I Need a Job

I have been a 100% stay-at-home mom for just under two years.  Before that, I was always busy doing something.  Before Strawberry was born, I went to school full time.  After she was born, I went back to school for a second degree and Apple was born in the middle of that.  Then I worked full time for two years.  Then Luke went to grad school and was so busy that I decided to just stay home for that year.   Then I got pregnant and we came here and I realized that working during a Seabees tour would be impossible.  Being a nurse-mom is awesome because of the flexibility and night-shifts, but that only works well when there is a daddy around.  It is very hard to get child care for 13-14 hours on changing days, and almost impossible to get it for nights.  And even when Luke is home, it is very inconsistent.  Before he deployed, the longest stretch of time he was home for was 3 weeks.

Anyway, I'm rambling again.  Sorry.  :)  My point is that even though mothering is a 24-hour job and three little kids keep me very busy, I also have this need to do something else.  Before, I filled that need with school and work.  But now, I have to fill that need from home.  So I've gotten this crazy desire to be crafty.  The funny thing is, I'm so not crafty. I am terrible at it.  My YW teachers used to do the crafts for me because I was so bad.  YW was not the funnest for me because it seems like all we did was toll painting and sewing and cooking: all of these things that I wanted to be able to do, but that I really really had no skill for.  I've tried other things before like scrapbooking, but that took way too much effort and commitment and there was really no sense of accomplishment because it was never ending.  Plus, I usually hated what I had made a year later.

But now I've discovered craft blogs.  And I want to make everything.  This is totally my sister-in-law Megan's fault because she made a beautiful tutu for Strawberry for Christmas and Apple wanted one too so I asked her for a pattern and she directed me to a craft blog.  And now I'm addicted.  Because they make stuff that I could totally make.  I didn't know that Mod Podge existed.  And it's amazing stuff.  And this solves some of the problems I've had about how to make some things that I needed around the house.  So far, I've only done two things, but I've got big plans for more.  :)  I even pulled out my sewing machine that has previously only been used for Halloween costumes.  And yeah, I'm still really bad at sewing, but I've discovered lots of ways that I can get better at it.  And plus, I have three girls.  Girls are so fun to sew for.  There are tons of tutorials for how to make super cute skirts and dresses.  Maybe if I make enough stuff, I will over come my natural lack of talent and become amazing.  Holy cow, I'm writing way too much.  Hee-hee.  So here's what I've made so far:

It's on a pretty large canvas that I painted and then added die cut letters to and then I Mod-Podged the heck out of it.  It was kind of hard to fit everything on there and I had to shorten stuff.  Like "Be Green" means to recycle and take care of the environment (Strawberry finds this very important). The girls were very amazed by my grass painting skills.  "It looks like real grass!!"  I made this because I needed some really positive motivation for Strawberry and I way for her to be reminded of what she is capable of and what is expected of her.  She got pretty down on herself over the last couple of months because of school and started to get into that mindset of, "I can't do it, so why bother trying?"  That was so upsetting for me and I've been working really hard to help her see that she is amazing.  I made it into rules, but it really is meant to help her see that she is really capable of doing great.  I've been talking to her a lot about who she is and where she comes from because that really seems to sink in for her.  She loves to hear about how she is the same as her mom and dad and how we had similar struggles at her age, but that we were able to overcome them.  And that she has aunts and uncles and grandparents who have all been amazing and that she belongs to a very talented family who have worked hard for what they have.  So that's why I made it.  And I made it pretty because we are a houseful of girls and that's what we do.  I felt so bad after I made it though because I had sat down with the girls and we talked about the rules we should have for our family and we came up with these.  But then after I made it, I remembered Luke.  Crap!  I've gotten so used to doing everything on my own that I forget that I need to be involving him in this kind of stuff too. Sorry!  But I'm not redoing it.  It took forever.  I did make him a manly little butterfly.  The girls wanted to add butterflies that represented all of us.  Cute huh?  :)

My other project was this chore chart point system that my friends had been doing with their kids.  I needed my girls to really get more aware of the house and cleanliness because they are messy little kids and with the summer coming up, I needed to really get them motivated.  So they earn points for chores and can spend their points on different things like going out for ice cream or going out to a movie.  It's totally working on Strawberry.  She's all about earning stuff.  She has saved her allowance religiously since Christmas and has just over $100.  She wants to buy American Girl stuff on her birthday and I told her we could go to the store if she saved a bunch.  I'm pretty impressed because she has totally resisted buying stuff that she wanted so that she could save.  Apple just gives her money away.  I have to keep taking it back from Strawberry.  She had a little friend stay over while her parents were out of town, and before the girl got here, Apple went and found 2 dollars and several quarters to give her.  It's so funny and sweet.  When Luke got home from ECS in Mississippi last August, Apple had a dollar to give him as a welcome home gift.  :)  Anyway, so far it's working.  Plus, I added to the chart things that they would get points taken away for and so it's been helping with behavior too.  Time outs totally don't work for Apple because she just doesn't care.  She'll sit there and play with her hands and then, to show me whose boss, will refuse to get out of time out.  But she doesn't want to lose points.  :)  The girls picked out the fabric.

Again, like I said, I can't sew, but it did work out pretty well.  My stitches are all over the place, but my kids don't care.  I need to saw off the ends of the dowels.  I went looking for a saw in the garage, but I can't find it and I don't feel like emptying out all of the boxes to find one.  I know we have one because I've seen Luke using it.  We need one of those big tool chests.  We actually have quite a few tools, but they are all shoved into bins and boxes.  Or are floating randomly around the house.  It will be Luke's "Welcome home from Afghanistan, now go clean out the garage" present.  :) I've been getting a little more tool savvy since Luke left and have been very self-reliant.  Just kidding.  Luke's dad had to help me fix the weed eater and our neighbor had to come to my rescue when I had car trouble.  He did show me how to take apart the stinking engine frame so I could get the battery out if I ever needed to again.  Chevys are ridiculous.  Oh, by the way, I saw a Mazda 5 the other day and remembered why I hadn't gotten one in the first place.  They are ugly!  :)

Forgive the super wordy post.  I tend to write too much.  It was very helpful in school when I was writing 20 page papers, but not so great for the blog.  Especially since I don't write as fancy as I used to. And I don't use as many big words.  I'm going to make zipper pouches and corduroy skirts next.  Wish me luck.