The Party Van is Up and Running!

Now that the webinar is behind me I can tell you about our weekend.  Normally I would just skip it, but so much happened that I couldn’t resist sharing.

On Friday I went to the big city with my daughter, Faith.  What was supposed to be a few hours turned into 9AM – 9PM of constant shopping and errands.  The city is more crowded on Fridays.  Plus I had to go to 4 stores to find enough piping for my Christmas stocking orders.  I got smart and ordered some on Amazon when I got home. Why do I not think of this more often?  It saves SO much time and gas.

When I hear myself saying things like that I realize I sound like my grandmother used to when we tried to get her a computer.  “I don’t need one of those things, they won’t last you know.”

On Saturday we spent our first full day in the newly organized shop.  It was amazing to have room for all 4-5 of us to work.  We cranked out a bunch of orders and even made a couple of new products.

Since the kids are working for me more and more, I made an elaborate chart for paying them.  Across the top shows each job that the kids can do and their names down the side.  Every time one of them does anything (cut out a stocking, clip threads, sweep the floor) they put a tally mark under the job and at the end of each week they will get paid for their work.  It’s going to be much much better than my system last year, which was to beg them for help when I was desperate and throw a little money into the pleading.

On Sunday we rested in the morning and just hung around talking.  The subject of the election came up and James talked with the kids about the importance of the electoral college.  He was explaining the process and asked, “Where do most people live?” to which one of our kids replied, “In apartments?”  :::sigh:::  Right, and they also live in Los Angeles and New York City, but that’s a good point dear.

After lunch we started to get my van ready for a drive to the big city.  One of my friends was having a birthday so a group of us were down there for dinner.  I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to trick out my minivan and turn it into a party car.  We had balloons, curling ribbon tied to everything, stickers, gifts….even a mix tape of top songs from the year the birthday girl was born.

There’s nothing like a bunch of old ladies singing “Wooly Bully” and “I Got You Babe” at the top of their lungs to get a party started.  Some of them would say they weren’t singing at the top of their lungs….but I know they were doing it in their minds.  They just couldn’t compete with the talent in the front seat.

We also had cookies, brownies, a cooler of drinks, gifts, I even made everyone a mason jar with straw lid filled with ice water AND they could take it home with them….FUN!

Home Goods, Target, Cheesecake Factory….we laughed so much my sides hurt.  But you’d have been proud of me.  I stayed dry all night.  Not one accident.

Since it was Sunday everything shut down by 8:00 and we had nothing to do.  So we decided to hit Walmart and check out their Christmas section and whatever else we could find.

This is what it looks like when a group of 40-50 something homeschool moms go out for a night on the town.

Beautiful.  There are a BUNCH more pictures on Instagram.

We got home around 11:00…not too bad for this rowdy bunch.  We’ve been known to bring in the sunrise.

It was a really nice weekend.  No drama, tons of laughs, a day in the workshop with the kids, nice weather, friends.

Have a great week….and don’t forget that there’s this new ways of shopping where you can order things and have them sent right to your house.