Snow cones...

Today we ventured to our neighborhood snow cone stand & enjoyed our first snow cones of the season. This is such a treat for our kids & we enjoy it also. I also went & met with the principal at my sons school. He is a high energy child & they have been having trouble controlling his energy in a positive way. At this point I was resolving myself to the fact he would homeschool next year. After our meeting I feel much better about next school year. We agreed I would send him back next year do 6 weeks as a trial. She would put him with her most experienced 2nd grade teacher & they would test for their gifted and talented program. My thoughts are he's already the youngest in his class. But academically he is advanced. He just may not be advanced quite enough to succeed in that program, though tradition work is boring for him. We are going to go into the school year with positive hopes & see how it goes, what can it hurt?

When There Aren't Words...

   There aren't words sometimes to have to explain loss. Sometimes there are moments when you can't say the right thing, and so you just shouldn't even try. I have been reading a blog many of you may already be familiar with. Its written by Kate Leong called Chasing Rainbows (www.kateleong.com). I'm not going to ruin it for you but for many of you following my blog, this could be a good read. I know MANY of you have probably struggled with infertility and loss. I cried the hardest I have in a VERY long time reading her blog recently (I would recommend you start reading from at LEAST last year). I am humbled by her. I am in awe of her strength, her humility in loss and her overwhelming and consuming grace. Its really easy to feel sorry for myself or how our lives are dictated by paperwork to have a child. How a complete stranger can decide whether we become parents again. Our home is a revolving door for case workers, inspectors and countless people "judging" us and whether we're good enough.  No, I didn't get pregnant easily, have beautiful healthy babies that look like me & my husband & live happily ever after. But damn, I have ALOT. I have three beautiful healthy & thriving children. I still have my hopes and dreams for them, their future's and the possibilities this world holds for them are endless. I can't give them everything that many people probably can, but I gave them a chance. Reading her blog today it made me realize, no matter how hard they work, some mothers can't give their children a chance. A chance to fight, to grow, to thrive, to live. Today I took my kids to the park and looked at them playing a little differently. I stared a little longer and cherished their laughter in the warmth of today's beautiful sun more than ever. I didn't work from home, I didn't sew, I just didn't. So, with that I would like to share her post on loss. She says it better than I EVER could, I hope you guys enjoy it. http://www.kateleong.com/2012/10/on-loss.html#.UX8wY8rL7Mo. Also the photo above is an adorable sign I ordered today from Zulily, which is an awesome website for close outs, here's a link www.zulily.com/invite/canderson441 .

Growing things...

As long as we've lived in our home (7 years), I've wanted a vegetable garden. We have a large dog & she would rip it to shreds in a day. Well, a close friend of ours posted a photo & I saw this awesome stand up planter in the background. I fell in love & turns out her uncle made it, and 3 days later he had made ME one! Today we took the kids down and bought a bunch of vegetables and herbs to put in the planter. We haven't planted them yet but here's a photo of the planter. It's super nice & I'm really happy with it. If you are in the Houston area check it out at www.Facebook.com/KustomKoolers . I hope our new plants grow & we can start eating our veggies. We are also cleaning up our back yard & getting it all summer ready. Im ashamed to say it is in sad overgrown shape right now. The dog has dug holes all over & it's out of control! We bought the baby a little seat swing for the swing set & are getting ready to set up our patio set & mini pool. Since I'll be home much more this summer we will have way more time to spend back there!

