Getting closer to the end of this part of my goals.

 

I hope.

All my sorting is going in this direction.  

Art.  

I will get there - or at least keep trying.  Pray for GOD's blessings on my efforts.  Thanks.

The balance of life prepping for winter.

I found this little painting again this weekend.  I made it so many years ago, but I love it!  I have posted it at my selling spaces and other places.  I can't frame it easily because I hand drew the frame and didn't think to keep it straight.  It is lopsided.  

I just love it.  I don't care that it is lopsided.  :-)  

I will figure out how to protect it and display it somehow... even if just for me. 

💛

It is amazing how things work out.  And plans have to change.

The weekend didn't work out the way I hoped it would, so I am continuing my downsizing activities this week. 

And my winter preps.  

I hope to get the first load of donations delivered tomorrow.  The end of one project.  Plus miscellaneous household and personal stuff.  Four boxes so far.  

I replanted four baby trees to bring them in for the winter.  Two willow tree start efforts.  One that may be a lemon tree.  And one that is from somewhere nearby.  It is a mystery tree right now.  I don't know trees and their names, I just try to grow them.

My container garden is almost finished.  I still need to see if I can replant my rhubarb and blueberry plants into bigger containers.  It is going to be a challenge.  

The birds and squirrels keep destroying my container dirt.  I may cover the dirt for winter.  It worked nice on one of my experiments a few years back.  

I am also trying to prepare for winter cold and snow.  I have lost my plants to the freezing weather so many times.  I had an avocado tree that grew over six feet, then was killed by the snow.  A new tree grew back in the spring, probably from the roots, but it died in the next year's snow.  I hoped it would grow again this spring, but it didn't.  I wasn't able to save them by bringing them in until the freezing weather went away.

In my whole life I couldn't get avocado seeds to grow, but in my old age they seem to grow all the time.  Only that one tall one survived to become a good tree, then snow and freezing rain killed it.  It has been a lesson.  I remember movies where farmers had to go out in the fields with heat things to try to save their fragile fruit trees.  Some kind of wood or coal fire pots that would be set between four trees to try to keep the trees warm and safe.  

I still have one tree growing, but it is inside.  I'm not sure the small avocado tree I have outside right now will make it through this winter.  I'm going to try to make a small greenhouse around it with plastic if it gets too cold this year.

I found a baby tree frog last summer or the one before.  I couldn't catch it then.  I figured it died in the winter.  I don't know if I found the same frog this year, but it is alive.  I hope to figure out a way to help it through this winter.  I was searching online for info on what they eat and what they need to survive.  I'm not sure bringing it inside is the right answer.  I don't like to make wild animals into pets because they are wild.  They need to be in their own place.  So I will see if there's a way to improve its chances by making a habitat that might help it survive.  

Squirrels, Raccoons, Blue Jays, Owls, and other local wildlife are its enemies.  I'm debating if anything I do will help.  

Making my new food last is my new challenge.  I found some recipes to try and keep finding better ideas survival foods.  Pancake mix is next on my list to try.  I can package my mix into canning jars for using.  None of the recipes I have tell me how long it will last.  I will try one and then see how fast it goes... and how long it stays good enough to use.  Store pancake mixes last awhile, but I haven't really checked on the ingredients - how much, or what, is added to preserve it.

I make my bread recipe into separate batches by putting the dry ingredients into quart canning jars.  Right now I make six jars at one time, date them, and then see how long it takes until I have to do it again.  It can be one to two months until I have to make more.  I figure I can do that with pancakes too.  

I also make individual oatmeal ingredients into small canning jars.  It was the first food I tried this with.  It works so good, I kept making them.

I think I tried a dry soup mix recipe, but I didn't like the recipe.  I still want to figure one out, but not sure when.

Through September I am trying to make the new food I bought last week make it until October, when I can have more money in my food budget to spend.  I don't know how much I will be able to buy.  My cupboards are bare.  I have to make the food I buy last as long as possible.  

Instead of just buying my regular back-up foods, I am beginning to think about meals and what I need to make them.  This is a different way of shopping.

I hope to have staples that will last a long time, canned foods to add to the dry basics, and sauces/spices/etc. to make a variety of recipes.

Who knew prepping was such a hard thing to do.

Please make sure you have supplies for your family.

Made it through the week!

 

I am amazed I made it through this week.  It's been a long week.  Getting better has helped.  Now I am looking toward September.  I need to see where posting every weekday will lead.  Just trying changes your future.

I have been watching some survival videos.  I end up seeing a lot from foreign countries.  It is strange to think of people in places so far away from us doing these things in their own lives.

Christians are everywhere.  We may all need to know how to do these things in the future.  Knowing how is half the battle.  It allows you to think about what you can do in any situation you find yourself in.  In the forest, in the snow, in cities, and things like that.

