my view lately

I have been waiting to finally tell you that we received an email back about the job saying, “thanks, but no thanks”…but we still haven’t heard back!  They did tell us in the interview it might not be until the end of the month when we hear back, and not to take not hearing back right away as a bad sign, but maaaan we are so anxious!  We realized we have been “waiting” for almost a year to move on in our life!  I applied for that worship position last January, and that took about 4 months to have closure on.  Then after we moved and finally felt like we could start putting down roots, we also felt suddenly called to apply for this job.  That was back at the end of June, and we have been waiting to have closure on it ever since.  I tell ya!  God is sure trying to teach us patience right now.  It is hard, because we are planners and you can’t plan much when you don’t know what you will be doing in the following months.  And at the same time, it gets harder every day to imagine leaving our cozy little house here in Indianola!

I have been keeping myself busy though!  We are finally starting to get a nice rhythm for our mornings.  After breakfast, we go for a walk (on nicer days) or the kids play nicely until Shea and I begin doing some school.  I picked up a preschool workbook for Shea which has something like 8 “subjects”.  Shea does a page from each subject and then when he finishes, he gets to pick a sticker out from the back and put it on the book cover (I made one out of a paper bag).  Then we do a short bible devotional and a craft of some sort.  Yesterday we made a piranha and a frog (all his idea) from a book we read and he has been acting it out the last couple of days.  He also loves to write stories now.  I have a notebook that the top portion is blank for sketching and the bottom half has lines for writing.  He draws pictures and then we go back through and he tells me what to write.  He called it, “The Never Ending Story” (yes, real original) and so far it is about a horse and 10 dolphins who transform into anything they want, such as “ambulances to save people” or “robots to climb mountains”.  Of course, I don’t think I ever shared with you the story he wrote about “Bautaub” who is a dog that wears underwear shaped like a house and he is a superhero who has a gun that shoots him out and changes the color of his body.  I couldn't come up with this stuff if I tried!!!

The other thing that has preoccupied me for the past month or so has been sewing and researching how to have a successful Etsy store.  I am about ready to launch my Etsy store – FOR REAL this time. Haha.  I haven’t wanted to say anything about it, because I have been talking about it for so long, but so many things have come up and it keeps getting postponed.  My shipping boxes came in the mail on Friday, so yesterday I went through and weighed everything so I could calculate shipping costs and now I am in the process of listing all of my items.  My graphics (logo, shop banner, images of my products) are edited and ready to go, most of the filler (about/policies/etc.) is written for the shop, and I have been busy sewing.  I have about 10 or so items ready to be listed and many more projects in my head!  I’m excited to see if anything comes of it, but I’m trying not to go to crazy making stuff until I see what sells and what doesn't.  

Here are a few pictures of my products:

Once I get everything officially up (my realistic goal is by next weekend), I would so appreciate it if you would spread the word (at least by sharing it on FB).  I have been having such a super fun time designing and making everything.  The kids have been great too, because I can get a little bit of work in during the day when they are playing nearby (and during naptime), and Jeremy has been doing homework in the evenings, so I don’t feel bad working then either.  I hope I end up doing well enough that I can spend about 15 hours per week sewing and bring in a little bit of actual income for our family, but even if it’s a total failure, that’s okay.  I won't lose too much from it, and the sewing experience has been great.

Another random thing that happened this week – my in-laws came over on Tuesday night to give us our Christmas present early.  It was a Ninja blender.  SO random.  I kept breaking our blender and finally could not use it anymore.  I guess they knew this because we had been talking about blenders and Jeremy’s mom decided we could use it in the meantime and didn't want to wait for Christmas.  The main thing I use our blender for (ALL THE TIME) is making almond milk.  We go through half a gallon (at least) a week.  They let us borrow a big food processor though, and although it was a little annoying because it was still too small for the batch size I like the make, it worked well enough.  I was totally surprised and overwhelmed at a Ninja though!  This thing is amazing.  I made gluten free waffles the other day by making oat flour and have been making homemade dairy free "ice cream" too .  I’m excited because now I can make homemade sprouted grain bread without using any commercially processed flours.  Although, it will probably be a while before I get to that point.  Sprouting beans takes enough preparation and forethought as it is.

It feels like it’s been so long since I've posted.  So much else seems like it is happening, but at the same time, it feels like nothing is going on.  I have been thoroughly enjoying the fall weather and am looking forward to the holidays. Our fire keeps our house so comfortably warm and I LOVE going to bed in a warm room.  Our loft gets so toasty and I don’t think I have ever experienced having such a warm bedroom in my life – normally we sleep with blankets piled on our bed, but not this year.  Every night Jeremy and I sit and look around our house and think, “it would be so hard to leave this”.

Shea's birthday is on Friday.  I can't believe he is already turning 4 years old!  He already has 4 girlfriends (I'll have to show you the video I took of him telling me all about them...we are going to be in SO much trouble when he is a teenager!) and is learning so much lately I can't keep up with him.  I think we are just going to have his cousins who live nearby and Jeremy's parents over for a low-key family style birthday this year.  He even already got some awesome birthday presents.  A family from our church put a free big trampoline out on the street (a smaller big one with a net all around it) and he LOVES it.  I actually don't know if it is more of a present for him or me, because he jumped all day on it when we brought it home and now if I mention the word he is out there jumping and I don't have to worry about him at all with the netting.  Best recess ever.  We were all out there last night jumping.  Hailey loves it too.  It will be so fun when she is big enough that the two of them can go out there and play together on their own.  Shea was begging for her to come and jump with him by themselves.  Jeremy and I even snuck out there later in the night and jumped a little. I have read the rebounding is really good for helping detox your body, too :)

Anyway, we had a super long day today.  The kids are in bed, Jeremy is out in the garage watching football, and I am working on my etsy store.  Just thought I would give a little update :)  Hope all is well with everyone else!