Manic Monday

I am anxious to get the bonus this week!  However, I have a 2-day show, college boy is coming in and my in-laws are coming the next weekend, so I am crazy busy.

This morning, crock pot is slowly cooking the potatoes, carrots and a roast, so dinner is already on and that makes this evening a little easier.

This weekend, I worked my ass off.  I finished my grandmother's quilt.  I cried when I had to throw away the scraps and made my husband put them in a separate bag so they would not be mixed with food.  He was so sweet and put one of my lillies in with them.  That is done now, so I can move on. 

I made 2 types of dinosaurs.  I had a customer that fell in love with the peekaboo bunny and wanted a peekaboo dinosaur, so I made that and then the other dinosaur.  I was already going to make them for the show, so it was not too much out of my realm.

Then, I planned and prepped for 5 other designs - peekaboo monkey and lamb, then a regular elephant, mermaid and fox.  When I say prepped, I got the files ready to go, cut all the fabric to size, picked colors, etc.  Today, I should be quite productive.

We decided to call this week our Spring Break.  I am getting ready for the show, college boy is having his spring break, so it just made sense.

Good news on that front, the new science curriculum I really feel will be a good fit - they are liking it more (it looks like traditional school science, which we all are more comfortable with).  PLUS, I found an a la carte school that has high school foreign language for them.  Though I want them to learn Latin, it is just not realistic for us.  My daughter really wants to learn sign language and my son will just take Spanish.  It is needed down here anyway.  That was the last subject I was struggling with.

Now I need to find driving lessons for my daughter and guitar lessons for my son.  All in time!

Rain, rain, please go away.  It has done nothing but rain here.  We literally had a lake on our property yesterday.  DH is trying to put up a fence,  but he can only work about an hour at a time and is head to toe muddy.  I am trying not to complain too much because I know come summer, we are going to be praying for relief from the sweltering heat and a rain shower would be welcome.

All I can say right now, is that I am super thankful for my screened patio.  The mosquitoes are so bad already and that patio is a respite from the relentless biting they inflict upon me and my daughter.

Anyway, I better get going or I will have nothing for the show!

Week in review basically

Time is something that means something different out here.  You have to plan it in a different way and it seems to be sucked up by driving times and waiting times.

We had internet problems all week - it would be on for 15 minutes, then off for an hour or so, then on for 15 minutes, then off again.  We got to the point where we could make it start back up, but we had to reset it every 15 minutes and that was annoying at best.  A tech came out this morning, so we will see.  It went off about 10 minutes after he left.  It is back on now, so I am waiting to see if pops off again.

On Tuesday, we went to the Houston Downtown Aquarium.  It is not so much an aquarium as a restaurant/entertainment thing, but they were having educational classes and a homeschool day, so we decided to go.  The education part was awful.  The person read directly from a sheet basically defining invertebrates, then gave them all a sheet to do an origami butterfly.  That is not our idea of education.  So, we decided to eat lunch at the restaurant - they had fish and chips and I had blackened tilapia with a cajun seafood topping.   Then, we rode the train and my kids went on a couple of rides, then we left.  We will not go again.  But it was a nice break to get out of the house.

On Wednesday, something happened to me - I am not sure - it really started on Monday, but got bad on Wednesday.  I was very dizzy, slightly headachy, tingly face.  I got scared and almost went to the ER, but on Friday - all gone and I feel fine.  I am attributing it either hormones (I am perimenopausal) or allergies or a lack of vitamin D - no sun for a month until yesterday afternoon and boy, I soaked it up!  I even made my kids go out at 1 p.m. and I would not let them back in the house for 20 minutes.  They had to bare their arms and walk in the sun!  They smiled a little more last night too!

I made 3 bunnies for customers, sewed on 20 patches and made a tshirt quilt top.  I am still working heavily on getting ready for the show that is next weekend. 

Right now, I am working on quilting my grandmother's quilt - I had to put it down for a while, I just get too emotional, but I am almost done, so I will be shipping it out to my cousin probably some time next week.  I will feel so much better to have this project done.  Then I want to start making the wolves for my Mother-in-law.  Once that is done, I will feel like a big weight has been lifted - these have been hanging over my head for a while.

Anyway, back to work!  Oh, internet went down 3 times while I was writing - luckily everything was saved.

Have a great weekend!  Let me know what you are up to!

Mid-Month Numbers - without bonus

I decided to go ahead and put the numbers up even without the bonus - just so you could see what it looks like before the bonus.

Debts:

401(k) loan for land
October 2017 Start - $42,627
Current -  $0

CC#1
October 2017 Start - $30,400.81
Current - $0

CC#2
October 2017 Start - $13,943.95
Current - $0

CC#3
October 2017 Start - $17,279.17
Current -$0

CC#4
October 2017 Start  - $32,855.22
Current - $24,304

CC#5
October 2017 Start - $0
Current - $26,886.00

Truck
October 2017 Start - $21,753.52
Current -$20,333.58

Car
October 2017 Start - $7,013.68
Current -$6,637.21

Mortgage
October 2017 Start - $332,480.00
Current - $329,047.54

Total Non-Mortgage
October 2017 Start - $165, 874.09
Current - $78,160.79

Total Debt
October 2017 Start - $498,354.09
Current - $407,208.26


At the end of January, our non-mortgage debt was at $82,492.54, so we paid down $4,331.75 in non-mortgage debt since 1/31/18.  The autos don't come out until the end of the month.  The mortgage is taken on the 1st, but I put it in the month prior (My weird way of thinking).

Just so there is no confusion - the business supports itself and always has.  We use no personal money for the business at all.  However, I do use some of the business money (as a salary) to pay for personal things - like the kids camps and such.