Melodie's House » Home Life

Weight Loss Progress Report

melodieshouse — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:50:39 +0000

Well, I’ve lost as much as 8 lbs from my starting point last month, and then gained 10 per my scale in the matter of less than a week. I don’t look or feel like my weight has shifted that much. I have to think my scale is broken, because my 5yo son was playing with the dial to zero it (he turned it so much the scale was at least 180 off) so until I get a new scale I don’t have much to report. I’m actually kind of off track because we moved out of the house we were staying in for the last five months last week and are in a temporary location, stuck in housing limbo again. We need prayer please!

Back to Business More or Less

melodieshouse — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:09:20 +0000

I hired yet another babysitter over the weekend to work part-time (up to 30hrs/wk). She started this week. She’s a fulltime college student who lives right around the corner from me. She’s a quiet girl that seems to be a bit shy. She’s worked two full days already and she and the kids all survived each other. Let’s just see how it goes.

My current hot-and-heavy business project is working on an ERP/CRM solution for a client who has three restaurants, two food markets at two of the restaurants, and a food warehouse/manufactuing business along with a web store. Did I mention he also does catering? He needs the backoffice management of all these components to be integrated and accessible preferably from a web browser. I’m testing out a package right now to see if it will work for him, but it’s going to take weeks if not months to get all components fully operational. ERP/CRM means Enterprise Resource Planning/Customer Relationship Management.

Please Pray for Me

melodieshouse — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:18:38 +0000

I’m going through difficulties right now in finances, business, and family and I need prayer. I’m depressed again and struggling just to keep my head above water, figuratively speaking. I dread getting up every morning to face the day and it’s only a sense of duty to my children that makes me do it. I’m physically and emotionally drained and disappointed with the way my life is going. I’m also ashamed for feeling like this, but after being in this state for more than 2 months I can’t keep denying it any longer.

Lord, I don’t know where to start. I need You more than ever. Forgive me for drifting away from You and wallowing in self-pity. Please refill me with your Spirit and refill my empty tank with love and joy again. Help me find joy, not resentment, in my day-to-day roles of wife and mother. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Up to No Business

melodieshouse — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:27:14 +0000

I’m still looking for someone to provide regular childcare during the week.

Still Taking Care of Business as Not Usual

melodieshouse — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:59:02 +0000

Would you believe nanny #3 didn’t work out either!? After being hired by us for 10 days, she came in late without calling the Monday before Christmas, and after only one hour said she had to leave because her grandmother was taken to the hospital with chest pains. She said she would keep me posted on what was going on. The next day she was supposed to come in for a full day; she didn’t show up neither did she call. She e-mailed me later in the afternoon to say her cell phone was cut off and she didn’t have a way to call me but she had to stay with her grandmother after she was discharged from the hospital that morning. I can understand people having family emergencies to deal with, but contacting their employer is their responsibility. Before that incident occurred I couldn’t get her to commit to a full schedule over the holidays minus Christmas Eve/Day even though she said she’d be in town. Her fiance came into town the Sunday before Christmas and that probably overrode everything else for her.

This past weekend after Christmas I contacted several more prospects for a babysitter/nanny and found a wonderul young lady who came in a half day today and will work a half day the rest of the week. I didn’t realize it until she came in for the interview but she and her husband are in the same networking business we’re in and my husband was already acquainted with her. I would love to keep her but she’s waiting to hear from other families who already interviewed her after they get back from their vacations to see if she gets any other offers to consider. So here’s hoping and praying. I also interviewed a 16yo homeschooler who’s looking for part-time work to earn money for playing in a traveling volleyball league, and I was ready to have her come in this past Monday but her dad is off work this week and he wants her to stay home this week. I’m hoping to use her as a backup and occasional sitter. On a brighter note, we got a sitter for New Year’s Eve (tonight) – the daughter of the folks were spending the evening with agreed to come over and care for the little ones.

The saga continues…

Business as Not Usual

melodieshouse — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:39:08 +0000

Well, I went through 3 nannies in 4 days! The first one I hired (see Taking care of business (and working overtime)) gave notice the beginning of day 2 (Tue), saying she didn’t feel she could adequately care for my 4 little ones. So I brought in my backup for Wed. That day seemed to go okay, we arranged for her to come in for a half day on Thu, she did NOT show up nor did she call all day, leaving me in a bind because I couldn’t get any of my web store work done all day. That afternoon I was searching for another person, and thankfully was able to bring someone in for an interview that evening, because my husband and I had plans to go to an important client’s Christmas party Friday afternoon and have a long-awaited date. So nanny #3 came in Friday and did a great job. She had already cared for 4 children at once for 2 different clients, a policeman with 4 kids and a lady with an in-home daycare. She was hired for the regular job of caring for my kids. The kids really like her a lot and so do I. So here’s hoping this arrangement really will work out for the long term.

BTW, I called nanny #2 and left a msg on her voice mail when she was an hour late. She left me a msg after 8:30pm saying there was a schedule conflict with her other client and she couldn’t call earlier because her cell phone service was cut off. Hmmm…her phone rang before going to voicemail when I called. This from a 30 yr old woman with a child of her own who was seeking full-time gainful employment. Great way to keep a job huh?

Taking care of business (and working overtime)

melodieshouse — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:19:43 +0000

I’m joining my husband fulltime to work in his computer consulting business. I’ve built 3 online stores since May; these will be continual works-in-progress, and now I will be building even more of these stores, using Zen Cart or other e-commerce solutions based on what features suit a particular business client better. This is a new need that my husband has seen arise with his clients, and we need to increase our income so we’re not going to maintain status quo and turn them elsewhere.

