Hello dears, I don't even know where to begin...
...so much has changed so far in 2013:
January welcomed the birth of our son, Tyler. He has been an absolute joy and wonderful blessing to our lives. I love spending my days with him. He started sleeping through the night (8-10 hours) when he was 7 weeks old and usually wakes up smiling and cooing. About a week before our son was born we had an 18-year-old girl move in with us. She had been converted to Christ, but had fallen away as a result of her environment. She wanted to get back on the right track with God and she already had a place in our hearts so we offered her a room in our home. The first few weeks were very rough, especially as I was dealing with all the emotional ups-and-downs of being a new momma. For the most part, everyone gets on very smoothly and I've come to really enjoy having her around.
February was a blur. I don't remember anything too significant happening during that month. I spent most of my time taking care of and cuddling with our precious little boy...which I absolutely loved!
March was fairly uneventful as well. I started blogging again and have realized that it's too much to keep up with a schedule. I'm just going to blog when I have the time...which won't be as often as I would like. I have SO much that I want to share with you though! I have still been able to do a few projects here and there. Hopefully I'll be able to share them with you soon.
April brought a visit from my parents...aka Granny and Papaw. Papaw taught Ryan how to replace drywall and install a shower surround in our upstairs bathroom - which we hadn't used since March of 2011 because water had gotten to the drywall and caused mold to grow and we just hadn't had the money to fix it. So, with our tax return we finally fixed our upstairs shower...I LOVE having our shower back! Especially having another person in the house! Papaw and Granny might have spoiled our little guy just a bit. But that's alright. That's what grandparents are for, right!?!?
This month also brought a great surprise! On the 15th I received this message from Jenn at Clean&Scentsible:
Hi Jessica!
Congratulations!!! You are the winner of the $1000 custom closet
organization system from Easy Closets!! Please confirm your email and I will
forward your information to Easy Closets. I hope you enjoy your
prize! We would love to see what you do with it!
Jenn
I couldn't believe my eyes! I read, re-read, re-read, and re-read the e-mail again. Then the tears started. We had won! I sat at my computer for at least ten minutes, still in amazement that we had really won this amazing prize! Our master closet is a major need of some organizational help. This is perfect for us! - A special and huge "THANK YOU" to the amazing hosts of the Spring Cleaning Challenge and this amazing Giveaway:
Clean & Scentsible,
Ask Anna,
Clean Mama,
I Dream of Clean,
A Real-life Housewife, and
Spring Cleaning 365. And of course, I want to thank Easy Closets for sponsoring the giveaway and making this prize possible! I will definitely be sharing our closet makeover with you all!
As exciting and wonderful as the beginning of the month was, there had to be a challenge waiting for us: Ryan's overtime stopped. Initially they told him it would start back up in a week. A week came and went and overtime still wasn't starting back up. By the end of April we came to the conclusion that overtime isn't going to start back up anytime soon, perhaps not until November. This is very bad for us financially. We made some ignorant decision in the past and now we're paying for them. Ryan was working 16-20 hours overtime a week. We need for him to work at least 12. Thus April was an emotionally and spiritually challenging month for us...and we're still trying to figure things out. Which brings us to...
May. Today is May 6th and this has already been the longest month ever! On May 2nd we got Ryan's first 40 hour paycheck since the winter holidays. Needless to say this kind of woke both of us up. We have to do something to bring in a supplemental income. I am going to be opening an Etsy shop as soon as I have a small collections of items ready. This is something I have been considering doing for some time now, but our financial situation has given me a final push to really put things together and take the plunge! I'm really excited and hope this can help us so Ryan doesn't have to get a second job. On May 5th we took an even bigger plunge and signed up to be distributors of Young Living Essential Oils! Ryan and I are very excited and cannot wait to receive our oils! As soon as I have more information I will share it with you. Until then, please feel free to visit
www.youngliving.com for more information. You'll be glad you did! Backing up to May 2nd: This was the first night that little man slept in his crib...in his
own room...away from mommy and daddy! He slept all through the
night...just like usual! This pushed me to work on his crib bedding
some more. I had finished the crib skirt in April and so on Friday, May
3rd I made one of his crib sheets. More on those two projects later!
My current "To-Do" list is ginormous and the amount of "free time" that I have is anything but! However, I know I can make it through. I serve a Mighty and Powerful God who has always been there to be the strength that I need to survive the tough times, a wonderful, loving husband to encourage, help, support, comfort and just be there for me, our precious son to make me smile when I feel like crying, a wonderful spiritual family close in proximity and physical family who are close at heart. I am blessed and so very thankful that God considers me and that He has blessed me so bountifully.
As you can see there's a lot going on at the Pugh home. Lord willing, I'll be able to share bits and pieces with you along the way. Thanks for listening and being a source of support and encouragement for me! You're wonderful!
