Lots To Do!

I have so much to do today!!! I've about got Maegan ready to lie down for her nap. Then I can get to work. I've got dishes to wash, laundry to put away, and a living room to sweep...But besides that, we have the Rock-A-Thon to get ready for! Tons of beads to break out and organize, signs to make, table covers to find.

Every year it is so much fun! We get to get our stuff out there and meet some very interestiing people. Not to mention, we get to make a little extra money...That's never a bad thing!

We'll have Maegan with us, but the bigger two will be with grandparents. So, hubby and I get some quality time together. And, it's so much fun to look at all the rocks and jewelry other people bring...We always wind up spending a good chunk of our profits on stuff we find at the show. It's nice though, the vendors like to make deals and trades with other vendors. And having done this for 7 years now, we've made some good friends there!

I bought batteries for my camera, so I plan on taking some good pics. I will try to post about it on Monday.....I may post before if the venue has wi-fi......I love my laptop!!!

Anyway, really need to get to work. Take care all!!!

Rock-A-Thon!!!

As some of you know, my husband and I own a bead shop called Stone House Merchant. We will be at the Tri-State Gem and Mineral Society's annual Rock-A-Thon at Joplin Memorial Hall this weekend. It's always a blast! There are a few people, like us, that bring beads and jewelry. There are tons of rocks, both finished and rough. And there are some that have the more precious gems and fancier jewelry. They have geode cutting and lots of other fun things planned! For more info, such as times and things like that, go here.You should definitely come by, say hi, and take a look at all the other great stuff they have there! We'd love to see you there!

Thoughts on a Rainy Day...

I just love a rainy day! The soft gentle sound of the raindrops hitting the ground, the roof. The smell of wet earth and trees. It's so relaxing and refreshing. The only thing that would make it better is if my boys were here with us. But I do have my girls here and we're going to make the most of our day. A little ABC's and 123's. Some coloring. Some bottles and burping.

I'm also going to be starting my flylady rountines on Monday so I want to do a bit of catch-up cleaning to give that an easier start. I've gotten pretty behind on my housework this summer. So my goal today is to work on the house for 15 minutes each and every hour until hubby comes home. Starting now, that would give me 2 hours of cleaning, total. I think I could get alot done in those two hours! I can only do one load of laundry today though. Our septic can't handle much more than that when it rains like this. So a single load of must have it is. I'm behind on my laundry too. So, once the rain is over (supposed to rain all week), I will be doing at about 3 loads a day until I get caught up. Then I will be going through all the clothes to weed out what we don't need anymore. We have far too many clothes!

But, as I've said before, I have to be ready to take Noah out of public school by Christmas! And I WILL get it done! I've been researching different resources online and I'm getting excited! I'm going to be taking a more eclectic approach this year. Last year we just did the straight forward textbook/worksheet curriculum and we both got bored fast. I plan on using some of that too. But, I'm leaning more towards unit studies and unschooling. It will be like a structured unschooling. I have too many people that would protest if I did complete unschooling...my husband included. Plus, my son isn't the most motivated kid on the block. It's my fault. I'm not very motivated myself. It's something I've been praying about, and God is bringing me out of it. But I hope, as he gets older, I can turn it more over to him. Although he is a very inquisitive young man, so that is a good start!

Another thing we're behind on is our business. We were hoping to have our shop reopened by the end of this month and we haven't made any progress yet. Pat hasn't been able to do much because of being sick. Plus we have church 3 nights a week. But we have to get it ready. Plus the local gem and mineral show is also at the end of the month and we're not even close to ready for it. We paid for a whole booth this year instead of our usual half-space. This will be our 7th year there! I just now added that up. I hadn't realized it had been that long! It's always so much fun! And there are some great people there!

Another thing on the back burner is our etsy shop. We are getting ready to restock and reopen that too. We LOVE making stuff! Not only are we going to be making our beaded jewelry, but I'm going to be making more artist trading cards and some altered art. Hubby is going to try his hand at book making. He's done it before but he hasn't done it in a while. He also makes chain maille jewelry. And come spring, he'll have his lapidary equipment up and running. He also wants to learn faceting and silversmithing. And I want to try my hand at photography. So many hobbies, so little time!

Well, I guess I better get to work. Take care and God bless!!!

So much going on!!!

First off, here is Noah and Anya with their new baby sister Maegan. She was born on July 3rd at 8:24pm. She was 8lbs 14oz and 21 3/4 in. at birth. As of her 5 week appt. (she's 6 weeks now) she was 12lbs 11oz and 23 in. She eats all the time. She a good baby. The only thing that makes her mad is not getting fed as soon as she's ready for it. We just love her to pieces!
Well, the restaurant our bead shop was in closed. So we are closed for the moment too. But we are going to try to put the shop in the back of our house. As long as we don't have any problems with zoning, it's going to be awesome. We can be open more than just the weekends and it will allow for more family time since we won't have to leave the house to run it.
And I am thinking about homeschooling Noah again. I didn't want to put him in school in the first place. He wants to be homeschooled too. And I truly believe it's what God wants. So it should be an easy decision. Hubby says he'll support it as long as I'll do it this time. I slacked off too much last year. Partly because I was sick with the pregnancy and partly because I was lazy and bored. The curriculum didn't hold Noah's interest or mine.This time I'm looking into a more relaxed/eclectic homeschooling with some unit studies incorperated in.
God's really been doing some stuff in me. I had alot of yuck to dig out...still do, but He's getting the job done. It'd be done alot faster if I was more cooperative. I have a hard time letting go sometimes. But I'm getting there. He's been doing alot in my hubby too. I will post more about all that later. That's all for now.

