Spring Break has begun. Hold on to your hats people, it may be a bumpy ride.
Man, this small business stuff is taking over my life. I figure it's just the set up that's tricky, once everything is in place, it'll be smooth sailing. Right? Right? *panics*
So far today I've signed up for Google Checkout, checked on my business checking application, and printed shipping labels for two packages. Next I'm ordering logo labels for my products, setting up the accounting software, going to Michaels for ribbon, dropping packages off at the post office (I usually have the post man pick up but I need to check my PO box), and then looking into placing a wholesale fabric order (going from a couple of $30 JoAnn bills a month to one $300 is going to sting a little). I still haven't bought a printer. I also need to research online shopping carts to get off Etsy and instead be selling from my own site. Oh and I should probably sew at some point...
What did I do before I started this crazy business again?
I've reached the point with my spring allergies where I want to rip my nose off my face. The sneezing, the runny snot switching to stuffy "I can't breath" every other second, the itchy watery eyes, the red irritated nose from all the Kleenex wiping. All the stock holders of Kimberly Clark are rejoicing.
I've decided that my goal with my knitting accessories store is to earn enough money monthly to cover Ally's orthodontic bills. (And eventually Emily's but since Ally's a thumb sucker, her teeth are worse.) I'm already practicing my "I sewed my fingers to the bone to give you straight teeth!" speech.
Or maybe to earn enough over the year to pay for the van to be repainted. They have to paint the entire van too, the kids didn't miss a single panel. Well maybe the hood doesn't need it but when they are doing every other single square inch for 3 grand (I'm getting another estimate today), what's another hundred to make sure the hood matches?
All I really want to do is crawl back into bed and wait until the pollen blows over.
UPDATE: I didn't get the van estimate done today because not only did I have the wrong street number (technically the right street except it's one of those goofy ones where there's a million little "OLD *name* ROAD" in our area and I was on the wrong one), I had the wrong phone number when I tried to call the auto shop. It's been rescheduled for next week and I have both the correct location and phone number now. Course next week is Spring Break and I'll have 5 kids along for the ride instead of 2. Joy...
I take the twins in for their first orthodontist appointment today. It really was only a matter of time between Greg and my genes (we both had braces) and Ally's thumb sucking. Luckily we have dental insurance that covers 50% although since we have twins, it'll be like paying full price for one anyways.
The funny thing is that while I really really don't like dentists, I have fond memories of my orthodontist. Even with the pain of all those "adjustments." He was a funny guy and the office was in another town half an hour away. Which meant an additional hour of school for every visit, woohoo! My mom always took me to the appointments and I remember that being very nice, having her all to myself instead of sharing her all the time with my siblings.
I even found my retainer the other day in a box, I think my orthodontist would be proud.
Anyone have any orthodontist stories they'd like to share?
I can't decide which I need more, better allergy meds or ideas for the kids to do during Spring Break. The neighbors down the street are going on a cruise. Which sounds great but I think I'd be expected to take the children (they are taking theirs). Maybe I could recycle some activities from last year's 50 Days of Summer.
If all else fails I could teach the kids how to set up a meth lab with the pseudoephedrine from my allergy medicine.*
*Kidding! They are already too busy sewing sweatshop child labor style.**
**Not true either. Honestly they are too busy getting mud on every single item of their clothing causing me to wash/dry/fold laundry day and night plus they are also tracking mud into the house every five minutes causing my head to explode.***
***The sinus pressure caused my head to explode, not the children.
It's printer time! *insert hip hop music here*
With all this "I own my own business" stuff, I need a better printer. I think our current one (Espon Photo 785EPX) is over 5 years old. Cause I'm pretty sure we bought it the summer before Kyle was born. Great, I'm guessing the ages of our electronics based on the births of my children... Anyway it's old enough that neither Greg or I remember when we bought it. Which in computer terms means it's an antique.
Any recommendations? I don't really need photo quality although that may be nice down the road if I ever print up brochures or something. Basically I need it to print crisp text. It would also be nice if the printer cartridges don't cost an arm and a leg. I know, I know, printer companies are in the ink business, not the printer business.
