My home business - lavender products

**I'm so excited to announce that I've started a youtube channel discussing everything home making. My channel name is Surviving As Mom.  Check it out!! http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmrj6ilyMI5G2hnraXRWpEQ


Being home all day with my kids is a blessing.  I know how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be home with them rather than work a full time job.  However, it can get a bit dull.  I don't know about you, but I get very antsy not earning any money.  I've been working since I was 14 years old.  Before that, I'd have yard sales, lemonade stands, take polaroid pictures at the beach, and anything else I could think of to earn a buck.  To me, it was magical to have money handed to me for my services.  I've never gotten rid of the itch to make money for myself.  Even when I was working full time, I was always looking for ways to earn cash directly for my services.

Since I was a kid, I've tried many things.  Now, as a stay-at-home-mom, I'm back to finding creative ways to earn a buck.  Not that I need to, but I LIKE to.  I've done everything from selling adult "toys" at home parties, cleaning services, face painting to my latest of lavender spa and beauty products.  The problem is I lose patience and get discouraged easily.  I have big dreams of success but no patience to give success a chance.  I'm gonna try to be patient this time.  I have some stuff made and I'm gonna just wait to see if it sells.  If it sells, I'll make more and go from there.

So my latest venture is making lavender spa and beauty products.  I have lots of lavender plants that I never know what to do with when I harvest the flowers, so I did some research and found some fun recipes for making beauty products.  I've already made a bunch of stuff, so I'm just trying to sell it.  I have a Facebook business page and an etsy.com store.  I'll keep an eye out too for local craft fairs and flea markets.  I don't expect to get rich, but it will be nice to have cash in my hands in exchange for my work.

Here's the info if you're interested...

LavenderbyMeri.etsy.com

If Only I Had as Much Energy as my Kids...

**I'm so excited to announce that I've started a youtube channel discussing everything home making. My channel name is Surviving As Mom.  Check it out!! http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmrj6ilyMI5G2hnraXRWpEQ

I just don't get it.  How is it that my children can wake up at 7:30 am, have a very active day, including two long car trips (about 2 hours each way) and still be bouncing off the walls an hour after their bedtime?!

We went today for a family BBQ in Staten Island and spent over 7 hours there.  The older boys swam in the pool for the majority of the time while the baby just bounced around from person to person with a little pool time in between.  There must have been 25 kids there, from toddlers all the way up to teenagers.  There were also plenty of fun adult cousins, aunts and uncles to play with.  The amount of jumping, swimming, running and laughing was enough to make any kid pass out the second their butt hit the inside of a car.  Not my children!  All three of them stayed awake the entire ride home and just bugged my husband and I who were exhausted and ready for bed.  They asked question after question and managed to fight each other the whole way.

When we finally got home, hubby and I were struggling to stay awake.  We were hungry and tired, but we still had to get the boys in the house, changed and in bed.  However, this was not going to be so simple tonight.  Somehow, they were endless balls of energy, bouncing off the walls.  They were jumping on my poor hubby who was laying on the floor, trying to wrestle with him.  They sensed our weakness and took full advantage.  After about an hour, hubby finally got up to get everyone moving in the upstairs direction.  Even on they way up the six steps to their bedroom, they were still jumping, bouncing, yelling, and just trying to instigate a wrestling match with daddy.  At 9:30, an hour and a half after bedtime, they were finally in bed.  It took another 10 minutes for them to stop talking and finally fall asleep.

We weren't out of the woods yet.  The baby still has not fallen asleep.  It is currently 10 pm and he is still running around the living room causing havoc.  I've already tied three times to put him to bed, but he is must not having it.  Sadly, he doesn't look any closer to going to bed than he did an hour ago.  All this while I am sitting here, falling asleep on myself.  I just don't get it!!

I only wish I had that much energy!  Oh, the things I could accomplish!  Daily life would not be such a struggle if I had endless energy like my children.  The house would always be clean, the laundry would always be clean and folded away, dinner would always be amazing, and I might even be able to work part-time at night.  But alas, I am just a tired, beat up mother who is too tired to eat at times.  Oh well.  I guess that's the sad truth of being an adult.  Too much to do, and too little energy to do it.