Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Sleep deprivation

Many people ask me how I find the time to create so many items to post in my jewelry shop. Believe me, there is no spare time when you have 5 kids and are a SAHM taking care of ALL the housework and other work. It's exhausting. But the jewelry making is the thing I love and what gives me a few moments of peace and tranquility in my day to day insanity. So, I stay up for hours at night working on my craft and my Etsy shop. I fall into bed around 3:30-4:00am and wake up again around 7:00-7:30. I'm sure one of these days this lack of sleep is really going to catch up with me, but maybe I'll get lucky and collapse somewhere comfortable so I can take a 7 day nap!

I try to meet my goal of making one new piece each day and posting it within a couple days of making it. It doesn't always happen, and I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle often. But my sales aren't that high yet, so I hope maybe as the kids get older, things will get a little easier and my sales will pick up in kind. Hope being the operative word there.

I have to order a bunch of supplies now so I can continue creating, and I know I've only got about 10 more minutes before a fight between the 5 and 3 year old breaks out or the baby wakes up from his nap, so I must go before my small window of opportunity flashes by and I'm back to my regular gig.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Making Lists

Normally I'll spend 10 minutes in the morning making my 2 page to-do list of things I'd LIKE to accomplish throughout the day. This is a surefire recipe for depression, as I usually get to the end of the day and haven't finished half of them.

But today! Today is the day that I have managed to complete 85% of my tasks and it's only 2:00pm! (It's the little things that excite me.)

On the other hand.....
1. My son flunked 7th grade and they didn't notify me until it was too late to sign him up for summer school so now I'm going to be forced to "have it out" with the BOE.
2. Summer school costs a LOT more than I thought it would and I haven't had any sales in my jewelry shop on Etsy so I don't have a lot of extra cash.
3. Every day this week there have been no less than 11 children mulling around my house and consuming consumables that I can ill afford to replace. Not to mention the noise level and the mess.
4. Social Security administration sent me a letter because my name does not match the name my former employer has on file (who'd have thought I'd forget that crucial change when I got married - duh).
5. My 14 year old daughter is crazy as hell and is driving me there fast. Oh, the drama!

But I did finish a beautiful new purple lucite flower necklace that I almost want to keep instead of posting it for sale. How much jewelry is too much? My hubby thinks I've reached that amount, whatever it is.

My 3 year old son is currently pounding smarties and sweettarts at an alarming rate so I must cease typing and go take him outside before he consumes the entire candy stash.

Until tomorrow.....

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Day 1 - What the heck am I doing????

I've never been much of a writer - I prefer verbality. (I also like to make up words and will probably be publishing a list one day so people can understand what I'm talking about.)

I'm planning to share with you the day to day insanity of being a mom of 5 from a 14 year old to an 8 month old all while trying to juggle several ventures that will allow me to stay at home rather than going back to corporate america. I spent 23 years working there and have no intense desire to repeat another 23. Hopefully I won't have my house taken away in the process, although I have been saving up large boxes just in case so we can have a 7 room cardboard condo if necessary.

This morning my sum total accomplishments include feeding the kids breakfast, emptying the dishwasher, starting the laundry and cleaning up the kitchen. But on the bright side, I've created a blog, something I've never even considered until this very second. I guess old dogs can learn new tricks.

This afternoon I hope to work on making jewelry while the young ones nap and the bigger ones watch a video. That doesn't always work out to my advantage, but I have good intentions. I have a jewelry website on Etsy called fivelittlegems, but I'll leave that informative discussion for another day. Let's just say I'm all for cloning because I need at least 3 of me to accomplish everything I need to do by the weekend.

That's all for now. See ya tomorrow!