This may be one of my most boring weeks to reflect on ever. I was a little bit busy, still overwhelmed by some things, and just trying to get through it all. I should have been happy to have my first week off from sewing, but I kind of think sewing is what holds me together, even if it sometimes feels like what’s pushing me over the edge. I’ve been thinking that I might take at least a full month off to try and regroup and make a better business plan for the new year. I NEED to find a better way to manage my time so I can still be successful without it eating me alive and detracting from every other valuable part of my life. I have a friend with a similar handmade business and she sells all of her creations through once or twice a month “restock days.” I’m beginning to really see the appeal of working hard throughout, but only having the pressure to list everything and sell everything out and get it all prepped to ship in a single day. I think one of the most stressful parts for me is that constant feeling of needing to always put out new dolls, which in turn makes me feel like I need to make large batches, when really I’m SO much happier and creative and excited when I’m only making three or four dolls at a time. But releasing 3 or 4 dolls at a time only makes 3 or 4 people happy and that’s a whole different level of stress. Anyway, I have a vague plan to try and create 20-30 dolls before I reopen at some point in January. Which still means finding the time to actually MAKE those dolls, and I’m not quite sure it’ll happen in December. We’ll see how much I begin to miss it!
Getting back to my week – I ran errands on Monday, as always. And that night I put together this seed and nut bread that I bought the ingredients for weeks ago, but finally got around to making. I had such high hopes for it, but it ended up just kind of tasting like eating chunks of bird seed. The original recipe said to top it with something, but I couldn’t even get it to slice, so I just ate it in small chunks with a spoon. It might have been extremely healthy, but I wouldn’t make it again.
On Tuesday I went to Trader Joe’s, a couple of stores, and finished up at Mod Pizza for lunch with Cindy. It was a nice morning. I’m always up for Trader Joe’s!
Wednesday was a short day at school for the boys and Greg had meetings in Chicago, so the boys and I had a low key dinner and then decorated these chocolate trees I found at Trader Joe’s. I thought it would be easier than a gingerbread house, but the white chocolate icing was still pretty hard to work with. They didn’t care, though.
I’m not sure what I did Thursday (lol). I didn’t take any pictures that day, so I have nothing to spark my memory. I believe it was the only day I stayed home and tried to work on wrapping presents. Wrapping was my plan every single day this week and I still have so much left. I’m hoping to power through on a good chunk tonight, but we’ll see. I’m tired!
On Friday I spent the morning having coffee with my friends and running a few errands. My fourth day this week going to grocery stores because I keep trying these new recipes and keep missing out on random ingredients I need. This time it was arrowroot powder for a grain free pizza crust. I’m not exactly sure it turned out because the middle of the very thin crust looked like it was raw, but it tasted fine. Different. But still a workable vehicle for an otherwise tasty topped pizza including a burrata splurge I made at TJ’s. After dinner we all had a non-screen time family night reading or doing puzzles in the living room. It was very quaint!
We continued our family time by heading to Target this morning. I really want the boys to start being a little more invested in the giving aspect of Christmas, requiring them to actually walk through a store and pick small gifts out for each family member. I expected some resistance, but it actually went very well! I was impressed at how focused they each were when they had their turn with me. It was just tricky trying to hide the things in the cart that we picked out with one kid from the other kid when we switched! I was surprised at how not busy Target actually was, but we still went to HuHot afterward to celebrate the time out. It’s so rare that we do things like that just the four of us, so it felt very special. It was a really nice day.
Overall it was a pretty good week with a healthy sprinkling of continual emotional anxiety as I try to change over so many of my eating habits and get frustrated when I don’t know what to eat or really miss certain foods. I’ve been frustrated that I expected to have more time to read and rest this week, but there’s always SO MUCH to do. And it’ll never be done. Even without any plans to bake this week, I still can’t seem to get a handle on Christmas prep. I DID finally finish shopping, so that’s a huge relief! I’d just really like a few days of total rest and rejuvenation before our total crazy schedule the week of Christmas. It’s coming up way too fast!
