Clean Monday

Today is the first day of the season of Lent, Clean Monday or Pure Monday. Therefore I am trying to stay busy today with just cleaning the house from top to bottom. Sort of a spring cleaning. I have a huge pile of stuff to go to goodwill later. I just had to take a break for a few so here I am blogging instead of cleaning.

Had a beautiful weekend at the beach with my grandma. It was extremely hard to leave her yesterday. She is all alone by herself down there. She is getting extremely sick and it is very hard for her to take care of herself at this point. Yet on the other hand she is so independent and strong of spirit that she is not wanting help at this point either. She does admit to it being hard to dress herself and cook. So that worries me so much. I am about 3 hours from her so plan on going back down there on Saturday. She is so lonely and has nothing to keep her mind off the cancer and the pain. First reaction is for me to talk her into coming to stay with us and letting me take care of her. But I do have to think of myself and my family. That sounds so selfish of me to say. With the migraines and health issues I have had recently I have to consider me. What good would I be to my kids, grandma or husband if I had another stroke. At the same time I can't bear the thought of her last days being in a nursing home though.

Update on me is I have new medication to try and see if it helps with the migraines. They also said to stay away from stress and to just try to take care of me. Hah that's funny "stay away from stress", how does anyone stay away from stress. I am going to try to not get stressed out and not take so much on but stress just happens:) I have been trying to do WAY more than one person can possibly do. I am a licensed daycare provider and for almost two years have had 6-9 kids here 5 days a week, 10-12 hours a day. Yes with a teenage helper a couple days a week but the daycare alone is more than a full time job. I am also just finishing up my bachelors degree online in business management. Then I ran across etsy this last spring set up a shop with a few cookies and never thought anything of it. When I started preparing my mixes for the holiday craft shows that I do locally each fall. The idea came to me practically in the middle of the night one night to list my mixes on my etsy and see what happens. Well the holiday season on etsy was quite successful for me and I am now addicted and love the whole concept of etsy, lol. I now have two shops, megscreations with my mixes and whimsicaltots with my toddler art stuffs. Then most important of all is my two precious little ones. Having a two and a three year old is a full time job in itself as well.

Before last week I had already begun to come to realization that I could not go on doing so much anymore. Going on 3-4 hours sleep every night was not working at all. I gave notice to all my daycare parents except my cousin. I had planned on starting a preschool in my home right away but I am now putting those plans on hold for now. Maybe this fall but then again maybe not with the busy holiday season coming soon after that.

Considering just doing etsy full time from here on out. I really do believe I can make it into a full time business if I had the time. I have so many great ideas in my head that I never get time to actually create. My wonderful husband asked me this weekend if that is something I would like to do, etsy full time. He said he would be supportive either way. We both admit that losing all daycare/preschool income would be very hard for us financially. He has even offered to help me if I need any help packaging or whatever. I am definitely passionate about baking and my mixes and I think he likes to see me doing something I really enjoy and am excited to tell him all about each evening when he comes home.

So I am giving myself a new challenge. To treat etsy like a full time job and to see for the next month what I can do to grow the business and then make my final decision. At this moment I am inactive with the state of Washington for daycare licensing. I will have to make my decision very soon. I am not watching any kids at this time. So my time is free to spend with my kids and develop my etsy shops. And of course visiting with my grandma as much as possible. Oh and can't forget about finishing school. So I am going to put myself on a schedule and stay to it regarding the etsy so I can see what it would really be like. Wow I have really rambled on and on but it feels good to just get it all out. So now back to my cleaning. I think I will blog tonight or tomorrow about some new ideas for my megscreations mixes. Stay tuned for some great sales and new mixes coming soon! Please order mixes if you want a yummy homemade gourmet treat. I need to keep myself busy!