I'm Becoming Jamaican

Any old time SNL fans out there? Remember Eddie Murphy doing a sketch about a couple of Jamaicans talking about how many different jobs they have, and giving one guy a hard time, calling him so lazy, etc. because he only had something like 3 jobs while they all had 8 or so jobs? 

Sometimes I seriously think life would be so much easier if I had just one job,...just one simple job to focus on. But anyone who's a mom will tell you (I think by definition) that there's no such thing as just 1 job when it comes to being a mom. It almost blows me away how much time I'll eventually have one day to do all the things I'd really love to do now, but simply don't have the time while I'm taking care of all of my kids and their busy lives. At the same time, it also feels like this whole parenting thing is going by crazy fast and seriously needs to slow down!

The job front hasn't changed any, at least as far as me being able to find a full-time regular job. And these days the postings from employers are slowing down more and more. So while I'm still keeping my eyes open for whatever I can find, right now I'm doing my best to focus on some other options to help with our finances.

First, the best thing going right now is my etsy shop, EL designs. I'm averaging 23-25 pattern sales regularly each month now, which is awesome, esp. considering I only have 5 different patterns listed  and couldn't find the time at all this month to finish and list any new ones. So for right now, at that level of sales, after all my listing and selling fees I'm averaging about $100 net profit per month, which isn't much, but hey that's still awesome and definitely helps!

I have a list a mile long of all the other sewing patterns and tutorials I'm planning to add to my shop, it's just very time consuming to get them finished. So for right now I've switched gears and have been working on developing my new shop, Bakeworthy, while still maintaining my current sales in the first shop because my recipe pdfs are much shorter and quicker to complete. I don't have anything listed yet, I just finished my first recipe pdf and plan to wait until I have several done before adding them to my shop, but hopefully that'll be soon.

In addition to those busy projects, I'm also actively pursuing some extra cash through a little side photography. Last spring I was asked by a couple of students in the youth group if I would be willing to take their senior pictures...two absolutely beautiful girls, fraternal twins, and with such gorgeous models to work with it wasn't hard to take some pretty amazing photos. I didn't charge them anything, just exchanged my services for free babysitting (just as valuable as money around here!).

Well, I've had a TON of people raving and complimenting me on how awesome those photos turned out, so much so that they all believe I seriously need to pursue a career in photography! Well, I'm far from a professional photographer, but I do have a good eye for photos. I thought about the idea for a while, then didn't, and now I've been thinking about it more.

Since we work with the youth group each week, we know a lot of students,...and we also know how tough this economy is on everyone these days, and how parents usually jump at opportunities to save money wherever they can. When it comes to high school seniors, parents get bombarded with a ton of extra expenses, one of which is of course senior photos.

I searched around this area and I can't find any professional photographers who charge less than $100/hr for their photo shoots, with a limited number of props and locations, no more than 20 different poses to choose from, and then of course you have to buy a really expensive package of assorted prints. In hindsight, photography would've been an awesome career choice! Not only do you make a truckload of money, but you get to work outside, in various beautiful locations, meet a ton of new people, set your own hours, etc.

Anyway, as I said, since I'm no professional, I've been offering students sessions at half the cost ($50/hr) with a 2 hr minimum session, unlimited props, clothing changes, and locations, and as many photos as I can possibly take during the session. Then I provide them a disc of all the photos (copyright free) so they can take it to Wal-mart, or Costco, etc. and purchase however many prints they want at a really cheap/affordable price. I'm also offering to design their graduation announcements for an extra $25.

So that means for every student I photograph I can make at least $100 in just a 2 hour session. I sent messages to ten different students recently asking if they have taken their photos yet and if they need a photographer, and so far only 2 of them already have photographers lined up, and 5 others are seriously considering me for their photos, and I'm still waiting to hear from the other 3 students. So hopefully at least some of those students will pan out so I can help them & their parents save a bunch of money, while also helping my family with some extra income!

I have another opportunity to bring in some extra cash in relation to SD's quartet. The group is very interested in booking a bunch of concerts so they can perform regularly and get their name out there more, so I asked if it would be helpful for them if I called around to churches while I'm home during the day (and they're all working) to try to schedule more dates. The group said yes and offered to pay me $25 for every concert I can book!

The only big concern there is how well the bass will be able to keep up with that schedule, considering his heart condition I mentioned yesterday. And of course once my niece starts living with us, her parents will be sending us $200/mth in child support to help cover any expenses she might have (clothes, pullups, food, etc.) while they're gone, which honestly isn't very much at all, but I don't think she'll really add that much to our monthly expenses, so it'll definitely help some.

