WAY too long!

It seems that it's been about 1.5 years since I wrote my last entry. Wow! Sorry about that! I guess when you have 2 children in less than 2 years things get a little chaotic! Let's see if I can get a quick update out of the way:

• Emily is 2 years old! She is a talking up a storm (she never stops!).
• Mabel is 7 months old. She doesn't care about food yet. She is moving around on the floor efficiently without crawling yet.
• I chopped my hair off right after I turned 30 and now I am growing it back out, ha! 
• Jesse is still working at his job, same ole same ole. He is also gearing up for another year as camp director at the girls camp. Us girls are going to stay home because it's more work to bring the kiddos than for Jesse to just go alone.

I have actually been doing a ton of decluttering here at our house. I have given away and sold SO much stuff. It feels freeing to live in a home with less as well as breaking the bonds of feeling guilt for keeping the items that don't bring me joy. I'll have to write some posts on that later.

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to (will update later when I have time):

Here's a photo from our newborn shoot.

It's Almost December!

We have been busy busy bees around here lately and I see I haven't posted in MONTHS! Emily is already 9 months old. I've done a super bad job of taking her 7, 8, and now 9 month pictures! We have a dr appt on Wednesday so I think that might entice me to take photos since we will have her weight/height given to us. So let's see what is new!!

1. Emily and I went to Mommycon and we found out we love AIO (all in one) diapers. So we are in the process of selling off her old stash and collecting AIO's. Trying to get a lot of them this weekend during the specials of Black Friday weekend.
2. I opened up my business in October. It's doing well and I am trying to organize everything!
3. Jesse is now in a new roll at work ~ doing sales more than being a superintendent. Not sure how it's going to all work out, but he just started doing this new role a week ago.
4. Emily has gone from crawling, to pulling up on things, to cruising along the furniture. She may even try walking on her own by Christmas? I'm not sure, but she is being way more independent and exploring the house.
5. We sold Emily's crib! We are in the process of turning her room more into a Montessori room verses a regular room. We will be doing a floor bed where she can be independent and get out of it in the mornings and play a little bit.
6. We hosted Thanksgiving this year and had Steve, Dorothy, Arne, Kendra, Jack, Sophia, Daniel, and Lacy over! We made an awesome turkey! It was also Jesse's birthday and he had a wonderful time.
7. We are still going to a catholic church and have started the RCIA program ~ the class to join the church. Today is actually the first day of advent! :D

Gosh, I can't think of anything else that's new, but I can see all the housework to do, so I'm going to end here and hope I come back soon! :)

I have finally finished the 10 (technically now have 11) different types of soaps I wanted to make before opening my soap business! I made my 11th one today ~ a Christmas one. I can't wait to cut it. It's green with some brown swirls and white snowflake micas on the top - I made it thinking of Christmas trees with snow on them in the outdoors. Next on the soap making list is a spiced apple cider one that I will use red and white swirls. 

I also got word that my application was accepted to do the bazaar the first weekend of November! I am going to be promoting it like crazy, because I don't think there is an online presence yet. :(

We also started the RCIA class. Emily came along of course, and that was a little interesting, but I think it will be okay. I'm so glad they are understanding and allow the little one there. If not, I'd probably have to postpone the class to another year as I don't have a sitter every week at 7pm for 6 months. That's just not do-able at her age and our situation.

We also got our first rosaries. My friend Allison has a business making them, and Jesse and I each got one! :D So excited. I just need to make time to do the rosary. It will be SO much easier when I know the words... I think.

Soap, Jobs, and Food!

We have been very busy here! I've been making a ton of soap. I think I now have about 200 bars of soap on the curing rack with plans to make another 60-100 in the next few weeks. I'm getting ready to open my business at the end of October. I have signed up for a holiday bazaar at a local catholic church. I also may see if I can come one morning to my mom's work after people get off their morning shift and have a little table set up for people to purchase my soap. I can't wait to see how sales turn out. Will I have enough, will no one purchase, and will people like the soap? So many unknowns, but I am going to try either way! Heck, if it's not super successful, everyone gets this soap for Christmas ;).

Jesse is in the middle of deciding what to do with his career. He either plans to go into a sales position at his current company or go back into the field. We shall see what he will do. We are praying about it and trying to figure out the best thing for him and the family.

Emily has started solids. She wasn't a complete fan. She did like cheddar cheese and has surprisingly eaten a little bit of carrots in a baby jar. We shall keep trying foods with her. :) She is definitely going to start crawling or pulling herself to a standing position soon! She is definitely trying to go all over the place. She cries more if someone other than me holds her. She definitely loves attention.