Because I need to concentrate fully on my work, we have hired a fulltime nanny who will start tomorrow. When I interviewed her I really liked her, what she had to say, and how she related to my kids. Her 2 references, whom she still babysits for occasionally, couldn’t recommend her highly enough. She’s 21 and has provided childcare since age 12. She was also raised up in our city, in the same part of town where we live, and still lives close by. I’m hoping this arrangement works out very well for us and becomes longterm. I’ll still be homeschooling my 5yo daughter and working mostly from home.

Thanksgiving Weekend Happenings

melodieshouse — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:16:28 +0000

I hope everyone who reads this has had a happy and blessed Thanksgiving. I know I did, but I didn’t go into the holiday feeling that way. On Wednesday I got hit with an enormous sense of overwhelmedness and discouragement that I hadn’t felt in a long time, cried for much of that afternoon, got a migraine, and later that night I took it out on my husband. My husband who did all the shopping and all the cooking for Thanksgiving dinner, and was glad to do it when I had no intentions of preparing such a dinner if it was left up to me (we could just go out). I’ve been feeling like a pile of dog poo ever since.

He prepared a wonderful dinner, and we had besides the six of us my stepdaughter and a guest, two friends, and later on my MIL for dessert (she prepared a dinner at her house and had her other son, DIL and grandson over). My mom and stepdad couldn’t make it for dinner but they came Wednesday afternoon for a visit and brought a washtub full of greens: collards, kale, turnip and mustard greens. My husband cooked them in a big stock pot with 2lbs of country ham chips and were they ever so good! They had a chance to grow out in the frost (since we had several nights around or just below freezing in VA already) so they weren’t the least bit bitter, they were actually a little sweet.

My kids all had kind of a sniffly, runny nose thing going since about Tue-Wed., but by Thu. night they were icky sick, so I’ve got that to deal with.

I bought a blowmold light-up Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus set from Walmart two yrs ago. Melissa (my eldest) was 3 when we got the threesome and was in love with them, wanting to hug them and kiss Baby Jesus whenever she went outside. I decided from then on that the focus of Christmas for our family is going to be on the Nativity, and I wanted the 3 Wise Men, shepherd(s) and animals to complete the set so I could have a visual lesson for my kids of what the true meaning of Christmas is about.

Alas, due to money constraints I didn’t get the rest of the nativity characters then nor last year.

Fast forward to this year. I heard Walmart isn’t selling them anymore (I didn’t see them on their website either) but still wanted them really bad. I put out some wanted requests on Freecycle and got no response. I searched Craigslist and found an ad for a whole bunch of blowmold yard ornaments for sale, including a Nativity set. I called, they were still available, so I drove out tonight and got 2 of everything in the Nativity minus the cow (the lady said she couldn’t say no to blowmold ornaments – don’t ask me why nor how she lost the cows) for $75. I can probably resell the duplicate pieces.

So, I got my front yard Nativity set! Praise the Lord! I plan to put them out this weekend before it rains.

What have I been up to? Life, unconcentrated.

melodieshouse — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:32:00 +0000

I have been sooo busy since my last post – we moved April 17, it took us a few weeks to get settled in, I’ve pretty much been SAHM and had no time to be WAHM until the last month, which I kicked off with an 11-day migraine episode and agreeing to take on a web development project for one of my husband’s IT clients so my Ebay and Internet marketing endeavors are still on the back burner. Since I’m also dealing with anxiety/depression, I’m not handling all this very well. I’ve learned I’m not the multi-tasker I would like to be and feel I really need to be. When I’m not productive in the way I feel I should be, I’m not a nice person to be around, because my emotional health takes a serious nosedive. Please pray for me that I get over the hump and get back on track still in possession of my mind.

That all being said, I’m so glad we moved, I really like the nice big house we’re in, I like the neighborhood, and I like the location (centrally located, close to interstate). We’re still renting not buying because my husband is still working on getting financing, but the rent is not bad for the size house we’re in.

Today I’m going to get some tomato plants from someone’s yard (thanks to Freecycle). We weren’t going to do any gardening this year because we were so busy, but after the salmonella tomato scare I think we’re now officially done with commercially-grown, mass-produced tomatoes (and pretty much any other produce of that kind for that matter) and I think it’s better late than never to get in on growing our own. So I’m heading out shortly to check out some books on square foot gardening, get the ‘mater plants, and make the time to get started growing. I’m also going to study up on composting and organics b/c I’ve always been interested in safe, chemical-free methods of growing and nourishing ourselves, my why has just never gotten so big as it has very recently, and you’ll start to see where I’m going with all this in upcoming posts.

At Last We're Moving!

melodieshouse — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:11:38 +0000

My hubby just informed me last night that we’re moving Tue 4/15. My hubby applied for a VA loan the first week of Jan., we’ve made offers on 3 houses, the last one went under contract over 6 weeks ago and we still don’t have a closing date. So, we’re taking early possession of the property (renting) until we can close on a loan. The good thing though is we’re moving from a 3BR to a 5BR, with both a garage and a shed. We haven’t had less than 6 people in our household since we first got married, and my husband brought his son and a foster son with him. Then his daughter moved in, then I had my first dd, and the rest is history. We have 10 occupants in our home now, 5 adults and 5 children the oldest of which is 5 and all the rest are still in diapers. Sheesh!