A New Journey - my story

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
- Jeremiah 29:11-13

Hello friends, welcome to a new blog. To start this record I thought I would lay out just how I came to be here, a stay at home, homeschool mom and business woman.

When I was in second grade I knew that I wanted to be an archaeologist, a ballerina or a teacher. By fifth grade, I had whittled down the choices to one, teacher. Then came high school. I was dissuaded from by chosen profession by a well meaning guidance counselor armed with little check boxes. So off to college I went, graduating with a degree that I will never be paid to use. Worked some clerical jobs, got married, had a child, and went back to school to get that teaching certification, because as it turned out, I had it right in the second grade.

Then came the recession, and living in an area that is flooded with teachers, good jobs were few and far between. I worked here and there doing short term teaching assignments and subbing. Maybe I wasn't as motivated as I should have been, maybe I should have tried harder to find a position, who knows? Well, He knows. Got pregnant with child number two, after much effort and several failures. Here is where it all changed. The path divided, and as Robert Frost, I took the one less traveled.

I felt unsatisfied and unfulfilled. Something had to change. Now, I am very impetuous. I tend to act on an idea, before I think it through, but this, this I wanted to do purposefully and with intention. I knew I needed a money making venture, I knew it had to be creative in nature, and I knew it could not be a high pressure direct sales anything. I looked at several options, tried out several ideas and found glass. I opened my business, Intentional Glass in the spring of 2010 just after child number 2 first birthday. I make functional, sometimes whimsical home decor with glass.

Hop, skip and jump forward to fall 2010, I am more satisfied with life; spending a lot of time at home with child number 2, making and selling glass, spending 6 hours a week in a school helping with latchkey and preschool.

Then came the fateful Tuesday night. The daughter, child number one, had, as usual, been struggling over a pile of homework for hours. She was getting nowhere, the tension was rising and it all ended with me screaming at her to go to bed, and her sobbing her way up the stairs. I turned to my husband and said "There has to be a better way." That way turned out to be home schooling. I quit my latchkey and preschool positions, committed myself to teaching my daughter and selling my glass creations.

That is how I got here, a stay at home, homeschool mom, and business woman trying to make it all work out. I sincerely hope you will join me in my new journey figuring out how all the pieces fit together, with prayer.

~Holly