Soap Business Coming Along

I am really coming along with my soap business. I can't believe it! I really felt like it was just another nice dream, but I really am going to have my own small business making and selling soaps. I am so excited. I was not aware however, how time consuming it would be! I read once that making the actual soap should only be 10% of your time. The other 90% is working on the business, marketing, etc. I wish making soap was 100% of the time, but it is a business so I have to sell it too!

I have my Washington state business license and a reseller's permit. I've applied for a city of Tacoma business license and a home based business permit. I got samples of packaging materials, picked out what I want to use, and ordered them. I have worked on my Etsy listings so I can open my shop when I am ready. I need to get insurance, make lots more soap, and take lots of good photos for the listings. I still have a lot to do, but I am making so much progress. I am pretty proud of myself for sticking to this. It's scary opening a business and putting money into it. It's risky since the market is completive. I want to do it though, so I am putting 100% into it. 

It's late and time for bed. Good night! :)

Soap and a Prayer

Last August I started making soaps as I thought it sounded like fun and eventually I wanted to start a soap making business. You can't really open a business unless you know how to make the soap, and it's quite a process making them, so you can't be too impatient. I allow my soap to cure for 6 weeks so it takes a while for me to even test the finished product. I make all my soap with lye so I also have to test it when I unmold it to make sure the ph is in a good range. I haven't had a bad ph batch yet, so that's good!

Lately I have been stocking up supplies and things for opening a business. I have now made 3 loafs of soap and plan to make more. It's not the easiest thing when you have a little one to take care of. I can do a lot of the soap making, like getting the oils ready and things like that while watching Emily. Once I have to pull out the lye I make sure there is someone else watching Emily. I've made soap when my grandma is over playing with her, which is perfect! 

On Monday I made my first big step and am finally committing to my goal of opening my own soap making business and becoming a master soap maker! I applied for my WA business license and I have been waiting for their approval - approx. 5 business days, so I can go get a business license in my city. Once I get these things, I will get insurance which is the biggest cost of them all. Luckily the licenses are fairly cheap, especially because I am getting a 12k or less in revenues license. I can dream big, but I am going to assume I won't make 12k my first year haha. :) 

I am so excited because I have always hoped for years and years I would find a crafting passion that I could actually turn into a business, and now I finally am. I am jumping all in, because that's just what you have to do!

I'm also adding my faith into my business too, which is awesome because it's a big part of my life. I am calling my business "Soap and a Prayer!" I am still figuring out the logistics of incorporating my religion and everything into my business, along with figuring out how to package, design everything, and more. Either way, I am at the beginning of my journey and I'm excited for the new beginning.

It's Becoming Summer

Here's what we have been up to lately:

Swimming at the YMCA!

Trying out the high chair so she can be in the kitchen while mommy cooks/bakes/eats.

Strawberry picking!

Hiking trails around near our house

Flat Diaper Challenge Results

So about that flat diaper challenge. I did not make it the whole week handwashing diapers. :-/ I felt pretty bad, but on day 4 I had to stop. I never quit on anything, I really try to finish everything I start. But I couldn't get my cooking project done while doing this challenge, and we spent a lot of money on that. So my cooking project came first. On day 4 I had 30 dirty flats and no time to wash/dry, so she went into the fitteds and for my sanitary, and my husband's sanitary, I washed them in the W/D. Looking back at the weekend we had during the challenge, we were hardly home so I'm not even sure what we would have done if we would have ran out of clean diapers while out and about?

3 Months Old!

Cooking Project!

I got 40 pounds of ground beef from Zaycon Fresh on Tuesday. It's Wednesday night and I'm still working with it! :'( It's such a big project to do with a baby. 

So far used this much ground beef:

• 5 pounds for sloppy joes (Wednesday)
• 5 pounds for enchilada meat (Tuesday)
• 5 pounds for spaghetti sauce (Wednesday)
• 10 pounds for taco meat. (Tuesday)

I still need to do:

• 5 more pounds for spaghetti sauce
• 5 pounds of raw (need to package by the pound)
• 5 pounds of browned ground beef

The spaghetti sauce was BY FAR the most time consuming to do because I had to chop up 1 onion and 1 bell pepper per pound - so 5 of each. For the 5 pounds, I had to slice a pound of mushrooms and do 40 garlic cloves. I should really try to chop up more onions/peppers tonight, but I am exhausted and it's already after 9pm. I am really not looking forward to making another 5 pounds of it. I have to make to batches of 2.5 pounds because I don't have a pot big enough for 5 pounds. 

I am already committed to this, so I will deal with it. I have packaged everything in about 1 pound packages as that's about what we eat. We are going to have A TON of meals so I am not sad about that. 3 hard days of work for months of easy meals makes it not so bad at all! :)

Let's pray Emily will actually nap tomorrow for a good nap so I can finish this project up before Jesse gets home tomorrow. That would be a miracle!