Monday, September 7, 2015

Too much going on

There's a lot going on, which is why I haven't been writing regularly like normal. If things ever settle down, I'll get back to writing like I was. In short, my Grandma has cancer, my Mom has had her gallbladder out, and I'm on the verge of a separation, if not divorce. Yay, me!

Grandma has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma a bit over a month ago. It is rare, but she has cancer of the bone, immune system and plasma. Chemo has not been helping and she was going to quit because it was making her too sick to eat, but she opted to go with another round anyhow. Doctors have said she has three to six months even with the chemo. She is 86, which is a good, long life, but she is my Grandma, and I don't really want to lose her.

Mom has had her gallbladder out. She's spent more time in the hospital these last few weeks than in her own home. There are other things going on that are causing her a lot of stress, but some of it at least brought on a really bad gallstones attack. My Aunt Liz (Mom's best friend for almost 35 years, so aunt in name only, but she is a terrific person) tried to get Mom to the car to  go to the hospital, and Mom couldn't even walk, so they had to call 911. Mom had all kinds of tests done to find out it was her gallbladder. Surgery a bit later and recuperation, and while recovering, she had my daughter call 911 again because Mom was not feeling overly good.

Turns out she was dehydrated and her magnesium and potassium were extremely low. Four more days in the hospital with tests of all kinds because the doctors thought she may have had a stroke when she went in to the ER, the way she was presenting. Thankfully not, but this is insane. Mom had to have a potassium IV for four days to get it up to normal. I told her she's going to have to eat a lot more bananas and we'll have to start calling her Momma Monkey. Also told her she's only going back to have the cute doctors hovering over her, but if she keeps this up, they'll give her a punch card - "Stay ten nights in our facility and get a free night's stay!" She thought that was cute.

Me, on the other hand ... let's just say that unless the hubby decides to grow up and act his age instead of his shoe size, and stops the emotional and verbal abuse towards me, I will be getting me a reliable vehicle of my own, finding a place that will let me have eleven cats, and packing up and leaving. Yes, I said that word - abuse. Trust me folks, it doesn't have to be physical to be abusive. Any time you (and I mean men as well) are in fear for yourself because of something your partner says or does, it is abuse. If it's just a general fight between the two of you, that's one thing, but when it continues constantly, it's abuse.

I will not go into detail, but suffice it to say that the name-calling and constant criticism have to stop somehow, and if it means I pack up and leave to get peace and quiet, that's what I'll do. It may mean starting over, but not a lot has actually been accomplished here in the way of clean up (which he says he will do all the time and never gets around to, being too busy "working on the truck" which doesn't need working on), so it would be no great loss overall. Mostly, I want to build my business and have some happiness in my life.

With that said, Homestead Crafter has a good booth on Bonanza. I sell not only finished jewelry and crafts I have made, but also home and garden decor that I can have dropshipped. I am working my butt off getting more items loaded into the store, so feel free to click the link on the sidebar for the store in the favorite links section. In case it decides to blow up on you, the URL is:

Homestead Crafter

Now for the fun part, where YOU can make some money for your charitable event or yourself.

If anyone needs a fundraiser, or wants to hold a Facebook jewelry/home decor party, let me know. I can book at least one a week. The deal will be this:

I will set up a private coupon code for your fundraiser or FB party - it will only be $1 off the order, but 10% of sales will go to your chosen charity or to you if you are host(ess)ing a FB party.

All items allow for buyers to make an offer, and as long as it is at or above the (hidden automatically by Bonanza) reserve, they can buy it at their offer.

I take Paypal through the booth, and my PP is business level, so anyone SHOULD be able to use a credit card if they want to.

Folks will have to sign up for Bonanza to buy through the booth, but it's a whopping four fields, or they can register with Facebook or Google profiles. If they'd prefer to buy privately, they can contact me here or on FB by PM with a list of what they want (item name, number, and quantity if more than 1) and offer(s), and their email, and I will do them up a PayPal invoice instead. All items ship free within the U.S. At this time, I cannot ship outside the U.S., as items either cannot be dropshipped outside the States, or the extra shipping cost even to Canada would be horribly prohibitive (a MINIMUM of $15!!!! HOLY COW!)

Folks can browse the store by category on the left side - major categories are shown and clicking on one will show everything in that category along with the available sub-categories.

Now it's back to work on the store and other money-making stuff. Hugs and love, all!