Where are they going??

 

You know I keep reading these articles about how everyone is leaving the workforce in droves.  Where are they going?  Can I go too?  Seriously, how are these people providing for their families.

Here’s the thing.  I have done so many side hustles in my life hoping they would be “the one” that allowed me to work for myself.  I am here to tell you folks that none of them worked like that.  I see people doing it.  I seen someone who is making a killing and earned a freaking Cadillac by selling keto powders.  I tried to sell weight loss stuff one time and the only thing I earned was the annoyance of my friends.  So how do you do it?  What makes something all of a sudden take off for one person and not for someone else?  I know hard work and dedication.  Maybe I didn’t stick with any of them long enough, except the leggings. I sold leggings for years.  Made a little money, nothing to write home about.

I am not looking for a get rich quick scheme, although that would certainly be nice.  I am looking for ideas that people do who work for themselves and make a living doing it.  Let me hear what you got!

It's Been a While

 Hey guys!  It has been a while for me for sure.  I would love to say that I was doing something great, saving the world or something.  Nope.  Just battling this ever-lasting depression.  I feel like there is so much to say and yet nothing at all to say.

I am still working from home and it looks like that will be a permanent thing, or at least in some kind of hybrid mode.  People always say they wish they could work from home.  And let me tell ya, there are perks for sure.  The biggest drawback is the loneliness.  Kayla got her first full time adult job and is gone before I wake up.  Derek is working, which hasn't ever changed during covid.  Kinley is back in school.  I am home alone all day with my work, my thoughts, my messy house, and my dog.

Let me catch you up on Kinley a bit because that girl keeps us busy.  She is now on a travel softball team which we swore would never happen at this age but the love that girl has for the game, it was just unfair to hold her back.  With that comes yearlong practice and of course camps.  So far, I wouldn't change it for the world.  Watching her hit her first homerun (which at an older age, it wouldn't have been one), was so exciting.  She never even got to score a run before this team.  How can you not get caught up in that excitement?  She will also be doing bowling tournaments starting here in a couple weeks.  I am not a bowler folks.  Everyone in my house will tell you I don't really like it and I am horrible at it.  But Kinley...she loves it.  Within a few weeks of her bowling last year, people would stop and randomly watch her.  She was on bumpers and just whipping that ball down there, but these bowlers saw potential in her that I just couldn't see.  She ended up scoring the top game and top scratch series for females in the bumper league.  Derek and her did a parent/child league over the summer and they held their own pretty well.  I believe they came in 10th out of 40 teams but most of these kids were teenagers.  They had fun.  Now she is back in the regular bowling league and again, people stop and watch.  They say she has raw talent and is so coachable that she should be able to score scholarships no problem.  We will see how long she likes this stuff.  If at any point, she wanted to stop playing any sport, we would support her.  If the want to play isn't there, the skill won't be either.  She is also still participating in karate.  She is now a red belt.  It's amazing to watch her skills progress as her little body catches up with itself and her balance improves.

As for me, I just can't get my groove back.  I stay busy because that is what I have to do with my family.  But I want to feel like me again. So, if anyone sees the real "me" out there, please send her my way!

Classroom Birthday Treats

 How many of us loved taking in cookies or cupcakes for our birthday and getting to pick a special helper to pass them out?  I didn't because I have a summer birthday but I was always so excited to get picked as the helper.  Nowadays, you will be hard pressed to find a school that allows any kind of edible treat for birthdays.  Kinley's school will not allow anything edible even if it is packaged and store bought.  She was pretty disappointed in this and didn't want to pass out the pencils or erasers that were recommended by the teacher because she never keeps the ones that she gets so why would anyone keep hers?

Kinley had decided she just wasn't going to take anything to school for her birthday....until a week before when we were browsing Pinterest for Halloween ideas.  We came upon cute ideas for passing out glow sticks (which she is obsessed with) so we tried a search for the same idea for birthdays and bam! Found something.  The saying itself is from another persons pin but I could not get their free template to load so I just had to make my own with my Cricut and use the print and cut feature, although these could be cut by hand pretty easily.

We found these packages of glowsticks at Walmart and as you can see, they were pretty inexpensive.  We needed 3 packs to cover the whole class.

I did have Kinley write her name on each of these and should have left her a bit more room but it worked out.  We tried to use blue and green cardstock as well but they were too dark for our light ink to show up.  This was just regular cardstock, also bought from Walmart.  We then just used the strings that come with the glowsticks to make a necklace to loop the card through and voila.  A nice birthday treat.

I will say Kinley came home with a funny story the next day.  She said "Mom, we got good reviews on our gift!"  I was utterly confused for a moment on what she was talking about and who reviewed us.  She then said a boy in her class loved it and said it made his room glow all night.  That was the "review" she was talking about.  I laughed.  I am glad both the boy, and Kinley enjoyed their birthday treat.

