Ghosts, fireplaces and new plans

I guess you could call this my 7 Quick Takes for the week, although I'm not sure I will make it to seven. But, they will be quick, because it's getting late and I'm tired!

--1--

Henry is doing much better. This is a pretty short video, not the one I wanted to show you but the other one wouldn't load. Henry's new thing is pushing chairs around as his "walker", and this is what he's trying to do in the video.

Henry woke up in a good mood today, despite the fact that he is getting six teeth in all at the same time. That would mean his two uppers, his two upper eye teeth, and two lower eye teeth.

2.

Lately, Anna has been scared of ghosts. She can't say the word "ghost" yet, but she will imitate a ghost by saying, "Whooo-oooo!!" She refuses often to go to bed by herself or downstairs because she's afraid, explaining again, "Whooo-ooo!" I know that at this age of 3 that it's pretty common for kids to develop fears so it's understandable and pretty tolerable.

But Anna doesn't seem to know that I also, am afraid of ghosts. I have had too many spooky encounters of the unknown; I could tell you stories that would make your hair curl. Seriously, every place that I have lived in, has had some weird paranormal activity in it. So much that Fr.Altier has come out to the house twice to bless it.

So when I was sleeping alone in the dark room last night (Dennis was gone), my own hair stood straight up when I heard a soft creak at the door and then a spooky, whisperish voice say, "Whooo-ooo!" The creepy thing about it was that this "ghost" was trying to be quiet about it, and so it came out in a raspy, whispery and creepy sort of way. I sat up and whispered, "Who's there?"
Again, the spooky, "Whooo-ooooo!"
Ok, in my head, I knew this was Anna, but the irrational part of me that is always panicking about ghosts was saying "Ghost-child!"

This time I got to my feet and said more loudly, "Who's there? Anna, that better be you!"

Again, "Oooooohhh. Oooooohhh."

I then flipped on the light, half expecting no one to be there, because if it truly was a ghost, I wouldn't be able to see it, right? But there was Anna, rubbing her eyes from the bright light.
"What are you doing out of bed?" I demanded, not adding that she scared me out of my wits.

"Whooo-ooo. Scared." She explained. I understood. Believe me, I understood!

3.

We bought a new heater for the sun room today. It's a fireplace heater. I thought it would go nicely in the sunroom.

People often wonder (and worry) what with Luke and Max sleeping in the sun room that they're going to get too cold. Dennis's mother even asked if they are warm "out on the porch." Ahem. They sleep in the sun room. 

Let me tell you, these boys have the nicest room of the house. True, during the day they have to share it with everyone else, but they dont' seem to mind. They get a nice spacious room with plenty of sunshine with big windows, and for a while there, they even had their own Christmas tree. And now, they have their own "fireplace" to keep them warm at night.  Frankly, I'm a little jealous.

It's difficult to see because this was taken at night. And no, I did not heap all that stuff on top of the fireplace or put the crayon bank next to it for decoration. Because the fireplace happens to be by Luke's bed, he has claimed it to be his own. I'm letting him think that--for now.


At first, Dennis was not really getting the whole fireplace heater idea. He was thinking like a man. His thoughts were, if I want a heater, then why spend extra money getting it in a fake fireplace? Why not get a space heater?

My thoughts: Because the fireplace is more pretty.

His thoughts: So if you want decoration, why not get something like a flower vase or table?

My thoughts: Because the room is cold and we need a heater.

His thoughts: So why not get a heater?

My thoughts: I did. It's in the fireplace.

And round and round we go.

It's truly fun being married. It's sort of like an amusement park where the fun just never ends. Yes, there is a little sarcasm here. But all in good fun.

4.

So I don't know what I'm going to do with my Etsy shop. I think I bring this up about 5 times a year, that it's successful, it's not successful and so on. One thing about doing sales is that it's never constant; you always have to work on it, keep an eye on it and so on. It's hard on the heart sometimes.

I am tired of potential customers saying that they are interested in a rosary, and then I never hear from them again. This has happened 6 times in a row now. Six times--that should have been six sales. That should have been $120 into my savings.

I've been looking at a few other people's rosary shops, and I know I'm going to sound like a snob here--but they are buying beads and stringing them and charging double the amount of what I charge to make the beads and assemble the rosary. I'm not saying that there is no creativity or beauty in their rosaries--if I didn't already have so many rosaries coming out of my ears I would probably buy one of theirs. But I just cannot bring myself to charge people $40 for a rosary. It doesn't feel right. Maybe that's the way it is, and maybe that's the way it has to be if you're ever going to truly make money in the rosary business, so I guess that means that I may have to give up my dream of making Etsy my business--because I just can't bring myself to charge so much.

So I don't know if I'm going to keep it open and just use it only as a hobby, or if I will shut it down for a while or possibly forever. I do know that we need money, and I need to get a real job. I don't know where I'm going to go or what I'm going to do. Since the heart attack, I've had trouble keeping a job. My doctors feel it's due to the brain injury (so many mistakes were made, problem solving skills were not there like it used to be, my short term memory was pretty much shot.) I'm hoping that with a less high paced job (like retail) and the time that has passed that my brain has healed in these areas, but it's difficult to know because I've been home all this time. I will only know until I get a job.

So if you think of it, maybe keep me in your prayers as I ponder on what God wants me to do next, and that I may be patient enough to wait for his answer.

Genny said to me one time, that God answers prayer in 3 ways: Yes, no, and wait.

So we shall see!

Okay, this wasn't quite 7 Quick Takes, but I think this post is long enough. Until next time!