An Early Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving arrived a few weeks early and I already have some new things for which I am incredibly thankful...

First, I want to get to say a BIG thank you to my BFF, Billie, she came over early (9:30 - that's early for a Saturday) and she cleaned my house. She cleaned the kitchen, living room and dining room. She wanted to organize the office but my guilt was beginning to set it. She called me back later and wouldn't let it go. She has a plan for the office and she wanted me to promise to let her do it.

Well, I mean, she twisted my arm. So that will be the project for the new year.

Bill is one of the folks for whom cleaning has a deeper meaning. I'm one of those people for whom cleaning is a chore. She has been bugging me for the past couple of months to let her come over. I agreed to let her help me and that's when she said she wanted to do it herself. I started before she came over and when she walked in the door and I started again, she told, none too nicely, that I was in the way and messing up her mojo.

Can't mess up a girl's mojo. I have to say she did a better job that I would have done. She did a better than Mr. Honey would have done and I thought he was a master cleaner. The big thing we (and I do mean we) accomplished was moving out the old love seat. Mr. Honey said it would be a big deal to move and as it turned out it was quite easy. Afterward he said it went exactly as he thought. Yeah.


The second thing I am grateful for is a photo from someone who purchased a prayer shawl from the studio. It was for her Grandmother's 90th birthday and she needed it overnight. Her grandma is going through some treatments and she wanted to get her a shawl to keep with her during those times. I wasn't expecting the photo and it brought tears to my eyes. Grandma loved it and the color certainly suits her. Very touching. We wish grandma improved and continued good health.


Lastly, at least for this post, I decided last Thursday after we came home from date night (after 9pm) that I would start a hat. I needed hats for the sale in December and I told myself just to make one. With a twelve hour period, I made the hats here. In the interest of full disclosure, one had been started but not completed. I forgot how much fun hats are to make. They are to me what socks are to other knitters.

When they are made with chunky yarn (Deborah Norville's yarn is great for these) then they go pretty quickly. I did stay up for several hours finishing them off and there are two more that I made in the time frame - one hasn't been photographed yet and the other I didn't like so I took it apart and made something else. So I have five new hats for studio/sale. I will have to make more but I don't want to go project crazy because I do most of my work in the living room. And it's now really pretty and with the dismissal of the love seat, I don't have as much working surface so I don't want to do more than one project at a time and that project has to fit in the knitting bag or, in the case of an afghan, across the ottoman which is now in front of my easy chair. I want to keep the fiber under control, you know.

So I have one project out in the open and that's a scarf and that's how it will stay. I know what you're thinking but it will stay that way. Remember a while back when I said Mr. Honey was on the car cleaning jag after he bought the van?
The car is still clean. I'm not about to let all of Bill's hard work go for naught. That would be the height of ungratefulness. I won't let that happen - mainly cause i don't think I could get her to do it again -

but also because that would be rude!

The New Normal

Susie wants to know if she can borrow Mr. Honey to clean out her car. Well, you can. In fact, I have offered Mr. Honey out to my female friends for all sorts of tasks around the house. So far, he has only done a few of those things I've listed in the Mr. Honey brochure. He's helped Lois with her toilet. He helped Gayle with some problem or another. He hasn't taken any of the stud jobs my friends have asked about. I can certainly ask if he would like to travel to New York for the purpose of cleaning out a car. We will be in the east next week. We'll see.

I've decided i need to go 'back to work.' I don't mean return to corporate America - that's just crazy talk. I mean I have to go back to that eight hour work day. It makes sense given all that I have to do to make these little ventures profitable. I can't really play at working - I have to work at working. So the last few days I've been doing that eight hour thing.

Can't believe I actually used to do this every day. Get up go to an office and work for three hours, take a fifteen minute break, work another hour, take an hour lunch work two hours, take another fifteen minute break and work two hours. Who thought of this torture? I used to do this and there were days I remember I enjoyed it!

Perhaps because when I worked for someone else, my tasks were set out for me and I have to follow the formula. Now that I am the one who is trying to drive the bus, I determine stuff and it gets me a little flux sometimes.

They don't really tell you this part in entrepreneur school - well, maybe they do but since I haven't gone to entrepreneur school, I wouldn't have gotten the lesson. Don't get me wrong - love that I'm taking this shot, but I have been too long spoiled and bringing myself back to this is a bit hard. The key to free time is planning the not so free time well. Establishing oneself takes a great deal of time and commitment and the truth is: I'm a little scared. I believe I have created a step to take in the right direction to getting a crowd to the next sale and I'm a little afraid to try it. I am excited about it - but frightened. Oh, I'm going to do it. But I don't understand why it makes me nervous that it just might work.

If somebody can explain the fear of success, please do so. I believe that's what I'm dealing with. In the meantime, I have hours of work to do and then I have to write my sermon because I'm preaching tomorrow on Psalms 104:24-34 and it's all in my head but I need to get it down on paper.

I'm extremely grateful for the life I have - I just wish I treated it better.