The Joy of Jobies

Mira is a Jobie.  For those not familiar, Job's Daughter's is a youth group of the Free Mason's.  Mira became a  Job's Daughter shortly after her dad became a Mason.  Mira loves Jobies with all her heart.  It is her favorite thing to do.  I was scared to have her join.  It is a group of young women that I didn't know.  I had all the fears that most special needs parents have.  How will the girls react to her?  Will they accept her?  How will they treat her?  And what about the other parents? Parents that don't know what it is like to have a child with special needs.  Parents that haven't been around children with special needs.  

Fast forward two years and every time I go to a Jobie event I am amazed by this group of young woman.  The Jobies have accepted Mira with open arms.  She is loved, accepted and treated with such kindness that it brings tears to my eyes.  The girls are leaving for Grand Session today.  Mira has had her bags packed for weeks.  At Grand Session the girls will be competing at a ritual.  They are scored and judged on their memorization.  Speaking and memorization is not something that Mira does well.  So when I went to the meeting I was planning on having them sit Mira out of the competition.  I would hate for the whole Bethel not to do well because of Mira's lack of speech.   However, the girls had already insisted that Mira participate since she is a member of the Bethel.  The Honor Queen has asked the judge if they would be willing to make accommodations for Mira in the judging.  They knew she could say no, and they still wanted Mira to participate.  

Regardless of the outcome of Grand Session, these young woman are winners. They don't see Mira as different.  She is just one of the girls.  

I hope they have the time of their lives over then next few days.  I know they will be creating memories to last a lifetime.  I am so proud of Bethel 77 and I know that their compassion will shine at Grand Session.

Here is an update on my Goodwill Hunting.  

 So here is the run down.  I received a $5.00 gift card to the Goodwill from my Grandma.  I purchased a Yakima Ski rack for $4.99 and sold it for $19.99.  The vintage mangle iron that I purchased for $1.29 sold for $99.00 to a lovely lady who plans to use it for ironing embroidered pillowcases.  Today I dropped Mira off at the Scottish Rite Temple in Shoreline where she was serving dinner.  Buck, Jasmin and I hit the Goodwill.  No big ticket items purchased, but a couple of smalls.  The first is a signed silk Vera scarf that I paid $4.99 and the second is a pair of orthotic inserts that I paid $2.99.  I don't expect the big payoff like the mangle, but did have a lovely time hanging out with the kids except for the moment when I thought I lost Jasmin.  

Vera Scarf

Goodwill Hunting

I have made my second purchase to sell toward a new to me Pachinko machine.  It is a vintage Whirlpool Mangle.  It is a beast.  It is so heavy, but still works.  If you love to iron I suppose you would want one.  Me, I hate to iron.  My idea of ironing is put the item in the dryer for 10 minutes.  

If you are in the market for a Mangle from the 1950's it is up on Ebay right now.  If you buy it bring a friend to lift it because it is weighs a ton.

At this point my total I have in my pocket towards a Pachinko machine is $18.71 cents not including taxes and the fees that accrue from Ebay.  

Ebay Whirlpool Mangle

Goodwill Hunting

                                   Happy New Year 2013

   One of our favorite Christmas gifts this year came from my 94 year old Grandma, also known as Skinny Grandma.  She gave us each a $5.00 gift card to the Goodwill.  We are junkers.  Our family loves to go to thrift stores and garage sales.  Kids are funny.  Mira found a lovely set of pj's at the Goodwill,  the kind that zips up with feet.  They were new with the tags for a price of $4.93 with tax.  She is a as happy as a owl.  That is the animal that was on the jammies.  Jasmin,  she loves candy and spent a little bit on a baby bottle pop.  Buck on the other hand is looking for something special.  So far he has bought one book, a Simpson's comic book for a grand total of $.44.  Moe spent his on a wood rack for salt and pepper shakers and a new one to add to the collection.  

   As for me, well,  I thought about just buying something, but then I thought it would be more fun to only buy things to sell on Ebay and roll that money over, and over until I can buy something really amazing.  What would that be you ask?  A vintage Japanese Pachinko machine.  I have always wanted one since I was a kid nd my cousin in Spokane had one.  So this is my journey to being a Pachinko machine owner.  I have made my first purchase and have it on Ebay, it is a Yakima ski/snowboard rack for your car.  I purchased it for a grand total of $4.99.

