Think of this as a commercial break from the saga of getting home from Paris. It makes me tired and ill just thinking and writing about it, so here is the recent news from our home. (I know this is long, but you can skip to the end if you just want to know why there are small crafting pictures with my name underneath them now!)
At Christmas, Warren got a "new to him" bike. Well, that meant an upgrade for all the kids in our family. Abigail got W's old little bike--not for Christmas, just after--with the training wheels back on. I felt so handy putting them on myself. And Avery got the tricycle to ride. These videos show each child on their new set of wheels. Avery's is my favorite, because even though she can reach the pedals, and can pedal, she still foots it, a la Fred Flinstone.
The other upgrade in our family is...we bought a TV! Some brief (okay, not so brief) Andy and Bekah Jennings' family history on TVs. For over the first year of our married life, we didn't even own a TV. We watched the occasional DVD on our computer. My family gave us an old biggish tube TV since they were upgrading. We still didn't ever watch anything on it, but for the bit of time that Andy had an X-box, he did play that on it. It stayed in our office on the floor. Then my family had a small TV/VCR combo they were looking to pass off to someone, so we inherited that (thanks, Brent!) After a while, Gordon gave us a DVD player that we hooked up to it. This TV was small enough it fit comfortably, with room to spare, on a night stand. After too may marbles and sandwiches jammed into it, the VCR stopped working, but it was okay. Then one day Andy's boss where he used to work asked us if we wanted his old TV. We had been to his house recently for a party and I pictured the TV I thought he was describing. It was in better condition than either of ours, and respectable-looking enough to put in the family room. We agreed and Andy went to go get it. Well, he came home with a TV that was about as tall as I am (I am 5'2"), and much wider. It was one of those old-school big-screen TVs encased in a wooden box with a big speaker across the bottom. It was hideous. I couldn't believe it--how did we go from not wanting a TV to having 3 undesirables, one being the literal "elephant in the room"? And to top it all off, in the drive from Queen Creek to Mesa, something had jostled the TV so it didn't work anymore. Now we just had a huge TV to dump on our hands. After several awkward weeks in our family room, we moved it to the back porch, along side the black TV from my family we were no longer using. Then one week we rented one of those HUGE dumpsters from the city so we could do some major work on our oleander hedge. We decided we would dump the monster TV in that. So I wheeled it out there, and some guy drives by and sees me and asks if he can have it. I explained it didn't work, but that didn't bother him. He came back with a car that it didn't fit in and took all my extra TVs off my hands--lucky for him, my neighbor offered the services of her minivan. At this point, Andy and I can't remember what TV we were using--the white one or yet another hand-me-down from my family. We really never watch TV, except at General Conference, and even that we watch on the internet. Our kids watched Sigining Time and the occasional Baby Einstein DVD, but that was pretty much it. Then my father in law wanted to upgrade his flat screen tube TV to a flat screen LCD HDTV. So he offered us his "old" one--it was only about a year old. It was pretty big, but I thought we could put it in the fireplace to store the back end. Seriously. We never use our fireplace, and it sits on a digaonal wall, so it has lots of depth. Well, it is a gas fireplace and we kept getting bad vibes about not capping the gas and so we never did it. So the TV just went on a cute 3 drawer dresser I use to store extra kitchen linens in. It was so out of proportion. It looked horrible. Still, it worked--well, if you had these headphones rigged up with a metal twist-tie for an antenna. (We have really bad reception at our house.) Every time I looked at it, I hated how big it was. It took up so much precious space.
So, fast forward about 2 years to this Christmas. With the gift money from several generous parents and grandparents, we decided to buy our first TV. In six and a half years of married life, we have never purchased a TV or a DVD player. We wanted something we could wall-mount so we could use the current wasted space more efficiently. Plus, we needed to do something about our TV not having a digital receiver, since Feb. 17 is rapidly approaching. So we looked online and off, and finally found a 22" flat screen LCD HDTV DVD combo--no DVD player to store--at Best Buy for a great price. Christmas money, plus tax. Last week, we bought it, and a $30 wall mount. I haven't decided where to mount it yet, so it currently sits in the same space the old one did, but it looks so much better. I can't wait to use that whole wall alcove for something else. Right now it holds the TV and boxes of my craft supplies.
