I’ve been a tad bit AWOL for the past month or so it seems. I wake up every morning with a To-do list and by about noon I’m usually so far off list I’ve forgotten that I even had a list.

I think the Mess Family is finally adjusted back to the school routine. But every year has different challenges and adjustments. This year has been a big one for us because we’re now a Middle School and High School family. Earlier start times, E now riding a bus, S getting out much earlier and still having after school activities that get out mid-afternoon, etc. Not only have I gone from being a stay at home mom a year ago to a full-time working Mom, but we have joined that legion of families that is not home until almost 9p.m. every evening. It has been a struggle to juggle everyone’s schedules. The other challenge I’m trying to figure out are those mid-afternoon activities of my girls. The high school S attends isn’t within walking distance of either the store or home or any of our friends’ homes. When she does after school clubs she gets done around 3:30. Students aren’t allowed to “loiter” at the school once their activities are over so she can’t wait in the library or elsewhere to do homework until I close at 5:00 and can come get her. Once she was able to score a ride with a friend who happened to stay after for another activity but mostly I’ve been closing for 20 minutes while I run up there and pick her up. This isn’t the perfect solution but it’ll have to do until I find a better one. I apologize upfront if anyone comes to the store around 3:30 and finds a post-it note on the door saying I’ll be back in a few minutes. I promise if you’ll be patient, I’ll be right back.

The other thing that has had me busy in a very good way is my etsy shop. I finally got organized and started listing some of my fabrics there. It has been a great success! Every morning I come into the store a little earlier as to have time to get fabric cut, packaged and postage printed so I can get it in the mail. Kind of cool to be able to say I have customers in the UK, Norway and Australia as well as Montana, Utah, Georgia and Colorado. It has also started to pick up the slack of the slow days around here.

In my struggle to keep all the balls in the air I’ve unfortunately let some things slip through my fingers. Like my Dad’s birthday. It was a month ago tomorrow. (I also didn’t call or send a card for Father’s Day so I’m really on the sh*t list!) I don’t have a good excuse so I won’t make one.

Instead I’ll just say, “Happy Birthday from your little pumpkin!”
I love you dad.

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