I have one blood niece, one nephew who was adopted by my sister at about age 4, and a niece and nephew who are foster kids (not related to me by blood, not adopted). We only see each other at big family gatherings--and not even all the time then. I have a daughter who does communicate with and get together with her cousin regularly. They're very close. Partly, I agree that geography plays into it. None of the nieces and nephews live too close to me. Nearest one is going to school about 45 miles away, the farthest lives 1000 miles away. Partly, it's a lifestyle thing. Of mine--one is married with 2 children, working long hours to support his family; one is going to college, taking a very difficult and time-consuming major and has little free time at best; other two are expecting, and are very busy with just getting by on a day to day basis. And lastly, I think it's a generational thing. I don't hang around with people who are 30-40 years older than I, and I can certainly appreciate that my nieces and nephews probably don't see a lot of common ground between us As to my aunts/uncles? I see one aunt a couple of times a month--I'm basically her support system, and in charge of her affairs if anything should happen to her. But I haven't seen any of my other aunts/uncles for many years, except at funerals/weddings (and not always then--the ones who live half the country away didn't make it here for Mom's funeral last month) Not that I wouldn't like to see them, but our lives have diverged, and we all have so many responsibilities on our plate that sometimes there just isn't time for visiting back and forth.

Well, in my sister's case, she has mental health issues, but was a bright young lady. She was overweight since childhood, but she was an absolutely beautiful girl. She went through a stage where she thought she was a lesbian. She liked to say that she wanted to bring a girl to Thanksgiving dinner as her date and upset our folks. I told her I figured they would get over it eventually. They loved her very much. Maybe too much. She met a guy on Yahoo personals and they had German ancestry in common. Turns out he's into White Supremacy, but we didn't know that at the time. They married within the first year of dating. He moved into her apartment and it didn't take long to find out that he was emotionally abusive. He blames it on his diabetes, but he even tried to start a fight with my husband at dad's funeral. My sister was unhappy in her marriage and we learned quickly that mom and dad were NOT allowed to give her and hubby anything. I didn't know anything was wrong until mom wanted to go visit them at their house one night. They weren't home and mom started crying and saying that she wished she hadn't married this guy. It was then that I found out about his white supremacist tendencies and the way he was controlling of my sister. Of course, she has gone back and forth over this saying it's not him, it's her that's the problem, but the night our dad died guess who was with her at the hospital. Dear old mom in law, the enforcer. This woman-the boy's mother-is the one, I'm really sure of it, who is most behind the estrangement. She tried telling my aunt and grandma that our dad molested us and that we were "stair-step" children. We were in fact 7 and 11 years apart in age and our dad NEVER molested us, ever! Of course, madam wolf didn't bother to ask my oldest sister and myself. She raises a child who thinks hitler is someone to look up to and takes a giant crap on our family. I have found out that there often is an older woman in the family that is behind the estrangement of the spouses parents and family. Well, my sister says that I'm a n**ger now and she hasn't let us see their daughter. We suspect she is pregnant again, but they won't let mom see that child either-even though the big bad dad is dead as a doornail. My dad is pushing up daisies. How would you feel if you were accused of molesting your own children and denied seeing your grandchildren? It is the most bull crap thing I have ever seen. I'm sure they are feeding her the whole, their toxic people, line and I'm sure it feeds her narcissism to believe it. God will have to deal with it. I miss my dad so much. This is NOT the way things were supposed to be and her actions have affected ALL of us. Of course, she doesn't even think about any of that. It's all her up in there. Our mother is very broken. I pray for her because only God can help the hole in her heart. That chicken sister of mine couldn't even go in and see dad's lifeless body laying on the gurney the night he died, but I remember his eyes. I was with mom and we went in right after they pronounced him dead. I remember his beautiful blue eyes had faded to a green as deep as the ocean because the life had fled from them. He choose not to get that open heart surgery. I guess he didn't think dying could hurt any less than being accused of being a child molester and a sob supreme by the woman who raised a model SS career man. It's not all about any one person. What you do affects everyone and we are ALL responsible for each other. I loved and protected my sister to the best of my abilities. Our dad did yell a lot and he was an ignorant man. He didn't know how to raise children because he came from an alcoholic dad-but our did was NOT an alcoholic nor was he a child abuser. My children remember their grandparents and I would never, ever have refused my parents or my husbands' parents from getting to know their grandchildren. Never.

I did a new piece yesterday using crayons, I like how it turned out. Unfortunately my crayons are Crazart brand which are extremely cheap and it shows. I already had those which I had for a previous project. I might get a better quality crayon. I agree I am sure that the more expensive special pencils would be much easier to use. I will consider getting better tools if I think this hobby will last. So far I am enjoying it. I too wish we had a place we could discuss it more and show our work for comments and suggestions. I don't do FB but I have read that Angie Grace group and enjoy the pictures. Maybe we could ask for one as a sub forum for KT, like some have the conversation sub forums. We could have a sub forum KT Hobbies discussions,or something like that. That way it could include all varieties of our hobbies from art, photography, writing, animals, what ever your hobby is.

I have hand issues, rheumatoid arthritis plus I lack strength in them and I have wrist limitations. I started coloring to see if it could possibly help me with those problems. I didn't really care about the looks of the finished product. It was more as a form of therapy. Anything else was gravy. As it turns out it has made a difference in my hands and wrists, plus I like some of the finished product, not all but the more I work at it the better I get. I use pens because they are much easier than pencils they don't require as much pressure and wrists action. But I can't get the shading effects that pencils give. Maybe some day I can be more able to use the better quality pencils. Just try it. It is a very cheap hobby to try out! My sister has shakiness in her hands, I bought her a book and the $10 set of gel pens as part of her Christmas gift, I don't know if she can do it but I am hopeful it could help her. The good thing is no one ever has to see them except you. I don't mind showing mine, they are far from great but with my limitations I am happy with many of them.