I watched a lot of snow survival videos awhile back, from a channel called The Outdoor Boys.  I would never have known how to dig a shelter in the snow to survive.  The Bible warns us to pray our escape will not be in winter.  There's a reason for that.

In survival videos you need to have a certain number of tools with you.  The bug-out bag may be the best thing you have prepped if it has basic tools.  Think about having to dig out the snow with your bare hands, or the ground for any reason.  A hatchet is essential for collecting firewood and building materials.  I am not that prepared... yet.  :-)  I am wondering how I would survive if I'm on my own.  I am old.  I can't do the things these young healthy men (and some women) can do.  

I was hoping to have Working Together communities built already, to deal with the needs of the elderly and the fragile and the alone.  

I don't think there is a simple answer to what is coming.  Each of us has to find a path where we are, and back-ups for if we aren't together when the time comes.  We don't know what will happen first, what we might need.  Prepping for the Antichrist is a serious challenge.

August is over tomorrow.

I have to finish up all my records for August and get my September pages ready.

I will make it through to September without going to the store, but my cupboards are kind of bare.  I guess fresh produce and my favorite foods are what I miss most.  :-)  I end up getting ill when I have them again.  I'm not sure how to change that yet.  

It's going to be an expensive food month.

I saw a video of an Asian man making large amounts of mung sprouts.  He made it different than the jars I use.  I assume they sell it for their income.  We could never produce it the way he did, and sell it.  But it is edible.  I like mung bean sprouts but am not able to grow them as good as this man did.  

Sprouts are like fresh produce in winter.  I am trying to make them and eat them more.  French green lentils are really good as sprouts.  I also like alfalfa sprouts.  I would like to grow more of them all.  I would be able to eat them as my salad food, especially in winter.

Maybe this winter I can find a way to do that.

This is one example of changing my food choices and changing my food budget.  It makes me healthier and will hopefully help me to age better.

I don't know what GOD has planned for my future, how long I still have to live, but I am praying for health enough to keep going every day, every month, every year.

Because my choices are getting more limited, I have been going through my papers/records to downsize even more.  It is the strangest part of aging.  So many dreams have to be let go.  You have to figure out what you might be able to keep doing.  Lots of projects will be let go.  I won't need those supplies anymore.

It's good and it's bad.  I will be able to do more art and clays and resins, but not the bigger projects I hoped to get to.  I may be able to do baby quilts still, maybe some of my recycling projects that I have been waiting to get to.  

I just don't know where this will end up.  I am trying to get to that answer by the end of this year.  It is one of the goals I made in January.  Downsizing what I can't do will make more room for what I can.  It may be the best thing for me.

In the end, we can't take anything with us to heaven.  That helps me to keep it all in perspective.  

Art ahead

 

I decided to re-publish my Patreon pages on Saturday.  It took until Sunday morning to get it done.

Now I have to figure out how to make them work out for my life.  I have been at Patreon for years and not had any response.  

Naturally, a lot of that may be due to my posting details.  Learning the internet is quite a long-term task.  I am still trying to figure it out.  

BUT...

I am also working on learning to post video from my phone.  That will help. 

And I continue to work on making videos on my desktop computer.  Video is my go-to, and it seems to be everyone else's.  Camera, software, decent computer, etc.  It is an expensive part of life online.  The phone seems to be the easiest option, for now.

I have also discovered Patreon now has selling options, so that will also help.  It seems to be digital products only.  I can figure out some kind of digital products to sell.  My designs.  Maybe some of the booklets I have been wanting to create.

And I am working on how to market my income sites.  I have always been working on marketing but never been sure how to budget it into my current income.  I have very limited financial options for marketing and that changes monthly.  I need to FORCE myself to start somewhere.  By Christmas season.

We come back to Start-Up Funding.  Or Gorilla tactics.  I don't think I will be one of those old business heroes who start with a dollar and become billionaires.  :-)   I have been trying that.  I don't think I have that many years left.  

I won't get a routine going for a bit yet, but you can check out my two pages at Patreon ::

https://patreon.com/Art2you 

https://patreon.com/DebsRetirementPlan 

My original page is only for historical reference.

More to do... so that's all for today.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

Heading into ART for my senior income efforts

 

Every day seems long.  And they all blur into the same thing.

I have so many things on my lists of things to do, sort through, find, downsize, etc.  I worry I will die before I can get to them.

I have been thinking a LOT about what to do for the time I have left.  That also involves letting go of the things I can't really do anymore.  It's a hard place to be.  We want to finish all those dreams we had during our lives, but we don't have the strength, the health, or the funds to finish them.  

