Technical Thursday: It Is not that type of Technical Thursday

One day, I will have another lifestyle blog so I can relieve this one.  What is the hold-up

?  Glad you asked, let see:

·         Panicky sister with no car, again

·         Aging parents

·         Creation of products

·         My health

·         Organizing my home to live in and eventually move

You name it.  No really, I am ok with all this busyness. It keeps me on my toes and keeps my writing sharp.  After all, you cannot write if you do not have something to write about, right?

Some may ask, why don’t I write at night?  Well, it is simple as during the day, I have the above mentioned, plus, my body is the type of body that when the sun goes down, so does my brain.  I think better during the day, and I am finally in the process of switching my schedule to designing at night. 

I am a handmade, content, and direct selling person.  What does that mean, you may ask?

I have mentioned this several times, but the handmade portion is graphic design, cards, stationery products (note cards, invites, RSVP products), and scrapbooks and journals.  This is what P. Lynne Designs started out as.  It was the beginning of a beautiful and not so beautiful relationship.

The content portion is these blogs and freelance writing.  I fell into this portion of my career.  This is how you get to find out about my passions, my hang-ups, my heart aches, and my inspirations.  This is where you find out how I feel about Disney, Abby Lee Miller, and Cricut die cutting machines for starters. This is where you find out about latest hang-ups I have about the treatment of others for ALL races.  This is where I have figured out that I was doing too much in this area and had to cut it out (no more hang-ups about these things, only happy outcomes).

Even turtles know when they are stuck.
(c) 2017 P.Lynne Designs

Direct selling, which is separate from the other two is all about Longaberger and its products.  This is where I first got started thinking about selling anything.  Sure, I sold the typical Girl Scout cookies, magazines, and other products for high school. Who hasn’t, but Longaberger was the first as an adult.  I was not crazy about the jobs I had in the past and that’s ok.  I was still working REGULAR 9-5 at the time I started.  I will be completely leaving Longaberger by June 2019 with a backup “B” plan. When you get your feet wet of selling your own products, the rest seem to slowly go away, and that’s happening to me.  I still love the products, but I feel I can do more in the entrepreneur area.

So, what is the “Technical Thursday” about anyway?  This is something that I have been working on all summer.  Today is all about (sort of your takeaway for today):

1.      Find your why.  It may take the whole season (like summer) to find out why you do what you do.  You may have to do this several times in your life.  That is ok, everyone is always transitioning into someone else.  You are different from you were when you were 2, 10, 40, 60, or even as a senior.  It is good to re-evaluate yourself. You have different likes throughout your life.  Nothing stays the same.

2.      Once you find it, ask yourself, “do you want to stay in that space?”  Some people get content when there is something that is familiar to them.  It is like an old comfy sweater.  It may have holes in it, it may not fit anymore, but they love it the same way.  I have a pair of pajama bottoms like that.  Sometimes you must say to yourself, “do I want more?”, and toss them away.  You will miss the old ways at first, but as you get comfortable with a new way of doing things, you may enjoy it. If not, change it.

3.      Give it a test drive.  Try the new way for a few weeks, or give yourself a goal of trying it for 6 months to a year. If you find out that you are dissatisfied with it, tweak it, or try a new way.

I am learning how to:

·         Saying “no”.  It is not that I will not do anything for anyone, and it depends on what it is.  I am saying “no” to people’s pity parties, whining, accusations of things I did not agree to do in the first place, and things like that. 

·         Saying “Yes”. I will do things that benefit my business, but it will also benefit that person I am saying yes to.  I had two friends who needed invites for their parties this past month. I did them because it benefits them, and I get to dust off Photoshop and have something for my portfolio. (They did pay me, by the way). I will comfort someone who needs it. I will give encouragement and will help a friend (or stranger) in need.

·         Not be a pity party myself.  I realize that I am a single person with no kids (still working on both), and my time for adopting someone is winding down (I think the maximum age for adopting children in the state of Ohio is 54 or 55).  I also realize that building things around the house has never been my strength (even though I have managed to put up a shelf or two around here).  I am always ready to whine about something, but now I think about “does it benefit for anyone to hear about it?” If it does, fine, they may have a solution for me, I need to ask nicely and use my “big girl voice”.  If not, shut up, and figure it out myself.  Nothing gets solve on a whine anyway.  (Not even with the drinkable stuff, LoL).

·         To constantly move.  It is easy to sit at the computer and do nothing (read social media, play games).  I have things to do and people to see.  Yes, when I am in pain, it is easy to do, but if I do not move around, it will be worst, plus I have bills to pay and money to save.

So that is it for now.  Technical Thursday is all about you and what you can bring to your world and to others.  I decided not to preach to you today, but have a sensible post that explains a few things to you, and how you can make things a little better for you and yours.  (Oh, I am going to be dinged so bad by Grammarly and Word on that last sentence, but I am leaving it in).  I will pick back up to my usual writing starting in the middle of September. I am still in vacation writing mode. 