Baby Shower Gifts

 

I never like giving typical gifts for any event, especially baby showers.  I feel like my baby showers were such a blur of opening gifts and playing games that you never really remember who gave you those onesies or that pack of diapers. A personalized gift though?  They very well may remember that.  I am by no means a professional at any of this stuff, but I can look up ideas on Pinterest with the best of them.

 

My nephew and his new wife were expecting their first child together.  I wanted to give them more than just a wrapped pack of diapers.  I decided to try my hand at 2 types of gifts related to diapers.

 

The first is this diaper cake boat.  I was so intimidated by this and it really was the easier of the two.  For my base, I flattened the diaper box and just wrapped it in wrapping paper (last minute idea when I realized I needed a base).  The main part of the boat is a plastic dollar store bin covered in a receiving blanket, but you could use any type of box you wanted.  This will also help determine how many diapers you need around it to make the boat shape.  I did roll the diapers with rubber bands but tried to leave them loose as I do remember how hard it was to put a rolled-up diaper on a baby.  Rolling them allows them to stand freely to allow you to build your boat shape.  Once you have it how you like it, you need to wrap it with something to keep it in place.  This was the most difficult part for me.  I used twine first but as you pull to tighten of course it shifts the diapers a bit.  I didn't love the look of it, but it was holding them in place well so then I went around it again with a burlap and hot glued parts of that to the twine to keep it from slipping down.  Then I simply filled my basket with goodies and added my fishing pole to round it out.  That was made from a simple wood bamboo skewer with twine tied to it and I believe we found the fish in the cat toy section of the store.  Surprisingly this didn't slide as much as I feared during transport.

 

This next basket just gave me a much harder time than that big old boat.  I wanted to try to keep these diapers straight and not roll them and it seemed so easy in my head.  However, it took many hands to keep them in place while trying to tie something around them to keep them in place.  Then the diapers started trying to fold down from the top which was not a problem I had anticipated.  I didn't want to ruin the diapers, so I just used some scotch tape and taped them to the basket.  The hot air balloon part also did not turn out the way I imagined.  The balloon portion is a paper lantern.  The one I seen on Pinterest must have been a much larger balloon because the supports were able to come straight down.  You would definitely want to use wooden dowels for the support.  I again used my bamboo skewers which were not long enough, so I glued two together and reinforced it with twine.  This basket didn't hold many gifts or use many diapers, but it was great for a side gift.

 

For both gifts together, I used one large box of size 3 diapers.  I believe there were 110. 

 

I have also tried a version of this hot air balloon without the diapers.  It was still cute but not as cute as I would have liked.

 

The next project I attempted was this elephant with birth stats.  I have seen them all over Facebook and Etsy.  You could line up your stats however you desired on the ears.  The hardest part of this project was there were small pieces of htv.  Also, heating on the ear but not trying to touch the animal was difficult but I think you would get it down with practice.  My items shifted a bit and I ended up using a hair straightener to get the pieces closest to the animal.

 

Now onto the shadow boxes.  I personally love the one with the hand rolled flowers but let me warn you, there were many finger burns involved in that process.  For the design, I bought a layout off Etsy, but you could easily design your own.  The rolled flowers are the most time-consuming part of this project.

 

For my next shadow box, they had told me they were doing the nursery in a superhero theme, so it threw my rolled flowers out of the window.  It took me a while to decide how I wanted to incorporate that theme into a shadow box.  I eventually decided to go with glitter cardstock as the background and then I used print and cut to make little superheroes out of cardstock, and I glued them onto the background and then added the stats on the glass.  It wasn't quite the wow factor I was looking for, but they loved it, nonetheless.

 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the baby shower gifts I have made.  If you have any questions on them, please feel free to reach out.

Happy Birthday Kinley!!

 Does anyone else's children pick very specific birthday party themes?  I surely hope it's not just mine.  This year Kinley was obsessed with Zombies and Zombies 2 from Disney.  Being Disney, I thought for sure there would be lots of party products available.  I thought wrong.

I should clarify that when I say party, it was simply a sleepover with Kinley and one friend.  However, as my husband can attest to, I do not know how to do simple birthdays.  It is the same whether it is one kid or 20.  I have a problem.

Off to Pinterest and Etsy I went.  I was very surprised to find these areas lacking for ideas as well.  So this is what we came up with.

We made pom poms from tissue paper and craft sticks.  I alternated pink and green sheets (the colors from the movie) and folded them in half.  I used about 6 sheets for each.  Once folded in half, I cut them in strips, leaving about an inch and a half uncut to wrap around the stick.  I hot glued as I rolled the tissue paper around the craft stick.  You could also use colorful duct tape.  These held up surprisingly well to all the shaking the girls did with them.

Kinley had seen some garland on Pinterest that she really liked but it was about $10 for 3 feet.  No, no, no.  We bought pink and green cardstock and I cut 3 inch circles with my Cricut.  We then got glued each one to string we bought from the dollar tree.  We did this process all with the 10 foot string and then cut to our desired lengths when we decided where to hang it.