I have said this before, as I have been going through this retirement planning, but revisiting my ART goals seems to be the best option for me.  I have seen this for a long time, but I didn't want to commit to just art.  Art is a very subjective activity.  Everyone who buys art has a different idea of what they like.  I am not sure there will be buyers for my kind of creativity.  :-)

This year's plan to use up the supplies I have collected to do my various art and crafting projects is really pushing me.  I am finding space I didn't have before and starting to get things done.  I still need to list some real (original crafted) items for people to buy and see what happens.  There are still issues to overcome, but I am working on the problems.

I found my ETSY About statement again.  It has made me think about what has happened over the past several years and how I got to where I am now.  I started with POD (Print on Demand) because I didn't need to have inventory space.  I somehow ended up without any real crafted products to sell.  I want to change that.   

I will still do some POD products, especially my logo mug, because they are very important.  When I can, or when I die, those products will be owned by Working Together to help it with income options.  This was the original plan.  

I probably need a lawyer to help me get it all legally figured out.  For my part, I may have to list everything for Working Together at the EBAY shop I created for it.  It's the only site I have where I could list things to sell... maybe.  I do have a Facebook page for WT, and a fiverr.com site, but those are for different parts of the WT space online.  Maybe one of the blogs I have for WT would work with the PayPal account I have for Working Together.  What I am learning for my own income needs may work for the sites I have already started for Working Together.  --  Any suggestions are welcome.  Please use the comments for them.

Whatever GOD planned for Working Together will happen, it just isn't what I thought He would do.

I hope you will follow my ETSY shop so you will get a notification of when I list new items.  It will help me and Working Together if you can purchase my items.  Please think about it.  Right now, the best item to purchase would be the digital version of my writing called SERVANTS.  Share the five allotted copies with people you love who are Christian.  It is a very good way to remember our place in God's Kingdom.

Well, I'm planning to post here more often, as I have something to say, or share, or promote.  I will also be updating the Working Together website soon.  I want to put links back up for this blog and maybe some other spaces.

This is a very important election year and the future of every Christian in at stake.  I hope GOD will protect us and help us to win the battles we face for America, ourselves, and the world.  The global approach to all our life needs is quickly becoming the status quo.

PRAY!  We desperately need GOD's help.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us 

Still working on my goals for this year.

 I am not sure I can share everything that has been happening in my life, but I do want to share some updates and some thoughts.

My Goal Statement Project is coming along.  I am writing the two statements I decided on in the mornings.  I am working on a way to repeat them daily, once or more, so I can keep that focus in the front of my mind.  I see that is the main reason for repeating them... to keep them on top of your "to-do" list every day.  It helps keep you moving in the directions of your chosen goals.  Once in the morning is just not enough.  I may try to write them more often through the day.

I started working on some art yesterday.  It took awhile to reach that point and it isn't proving to be a good event.  Space and deciding what to paint are the second problem.  I am getting to a better place in this quest.  Small changes add up.  It's forward movement... just very slow for me.

I have bought more lottery tickets in the last two months (June and July) than in years (YEARS!) past.  It is my decision to buy them when the jackpots are high WHEN the option comes before me.  I didn't think about the effect of shopping more often.  :-)  BUT, I am going to follow through for this current effort.  I may change my strategy in the future.

Right now the jackpots are almost 700 million and almost 500 million.

I walked to the store this morning.  I was not happy to have to spend another five dollars to buy one ticket for each of the three games in my state.  It is a waste of money if you don't win... my view.  BUT, you do have to have a ticket to win.  I'm working through this current strategy and trying to find a different plan for the future.

If I win enough money to get Working Together started, pay off my debts, and set up my retirement plan, then it would be a good investment.  :-)

I watched a video at You Tube yesterday... and it seriously impacted me.  It was called The Great Awakening and I found it on the channel Project Clarity.  I would urge you to find it and watch it, too.  It will change your view of America.  I think you will see how prophecy is becoming reality in our lifetimes.  

We get so busy with our own survival we don't notice all the events in the world that are the are GOD's prophecies becoming a part of our lives.  I suppose that is the strategy of Satan, we just don't think about it because we are so busy with our lives.  I always discover things I never knew before.  

I hope you watch it and think about your families, your work, your life.  We don't have much time left.

Pray for GOD's blessings on me if you can.  I really want to get some things started to help us -- Christians and America.  When Digital Currency and the Antichrist get here, we won't have any money to spend.  I think we need to use it N-O-W to prepare for what's ahead... the hard parts, the times when those we love will be losing what they worked so hard to build.  I know the poor can't do much of anything to help anyone, including themselves.  If we all wait until we end up poor, homeless, and isolated, no one will be able to help us.

Let's start gathering to find out what we need.

Let's start seeing the end of money, and figure out how to invest what GOD has blessed us with for what is ahead of us.

I suppose everything is going the way GOD saw it going... I keep hoping we can make it stay away a little longer, and prepare to keep each other safe in our own communities.

It's hard to have tried for so many years and not been able to get my work started, ready for these times.  I just wish GOD would have shown me why He didn't provide.

