I DECLARE...

....today is a day of NO SEWING! ! !

(I'll pause for the shouts of "horray" from the crowd)

Etsy is on fire. Smoking I tell ya! I'm in the full height of Christmas RUSH. I'm grateful... extremely.

BUT -

• I have not been doing dishes.
• I have not been doing laundry.
• I have not been vacuuming or sweeping.
• I've barely been fixing some "food" to get us by.

I have only been sewing. Or running for more supplies for more sewing. The tendons in my hands and forearms are now spasming. My palms and fingers are dyed black from the fabric bleeding onto them. My kitchen table has been taken over and turned into a work station.

THE GOOD NEWS:

• It's totally fun to think of all the places my creations are now going to. I've sent out a few hundred now over the past year or so, to nearly every one of the 50 states. They have been well received and the good feedback feels nice, of course! Not rich or famous, but validated.
• I've had to reach out for help just to keep up, and some wonderful people have been willing (and able) to step in. Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! I can't say it enough. I feel stupid asking, but I could still use it anytime. And I WILL pay you.
• My boys have been troopers and did homework with little complaint, cleaned their bathroom for me, emptied the dishwasher, watered flowers, fed the dog... etc... all things that picked up my slack. LOVE THEM.
• Jason works right across the street from a Post Office, so he has been mailing ALL of my packages on his lunch hours. He has been making trips there 4 times a week. Not having to drag a toddler inside and wait in hours of lines that often has been a HUGE BLESSING!!!!

Here's what he mailed for me on Tuesday.

SIX packages with 13 items total inside of them.

Two days later I had made 12 more and loaded him up

with 4 more of those white boxes.

And so, today I declared a day of no sewing. I have tried to ignore the newest orders that showed up, and rested for just one day. Today, I got to do the laundry, the dishes, the floors, oh joy!!! Actually, it has made me happy to do something different. It always makes me happy to get the place picked up a bit. I completed the finishing touches on my (interior) Christmas decorations. Now the place is twinkling with holiday cheer! Ahhhh, feels good. Tonight I get to attend a special dinner with the ladies from church. I'm really looking forward to some time out of the house, to see friends, and keep my hands folded quietly in my lap the WHOLE NIGHT.

Then tomorrow it's back to the grind...