site because I am so tactile and sensory about the process.  If I order something crafty, when the desired item arrives it’s the wrong color, the wrong size, and the wrong shape.  It goes to a dusty shelf and I reorder or try something else. 

When I travel with the family, we specifically search out yarn and fiber shops.  I gather their addresses in advance on Google, KnitMap or SweaterBabe.  I plan out the time to visit.  My family usually goes for ice cream after they drop me off at the LYS.  It’s a long adventure and they know it.  And I get something there that I cannot get at home in my favorite chair.  I pick out a random skein of beautiful yarn or a shop pattern.  I have a nice chat with someone who lives in another part of the country.  They usually don’t know that I own a yarn shop because I don’t share that.  I am seeing what other yarn shops feel like and that is best done incognito.  I want to know the atmosphere and character of the shops I visit.  I soak it in because each shop has a different feel.  And I write down something interesting about each one.  I look for ideas that I can take home and that are worth using another time.  You can’t get that on Amazon. 

A new video!

Attention Deficit Disorder of the fibery variety and a recipe

I have been very busy this week.  My New Year's Resolutions contained things like:

1. Make gifty items throughout the year so that everyone had a knitted gift.

2. Revitalize the shop blog

3. Put items in the online shop so that my distant visitors could have access to their favorite things.

4. Organize the filing system.

5. Organize the desk so you can find the filing system.

6. Feed family nutritious meals while you are doing all of the above.

So this week I have started on some of those items.  The blog post is written as you must  be reading it right now.  The online store has items in it to create beautiful things no matter where you are in the universe.  We will send it to you pronto.  The knitting projects in progress are in evidence on my desk.  I can count 3 scarves, 2 seconds socks, and one dishcloth.  All small projects to be sure, but they meet the objective of working on gifty type items so that no one is left out by December.  My desk is still a heap but right now, I am saying that that is just how I work best.  All of the important stuff is there somewhere but it is hidden from those people who don't need to know.  My secret filing system is working.

The nutritious meals part of the goal is somewhat lacking.  The fridge is full of genuine food items.  The family got a good breakfast, but the regularity of meals made and eaten at the table is still slacking.  For the record, my youngest made a great fruit breakfast thingy this morning.  We are calling it Breakfast Ravioli.

Breakfast Ravioli
Ingredients:
2 crescent roll sheets, not the perforated ones
1 brick cream cheese
brown sugar
orange marmalade
2 half pints of berries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Directions:
1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
2. Unroll one sheet of crescent roll dough
3. Spread softened cream cheese on the dough leaving a 1/2 inch border around the edges
4. Sprinkle brown sugar on the cream cheese lightly
5. Pile the berries on the sugar
6. Drizzle berries with marmalade
7. Unroll the second crescent dough on top of all of the fruit and goodies and seal the edges.
8. Prick the dough with a fork to let out steam.
9. Bake for 20 minutes.  Cut into pieces and enjoy.

Frustration 2

Today we took a road trip to Primary Childrens Medical Center in SLC.  We go there on at least an annual basis and sometimes much more frequently.  We needed to see the asthma doc.  The asthma doc measures my kid's lung function and adjusts the meds so that we can live life.  Today he listened to my report, read the reports from the ER and asked, "What happened?"

Darned if I know.  We were cruising along with some minor bumps, allergy season hits and we have some more frequent use of the rescue meds and nebulizer.  Then we had a pretty dramatic crash this week.  Two trips to the ER and then an overnight stay.  The staff at the local ER were very glad that I already had a scheduled appointment with the specialist.

Long story short- adjust the meds, go home and take it very easy for a while.  If things crash again, call the clinic.  Please come in again in the fall or sooner if things go south again.

