jump up and down

a new year: balance

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions.  I think that if something is worth changing, it's worth putting the effort into it no matter what time of year it is.  This year, our family is anticipating big changes (job search continuing for Ryan, hopefully a new job, move, etc.) and the challenges that go with that.  My modus operandi, especially during stressful times, is to throw myself into one thing and forget everything else.  This year, I want to approach life with balance.  If things get super stressful this year, I want to be able to keep my head on straight and remember what's important.  I want to be able to not put all my hopes on one thing and then feel devastated if it doesn't happen.  I want to know that while outside events and other's decisions certainly effect us, they are not the sole determinant of our peace.  So, no resolutions here, just a thought with a purpose, acknowledged and shared to help remind me if/when things get tough to seek balance.

holiday happenings

Hello there!  Here I am, still here, alive and breathing and getting ready for Christmas.  I shut down the shop a couple of weeks ago so that I could relax, enjoy, and spend more time with the boys and Ryan.  It's been lovely.  I think my Christmas cards are going to get in the mail before Christmas - this is progress for me.  

Life has been pretty much more of the same the last few months - the shop for me, school for the boys, and the job hunt (for Ryan).  There are a few things happening  with the job hunt, but I think I'll keep quiet about them on here for now.  The stress of it is becoming more normal, or I'm finding better ways to deal with it.  I did start substitute teaching in October and it's been nice to have a day or two a week to be out of the house and be occupied.  Christmas is also a good distraction.  

The boys are more aware than ever of when Christmas is and what it's all about - their enthusiasm is catching.  We had a great time tonight delivering goodies to our neighbors and friends and it was fun to have two boys willing to help out.   I always make many different things to give away.  I get too bored making just one thing for everyone.  This year our options were peanut clusters (made in a crockpot.  so easy!  I'll share that one later), homemade oreos, pumpkin bread, or bread and jam.  And I made this fun tags by downloading a free printable (I wish I could remember where this came from - help me out if you've seen this and know where it came from) and then adding some personalization to it in Picnik.  I had the file printed as a wallet at Costco and they worked perfectly.  I think we might start using something like this for all of our gifts - so easy to have our names already printed on the tag!

Well, I hope you are enjoying your holiday preparations!  Tomorrow is cleaning day for us...and Wednesday too probably.  I hope to be back here more often, especially after Christmas.  My camera is broken (I bought some things to clean it and hopefully fix it, but I'm still a bit scared to do it so it hasn't happened yet), but my phone takes a pretty good picture, so that will have to do for now.  The stress of the job hunt comes and goes, but one thing that definitely helps keep me level-headed is staying busy and doing normal things, even if I feel like things could be changing any day now.  

lost in summerland

 I've really got to stop saying that I'll be here more often - it's just not happening right now, it is what it is, and I'm OK with it, so it's just how it's going to be for now.  We've just been soaking up the summer - eating shaved ice and watermelon, going swimming, playing in the sprinkler, playing outside.  The weather is beautiful in the summer here - perfect temperature with occasional mild thunderstorms and not too much wind - but, it doesn't last very long so I always feel like I'm racing against time in the summer.

I've been doing a bit of worrying about Ryan's interview, but we are just over a week away, so it doesn't seem so far away now which was a large part of the stress.   Uck, I really hate waiting!  I've been watching him prepare and I feel confident that whatever the outcome is, he will have done his best.

My shop is pretty much going nuts lately - summer is wedding season and if the sales in my shop are any indication, vintage linens banners are pretty popular this year.  It's been fun, but a bit exhausting.  Most of my shop sewing happens between 9 pm and 1 am.  When it's not busy, I cut back by not staying up every night, but when it is busy, the consecutive late nights really start to get to me.  I'll be getting a break once I finish up my outstanding orders though.  I've closed it down for a bit since we are heading out later this week to leave the kids with Grandma and celebrate 10 years of wedded bliss and after that, the boys and I  will stay with Grandma while Ryan flies out for his interview.  Then school starts when we get back and summer will essentially be over - sad times!   