And sadly, a new printer is the extent of my exciting "new business" buying. I still think I need a laptop though. hehe
It's official. I like hockey better than baseball. I'd much rather deal with 7am games and freezing ice rinks than baseball mud.
Why, oh, why does the school district keep scheduling days off from school? *dramatic sigh*
Just kidding! It's actually very nice to have all the kids home today. The weather has finally warmed up enough that we can be outside without winter coats, woohoo! So far I've played Mom Mechanic on 3 bikes and helped find 2 soccer balls. And watched Kelly climb the neighbor's tree 4 times. (She's part monkey, I swear.) I should take a picture of that...
The kids are currently eating lunch outside and then we need to run some errands. I think today may be the perfect day for ice cream in the park, don't you?
Have a wonderful weekend!
As much as the kids tried to beat my good mood out of me this morning (fighting over cereal, whining that someone was eating too loudly, forgetting to do homework, leaving a mess at the table, pushing each other at the bus stop, and on and on), I'm still in a good mood.
While I take good moods at face value, I'm trying to figure out what caused my bad mood earlier this week. I think it was because I knew yesterday (Wednesday) was going to suck and it messed with my brain. And when I know there's a bad day coming, the anticipation of it makes me feel worse.
I think my current Brownie troop is not cut out for field trips. Last year's was fabulous but 2 of my good sweet quiet girls moved over the summer and were replaced by 3 girls who don't listen and like to rile up my other girls. I abhor violence but I was seriously ready to smack them yesterday. (Crap, now I'm in line for the "Worst Girl Scout Leader" award.)
After our wonderfully disastrous Girl Scout field trip, we went straight to Zach's baseball practice. Where I stayed in the van with 4 children for two hours. Thank God for iPod.
From there I passed off Zach to Greg for a Boy Scout meeting and went to stand out in the cold (someone forgot to tell Mother Nature it's spring, it was freezing out) to pick up Zach's baseball uniform. I stood out in the cold for 40 minutes. After Saturday's all day outdoor Girl Scout camp training (again with the freezing temps and snow), I think I've fulfilled my quota of standing out in the cold for the rest of the decade.
We arrived home at 8pm and hadn't eaten dinner yet.
Yesterday is over so I'm feeling a bit better. We don't have another "bad schedule day" until April 11th. Well I'm hoping it's not until April 11th, I still don't have the twin's soccer game times. If I ran this world, everyone would have their children's entire life schedule from the moment they were born. And if you made a change, say replacing soccer with dance, a computer would immediately spit out the new itinerary with said changes. No waiting around for coaches' meetings, no wondering if Boy Scouts will be Wednesday or Saturday this week, it would all be right there in a leather bound day planner.
Also if I ran the world? Plain cereal boxes and self cleaning houses.
I danced with a football player because I'm very pretty.
Borrowed from Busy Mom:
Pick the month you were born - (September)
Pick the day (number) you were born - (25th)
Pick the color of shirt you are wearing - (white)
Now type out the sentence you made using the answers below:
Pick the month you were born:
January----------I kicked
February--------I loved
March------------I punched
April---------------I swam with
May---------------I choked on
June---------------I murdered
July----------------I did the Macarena with
August-----------I had lunch with
September------I danced with
October----------I sang to
November-------I yelled at
December-------I ran over
Pick the day (number) you were born on:
1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a Mexican
6-------a flamingo
7-------my cell phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friend's boyfriend
10------my neighbor
11------my science teacher
12------a banana
13------a fireman
14------a stuffed animal
15------a goat
16------a pickle
17------a squirrel
18------a spoon
19------myself
20------a baseball bat
21------a ninja
22------a snowman
23------a noodle
24-- ----your mom
25------a football player
26------my sister
27------my brother
28------an ipod
29------a permanent marker
30------a llama
31------a zombie
Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:
White----------because I'm very pretty.
Black----------because that's how I play.
Pink------------because I'm cool like that.
