Monday, July 19, 2010

Just to chat

Hey, Everyone. I hope you are enjoying your summer. Just wanted to share a few words. Nothing really important. What do you think of the new blog header? I created that with Stampin' UP!'s new My Digital Studio. I am very slowly getting the hang of using their digital crafting software. It's fairly intuitive, but I am a slow learner. It doesn't help that I don't get on it enough to really practice. I need to so I can teach John and Nathan how to use it for scrapbooking and school projects. I need to do some Christmas presents on it too.

Um, on a totally different note, can I say I love the Pioneer Woman's recipes. So straight forward, non-fussy, but totally de-lish. I just made her meatloaf on Friday. Super yum, but I would suggest using only half the amount of salt and seasoning salt she calls for. I learned my lesson about salt in most recipes with another meatloaf recipe by someone else. Can we say way tooo salty. So I usually err on the side of less salt. I also made her Rosemary rolls. Oh, my. Yum, yum, yum! Okay too yummy cause I ate like 3 of them. I so do not need to eat three rolls at any time. Hence my walk around my neighborhood and the one down the hill this evening. It felt good.

On a homeschooling note, I think I am dreading this school year already. We school pretty much all year, but I do a very very light schedule in the Summer: math and reading. We got behind on our history reading this past year, so we have been catching up. Please tell me someone else's sons take 1 1/2 -2 hours to do their math. Now I am not talking about hard stuff here. We are talking basic addition and subtraction for 1st and 3th grade, basic multiplication and division for Nathan too. And can anyone tell me why my oldest can speed through this in less than 30 minutes one day , and then low and behold it takes him 3 times as long the next two days? It's getting ridiculous. John just sits and twiddles his thumbs, looks at the wall, pays attention to Nathan, or whines. I'm sorry but math is not a flashy thing. It's not something you can make too super exciting. You just have to learn the basic facts.
How in the world are we going to get through our school day and do writing, history, Bible, math, current events, science, field trips, co-op classes, and what not if they can't do their work promptly? I need electric shock therapy on their chairs, so I can gently zap them when they are idle. Okay, I am totally joking about that. :)

UPDATE: well, my boys have been brought back to me and the alien imposters have gone back home. Wednesday both boys did their math in under 30 min. John who has been the worst at dawdling got his done in 15 minutes!!! Nathan finished his problems (he had quite a few and he has to write them down too) in a little less than 25 minutes. Hallelujah!! I told them they had 30 min to get it done and they were to keep that pencil moving, head thinking, and no talking. We'll see if they can repeat that tomorrow. Oh, I pray they do. I told them that what they did on Wed. needs to be the new normal not the exception. We'll see. God, please let that become the new normal!!

I am praying for guidance on how to sell my handmade goods. I really really want to sell my cards and gift ensembles. I am running out of room to put stuff I have made too;). I have so much fun making stuff, but I know I need to keep my focus on God, my family, homeschooling and the like. I need a very flexible venue for selling that has good visibility but very low fees. My other blog isn't cutting it, cause no one visits it. Can you spread the word about it? Please, please, pretty please! See my header or sidebar to find it. Oh, but wait, maybe no one visits here either. :(
Etsy.com gets a lot of hits, but I need a way to distinguish myself from the rest. One of the reason's I worked on new Title header graphics here was to prepare for maybe using that venue. I want it to look professional. And then there is the dilemma of shipping. I hate that it costs so much to ship something 3-D. Card shipping is relatively cheap, about $1.50 or so to ship in a small padded envelope. Add another $.50 for each additional card. But to package up a gift ensemble or stationary set and you get into some fairly good expense; at least $5 minimum. I just want to cover the cost of my supplies when selling this stuff and a small profit to allow our family some fun money; you know, money for a meal out, movie, outings to parks like the zoo or a national park/cave, etc. Play money. But no one has a lot of extra money for getting stuff shipped. I know I only buy stuff online anymore unless they are running free shipping with another discount promo.
Any ideas would be helpful on how to do this. Etsy.com charges a fee to list each individual item, and then a small fee on sales. The listing fee is for 4 months. So if an item doesn't sell in 4 months, you have to pay the fee again to keep it listed. I guess I could put up my best cards and see what happens. I just need a good way to get the word out about my store, whether it's my blog or Etsy.com or Ebay.

UPDATE: I decided to donate most of the cards I had for sale to my church for the senior sunday school class to use. They send out birthday cards and other cards to all church members, so I figured they would appreciate them. I am going to focus on making more gift items for my friends and if I made an extra or two I might post them on Etsy or something to sell.

Okay well I gotta go to bed. Been up way to long already. Talk to you soon later. Thanks for letting me ramble. Not sure who is out there looking at this blog, but I am glad you are there. Good night.

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