Okay, Ladies, Tell Me What to Do

Don't hate me because I have a craftroom, but I need your help. I just cannot make a decision about what to do with all the supplies and tools left over from my little scrapbook business. So, you get to offer up your opinion on what I do with all this stuff: dies, punches, rubber stamps, tons of 8-1/2x11 cardstock, and miscellaneous notions (eyelets, buttons, etc.). I know I want to sell it off on eBay, so I can buy a new camera (my dumb point-and-shoot doesn't focus very well anymore), but I'm not sure how much I should get rid of, or how I should group it all together for sale. I was thinking I could offer to die-cut/punch-out the paper I sell, but maybe I should just do the quick and easy thing, and just sell the paper all in one big bunch. Also, I was thinking I could get back into the whole card-making thing, if I could generate enough money to buy a camera, as well as get some fun new papers. I have permission to get wholesale from Bazzil cardstock and Chatterbox as well, so I'm thinking I should just get rid of everything, a total purge, and just start over with colors I really like. Nothing makes you want to use a space like getting it all cleaned out and starting fresh. Any opinions, suggestions?

Okay, on the left is my big, professional Accucut die-cutting machine, which I am keeping. It's too valuable to let go, and will be extremely useful for card-making. But I have Sizzix dies, some of which I would keep, but some of which I would sell off. Also, in the blue filing cabinet there are gobs of paper left, mostly 8-1/2 x 11. Also under the table are gobs of tags and paper shapes I punched out. Throw them away, or try to group them for sale? Also, on the far right is the edge of the shelves that hold all my old scrapbooking magazines: donate them to the library (I have the entire Creating Keepsakes magazine collection up through about 2005), try to sell them off in bunches, or just throw them in the garbage?

On the left there are my boxes of rubber stamps (save a few favorites and sell the rest or keep 'em all?), next is half a shelf of reams of cardstock (sell/keep?), and finally are the punches. That is a whole dilemma in and of itself. Should I just have a total purge, or should I at least keep the circles, squares, leaves, and flowers? In the light brown wood boxes are the cool punch sets that in each set have lots of sizes of each shape. And what about all my punch art kits? Just keep the digital picture files for sentimental reasons and get rid of it all (paper and coordinating punches used to make the kits), or keep all the punches used to make the kits? I was thinking I could offer some kind of die-cutting/stationery service with the Accucut dies I have, and maybe work in a few punch accents (kind of as a way of justifying the wholesale I can get from Bazzill and Chatterbox, and maybe just enough spare change every month to buy new stamps or paper), or should I just give up the whole selling thing for good? With the advent of Provo Craft's Cricket, I'm thinking I should just give up the concept of trying to sell diecuts on eBay, and just do my own thing for my own pleasure, but I'm not sure. Opinions?

Feelin' a Little Bloggy

Wow, two posts in one week, kind of a record. Just some random stuff today. Let's start with the weather, shall we?

This is the view out of my kitchen window this morning. We had eighty degrees two days ago, I swear. That's Wyoming for you.

Mother's day 2008 - Yeah, yeah, this was almost two weeks ago, but I forgot to blog it. The kids made this ginormous plate of food for me, kind of all piled together with syrup squirted on top of everything. I gladly shared it with Connor, see? I'm a good sharer. Does anyone want some, no really, don't be shy, please, please have some. Thanks, guys!

Too Lazy to Be Creative / Parent's Revenge

Okay, everybody pretend that my background is just a bunch of fluffy dandelion seeds, instead of snowflakes.

P.S. Just read Dawn Meehan's blog (you know, the famous mom blogger of six kids), and she has a great post about shopping with teenage boys. Read the comments too: shopping. I so get that, except my difficulty is shopping with a preteen girl. Equally, if not more, excruciating. And yes, teenagers do have a weakness: they are horribly embarrassed by their parents. Zen and I teased Gil recently about sneaking into a movie we knew he was seeing with his friends, then sitting in the row just in front of him, and making out during the movie. We had some seriously therapeutic, evil laughter that day.

Random Friday Thoughts on Motherhood

My Mom wanted us to write a lovely list of things we think she did for us that helped us to become the adults we are today. Sue wrote a great list, very eloquent (I hate you, you write better than I do, it's not fair, but I still love you), but here's a more sarcastic, mostly light-hearted, list of things I think Moms have in common.

