Has it been that long?

Amazing how quickly time flies sometimes! We've been having little snows every day or so and it seems to be sending everyone into a tizzy, including us!

I must say it is beautiful, but at this time of the year, and since we've been somewhat spoiled the last few years with pretty mild winters, it makes doing business and getting ready for the holidays just a bit more difficult.

But, we persevere and somehow between the flurries of snow, flurries of customers at the Christmas tree farm and flurries of health ups and downs with our brother (who seems to be well on the mend now,) we're still managing to carry on our other businesses!

Tina & I, for some unknown reason, decided to host a swap on her Yahoo list. Because of a few stragglers, and other odds and ends, the shipping of the swap coincided with the day the magazine went out - along with a few other orders.

When we bought our Rav a couple of years ago, we opted for the newer, longer model so that it would hold our tent and tables for craft/herb shows. Little did we know how handy it would be to be able to just flip those seats forward for other times when it would be packed to the gills with boxes and bags of magazines! This was one of those times. Almost all of the mailings for the day are in it and you really can't even tell how deep it is from this picture.

I believe it was a very good purchase, not only for its roominess and thrifty gas usage, but last winter when we were trapped on the other side of town at a craft show watching it snow, I discovered that its 4-wheel drive was a godsend! When we finally got packed up and out of there, it carried us safely through the slippery, unplowed snow and even helped us to rescue Tina's daughter from her school bus which was firmly stuck in a snowdrift!

So, the mailings that were hanging over our heads are all out - and what a relief! Some new orders have come in to be filled. About 12 batches of soap should bring us up to speed and we are planning to make 8 of them today, probably the other 4 over the weekend.

We have a sleet/snowfall forecast for today and a bigger storm on Saturday, so I may get some time on the torch later today or tomorrow.

And the biggest and best news of all... Our son is finishing his last week of finals at college and will be coming home with his degree this weekend! Math major, CS and Physics minors. No graduation ceremony unless he wants to return in the spring, but it is really exciting to have a college grad in the family. We are so proud of him. He's grown into such a wonderful young man!