Part Time, Full Time

So this was my first week working part time. It went really well. Our whole family has been really sick. It started with poor Tuck, he was back & forth to the hospital with 104+ fever. Then it spread to everyone else over the next week and a half. As soon as everyone returned to school & work, Everly got a stomach virus. Then over 2 days everyone caught it. It was brutal. A week later were all still trying to recover fully. This is the first time we've ever had a wave of sickness come through the family and it was really tough on our work schedules. I've been making a concentrated effort to make sure I'm keeping a good work / home balance when I'm working from home. I'm the type of person where it's very easy for me to work on weekends or in the evenings. For now I've set aside Saturdays & Sundays for not working except to answer emails & messages, NO sewing! I also want to say I wrote this from the Blogger App on my iPhone. I didn't realize they had an app until today, and the reason I don't blog more often is because I live on my phone, not my computer. Hopefully now I can blog a little more often & easily. I did venture to the Disney outlet today & it went fine. Minus the fact that shortly after we got there it started to rain & all of Houston flooded, of course while I'm 40 miles from home. We made it home with no issue though, thank goodness! In other exciting news the girls's new birth certificates came in today. Some of you may be curious how they look! Basically they wipe the original record & put me & my husband on the new birth certificate. Neither our son's or the girl's came with their weights etc which is kinda sad. But, this is really the point where you realize it's all over & we're their "real" parents!

Summer is coming!

   This week I started working part time, and coming home to sew the other half. It has been really nice! Though, I am now wishing I hadn't agreed to stay working through June. I am still selling dresses as fast as I can get them made. The way I've been doing it is sewing a sample, and posting it while I finish up the others of the same dress. I've had every dress sell out within hours. I'm feeling very blessed by this new opportunity & I've been working like crazy on building my customer base & clientele. I'm heading out this weekend to the Disney Outlet (alone with 3 kids) to get some shirts for the next couple of weeks worth of dresses. We have some BIG, BIG changes coming up also. This could change our whole lives, and our little one's lives in ways we can't imagine. We aren't ready to share just yet. We're stewing on our newest decisions and wanting to let it get a little closer before we spread the good news! The kids are all doing well. Tuck is ready for the summer, which is just 6 weeks away. Everly is as sassy as ever. I'll be happy when I'm home with her all the time. The daycare at my work hasn't been good for her. She manipulates the workers & its showing in her behavior there. I've tried to tell them, but they just won't listen. So, I guess I should just let them deal with the tantrums she throws since they give in to it. Lyla is growing so fast & becoming such a little lady! She isn't my baby anymore. I'm sad to see her grow so fast. In just 3 short months she will celebrate her 2nd birthday. The photo above is from her first birthday party.

So Many Changes...

Things have changed so much since my last post. I know we had a great plan for me to quit my job, but we have tossed out that plan and decided to have faith that was the path for us. My business has really taken off. I was selling dresses so quickly I couldn't keep up & had to stop taking orders because I was nearly 2 weeks out. I was making more in a day a half of sewing on the weekends than I was bringing home after taxes and daycare at my full time job.  I had a list of customers on a wait list, and it was growing! My husband and I had a serious conversation about my job & we decided at this point there was NO reason for me to continue to work. Today I went in & put in my 2 weeks notice. It was a tough decision and it was very hard for me. I love the kids I work with every day. In a normal week I spend more time with them than I do my OWN kids, and I would miss them like crazy. When I went in prepared to quit, my school and I were able to work out a deal. Starting April 22nd & until the end of June, I will go down to working part time. I will work from 8am-noon everyday and I will leave permanently in June. This ended up working out to be really great because I would be home to get my son off of the school bus so we don't have to pay his daycare anymore, plus the girls daycare would be WAY less since they would drop down to half time instead of full time. I would also leave work with the girls at noon and take them home to eat lunch, they nap right after lunch, so I can sew in the afternoons for a couple of hours. My son will get off the bus right by our house & he can play until the girls get up from their nap while I work. It will save a ton of time in the morning when I normally pack my lunch & the girl's lunches as well as their nap mats and all that stuff. It will also give me time to transition the students I am working with to a new teacher, as well as transition my girls to being home more often. Over all it is really the best of all 3 worlds,being a Mommy, a business owner & a very rewarding job. If you go like my page (there is a widget in the top right corner) & see something you like, Please PM me & let me know you came from the blog!