Things I gave up to become a Mom (whether I knew it or not):

1. Young, nubile body - Laugh if you want, especially considering the fact that I never had a great bod to begin with, but I at least had potential. Looking at my body in the mirror lately, about to have kid #4, I know there's not a monkey chance in h-e-double-hockeysticks it's ever coming back. And don't talk to me about my shallowness, mooning over my lost attractiveness, but any woman who claims to never have a twinge or two of nostalgia about her youthful body is a LIAR.
2. Personal Space - People, people, people, I think this has to be the greatest challenge of my motherhood, trying to relinquish my time and attention for my children. Kids dominate your mental space in a way that is just unfathomable unless you go through it yourself. I don't even think men understand this very well, because they get to leave home everyday and go be someone separate from their children. I even think this is still true for moms who work-for-pay outside their homes. It's that multi-tasking brain, where a part of your brain devoted to children and home, is never quite shut off.
3. Short-term and long-term memory - Do you realize how many things you have to forget in order to parent children decently? Kids probably wish parents would forget more than they do, but I think they have no idea how much has really been forgotten. A whole monkey-load of mind-numbing drudgery, daily irritations, and pointless arguments must be forgotten, to get on with the business of living and loving each other. I am frequently accused, by my daughter, of not being able to remember anything ("Mom, why can't you remember anything?"), and I think it's because it's such a habit.


Things I gained because I'm a Mom:
1. I'm kind of useful, by definition - You do so much work as a Mom, it's just unmeasurable the amount of work you do for your family like laundry done, meals cooked, dirty diapers changed, noses wiped, barf dealt with, toilets cleaned, arguments settled, groceries bought, shopping trips with kids made, birthday parties arranged, temper tantrums endured, bedtimes managed, fatigue muddled through, etc. No matter what stupid things a good Mom does, a child can never, never make up for the sacrifices a Mom makes just to see that they get to adulthood. The only thing left to do is to take that example and sacrifice yourself for your own children.
2. I matter to someone & I made a difference - I'm not going to leave this life with a whole bevy of close, personal friends or admirers, but I know I made a positive difference with my kids, no matter what my weaknesses are, and whether or not I get a whole lot of recognition from my children. Focusing on them is the right thing to do.
3. A better sense of humor - Well, there's no doubt my sense of sarcasm has increased. And I think I understand more of human life, and therefore I can laugh at more, and at myself better than when I was single.

That's all my brain could think of. Probably not a complete list. But it's 6pm on a Friday, and I'm done. Love you mom. Thanks for getting us through.

Family Health Update

My poor husband. I'm really trying to have sympathy, in a generic "love all people" kind of way. But he is just really, really grossing me out. He's got this horrible chest cold, that he caught while he was at training school out in Houston, and it's been going on for a week now. You know the kind, where there is continuous coughing and there's just phlegm coming from everywhere, I swear. I keep imagining an invisible bubble around myself, combating all the cooties in the air, and I'm thinking, "Don't touch me, don't touch me, don't touch me!" It's like making yourself not scream when you see a big spider, it's that kind of instinctive response. I just don't deal with sickness very well. I'm trying to control myself, and keep my "Ewwww, you're gross!" to a minimum, but there's not a whole lotta love going around, you know? So, pity my poor husband.

Well, how about an update on the bun in the oven sweet, precious little baby girl soon to arrive? I'm about 33 weeks now (my, how time flies!), and she's just kicking away everyday. The exercise went out the window about six weeks ago (I just know there are some I-told-you-so's out there, come on, you know you want to!), and I keep telling myself I should get out there and do something, even if it's only to walk. I think knowing that I'm stuck with a c-section has kind of killed the motivation. Plus, a good dose of big-fat-pregnant-laziness hasn't helped, either. Although, now that the end is near, I'm beginning to look forward to having my body back when all is said and done. Having a baby jiggling around inside is just weird and uncomfortable in the exercise department. I couldn't push myself as hard as I wanted to, and then I just got lazy. I'm already mentally gearing up to get some serious exercising done, and hopefully get over these sugar cravings I keep having. At least I've only gained 15 pounds, and probably won't gain more than five or ten more before I'm done. I want to be back where I was before I got pregnant. I was doing so well, and looking forward to dropping below 200. I want to be there by Christmas. Wouldn't that be awesome! And I still want out of the "Big Girls" department!

"I look like--" I told Zen after looking at this picture this morning. But I'm wearing my "monkey" shirt that Zen bought for me when he went shopping one day. It says, "Be nice to me or I'll sic my ninja monkeys on you." You know, 'cause I'm all about the "monkey" swear words. Holy monkeys, holy freakin' monkeys, what-the-monkeys-are-you-doing?!, monkey crap, don't-have-a-monkey-spaz, hold-your-monkeys (not hold-your-horses), and so forth.

Part Dos

Just taking the high road today: