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Chasing The Elusive “Me Time”

It’s time for that yearly update. LOL 🙂 Since I don’t seem to get back to this blog often enough…

This year I’m taking some “Me Time”. That means I’m going to work (or attempt to work) on something that I want to accomplish just for me.

My own website projects

NETENGINE Certified Website Conversion Specialist Degree

Yes, it’s always got something to do with websites, graphic design, or crafts. I can’t help it. I love making things.

I’ve gotten a lot accomplished over the past year. I’ve have some schooling under my belt, won a website design contest (that was really fun and totally unexpected), and started a small home business… (you guessed it) helping other people with their websites. Got to stick with what you know, right?

Certified Master Sales Consultant Degree

Had some bad things happen over the last couple years as well. Lost my mother-in-law, Sept. 12th, 2021, the day after my husbands birthday. Lost my brother June 30th, 2022, the day after my birthday and the day of completing my C.M.S.C. certification at Easton University. (Never celebrated that win.) I don’t like reflecting on bad things, but thought it was worth mentioning because of the weird similarities and timing.

What’s ahead

Me in the middle, Maddy & Jacey (left), Alexa & Elijah (right). My great nieces and nephew.

Looking forward to the summer. Hoping to put a nice garden in. The little ones are big enough to appreciate the plants this year. Elijah gave me a green bean plant that he had started at school. Alexa had one too, but someone had sealed them in a paper bag to take home and they dampened off and died. I’ll help her replant some new seeds and we’ll grow more beans. I think a green bean teepee would be a great addition to my garden this year. The kids will love it. Jacey wants flowers.

No coloring books or pages this year. No plans anyway. Sometimes things change though. I’m still coloring them but not creating new ones right now. I did find that the digital coloring patterns can make some pretty background patterns for websites and graphics. Used one of my coloring pages for a music title graphic at BuckyTaylor.com. Check out the “Leather & Lace” song under music, it’s one of my original drawings in the background.

One of the music graphics I created for Buck Taylor. Did his entire website and all the graphics from a handful of pictures he supplied, stock images, and my own hand drawn images.

In the fall, once the kids are back in school, I’ll have new projects and more schooling. I still have some certifications to complete. And, for the first time, all the kids will be on the same schedule. WooHoo! 🙂 That should free up a minute or two. Maybe I’ll be able to get back into my old routine… Nah! Old is out! We’ll work out a better routine. Something that includes more me time.

So, what is my definition of “Me Time”?

To me, “Me Time” means working on the projects that are close to my heart. Learning something new, making something new, getting order within my own space (online or off), and having the time to relax and enjoy my surroundings.

Over the last few years, taking care of people took over my life and made a mess of my routines. Things around me got out of control.

I’m still taking care of the same people (4 kids, husband, & daughter) since mom died, but this year, I’ve taken back control. Inside and out. Online and off. Decluttering. Repairing. Renewing. I may not be able to accomplish everything, but I will tackle my biggest hurdle. my routine. A better, daily routine that will help me accomplish all the other tasks… and gain back that elusive “Me Time”.

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Aftermath

It feels like ages since I’ve had a chance to work on my own websites, ebooks and projects. The last year has been crazy busy and it took all my effort just to maintain my clients sites and projects. (Sorry, I’m not taking on new clients at this time.)

What happened? A series of unexpected circumstances.

Towards the end of 2020 I “inherited” 4 preschool age children for 8-12 hours every weekday, so their parents could work. Not only was I providing childcare but I needed to prep them for Preschool and Kindergarten. Something I was totally unprepared for.

Just to be clear, they’re all family members. Extended family. Two sets. No one died.

Their grandma, my sister, provided the child care for all four of them. In order for her to go to work and help out financially she needed someone to take over for her.

I had the option to say “no”… but my mind automatically went to the worst case scenario. “Did I want them to move back in with me? Or, do I just take care of the kids?”

Their request was not unreasonable due to what was going on locally and globally at the time.

It started off easy enough and I thought “this is do-able”. Then it snowballed! By December I was so swamped with responsibility that I could barely breath! I just kept reminding myself that this was only temporary.

Cuteness

Truly, it IS only temporary because kids grow up. I get a chance to enjoy them, and all their cuteness, while they’re still little.

For now, most of the kids are back in school. I still have one on virtual learning and he’ll benefit from the “one-on-one” his Aunty is able to give him. We’ll see how the school year progresses.

Aside from that, I’ll be taking every moment I can to get the content back on my site. So much has changed and there is so much to do.

While I was MIA I took the time to learn a couple new video software systems, learned about new online marketing tools and updated my graphic design software… all of which I hope to share with you soon.

😉

Shelly

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Busy As A Bee

Since my site failed during the transfer to new hosting you would think that the biggest priority I’d have is getting everything back up. Nope.

I’m working on a number of other projects that are more important then my personal website.

One project is a new website to help local businesses. It’s an online directory that is almost finished. I’ve been working on it for months.

In addition to the new site I’ve been taking courses in Social Media Marketing and Analysis. It’s important to stay on top of what’s working well right now and what’s falling to the wayside because of the pandemic.

Then there’s the eBook which is “homework” from another class I’ve been taking…

… And, staying on top of the monthly coloring pages. 🙂

It’s all good!

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Murphy’s Law

Well, it looks like I’ll be creating my site from scratch. If I hadn’t been moving things under a new structure as well as a new hosting account it might have gone more smoothly.

I was relying too heavily on a migration plugin, which worked fine for all the other sites I moved but would not work for mine because it was too big. I even uploaded and used the expanded plugin they recommended. It should have worked. But, after several tries and several wasted hours it became apparent that it wasn’t going to happen.

There must have been something else causing the problem. Sadly, I don’t know what it is. Perhaps the upload speed from my computer is too slow and it times out. I don’t know.

I thought I was prepared, with 4 backups from 3 different sources…

Murphy’s Law.

On the bright side, the rest of the sites I moved went smoothly.

I’ve got a lot to do. I lost a lot of information that I wanted to keep. I think I have a back up of a few pages that I can copy over… but most are gone.

Coloring Books & Coloring Pages

What I’ve posted on this site for the last two years has been mostly about coloring pages and coloring books. Most of that information is at https://www.patreon.com/shellyjo.

The previously offered free coloring pages are still available and I’ve started a new monthly free coloring page series. October 1st was the release of the first coloring page in the series.

The other coloring tiers are temporarily unavailable because I was taking a break and creating a new coloring page website just for my coloring creations. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to move to a new host.

Except Murphy’s Law keeps cropping up. 🙁

This is just one more delay in getting things running smoothly again. But hey, why should this be any different from the rest of the things going on this year.

Things WILL IMPROVE! We just have to keep working at it.

Who knows, maybe it will make me a better blogger! LOL.

Stay positive.

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Still Seeing This…

If you’re still seeing this then it means that I messed up my websites move to new hosting.

As the saying goes… if anything CAN go wrong – it WILL go wrong. That is what you’re seeing here today.

Fortunately I am not one to balk too long at change. If I can’t get my site back up the way it was I’ll start over with a new one.

I still have a few other things to try before starting fresh. We’ll see what happens next.

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