Balancing a new schedule
Earlier this year I began substitute teaching at our boys elementary school. I wanted to be more a part of the school community, make some extra income and socialize! I’ve been a stay at home mom/artist for eight years and it was taking its toll a bit on me mentally to not be making more meaningful in-person connections with other people. Don’t get me wrong I love all of my artist friends that I continue to talk with and share art life with, especially my close group of artists, you know who you are ;) I enjoyed subbing but the inconsistency turned out to create more anxiety than I anticipated. So I told myself if there was an opening for a full-time position in district I would apply for it and if I was offered the job, great! If not, I’d continue to substitute. Well, fast forward to a job opening as a paraprofessional at my sons school, an interview and an almost immediate hire!
I knew that accepting this job would GREATLY change our home/life dynamic. I wouldn’t be home to do all of the things I normally would take care of and most of all I had to accept the fact that my art would be put to the side. And boy was I right.
Mornings are when I am the most creative so when my only time to create was at night I knew that just wouldn’t work. So I planned to sit at my desk on weekends. Well, soccer started and birthday parties and the weekends ended up being our catch up days for the week ahead. Needless to say I’ve had very little pockets of time to create but I keep seeking out that time. Now, I know this is true for so many artists, so if you have any advice, I’d love to hear how you fit in your time to be creative and keep your business afloat!
The local sip and shop at our town brewery (Brewery Legitimus) is something I’ve been a part of for several years now. It’s been an awesome way to get my name known in our area and people genuinely look forward to my ornaments and artwork during that time. So starting back in August I purchased wooden ornaments so that I’d have them for when my idea would pop into my head. And low and behold, it did. I have created many ornaments with applied gold leaf and different moon phases with flowers. These represent the phases of change I’ve gone through not only in the past year and a half but in the last few months. Each day is still beautiful, ever changing and is another chance to do something wonderful, make an impact, a connection and work on myself.
I’m still adjusting to this new job, or should I say remembering (I did a similar job for eight years before I had my boys). I look forward to seeing how working with so many different children impact my day to day and down the line; my artwork.
Thank you for being here. :)
