Tag: How do I change

Adjustments

Yesterday my oldest daughter and I went to Seward. She has been itching to get out and go somewhere, and I needed to make a trip down to Seward sooner than later, so this was a great opportunity. I picked Saturday because the weather was supposed to be beautiful, and it did not disappoint. We had beautiful weather, mostly clear roads, and not a lot of traffic. It was a perfectly unusual trip because of the lack of people on the road and the beautiful weather the entire way down and back. My daughter is a photographer, she has taken a number of pictures that have become my paintings over the year, and she took many, many pictures this trip. I will share 3 of my favorites here, although I should probably let her pick. She took over 3,000 pictures and pared them down to 1,000, with 98 favorites. I am grateful she is willing to share her talent with me!

Now on to the adjustments. The reason I needed to go to Seward sooner than later was because the shop that I have sold my art in for the last 2 years was closing. The woman who owns it had some medical things that needed to be taken care of and needed to close the shop for an indefinite amount of time. I am so grateful for her willingness to display my art and sell it for me, it was a good location and my art did well in her shop. I pray for her speedy recovery and a healthy future. This loss of revenue as well as several other things has really gotten me thinking about how to sell my art more productively, and what direction I want to go in. Last year I was going to redesign my website, but wasn’t really sure which direction to go, so I didn’t change anything. But as I continue forward, I think I will be changing quite a bit.

I recently decided to open an Etsy shop with a number of art pieces to test the waters, and will hopefully have that up and running by the end of this coming week. Earlier today I was doing an unrelated internet search looking at the most searched subjects on the internet, and Etsy is in the top 50 for the world as well as the United States. Even though that was not what I was looking for, it caught my attention and helped me be more motivated to get that going sooner than later. I have also been debating on the price of my website. Because it is an ecommerce website, it does cost money. I have debated on whether to keep it that way, or just make it informational with links to my various other content, like Etsy and YouTube. I have not ever recouped the cost of the website with sales in any one given year. Just a side note, WordPress has been a great platform, easy to set up, lots of help videos for anything and everything on their website, and the price has not been astronomical. I was set up with a different hosting site and paid almost double what I pay for WordPress. Just in case you’re looking at opening an ecommerce site.

When I first started to sell my art I thought that more was better. I tried putting my art on everything from bags to lampshades, puzzles and playing cards as well as key chains and stickers and so on. Not everything was as productive as I thought it might be, and I lost money on several of those items. But, just like I wrote about minimizing my home last week, I have decided to minimize my art as well. I love painting and want to spend more time painting. I’ve decided I want to just sell my art, not all the other products with it. So I have decided to pare down to a couple of items. I will sell fine art prints on paper and canvas as well as my notecards. I am working on writing another book but don’t have a timeframe at this point for that, and my other books are available on a number of different platforms already so I might link to them but won’t sell them here either.

I’m not sure where I will be going with everything exactly, but I am going to take a step out into the dark and see where it leads, know that my Heavenly Father will light the path in front of me each step of the way, or see when I need to change directions when need be as well. I will still be writing my blog on Wednesday’s and Sunday’s. If you have any suggestions for website design, Etsy shop suggestions, or blog post topics you’d like me to write about, I’d love to hear your suggestions!

Development

We have had a very crazy busy last few weeks. So, I figured this was a good place to put my thoughts so that I could move ahead again. What set it all off was my older son decided which school he wanted to attend finally. He had his choice between the school in our area, homeschooling, and what is called Middle College. He had previously decided he really didn’t want to attend the school in our area for a variety of reason, so had mostly decided to homeschool. I was not thrilled necessarily, not that we wouldn’t have proceeded forward, but high school is harder, requires more paperwork on my end, and more time than he devoted in middle school.

3 days before the deadline for Middle College he decided he would like to try and get in. They were thrilled to have him, and he had already completed 1 of the 2 required tests to see if he could get in, and passed it with a score high enough to get in. So, we knew he was eligible regardless of his other score. But there was so much paperwork to fill out in a very short space of time. My daughters both went to Middle College, and I remembered the paperwork, but they had months to complete each step, we had days for some of it, up to a week later for other pieces, but it required a lot of phone calls on my part and zoom meetings with counselors on his part. But he did it!

