Backwards, Forwards and Epiphanies

Here's to 2009!
2008 was what I like I call to call our "Year of Adjustment." I settled in to, more or less, being a stay at home mom after having my second child at the end of 2007 and selling the business that I spent 8 years growing into a successsful company. That part was great. More time to spend on family things, without stressing out how to squeeze them into my busy work schedule. I embarked on a healthy cooking regiment that included a basket of fresh, organic and locally grown produce that I would (and still do) pick up every other Tuesday. I became excited at the new possibilities for dinner entrees. I would get my list and begin searching online recipe websites for what to make using the interesting assortment of vegetables filling up my vegetable drawer. Vegetables that I would NEVER pick out on my own have become staples in our house. Fortunately my children are great eaters!
I discovered that I have a hobby. My grandmother and mom taught me how to sew when I was a kid and I had played around in the last few years sewing baby blankets for friends and family members. But this year, I went a little crazy. I sewed clothes for my daughter, new pillow covers for my couch, reusable shopping bags, a million sets of reversible napkins, insulated lunch bags for my neice and nephew for Christmas...I am sure there are a few more things that I whipped together and just can't remember right now. I didn't realize I had a hobby until a friend of mine pointed it out to me. Sewing is my hobby and EO decide to encourage the hobby by purchasing a sweet new sewing machine for me for Christmas...it is super fancy and high quality...I am looking forward to working on it!
While this sounds all rosey and happy, there was one thing that did make the "Year of Adjustment" a bit of a challenge. I no longer had a "job." Which meant that I no longer had "my own money." I still get "paid" through our other business, but it is just enough to cover household expenses, barely. EO had to adjust in order to be able to pay me a salary plus cover all of my regular monthly expenses (car payment, insurance, etc.) So there was a lot of adjusting all around and this was probably the hardest part of the whole year. EO and I have always kept everything seperate money wise because we each had our own business. So combining money and having to discuss larger purchases before hand was something very difficult for me, it still is. I think what it comes down to is freedom, and there are times when I feel I have none, financially speaking! We are getting better at it and getting used to working together and I am hoping that things will be easier this year.
This year I am hoping to make our house work for us, which means complete and total organization. We have been space and storaged challenged in our little 1950's ranch house. But, we are going to be here for at least another 5 years, so we may as well as get comfortable. We are already on our way. I purchased a wardrobe from IKEA and EO installed it in our bedroom. It looks great, fits in our room perfectly and has tripled the storage space in our tiny bedroom. EO and I now have all of our clothes in our room...novel concept...I am very excited. Now we are one step closer to being able to eliminate the micro-closet that our room was built with and add that space to the micro-bathroom that we are currently working with. Depending on what we get to there will be before and after photos (someday).
My epiphany came while putting away the Christmas toys. My children and I are currently sharing the 10'x7' "area" in our house. I have a mini desk shoved in corner on one wall, we share a bookcase that came with our house and they have the rest of the space. We are crammed to say the least. I was not ever really sure how to make it work better for all of us. BUT I HAVE FIGURED IT OUT! I was so excited that in the middle of putting away all of the toys I had to sit down and DRAW A PICTURE of what my plan was. I have planned, measured and made my shopping list! Now all I need to do is to come up with the $640.00 necessary to put my plan in motion...refer to above paragraph!