So with all of those different jobs going on, there's actually a lot of potential for me to be able to bring in some extremely helpful income from home, and still be here with my kids. The big problem/challenge? Is simply finding all the TIME to actually do all of those things!!! Because I still have my main full-time job of being mom to 4 kids, helping them all with homework, baking gluten free items each week (esp. lots of sandwich bread now that we're back to school), keeping up with housework, teaching pre-school to KW, and everything else that goes along with the busy role of mom. Ugh!

When I think about all of those things I'm hopeful and encouraged about the income potential, but it all feels so totally overwhelming too! So right now I'm trying to focus on taking things one step at a time. I'm going to try to finish and list for sale at least 1 or 2 new pdfs each week,...after that it's a matter of simply maintaining my shops, which doesn't take much time at all.

There is a lot of pressure to get all of these areas of possible income up and going though, esp. because right now if nothing changes we're going to be $300 short of being able to pay all of our bills in Sept. So I guess I better sell a bunch more patterns before then! Again,...trying to concentrate on just getting through today for now...which is really difficult when you're a huge future thinker/goal setter like I am. I want to have to reassurance that we'll be able to pay all our bills next month, and the month after that. But life doesn't always work that way...guess this is the part where trusting in God to somehow keep providing for my family kicks in, huh?

Life, Oiy Veh!

As my Popop used to say all the time, "Oiy Veh!" Life right now is the typical crazy busyness, no matter how much we seem to cut out of our schedules. The kids are all back in school, and with that they're being bombarded with tons of homework each night, tons of notes for me to read & sign, and feeling overtired as they simply try to adjust back into the sleep schedule that comes with school. But overall school seems to be going well.

IK is taking some really interesting electives this year, esp. the "Intro. to Interactive Media," which basically teaches him the basics of using Adobe Photoshop and Publisher, and also "Business Essentials," which is providing a basic introduction to the world of business (accounting, management, marketing, different types of organizations, etc.)...all of which I've been through and know a ton about, so it's providing some great opportunities for discussions with him.

He's still taking the Launch Pad class, which is another elective that's an off campus Christian release time (basically the equivalent of when Mormon students go to seminary class during the school day, same thing, just for Christian students). IK really enjoys this group and has told me it helps so much with the daily pressures of high school. It was interesting when he came home from the 1st day of school and felt somewhat overwhelmed by all of the enormous amounts of swearing he has to hear as he walks through the halls of his school. He said he was really taken back by it because he hadn't heard that much talk in 3 months and it was amazing how overwhelming that language is for some students.

Both IK and EJ are striving extremely hard to maintain excellent grades this year. While it seems like there are so many negative aspects of me being unemployed and our family struggling to make it financially each month, one positive result is that it's been teaching my children some excellent money management skills, the importance of budgeting, and working hard to earn the things you want in life. They both fully understand that attending college can come with a pretty hefty price of student loan debt,...or it can be much easier if you focus on your grades NOW so that your scholarship potential is far greater later. So far they're off to a great start.

IK begins fall soccer tonight. He spent the entire summer going through the grueling high school soccer training program, only to be one of 20+ guys who were cut from the team tryouts. It seemed even more frustrating for one of his best friends, IS, who actually made the team last year as a freshman, but was cut this year. It's also really frustrating that their high school simply has so many students interested in playing soccer that they have to cut so many people (because the school won't pay to hire a second JV coach), while another high school in town each year barely has enough students tryout for soccer and almost never has to make cuts.

EJ is now one of the top dog 8th graders and she's thrilled! She's still playing the cello, and is surprisingly good despite never practicing at home. In some ways she's beginning to show a lot more signs of maturing, while in others she's not quite there yet. I'm really hoping this will be a transformational year for her.

She's been showing some extreme improvements in her organizational skills...which is a tremendous achievement for her! I think the system we set up for her schoolwork last spring has been very effective and so far seems to be working really well this year too. This year she's taking pre-algebra (and IK's taking algebra 2), which is awesome for me because I've always loved algebra. It's one of those things that just comes naturally, just like statistical formulas (I know, I'm a math geek), but it's comforting to know that I can be a really great help to my kids in this area if they get stuck or don't understand something.

EJ is also signed up to be a servant leader in the youth group at church. What's that? Well, it's a group of students who have to fill out an application, including 2 references, and go through an interview process, to be selected as servant leaders for the next school year. They are in charge of planning many of the youth group events throughout the year, as well as outreach to new students as they join the youth group or visit our church. EJ decided to pursue this role all on her own, and it's another area where we're seeing some great signs of maturity in her. It's also been a great way for her to start coming out of her shell.

