I've been so caught up in a thousand other things going on that I don't have time to blog about them.
Most in the forefront of my mind is a move to New York.
Hubs gave the go-ahead a couple weeks ago that we can try New York. It wasn't without conversation and deep consideration, mind you, but it will be happening. There've been too many opportunities come up lately that I can no longer ignore. The city calls me more loudly every day and I can't get it out of my head. It's gone past a want and straight to a need to be in that city. Now comes the stress of coordinating a cross-country move for the three of us (Big Man doesn't want to go and will continue living with his dad - as he has the last 18 months), but will visit as often as he's able to). The general plan is for me to go out in June. Sis will join me in August and hubby will follow as soon as he can get transferred to the midtown office. I'm looking for temporary summer housing (so if anybody knows of any...), then once I'm there, I can hopefully save the money needed to get into a bigger place for the three of us. I'm already exhausted just thinking about it, but exhilarated, too. We will be working out the details in the coming months and a lot of different things need to come into play - work...housing (both there and here)...Sis's schooling...
Which leads me to the next bit of chaos in our lives: getting Sis on track scholastically. It's no shock to anyone, I'm sure, that this has been an ongoing problem. Shelby's grades, that is. She's struggled to stay focused for years (yes, she's been tested for ADHD. It's not an issue.) and we've begged the school to keep her back so she's got another year to mature and become more organized. It's been denied. This year, however, her dads and I decided as a parenting team that if she doesn't bring her grades up significantly in the coming months, we will hold her back this year. We broke that news to her about two weeks ago and she's not thrilled with it, but understands our reasoning behind the decision. The guidance counselor is aware of our decision and agrees that it's wisest to do it this year rather than next year when she's in high school and colleges are starting to take things into consideration scholarship-wise. That being said, the young woman has gotten caught up on ALL her late work and has already raised her science grade from an F to a B-. She struggles with some of her other classes still, but I have faith that she'll bring those up, too. She's made promises before and never follows through on them. This time, not only does she have a different attitude than before, it feels very different to me. She's a totally different child.
The last little bit of news, while on the surface may seem sad, is actually very exciting to me. I'm closing my business after three years of successful portraiture work. I've learned that the business end of my business makes the rest of it miserable. I've lost creativity, passion and heart for taking pictures and, not to blow my own horn, with as good as I am at photography, it would be a travesty if I let that die. In order to keep my passion alive, I'm closing my doors. I will continue to take pictures, but not because someone's paying me to. I will shoot what I want to shoot, when I want to shoot it. I may sell the prints. I may not. It depends on my mood at the moment. But to have this excitement back again is worth losing the money I would've made. As a matter of fact, I shot a newborn sitting of my great-nephew, Weston today. Around 100 pictures were taken and now..just twelve hours later, I've gotten them edited and ready to burn to a CD tomorrow. I've never edited anything this fast in my entire life. It feels good to get my groove back.
I'm working on my website - it's a matter of laziness on my part. I've been so overwhelmed with other stuff that I haven't done much with it. It's built. It's ready to go live. I just need to add content to it..something I haven't made the time for. SOON!
Until then, I'll continue to ignore you here. ;)
Til next time...
Most in the forefront of my mind is a move to New York.
Hubs gave the go-ahead a couple weeks ago that we can try New York. It wasn't without conversation and deep consideration, mind you, but it will be happening. There've been too many opportunities come up lately that I can no longer ignore. The city calls me more loudly every day and I can't get it out of my head. It's gone past a want and straight to a need to be in that city. Now comes the stress of coordinating a cross-country move for the three of us (Big Man doesn't want to go and will continue living with his dad - as he has the last 18 months), but will visit as often as he's able to). The general plan is for me to go out in June. Sis will join me in August and hubby will follow as soon as he can get transferred to the midtown office. I'm looking for temporary summer housing (so if anybody knows of any...), then once I'm there, I can hopefully save the money needed to get into a bigger place for the three of us. I'm already exhausted just thinking about it, but exhilarated, too. We will be working out the details in the coming months and a lot of different things need to come into play - work...housing (both there and here)...Sis's schooling...
Which leads me to the next bit of chaos in our lives: getting Sis on track scholastically. It's no shock to anyone, I'm sure, that this has been an ongoing problem. Shelby's grades, that is. She's struggled to stay focused for years (yes, she's been tested for ADHD. It's not an issue.) and we've begged the school to keep her back so she's got another year to mature and become more organized. It's been denied. This year, however, her dads and I decided as a parenting team that if she doesn't bring her grades up significantly in the coming months, we will hold her back this year. We broke that news to her about two weeks ago and she's not thrilled with it, but understands our reasoning behind the decision. The guidance counselor is aware of our decision and agrees that it's wisest to do it this year rather than next year when she's in high school and colleges are starting to take things into consideration scholarship-wise. That being said, the young woman has gotten caught up on ALL her late work and has already raised her science grade from an F to a B-. She struggles with some of her other classes still, but I have faith that she'll bring those up, too. She's made promises before and never follows through on them. This time, not only does she have a different attitude than before, it feels very different to me. She's a totally different child.
The last little bit of news, while on the surface may seem sad, is actually very exciting to me. I'm closing my business after three years of successful portraiture work. I've learned that the business end of my business makes the rest of it miserable. I've lost creativity, passion and heart for taking pictures and, not to blow my own horn, with as good as I am at photography, it would be a travesty if I let that die. In order to keep my passion alive, I'm closing my doors. I will continue to take pictures, but not because someone's paying me to. I will shoot what I want to shoot, when I want to shoot it. I may sell the prints. I may not. It depends on my mood at the moment. But to have this excitement back again is worth losing the money I would've made. As a matter of fact, I shot a newborn sitting of my great-nephew, Weston today. Around 100 pictures were taken and now..just twelve hours later, I've gotten them edited and ready to burn to a CD tomorrow. I've never edited anything this fast in my entire life. It feels good to get my groove back.
I'm working on my website - it's a matter of laziness on my part. I've been so overwhelmed with other stuff that I haven't done much with it. It's built. It's ready to go live. I just need to add content to it..something I haven't made the time for. SOON!
Until then, I'll continue to ignore you here. ;)
Til next time...
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