To feed our family...

Birthday girl happily painting one of our ceramic pieces at her party. In the Fall of 2015 we opened a shop called Paint It Yourself on Etsy. The shop mainly focused  on selling unpainted ceramic figurines for others to paint, with the occasional custom order for a painted item. We have been running this shop online for five and a half years now, shipping ceramics all over the world: everywhere from England to Australia, and all over the United States. Packaged and ready to go! For a family of amateur ceramicists, the shop has done really well. We've had over a thousand sales and made just shy of $25,000 during the first 5 years. Not bad for a side business. Right now, one might say we are at the top of our game with great holiday sales and repeat customers. So one might wonder why, when things were really getting going for the shop, did I choose to close it? Rylan, age 9, cleaning the seamline off of a piece of greenware This shop has been a huge blessing fo...

Today I didn't plan my day. Instead, I went from one moment to the next allowing the Spirit to guide my day. It was nice since there was no endless to-do list causing stress, just smooth transitions through the day as I sought God's guidance on what needed to happen next. Not all days are like this. There are many days where I feel the prompting to plan the entire day from the beginning, because there is more that needs to happen than I initially realize. Today was a nice change, a day to feel at peace and seek a closeness to my Heavenly Father, to know His will for me this day. So what did today look like? I woke naturally at 3:53 a.m., but burrowed deeper into my covers, hiding from the chill in the room and promptly ignored my 4:00 a.m. alarm. I sat up with my 4:30 a.m. backup alarm and read the scriptures I felt guided to read. Then came prayers, followed by getting dressed - the usual morning routine. After a dream I had the other night, I decided that I needed t...