And, in other extremely exciting news about EJ, she now has FIVE WHOLE INCHES!!!!!!!!!!!

The last time EJ went to the doctor for anything was back in January 2009, and at that time she was exactly 52 inches tall. She had completely stagnated at that height for the past 2 years and literally had not grown at ALL from that height since 2007.

Well, we went completely gluten free just a few months later in May 2009, and now 1 1/2 years later she is 57 inches tall!!!! Which means she has grown 5 inches in the past 18 months! WOW!!!!! EJ was extremely elated when she realized just how much she's grown! We honestly couldn't remember how tall she was a year ago before we went GF, but even still that's a LOT of growth for anybody! And I really think this year will be another big year for her as far as continued growth. Since I'm only 5'3" she may not end up being too much taller, but I'm at least hopeful that she'll keep growing this year and really start to feel more like the rest of the kids her age.

LA is also doing well. She's the super student, the extreme over-achiever, like IK where academics comes very easy to her. She whips through an entire week's worth of homework in just 1 night. On the first day of school I received a phone call telling me that she had received some HUGE reward, one of only 16 tickets handed out in the entire school to students who demonstrated exceptional behavior following the rules, being extra helpful, etc. And then the very next day I received another phone call telling me she had received a second ticket that day and so far was the only student in the entire school to be awarded 2 tickets. Little brown noser! But seriously, that's awesome to hear those kinds of reports about your kids.

A new change for LA this year is that she is NOT playing soccer...completely by her own choice! In fact, SD and I both actually tried to talk her out of it last spring, because she's incredibly skilled at soccer and really enjoys it. But she's been playing every spring and fall season since she was 4 years old, and told us that she wanted to take a break and try something different.

We were kind of sad to think about not being able to cheer her on and watch her play this fall, but at the same time it's been helpful because we honestly couldn't afford the registration fees and don't mind at all that we won't have to take her to practices twice per week and games every Sat. for the next 2 months. Instead she's been interested in maybe trying softball next spring/summer and just brought home a note about girlscouts she might want to try. 

There's an informational meeting about it next week we're going to plan to attend and then see what type of schedule commitments that would bring. The registration is only $12/yr, but I'm more concerned about the amount of weekly/monthly meetings and/or crafts she'd be involved in, along with the $350 summer camp. We'll see.

KW is really growing up this year! It probably makes such a difference being the baby and having older siblings around all the time. He's getting taller, and finally grew just enough that he can no longer walk underneath the kitchen counter without hitting his head (which he still forgets about sometimes). He also decided one day to just take off his training wheels, and all on his own try to ride his bike with just 2 wheels. It was as if a switch had flipped because within a matter of HOURS he was zooming up and down the driveway, whipping turns, and flying down the sidewalk as if he'd been riding on 2 wheels for a very long time. 

Now's he's even attempting to jump a small ramp the neighbors have, but he hasn't quite mastered that yet. But he's also mastered riding a scooter extremely fast, and unfortunately is eating through tennis shoes at lightening speed (well, at least 1 shoe because he uses it as his brake to stop when he's on the scooter).

Over the summer KW developed an amazing friendship with one of the boys who lives directly across the street, who is now referred to as "My best friend Eric." They are inseparable! They spent almost every single day of this summer playing endlessly, riding bikes and scooters, playing with cars and action figures, and running back and forth between our backyard and theirs. Eric is exactly 1 year older than KW, so he is going to kindergarten for half days this year. It's been awesome to see them develop such a great friendship and I really hope it continues for as long as we're stuck in this house.

I've started pre-school at home with KW, and so far he really enjoys it and is doing very well. Each day we go through 4 books learning new letters, numbers, colors and shapes, and identifying things that are the same or different. We also go back and review everything we've already learned to reinforce those concepts through constant repetition. I don't expect him to master everything, but my goal is to help him enjoy this learning process, to feel a little more like one of the big kids, and to prep him however much I can for kindergarten next year. Wow, it's hard to believe all of my kids will be in school next year!

Next month my niece will start living with us, at least half of the time, we're still trying to figure the schedule out. Her mom is leaving for basic training and tech school, and will be gone until a short break at Christmas, and then again at least until April, maybe a few months longer. Her dad (SD's youngest brother) will be here off and on until Nov., with training roughly 2 weeks of every month leading up to then, so he'll have her while he's here and we'll fill in when he's gone. He also comes back at Christmas, and then he'll be in Iraq for 10 months.

So far her monthly weekend stays at our house have been going very well. She's becoming more and more used to all of us and simply being here. She used to be extremely quiet for the 1st day, barely talking and clinging to LA wherever she went, but now she opens right up and talks all the time. It'll be nice for her to be here to play with KW while the rest of the kids are in school, although they don't always get along.