Hello!

Oh goodness! I need to keep this blog up better! Not much new is going on. Just trying to keep up with life.
Today is my birthday! I am 28! Although it feels just like any other day. Noah’s at school, Hubby’s at work and I got lots of laundry to do.
I only have about 4 months left to get ready for this baby! Time flies! I have a lot to do, and PRAISE GOD! a friend of mine is loaning me pretty much everything I’m going to need. We had gotten rid of all our baby stuff. I wanted another one but we weren’t real sure it was going to happen so we just sold our baby stuff or gave it away. So this is such a blessing!
We still haven’t come up with a name yet. We have been thinking Emily maybe. But now that she’s been moving more, Emily just seems to be too much of a laid back name for her. I don’t know. Any suggestions?
Been doing inventory at the bead shop. It’s taking forever! It’s tedious, yet somehow enjoyable, work. Most of the beads are sold by the bead, so we get to count each and every bead. Seed beads are bagged up so we only have to count the bags of those. But the others, my gosh! There are hundreds upon hundreds! But we are determined to get it done so we can open up the shop!
Noah is doing good in school. He’s really liking it. I still don’t like the idea of public school, but until things change, I’m not going to be able to focus on home schooling him. I do plan on taking him out in a year or two, once things settle down and I can get more organized. Until then, he’ll do fine in public school. I just don’t like the idea of the government having that much control over MY child. But that’s a whole other blog post!
Anyway, I better get back to my laundry. Take care!

So much going on!

I can't believe it's been two whole months ince I last posted!!! Where should I start?

I guess with the business. We are soon going to be taking over a bead shop! When I was pregnant with Noah we went to a local bead shop and made some good friends. They're the ones who gave us our love for beads and actually taught us how to make jewelry. To start with, it was a bead shop/coffee bar. Well the coffee bar expanded to a little vegetarian restaurant. Now that's what they are focusing on. They don't have time for the beads anymore, but they don't want to close the bead shop altogether. So there is a room in front where they are keeping the bead shop and my hubby and I are going to run it. It will be all our business! We've wanted a shop of our own for so long now. And the plus of having it there is (beside the VERY inexpensive rent) they are keeping their inventory there for us to sell. We just pay them a percentage as we sell it. Plus, they are very business minded and are going to help us along and let us use their suppliers! It's the perfect situation! And we'll only have the shop open Mondays and Saturdays so I will still be able to be home with the kids the rest of the week!

Which brings me to something else. I put Noah in public school today. I wasn't keeping up well enough and with the new baby coming I knew it would just get worse. And today I found out that I had been doing worse than I thought because they had to do an assessment. They recommended putting him back in kindergarten. :( It was my choice. But they showed me how he did on the assessment and what he should be able to do and it looks like he would struggle too much if they put him in with the other first graders. I'm pretty mad at myself, but Noah doesn't seem to care at all. He's just happy to be around all the kids.

And yesterday I went in for my ultrasound! Everything on the baby is perfect! And it's a girl!!! We don't have a name picked out yet. We have a long list of them but can't narrow it down. We will soon enough though.

Isn't she sweet?

Well, I need to go get some stuff done. I've slacked far too long. Today was an eyeopener to that.

Love and hugs to all!

Our Weekend

The Rock and Gem show we were in was this weekend. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It's been a long weekend! Although we had fun and did pretty good! We bought a few rocks for cutting and Pat bought me a ruby ring. It's actually a man made ruby. It's actually called an aluminum oxide ruby. But it's still a ruby and it's so pretty. I'll post a pic of it once I can get a good one.
Here are some pics from the show. I need a new camera. These aren't very good, but they give you an idea.
These next two were of our table.

This was my view for the whole show. We had a good spot right at the entrance. But it meant I had my back turned to everyone else.

Like I said, we did pretty good. We are going to start putting our gemstone beads on etsy here in the next couple of days.

Anya's birthday was Saturday! She's three now! It's so hard to believe! Unfortunately we were at the show most of the day that day. So I don't have those pics yet. I'll try to get them loaded up and posted soon. She got a few babies and some dress-up clothes. And my grandma got her a set of little Disney Princess books. She's very happy with her gifts!

Here's a something I heard at church yesterday that made me think differently than I had before. A friend of mine quoted this verse as she prayed.