Until next time...

Deborah Martin

FAITH FRIDAY for 4MAR2022 - My Update Post

 Some days are just more difficult than others.  Sorry about that.  This is my "official" post for this week.

I don't think I have done very good with my Sabbath rest today.  Been catching up with all the undone things for yesterday.  I have such a hard time resting when I want to.  I really wonder what it was like for the Jews in the Bible times.

I'm trying to move into a larger text size because it is easier to read.  I have also discovered that when I increase the percentage of my web pages, I can't get them to work right.  It's a problem.  So now I am going to try to use larger fonts.  Next :: a template!!  Then I can have it the same formats every time!

I have been thinking about some faith issues over the days and months.  I don't write about them, but I am in the process of trying to figure out GOD's perspectives.

I will let you know I shred at least four bags of papers so far, with more to come.  I have been reorganizing my files and it might actually be a really great thing. It's a long project that I have been trying to get done, but is taking forever.  I need more crafting spaces in my room  This is helping to do that.

My prayers are always for increased income so I can accomplish the ZILLIONS of things I have always wanted to do.  All of my projects are toward that end.

This year might be a good year for GOD's blessings.

I hope so.

FAITH FRIDAY AGAIN :-) :: 12FEB2022 - Not much faith these days...

It is actually a Saturday.  

I just let this post go last night.

I discovered I totally didn't post last Friday, but I can't recall if that is true.  I thought I had it all done during the week.  Guess I am not the best poster for faith topics.  :-)  

I haven't much to say right now.  I am posting at my Patreon page and started a new project with some older artworks I have rediscovered.  I will be sharing the art one at a time for my Patrons only (which is currently zero - but that could change.  :-)  Most of my artworks are about faith topics. So I am sharing the story behind the ones I did in mostly 2002, but some I am finding are also 2001.

 

Here is a small sample.  Bad photo, bad camera, but that will change someday when I am able to sell my things online.

This snake one is a favorite. 

As I write this post, I can't recall which ones I might have shared with you already.

This one looks a bit funny because I put it into a small plastic bag to protect it.

I am working on the pricing before I post them.

I have several flower topics in my collection.

I am praying through some difficulties.  I hope to see GOD do something that will clarify His power in this world.  Pray with me.  Thanks.

In Christ,  Deb   <3

FAITH FRIDAY :: 28JAN2022 - Leadership

It's hard to know what this year will bring.  I listened to a really scary speech by Ronald Reagan in 1964 (I think that was the year) on YouTube tonight.  It was so scary I decided to share it on Twitter.  I think he was a Democrat back then because it was for a Goldwater event.  The main think I noticed was how many of the issues he talked about are still issues today - only worse... especially the deficit/national debt.

"A Time for Choosing" by Ronald Reagan - YouTube

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I am not sure how these work after posting so I will just let you choose.

Let me know what your impression is of the similarities.  

I haven't heard any campaign speeches like this in the ones I have heard for many years.  I didn't follow Reagan that fully to know what was going on at that time.  I would have been in elementary school I think.  :-)  I have a t-shirt with one of his quotes that I really like.  In the past several elections I have heard him referred to by the GOP.

I am late posting because I got involved with watching OF Mice and Men - the Gary Sinise version of 1992.  After starting the movie, I realized that I had watched it before but didn't remember what the story line was.  I discovered some parts I didn't recall, so maybe I didn't watch all of it.

For me, it had a lot of different thoughts... on how people were treated, how they survived, what you had to put up with to have a job, abusive and power-relationships in families and jobs, to lack of law and order, plus the lives of those with developmental disabilities when there was no one who cared.  It was filled with a lot of topics. 

I have never read the book, so I wondered how true it was to the original story.

2022 is becoming quite a year.  I will try to find some photos I have taken recently.  I am working on my posting graphics. 

I found this while I was goiong through my boxes as I downsize my room to make spaces to craft.  It is part of a larger writing I did called "Curiosity."  Not much, but the statement is very important to me, and maybe one of the best from that writing.  I hope to create more inspirational graphics that I can reproduce to sell and create the income I need.

This week I moved some of my art supplies to the desk space I have.  I am trying to make it easier to craft. 

I guess we will see how it works this time.  :-)   I had my supplies on my desk before but the spaces got taken over by notebooks and office duties.

I will find a way!

This is the new photo station I have now created.  Going to see how it works.  

I moved my tripods over there.

White is suppose to be the best background, but I also have a black piece of foam core if I need it.  I watched a video once about someone who used poster board to paint the background she wanted for different items.  I have some to try that out one of these days.

Finally made my caramels today.  GOOD!  How to price them is my next quest.

Let me know what you think of the Reagan video.  Listen for some of the examples he provides about debt to GDP.  We are so far beyond the levels he talks about.

In Christ,  Deb  <3