How Things Work Around Here

So my Sister makes fun of me for only blogging about how I don't blog enough. So I'm not going to do that. Instead! I thought it might be fun to show you how a typical week goes around here. Ash and I were interviewed for a lovely NZ magazine and they asked us to describe a typical day. Our reply was something like, "well I work all day on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, except on Fridays I only work in the afternoon, but Ash works too and, well, we get up and have breakfast, but sometimes Ash, oh but then Siggy comes and also Poppy…"

And I realized we don't actually have a typical day. But! We do have a totally systematized week. This might help you understand why it sometimes takes longer than other times for us to reply to a message or for you to receive your custom sketch.

Truman wakes us all up. By shouting about sunglasses and the fact that there aren't there any on his face despite the fact that he knows there were when he went to bed. Ash and I both pretend to be asleep in hopes that they other person will get up. Ash loses. Every time. Ash and Truman light the fire, put away the dishes, make breakfast, get dressed, make coffee, read books and generally wait around while Henry and I snuggle in bed and have our "thinking time."

Henry and I talk about what the Earth looks like from outer space and he some how tricks me into doing a google image search on my phone which naturally segues into him desperately needing to play Angry Birds. I capitulate. Henry and I finally wobble downstairs, our legs and muscles weak from too much thinking and not enough working.

We make (re-heat) our breakfast (that Ash made 2 hours ago). I have coffee which draws such comments from Truman like, "you having you coffee, Mama? Good having you coffee, Mama." At some point I decide it's time to run away from wiggly boy legs being threaded into tiny leg holes and I start my day in the office. I answer all the emails that have come in over the weekend, put up custom listings for people in our Etsy shop, write out orders from people that have contacted us directly and any other sundry emails (does "sundry" work in that context?).

This takes all morning and most of the afternoon. Ash takes Henry to kindy and then has some quality time with Truman. I'm not sure, but I think they spend most of this time avoiding "big, big baby cows" the sole source of sadness, fear and despair in Truman's world. Truman comes home for his nap and Ash invades my office. It's terrible. He asks questions and brings his stuff in here. And then he says something cute and I realize I'm being ridiculous and it's totally fine because all he's really bringing in here are pencils and erasers (which he calls rubbers, which makes me laugh every time) and little rectangles of paper.

What I'm getting at is he comes in and does all the previous week's worth of sketches and revisions that have come in for custom orders. Once he's finished with those, I hand him the stack of orders that have come in over the previous week. He checks them over, asks for clarification and then orders all the metal that he needs for that week. He then lays out all the orders in weekly batches according to their due date (between 2-4 weeks from when the order was placed).

At some point, our good friend Poppy arrives after picking Henry up from Kindy along with her two crazily cute kids that are the same age as Henry and Truman. I try my best not to spend all afternoon hanging out with them, which is hard. Ash and I continue on in the office. He answers his two emails (that are both from me) and at some point says, "shit! what are we going to have for dinner?" Ash senses my complete unwillingness to stop working and cook dinner, so he stops working and cooks dinner.

Poppy and her kids go home. Ash somehow makes an entire meal of traditional Spanish Tapas despite the fact that we only have a carrot and some chickpea flour.

Typical bedtime routine commences. Truman insists on wearing sunglasses and a belt to bed. Henry proves that whispering about the moon and the stars is a sure fire way to keep your Mama in bed with you for as long as you want. Ash organizes the week's orders some more. I pretend that I'm working on the computer, but really I'm searching for the perfect out door table.

All of our mornings are the same, see above. This is one of Ash's big workshop days. I hang out with both boys all day long. Allllllll daaaaaayyyyyy llloooonnnnngggg.  Ash cuts out all the metal for the orders that will be made that week and gets them ready for Siggy to do her magic on in the afternoon. Truman convinces me he wants to go to the beach. Henry doesn't want to go. He wants to play the predator game. I pretend to play the predator game by making monster roaring noises from the other room where I'm actually putting away laundry. Or seeing how I would look with extremely short bangs. Or laughing about Facebook. Or seeing if I can walk up three steps at the same time. Henry busts me. I feel guilty and suggest that he be the predator. I lay under the covers with Truman and act scared. Henry is a "lolly shooting" predator and I scream and then get into trouble because lolly shooting predators are not scary, they're nice. The boys try to lick me and I die from hysterical, disgusted laughter.

Siggy and Ash work late into the night. I make them turn down the radio so that I can concentrate on my internet shopping.

This is my second full day in the office. Again, I answer all the emails and Etsy convos. Then I spend the afternoon updating the blog (shut up), Facebook page (ahem) and doing my best to keep our Etsy shop showing up well in search results (I really do this). Honestly, it takes me all day again to answer emails and to scan in all those sketches Ash did on Monday. I'm writing this blog at 9:10 p.m., which probably explains a lot. Ash cooks dinner. Some how he's made curry out of half a cabbage and some garbanzo beans.

This is the second full day for Ash in the workshop. Siggy has worked tirelessly on Tuesday night and gotten all the week's pieces to the etching stage. So, Ash spends this day etching the designs into rings, setting stones and finishing off as many pieces as he can. Siggy comes on Thursday night as well. She prints out the following week's Etsy orders and gets the postage printed and ready for all the items that will ship on Friday. She works well into the night again. I collapse in awe of the Hilton family work ethic.

Fulfillment day! Ash and I just found out that's what people in the know call "sending stuff" and now we say it all the time. Just sounds so professional and rewarding! Really it's scary and stressful and tiring and "lord have mercy please let these wedding rings arrive in timey." Poppy guards the children while Ash finishes off the final, last, last pieces of the week and I try not to have a heart attack getting everything put into the right envelops in time for the courier driver pick-up. Then I try to gather my thoughts and unclench my jaw and crack my knuckles and clear my inboxes for the weekend. As soon as 4pm hits, we shut it down. Hopefully Poppy stays for a glass of wine while the kids dance to the Talking Heads and Ash and I decide to have fish and chips for dinner.