"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)

Now I never thought of this correctly until last night. I always thought it meant this country needs to come to Jesus. The unsaved ones. Which they do! But that's not what this verse is talking about. The world, or the unsaved, are not HIS people. They are not called by HIS name. It's not them who need to humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways so that our land will be healed. It's the Christians. It's those of us who already think we're okay. We are the ones who have to do it. The ball is in our court. Think on that.

Well, maybe I'm slow and the rest of you had already figured that out. But it struck me last night and I thought I'd share.

Stay tuned for Monday's Martyrs. TTFN!

Busy Week!

It's been a crazy week already and it's not even half over yet! Yesterday, I had to go buy groceries. That is always fun. I have two little kids who want EVERYTHING! I swear I say the word no more than any other word. Anya stays in the cart fine most of the time, but Noah's always got his head in the clouds. I'm constantly reminding him to pay attention and watch where he's going. That's usually when I almost run into somebody. I think, maybe, he gets it from me.

After that, I got home and decided to finally try out my food dehydrator I got for Christmas last year. Apples and bananas. So, I cut them all up and layed them in there nicely. I plug it in and that thing sounds like a vacuum cleaner. I'm thinking, "I have to listen this for 8 more hours?"
So, I decided to make even more noise and help out my hubby by mowing the back yard. He'd been able to mow the front but hadn't had time to finish. It's the first time I've ever mowed in my life. I got out the mower and started it just fine. I've seen it done enough times. Mowed about 1/5 of the lawn and it died. I tried and tried and tried to get it started back up. I wore myself out trying. Finally I gave up and put it away. About half an hour later I decided to give it another shot. Got out there and tried a couple more times. Then it dawned on me. Check the gas tank. Honestly, I'm not a dumb person. Just sometimes I can be a little slow. I always miss the most obvious thing. So I put in some more gas and finished up the lawn.

Then I cleaned up some, had supper and went to church. I was working the nursery. Luckily there weren't a whole lot of babies. I didn't have much energy left.

Last night, after church, Pat tore out some of the wall and put our dryer in. Only to find out the plug didn't match the outlet. So, I went to Lowe's today and got a new outlet. He'll have to put it in tonight. Hopefully before he goes to the men's meeting so I can get started tonight on this mountain of laundry that's growing in our bedroom.

Today I still have to do school, dishes and vacuuming. Plus I have to make cookies for Pat to take to the men's meeting at church and I told the kids that we could paint little pumpkins today.

Tomorrow I have to go work at the old house for a while. Then the rest of the week will be getting ready for the annual gem and mineral show. We've had a booth there for the last 6 years. It's so much fun! It's Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I will be working most of Saturday by myself. Our church worship team is doing a "gig" for a community service project our church is involved in. And Pat plays the guitar for our worship team. He may be debuting one of the songs he wrote there!

Oh, and to top it off, Anya's birthdya is Saturday. She'll be three! And we have yet to get her a present. Gotta get that done!

Anyway, I guess I've gone on long enough. Take care!

Just had to share!

This is my hunky hubby's newest creation! Yes ladies, hot AND talented! Aren't I lucky girl? :)

He designed and made it himself. It took forever too. He's been working on it since before we moved! The thread wouldn't cooperate and kept getting knotted up. But he finally finished and I am so proud! He's selling this one and is custom making me one in green and brown! Celtic colors for a Celtic girl! I'm very excited! He's got this one up for sale on etsy.com if anyone is interested. You can find it here.
Just had to gush! TTFN!

Our Business!

Hubby and I have had a business for a long time. But it was just a few shows here and there. Well, within the next week or so, we will be opening a shop on Etsy! Not only that, but we have FINALLY settled on a name. Stone House Merchant. And I've started a blog for it.....
Check it out if you'd like.....
I've only made one post to it so far. But I'm very excited about the whole thing!
We came up with the name because of the house we were supposed to go look at yesterday. It's a stone house. We just happened to be talking about moving and the business and the name just fell together.
We didn't get to go look at it yesterday because Hubby had to work late. It's a very busy week. They're doing work at the University of Arkansas. It's a very big job!
But hopefully by the time the weekend is over, we will know whether or not we're going to try for the house.

What to do?

We have a decision to make. Stay in this house or move. I've always wanted to move. Until just recently I didn't even want to think about staying in this house. It needs a good amount of work and there's not much of a yard. Well the yard would be alot better if we had the huge tree stump ground out. It's a cute cottage style house. So, fixed up it would be very cute! Also, the payment is less than we could find anywhere. So that would leave us money to fix it up as well as money to expand our business. But it would be work. If we got a new house, it wouldn't need all the work and we'd get one with a bigger yard. But we'd have a house payment at least twice as high as what we do now. We keep bouncing back and forth on what we want to do. My biggest problem with moving is that we wouldn't be able to put much money towards our business. And eventually we'd like to be able to support ourselves on just that. So Hubby could work from home. We could get there faster if we stayed here. But do we want a newer home? Sheesh! I hate that we're both so indecisive!