Which brings me to one more upgrade--the reason for the boxes in the corner. (Sorry this is so long!) Today I got to bypass the 20+ person line at the Mesa PO and went right up to the business counter to ship my package. I felt like I had a golden ticket. I decided then and there to come out of the craft closet and admit that I have a business, aka a hobby that I make money off of. About 2 months ago, I started selling banners/garlands on Etsy.com, a site where people can sell their handmade goods. There are toys, jewelry, crafts, decor, clothing, accessories, paintings...it really is awesome. Anyway, I love doing artsy-crafty things, but figured I couldn't do that oustide of family craft day because it would take too much time from my family. Well, I have found the opposite. I use my time better, I get my other work done faster because I'm excited to get to my "business" work, and I have great conversations with my kids the few times they have been awake when I'm working on something, like the afternoon I spent talking to Warren as I cut a 40x30 piece of chipboard into 4x4 squares with an exacto knife. We just talked, and since I wasn't expecting to "teach" him anything, like when we clean together, there was no stress. Just my mindless task occupying my hands, and Warren occupying my heart and mind. I love designing and I'm getting a lot of great feedback, which is fun. I was so nervous to start--I worried I'd mess up on shipping or get bad feedback or no one would like what I made or that I just wasn't competent enough to do this--that I talked myself out of it several times. But then my brother-in-law McKane encouraged me one day--he is the CEO of Scrapbook.com--and suddenly I felt like I could do it. He had seen my work before when I used to design ecuts for scrapbook.com, so I felt like his opinion really was valuable. So I did it. And here is a link to my shop: bekahjennings.etsy.com
You can see what I'm currently selling, and if you click on the "32 sales" link under the "other items" title, you can see what I've already sold, since some of them I don't sell anymore. I hope you enjoy looking.
At Christmas, Warren got a "new to him" bike. Well, that meant an upgrade for all the kids in our family. Abigail got W's old little bike--not for Christmas, just after--with the training wheels back on. I felt so handy putting them on myself. And Avery got the tricycle to ride. These videos show each child on their new set of wheels. Avery's is my favorite, because even though she can reach the pedals, and can pedal, she still foots it, a la Fred Flinstone.
The other upgrade in our family is...we bought a TV! Some brief (okay, not so brief) Andy and Bekah Jennings' family history on TVs. For over the first year of our married life, we didn't even own a TV. We watched the occasional DVD on our computer. My family gave us an old biggish tube TV since they were upgrading. We still didn't ever watch anything on it, but for the bit of time that Andy had an X-box, he did play that on it. It stayed in our office on the floor. Then my family had a small TV/VCR combo they were looking to pass off to someone, so we inherited that (thanks, Brent!) After a while, Gordon gave us a DVD player that we hooked up to it. This TV was small enough it fit comfortably, with room to spare, on a night stand. After too may marbles and sandwiches jammed into it, the VCR stopped working, but it was okay. Then one day Andy's boss where he used to work asked us if we wanted his old TV. We had been to his house recently for a party and I pictured the TV I thought he was describing. It was in better condition than either of ours, and respectable-looking enough to put in the family room. We agreed and Andy went to go get it. Well, he came home with a TV that was about as tall as I am (I am 5'2"), and much wider. It was one of those old-school big-screen TVs encased in a wooden box with a big speaker across the bottom. It was hideous. I couldn't believe it--how did we go from not wanting a TV to having 3 undesirables, one being the literal "elephant in the room"? And to top it all off, in the drive from Queen Creek to Mesa, something had jostled the TV so it didn't work anymore. Now we just had a huge TV to dump on our hands. After several awkward weeks in our family room, we moved it to the back porch, along side the black TV from my family we were no longer using. Then one week we rented one of those HUGE dumpsters from the city so we could do some major work on our oleander hedge. We decided we would dump the monster TV in that. So I wheeled it out there, and some guy drives by and sees me and asks if he can have it. I explained it didn't work, but that didn't bother him. He came back with a car that it didn't fit in and took all my extra TVs off my hands--lucky for him, my neighbor offered the services of her minivan. At this point, Andy and I can't remember what TV we were using--the white one or yet another hand-me-down from my family. We really never watch TV, except at General Conference, and even that we watch on the internet. Our kids watched Sigining Time and the occasional Baby Einstein DVD, but that was pretty much it. Then my father in law wanted to upgrade his flat screen tube TV to a flat screen LCD HDTV. So he offered us his "old" one--it was only about a year old. It was pretty big, but I thought we could put it in the fireplace to store the back end. Seriously. We never use our fireplace, and it sits on a digaonal wall, so it has lots of depth. Well, it is a gas fireplace and we kept getting bad vibes about not capping the gas and so we never did it. So the TV just went on a cute 3 drawer dresser I use to store extra kitchen linens in. It was so out of proportion. It looked horrible. Still, it worked--well, if you had these headphones rigged up with a metal twist-tie for an antenna. (We have really bad reception at our house.) Every time I looked at it, I hated how big it was. It took up so much precious space.
