Today:: The beginning of 2011

(Ayla took this picture! This is my new haircut to start out the new year!)

Today is the beginning of the year for me. I know, you say it is the 4th; what are you talking about?

Well... The doctor told me today that I can walk on both my legs now. My knee is healing beautifully he said, and even though I have a lot of physical therapy ahead of me, this news makes me oh-so-happy.
I haven't been able to hold my baby boy in 4 weeks and walk him to soothe him to sleep. I have felt so helpless in the whole realm of the house because all I could really do was crutch around. I know, many others have way more obstacles to overcome. This was mine though. Being responsible for 3 little ones and not really being able to meet any of their needs is hard. Really hard. I am so thankful for my husband and all the work he has put into this family in the last 4 weeks. He has been truly amazing.
I can only hope that I can repay him someway. I try to be very easy going and handle things. He has been going at least once a week to the gym with the neighbor to climb the rock wall a couple times, also a weekly soccer game is a recent thing too. At least it is something.

So having all this time to sit and stew... I have made a couple of personal rules to live by for at least the next 6 months; maybe a year.

#1:: No buying clothing for any of the immediate family members, unless they fit in this criteria :: have to be handmade in the USA :: or second-hand.

(this is huge. I have a problem with buying clothes. well, not all the time, I go through spurts, but it is never pretty :)

#2:: Try really hard to hand-make items for people's special days (i.e. birthdays, christmas, etc.) I don't think this one will be too hard, but this will help me use up the fabric and yarn that I already have, plus, people love hand made stuff, right?! HOWEVER, I will give myself an out here and give the option of buying something hand made if it comes to crunch time. I don't want myself to go crazy! So etsy will surely be a place to look.
These afore mentioned people include my hubby and kids. Kids are not a problem, but Tyler is another story! He did mention he would like a robe.... but seriously, not easy!

Let's hope I can at least remotely stick to these rules. One of the tabs I have open right now is a clothing shop that does not meet this criteria... and I have 13 items in the cart! So this is going to save me money for now... until I make that purchase from Gaia Conceptions :)

Have a great Tuesday! this week sometime, I am going to list some of my favorite shops that are either local (for me, that means Oregon or Montana) or just plain awesome. Maybe I will make some shopping matches :)