Anyway, just thought I would pop in and say that I'm not dead, just trying to take in all the summer I can fit in, keeping up with my shop, and trying to not think too much about our unknown future but just enjoy what's going on today!  Hooray!

and so it goes...life and longing for the sun

**No this is not a current photo - it's from last summer.  I'm just trying to remind myself that the grass will get greener.**

 After I publish a post, I always go check my blog's home page and make sure that it's on the site correctly.  Last time when I did this, I noticed my header says, "adventures in sewing, crafting, motherhood, and life" and I thought about how there hasn't been a whole lot of "life" around here lately.  And by here, I mean the blog, because there certainly has been a lot of life going on with me.  When I have things to think about, I keep them in.  I like to sit and stew it over by myself, or with Ryan, he is definitely my sounding board.  At some point it all as to come out, though and  I think I'm there.  I apologize for the flow of  these next four paragraphs.  I keep reading over them and can't seem to make them fit together better, so here it goes...

My Grandpa's health is failing.  We're not really sure how much longer he has, but he's not doing well.  This is the grandpa that I grew up with and he's been more of a father to me than anyone.  He's dying of cancer, so it's just painful and slow.  I'm not close enough to be witnessing much of it or helping out much, but I can hear the toll it's taking on my Mom and Grandma when I talk to them on the phone.  Cancer sucks!

One of my closest friends here in town (one of the women I exercise with 3x a week) just had surgery to remove a benign brain tumor.  She lost her hearing in one ear, her voice, and her facial movement on one side.  It will probably take her several months to recover and a surgery or two more to help recover her voice and some of her hearing.  She came home from the hospital yesterday and I visited today (with my other exercise buddy).  She looked great and has a great attitude.  I am thankful to see her doing so well.

Peter's doing well in school, but is still super delayed in language.  We got his yearly evaluation results this week and no surprise, he still tests about 1.5 years behind in language.  His issues are not super clear cut and sometimes I feel like there's not much more we can do for him than we are doing, but I feel like I need and want to something.  We are grateful that his speech therapist has agreed to give him an extra session of therapy each week as part of a non-profit organization she is starting.  This means another trip to "town" each week, but we can handle it, right? 

And the job search is impending.  Ryan is wrapping up his research and has started writing a paper (I'm hoping it will be finished by this summer).  After that paper is written, it's all systems go for the job search.  With the economy how it is and the way this went last time Ryan was looking for a job (after graduation, he was unemployed for three months while we had an infant and a two year old), more than anything, this is just making me nervous.  Thanks to a boss who values Ryan and has set up an extra year of funding for him, he won't be out of job for more than a year here but there is still something so unsettling to me about the fact that we are in our mid-thirties, have a couple of kids, and aren't "settled," whatever that means.

I'm trying to be hopeful about these things, so I think it's appropriate that it's spring right now.  If it could just get a little warmer here, then I might really have a chance to really see the bright side of all these things.  I am feeling better about it all today than I did yesterday when I wrote most of this post,  but still feeling in need of more spring, more outside time, and less cold feet.  Could someone send some sun, please?  

the weekly burst

It's seems that I'm a weekly burst blogger now - one week on and one week off.  I can live with that.  There should be a few more posts this week - a yummy recipe or two and the final reveal of my Heart to Heart Swap Valentine.  Until then, here's what's been keeping me away the last week...

-loving my birthday present.  It was my first international purchase through Etsy and I am thoroughly pleased.

- after a small break, starting again with occupational therapy for Peter.  This time, he's working with a couple of enthusiastic students at the local university advised by Peter's regular OT.

-excited for my new calling at church to work with the 16 and 17 year old girls and excited that I still get to keep playing the organ too.

-working on gathering props for our community play.  I was a little overwhelmed at first, but I'm feeling a little better about it now.  I've never done anything like this before, but sometimes when you live in a small town and you know people in charge of things, you get asked to do things you've never done before.  We're doing You Can't Take It With You.  If you have Netflix, you can watch the movie version online - it's a fun show.

-trying to keep up with my shop.  Custom and regular orders have kept me pretty busy since I reopened after my Christmas break.  I think I'm down to 15 items in the store which is lower than it's been in a long time.  I want to get some new banners in the shop, but every time I think I'm about caught up with custom orders, I get another one.  It's nice that things are steady - this is sort of how I've always wanted the shop to be - busy enough to be profitable and fun, but not so busy that I felt overwhelmed or that it cut too much into the rest of life.

up to lately

Hi there!  Perhaps the posting has been a bit sparse here lately and today I'm giving you eight reasons why.  In fact, some of these reasons were meant to be their own post at some point.   I'm hoping to find a new blogging groove soon - something a little more streamlined, but I don't think I've quite figured it out yet.  In the meantime, here's a glimpse into my life lately...

