A busy day for everyone and a busy fall

 I am home alone today for a large part of the day, which is weird for a Saturday.  

Mike and Will are doing two shifts at the temple today.  They left at 10:30 and will get home sometime around 8:30.  Eli has been at work (he works at soccer buddies.  He hasn't played soccer since he was like 8 years old...).  Piper rode her bike to her bestie's house and I probably won't see her the entire day and Lissy has been playing with the neighbor girls.  I expect her to come home soon while her friends are at their ice skating practice and then she'll disappear again for hours.  In between, she and I will tackle her room (someone please send me help--it's so painful to help this girl manage all the stuff she hordes).  I am home, making sourdough bread, vacuuming, doing laundry, and writing on here.  I also have a family photoshoot in about 2 1/2 hours.  

I don't necessarily love having everyone gone all day but I do really love that everything everyone is doing has value or brings them happiness.  I really like that.  If my people have to be away, I couldn't ask for a much better situation than for them to all be engaging in good things.  

Since the end of September, I've had 7 or 8 photoshoots.  I have three scheduled for this month, plus a trip to Utah to do bridals for my niece!  It's been a busy fall for photo taking.  I'm not trying to make this my job or anything but I have to admit, being able to provide extra money for our family has been really nice.  We have a good, steady income but this year we have blown through our usable savings.  Coming back to the states meant buying three cars (one for the family, one for Mike, one for the boys to share), putting down a large chunk of money to purchase this house, two expensive dogs, helping a family member with money for the last five months, a trip to Canada for the sisters/mom trip, as well as four kids in braces at the same time.  Obviously, that's just the big purchases.  We, thankfully, have money in retirement investments but we can't really touch that for a handful of years still so it's been stressful to realize that now all our other savings is depleted.  It's also been good for us to take a step back and talk to the kids and each other about what things are necessary and what we can hold off on.  It's always good to keep ourselves in check.  I haven't previously charged people for photoshoots because I don't want the "business" side of things to take away the joy of photography and also, we didn't really need the money so I liked being able to use my talents to do nice things for people.  Now, I'm charging and it's a little awkward for me, but needed and appreciated.  I'm actually not charging that much, which is fine.  

But!  I didn't get on here to write about that.  Maybe I'll do another post so that this one doesn't get too long.