I thought it was time to write up an update on  happenings around here. This will probably be long. lol

 

Dh has not had much work for the past year, but this next few weeks he's finally got LOTS! Yay! I pray no one cancels as that has happened a few times over the last couple of months. It must be the economy because in his 5+ years of biz. that's never happened before.

 

My biz has been going strong and dh has taken over the 'paperwork' end of it now to leave me more time for sewing, and all the other things I need to be doing such as caring for the kids, homeschooling etc.. We're trying to find a new routine. Obviously things are not going to slow down and we need to work with it rather then constantly hoping finances will change so we can slow down. Doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon and we need to learn how to work with this new hectic schedule without allowing the truly important things to fall through the cracks.

 

Schooling is going well in the midst of it all, but we miss doing the fun extra's like tea parties and science experiments! That's why we need to get ourselves on track better. I need to find at least one day a week to do fun schooling or something! The kids have become very good at doing their schooling with minimal help from me for math, reading and writing. They simply work alongside me while I sew and then I check it all and go over things with them. They also do their spelling online at spellingtime.com This is a big help as it leaves minimal work for me to do.

 

Needless to say, homeschooling isn't going the way it always did before (with lots of fun nature studies, tea parties, unit studies etc..) but it's going, and it's what has to fit for our family at the moment and I praise God that I feel ok about all this. I know some may be inclined to send their kids off to school if life got so hectic, but that's just not an option as far as this family is concerned. So we roll with it and make the best out of it that we can.

 

We are constantly blessed by extra's in our life that we could never have planned ourselves. All summer/fall the older two kids have been busy completely by fluke. DS (15 years old) has been working for FIVE of our neighbours! He did yard work, painting, roofing, drywalling, etc.. Made lots of money, never advertised, simply word of mouth. He'd work for one, another would see him, and they would ask if he could help them too. lol

One of our neighbours has been training him in welding, and knife constructing. The first knife ds made on his own was a long fishing knife. He made the handle out of wood we had found near a beaver home. It has gnaw marks all over it from the beavers, and we thought this was really cool, so he made it into a knife handle. The knife he is working on right now, our neighbour told him when it's all finished it would be worth 350.00-700.00! Can you believe that? They use a special steel, and he's carving the handle out of a moose antler. He has done all the work himself on this knife. He's pretty excited about it. I just told him he should snap a photo of the chunk of moose antler before starting on it so I could share the pics.

 

Our eldest dd (17) has been babysitting for a neighbour. This is one great thing about homeschooling teens. There's nothing stopping them from making up their own schedule! They can babysit or work during the day, when other teens can not. It's an ideal job for her, it's just across the street, so she walks over and walks back home.

She's also been writing for a horse magazine. She has a monthly column plus she scored an interview with Captain Canada, our country's most well known horse rider, Ian Millar. The magazine editor was so impressed, that she's giving dd not only her monthly column in Dec.'s issue, but also a full article spread for the interview! She is pretty darn excited about that! Horses, and writing are her passions and to be able to combine the two has been a dream come true for her. She has hopes to also write some children's books, with stories centered around horses. She wants to begin selling them in our new shop when we get it set up, to gauge what kind of interest there is. She's considering making them into e-books first, but we aren't sure how that will go over? Any opinions from anyone here?

 

The three younger girls have been keeping busy with school, making their own products (reusable bamboo velour cotton balls) for the shop to earn funds, and playing, LOTS. lol They spend a lot of time outside with the chickens, dogs (we have three now), rabbits and of course the horses. One of our twin dd's, the one who has a rescued pony, would love to start riding soon but at this point it's still just leading her around on the pony. We don't trust her young horse completely yet, so over the winter we'll work with her some more and maybe by next spring she can begin a bit of light riding. I'm going to invest in a protective vest for her first. :-p Call me a paranoid mommy but I figure if we're going to invest in good helmets to protect her head, a good protective vest is a good thing to consider as well!
Dd #3 and our other twin dd would like horses as well, but will have to wait until we finally move one day. They haven't shown the same willingness to work hard that their sister has shown, so it's good that they have to wait for now. Their sister scoops manure right along with her older two siblings, and earns a lot of money for the care of her horse by knitting snakes and making the reusuable cotton balls. She doesn't give up either and sticks with it.

 

As for the business, we're closing down our current shop soon and opening up a new shop in it's place. It will be called Homestead Emporium and the pads section will be called H.E.R. Products/Pads, short for Homestead Emporium's Reusuable Products/Pads. I'm excited. I think it's time for a change. This new store will open up all sorts of possibilities for the entire family. Long term goal is to one day sell everything from the reusable products to homesteading products like solar panels, books, and anything else we can think of! Each family member will have the opportunity to add whatever they can dream of.

Well that's it for now. The sewing machine is calling my name, yes, even on Sunday afternoons. See why we need to become more time organized?