Red-------------because the voices told me to.
Blue------------because I can see the future.
Green----------because I love to boogie.
Purple----------because your mom's cool.
Gray------------because the voices in my head told me to.
Yellow---------because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars.
Orange---------because I tripped over my house.
Brown----------because I love my pillow.
Other-----------because I'm a ninja.
None-----------because I can't control myself.
I think I had a wee bit of a panic attack this morning. (I'm fine now, seriously.)
It's never good when my old stress relieving stand-bys "The To Do List" and "Day Planner Schedule" freak me out so completely that I can't think straight.
So I'm switching up tactics and going with "Priorities."
And lots of soft mellow songs on iTunes. (favorites: John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" and Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know")
Too bad they don't prescribe Valium like they used to. (Kidding. Sort of.)
I may or may not take a bit of a blogging break. We'll see how I feel in the morning.
I just need a bit of a reset. And to put more than two sentences in a paragraph.
Quote of the Day: "Don't Panic." -Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
You know the Girl Scout camp training was nice but man, I never do well when I "lose" a whole day. And actually yesterday was sort of worthless too since I didn't sleep well (on a flimsy cot mattress on the floor) and then I didn't get home until 11am (left the house Saturday morning at 7:45). So I showered and dozed and wondered how my family had managed to go through a week's worth of laundry in 36 hours. But Greg taught the kids to clean the entire kitchen after every meal so I'm not really complaining. In fact I'm thinking that if I leave next weekend, he'll get them to clean bathrooms.
Would you like my "To Do" list for today?
Take out the trash DONE!
Clean the guinea pig cage (which should happen before "take out the trash" but I'm doubting it since I'm sure I'm going to jump up before finishing this entry to meet the trash man at the end of the driveway)
Laundry
Fix my Etsy store (I had a St. Patrick's Day sale over the weekend... Crap, I forgot to mention that here.) DONE!
First Communion Invitations, supplies purchased
Clean a kitchen cabinet (long story, Greg's request)
Make camp reservations at Assateague Island (for us, not the Girl Scouts) DONE!
Send Brownie emails (meeting on Wednesday)
Send thank you emails to GS camp trainers
Reorganize sewing stuff
Post office, done
Dry cleaners, done
Bank, done
JoAnn's, done
Grocery store (I wasn't planning to go today but we're out of milk. I was at the store last night and didn't buy milk because I saw two containers in the fridge. Turns out Greg put an empty one back in the fridge. *grumbles*), done
ADDED: Trip to office supply store and Blockbuster to return movies (it's next to the post office and grocery store anyways), done and done
Tonight we have baseball practice (although I'm hoping they cancel because the fields are too wet or something) and a PTA volunteer thing. My "To Do" list is actually a bit longer but I ran out of room on today's 2"x4" space in my day planner so I'm putting off a few things until Tuesday.
Um, yeah so I guess I better get moving. Have a nice Monday!
Edit to add: ow... migraine... and I'm out of my usual meds, let's see if Tylenol helps at all... ow...
I have a headache.
I've been putting off answering emails (sorry!) and doing some other online stuff (some Etsy, some blog related, some Girl Scout). I know, me procrastinating? And see, I'm putting it all off even longer by sitting here typing about putting it off.
We have babysitting for the kids tonight so I think Greg and I are going to try to find some green beer. I really wish I had ordered this t-shirt now.
Stupid glow from the monitor is making my head hurt more...
Whine, whine, bitch, moan...
Yeah, yeah, I'm going...
Happy St. Patrick's Day Eve.
Oh, one more thing! If you have some time to
"Why are there tennis balls in the bathtub?"
"I don't know, it's a sacred mystery!"
Doh, I think I may have bought myself some extra time in purgatory for that one.
Yeah, yeah, emails, blah, Girl Scouts, blah, I'm going already!
What exactly did I do to piss off Mother Nature?
Or maybe she's trying to tell me something about being a Girl Scout leader. On Saturday I have that Girl Scout camp training from 8am through Sunday morning. Yesterday it was 75F degrees. On Saturday it's going to be freezing with a chance of snow. WTF?