1) Exercising and eating better - I started doing old step aerobic videos with a couple of other women at church three times a week and then using my Wii (if you really want a workout, forget about Wii Fit and go right for Wii Active) two or three times a week.  Combine that with not eating half a dozen desserts everyday, and you just might have a chance to lose some weight.  I'm not going to publish any numbers here, but I will say that my weight is lower than it's been since Ned was born - even lower than when I finished the half marathon last year.  And I feel pretty good too - lots more energy and my clothes fit! 

2) Attending our first parent teacher conference...and Peter is doing so well!  I really think we made the right decision about moving here and putting him in school this year.  I love his teacher and his class is super small - I think there are only about 15 kids on the roll and there are usually only a dozen or so there each day.  Academically, he is soaking everything up like a sponge - counting to 100 already (he could count to just beyond 20 when he started and in September we set his IEP goal at 50), being one of the top readers in his class, and really improving his handwriting which I was worried was going to be a huge ordeal since he didn't even want to write during the summer.  There are a few concerns with following directions, but I think this is probably mostly related to his sensory issues and we'll just keep working on it.  He's playing at recess (he didn't want to leave his teacher when school first started), playing teacher at home with all of us being his students and even sometimes talking about what he's looking forward to at school.  Hooray for Peter!  

3) Writing a talk to give in church this Sunday (if you didn't know, we Mormons all take turns preaching to each other) based on this great talk.  I haven't given one in a long time so I'm a little nervous.

4) Making Thanksgiving plans.  My Grandpa's health is in poor shape, so we're making an effort for the entire family to get together for Thanksgiving this year...having it at the church because that's the only place we'll all fit and I'm in charge of decorations.  I have some things worked out but might need something else to use for table decor - anyone have any inexpensive and quick ideas?

5) Starting my new post as PTSA Treasurer tonight.  This might be what happens when you exercise three times a week with the PTSA President.  

6) Working on Stockings.  The are in the shop and I've sold a few already.  I took new pictures this year that I keep meaning to share with you...maybe next post.

7) Practicing the Organ.  I am determined to not scramble at the last minute to figure out what I will do for prelude music during December (like I do every year), so I ordered a new book and got right to practicing it.  I will be prepared this year!

8) Making one more preparation for winter by ordering some new boots.  They just arrived yesterday and I think I'm in love.  I got rid of the last pair of winter boots I had when we moved to California and have suffered with cold feet every winter since we moved to Idaho and especially since I had all of my vein surgeries done.  Bring on the snow!

What have you been up to?

playing catch up

 I got a really great deal on a kid camera the day after Thanksgiving, so we gave it to Peter for Christmas.  Peter has liked the camera, but not loved it and taken pictures intermittently over the months.  We kept telling him that we could put the pictures on the computer, but didn't download any of them until last night (right before our impromptu visit to the doctor - see below).  The camera doesn't take a great quality picture. There are lots of pictures of flooring.  We downloaded 306 photos and I've used some very inclusive standards to pare down to about 80, but there are actually some interesting ones in here. I'll share a few while I share what we've been up to lately.

Things have been crazy since we got back from vacation.  I got a sinus infection that was making vacation fairly unenjoyable and we wanted to get Ned in to see the pediatric opthamologist before he left on vacation for a couple of weeks, so we came home a day early.  The kind doctor confirmed our suspicions - Ned is cross-eyed and will most likely need surgery.  Ned had been squinting a lot and we will notice his eyes wander in, especially when he is tired.  That was Wednesday.  Then yesterday afternoon, I noticed a lump on Ned's back right under a spot where he got treated for molluscum a couple of weeks ago.  So, we took another trip to the doctor (remember - it takes an hour each way now, so it's definitely an event) last night and then got antibiotics for what the doctor thinks is an infection.  Luckily we caught it before it turned into an abcess, so there was no painful draining in the office. 

We are starting "homework" for Peter's occupational therapy which right now just consists of making him listen to his special headphones, which he claims are "too loud", so he doesn't resist them when he starts listening therapy next week. He does well if we use a timer so he can see when he'll be finished  and promise an immediate reward when he's done.  Peter also starts summer school next week.  In our old school district, they didn't offer summer school unless your child regressed during the summer months, so I wasn't really expecting it here.  Apparently, they are small enough here that they just offer it to all their special needs students.  Since he's had such a rough transition to life here (I didn't tell you that he just broke down in Primary at church two weeks ago and we had to go home for a nap - he's never done that), I think it will be good to get him used to going to school before kindergarten actually starts.  