I also used my Cricut to cut letters to make the Happy Birthday banner as well as the Zoms Vs Poms.  These were simple items that helped tie in her theme.

Of course we just used simple streamers and balloons because I am obsessed with streamers.

We had Zombie popcorn.  It was plain unbuttered popcorn with green and pink candy melts poured over it.  This is always a hit in our house and with so many colors of melts available, you can make it to match pretty much any theme.

As part of our party favors, we attempted for the first time, hydro dipped cups.  It was a lot of fun.  these were $1 bottles from Walmart.

Here is the finished party favor bag.

Was the party as themed as I had imagined?  Absolutely not. The girls loved it and had a great time with the activities we had planned so I would say that it was a success.  Now on to plan next years theme!

Simply Not Enough Time

Ok seriously...how are y'all doing this??  Does anyone feel like we are wearing so many hats that there simply isn't enough time in the day?

I am still working from home and still have no idea when that will change.  However, I am now also my daughter's teacher.  Our school districts virtual schedule expectations were just too much for me to do while working so we decided to pull her and are now homeschooling.  It allows us much more flexibility in scheduling.

With that being said, it also feels like I am being burnt at every end.  I had always thought homeschooling would be a great option if I was a stay at home mom.  I would daydream of the field trips we could take and the projects we could make.  Well, reality is not the same folks.  I have a 40+ hours per week job.  How do you fit field trips into that?  

Being home all day every day, you would think my home would be spotless, right?  Wrong again my friends.  When is there time to clean?  Heck, I am lucky if I get to eat.  Shower?? What's that??  That is a bit of an exaggeration but not by much.

It's very strange to see how much life has changed in the last 6 months.  And to ponder the future is also crazy.  Will most office jobs ever go back to the office?  Or after 6 months running this way, have they witnessed that it is sufficient enough to keep it this way?  Nobody really has the answers to that.  We just take it one day at a time.  One mess at a time.  One meal at a time.  One homework assignment at a time.  Keep on keeping on mamas.  We are all in this together.  Check in on your friends and family.  Send them a coffee, or heck, a bottle of wine.  Until I find time to write again my friends....

Finally Getting There

So, anyone who knows me, knows that I have REALLY been struggling through this whole pandemic.  I have been depressed way beyond any level I have ever been.  I have gotten put on depression medications and while it has eased it some, I just feel empty.  I have laid in my many, many nights wondering how everyone else seems to be coping so much better than I have.  I have been home for 5 months now.  5 whole months.  I have never spent this much time at home.  And yet, I haven't crafted, haven't danced, haven't done any of the things I usually enjoy.  I have had both daughters home with me, while my husband has been going to work outside of the house during this whole thing.

Yesterday, I had to move my older daughter back to college.  It was kind of an eye-opening experience.  let me explain.  When Kayla moved back to college last fall, we honestly didn't expect her to ever live under our roof again.  She was planning to be an RA over this spring and summer and stay on campus rather than come home.  So, in March, when she was forced to move back home because of the virus, we were all surprised.  We have had 5 months of seeing her on a daily basis that we never would have had.  I have had 5 months of seeing both of my girls, getting 2 good morning hugs every day.  This drop off was different.  Both Kayla and I said it felt very surreal.  Maybe that's because we aren't sure how long they will last on campus.  However, nobody cried this drop off which is really rare.  When Kinley and I came back to the house, the quietness started to sit in.  I wouldn't have Kayla walking out of her room asking, "how is work going mama bear?".  I wouldn't have anyone to chat with.  I wouldn't have anyone to distract Kinley while I am on a work call.  That's when it all started to set in.  I will never have as much time with my girls as I have had for the last 5 months.  I am very sad that I spent it being so sad and not appreciating every moment I had.  Now, I know depression doesn't work that way and I couldn't change how I felt.

It got me thinking about the reasons why I was so upset.  Everyone who knows my family, knows that we are go, go, go types of people.  We are always out doing something.  This virus brought all of that to an abrupt halt.  I am very much a creature of habit so that alone was enough to take me out of my comfort zone.  But I also realized that one of the reasons I liked to go, go, go was that I never had time to focus on the past, or things that made me sad.  I just ignored all of that.  Being home all day, every day didn't allow me to ignore that stuff anymore.  I have been on a true mission of dealing with just crap that I have ignored for my whole life.  It has been hard.  Really hard.  However, I am finally starting to feel grateful for this time (although I think I will still always wish it did not happen).  I am grateful that I have had to sift through my feelings and finally think about me and what makes me happy and what I want out of life and who I want in my life.  I am grateful to have seen my daughters' beautiful faces every day.  I am grateful to have had a husband that has held me while I have cried oh so many times.  While, I still hope and pray that every day I wake up, it will be "normal", I am finally grateful.