Working Woman

So as most of you know, I have several jobs. First of all, I am a wife and mother, which happily takes up most of my time. One of the reasons that we moved away and "started fresh" was so I could step back from responsibilities working for other people and take care of my family. However, due to the nature of things, I still need to pull in some kind of income. So, here's a little bit of what I have been up to:

1. Creative Memories
This job has proved to be a good thing this past month! It's only half-way through the month and I have had my best sales in all of the 3 years I have done this business! I have had very successful events this month and loyal customers who are very good to me and come to me for all their scrapbooking needs! I did so well this month that I will be receiving a huge commission bonus check and some free stuff from the company. :-)

2. Piano and Voice Lessons
I currently have six students each week. There are several people "in the works" who are considering taking lessons and there are also a couple kids who had to take a break for awhile... hopefully they will be coming back soon! I donated lessons to Tiernan Irish Dance this past weekend for their fundraiser dinner and both the piano and voice lessons sold, so that may bring two new students, too!

3. Transcribing
At the very beginning of this month I completed my last interview from the project I have been working on since July. I was so thankful for this opportunity... it just kept going and going! Originally I thought I would only have work through August... but it lasted so much longer! Praise God for answers to prayer in ways that are just so simple and easy for me to do. I know that he always answers prayer, sometimes in ways I don't expect or see right away, but it's amazing when some things resolve themself in such an obviously good way. I enjoy transcribing and hope to keep doing it for years to come! What a blessing to work from home, on my own schedule, while caring for my family!

Anyway, these things have been keeping my pretty busy the last few weeks. But things are going to slow down now as we approach the holidays... now it's just time to wait for the baby and hopefully not get too anxious!

Oh, I forgot #4... teaching Spiderman! This month we have started a new pre-school series which is being provided by a friend who has extra copies for her own pre-school that she runs out of her home. So we are getting to use their same worksheets and projects. This week is "Manners Week" so he is learning about "please, thank you, and excuse me"... we are also reading together and of course, coloring and doing playdough!!! (Two favs!)

"Let 'Em Bee Little" Preschool Halloween Party

Spiderman and his big cousin worked hard to create a spider snack, made of a chocolate covered donut and 8 pretzel legs, Yum!


Hey, that's cheating! You were supposed to eat the hanging donut without using your hands!


Pin the nose on the Jack-O-Lantern!



How about a coloring activity, using orange and black!

Linder Farms

Spiderman joined a local preschool group (run by a friend of mine) for a field trip to Linder Farms last Friday morning. For $5 the kids were able to participate in a hay ride, pumpkin patch search, coloring activity, corn maze and a popcorn snack! They had so much fun!!!



I was really proud of my son, he picked out his own pumpkin and carried it back out of the patch all by himself!

The hay ride was pretty crowded, so we had to snuggle up and sit together.

When we got home the coloring activity was a gift for Daddy. Spiderman scarffed down his popcorn and drink, all that pumpkin searching made him hungry!

Next week we are going to a Halloween party with the same preschool group. I am thinking you can expect pictures of a pirate! Arg!

Fireman!

Well, we braved the cold 38-degrees this morning and headed out to the Caldwell Fire Station with a friend's pre-school group. The firemen weren't exactly sure what to do with a bunch of 3-4-5 year olds, so they skipped the lecture on "stop, drop and roll" and went right for the fire engines!


The pictures didn't turn out so great because no one would hold still and the lighting was bad inside the station, but at least you get the idea. Peter Parker began brave enough to try on the fire-fighter gear, but turned shy half-way through!

An Apple A Day (w/ Pics)

Friday morning, Auntie Wawa, PP and I hopped in our car and drove up to Emmett, ID to visit Candy Apple Orchard for a morning of apple picking! We met up with some of Auntie's friends, as well as a family from church (who were going with a homeschool group). The orchard had Romes, Red and Golden Delicious. Goldens were just what we wanted for making some yummy homemade applesauce! PP really enjoyed reaching up and pulling down the apples he could get to. We even ate a few while we were at it! It was a very enjoyable morning out in the sunshine. Yesterday, Auntie and I canned the apples we picked!
I was able to get 9 jars of applesauce and 8 jars of apple filling (to be frozen in bags later). I believe Auntie got about the same amount. We saved some just for eating as well.
It was hard work, but fun! And it was especially great doing it with someone, and in the fabulous kitchen designed especially for such a job!

Pre-Schooler

Here he is! The big boy, putting his sticker up for "washing his hands"... as you can see, he had already eaten his breakfast and brushed his teeth.

We like good hygiene in this house. :)

Making Letters

Just wanted you to see how well Peter Parker is doing!!!

Storytime

This week we begin going to Storytime at the Nampa Library for the little boy to attend the preschool-aged group. This week they are doing the book called "Goat and Donkey in Strawberry Sunglasses" by Simon Puttock. You have the option of attending either Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. I am not sure which one we are going to go to yet because each morning is different... I have been having trouble sleeping and that makes me pretty tired and with the lack of motivation... I am going to try to get over it and do stuff anyway and see how I feel, a nap may be necessary later on! The Grandmas have sent "RED" things for the boy. He's on BLUE this week and other stuff. He likes getting a sticker when he's finished a page. We worked with that Model Magic stuff and he liked that, however he then broke the animals we made... hopefully Elmer's glue will do the trick. I am back into typing now... three more interviews were sent my way. Soon I will be helping with soap because we have an event the first weekend in October that we need to get soap ready for. Yay! We start Sunday School at church this weekend, too. So there will be a luncheon and we'll be able to sit and get to know some more people, hopefully! It's fall and things are starting to get more interesting around here! I am so glad for this!

Today's Events

My BIL came today to work on various jobs around my new house. He worked on the electrical in the bedrooms--but couldn't finish it today... He also remeasured and figured out a better way to do my cabinets in the kitchen which also = cheaper! Yay! Oh, and I finally can put up curtains in the office and our bedroom, that way my Romanian neighbors (there's three or four men and one woman--a family, I hope!) won't be able to see in at night. Phew! ;-)

C and I went back to our good ole' home, the warehouse, and cleaned up for my sister. She was glad for that. It's nice in there without all our junk covering the whole place. They had the A/C installed...the day we moved out. Go figure.

I started planning for C's homeschool preschooling. I made the plan for September and it's very exciting for me! He will be learning the colors: red, blue, yellow, and orange. He will also learn about "big" and "small" and the shapes: circle and square. We will do worksheets together on the objects, followed by a project that ties it all together. For example: week one he is doing circles and the color red, so our project will include both things. I plan to take him on an "outing" every Friday; stuff like the park, library, etc. as I learn what's available here, and depending on the weather. It's really nice to have the time to spend with im in this way.

I also bought trash cans today. Very exciting.