Preparing for a Huge weekend

Hello Friends,

I love blogs. I think we all have a desire to know the hows and whys of other people's lives. I want to know what makes others click. Blogs tend to be quite personal and really fun. I know that many of you are artists. Some of you have your own businesses and many of you do not. Our blog will give you the ups and downs of business ownership, the joys of an artistic life, the mammoth challenge of holding down 2 full time jobs (actually 4 between Cathy and I) and the joys of family life. We encourage discussion and really want to talk with you. One of the miracles of the Internet is that it shrinks the world. All of a sudden I can become friends with someone in Canada or Sweden with the click of a button.

Anyhow, our life is interesting. We own our own art business. We are both full time public school teachers. We are frantically busy but we have great kids, we love our creative lives and we have a great marriage. Of course, like all lives, it isn't always perfect. So, you will have to take the good with the bad. Speaking of which....let me tell you about our weekend.

I am sure many of you have had similar experiences where you have great things going on in your life but when too many great things converge at once stress and chaos can follow. On Friday evening our 11 year old son, Gabriel (don't be fooled- he is no angel) is performing in the district elementary school band fest. The best 6th graders from 25 schools are chosen to participate in this band. They practice for a full day and prepare a concert in the evening. We are so proud that Gabe got selected for this. He really is a special guy. But, I do wonder how he is going to sit for 8 hours and play his trumpet. He is an active boy and sitting still is not his favorite thing to do. But, the concert is tonight at 7 and is an hour away. We won't be home until after 10 pm. Not a big deal BUT we have an art/craft show in the morning and we have to get up at 5 am, pack the van, and be set up and ready to start by 8:30. We will be there the entire day. We are going to do some "make it-take its" and I will spend the entire day doing demos. It will be a tiring day but a really fulfilling one. We do not do these shows to sell our products but to pick up students. If we get a few students out of the day we will be thrilled. The show will be over at 5:30...Home by 6:30...reconnect with family on Saturday night. On Sunday I am going to the Jansen Home and will be leaving at 7 am. I will spend all day there and return late Sunday evening and will get up for work on Monday.

Trust me, I am not complaining (well maybe a little) for all of these things are really wonderful. But when they all converge on the same 48 hours there can be lots of juggling. I will post lots of pics from the weekend. Stay tuned.

Paul