So, fast forward about 2 years to this Christmas. With the gift money from several generous parents and grandparents, we decided to buy our first TV. In six and a half years of married life, we have never purchased a TV or a DVD player. We wanted something we could wall-mount so we could use the current wasted space more efficiently. Plus, we needed to do something about our TV not having a digital receiver, since Feb. 17 is rapidly approaching. So we looked online and off, and finally found a 22" flat screen LCD HDTV DVD combo--no DVD player to store--at Best Buy for a great price. Christmas money, plus tax. Last week, we bought it, and a $30 wall mount. I haven't decided where to mount it yet, so it currently sits in the same space the old one did, but it looks so much better. I can't wait to use that whole wall alcove for something else. Right now it holds the TV and boxes of my craft supplies.
Which brings me to one more upgrade--the reason for the boxes in the corner. (Sorry this is so long!) Today I got to bypass the 20+ person line at the Mesa PO and went right up to the business counter to ship my package. I felt like I had a golden ticket. I decided then and there to come out of the craft closet and admit that I have a business, aka a hobby that I make money off of. About 2 months ago, I started selling banners/garlands on Etsy.com, a site where people can sell their handmade goods. There are toys, jewelry, crafts, decor, clothing, accessories, paintings...it really is awesome. Anyway, I love doing artsy-crafty things, but figured I couldn't do that oustide of family craft day because it would take too much time from my family. Well, I have found the opposite. I use my time better, I get my other work done faster because I'm excited to get to my "business" work, and I have great conversations with my kids the few times they have been awake when I'm working on something, like the afternoon I spent talking to Warren as I cut a 40x30 piece of chipboard into 4x4 squares with an exacto knife. We just talked, and since I wasn't expecting to "teach" him anything, like when we clean together, there was no stress. Just my mindless task occupying my hands, and Warren occupying my heart and mind. I love designing and I'm getting a lot of great feedback, which is fun. I was so nervous to start--I worried I'd mess up on shipping or get bad feedback or no one would like what I made or that I just wasn't competent enough to do this--that I talked myself out of it several times. But then my brother-in-law McKane encouraged me one day--he is the CEO of Scrapbook.com--and suddenly I felt like I could do it. He had seen my work before when I used to design ecuts for scrapbook.com, so I felt like his opinion really was valuable. So I did it. And here is a link to my shop: bekahjennings.etsy.com
You can see what I'm currently selling, and if you click on the "32 sales" link under the "other items" title, you can see what I've already sold, since some of them I don't sell anymore. I hope you enjoy looking.
2 comments:
oh my gosh, arizona weather looks FABULOUS right now! i am so jealous... i wanna bike ride :)
i think you are right... some of the best teaching moments for parents and kids... are the relaxed, just conversational ones :)
to answer your question i DO teach lessons, but i live in Utah, so unless you are recommending someone to me in Utah, i probably cant help them :)
ylloh333@hotmail.com
Haven't read your blog for awhile. Love your journal coming home. I can identify with that vulnerable/tired emotion & the relief at blessings realized. The photo of you & Avery is so pretty. The again you have tons of great photos from that trip. You have good insight for lots of things & the your fun family time is a good reminder.
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