Blah!

So about a month or so ago, I blogged about my miracle of grapefruit & Zicam. It has come through for me yet again. So Monday afternoon I started noticing that feeling you get right as you are starting to get sick. The flu has been going around horribly and I just knew that is what I was getting. All my energy was sucked out of me and I started feeling achy and nauseous. I immediately ate a grapefruit, crunched up the seeds and ate those too, sqeezed out the juice and drank that, and then Zicam up the nose and went to bed. Tuesday rolled around and I was feeling about the same, but no worse. I did the same thing in the morning and I was soooo tired. I could tell my body was actually trying to fight this thing but didn't know if it would win this time around. I pretty much rested and actually laid down and took a nap during the day. I repeated the grapefruit/Zicam thing right before bed. This morning I got up and I am still a little tired feeling, but the body aches are going away and my head is totally clear. In the past, I know I would be laid up in the bed with tissue inserted up my nose by this time. I had struggled for years with an immune system that didn't seem to fight off anything.... I was always sick. It is so nice to actually have it working doing what it is supposed to... of course watch me get it full blown by tomorrow LOL :)

A Day in the Life Continued...

So of course my day didn't unfold as I had planned yesterday. You always have something come up and you have to change it all around. I feel like I am getting sick.... body aches and slugishness. Just plain blah. I have started back on my Zicam & grapefruit regimine but I don't know if I can hold this one back. I plan on taking it easy for the next few days and taking a nap today. Half of my face and head feel hot which is really weird. I am glad I cooked some chicken yesterday and saved the broth. I think I will make some warm chicken noodle soup later today.

So, if you are wondering about this critter here, this is a possum which is quite common here in Arkansas. I had come in the house at about midnight yesterday and was preparing my grapefruit (which I managed to squirt directly into my eye by the way) and I hear something outside the door. I always set the bag of trash out the door for James to do something with (which usually ends up being a few days so I don't know why I even bother sometimes). I peer out the window to see what it is. We have had a racoon in the past and a cat. I look out there and see this oversized possum that has made ever so neatly a tiny hole just big enough to dig his nose into. I open the door and bang on the glass storm door which is less than 2 feet away from this thing expecting it to run away in fear. It turns around, looks at me and actually comes right up to the door. If I opened the door, it seriously would have come in the house. So, I took the opportunity to go get the camera and snap a shot. By this time, my cat was at the door face to face with this thing and she was not a happy camper. She was hissing and growling. She was already irritated because she wanted me to go to bed since she likes to sleep in the same room as me (yes she is a cat that prefers a certain bed time at NIGHT!) The possum finished eating I think a can of tuna and then walked off ever so calmly. Now I know why I passed 2 dead ones on the way to school this morning. They are just not the smartest.

A Day in the Life...

of being a work at home mom. So, in doing my morning computer routine, the idea was proposed of blogging a day in the working mom's life and I thought, what a great idea! It was spur of the moment, so I didn't have a chance to "prepare" and be super mom of the day and this would be totally unscripted. I didn't go to bed until 2am last night as I had a large rush order that I had to get done and finish washing everything. The new store is having their grand opening Saturday, so I HAD to work hard and fast. I crashed on the couch and then at 6:30, the day had began. I managed to get up (still wearing clothes from yesterday) and crawled back into bed hitting snooze every 7 minutes for the next half hour. Then I had 45 minutes to peel Sarah out of bed and tell her each step of the way to getting ready. She is 7, going on 8, yet I have to tell her to get up, get dressed, brush teeth, yadda yadda. The routine is the same every day but if I don't poke her along the way, she just stops and I find her sitting in front of the little heater in the bathroom. I brush my teeth and change into some fresh clothes and trudge along getting her ready for school. I usually let Caleb sleep until right before time to go but most of the time he gets up on his own at about 7:15 or so. Then he has to have all the lights off because they hurt his eyes when he first gets up and he may be cranky, or really happy. You just never know.... he is SO my child. We are out the door by 7:45 and we were out 2 minutes early today. How, I will never know. I pray I don't have to get out of my car as my hair was (is) scary and there is no make up on. I don't even want to drive through anywhere.... I am a mess. So we arrive back at home and I feed Caleb some breakfast. I usually skip it and drink a homemade cold frappucino that James gets up and makes every morning for both of us. I open the refrigerator and smile as it is lovingly waiting for me every morning. He is awesome.... they are better than Starbucks!

Now that we are settled in at home at about 8:30, I give in to the TV monster and let Caleb watch Noggin for about 30 minutes or so while I follow up on emails that came in over the weekend. Then I pay bills and pay for sweaters that arrived over the weekend and have to fight the urge to crawl back into bed. After that is taken care of, I will be crawling into the shower and will emerge as super mom and by this time it will be about 10am. Caleb and I will go out into the sewing building for a few hours and do a little work. I need to maintain my machines (which I do every week) by oiling and cleaning them up. Then I will sew a bit and by that time it will be lunch time. We will come in and eat then it will be time for a nap. I will snuggle up with Caleb and read a story (my favorite time of day!). Once he goes down, it is back to work for me. I will do the computer thing, package up a few orders and get them ready to ship, and straighten the house up. I have to do all this in about an hour and a half. James picks up Sarah from school and keeps her at work with him since school ends at 2.... right in the middle of nap time. By about 3:30, Caleb and I will head to town to the post office and stop by and see James. Once we come home, it is time to think about dinner. James really helps with this and makes dinner quite a bit.... he is REALLY good at it and enjoys it. The kids are bathed and in bed by 9pm and then I usually go back to sewing till midnight.

This is an average day in my crazy life. There is not much time left for anything else. Balance is such a hard thing to master. Sometimes I wonder what was I thinking... but I wouldn't have it any other way. Signing off to shower now :)

I am taking a breather after yesterday's stocking. It was fun changing it up with a night time stocking and doing some differnt kinds of listings. I was on my way outside yesterday afternoon to take the final website pics and before I opened the back door, this little bluebird caught my eye. He was perched up on the clothesline enjoying the sun after the 2 inches of snow we got the day before. I had my camera around my neck and woolies in my hand. I took my camera and zoomed in on the little guy through my back door and was really pleased on how the picture came out. It was nice just to take a short break from busy life and enjoy the surroundings.

I am currently working on the Artisan Baby site this weekend. It is a ton of work getting products together and it is like a scavenger hunt rounding up all the wonderful products. I technically haven't opened it up yet but people have been completing sales. I am just glad it is all apprarently working like it is supposed to :) I hadn't had a chance to do a test sale.

~Shannon~