Funding IVF: Silent Auction: First Item Sneak Peek!

When I was 14, I started volunteering as a candy striper at our local hospital.  I loved the people - fellow volunteers, supervisors, security, housekeeping, medical staff, patients... everybody! - and my duties so much that I stayed there for the rest of junior high and high school, giving over 600 hours of service, and making wonderful memories and life-long friends.

Senior Picture in my apron, circa 2006

One of these friends is the talent and sweet, sweet heart behind the first auction item I get to share with you!  Kimberly, a recent law school grad who loves her two cats about as much as we love Charley, crocheted a beautiful baby blanket for the lucky highest bidder :-)  The blanket measures about 24 inches square, and is made of plush baby yarn in variegated white, yellow, green, blue, and pink!  It looks deliciously soft and snuggly, and I am going to have to commission one just like it when we have a bundle to wrap in it!

If you'd like to see what else Kimberly is up to, visit her brand-new facebook page!  And keep an eye out for another sweet crocheted item she is working on for this auction. :-)  Thank you so much, Kimberly!!  You're wonderful :-)

On the Calendar...

We had a FANTASTIC visit with our RE yesterday!  We reviewed our game plan - which hadn't changed, thankfully - and then got to sit down with the IVF nurse coordinator and talk scheduling.

So here's one of those weird things I can't believe I put in black and white (or maybe a purplish-navy blue and white?) for the whole world to read... as a fun little feature of my PCOS, my period is late... again.  But whenever it finally shows up next, our IVF clock starts!!!  On CD3 (cycle day 3, or 3 days from start of period), I will start taking birth control pills to let the IVF staff "take complete control" (their words) of my cycle :-)  I am fairly sure I ovulated about a week and a half or two weeks ago, so any day now...

I'll stay on those pills for a few weeks while we line up the three doctors we'll need in attendance, get my meds ordered, and attend a class.  The class, I believe, is going to mostly consist of filling in official dates, financial paperwork, and learning to give injections.  I THINK the majority of the shots are subcutaneous, which is the same way I used to give my insulin, in my pre-pump days (and still do when my pump is acting up), so I'm fairly confident that we'll pass that part of the class. ;-)  If there are any intramuscular shots, I will be a bit nervous, but I'm glad that at least one typically scary part of the process is already fairly familiar to us! 

In related news, I am really excited about how our silent auction fundraiser is coming along!  I have some dates to share: 

And I am going to have some really exciting items to auction off!  To hint at a few... an afghan crocheted by a friend's mom; a printable or pretty decor item from a sweet bloggy friend of mine (and former student of Ethan's); items from the ever-amazing Rebecca (I'm assuming something from her darling etsy shop, gorgeous, shabby-chic paper crafts), and a few other "something"s from some other very talented friends!  This is going to be awesome!  But please keep sharing this info with your crafty, generous friends... this cycle is coming up quickly!  And as always... thank you for the encouragement and support.  We feel blessed and loved :-)

Funding IVF: Silent Auction: Seeking Donations

Thank you all so much for the love and support you've all shown Ethan and me these past few days.  We are almost 5% of the way to our goal, in just 2 days... and at least as importantly, we have received sweet messages of encouragement from so many of you.  We are overwhelmed and so touched by the support!

In my last blog post, I mentioned planning an online silent auction.  I will be hosting it on Always, Katie's facebook page, hopefully the last week of February.  

Where I need your help (besides bidding on items in a few weeks!) is with the items I will be auctioning off.  I am asking for donations, especially of handmade items... this is a great opportunity for small business owners/craftsmen, as I will be talking the items up on this blog and on Facebook, as well as Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest... and you will of course be more than welcome to send business cards or literature along with your donation. 

Some examples of categories I'd love to see represented in this auction would be:

• Knitted/crocheted items 

• Baked goods

• Paper art

• Printables

• Bath and Body/Spa Products

• Paintings/etc

• Photographs/prints

• Direct Sales Items

• Gift Cards

... just to give y'all some ideas.

