Here again

Wow has it been a while! The pictures in my side bar are so outdated. I can't believe how much the kids have grown!

This frugal farmer has taken the plunge and invested in satellite internet. One of the drawbacks of country living is the lack of options when it comes to internet. We have been living with dial-up for the last 12 years. It has driven us absolutely nuts, but I'm extremely cheap and did not want the expense of our only option - satellite internet. Well we have gradually been selling more and more online and I've signed up Olivia for an online school so we had to suck it up and take on the expense. I have to say it's been wonderful. I no longer have to run to town when I need to upload a lot of listings. It takes a fraction of the time to do anything online. Yesterday I added a router to our setup and now I can use my laptop and kindle wirelessly. Amazing!

So now I don't have an excuse to not blog regularly. So much is going on right now. Change is in the air, and I'm not a huge fan of change. Maybe some blogging will be a little cathartic.

Ramblings

We got our check from the Emporium today. The person who's idea it was to do a monthly paycheck is not a junker. It kills to put so much money into a booth and only get paid monthly. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see my paycheck. It's great to see my hard work paying off. And it's great motivation to get to work on more projects.
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I left Paxton home from church today with Jody. He was a mess this morning. Sunday mornings are usually rough for him, but this was the worst I've seen him in a long time. He locked himself in the bathroom before I left and, according to Jody, stayed in there for a while after I left. Maybe something was in the air. Several of the "special" kids at church were having a tough day too.
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I hope it doesn't offend someone that I called them "special" kids. I feel entitled since I have a "special" kid myself.
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We have our yearly tax appt on Wednesday. That means it's time for me to get all our paperwork together. I've been putting it off for a month. I'm running out of time to procrastinate. Tomorrow the paper sorting begins.
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Monday I gave up on having a clean house. Yesterday I decided to take it back from the animals. Today it looks like it did on Monday. Sometimes I wonder why I try.
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I'm getting a headache. I don't know what it is from. It seems like more and more things are triggers: MSG, peanuts, sunflower seeds, hormone changes,allergies. I'm wondering if it was the yummy strawberry mango smoothie I made earlier. That or the 5 cheese ravioli. It's crazy that all these things didn't bother me when I was younger. Getting older is so much fun.
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Now that I'm blogging again, there are a million things I want to write about. I owe Monica a huge thanks for getting me motivated to start blogging again.

New Year, New Plans

I can't believe it's already the last day of January in 2012. Where has the time gone?! It seems like the days are ticking by and there's never enough time to get everything done that I would like.

I've been battling crippling fatigue which hasn't helped. It suddenly occurred to me one day that my unexplained weight gain could be associated with the medication I take for anxiety. When I looked up it's side-effects online, I saw that another side-effect is extreme fatigue. Talk about a light bulb going off. I've started the process of weaning off of the paxil. So far it's going well. No crazy reactions. I'm praying it continues that way. I really hope my panic attacks stay away. I'm hoping to deal with my anxiety with a more holistic approach: healthy diet, exercise, magnesium supplements, etc. I will keep you updated on how it goes.

Jody has gone back to work for the owners of the company where he used to work. He's only working 30ish hours a week. The pay is good and the hours are flexible which allows him to continue junking. Our new booth at the Freeway Emporium is doing awesome. I have a section of our booth with my Big Fat Baby merchandise and it's been selling well. I put my name of the waiting list to get a room at the Emporium so I can have an entire area for myself. It's exciting planning and dreaming about how I want it to look.

The drawback to Jody's new job and the Emporium is that we only get paid monthly. We've managed to survive for 2 weeks with $10 in the bank account. Thankfully our frugals ways are paying off. I've got a friend to coupon shop with now. We meet once a week to cut coupons and then go shopping together to find deals. It is so much more fun having someone to bargain shop with. I can't wait until yard sale season so I can get new clothes for the kids and junk to sell in the booth.

I guess that's all for now. It's late and I should probably get to bed. The love of my life Jody gets the kids up and ready for school but Sawyer won't let me sleep in too late.

Making Changes

I quit blogging because I felt like my blog wasn't really a reflection of me. I wanted a new name and a new look. It's taken me for.ev.er to come up with a new blog name. All my ideas were already taken. I was sitting in front of the computer the other night and the name frugal farmer came to me. Amazingly, it was available. So this is my new home for now.

I should have lots of time to blog now. Olivia and Paxton both decided to go to public school this year so we're no longer a homeschooling family. It feels so different without them here all day. It was really hard for me to give up the control and turn them over to strangers, but they are both doing well in the school setting.

Sawyer is the only kid home now and he spends most of the day at Papaw's house. I've told Jody it's time to have another baby, but he is still in denial. Sometimes I think I must be crazy to want another baby, but I always have that feeling that someone is missing. I guess time will tell...

Speaking of more kids, my 12 year old niece moved in with us back in June. The story behind it is messy and depressing and I don't feel like going there right now. Gabi is here until at least June of next year and we will decide if we want to continue with the arrangement. She and Olivia butt heads a lot. I messed up birth order so it's to be expected, but it makes me sad. I'm hoping it will get better with time. *sigh*

On to more chipper news. The company Jody worked for shut their doors in the middle of the night and filed for bankruptcy in July. It came as a complete shock to everyone. I can't say it surprised us because of the business decisions that were being made over the last few years, but the way they went about it was wrong. Jody lost his vacation pay and health savings which equalled somewhere around $2000. That's a lot of money for poor folks like us. There is some hope that we may get some of the money back in bankruptcy court, but only time will tell. For now Jody is drawing unemployment and junkin. I don't know what we would do if he wasn't so resourceful.

My business is continuing to grow. I've set up booths at several different sales in the area and sell some of my items at a local store. Last week I signed on a partner. We are getting an embroidery machine and expanding our market. It's going to be an adventure and I'm excited to have a friend along for the ride.

I guess that's my life in a nutshell. I have so many things that I've thought about blogging. I'm excited to have a new place to share my thoughts.

Back to the beginning

Well where should I begin? I went to Nebraska in October to help my sister pack her house for a move to North Dakota. While I was there, I went to get my hair cut with my favorite hair stylist. I was telling her about my sewing obsession and desire to sell my work and she mentioned that she had a baby boutique business that she was no longer interested in running. She still had all kinds of supplies and products left and was interested in selling them. We scheduled a time to get together and go through everything. She named a price and I said yes. I came out as the proud new owner of Big Fat Baby. I've had so much fun setting the business up. I've done two craft shows so far and have more in the works. I bit off more than I can chew with designing a website so it's still a work in progress. I have so many ideas and plans and dreams. And it's great that Jody is so supportive with everything. Not every husband could handle the house looking like a fabric store exploded in it all the time.

Resolutions

As the new year begins, I've made a few goals for myself:
1. Have family scripture study and family prayer every night.
2. Journal at least once a week.

I'm all about keeping it simple. I don't want to get myself too overwhelmed.

Projects

I go through these cycles: sewing, scrapbooking, cooking, cleaning. I get stuck on one thing and go crazy with it. Lately I've been obsessed with sewing. It started when I saw a link on a friend's fb page for a tutorial on flower hair bows. Then my mom came down on vacation and we made not one, but two trips to the fabric store. That started me working on minky blankets and more hair bows. Then I caught a sale on flannel fabric at Hancock Fabrics which led to rag quilts. A fellow sewing friend and I like to compare projects. She got me started on personalized onesies and burp clothes. I now have fabric stacked all over our tiny living room and a sewing machine that takes cut half of our tiny table. I was thinking about selling on ebay or etsy, but now my friend and I are thinking about doing a craft show together. Here are some of my latest projects: