Every day is a little better!

On Sunday it will be six weeks since my accident happen where I cut three tendons in a freak accident and have been one handed for that long. Nearly every day, I have some ask about it which the standard answer is I had hand surgery or someone tells me it must be hard doing stuff, in truth I seem to manage pretty good. The biggest change is more about me slowing down and less multi tasking.

Yes it is very hard to go through this but not as hard as my Mom who went trough double knee surgery last November or seeing my Grandfather go through countless hip replacements. I have totally had my moments where I scream and cry about it but that is pretty infrequent. I am a person that isn’t going to just sit around. I did that for a week and binged on Orange is the New Black- two seasons in about four days.

I feel like today that I am at 75 percent of what I was before the accident. There isn't much I can't do. I figure away to chop veggies with my Pampered chef thingy. My hair which I was so worried about, got a great haircut and I have been flat ironing it myself everyday and washing by myself every few days. I can bath though I still have to keep the hand away from water though I do wash it off when I change dressings. The big thing is I can't always buckle my pants so I have two jeans that work and a boatload of leggings, dresses, skirts and yoga pants. Not to drastic change in my style.

Okay I can't do my bra so either I ask for help or use a sports bra which has made me very aware of how differently sized my boobs are which is noticeable with certain shirts so I don't wear them. I also want to go back to better eating and exercise but it has been to cold and I fear my balance some when out walking because let's be honest graceful isn’t what I am known for.

The first week was hard but we had some great people brought meals and I used the crockpot. I had a meal in the crockpot when it happen which someone replied that I must be the only Mom in the ER with a meal ready!!! We actually ate pizza that night and had that meal the next day.

I pretty much do everything I did before just slower. I actually sewed something simple the other day. I have been crafting like crazy as well. Did some redecorating and made the OT cringe when I told her I was annoyed that I couldn’t find the hammer- yes I did only use one hand and yes not everything is straight but I wanted to do it myself.

I get annoyed when my hubby takes the little creamer cups out of my hand to open because I can do that. I did take a small break from crafting on some of the challenge blogs because it was to much at one point but back to that next week. I have pretty much been running full force again since week two. If I can't do it, it likely won't get done until some one with two hands is around.

The biggest challenge is getting it to sink in with the three other people they need to step up some more in helping which is totally my fault because I do to much to begin with. It was a struggle before to get them to pick up after themselves and me yelling about doing it and having only one hand to use, isn’t really getting it fixed. I need to teach my kids some better responsibility which we are getting there- slowly.

Overall I have my health (mostly), life is fairly good though it is so cold here lately. Kids are doing well in school and they have all of their activities going on which they still get to do. I am chugging along with life, not counting the days as to when I get out of the splints but instead focusing on the small victories like moving my fingers about forty degrees. I will take the million banjo jokes the hubs keeps telling because it means I am getting better. And yes I laugh about it because life is funny. Everyday is a little better!

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Happy Chinese NewYear

Happy Chinese New Year!

We usually try and celebrate each year because for us, the Chinese culture is important. My kids have both learned first hand what it is to live in China and immigrant to the United States. When I was 17, my Aunt and Uncle adopted the first of nine children from mainland China. Over the years he had 8 brothers and sisters join the family. It has been wonderful to see them grow up. That first little boy just got married back in December which is so hard to believe that it has been 20 years since him and I would color and watch Busytown when I babysat.

Miss O likes to tell people she has a ton of cousins from China and she loves to swim with them. The ones still in school are always excited to see the cousins from Houston when we are back up. 

This year I made a whole bunch of Chinese food. Someone was surprised when I said I was cooking it rather than order (the favorite place was closed for the holiday). I made some pad thai noodles as well as having egg tools, spring tools and pot stickers. We had variety of Asian foods from the area.  

We had ventured to Chinatown this past Monday so I purchased a New Years mum and used the Print than cut feature on the Cricut to add the dragon. I also cut out simple Chinese letters and decorated the table using the traditional red and gold colors. 

I made super easy lanterns out of construction paper and had the kids color dragon masks.

It was a great time!

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Casing the Catty #17

Love is in the air with Valentine's Day fast approaching. We have some big plans- a nice surprise for the kids on the 14th because we just love them.

I was also unsure if I was going to be able to participate for this CASING challenge because on Jan. 18, I had a accident where I tore three tendons in my hand and had to have them be repaired. Lucky for me, I noticed I had this project already done and thought it was a perfect fit for this week.

I was very liberal in my inspiration on this one. I saw a similar wreath idea on Pinterest and digging through my stash of stuff, I created this wreath using the You plus Me set (138594) and the Stacked With Love DSP (137779). 

I wrapped the wreath in gauze that I had on hand which ironically is also wrapped around my hand. I than using my ecutter cut out the feathers, hearts and arrow pieces. I hot glued everything on and stamped the sentiment onto the heart. I love the colors of the wreath. 

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One handcrafting- Behavior chart

I have been wanting to do a behavior chart to keep one of my kids acceptable for thier behavior. Even though one will likely stay on Start or Warning, it is only fair they both are on there. I created this using MDS and just printed it up. Easy with one hand!

I just laminated it and hung it on the fridge. The boy and I already discussed it and he recognizes colors. 

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One handed Crafting_ Pinterest edition

With my tendon surgery, I have very limited mobility. I can't use one hand and it has to stay as still as possible until the tendons heal. It makes crafting so hard. I still went ahead and held our Pinterest party for February and I was even one of the crafters. So I was able to do two of these projects on my own but the flower, I wasn't able to but once I can, oh will I be making a ton of them.

The framed heart was a lipstick project where we traced a heart and than took dollar store lipstick to create the lines. 

My project was the decorated tile which was just layering paper and modpodge.

Finally the burlap rose which was awesome because it was a way I had never made them before. I think I am sticking a pin on the back of this so I can wear it.

Even though I am down a hand, I am making it work

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