If you know anyone who may be interested in donating and helping us out with this, please, please share a link to this blog post!  Pin it, Facebook it, tweet it... we will be ETERNALLY grateful!  I am excited about this as a way to both make some money for our IVF cycle, and to get to know and support some other small business owners and artisans :-) (And here is an update with important dates for donors to know!)

Financing our Fertility Treatments

Frustration.

This infertility journey has been full of it.  Here we are, with all of our doctors having signed off on our readiness for IVF, expecting to start during the month of March.  So on Friday, I talked to my RE's office to set up an appointment for setting a treatment plan and schedule, and one to sit down with who

ever could help us apply for the financing my clinic advertises on their site - no interest for a year!

Then the receptionist told me that the financing is only for the lab portion, which is a relatively small percentage of the total cost of a cycle, and that it requires 50% down.  The rest (/non-lab parts) of the cost of the cycle is due before any treatment starts.  We've been expecting that we'd need to have several thousand dollars available, but to come up with the amount we will actually need will take us longer than we anticipated.  And we don't want to miss this "sweet spot" my diabetes is hovering in.  And, frankly, we are sick and tired of waiting... four years is a long time to spin your wheels.

So. We made the tough and humbling decision to fundraise the remaining $5,000.  I have built a fundraising site at YouCaring, am going to sell some of the older jewelry I have mentioned a couple of times recently, and we have a couple of other ideas in the works, too... like an online silent auction, which I'll post about soon.

We appreciate your compassion and understanding, any financial support you are able and willing to give us, your thoughts and prayers, and any facebook/twitter/pinterest/email sharing y'all would feel moved to do.  <3

How to Clean Your Silver-Plated Jewelry (without damaging the silver plating!)

As I mentioned in my post last week about organizing my jewelry, the silver plating on several of my older pieces had tarnished... on some of them, quite a bit.  And honestly, when I'm reaching for a necklace to complete an outfit, I rarely grab the one with the weird goldish-greyish-greenish layer of funky gunk! 

For example: this Anthropologie knock-off necklace that I made two and a half years ago (time flies!)

This is what it looked like when I made it... 

Shiny!!

And here it is, fast forward almost three years...

So sad :-(

I knew not to try to use silver polish on something silver-plated, as silver polish removes a thin layer of silver from whatever you're polishing, and the layer of silver on silver-plated jewelry findings is already super-thin to begin with.  So I searched the internet for a way to clean the gunk off my jewelry without destroying it.

I found instructions on this website and decided that it was worth a try...

Her ingredients are cheap, household items...

• An aluminum pie plate (or a bowl with aluminum foil covering it - the aluminum is important for the chemical reaction.  Check out the link to the original article for more info on what is supposed to be going on, chemically.  I'm far from a chemist, and haven't run this by the chemists in my life yet, but it worked for me!)

• Baking soda

• Salt

• Hot water (enough to cover jewelry in the pie plate)

• Paper towels

(Before you start - keep in mind that this process WILL ruin a purposely antiqued finish, and while some people have had great success with pieces with semi-precious stones and crystal... you never know.  So be careful.)

The procedure is easy enough.  Put one tablespoon of baking soda and one tablespoon of salt in the pie plate... pour the hot water over the soda and salt and stir to dissolve... dip your jewelry in (if it's lightly tarnished) or place it in and let it sit for a few minutes (for more heavily-tarnished pieces).  Fish the jewelry out and dry it off with the paper towels.  Very tarnished pieces may turn almost black and need a good rub down with the paper towels, but the silver underneath should be beautifully sparkly and clean! 

