What I've Been Up to.....

It's been over a month since my last post. What have I been up to?

In short - everything!

I have the Angel of Mine business up and running, and it's going well. I'm able to support the charity that I launched this month, as well as break even with all the investment I've been doing. As long as I'm not going in the negatives with the charity or business, I'm happy. Once I have everything I need, I can start having actual income to do more with the charity. I'm currently sitting at $4 in the positive after charity is finished for the month and I expanded the business to include 8 more angel designs.

I sent in my first novel to be reviewed by publishers on June 11th. It's been my lifelong dream to get published, so I'm going after it now. If the first place denies me (which I'm expecting, because honestly, who ever gets published on their first try? No one) I have a few back ups to immediately send it back out to.

I'm also writing a new novel, the first new novel I've written in years. Most of what I've done in the last decade is edit and redo old novels that are already completed.

I'm opening up my old business, Homespun Dreams, and expanding what I offer. The hats did great last time, but I want more. I'm going to offer the baby version of the angels I make for baby showers and welcome baby gifts, as well as sculpting cake toppers of all kinds and doing wedding stuff. I'll also be breaking out my sewing machine and doing some seamstress work for the business as well. Since July is about finishing my new novel, celebrating the 4th of July, Katie's birthday, my birthday, Elizabeth's memorial, and Bill being home for a whole week due to shut down week, I decided to slowly work on getting items up and then launching the store in August.

I should be hearing back from the publishers by September. I'm hoping to get my next book out for publishing by that month as well, which means I have A LOT of work to do. So far my terrible first draft is 15,000 words long and is bare bones. July is going to get the rest of the bare bones down, and August is going to have many revisions and beta work.

Bill is looking into going to school for two years to be an Engineer after people at his job approached him with the offer. He already has two years in, and his work has taken an interest in him and is willing to send him for free schooling and on his work shift - so he'd only work for a few hours, then go to school for a few hours. This will not only get us more money, but it'll make him more valuable for transferring down South. The Upper West of North Carolina, around Winston-Salem, is still our #1 choice, but we're putting Macon, Georgia back on the table as well. Things are so much cheaper there, we'd be able to buy more of a home, it's beautiful, close to Disney, has a lot of farmer markets and Alton Brown (no, Alton Brown isn't actually why I'd move there...but it's a fun tidbit!) Another fun tidbit about this job change - New Zealand is in very high demand for Engineers, and we're both very interested in going there as soon as we get the money and seeing if it's a viable choice for us. I've been talking with people who moved there from other countries, and there's nothing but positivity. It's a long shot that I'm not even sure I want to happen any time soon, but it's worth noting. ;)

Meanwhile, we have no idea where we are with IVF. Both of us still feel called to try for another baby. Staying at his work means we can't get insurance that way, but there's still Starbucks to consider. We aren't making any decisions or plans this year, both of us feel like next year will give us an answer either way. We're in such a transitional phase with careers, businesses, moving opportunities, schooling, etc that we know it's impossible to really plan anything right now. But with everything changing, something might either open up the chance for IVF or will securely close the door, and we both think next year will be when that happens. Knowing that IVF is pretty much out of our hands and the stars have to align to make it happen is a bit calming and less stressful. There's still every chance of it happening, I just don't know if those chances are going to work perfectly to create the ability to do IVF yet.