Home remedy – onions

Have you tried this yet? This saved us (or at least our sleep) this winter with all the head colds the kids had. (It apparently works on the flu as well but we were lucky enough to avoid having to test that theory – knock on wood!)

Simply cut an onion into small chunks and put it in a dish as close to your kids’ head while they sleep. (If you start to tear-up when you enter their room, it’s working.) The kids are a boggle of gross when they wake up, but at least they were able to breathe and sleep through the night. You can also make a poultice if y’like but I didn’t try it.

Cheap, safe and effective. I totally recommend.
Also, if you have a sec, shoot me a vote. Poor neglected blog…

Kisses, Cooties & Corners

Last year, at one of the drop-ins, this four-year-old came up and kissed me.

WHAT? NO! WHY? ACK!

Smack dab on the mouth.

I didn’t see it coming. I was looking to my left, he came up on the right, grabbed my mug with his craft-glue covered paws and attacked me with his smooches.

Aaaaawwwww.
Isn’t that keee-yooot?

Nope.

Why, you ask?

Well, I reply, and I’m just going to come right out and say it, I didn’t particularly like this kid.

Whoa. Did I really just say that?

A 2011 Breakdown

Last month I had an emotional/psychological/mental breakdown. A mid-thirties crisis if you will.
It was awesome.
It felt, and probably looked, a little like this:

When I lose it, I wear a big diaper.

I yelled, I stomped, there were flailing arms and much swearing.
I almost, almost starting throwing stuff.
Looking back, I should have—drawing flying household objects is a bit of specialty.

The breakdown was probably severely overdue. Life had been piling up. Physically, emotionally, expectationally. Like my laundry, it was being ignored and starting to implode in on itself. And stink. I can’t really remember what triggered the final avalanche. My husband probably can, as he was the one who pulled it but he knows better than to admit to remembering it. (Take note: that’s what a good marriage is all about.)

Happiness in life is really a series of perceptions. Perceptions on your relationships, your wealth (insert your definition of ‘wealth’ here…it’s not the concern of this post), your goals and your expectations on achieving said goals. What does success look like in the end? And really, how do you even define the end? I figured New Year’s Eve was a good time to bring this up.

I think when anything breaks down there’s a flaw in the system. A part of the whole isn’t working which in turn causes the whole not to function properly, if at all. I don’t like inefficient systems. I don’t like an inefficient life. For me, the flaw was in my expectations.

So the only thing to do was to break down my breakdown and look closely at the pieces in the mental rubble.

Here is just a sampling of what I found and was able to purge:
(It’s getting late. I’m pulling out the stick figures.)

And to examine it even further…

And…yeah.

And when it was all over…

It’s a humbling experience really, but it had to happen. Dissect the wreckage and purge the crap. Paralysis lifts. Only then can you rebuild anything properly. In life. In blogs.

In the process of asking for help while I figured things out, I reached out to some people to help with guest posts for this here blog.
It felt…good. Surprising since I love this blog and love drawing for it. But opening it up felt awesome and exciting.I want to give a huge thanks to the people who stepped forward to donate or write posts and also a fist pump to the people I hit up to do posts for me in the future. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. It’s going to be an exciting year around here.

And if I haven’t hit you up, I’m probably just working up the courage to do so. If you do want to share your story and illustration, shoot me a line. We drawers of stories are a masochistic bunch.

And with that I wish you a happy New Year.
May your resolutions be achievable and may your breakdowns be gentle. I myself am looking forward to what can be built with the pieces.

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