Jameson's Army Quilt

I can't believe I forgot to blog about Jameson's quilt! It's just a simple 9-patch lap quilt made to fit a 4-year old. :) He helped me pick out the fabric during one of our shopping trips. He saw the Army fabric and just fell in love immediately. What military kid can pass up something like that? Not mine. :D So we bought it and I promised to sew something up from it. I knew I needed some block that had a large center to show off the Army motif. I can't recall the name of the block though. I finished the piecing sometime in February and my aunt quilted it for me. I don't sew too many quilts but this one was quick and fun!

Sewing Saturday: Cutting Fabric and a Custom Order

It's really great to have my husband home! Since he was deployed the past year he decided to take off work for the month of May. He's been working around the yard and taking care of all those things I just never could get around to. Plus, he's decided to screen in our little porch. I'm so excited!

But life is always busy these days. We're still knee deep in homeschooling. Actually, we work on a year round schedule, summer vacation is only a short 4 weeks here. However, that just means less time to be bored when we are stuck inside with 110* temps and no need to waste time reviewing. I took the time to plan out our next years worth of vacation days and have worked in several breaks for vacation! We've started planning a road trip for next year... Yosemite National Park, Redwood National Forest, and possibly the Grand Canyon! It's exciting to be able to live our lives on our own time table. :)

Enough of that! When I get the chance (usually late at night) I get to work on my little sewing business. Lately I've been going through my fabric and just cutting, cutting, cutting. I have so much cut that I think I'm set for the next year for projects to complete! I've cut hundreds of diapers and covers (photo of only part of what I have done below) and I've cut countless wetbags, cloth wipes, unpaper towels, and grocery bag dispensers out.

I'm also working on a custom order for a neighbor. I've completed the set of 9 contoured nursing pads and am working on the matching diapers sets to go along with them! Everything is turning out great and I can't wait to finish them so I can get them to her!

I better get back to work! :)

Homecoming

My husband has been home now for 2 weeks! How the time flies. :) He was deployed for the past year in Kuwait in support of 'Operation Enduring Freedom'. What a long year! We are so glad to have him back. I took a few (blurry cell phone) photos and there is also a nice article written up about them, which you can find HERE.

Follow me!

With Google Reader going by the way side I've been searching for another reader. I think I found the perfect thing! The best part is that it will automatically import all your blogs from Google Reader into it. The link to Bloglovin' is on the sidebar on the left <------. I hope you continue to follow me!

A little update:

We are down to roughly 45 days left of this deployment! When all is said and done, my husband will have been gone about a full year. It's been quite the roller coaster! I've just had to let my blog go for awhile. Life is never boring!

My older son, Ian, is being homeschooled now, well he has been home since early December '12. We were just having too many academic troubles with the school and they weren't willing to help without some sort of diagnosis or other. He's at home now doing very well with his studies. He is getting more and more into electronics and physics. He wouldn't be able to expand his knowledge of these subjects if he was stuck in school all day!

In general we are doing well, although wishing time would fly. :)

An update for you all!

Hi Friends! I apologize for not keeping up with the blogging like I used to. Things have been so busy! I thought I'd take a few minutes and give you a little update today though. :)

Business

My sewing business is constantly changing and evolving. I recently decided to close down my website. It wasn't successful and was just sucking out all the joy (and my extra time) trying to keep up with it. All of my items are still for sale on Etsy, I still have the same facebook page, and I ended up pointing my domain to this blog just to make things easier. I also moved my Project List back to my blog for ease of use. You can now find it under the Custom Order page up top. I'm still working on updating the rest of my links!

As far as the sewing side goes… well as you can see below… all of my work baskets are stuffed full of pending items for me to work on! Some of them are personal projects but most of them are things for my shops. Of course, if a custom order comes it, I work on it before my other items. I'm keeping as busy as I can!

Family

Everything is running fairly smoothly with my boys. We've had a few bumps along the way but we are still managing pretty well with dad's deployment. My husband has been gone roughly 4.5 months now and we still have quite a while until he comes home. We speak time him weekly via webcam and I talk to him pretty frequently on facebook and through emails. It's good to hear from him but I wish he could come home!

