catching up, work at home woes, sewing love, etc...

Greeting friends! Quite a bit of catching up to do... Thank you so much for visiting here. If any of you have thoughts to share on my work at home woes I would be most interested in hearing them! Always striving for balance....

Sickness has decided to visit our home. We are on day five now! Not complaining too much though, can't remember the last time everyone was sick, probably at least a year ago. So, there has been lots of resting, cuddling, staring out the windows. Fortunately the view is nice. We got two more feet of snow over the weekend! Seems it has mostly passed, and now we have a bit of blue sky to cheer us. And plenty of books to pass the time. Farmer Boy, Milly-Molly-Mandy, Tiptoes Lightly... this is the first time Chloe has been sick since she has been reading well on her own. Makes it feel kinda special. Besides, we are pretty sure the sickness came from little miss Ila, it is totally worth it, we had a wonderful visit with our dear farm friends last week!

Where have I been? Sitting right here working. (Except for the day I was sick enough to join the girls on the couch.) I realize though that I have probably never mentioned here that I have a job. Two jobs actually. (Obviously I am not counting such jobs as mother, wife, teacher, homemaker... my favorite jobs!) Now I know that at least some of you have caught on to the fact that I have my own small business, an online cloth diaper/natural baby shop. That one makes me pretty happy too. But yes, there is another job. And while I am so grateful to have it, so grateful to be working at home, always with my children... it is so very hard!!! Details are complicated... I work for my mom, (she lives in los angeles, she is the best), I have done this job for about 5 years now. I work on the computer, I do not like working on the computer, we prefer to never have the computer on during the day, only after the girls are in bed, I try to do most of my work at night, I used to work only at night, but that can get very tiring, especially after years of it, so I am always trying to find a balance. Sometimes I have to surrender and spend one or two days a week working. Sometimes I feel like I am always working!! Sometimes I feel like I am just sitting here with my back turned to my children, sometimes managing homeschooling at the same time seems impossible, sometimes I break down in tears. Like yesterday, and last week.

Now would I sound totally crazy if I told you that I want a third job? (But it would replace the computer job.) Some of you may also know that during my first years as a mother my only job was the part time sewing I did at home. (Yes, I am so very fortunate, I have always been home with my girls.) It only provided a bit of extra income, bit it is of course something I LOVE TO DO. After Chessa was born I started working with my mom, and soon after that I stopped sewing clothing for sale, I did not have the time, I preferred to sew for my family only, and it was hard to do anyhow, there was nothing like etsy, we didn't even have a computer at first, we are in a small isolated town. Now though, I am ready to be sewing professionally again! Because like I said, it is what I LOVE TO DO! Not only is there etsy, (I have had shop plans for several years), but hey! I own my own online shop! I can sell my own organic children's clothing right there on my own website! So what am I waiting for? I bet it's not hard to guess that the answer is time! But I don't want to have to wait much longer, cause at the sewing machine not many days end up in tears, and it is something I can feel good about, stitching away in the space that shares my sewing area along with the girls play area. And of course these days they are often stitching away too. My dream, and it will come true, I just need to stay strong and make it happen!

(Some random pictures just for fun. Both taken on the same day about 3 years ago.)

Little Chessa, in a dress originally made for Chloe several years before, out of some favorite fabrics that I still have quite a bit of, somewhere...

mother/daughter sewing moment... happiness!

So I guess I should go ahead and let anyone who is interested know that our online shop is Little Sprouts. It is also something that I would like to be able to put more time into. Hopefully Jason will even be rebuilding our entire website soon. (And if any of you happen to know of some good logo design resources, something that we could do ourselves, preferably very inexpensive or even free, please let me know.)

The girls are doing much better today. Enjoying a morning snack of fresh baked bread and honey. And then their dolls are going to get up and have breakfast. They have been sick in bed for many days too!

This is the first time I have ever written a blog post during the day. (Though it was started last night.) Guess I just needed to take a bit of time for myself. And perhaps now you will forgive for some of my slow posting here. I really do intend to get back to my vegan posts soon. I think in the next one I will share a bit about our experiences raising vegan children. You may have to wait another week or so though!

Many of my friends have been posting their lists of ten things that make them happy. I would like to return this weekend and share my list too. See you soon! Now back to work....