Sun Angel Creations blog...is gone.

I have deleted the other blog I was working on. Let's face it, it only had one post!
I made a major decision yesterday and my hubby agreed with me. I am not going to pursue crafting as a viable business. I am going to treat it like a hobby and if I sell something, more power to me. I will just post pictures of what I make here. I am also going to set up an Etsy shop online but maintaining two blogs was too much.
I had to do something because of what else is going on in my life. I am trying to get more instructor jobs with other local colleges and I am trying to pay off some credit card debt and I cannot do this while trying to force myself to create! I spent all day Wednesday, running around trying to get things done and was not able to do everything I needed to in order to accomplish all my goals.
Crafting to me is something fun and when I tried to put a time table on it, I got irritated. By making it a "job", I unconsciously applied my "job" work ethic to it. I put a time table in head and when I was unable to create or I had work from my real job that interfered, I was mad at myself. I cannot "create" under pressure!
This was actually brought about by some good news that I received on Tuesday. I drove to the next largest town, 60 miles, for some help on my state income tax and while I was there, I went to the Education Center on the Army post and talked to the school representatives there. The education center brings together everything needed for the military to go to school in a non-traditional setting such as night classes, shortened terms and usually, transferability between the various universities represented.

Anyways, I talked to the reps for three colleges that night and 2 of them are interested in having teach a course or two for them. I don't know the pay and I know it would be at night, plus a 120 mile round trip commute, so is it worth it? I think so, just for the resume value. I need to build my experience points so that eventually I can get hired full time, somewhere. I want the local state college that I teach at now to offer a position but I don't know if that is ever going to happen.
So anyway! Keep me in your thoughts and send out good karma thoughts that this works out and my family does not disown me for taking on too much!

On being authentic.

As I was coming back from dropping my child off at school this morning, I was channel surfing the radio and I came across a discussion about a book. This station is a Christian station and I would generally skip right by it but this caught my ear. This book was about being authentic. The author was actually speaking about our relationship with God but she pointed out that many women have a tendency to value themselves within the groups they participate in. They might say that she's a better blogger than me or she has better behaved children. Some even place value on how well their children do in school as opposed to theirs. (I am VERY guilty of this one!) So she asks this question: Does how well someone does something make them more valuable? Does God love them any less?
This made me think some things: 1. I need to blog about this. 2. Am I placing undo pressure on myself or my child because I am afraid of what others think? 3. Why do I care what other people think? 4. What if I tried to live my life by not placing value on these issues?
Now, obviously, I am not condoning murder and I understand that certain values and mores must be conformed to for society to function but lets be real here! I the fact that I am slightly overweight going to change the world for the worse? Does God love me any less because I am overweight? That I don't have the best self-control? Does it matter if my child is not the cutest, best behaved or smartest?
There was another thing this author said: God delights in our individuality. He created us this way. Think about it, if we were all the same, we would be like "A Brave New World." It would be miserable!
Now, this is not to say that I don't care if anybody loves me! But what I do mean to say is that I want people to love me for who I am, not who I think I need to be.
So starting today, I am going to have an attitude change.....
I am going to replace some phrases and ways of thinking in my life.
Instead of: It's a fixer-upper. I will say: I think we will be happy there.
Did you do well in school today? replaced with Did you enjoy school today?
Things like that.
But! this is not to say that I am not going to clean my house or dress in clean clothes. But I am going to do it with my own satisfaction in mind not because I care what others say.