I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
The Year of Sea Change
I’m a little late wishing everyone a Happy New Year, but I hope everyone’s new year is off to a good start.
Our New Year arrived in a snowstorm, dumping almost a foot of snow on us. It’s the most snow we’ve gotten this winter season. The next day the snow fell off the trees in avalanches. The temperatures rose again, melting some of the snow and turning the surface of the fallen snow into slippery hard crust that broke when we walked on it. A week ago there was a heavy fog during the night, and the trees were all frosted in the morning. We are expecting another snow storm today. It’s cold again and the wind is picking up the snow on the ground and swirling it into snow-nadoes.
I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions. I tend to make changes in my life whenever I recognize that I need to make them, no matter what time of year it is. However, it just so happens that this year is arriving with decisions to make, goals to plan, and actions to take. I feel as if this year is one of sea change, which means a profound or notable transformation. The unknown is a bit scary, and yet our futures are wide open. Anything can happen. We both feel a mixture of uncertainty and hope.
Yesterday we went to Michigan Works so EJ could sign up for unemployment benefits. He hates going there and he’s not exactly sure what sort of job to pursue. However, we need income and I told him that–who knows–maybe a wonderful job will fall into his lap. At this point, he could seek any sort of job, and maybe find one that is less stressful physically and mentally than machining. That’s what I’m praying for, anyway.
This morning we drove to the local Department of Human Services to ask questions about getting government insurance. COBRA is much, much too expensive with such a high deductible that it’s almost like having no insurance at all. Once we get insurance, EJ can resume looking into the causes of his health issues.
Meanwhile, I have been spending most of my time crocheting items in the hopes of increasing my Etsy store sales. I am making cute monsters, some of which are based on local myths, and posting them on several local buy/sell/trade groups at Facebook as well. I have had a lot of interested reactions and have made a few sales. People are commenting that they love my work. That is very uplifting.
Here are some of my recent critters. If you can, please buy one of my products and/or share my Esty link with others. It would help us bring in some extra money. I’ve never asked before, but you can also help us through this difficult time by financially supporting my blog. There is a “Paypal.Me” link at the right. We also appreciate prayers as we go through this sea change in our lives.
I’m also going to take an on-line class through the local college to become a transcriber. Years ago, before JJ was born, I was a word processor. It was a “hot” career when I started out, but by the time I left the work force it was dying out because personal computers enabled people to type their own documents. It seems to me that transcribing is about as close to word processing as I can get and a transcriber can make a decent amount of money. I like that it’s work I can do from home because I hate driving in winter weather. Also, working at home would allow me to keep up with my household chores.
My friend also suggested that we might teach an on-line beginning Hebrew class together. We could charge a small fee to bring in a little money for us both. That would be cool. I don’t know how I will find the time to do all those things, but those are my plans and goals. I need more hours in a day. If you don’t hear from me as frequently as before, this is why.
One of my/our goals for this year is to eliminate toxicity from our lives. I was surprised to hear that several of my other friends have stated similar goals for themselves. EJ and I have been working on this goal for a number of years, of course, but this year we hope will be sort of the final offensive. Both EJ and I care very much about people, we do all we can not to hurt anyone, and we have always been willing to compromise, negotiate, and sacrifice to work towards win/win situations. However, it appears that increasingly in our modern society people are unable to handle differences, disappointment, or difficulties. People think you hate them if you disagree with them, they demand others make sacrifices that they aren’t willing to make themselves, they take and take without giving anything back, they disregard others’ boundaries while demanding others respect theirs, and they verbally attack whenever you think, say, or do something they disapprove of. It’s all “Me! Me! Me!” Dr. George Simon, who has worked with what he calls “character disturbed people” (i.e., Narcissists, Sociopaths, Psychopaths) for years says that “character disturbance” is on the increase in our society.
EJ and I don’t want to lose our compassion, and we don’t want to be hurtful or controlling of other people. We just want to be treated with a basic level of politeness, consideration, and compassion. Dealing with toxic people is affecting our health and we have reached the point where we will not tolerate abusive behavior and drama. The only people we will allow in our lives are those who are willing to be decent. We plan to work on our recovery and learn how to truly enjoy life again.
JJ is upset with us for re-homing Luke. We loved Luke and It wasn’t easy to make the decision but he was increasingly peeing outside his litter box, which means he had health issues that needed to be taken care of. We can’t have Luke ruining our house and we can’t afford expensive veterinary care when
EJ has health issues and no job. I had asked JJ several times if he wanted Luke and he said he couldn’t afford to take him. Well, neither could we. Actually, although we knew we would have to decide very soon what to do about Luke, we hadn’t sought to re-home him at this time. But Luke found his own home–he got outside and we couldn’t find him, and then we learned indirectly that he had wandered away and was found and adopted by someone who fell in love with him. We felt that Luke’s new owners could/would provide him with a loving home and get him the veterinary care he needed which is the best option for him so we didn’t try to get him back. The best we could have done for Luke was make him an outside cat. Our outside cats have a warm shelter in the garage, but Luke isn’t used to being outside and wouldn’t have gotten veterinary care. In our opinion, he landed on his feet, as cats have a tendency to do. We are relieved that he found a good home.
So, that’s an update on our live so far in 2019. As I said, we expect this year to be one of change and transformation. There are difficult things in our lives right now, but we have hope for the future. Now…I need to get back to my crocheting.
I Love To Go A Gardening 
We love your goals for this New Year, you two are the most positive and inventive people we know and with that in mind know that we are pulling for you, and may our prayers be of help also, love you, Bob and Linda
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Thank you, Linda and Bob. We value your love, encouragement, and prayers very much.
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Hope it gets better for you TJ. The transcribing from home sounds promising – hopefully you get a position where you will have a steady income – try to find one where you don’t have to vie with others for one job. Think about freelance writing as well.
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