I've added a button...

in my left sidebar {see the sweet BWO crow?}. It's not for my blog (wish I could make one...I'd love to have one someday), but this blog post has been whispering in the back of my mind since I read it last week. I love what she said, even though she said it quite a while back, and the blogging without obligation idea should be one that we can all subscribe to for a long time to come.

How often do we apologize to our followers for not posting? If you don't apologize you're more special than you know. I know I've done it here SEVERAL times in the last two years since starting this amazing journey. Did I HAVE to apologize? No, not really. Everyone knows that life, especially life with children, can be crazy. Today's economy, health issues, and political atmosphere has a lot of lives spinning out of control and sometimes it's necessary to stop, step back a little, take a deep breath, and assess who and what is important in your life and how you're dealing with it all. A shift in your paradigm, if you will. Well, I've shifted my paradigm and that's why I'm writing to you now.

So, today, I'm committing to NOT apologizing to you. It's not that I've chosen to be rude, it's just that I shouldn't have to apologize for running my life (and my blog) the way I need to run it to keep sane. I'm doing this for me AND for you. I don't want what I enjoy the most to become a job that I'm chained and obligated to. I don't want to resent this OR any of you. I'll understand if you chose to not follow me any longer, that's YOUR choice, but I can't perform every day at peak levels for everyone everywhere, and that has been a very difficult thing for me to accept. You can't imagine how hard because I actually thrive on doing for others. I want you to enjoy visiting here. I want you to want to come back. I want you to tell your friends that I'm worthy of a visit or two. I enjoy your friendship and encouragement AND critiques.

I follow and subscribe to a lot of blogs. I used to read and comment faithfully. Now, I read whenever I can, I post when I feel like commenting or if I have the time. Some days, I only have time to glance through a post and run off to the next crisis that my family finds itself in. If I don't comment, it doesn't mean that I haven't seen you or don't appreciate what you've done that day. I do. In fact, a lot of you reading this are the reason I started my blog and took the path in my crafting journey that led me to rep for The Angel Company. That part of my business is falling off and I do need to build it up, so you'll be seeing a few more posts geared toward increasing my sales. If you don't appreciate that, fine, but understand that I need to generate an income - three growing boys, bills that never go away, an other things in my life have shown me that my focus needs to shift just a bit.

And lastly, you may notice that while for the last couple of years, I've referenced the economy but kept this place for the most part 'political free.' I have deep political thoughts and viewpoints and may start sharing a few here. I'm not saying this to run you off. I'm saying this so you'll know that I welcome a good healthy educated debate on a subject that may be on my mind, but there will still be no flaming or cyber-bullying here...I want to keep my 'home' friendly and welcoming and the main focus will be my crafting and sharing time saving tips or good deals. I'll still share my word art with you. If you have a view that differs from mine, that's not only fine but expected...just know that if you're going to comment on these occasional political posts, give me good, solid reasons for your differing viewpoint that I can research and look into. I love doing research and I'm not above admitting when I'm wrong...IF you can show me in a reasonable fashion.

Thank you for reading my brain~droppings and if you decide to stick around, thanks for that, too. Hope you have a great rest of your day. I'll be back in a bit with some stitching that I finished last night.