At least they can't cancel school on Saturday.
(Stupid silver lining...)
Thanks for all the comments and emails from yesterday's post. I'm going to muster up all the patience I can and try to be extra nice to Emily especially when she's being good. So last night I taught her how to knit. She almost has it, her tension is a bit wonky. Her first project is going to be a scarf for her American Girl doll. Course now both Ally and Kelly want to learn...
In other news I have a possible wholesale order for my knitting organizers and bags to a legit yarn shop in Pennsylvania. EEK! I need to ask a bunch more questions and figure out "wholesale" prices. Maybe I should be teaching the children to sew instead.
Quote of the Day: "There are only two things a child will share willingly - communicable diseases and his mother's age." -Benjamin Spock
If I put my thoughts in bullet points does it look less rambly?
- Hockey season is over. And I already regret it being over because now we are in baseball/soccer season which means muddy clothes and lack of climate control. (At least with hockey, I know I'm always going to be cold and won't be sitting outside in the pouring rain.)
- Stupid time change.
- Emily and Kelly scratched the van's paint with rocks on Saturday. There are stars and swirls and scribbles all over it. Greg's handling the "mad" parent part and I'm sad that my van looks like crap now (I haven't even hit anything, no dings or paint scrapes!). I'm still not over the "why" Emily thought this was a good idea either (Kelly followed her lead, we have witnesses). Emily is starting to worry me, this "acting out" is getting out of hand and I don't know the real reason behind it. But that's another post for another day.
- I'm fighting a serious lack of motivation. And writer's block.
- I'm going camping with other Girl Scout leaders/volunteers this weekend. (They didn't cancel the training on Wednesday.) I'm undecided on how I feel about this. A night away from the house will be nice but I'll be with perfect strangers (I'm so not a people person). Plus it's not even camping, we'll be in cabins. (As a family, we always tent camp.) I'm going to have to watch myself and not sound like a know-it-all since I've been camping with kids a bazillion times. But the cool thing in the planning session was how everyone volunteered to do everything. I think part of it was because as Girl Scout leaders, we are used to doing everything ourselves in the first place. Sharing the workload was a nice change.
- Giving up chocolate for Lent and "that time of the month" do not go well together. Especially when Girl Scouts were selling Thin Mints at the out of town hockey rink. (I bought some anyways and hid them from the kids.) Yes, even with the cases of cookies we personally bought back in the fall, we were out.
- I need to take the trash out but it's cold outside again (36 F, 3C).
- What's for dinner tonight at your house? (We had beef stew Saturday, meatloaf and mashed potatoes last night.)
- Did I mention the lack of motivation? Which sucks cause that's a warning sign of the beginning of depression for me. Or maybe I'm over reacting and being unmotivated for a day is just a by product of doing and expecting too much of myself. I kinda need something to look forward to that doesn't involve so much work to plan that it cancels out the "looking forward to" part.
- ...
Is it bedtime yet?
Today we went to the post office (Kyle slipped on the ice), went to the mall (returns for Greg, a little shopping for me at the Gap), went to the fabric store (Kelly slipped on the ice), and then went back to the mall because Kelly had left her Tamgotchi in the Gap's bathroom. (I'm just glad we found it.)
Zach has an out of town hockey game tonight (two left tomorrow and then the season is done, woohoo!) and I bought 14 yards of fabric to sew up over the weekend for my shop. Although now that I think about it, I probably don't have enough interfacing for all that...
Oh oh, I owe Melanie a review of her latest book: Super Mom Saves the World. Maybe I should give up sleep.
Have a lovely weekend!
Just another reason Etsy.com is really cool: check out my side bar with the new nifty script of thumbnail pictures of items from my shop!
(Now if I could keep up with the orders, I'd be golden.)