It may not be QUITE as good as new, BUT I'm still really excited to have a bright silver necklace that I will actually wear, as opposed to a sad, neglected, tarnished necklace.  :-)  It will also come in handy for the Katie's Closet sale I have been contemplating... I can rehab some of my more neglected pieces and hopefully sell a few of them at awesome second-hand prices. :-) 

Jewelry Organization from a Jewelry Hoarder

When we were shopping for our house, one of the things on our "Sure Would Be Nice" list was a walk-in closet in the master bedroom.  We didn't HAVE to have one, but a house would have to be stellar in several other ways to make up for it, you know?  

Well... in this wonderful, beautiful, blessing of a house, we have a walk-in closet.  EACH.  I'm in Heaven, y'all.  Having a whole closet to myself means that my clothes aren't cramped, which makes getting dressed easier, and I think has resulted in me using the full range of my wardrobe better.  It also means that my purses and my jewelry have their own nice, organized spaces in a convenient, but out-of-the-way location!

I spent some time this week unpacking, untangling, re-organizing, and otherwise squaring-away my jewelry collection, and I thought I'd share a little bit about my strategy.

First, I have a whole wall dedicated to accessories.  The two walls of racks and shelves were already here when we moved in, and that third wall was already empty, so it seemed perfect.  I put the two 2x3 cubby things from my old "cloffice" on the wall to hold my purses and totes... as well as two sections for clothes that need donated or sold, and two that are currently holding some cuff and coil bracelets (until I can find my bracelet holder) and trays of earrings.  I use ice cube trays to organize most of my earrings, and I especially love the trays with lids... I got some at the Container Store... $4 seems a little pricey for ice cube trays, but pretty reasonable for jewelry storage! :-)

The top of the cubbies is a great surface for my jewelry trees and my small jewelry box (and my pile of camis... I'm looking for a basket for them).  See the little brown jewelry box in front?  My niece made that for me for Christmas a couple years ago. <3 Priceless! 

These are my jewelry trees... the one on the left is from my mom, and it holds necklaces and bracelets I either wear a lot, or want to remind myself to wear more often ;-) Around the base, I have some pendants that I don't have designated chains for.  The other, more tree-like tree, we picked up at CVS of all places.  It's perfect for earrings that I like to have within very easy reach.  Sad, single earrings and some other doo-dads (like my embellished comb) are hanging out on that base until I can find their mates or make a replacement. 

Then, there are the tie/belt racks.  These have hung in each of our three homes somewhere... in the apartment, the only place I could figure out was the inside of my closet door!  They're just held up by finishing nails, so the weight worries me a little bit.  I will probably add another rack right above these soon, and shift my bracelets up to it. 

I made the observation on facebook the other day... when you make your own jewelry, it is REALLY easy to become a jewelry hoarder!  Some of these pieces, I NEVER wear...  I found a tutorial from another designer on how to remove tarnish from silver-plated jewelry.  I'm thinking of polishing up a few of these things I never wear and having a Katie's Closet sale.  With IVF hopefully in March, every little bit will help ;-)

To Do List Victory!

Happy Tuesday, friends!  

I have a snow day today, after MLK day yesterday, so I have had a wonderful, restorative, loooong weekend.  I mentioned in my last post that this past week was the first week of my school counseling internship. This career comes with a lot of tricky emotional aspects, and some of the more intense of those happened to come up this week... so while it was a great week, full of great opportunities for learning and growth, I have been oh-so-grateful for a couple of days to kind of catch my breath :-)  

This month, I have been able to cross out a few items (or sub-items) from my "To Do in 2014" list, most notably the make-ahead meals.  My goal was to make 15 freezer meals that I could either throw in the crock pot on my way out the door in the morning, or move from the freezer to the oven quickly and easily if I was too drained from work to think about cooking.

Yesterday, I made a big batch of chicken nuggets, and I have enough chicken to make that many again, which I plan to do today or tomorrow.  With those completed, I will be WELL over my 15 meal goal!  (Before finishing that batch, I'm at about 14-15 meals, depending on how many nuggets we choose to heat up at a time. So I'm gonna go ahead and claim victory, haha!)