The reason I bring this up is because just 3 months ago, he saw the amount of paperwork, the 2 tests, and everything else required and he gave up. He decided he would take the easy road and just do one of the other 2 schooling options. This summer through some of the things he has done working with his dad, he has developed confidence in his ability to do hard or scary things and knows that he can push through. I am proud of him and his courage to try, not knowing if it was even possible, and so excited that he is excited for school this year!

Also, this past week, our 2nd daughter had the opportunity to learn and develop doing something hard and scary. Interesting how that all works out sometimes. She is graduated from High School, still trying to figure out what she wants to do with life. She has really wanted a dog for a number of years, and finally this summer she bought one. I have been impressed by her ownership of all the tasks involved without me even jumping in and giving advice. The first couple days she asked me a lot of questions, but after that, she just went for it and has done a great job. But last week we noticed a lump on her dog’s lip. Everything in my daughter’s life turned upside down as she worried and wondered. We decided she should take the dog to the vet. She thought a lot about this, and then asked if I would please go with her. I agreed but reminded her she was paying!

On the day of the appointment, she talked to the vet for the most part, she took really good care of most of the situation and only needed help a couple of times. She is not a people person, and sometimes freezes up when she has to be in situations like these. But she did fantastic (so did the dog). The bump is most likely a small infection, but we will have it checked again in a month. I was so impressed by how much she had grown recently, by having the dog, and by choosing to get out and be around people in a variety of situations this summer that she wouldn’t have chosen to do previously.

My kids are always inspiring to me and watching these two grow this summer in a variety of ways has been amazing to watch. I am so grateful for opportunities to learn and grow in our lives, so grateful that we don’t have to be stuck in one spot, and that everyone has the opportunity to become better.

Small

I once heard a story that has stuck with me over the years, about doing the most important things in life first. But today as I pondered, I also have thought about how the important things are often the small, simple things in life, yet they have a huge impact. The analogy as I remember it, goes something like this –

A professor had a jar with various items to be fit inside. Larger rocks, smaller pebbles and sand. He discussed with the class what each of these things represents – the larger rocks were the really important things that needed to be done (not always the most time consuming, just most important), the smaller pebbles were the important things that should get done each day, and the sand was everything else, the things that take up the most time but have the least importance. He first started by putting in everything that takes a lot of our time but has the least amount of importance, the sand. These items vary from person to person, for me it would be things like social media, reading the news, sometimes I would add cleaning the house, depending on the other bigger rocks of my day. Things that are ok to do, but just take up time and shouldn’t be our focus. Then he put in the smaller pebbles, thing that are more important, but not the most important. For me the pebbles would be things like eating, sleeping, possibly cleaning the house, painting, much of my business stuff that I do, important, but not necessarily the most important. Then he tried to add the big rocks, the things of most importance. For me those things would be reading my scriptures, praying, spending time with my husband and kids, things like that. But it didn’t all fit, which is how it works when we fill our time with the things that are least important, the sand. Then he reversed the order, large rocks, pebbles and then sand. What happened? it all fit.

I love this analogy, and this morning as I was studying, I had the chance to read about the small and simple things that we do that have a huge impact. In this analogy they are represented by the large rocks, because they are most important, not because they take up the most time. In fact, a lot of the large, more important things we should be doing in life take up the least amount of our time overall. Sometimes we then minimize their importance choosing instead to spend our time on the pebbles and the sand thinking that eventually we will get to those bigger things. But it doesn’t work that way.

Going back to the quote above, it is the small things, consistently done that lend us the strength we need to move ahead and progress. A simple “I love you” to your spouse and children takes less than 2 seconds, but that simple phrase can carry someone through their whole day. A small hug, or with my kids, a high five and a “how was your day” helps them to know I love them and am interested in what they are interested in. Taking 5 minutes out of my day to really stop and talk to someone, whether family, friend, or even stranger helps that person know they are seen and that they are important. Spending 20 – 30 minutes a day studying my scriptures in the morning starts my day off on the right foot and helps me be open to guidance from my Heavenly Father all through the day, even when I am working on the pebbles and sand items, when I have read and studied, He helps me see the best way to proceed and course corrects when need be.

The large, most important things in life are really the small and simple things we do every day consistently. They make the most difference over time and help us make small improvements that start to add up over time and eventually make a huge difference. Patience is the key to these big changes as they don’t happen overnight, but consistent effort and taking the time each day to put in those big rocks first will change our lives for the better, faster than we might think. This week I encourage you to figure out what your small and simple – big rocks are, and then to do those first and more consistently. I know it can change your life, because it has and continues to change my life.