KW is like me, NOT a morning person! So he likes to wake up slowly, gradually, without being bothered or even spoken to at all for a while. My niece is a very chipper early morning person, so she REALLY irritates him in the mornings by calling his name constantly and trying to be a little chatty kathy with him. After he's awake though they get along pretty well until about 1:30-2pm,...that's when they both start telling me the other one is being mean, and they start arguing, and that's when I know it's nap time!

We have a dinner coming up this weekend with my niece's mom and some of her family. Apparently there are some difficult family issues, where not all of her relatives are trust-worthy, which is a major reason why we've been given temporary custody. I met her uncle (actually great uncle) on Monday when he came with her mom to pick up K. He's one of the "good" relatives who is completely trustworthy and I felt like it would be a good idea for us to invite him over so we could meet face to face before K's parents both leave.

So K and her mom, SD's brother, the uncle and his girlfriend and possibly her son, will all be coming over for dinner. That part's fine. But K's grandma (her mom's mom) might also come for dinner, and that's the part that may or may not be pleasant. Apparently the woman is bipolar and regularly smokes pot. We've been given strict orders that while K's parents are gone this woman is only allowed to see K through supervised visits at our house. I'm just hoping and praying that it won't become any kind of extremely difficult situation while they're gone.

SD's keeping busy these days, between work and his quartet. We've been really concerned about the bass singer in the group who has been having a lot of health complications lately. He had a heart attack in July, had to have his heart reset, and a couple of other little issues that landed him in and out of the hospital a lot this summer. And I guess he's supposed to be having surgery on his heart next month, so while all the group members are really anxious and determined to keep booking a lot of concerts, they're also very concerned about how much Pete will be able to perform? Nobody really knows, and last month they actually had to do one concert as a trio. Again, another area needing prayer!

As for me, aside from simply keeping up with all of the stuff I've mentioned here, I'm having no troubles keeping extremely busy, but that'll have to wait for another update, this post is long enough!

Still Trudging Along

Yeah,...I've been totally absent from blogging this summer. I've thought about it lots, but just haven't been in the mood, and honestly most of the time feeling so frustrated and discouraged that if I had been blogging I would've received an award for seriously most depressing blog for sure!

Today's a pretty good day, so let's just catch up.

--- summer's over, which is good and bad. Our summer completely and totally sucked,...as in I really don't even feel like we had a real summer at all, and now it's over. Financial stresses and expensive surprises (like $500 in car repairs and $1,300 in dental bills) put some major kinks into our summer plans for any kind of vacation.

By the time it all settled, we couldn't even afford the cost of going camping for a single weekend. So once again our family didn't have any sort of vacation/retreat/restful getaway all summer long to help us feel renewed and ready to tackle another busy school year.

--- I'm still miserably unemployed, and no hope of that changing or getting better any time soon. You know it's bad when a recruiter from your previous employer actually calls you personally and tells you it's completely pointless to bother filling out any applications for openings with this company (since they're getting ready to layoff 2 full accounting depts.).

Otherwise, it's more of the same rejection letters each week, although most companies have severely lessened the amount of job openings they're posting these days, so there's far less to even apply for.

--- my big, scary students loans came due in July and we've had to start making monthly payments. The good news is that Sallie Mae has a great program for low income families where they use a calculation based on your AGI and family size, and then figure out a lower monthly payment plan you can actually afford to make. So for us, that was a pretty huge miracle to go from monthly payments that would've been over $1,000 per month all the way down to just $54/mth for now!

They re-evaluate your payments annually, again based on your AGI. So at least for now, we can manage to make smaller payments and get by.

--- With all the unexpected little (and big) expenses that seem to pop up in life, we're really struggling with new monthly payments we're making on credit debts we've acquired the past few months just to get by. It's a constant struggle to keep every bill paid and still have anything left to buy groceries, not to mention 4 kids who've outgrown their clothes, need new shoes and school supplies, etc.

--- IK and EJ ended up getting part-time jobs over the summer working on a farm of a friend of mine. They pulled weeds and moved really large rocks out of huge fields, working 8-10 hour days, getting paid $6/hr, which was the only way they were able to afford to go on some of the youth group events this summer.

--- School started yesterday. Now IK's a sophomore in high school, driving me everywhere with his learner's permit. EJ's in 8th grade this year and I'm actually seeing lots of signs of her growing this year. LA is in 3rd grade, and KW is going through pre-school at home here with me. He'd much rather be actually going to a school like the rest of the big kids, but so far he really enjoys school time and getting stickers. LA did an at home pre-school prep with me (we just bought a few books and went through them) and she really enjoyed it and did well, so I'm hoping KW will continue to really like it.