Learning new things 1: Being a Dutiful Daughter

An aid getting meds
(c) 2017 P. Lynne Designs

In December 2016, I announced that I was slightly changing the scope of this blog while creating a new one to replace my now closed Simply Organized Crafts Blog.  At first, I thought about combining it with this one, but I love the topics I cover on this blog and I would not have it any other way.  So, a new blog is underway.  It is called Home’s Little Lessons and I cannot wait to get started.  I have one other blog that needs attending to, but I think I am just going to get rid of it, and put it in with Home’s Little Lessons.   The reason is I will be an every once in a while Independent Longaberger Home Consultant after June 1^st.  I will stay on to get the discount and post a sale or two every once in a while.  Now that Housekeeping is done (a word quoted by Pete Werner of Disney UnPlugged), on with today’s post.

The other thing that I announced in December was that in 2017, I wanted to learn new things about myself, my city, my state, and my country, to name a few.  I never knew it would come so quickly.  One of the reasons why there was not a post last week was the art of becoming what I like to call being a “Dutiful Daughter” and the art of, “Be careful what you wish for”.  It may come true.

What is a Dutiful Daughter?

A dutiful daughter is a woman who puts aside all the things that she wants to do for the sake of her parents.   It is sort of the same as when a woman has all the dreams and aspirations of living her dream but put it aside to become a stay at home mom only you are helping your elderly parents.  So, when a parent says “Jump”, you do not question them, except to say, “How high?” This may cause sleepiness nights, eating at odd times, and taking breaks at odd times.  You make yourself an afterthought. 

For instance, I am writing this post at 4 am, when I should be sleeping.  Why?  Let me give you the back story:

This virus/flu/whatever you may call it has taken a toll on everyone in the United States.  Experts say it is the worst strain yet.  I have not been hit by it yet, but both my parents have been hit by it, as well as my oldest nephew.  The worst that hit me is my allergies, and that is it.  The person hit the hardest was my mom.  It starts out as a simply little cold.  She went to the doctors for that.  Then a few days later, she went back, and they said it was Bronchitis.  On January 7^th, she was admitted to the hospital with Pneumonia.  She was so week, until she was unable to walk.  When she recovered from that, they transferred her to rehab, so she could gain strength back in her arms and legs.  The way she is recovering, we all keep telling her that they will evict her on Friday to finally come home, and she is ready to go home.

Between going back and forth to the house to make sure both mom and dad are ok, then back and forth to the hospital, and finally back and forth to the rehab place can take a toll on a person, especially if you are the only “child” that can do it.  My brother lives out of town, and my sister does not have a car, plus I am the eldest, and usually in an African American home, after the other parent, taking care of things falls on the eldest child.

Do I complain about it?  No, and besides that, I love both my parents.  My dad has been sleeping at the hospital, and then at the rehab place with mommy, so I have to take care of things when he cannot do them.  It is the least I can do, after all the things that they have done for me since I became an adult.  They are still doing it, such as my finances while I am trying to put together my business.  They do not have to do that for me.

So, that is what I mean by being a “dutiful daughter”.  My brother is coming this weekend to come visit mommy, and to help with things around the house, such as finally taking down the Christmas tree, and other things.  Nothing matches with son, and I am most certain that if he lived here, he would also give dad a break every once in a while.

So, this is my first lesson in learning new things.   It is not like I have helped out before.  There was the time mommy had surgery, so I had to learn how to wash on a fly.  I was in my early teens, when this happened.  Of course, I have always made sure that my parents were OK.  Dad is an old-fashioned man, meaning “men take can of man’s work, and women take care of women’s work” that sort of thing.  Dad learned how to use the washer this week.  Mommy always did it.  When she gets home, I will slow cook a pork roast to stretch out the week, and I will cook other things for them.  Dad’s idea of cooking is “what do you want me to buy?”  That will only happen a few times.  They do have someone come in to clean the house, plus my eldest nephew still lives there, and he also has been helping out.

Take away lesson for you:  The lesson I want you to see out of this is tri-folded.   (1) Make sure you learn all the basic of taking care of yourself before you graduate from high school.  You never know when you may need it.  The one thing I need to learn all over again is how to wash.  The current washer I have is a two-cycle washer.  I do not have all the bells and whistles that today’s washer have.   (2) Be kind to your parents, you never know when you may need them beyond the 0-18-year-old contract, or they may need you someday.  I am blessed that my parents have been married over 50 years, never once discussed the possibility of getting a separation or a divorce (although one time when I was 10 and heard them arguing, I was sure it was grounds for one (Overactive mind of a 10-year-old at work)), and my father never laid one hand on my mother in an abusive situation.  Love pats, yes, abusive, never. (3) Take care of yourself during a time of crisis.  My mother is constantly asking me if I am eating, and when I tell her the truth of the things I am not doing to help me be the best me, she gets mad at me, and tells me that I must do it.  This includes taking care of the things for my business.  Make sure you eat, sleep, and so forth.  You are not doing yourself and that person (rather it is a parent, spouse, or child) a favor if you are sick.

Have a great week.