What I've learned this weekend:
          1.  If your gut says go to the ER, go.
          2.  If you've tried everything you know how to do and it isn't working, go to the ER.
          3.  It's really hard to keep an 11 year old down and quiet.  They have to learn through tough
               experience that getting up and active too soon is pretty painful.
          4.  The doc really meant down and quiet.
               Peak flows measure the stress of up and active too soon.
          5.   A serious flare up will happen at the least convenient time in your life by grand design.
                It is a test.
          6.   I take the good  periods for granted and am surprised by the flares every time.
          7.   I have great help in my child's corner.  The doc helps a lot and the ER staff is great.


     

Frustration

We took a short car ride to the ER last night at 10 PM.  Asthma helps us to do this on a pretty regular basis.  Asthma came as part of the package deal with our 11 year old.   He has had it since babyhood.

Usually asthma is just a quiet presence in our routine.  We make sure the daily meds happen.  We take daily peak flow readings.  We fill out health forms for school, scouts, and special events.  We carry a nebulizer in the car and an emergency kit too.  We just do what you do when a family member has a health concern.  You learn all you can and then you do the best you can.

Last night none of that worked.  We did the inhaler bit.  We did the nebulizer bit.  We repeated steps A and B.  Still no improvement and a lot of pain.  I couldn't get the peak flow over 50-100.  Shuttle child off to the car and head to the ER.

We live in a very small town in a very rural region.  There is no doc that stays at the hospital 24/7.  Last night we were fortunate that the ER was already busy and the doc was there.  The nurse at the desk was right on his game and got us right to a bed.  No waiting at all.  The nurse listened to everything that I had tried at home and hooked up the O2 monitor.  The respiratory therapist came in and listened to the breathing.  The doc came and listened to everything I had done at home.   They consulted and puzzled a bit together.

The thing is, even when you do everything right, sometimes it's just a puzzle.   I gave them good information as far as peak flow readings and amounts of meds that I had already given at home.  I gave them times of treatment from the whole evening.  They were impressed that I had the info but puzzled.  He should have gotten better quickly with what we did at home.

Asthma doesn't follow a formula.  It is different in every person.  We don't know why meds that have been working stop working.  In the end, they took chest xrays, gave steroid shots, gave more neb treatments and things improved.  We go back to the specialist next week but the point is sometimes you just don't know with asthma.  But we had a really good experience at the ER even at 1 AM.

oh my

This has been a roller coaster spring in so many ways.  Usually life changes come at you one at a time.  They rock your boat.  You recover.  You move on.  Not this year for us.   We have had a new grandbaby, a child's wedding and the death of a parent in the last 6 weeks.  My boat is swamped and the lake is deep.

I believe that time is the answer to most stressful events.  Things look better in the morning.  Things have a way of working themselves and I don't have to have all of the answers right this minute.  But I wish I did.

I love our new grandbaby.  I love our new daughter in law.  They are both precious people in my life and real blessings.

I will miss my mom.  She was a rock and an example.  She lived a full life and we can only hope to do half of the things she did.  I am not sad exactly.  At least not a a lasting, overwhelming sad.  She is fine and in a better place.  She is with family members she has missed for a long time and they are having a grand reunion.  She was with all of us in her last week.  Each child, grandchild and great grandchild visited with her at a wedding and family parties.  We had good long visits.  I am grateful for that in a huge way.

I am tired.  I am sweeping up the confetti after the party.  I am putting away the party dishes.  I am filling out the papers and making the plans for what is expected after each person passes in this life.  I am writing checklists of things and crossing them off one by one.  I just got up for the day and I need a nap.

But it will be okay in the morning.

Confusion

Sometimes running a small business is a bit like a three ring circus.  Today, I find myself plotting out shop samples for the summer, ordering inventory to fill in holes and special requests and attempting to complete payroll.  All of these tasks involve money.  Guess who forgot to order more checks for the shop?

I never use checks.  Electronic payments were the best invention since the cell phone.  I am addicted to both.  Now I need  to figure out how to accomplish a task involving checks with no checks handy.  One more problem to solve.  Another theme becomes apparent.  Problem solving while directing the three ring circus.

It is clear that the white ponies have escaped and are leaving the circus with those clowns in the tiny yellow car.k