My birthday present- I am so excited!

Dear Readers, 

I'll be honest. I've been keeping a secret from you.  I've known about this for a while, but couldn't tell you until now. Please forgive me for keeping it from you, believe me, I've been about to burst. Let me catch you up.  I survived my final evaluation (and for any of you who think teaching is an easy job, take a look at the Colorado SB 191 bill and the new teacher evaluation process) and was renewed for next year (pending no budget cuts). What a relief! I can be employeed in Colorado for another year.

This week was my birthday and although I originally had this post scheduled to go live on May 23rd, I gave myself my present a little bit early. I told my boss I won't be returning next year. 

I am taking the plunge! My hubby and I have decided that I am going to be a stay (work) from home mom for the next year. I'm giving it a go full time!  It's been so hard to be away from my kids this past year and we both really feel like this is where God is leading me to be right now.

I am so excited.
I am so nervous.
I am so hopeful.
I am so relieved.
I am so overwhelemed.
I am so lucky and blessed.
I am so determined to make this work.

I have been a kindergarten teacher for 10 years, it was my first "real" job.  It's scary to think of doing anything else. I don't think that it's going to be easy. I know that there will be many sacrifices in the year ahead for my family and for me. I know that there will be days it's so hard, but it's a different kind of hard than working so much, under so much pressure and being gone so much from my kiddos. Baby girl got chicken pox from her one year old shots and I have never had a harder time not being able to take the time off and be home with her. I felt so bad leaving my 70 year old mom to take care of her all day when she was so sick. I am so looking forward to have a more flexible schedule!

I have a lot to do. My first priority clear a pathway thru my house (ok, honestly, this is more my hubby's first priority, but I'll go along with it) next get my store up to 1000 items. Then get my ebay room in my shop organized and functioning. I also need to get my daily schedule worked out. Then start whittling away at my shop full of inventory. And I plan to hit the garage sales hard this summer. They are so much cheaper the thrift stores. I'm hoping to mostly find Amazon FBA items, as ebay takes longer to list and I already have a lot of items to sell there.  I'm hoping my mom will be able to watch at least one of the kiddos on Friday or Saturday so I can go shopping. If not, we'll do the best we can.

I have 22 more days of school left. I am counting down and doing what I can do now to get ready.
My biggest challenge is figuring out when to get everything I need to get done in a day with a one year old and an almost 5 year old at home with me all summer.

Dear readers, thank you for your support this past year, it's been the best one and the most difficult one I've lived thru in my life.

So, now ebay mommies, I need some help. Frugal recipes, and daily schedules, help me out, how do you make it all work?