There are simply not enough hours in the day again. Even through the kids have been trying to get me up way before 7am (usually we don't get up until 7:30 on school days). And everyone explain to Greg that 6:45am does count as 6 o'clock. Cause when the kids wake me up, I feel perfectly justified to yell "go back to bed, it's only 6 o'clock!" when it's 6:45. It begins with a 6...
I survived another snow day, I think I deserve a medal.
Honestly there's more but my thoughts were so interrupted every few minutes all day yesterday (even my dreams kept interrupting each other last night) that I can't quite think straight. I need a quiet room, a Mountain Dew, pencil & paper (To Do list!), and an hour alone. I wonder how long it would take Kyle and Kelly to realize I'm missing if I go hide in a closet. I'd use the bathroom but they already know to check there.
Quote of the Day: "Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?" -Winnie the Pooh
I survived another snow day, I think I deserve a medal.
Honestly there's more but my thoughts were so interrupted every few minutes all day yesterday (even my dreams kept interrupting each other last night) that I can't quite think straight. I need a quiet room, a Mountain Dew, pencil & paper (To Do list!), and an hour alone. I wonder how long it would take Kyle and Kelly to realize I'm missing if I go hide in a closet. I'd use the bathroom but they already know to check there.
Quote of the Day: "Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?" -Winnie the Pooh
It's snowing. If that's what you call the gray sky occasionally spitting out small pitiful amounts of white stuff. So of course...
School's canceled.
I don't think there's enough snow out there in our yard and both our neighbors' yards to even make a snowball.
I'm kinda in a state of denial. 3 freaking times, I've called the animal shelter. 3 freaking times, I'd talked to the lady who handles the shelter's donations. 3 freaking times, I've emailed and called and coerced two moms (but never the same two, go figure) to help transport the Brownies to and from.
I don't think we're meant to tour the animal shelter this year. Sure maybe I should have thought that there was a possibility of being snowed out in February. March? This is just bizarre. Actually it's not that we were even "snowed out", this whole area completely freaks at the mention of the four letter word. Two inches of snow should not shut down a school. Two inches of snow should not throw everyone into a panic. We live very close to Washington DC. I hate to think what would happen if there was a real threat to the nation's capitol. Actually I'm feeling pretty good about my own odds of surviving. While everyone else is overreacting, I'll pile the family and camping supplies into the van (always has at least half a tank of gas) and drive back to Ohio. Because in Ohio, people are sane.
Crap... School being closed means I have 5 children with brand new Tamagotchi's fighting over the computer and screwing up passwords all day long. I picked the wrong year to give up chocolate for Lent.
Mother Nature is out to get me...
SNOW! Tomorrow! On the day I've rescheduled the Brownie tour of the local animal shelter for the 3rd time! It was canceled the last two times because of SNOW! OMG! I'm freaking out here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*pries the 1 key off the keyboard and throws it across the room*
Also tomorrow? A Cub Scout den meeting we're hosting that I've already planned and a very important Girl Scout camp training meeting for me that yep, you've guessed it, I've rescheduled 3 times (Although not because of SNOW, instead because of schedule conflicts with Greg being out of town).
If anyone knows a way that I could prevent it from snowing tomorrow, I'd be eternally grateful. And love you forever. And worship at your feet. And name my next
Please don't let it snow tomorrow...
I'm feeling the "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back" syndrome again.
As usual, there's the problem with the laundry. I spent all day Friday and Sunday doing laundry just to see an overflowing laundry basket again last night. The vicious cycle of "school/church clothes," then "play clothes" then "decent clothes to run to the store/library/sports practice so people don't think my children are abused" is adding up to at least 15 outfits a day. It can be more because the girls sometimes need a 4th "just to drive my mom insane" outfit. Winter is the worst too because everything is long sleeved and bulky. Plus my kids have this annoying habit of growing meaning that each year the laundry volume due to larger sizes keeps increasing. I kinda miss the loads of twenty baby outfits worn in one day and changed due to spit-up and poop. At least twenty baby outfits was only a medium sized load. Twenty big kid outfits is like three large loads.
