Sunday, January 31, 2010

More on Jeanette, Haiti...and the ongoing saga of me trying to be more consistent

Yesterday was semi-productive for a Saturday. I got a lot of knitting done. When I say that, I mean I knitted a lot, then unknitted some, then knitted a lot. The baby blanket pattern I'm working on it interesting and not difficult but so easy to make a mistake you don't find for another two rows. I try to check each row but it gets away from me when I get focused on day dreaming or watching a show.

Jan talked today at church about Jeanette, Haiti and their needs. They need blankets and tents, food and farming implements. Our diocese is getting a container ready to ship so we have some time to get as much as we can. I found a blanket at StuffMart today for $6 so I went ahead and bought one. I priced blanket fleece but all they had was NFL and other decorated fleece that was $9 a yard. Not nearly enough. I talked to +Mary today about baby hats and blankets and she asked me if I wanted to announce another Lenten knitting thing but I told her I thought too much was going on and I would put my items in the Haiti basket. If other people saw it and felt like making some, great. If not, also great. Some of the ladies are knitting and crocheting for hospitals and preemies now so I would hate to take away from that area of concern.

The diocese is also getting a food package set up. Some of the food did make it to Jeanette (I took that some to mean not all of it did) but as they are getting a huge influx of people from Port au Prince and the surrounding areas, it's just not enough to go around. And as Jeanette is in the mountains, it's colder there and people are sleeping on the ground outdoors and are pretty miserable. Especially the babies.

If anyone reading this feels so inclined, I would ask that you remember the people of the outlying areas as well as the major earthquake areas. The relief funds are only for the Port au Prince area so the people of Jeanette aren't getting any relief except from The Haiti Project or if some other church or charity has them specifically targeted. Also...please make sure any charities you want to fund are legitimate. There are unscrupulous people out there taking advantage of the people of Haiti...and you. The video interview on the web page is of Jan Byrd who is the coordinator (the Jan I frequently speak of.)

I'm trying to stay offline much more so I can get more work done at home and get busy knitting. I have 2 hats done and one at the decrease stage. My goal is 40 hats by Easter. And two blankets. A lot of knitting especially if the two commissions come in and need to be done by then.

I'm not succeeding too well in staying offline though because I keep researching stuff. Then there are the blogs I like to read each day. And I get my news mostly online. And there are patterns to look for.

Still...I'm doing better than I was before and while it doesn't look like it, I'm making slow progress in getting more done consistently. Consistently is the key word. It doesn't do much good if I have one great day a week if the other 6 days I'm not able to get anything done because I will spend that one great day making up for the other 6. So... this is progress...even if it doesn't seem like it.

Fibromyalgia sucks big time. I know that some people in my extended family think I should just "get over it" and "push myself" and then everything will be fine. That the problem is in me not making myself do more. I wouldn't wish this on them...really, I wouldn't...but sometimes I think if they could walk around (or lie around) in my shoes for a day or so, maybe they would be more understanding.

Ah, well.

I see progress even if it doesn't show.

And now it's time to get some more knitting done. I have to unknit for a while to find the mistake I made while knitting at coffee hour today.

Sigh.

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