Summer Update

Let's see how I did on my list for summer:

• I will continue to gain private label clients for my handmade soap business.
• I have begun work with one client, and I'm still communicating with another. 
• I will rewrite my three books on soap making.
• This has not yet happened.
• I will ghost write a book on roller skate maintenance.
• This is happening right now! 
• I will sell my roller derby necklaces at Rollercon and have the time of my life, for one week.
• Oh, how this happened. THIS HAPPENED! I did have an amazing time, made some great contacts (one of whom has already called me), and paid for my trip entirely. It was very successful.
• I will travel home to Iowa for 5 days, and visit my family. 
• This is done! It was also a great time--fantastic to see my parents, and my sister and her kids. My brother, as well. 
• I will garden, exercise, skate, swim, and generally relax.
• Lots of exercise, lots of skating, lots of swimming. Not so much gardening, but sometimes you have to let things go, in order to relax at all.
• I will work for a friend on her new project. Top secret!
• This continues. Top secret!

Overall, my summer has flown by, and has been very busy. My focus was on the roller derby necklaces for a long time, and now I can back off of that a little bit and focus on my writing.

My writing. 

I have been doing a lot of soul-searching the past couple of days. It's hard to jump in with both feet when your family depends on you for all finances, but I'd like to. I'd really, really like to just jump in and be a full-time business writer, author, and crafty diva. I would love for my life to be all of my choosing, and not someone else's. And then I remember: I choose to have a full-time job. 

I could quit. What would that mean for my family? 

Over the next couple of days, I will make a new list, for fall. Pushing forward is the only way that I see to ensure progress toward my goal of complete self-employment. Will this be my last year as a public school teacher?