Where is this month going?

I mean really, this month is flying by! I guess I've been busy, but my tangible accomplishments are lacking. Housecleaning and chores have been the major bite of my time. My conjecture is that I haven't had as much free time to myself as I have been accustomed to with Andy's new hours. My time after the kids go to bed has been taken up with making supper and helping him get ready for work. By the time he walks out the door, it's about 9:30 at night and that isn't much time for doing much except some clean-up and watching one of my dvr'ed shows. I gotta get my act together and manage my time better, but that is certainly easier said than done!

I did start a "new" line of product to sell out at the farmers market. My dad brought down all of my mom's catnip toy supplies so I essentially inherited her product line. I made 20 of the cat toys last week at my dad's insistent urging. He was always going on about how mom could never make enough of them for Kathleen to sell so I made them to get him off my back about it. To my surprise, 9 of them sold just last weekend for a total of $25.00! That is equivalent to selling a necklace or a couple of pairs of earrings, so I apparently am now in the cat toy business. It seems more lucrative than the jewelry right now. Of course, I hate to buy stuff I don't have to so I have bought some catnip seeds and have started growing my own. In the meantime I will have to actually buy some until they grow enough to start harvesting.

I'm afraid that nap time is going to be a thing of the past very,very soon. Once they figure out how to escape from their cribs, life will never be the same. There is no bright side to this that I can see. The kids communication skills are getting better but it still is not a two-way street yet. Laying down the law is not yet an option either but it's not like I haven't been trying. That is still too abstract a concept for them. They are getting pretty good at problem solving, especially Tabitha. Together, they are quite the mischief dynamo. The other day, Tommy knocked down Andy's keys off the nail on the wall with my broom. Then, Tabitha took the keys and used them to open the door to the bathroom. The next thing I hear is the splashing in the toilet so I double-timed it in there and cleared them out of there pronto! I confiscated the keys from Tabitha and put them waaaay up out of their reach. She is constantly trying out objects to open the bathroom door with ever since she saw Andy use my bookmark to do it and realized if it fits in the hole, it can open the door. Gee, thanks Andy!

Farmers Market Friday

It's Friday, and my sister has her Farmers Market in Mesa today. I try to go every Friday with the kids, because most of the time it is the only way we get to see each other. It's a good opportunity also for me to get some fruits and veggies for the family, organic no less! The kids always get some tomatoes to munch on, and the occasional seasonal fruit. Today it was a sweet little tangerine- boy did they like that! Having a sister involved in the local farmers market scene, and her having her own farm plot is like having an ace in the hole in this economy. I go there because it is certified for accepting food stamps and at the same time I get to support her. I sell my jewelry out at her booth on Saturday and Sunday in the Phoenix and Ahwatukee markets; at least my jewelry is out there, sales not so much these days. I did sell a nice southwestern style necklace and earrings set before Christmas, which gave me $60.00 to spend on gifts. It felt like quite the windfall, and payed for the Christmas Eve gifts for our side for everybody and I was able to purchase stocking stuffers (helped with judicious use of Walgreen's coupons for their candy) for everyone. Right now, my sister's booth out at the market has a lot of really good stuff. I'm sure she is happy our growing season turned cool for a lot of root vegetables and greens to ripen. One day me and the kids will be helping her out at the farm when the kids are old enough, you know like when they can talk and are potty trained and can follow directions. On a related note, I finished my little garden plot about 2 weeks after my mom passed away, but then it laid fallow about two months because I just couldn't get motivated to do anything with it. Depression kinda sucks that way. Anyway, a few days ago I decided I had to do something with it, so I sprinkled it with a bunch of wildflower seeds. I'm still waiting for germination but I have hope I'll have something grow, daytime temps in the low 70's, nighttime in low 40's, high 30's. Now all I have to do is keep it wet, and keep the kids from trampling all over it. Their trampling, plant-yanking ways also curtailed me from planting something serious there right now. Why set myself up for getting upset at the kids when they really don't yet understand they are ruining my veggies? Better to save that when they can understand to stay out of the garden, cause right now they are too little to understand threats. Anyway, I figured I wound up between growing intervals, too late for winter crops, too early for summer (but it is time to start tomatoes here in a few weeks) so I just did the flower thing. I'll let it go when it gets too hot, and revive it for a real fall planting. It's time for me to start planting the sunflowers out and about also- I hope they survive the kids but I'm not going to hold my breath. I always have next year to try again. Andy is getting hours at work again, thank goodness. Check 'n Go contract got literally screwed up when another guard was sexually harrassing one of the Check 'n Go employees, and also took out a payday loan and hadn't paid it back. The manager at Andy's regular Check 'n Go put her foot down and demanded her guard back; Andy is courteous and professional and made her feel a lot safer; those places get robbed all the time without a security presence. Now all we need is the Chevron to need Andy back for weekend late nights. The management over there are such morons; they need to get robbed first before they get security. Then they keep the security for a few weeks, until the management decides it is not "cost effective" so they cancel the contract. Then they get robbed again, and call out the security guard for a few weeks. Wash and repeat. The last time they were robbed, the assailant took the whole damn cash register! An employee quit over that also. Over a year ago, I told Andy that the coming recession would be great for the security industry, robberies and property crime would go up as the economy gets worse. It is getting worse, and I don't think there is a real end in sight for a while. Right now, security guard certification is job security. Well, the kids will be up soon so I gotta go get their lunch prepped and the house secured(check for stuff I carelessly left about when they were napping, like magazines and soda cans in reach, bathroom door shut- that sort of thing) before I get them up for the afternoon marathon of twin toddlers on the go. Their naptime helps keep me relatively sane.