Sometimes life throws you a curveball.

How you react to it is totally up to you.

This morning, my principal announced her retirement effective July 1st. She is a beloved principal whom many folks followed to an “inner city” school to help turn things around. I joined the team last year at the urging of a mutual friend. I’ve never regretted that decision because I know I am in the right place for me. I am still processing the implications of her retirement at this point. Know what I’m most concerned about?  My kid sewing club and bringing Boomer to school.  Priorities, right?

One thing IS for certain – I will not put my creative arts business on hiatus again like I did from August – November.  I missed it terribly and quite frankly, it wasn’t good for business (library or sewing) in the long run.

So, I will keep on stitching and working on building the business that will follow me when I eventually hang up my school librarian hat.

One of the lines in my personal mission statement is to:

“Leave this world a better place than I found it.”  

It means sharing my talents, time and resources with the community in which I live.

This is probably the main reason I’ve stuck it out in public education for nearly 15 years. Last year about this time, I was actually planning to hang up my school librarian hat and return to the private sector. Funny how things worked out for the best. I am at a school that challenges me and allows me to run a sewing club. Truth is, I simply enjoy working with kids (including the hardheads at my current school). Even if my career takes a different path in the future, I will continue to work with kids on a volunteer basis.

Making quilts and teaching sewing are also ways to give back.  While my business does support CAREing Paws, I sewed charity quilts and made pillowcases for CHOA, plus taught Girl Scouts how to sew long before I ever dreamed of starting my own sewing business.

If you are one who is teaching the next generation how to sew, be sure to include a service learning component where your little stitcher(s) make lap quilts, pillowcases, placemats or something to donate to a deserving organization. This also dovetails nicely with homeschool math activities.

I am now working on a very special quilt with a tight deadline. The queue is currently about 3 weeks from t-shirt drop off to delivery back to you.  That lead time will lengthen as we move into spring graduation season.

If you are thinking about a t-shirt quilt for your loved one, NOW is the time to get on the schedule.

T.