What I've been up to

Howdy ho friends! 

So I've been feeling like lately I only post about Nikolai and hardly ever about myself! That's probably because most of my life these days is occupied with keeping him alive and happy (along with attempting to keep the house from falling apart) so there's not always a lot to post about the things I'm doing. But I thought that I'd try to give a little update about the state of my life separate from Nikolai just so you know I'm still alive and well ;) 

Well! Where to start?  

In August and September I spent a LOT of my time reading.  I had gotten into this crazy reading kick towards the end of the summer and at my peak I think I was reading 3-4 books a week!  Given, I was reading young adult fiction at only around 250 pages per book, but still, I was definitely doing a lot of reading.

I think I burned out a little towards the end of September because I don't think I've finished a single book so far this month! That's been ok though, because I've had a TON of etsy orders!  

A few months ago, a blogger ordered some of my sunshine onesies and used them to decorate for a "You are my sunshine" themed baby shower, and then posted it on her blog! Since then, I've started to get orders for these babies in sets of 3 or 5 to people that I can only assume are using them as decorations too. 

This has been super awesome, except for the fact that I have to stitch all the little sun rays on by hand (they're too small for the sewing machine!) which takes foreverrrrrrr.  Just this last week, I got 3 orders for sets of 5 within just a few days of each other, which was awesome, but made me really busy and was honestly very tedious.  I think it wouldn't feel so tedious if I were getting a more significant payoff, but I don't charge very much for my onesies (I like people to be able to afford them!) so I was doing a lot of tedious work for very little profit, which was really weighing me down.  Towards the end of last week I finally decided I think I'm going to up my prices a little bit (to make all the effort more worth it) but first I put my shop on vacation so I can have a little time to relax first.  

Speaking of relaxing, I also wanted to put my shop on hold because my mom is coming to visit!!!!!!!!  Ok, I know she's mostly coming because she misses Nikolai but I'm really glad to get to see her all the same (I'm joking, mom! ;D).  

Anyways, other than those things, life has been pretty quiet around here! Jesse is busier this semester than he was during the summer, but we're managing that pretty well, I think.  I've been using some apps to learn Russian and brush up on my German in my spare time.  My German has become appallingly rusty in the past 2 years and I'm finding I have to start pretty far back to re-build my vocabulary and such.  That's been pretty disappointing, seeing as I spent the better part of 4 years working to become proficient in this language and now it's swiftly leaving me, but I'm trying to set that all aside and just start where I need to to get better instead of mourning the fact that I'm not where I want to be. 

Hmm....well I think that really is all I've been up to! Life around here is the quietest it's ever been during our marriage and it's definitely been a pace I've had to adjust to but I think I'm doing ok at it.  

Aaaand if you read this far, I owe you a big hug and some cookies the next time I see you! Thanks for reading, friends!