45 Lampshades!

Okay, so at the end of today after updating pictures of lampshades I realized I have made 45 lampshades since my love of this new, very fun hobby began just a few months ago :-) How does a mother of three small children 3(almost 4), 2 and 7 months old have any time to make lampshades? I have been asked this question often, so I thought I would take some time to answer.
It really doesn't take long. I usually make them while my children are taking their nap. I taught a friend a few weeks ago and she did it pretty quick on her first try. Anyway, I do often put my hobby above dishes, or laundry, making the bed, cleaning up toys, unpacking from Thanksgiving, etc... It is a lot more fun.
I do sometimes wonder though how I really do so much in a day and it takes me back to growing up. My mom is an amazing woman who never stops going. Even though she really needs to. She works until the job is done with excellence. She will push herself until she is in so much pain that she can hardly move. I really do wish she would rest. I am thankful for the many good habits I have learned in keeping a home, being a wife and especially a mother from watching my mother do these things so incredibly well. So I guess my drive to accomplish so much in a day comes from learning it from her. I also know that my sweet Jesus gives me amazing love and patience to complete my days because of His grace in my life.
My new hobby, I blame on my dad :-) He too is a pretty incredible man who has had more hobbies than I can remember growing up with. It makes me smile to remember the boats, paintings, decoys, Christmas balls, breadboxes, furniture, amazing homes, and so many more things he has made. He can do anything! Seriously! For years I use to cut pictures out of Pottery Barn catalog and he would make the furniture for me. So fun. So my love for detail and design is a gift from God through which I learned from my dad who would work and work until it was just right.
45 Lampshades later and my sweet husband still loves me. There were days that besides being a mother of 3 children, which always comes before lampshades, that he would come home to a mess and still encourage me when I would show him the lampshades I had made that day.
So, 45 lampshades later I am still a wife, mother, daughter, and friend, who is very tired at the end of the day :-) I praise God for the endless energy he gives me to get through each day. I have learned to rest, thanks to my husband. I have learned that it is okay if I can't get it all done in a day. God took several days to complete His creation :-) I am thankful to continue to learn as life is so fun, crazy and super hard with my sweet babies. I can say at the end of this day, I am truly blessed!