Rough Weeks

If I were one to lie, I would say that this week has been pretty smooth sailing.

Unfortunately, I don't like lying, even if it means coming clean about the fact that I've spent more time this week crying than not.

I've got a lot on my plate, and I don't get a day off. My day to day schedule looks like this:

-Wake up and take Bear to preschool

-Do homework while Sper eats breakfast and plays 

-Pick Bear up from preschool

-Lunch and playtime with the boys

-On Wednesdays, nap time is pushed back a couple of hours so that the boys can go to speech and occupational therapy

-During nap time, I clean and, if my homework is all caught up, I work on orders and talk to Husband on Skype 

-After naps, the boys get to watch a show while I get dinner ready and clean

-Dinner, baths, and more cleaning or homework

-After the boys are down for the night, I work on orders and finish any homework I have

-Fridays are a bit better, since Bear doesn't have preschool, but I do have to take them to therapy still

All of this, with errands and shopping and appointments mixed in. The weekends are best because I don't have to go anywhere.

With all of this, I'm surprised that I haven't broken down before now. But I did. I ended up calling Husband at midnight my time crying. 

I've been so incredibly blessed this deployment. I get to talk to my husband almost everyday, schedules are mostly  predictable, I'm able to go to school, and my business has been picking up. No one has been seriously sick or injured since we came home from Utah, and my boys are angels (they're toddlers, though). 

Sometimes it gets to be too much. I wonder if I've taken on too many projects, if I need to cancel some appointments, extend production time. I've actually stepped back from a few things because the thought of doing that, too, has sent me into a full-fledged panic attack.

I'm so thankful that I have such a good support system of friends and family that I can talk to when it gets to be too much. I even have a place to escape to when I need a façade of me time. Everyone needs someone to support them, even in the tiniest ways. It really is a good thing.

Art and Love

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook, then you might have seen that I've opened a shop to sell my paintings.

Thanks to Annie of Spiffing Jewelry, I have a decent (i.e GORGEOUS) banner, support, and advice. Annie has run her own successful business for over 5 years, and is such an amazing friend. 

I've dabbled in trying to run my own business before, and didn't really get anywhere. I now realize that, like anything in life, you have to give it your all, every single day, to make it work. That's what I'm doing with this.

I love art. Painting, photography, sculpting...these were my favorite classes in school. My art teacher inspired me to go to school for art, and that's what I'm doing now. I'm working on becoming an art teacher, and I hope I can inspire another student the way I was.

But I have a long way to go before I get there. Even so, I still want a way to share my passion with the world. That's where my shop comes in.

I love beautiful, unique works of art, and that's exactly what I offer. I paint each and every single piece of art by hand. I paint what I love, which includes geekery. I'm inspired by shows, movies, comics, books, and places I love or want to visit. The shop itself is named after my babies, two of the most important things in the world to me.

I hope everyone takes a moment to visit my shop, just to browse or buy or share. It would mean the world to me.

I've already gotten some attention on Twitter when an actor from one of my favorite shows (Battlestar Galactica) retweeted and commented on one of my paintings.

Needless to say, I freaked out a little bit.

Thank you all for everything.

Bear and Sper

#studentlife

As most of you know, I've started school! I'm taking online courses and working towards my Associates in Art & Humanities. After that, I hope to get my Bachelors in Education, and become an art teacher.

I've just got to say: textbooks are ridiculously expensive. Just to RENT 2 books cost me over $100 (special thanks to my mother-in-law for renting the third one). And that was the cheapest I found them. I had several people suggest different places, and I looked and compared prices. I just don't understand it.

But so far, I'm loving my classes. Right now I'm taking Art History, Art Appreciation, and Humanities Through the Arts. They are mostly self-paced classes with suggested dates to do things like quizzes and lesson reviews. Which is good, because I couldn't get my books for almost two weeks after classes started.

I wish I could have taken an actual art class (painting, drawing, sculpting, et cetera), but those had to be done in person, and I just don't have the time or gas money (or a babysitter) to fit all that in. 

I'm already trying to figure out what classes I'm going to take next semester. I'm leaning towards another Art History class, as well as an English and a Psychology class. We'll have to see, though.