This list from Six Sisters' Stuff was a great jumping-off point for this project.  I love this blog, and have followed them for a couple of years... everything I've ever tried of theirs has been fantastic! 

Currently, in my freezer, I have:

• 3 Homemade Frozen Pizzas (We already ate one!) (Pepperoni and mushroom, btw. Yum!)

• 2 Chicken Pot Pies

• 2 Meals of Crock Pot Orange Chicken

• 2 Meals of Slow Cooker Beef and Mushrooms

• 4-5 Meals of Homemade Chicken Nuggets

I do plan on making more meals for the next few weekends. (I'd love to keep at least 10 in the freezer at all times, even after the internship is over.)  Can anyone recommend another delicious and easy go-to freezer meal for me to whip up?

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is rested after staying up past midnight last night!  Why is it that I have NO problem staying up until 1 or 2 most nights, but on NYE, I'm wiped out by 10?  Ethan and Charley and I had a nice quiet evening at home, ate dinner by fireplace-and-candlelight and toasted with sparkling white grape juice at midnight... a wonderful, cozy way to start a year :-)

LOVE these boys so MUCH!!

I have never been big on New Year's resolutions, personally.  Partially because it's a LOT of pressure, and I like to start my years contentedly and joyfully, instead of looking for all of the things that are wrong in my life and resolving that this year, I will somehow make them all better ;-)  

But mostly, I think it's because resolutions tend to be too abstract for my taste. 

According to the University of Scranton (does anyone else immediately think of Dunder Mifflin when you read that?), these are the top 10 resolutions this year:

• Lose weight

• Get organized

• Spend less, save more

• Enjoy life to the fullest

• Stay fit and healthy

• Learn something exciting

• Quit smoking

• Help others in their dreams

• Fall in love

• Spend more time with family

See how many of them are not measurable or definable?  Like "Enjoy life to the fullest"... nice idea, but how do you know when you've succeeded?  I know this kind of resolution works really well for some people, it gives them direction and focus, and acts almost as a mantra for how they make decisions in daily life... but for me... the nebulous nature and the big-picture scope stress me out!  

I like to make bite-size goals for myself.  They are reasonably small and manageable, and allow me to check items off of a list, which makes me feel productive and motivated. (I LOVE to do lists... they keep my ADHD brain on track and sane.)  ;-)  Instead of "lose weight," I might say, "weigh X pounds."  Instead of "spend more time with family," I might say, "institute family game night once a week."  Instead of "save more, spend less,"  I might say, "set a budget and stick to it" and "put X% of every paycheck straight into savings."  

On that note, I have made a brand new to do list for myself and posted it in its own tab at the top.  I will be marking out items as I finish them, and adding new things as I think of them or as next steps after other items.  Some of the items are home improvement, some are an attempt to help the household run smoothly while the primary homemaker (me) is temporarily working full time, some are health-related, some are for fun, some are business-related... all are, I believe, achievable in the next 12 months.  

I would love it if you shared some of your resolutions for the year!  Are you someone who works well with an idea as a resolution, or do you also need concrete, step-by-step goals? :-) I'll be praying your 2014 is peaceful, healthy, joyful and blessed!

Christmas Eve Party Outfit

Ethan's Granny always hosts her children and their children on Christmas Eve, and we exchange gifts and eat yummy food and catch up.  But because Ethan's dad had surgery a few months ago and is still in a wheelchair and Granny's house isn't wheelchair accessible, we offered to have everyone over to the new house this year. :-) We are so thankful for this house and how well it lends itself to entertaining!  This is what I wore that evening... Emerald green is my recent obsession (I know, getting on that bandwagon a little late) because it REALLY brings out the red in my hair.  I've also been experimenting with my makeup to emphasize my green eyes. :-)

• Emerald Green Blouse - New York and Company (Outlet) - I love it so much I went back and got one in another color/pattern!
• Black Slacks - I don't remember which of my three pairs this is... oops!
• Footwear - soft Christmas socks made more sense than shoes, since we were staying in :-)
• Jewelry - pearls from Ethan <3

How to Not Judge or Alienate (or Invalidate the Feelings of) Your Infertile Friends at Christmas Time

I probably lost two friends today.  

