I've Been Scheduled

When I keep a schedule I can keep my sanity. I haven't had one in awhile and it was starting to show. I can now breathe a little! I was working myself up into a stressed out ball of panicked nerves so I finally sat down and wrote out a new schedule. Without that silly thing to look at I either panic at all that needs done and the feeling that it all needs done RIGHT NOW! or I pace circles in the living room carpet trying to remember what I was just on my way to do.

When I very first decided a schedule was in order I tried the schedule-every-cotton-pickin'-minute-of-your-day method. That sort of worked, because I'm a perfectionist control freak, but bored me to tears and put me in a tizzy anytime something unscheduled had to happen. Then I settled on the more relaxed schedule where I have a short list of things to accomplish in the morning (in any order that catches my fancy that day), one for afternoon, and one for evening. These are all things I want to do every day. My afternoon list includes a weekly chore (ex. Monday is clean all floors day) Then after each set of things has been accomplished I consider it my free time That means, barring too many unexpected head injuries or diapering incidents, I can have 3 free times! This is when I will pester people with email, rant incessantly on my blog, make stuff...you know, all the really fun stuff that I would sit around doing all day if it weren't for a schedule.

I'm working on an etsy specific schedule like this where I have things that need done daily and others that would be better as weekly or monthly things. It's amazing how much time I have when I follow the schedule! Yesterday I was determined to stick to my schedule and I did it! Not only the necessary stuff but I had tons of time to do whatever the heck I wanted, which yesterday was:

1. relisting a few items to my shop
2.proof reading all my etsy listings
3.making some minor changes to my shop announcements, policies, and appearance
4. unifying the copy in my listings a bit
5. adding metric measurements to my listings
6. getting a little more done on my craft room
7. emptying a few more boxes

It may not seem like a lot but the etsy stuff was tedious and necessary (though I rather enjoyed it). I actually was a little embarrassed that I had so many spelling errors! I think I need to start reading more or something. I used to have great spelling but now it seems to be on the decline. I blame the internet.

It's In Their DNA

Boys. Rowdy, dangerous, don't always pay attention, leap before they look, snips and snails and puppy dog tails. They can't help it, it's in their DNA and now one of those boys' DNA is on his shirt, my coffee table, my new carpet, my sofa, my kitchen towels and my favorite pair of lazy pants. Somehow while "napping" he managed to fling himself from the couch and into the metal corner of the coffee table. Poor guy, he was very brave while Mamma worked hard at staying composed and trying to decide if this was worth figuring out where the emergency room was and sitting in it for 3 hours before the nurses washed it off with soap and water and sent us on our way. After a call to my mom ("mom I have a minor mommy emergency I need your advice on") I decided a trip to Pappa for a second opinion and then Walgreens for liquid bandaids would suffice. Mr. Golden Curls thought liquid bandaids sounded like a super cool thing to go shopping for and acted like we were at the candy store when we hit the bandaid section. He pointed at each and every different style of bandaid (of which, I must admit, there are an impressive number) and each time he said, "Mamma, look what I found!". I was just concerned about keeping him quiet and locating the goods as quickly as possible so as not to suffer any "look at that kid's head, what a crappy trailer park mom, what's she doing here, she should've taken her kid to the emergency room" kind of stares.

Be Still My Soul

This weekend was full of wonderful in-law fun! And no, I'm not being sarcastic. I think I'm one of the few people on the planet who really does like their in-laws! My husband and I are always in awe of the fact that we both have families who raised us well, are still together (and should be), and where everyone on all sides gets along. This weekend the church that my father-in-law has worked in for the past 25 years threw him a blowout bash and we went to celebrate this major accomplishment. Spending 25 years in ministry period is a huge deal but doing them in the same church is practically unheard of. It was wonderful to see them both honored so beautifully, they both deserve it. The best part was that my husband and his dad sang a duet Sunday morning, How Great Thou Art, and then that evening my husband sang Be Still My Soul, which he does sitting at the piano and so soulfully, that I tear up every time. As an adorable itty bitty cherry on top we also got to celebrate my youngest nephew's first birthday! Congrats on surviving your first year with 3 older siblings Baby JW!

Why, Why, Why?

