It's funny to me what is super important at one time and less important as time goes on. I have been bad at keeping up with blog reading. Like, really bad. As in, I think I haven't read any blog posts in 3-4 weeks. I have, again, been very busy, in some ways that I have always been busy, and in some new ways. I check my posts once in a while to see if people are reading my blog. Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not. And I am OK with it if they are not. The post about the really excellent weather weekend and our time in the park has gotten relatively few views. But it's not hobby related, it's not scandalous. It's not a tutorial. There are people that seem to enjoy the glimpses into my life, which is all they are, very few people actually know a whole lot about me, but the more popular posts are hobby related. Which makes sense, this is a hobby blog for the most part. And I will get caught up on my blog reading, maybe even this weekend, as I said, I have been busy.
Every morning I get up and meditate (I bet that's something you didn't know about me), and I do some other things for myself. Wait, that bears repeating; I do other things for myself. That sentence right there is why I have not had time to read blog posts and part of why I have not been writing a whole lot of posts. Long time readers know that I have pretty much always put myself last. Self care, anything that was just for me, those were way at the bottom of the list. Those were if I had time. Lol, what does that even mean? There really is never enough time. And while I have meditating off and on over the years, I have recently made it a priority to start my day with it. Do you know what happens when you put yourself first? You don't feel selfish, at least I don't, you feel really great. Helping everyone else then becomes even easier, and the day weirdly seems longer. Or maybe that is because I really love my job this year. It's hard to say. What is easy to say is I am in a good place mentally. Unlike last year when, right around this time, I started teaching full time. While I do love teaching, I did not like what ended up happening. (quick recap: I didn't get the support I needed, was completely taken advantage of, and I had actual health issues from it). This year I am working with high needs kids and I am valued, supported, and in fact, still teaching. Not as the teacher, but paras who work with high needs kids end up doing a lot of 1:1 teaching. Even on the tougher days I have small moments of frustration, but they are so small as to be almost non-existent. It's really wonderful how good you feel when you take time to take care of yourself and you love your job.
Ethan asked me, the other night, how I could be so into my job. How could I go back to the really hard stuff that I have gotten past with Travis. I have a lot of reasons. One being, I am really good at it. I learned a lot to help Travis and now he doesn't need all that much help. So it's good to use the skills that I worked so hard to learn. I can also give them (the kids) back at the end of the school day. I am not immersed in all the really hard stuff 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of the biggest things I always think about is, if someone had worked as hard as I do to help Travis, could he have been a few steps further than he is. I can't ever know that, but I do wonder, and I will work hard to help these kids be the best they can be and as independent as possible.
Other things that have been happening, or sometimes not happening, are related to doll work. I do still make dolls, but I don't make dolls at the same pace I did for the last bunch of years. I'm tired. I like not working 60+ hours a week. Though I do still try to put in at least 10-12 hours a week on dolls. That doesn't always happen, sometimes I need a bit more of a break, but I do try. I also have decided I likely am not making any more of the miniature things anymore. Those are the things I have offered at my live sales for the past few years. Things like bareback pads, or dog vests, pet sets, saddlebags, and whatever other small accessories, I might make. Which means the things I am offering this time around might be the last of them. Though maybe I might decide to make some things, but if I do it won't be on any sort of regular schedule, and likely not a ton of each item. We'll see though. I reserve the right to change my mind.
I have a busy week ahead of me. I need to do a bunch of posts related to the live sale. I also need to add the claim codes to several pictures, schedule the pictures for the sale, make the schedule post so people know when to look at the page, lots to do. But I will get there, I am making progress. For anyone that hasn't seen my daily posts on Instagram and my Facebook studio page, the sale is this coming Friday, November 25th, at 3:00pm ET, on my studio page on Facebook. I know not everyone is on Facebook but I still have never found another platform that will work for the live portion of the sale. So it stays on Facebook. I hope to "see" you there!
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