I haven't clicked the "unfriend" button.  Yet.  I may.  I don't know.  But I certainly will never think of these two people in the same way again.

Last night, after this particular pin showed up multiple times in my Pinterest feed, I shared it on Facebook with this comment: "You know what the inverse of this is? Give you a hint: it's exacerbated by stuff like this. Do ya really need to spike the football? — feeling left out."   

Now, maybe my comment wasn't the most patient or eloquent... but I thought I got my point (and my pain) across pretty clearly.  

Declaring loudly and proudly that folks cannot know or understand the TRUE awesomeness of Christmas unless they are parents is HURTFUL, and... I'd like to believe... it is INCORRECT.

That being said... the people that pinned this yesterday and have pinned it in the past, by and large, are really sweet, awesome people, who would never voluntarily hurt anybody.  I'm not angry or holding a grudge against them at all.  I'm sick of being hurt, but... I can forgive inadvertent injury.  These are not the people whose friendship I am mourning.  (In fact, one of them is a dear, dear friend who actively encourages, comforts, and lifts me up. Love you, woman!)

The reaction I got passive-aggressively from two people on Facebook, through pointed personal statuses and not directly on my post, was along the lines of "Everyone needs to stop being negative about Christmas.  Stop 'putting a damper on everyone that actually loves Christmas'.  Even if things aren't going the way you want them to, the real meaning of Christmas should make you happy.  Quit whining and ruining things for everyone else."  This status got a lot of agreement, especially from her retired pastor father.  Shocking lack of compassion from people of God.  One brave, lone woman chimed in that it was hard for some people, herself included... no response or compassion to her story, either.  Another status this morning... the gist of which was that her sister thinks she is wonderfully brave for handling her secondary infertility the way she does, and how secondary is painful too... yeah, that wasn't pointed at all. </sarcasm>

Infertility hurts.  All year long.  But Christmas brings a special kind of pain, especially (I think) for someone who loves Christmas and traditions and family as much as I do.  That's right, y'all... I LOVE Christmas!  Almost every aspect of it: from the weather, to the food, to the decorating, to the thoughtful hunt for the PERFECT gift for everyone on my list... I love it!  And I desperately want to share that love with my children.  And... I know secondary infertility must be awful... I have a lot of friends who are going through it, and I know they ache to give their kids siblings.  But, no, I don't honestly, in my gut, believe that that can compare to empty arms and empty wombs during the most kid-centric time of the year.  

But regardless, this is not the pain Olympics.  We don't have to compare notes on who hurts more, or handles the hurt better, or puts on a more convincing mask of "Christian" joy.  We just need to love, because that is what Christmas is about... LOVE born in human form.  While this is the most joyous time of year for many people, that joy can be joined SIMULTANEOUSLY by deep sadness.  Infertile couples don't have the monopoly on this.  Single folks who don't want to be single... people who have lost family or friends recently (or not so recently)... people who are estranged from their family or have painful memories of Christmases past... there are any number of people who have heartbreaking and very legitimate reasons to feel sad this time of year... to suggest that they should mask or just "stop" their sadness is unrealistic, cruel, and unloving.  

I would never ask anyone to not enjoy their holidays, or to refrain from posting the avalanche of kids-on-Christmas pictures I am already bracing myself for.  So please don't ask me to censor my pain, or judge my faith by that pain.  (If you haven't already, or need a refresher, please read this post about anxiety, depression and Christianity. It has resonated with a lot of depressed Christians on Pinterest, and some of it is applicable to this discussion, too.)