We also have a new fur-baby, Bella. She is a 10 week old yorkie. My husband surprised us with her last weekend! How did he do that? Well, he saw a photo of the new puppies on a friends facebook page and via private messages was able to get her for me. One of his state side bosses drove her the 2 hours to deliver her. My boys and I love her so much! Here she is all ready for Halloween!

Home

With everything going on (and with a new puppy too) I always feel like something would need to be put on the back burner. I try to do it all and I'm still realizing that I can't. Sometimes my house doesn't get cleaned, sure we pick up the toys and stray items, but dusting and vacuuming doesn't always happen. It really drives me nuts but I have to put my blinders on sometimes. I try to cook frequently too. I've taken to freezing about half of what I make because it makes it so much easier on me. I enjoy cooking but I don't always have time or energy! So while my house may not be the best it's still home to us!

Self

Last but not least, I've been trying to put some focus on myself. I try to take a walk every day so I can get some exercise. I cut back on training for a 5-k and trying to loose a bunch of weight. Weight loss has slowed but not stopped! I'm down 20 pounds, with 15 more to go. I'm happy with my progress so far. I also try to put on nice clothes and make-up because it makes me feel better. And I try to do something just for me every day.

With me being a 'single' mom it can be tough. The dynamics to my single parenting and running a home-based business are different then a truly single person. I'm still married by my other half is on the other side of the world fighting in a war no one really even cares or thinks about anymore. It can make for some long days of worrying. Journaling helps, as does just trying to take things a day (or minute/second) at a time!

Until next time… have a great day!

~Heather

Juggling Act

Sometimes mothers seem to be in a constant juggling act. There is the kids, laundry, cleaning, cooking, work, etc. It can be difficult to keep up!

My plate has been extremely full lately. It can be completely overwhelming sometimes. It makes it even harder to not have the help at home because your other half is a world away on deployment. Holding down the fort at home is no tea party.

I've had to make some tough choices lately. I really wanted to homeschool my older son but it's just not going to happen. We probably won't be homeschooling at all anymore. So that is off my plate. Then there was an awesome job offer that I turned down. I was going to work for a costume company creating some fun works of art… ballet and dance competition outfits, cheerleader uniforms (think pro football & schools), etc. Unfortunately, I don't think I have enough arms to juggle with. I decided to not add that to my plate, even though it is something that I want to do. That was such a hard decision! The company owner was completely understanding though and I still have a position if I ever do find the time.

So without those extra things I'm feeling much more confident about taking care of everything else that I have to do. And my business won't suffer, which makes me happy!

And with school starting in about 2 weeks I'll be getting back into blogging! I miss it and enjoy the extra little outlet it gives me. :) I hope all my bloggy friends are doing well & I can't wait to see you around again!

Deployment

Last weekend we sent my husband off on his year long deployment. He'll be headed over seas shortly. We've spent this past week sort of getting in to a routine. I say 'sort of' because it's summer and were aren't planning or doing much besides relaxing a bit.


We had a Farewell BBQ for him and had lots of friends and family show up. I didn't get photos of everyone but there were roughly 30 people. It was a great turn out and a nice evening.

Saturday, June 9th, 2012 was the Deployment Ceremony in Sedalia, Missouri where the 35th Combat Aviation Brigade is stationed. It was the official 'good-bye'. The band played and the representatives for the governor of Missouri and Missouri house representatives spoke along with the mayor of Sedalia. The ceremony lasted about an hour long after which my family went out for lunch. My parents took our boys for the night so Justin and I could have 1 last night alone. Sunday we were up by 4am because the unit headed out at 5am.

 

June 11th was our 7th anniversary and Justin had these roses delivered! This was our 4th anniversary apart… we have some time to make up!

This next year is going to be full of challenges and surprises but I feel like I'm prepared for it. The boys and I are doing great so far. :) Let's hope it stays that way!