Scouts is also kicking my butt. We made it through Thinking Day and the local Boy Scout food drive so I breathed a sigh of relief. But now there's the Pinewood Derby and camping trips and meetings to plan. I can't cross anything Scout-related off my list without three new things popping up.
And last but not least, there's my Etsy store. Don't get me wrong, I really do love that people are buying my stuff. But I'm trying to sew and list at least 30-50 items (an acceptable amount by most Etsy shop standards) and people keep buying my stuff and lowering my numbers! That's probably the dumbest thing ever to complain about. I'd just like to reach 45 items and feel slightly "done" with sewing and listing for about week.
All the "wow, I'm actually selling stuff, crap now I have to make more" complaining aside, I finally have a few knitted items available, including adorable little shawls for girls. I originally knit them for the twin's First Communion but the color is too ivory (ordered the yarn online). So I'm knitting them again in a whiter white for the twins and offering the ivory ones for sale. Wouldn't they be cute over a spring dress? (Click the picture to go to the listing.)
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Time to get back to the laundry...
It's 55 degrees out and sunny, I'm so happy!
So we're off to JoAnn's to buy some spring fabric to make more of these. I think I have at least 5 pairs of jeans that the twins managed to rip holes in the knees over the winter. I don't have any clue why but Emily and Ally are harder on clothes than any boy I've ever met. It's a bit annoying actually.
Have a nice weekend!
I've spent all morning organizing our spring schedule of Boy Scout & Girl Scout activities and baseball games & practices. The lynch pin is that I don't have either the twin's or Kyle's spring soccer schedules yet. Hockey is over next weekend and I think I need to talk Greg out of the spring hockey session for Zach. Cause things are getting ugly...
The funny thing is that March doesn't exist this year. At least according to the calendar I bought back in July to hang on our fridge. It goes from February straight to April. It's not even like the March page was accidentally torn out, it was plastic sealed when I bought it. And by the time I realized the month was missing, it was too late to return it (and the store was out anyways).
So here's my crappy version of March:
See all the overlap on Wednesdays and the weekends? Why Wednesdays? I don't really know. Mondays aren't looking so great some weeks either but as long as the girls' soccer coach keeps practices on Thursdays like previous seasons, we should be okay. (By the way, it's not really color coded. I just used whatever pen I grabbed at the time.)
You don't even want to know about April. I need like 8 weekends in April to fit in all the scheduled activities.
And people think I'm weird when I say Kyle and Kelly are never allowed to join anything. Oops, already screwed that one up with Kyle's soccer. And Kelly really wants to do dance in the fall. She's so cute in a tutu, who am I to deny the world of Kelly's grace and stage presence? Plus Kyle wants to be a Tiger Cub Scout and Kelly a Daisy Girl Scout (in another year).
I think I'm going to need a bigger calendar.
Is it inappropriate for a mom of 5 to wear this shirt?
Yeah, I was afraid so.
(If you want it, enter coupon code GREENBEER and receive a $3.17 discount.)
Whew, I'm so glad February is over! Now onto Spring! (And rain and mud and pollen and allergies and...)
Because irony likes to bite me in the butt, at the moment I'm so inspired to sew and write (an interesting combination). But instead I must shower, clean the house, fold the laundry, attend a baseball coach/parent meeting (for Zach), and accept grocery delivery (seriously, I am so in love with grocery delivery, it's not even funny). Plus I have overdue library books and the twins need new shoes. I need a beautician, a maid, a nanny, a cook, a personal shopper, and a butler. Think Greg can work that all into the budget?
Quote of the Day: "Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." -Doug Larson
Because irony likes to bite me in the butt, at the moment I'm so inspired to sew and write (an interesting combination). But instead I must shower, clean the house, fold the laundry, attend a baseball coach/parent meeting (for Zach), and accept grocery delivery (seriously, I am so in love with grocery delivery, it's not even funny). Plus I have overdue library books and the twins need new shoes. I need a beautician, a maid, a nanny, a cook, a personal shopper, and a butler. Think Greg can work that all into the budget?
Quote of the Day: "Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." -Doug Larson
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