--- I'm gaining a 5th child this fall. Yep, we'll be "W______, party of 7!" SD's youngest brother is deploying to Iraq and the mother of his daughter has recently joined the Army and is heading out to basic training & tech school. Their trips overlap a lot, which means we'll have temporary custody of a 2 (almost 3) yr. old little girl for at least 6-7 months, maybe longer.

It'll be a really good situation for my niece, to have a stable home environment with 4 cousins to play with all the time. It also gives KW a playmate while the rest of the kids are at school. The sad part though is that when she returns, her mom is planning to move up to Couer d'Alene when she gets back (because Boise doesn't have a medic unit like the one she's going into) which means after having my niece live with us all that time we'll most likely never see her again, or on EXTREMELY limited visits after they move.

I know they have joint custody, so I honestly don't know how that's going to work with her being able to visit with her dad? They're not planning to move out of state, just approx. 8 hours north, so that could end up being a pretty horrible situation for SD's brother. I don't know, those plans could change between now and then too, so I'm sure they'll figure it out.

---The only good thing going for me job-wise these days is my etsy shop, EL designs. The switch from trying to sell hair accessories to selling pdf tutorials and sewing patterns instead has been a very good move! I've now made 70 sales, which is an average of about 23 sales per month, and after all the listing fees & selling fees I've been able to net about $100/mth, so that's very encouraging!

I'm currently working on setting up a second etsy shop, Bakeworthy, to start selling a bunch of my GF recipes that get so many rave reviews to see if I can bring in even more income from etsy each month. The really hard part right now is trying to find the time to create more PDFs to sell, esp. all the time it takes to snap photos of all the step by step instructions, write out all the directions, put together the tutorial layout, upload the listings, and general daily upkeep of my shop renewing and relisting items each day so I can stay near the top of the search pages when buyer browse through the sections.

It takes a lot of work, but once I get each tutorial created and listed, it's so worth it! I mean, I only have 5 different tutorials for sale right now and I'm able to bring in a little extra money each month, so the more tutorials I can put together, the better that income will be. Maybe now that my kids are back in school I can find some more time to work on it.

--- As for exercise these days, well that's been an up and down, back and forth, issue. I've noticed an interesting pattern between my stress levels and motivation to exercise: the more stressed I am, the less I have any desire to workout at all. Which of course seems really stupid & backwards, because exercise relieves so much stress, so then when I don't workout I lose energy, I end up feeling sluggish all through the day, I don't eat right, and then I beat myself up for not working out and putting pounds back on, so it all snowballs ridiculously.

I ran a ton all through June, and then didn't workout a single day in July. Now this month I've gotten back on track with running,...until 2 days ago when I somehow managed to strain my quads. From everything I've been able to research it appears that the problem is a common one with runners, and it's due to my hamstring muscles being a lot stronger than my quadriceps are these days (because you work your hams a ton when running), so now my quads have these shooting pains when I try to run.

The remedy is ice, rest, and then gradually working back into exercise...BUT I have to reduce the amount of running and instead start incorporating strength training again. Ugh! I was getting to that, just haven't been very motivated to do any strength training lately, but now I can see I totally need to. Of course, now it'll have to wait until my current injury is gone, because today I'm in a lot of pain and have a ton of really sore muscles.

At this point, as bummed as I am about it, I think I've pretty well given up the idea/goal of running my first half marathon this year. I just simply haven't been very disciplined in my exercise and training this year, and have allowed stressful situations to rule my days. But the B2B 10k that SD and I ran together last year is coming up again in 8 weeks, which is plenty of time to train for a 10k!

It's the exact same course as last year, so we're already very familiar with it, but this time they're actually using the paced interval start times that they desperately needed to do last year to avoid the horrible bottleneck start we had. It's one of the least expensive races around, and for me I know that in order to really keep myself motivated to exercise consistently, I really have to have some sort of race or upcoming deadline actually scheduled on the calendar or else I'll just put it off. but if I know I've paid good money to participate in a race, then I'll definitely work hard to try to have my best run time.

Today my niece is coming over to spend the weekend with us (she's been coming over once per month to get more used to us and being here, so it won't be as big of a shock when both her parents leave), KW and I have pre-school work to do, cookies to bake, a roast to throw in the oven, a bunch of housework as usual, and hopefully some time to work on my etsy shops.

With school back in session, I'm hoping to establish a better daily routine, and maybe find some more time to blog again (no promises or anything, but it's nice to be able to journal at least the highlights of our crazy busy life).