Why do I do it to myself? I take a day full of potential happiness and fun and decide instead to do my grocery shopping at Walmart where all of our culture's acceptance of mediocrity is bred and perpetuated. Could this place consistently suck any more than it does now? How can a company so negatively inspire their employees that there's not a single checker who doesn't expect the customers to do the majority of their job? I've been saying for years I'll never go back and I was doing a good job before we moved. In my old town there was a Walmart Neighborhood Market where you could get the good prices and people did their job. When we moved there was no NM and I was torn. I can go to the grocery store and get fantastic service (they even take the groceries to the car!) or to Walmart where I save money on my growing family but am so angry by the time I leave I could spit fire from both nostrils and spew nails from my eyeballs. I think I'll pay extra at the grocery store from now on!

All's Well That Ends Well

Mr. Golden Curls making a heart with his hands. I have no idea where he learned this but I think it's adorable!

Have I said yet how absolutely completely and utterly fantastic it is to have our family of four back together again? Because it is. The Bohemian and I are re-learning how to occupy the same space. We're both passionately opinionated, what do you expect from an artist and someone with a vocal performance degree in opera? And we both think we know the best way to do everything, which makes it hard to be around others. That's why we're lucky to have found each other, no one else would put up with us! Even with that it's more than wonderful and I'm daily reminded why The Bohemian is my perfect balance. And the boys are finally getting used to the fact that when he goes he's just going to work and he'll be back in the evening not a week or so. We have almost all of our possessions out of storage, tomorrow should complete that task. Then I'm going to kick major booty to get the house together so I can start kicking some major booty getting my etsy shop back together again!

For the past few days I've been reading a series of etsy articles from their blog, The Storque, on making over your shop. I've been taking notes and I'm ready to examine all of my listings with a critical eye while re-opening and revamping anything that could be better. I'm ready to get back to it, I even have a room that will be completely dedicated to my crafts ("Mine, all MINE!!!!!!!!) but if I start in on getting my shop up and running before the house is complete the house will never be complete. So house first. It's also time to start thinking about making and listing Christmas items! Hard to think about Christmas when it feels like 110 degrees outside with a massive humidity of why-the-heck-doesn't-it-just-rain-already!

"And To Your Left You'll See...

...the suburbanite in its natural habitat."


I have to say it's been pretty strange being the first to live on our street. It basically means we're neighborless and living on a construction site. The construction hasn't bothered me as much as I expected and of course the boys eat it up, they get to watch tractors and dump trucks all day! There are some houses when you first enter the neighborhood but then you go all the way up the street and there we are at the top of the hill. Then going down the hill there are about 10 houses in various stages of construction. What this has meant is that any time I take the boys to the front yard and driveway to play I feel like an advertisement for the neighborhood (they only sodded the front yard so it's the only place we have to play until that is remedied). There are constantly people driving by at 5 mph rubber necking to see if it might be a place they want to live, or maybe just being nosy.

Today we brought some more stuff to the house from storage, I took some boxes inside and when I went back for more there was a couple having a serious discussion right smack dab in the middle of my driveway! I was a little surprised but just said "Hello!" politely. "Hi." and they start back into their conversation. Then suddenly a light of realization "Oh, you're living here! I'm sorry! We've been looking at a house up the street." and off they go. Actually I think the random people have been kind of fun. We did get to meet our soon-to-be neighbor yesterday. I'm very excited because they have a 2 year old too, a girl but that's alright, it seems everyone we know has all girls.

Lil' Do It Your Selfer

As I was writing my last post the motherly thought "It's awfully quiet in there" occurred to me and I realized I'd just composed an entire post complete with pictures galore and links without interruption. As much as I didn't want to disturb my piece and quiet I thought it was probably time to check in on the little monkeys of terror. When I walked into their room all seemed, at first glance, to be good. Mr Golden Curls was nicely playing on the train table. Then I see Lil' Spitfire having climbed up on the changing table and about to climb from there to the top bunk. It took me a sec to realize he was not only in the nude but had a bum covered in poo! I quickly laid him down on the table and reached for the wipes..."what did you do with the wipes?" he points to the floor. I pick up the box of wipes, return it to its spot on the table and open it to find poo covered wipes crammed inside! "Did you try to change your own diaper?!" "Yea, I do it myself, I big!" I'm trying to contain a mix of disgust and laughter at this point, knowing that he was just trying to be big but also totally grossed out. "Where is the dirty diaper?" Again he points and I see it inside one of their crates full of toys "Oh, yuck! I know you were trying to do it yourself and be big, but next time lets leave this job to Mamma or Pappa." "Nope, I do it." "If you want to do this job kiddo then get yourself to the potty!" "No, I change my poo poo diaper." And all the while big brother is using our conversation as a chance to say poopy as many times as possible. Apparently at four he's already developing an affection for potty mouth. Mmmm, good times ahead!