summer vacation

Through the stress I really haven't paid much attention to my etsy store and I hadn't been selling much. Strangely though sales come in groups and I made three sales in 2 days last week. Ive been trying to figure out what sells best between the patterns,

 the fabric

 and the handmade items 

but everytime i think one is the leader i sell some of the other two to make it neck in neck... so as of right now i have sold the exact same number of handmade items, patterns and fabric. Now because i did sell one baby quilt the hand made items have grossed more income, followed by the sheets then the patterns. What that tells me is i need to make more things and put more things ive made for sale. 

My goals from last Monday: 

1. finish piecing the top to Liberty (done)

2. quilt and bind cowhand quilt (Ive made the sandwich and plan to quilt it tonight - should be done by monday)

3. finish one of the table runners or table mats ive started. I pinned and started quilting one but hate the quilting ive done so im tearing it out... i may not finish this one)

4. put 6 new listings on etsy... hmmm so far a total fail on that one too.

lets see what i can get done by monday!

but its not wonder with the whirlwind week we have had concerning the children!

We finally had a CPS meeting with the concerned grandparents and Ralph's son. His wife was too sick to attend. I have mixed emotions. I felt the need to defend Ralph's son because i do feel like everyone was pointing the finger at him saying you messed up. Yes, mess up he did but I know in his heart he was trying, he just lost the battle because he was  trying to juggle chainsaws. He had a sick wife, two kids, a dangerous job... he took a step off in the wrong direction and it took him down a rabbit hole. I dont know if he will ever find his way back out but I do see he is trying. Two steps forward one step back. It was agreed among everyone there that until Travis met his goal of no longer doing drugs, to keep the kids safe they would live with us. Everyone agreed that the two boys should stay together. (the grandmother that im about to talk about was at that meeting and agreed to the same thing)

So... let me talk about the older child for a second. He is not Ralph's sons child, he was 3 when he met his mom and they got together... so for half his life Ralph's son has been this boys father because his real father has broken into the local drug store for drugs, has gotten out of jail for that and is now incarcerated somewhere else for who knows what. I think the child has seen his biological father 3 times in his life. Now his grandmother, the woman who raised the jailbird has played a role in the childs life. While we were keeping him we were letting him spend weekends with her. My feelings were that his mom was ill and we are not sure what will be the outcome for him. He is going through a rough time and he needs all the loving supportive people in his life he can get... she seemed to be one. 

In the last month, we did have to ask her to quit feeding the boy so much sugar because twice he came home throwing  up pure sugar. I also had to ask her to quit giving him medication that wasn't prescribed because she believed him to be sick. I took him to the doctor he did not have asthma he had a touch of seasonal allergies but she was giving him breathing treatments that were straight steroids and he didn't sleep for 2 days after spending time with her. (so she is a bit batty i think... and with the self medicating, no wonder she raised a brood of drug addicts!!!)

The other night while he was visiting her, she called and she claims she has "custody" of him and wasn't going to give him back. no one has been served anything so she may just be batty or she may have a lawyer that drew something up that she thinks is custody papers... who knows. We are letting him stay there till legally we can do something about it. what i do know is that she has taken him from us, from his brother, from the man he knows as his father and from his mother who isn't dead yet... what she has done was nothing but selfish and was done to meet her own needs.

Ralph's son has hired a lawyer and honestly since she did this before the childs mother died... i think he has a shot at getting Ralph and I custody of him. I honestly dont know what would be best for him. With this grandmother his aunt would be his babysitter and she has the same problems as Ralph's son. The other aunt is a prostitute i have been told. (i think she HAS been one... HAS or IS im not sure of her role model ability) I honestly didn't expect to keep him forever because we are not blood and there hasn't been an adoption... but i did picture a much smoother transition, one where we and his little brother still had a place in his life.