Deciding to cancel the kid’s classes at the quilt museum wasn’t an easy decision. I absolutely love to teach. Planning projects, teaching, and seeing my students get excited about learning…that’s my jam.

That said, I need to start evaluating teaching opportunities through more of a business lens. Hubby was the one who pointed out that the IRS mileage deduction (98 miles roundtrip) for a class with only 2 students would be more than what I’d receive in actual teaching fees. Ouch! Well, he’s absolutely correct. This doesn’t even take into account the time spent prepping for the class, commuting to/from Carrollton and actually teaching the class. (This totals about 6 hours of my time.) Then, there’s the cost of kits I make for students at the request of the museum. A class of six students is the sweet spot for this venue.

Closer to home is definitely more profitable. Fees are slightly higher. I’m not providing kits and I don’t have the commute. Classes of 3-4 kids are definitely doable. For now, my biggest constraint is a lack of daytime availability during the week due to my full-time job.

That sucker (software program known as Adobe Illustrator) was not going to kick my butt! I’m generally pretty tech savvy, but this app is tied with Final Cut Pro as the most challenging software program I’ve ever had to learn. I thought it was just me, but apparently a number of folks share the same opinion that Illustrator is NOT intuitive and user friendly.

Mind you, I just want to import quilt designs out of EQ8 and prepare b&w/grayscale line drawings of various parts in the quilt construction sequence for use as visuals to accompany my pattern directions. Very basic stuff. I still have a lot to learn, but I was able to manipulate the EQ8 files and create my own visuals where I needed them. Thank you to the individuals who took the time to share their knowledge in blog posts and YouTube videos.

Put it this way, the first completed pattern was sent to the designer today. She’ll have to help with two of the images because I couldn’t quite figure those out…but I’ve sure learned a lot in 2+ weeks.

A little sewing tomorrow, then on to the next pattern!

What’s important to you? What are your top 1-3 things that must get accomplished on any given day?

Do you focus solely on completing one goal before moving on to the next? Or do you hop around and wind up getting nothing accomplished? Do you completely disengage from work when you get home? Do you turn off your phone or put it in airplane mode an hour before you go to bed?

Since today’s staff meeting only pertained to homeroom teachers, the rest of us were tasked with working on professional development activities. I did just that. I’m spending more of my professional learning time in areas that benefit the whole me, not just the library me. Today’s topic was personal productivity and effective weekly planning. I watched a couple of videos by Dr. Benjamin Hardy. In essence, I’m setting up today for the person I want to be one year from now. And I have to be 100% committed to the goals I set for myself. That’s non-negotiable for achieving the goal. Being 98% committed means you still have an out and you really aren’t all in. Keeping your options open often leads to decision fatigue and analysis paralysis. The end result is you are like a hamster on the wheel – busy, but not moving forward. This really hit home.

There’s a lot of indecision/uncertainty right now as we try to figure out the plan moving forward, but there are three things we do know to be 100% certain: (1) hubby told his boss that he’s leaving in March 2022, (2) he has a 12 month non-compete clause in his contract and (3) the cost of health insurance at COBRA rates will be $22,800 per year for our family.

So, my 3 priorities for the next 30 days are to finish the patterns I agreed to write, do some serious thinking with regard to how things might look for me in Fall 2022 and to turn off my devices by 10 p.m.

Good night!