Yakima Rack

100 Rugs for Daisy

This is Daisy. She is a 1976 VW Transporter. My husband bought her for me because he knew I always wanted a bus. She is named after a 3 legged dog that walks in our park everyday. Turned out that the dog's name is actually Cassie, and Cassie is old and slow, but she gets there eventually. My goal for Daisy is to convert her to an electric vehicle. It is a relatively easy project for VW buses. I figured that I would need to weave and sell about 100 rugs to pay for her conversion. I have no time frame, figure I will get there eventually.

As I finish rugs I will put them in my Etsy shop and number them, and hopefully hear some wonderful stories from those that purchased them. If you are interested in a rug let me know what color and I will see what I can do.

Weaving

I say I am a weaver, I would love to say that I weave everday, but I don't. It goes in spurts. I may weave everyday for a few weeks and then my loom sits motionless for months. For me weaving is relaxing. There is the sound of the heddles rattling with every lift of the the harness. There is the rhythm of sliding the shuttle in the shed and pulling back the beater. When weaving you can only see a small portion of the project at a time, so there is a lot of satisfaction of watching the project expand and then finally getting to cut if off the loom and seeing it in full for the first time. I have several looms and they all have their different purposes, but my favorite is my Ideal loom that was made in the 1930's. It is old, rough, and very heavy. I have begged friends on numerous occasions to help me move it and my husband has moved it more than he would like to admit and moving it is not an easy job since it is bulky and weighs several hundred pounds. It is well suited for weaving rugs. I treasure it, if I could only keep one loom this would be the loom. I feel a connection to this loom that I can't explain. When I bought the loom I new nothing about weaving. I had seen weaving at a fair and thought it looked interesting. I was at the Washington State Surplus with my dad who went to see the auto auction. I walked in and there was the loom along with 2 others. One was sold already, the other didn't seem to have all the parts. I thought about buying it, but it $100.00 which I didn't have since I was working a minimum wage job. I didn't buy it, but my dad was hooked on the surplus, so the next week we went back and there was the loom still but it was marked down to $50.00, which my dad paid for and gave me for my birthday. The tricky part was getting it home since it didn't fit in the car, but that is another story. People ask me why the State of Washington would even have looms, and I will tell you that they came from the Veteran's rehab facility. The looms were used by Vietnam vets when they came home from war. I believe that is why I feel the connection to this loom. This loom was used for physical healing and I believe there was some emotional healing in those that weaved .

It takes a village or two!

They say it takes a village to raise a child, this weekend for me it was two, and American village and a Canadian village. We went to our friends Heather and Roman's wedding this weekend. It was the first wedding our children had attended so I was a little nervous. It is easy to hang out with other families with special needs children, but going to a large event and being the only family with a Special Needs child can be tough.

First let me tell you about Heather and Roman. Heather is American and Roman is Canadian. Heather is loud, crazy and perpetually late. More importantly Heather has a heart of gold, she is kind, patient, and does not pass judgement, and when you have a personality like that you attract good people which is how she found Roman. This weekend we were part of Heather's and Roman's wedding. It was a beautiful event with an unusual ceremony with two different Priest, one Methodist and one Ukranian Catholic. It was by far one of the most beautiful weddings I have been to.

For us the weekend started with a BBQ with Heather and Roman's friends and family, a lot of family. I sat and watched my kids play and interact with a bunch of strangers and I was amazed. Everyone was so kind and patient with the kids and especially Mira. Mira oohed over the babies and invaded peoples personal space but everyone was very kind. I watched as a woman try to play a frisbee game with Mira, and enjoyed Jazzy and Buck doing the Hamster Dance.

On the day of the Big Event, I was very nervous knowing it was a Catholic ceremony. Would my kids sit that long quietly? And surprisingly they did it. We made it to the reception and waited. Waited for the bride and groom and waited for the food to come. It was then that Mira had her melt down. The man at the microphone was too loud and she sat with tears in her eyes and her fingers in her ears. I could see people staring, I think feeling bad for her, but then food was served and the magic began. The music started to play and some of the brides maids and Heather made a point of connecting with her and dancing with her and she couldn't be happier.

I feel blessed to have been on the guest list of such and amazing event with such amazing people. And I wish Heather and Roman many years of joy.