I have been doing a fair amount of thrifting lately - found some great stuff while we were on vacation.  The living room is almost ready for a before and after too, so hopefully the blogging will become a  little more regular.  Going on vacation and coming back helped get me out of my "I just moved" mode, so that should speed things up around here too.  In the meantime, I hope you have a good weekend!

busy

The to do list just gets longer and longer here these days.  I'm just trying to keep my eye on the prize - a lazy summer.  But between the end of school tests and assignments, thinking about moving, stressing about getting everything packed, and everything else that is part of our everyday life, I have to admit that I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.  Part of it might be that I am absolutely obsessed with this rug.  I think I have figured out a decent technique to get it to lay fairly flat (more on that later).  Another part of it is that I haven't hardly packed anything - moving day is still more than a month away, but the last two times we have moved, I started packing two months ahead of time - just a few boxes everyday, but it really helps ease the stress of looking at all of your stuff and thinking about getting it to another place.  And another part is the literally dozens, possibly hundreds, of decorating and improvement ideas floating around in my head and not really having the time to get to them right now.   It's all going to be OK, right? 

And it might seem that I've been obsessively acquiring thrifted sheets (this is not even close to being all of the ones I've purchased in the last few weeks) - I can't seem to say no to them now that we are moving to a town without a thrift store.  We'll still be going into town at least weekly for Peter's speech therapy, but we'll have other errands to run then and I can't guarantee that I'll want to take the boys with me to the thrift store.  I also scored a few more embroidered pillowcases to add to the collection.  One of those ideas floating around in my head is a banner from them to hang in my sewing room.  I think this time I will actually get to it since I have a place to put it. 

Anyway...we are off to get Peter registered for Kindergarten today...something else that is totally stressing me out because I'm not sure how my little babe got old enough to go to kindergarten!

back in the saddle

  

We were up and at 'em again this morning...five more weeks until my school and one of Peter's schools are finished!  Spring break was not so springy, but still a lovely little break.  I had to wake the boys up this morning which was fine by me because it gives me hope that they might sleep in this summer, at least occasionally.  Even after I woke Ned up this morning, he just sat in bed for a minute and then told me he was still tired and laid back down.  I am thankful that I have been able to go to school for the last year, but I wasn't supposed to have to do it at 8 in the morning three days a week, so I'll be very glad when it's over.  And then I won't go to school again until after we move (out of the state that is - in a year or so when Ryan gets his next job) - I'm really in for a long break. 

Speaking of moving...we did decide that we will move to the ugly house at the end of May when Peter is finished with preschool.  I'll have to post some of my ideas about what I plan to do with the space.  I spent a large part of Friday online researching products and ideas to help me figure out how to make the space more pleasing to the eye without spending a ton of money.  It is going to take some money - I'm going to just think of it as our part in stimulating the economy.  We'll also have to buy a washer and dryer, but I figure that is something we will have to do eventually anyway.  And over the course of the year, we will still save money, have a small yard to play in and even grow a few things, and be within walking distance of Ryan's work and Peter's school.  I also got really excited about being there after seeing Penny's walk pictures - I bet there will be some cool photo ops in that small town.  I'm imagining lots of morning walks this summer with camera in hand.  I hope the boys cooperate - I might have to pull out the backpack for Ned.

I've been crocheting those little flowers all weekend for a spring project that I'm working out.  I even did some at our girl's night.  I could have done a lot more if I had stayed up talking with everyone until 4:30 in the morning, but for once in my life, I was the first one asleep at a sleepover.  Apparently, my friends have some serious stamina - one of them is even pregnant - go Mandy!  Thanks for the fun ladies!

And one more item of business...I don't think I'm going to make my giveaway this month, unless you want another pack of scraps...I've still got plenty of those (and I'm not sure I want to move them all)!  I do have a plan set for April though and I should be ready with the giveaway item soon...it's going to be good...I hope you'll like it!  Happy Monday everyone!  We are surviving it one step at a time...we woke up to cold and snow again this morning.

domestic day

After finding out that I did well on my first Anatomy and Physiology exam, I decided to treat myself to a domestic day yesterday.  The boys were cooperative and we had a good day

making jam...

baking bread...

starting a new project for the shop...

and staring at my new set of patterns (thanks Sandi!!)...

and if you ordered some, I'll be helping get them out to you this weekend.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!