Moving Forward - Challenge Update - 5 MARCH

The week seems like a month! but I am moving forward in things.

I am in the process of remaking my Patreon page, but I am keeping the CHALLENGE the same.  In all my searching for how to do this, I am learning a lot of things to try, and some are very good.

The biggest issue to me is finding enough funding to purchase all the equipment and supplies I have needed for year... my whole life, it seems like... and to be able to access the help I need for each project.  Deciding how much I need is always the problem.  I have researched prices for years and years and years. I have an idea of how much I need, but not an exact number, or the information on exactly what equipment and supplies I want to buy.  From my view, what I buy depends on how much money I have.

In reading some things recently, the link between THANK YOU benefits and projects seems to be very important and the special part of a financial relationship with those who choose to help.  I was thinking of general areas of creativity (like ART, JEWELRY, RECYCLING) that I want to develop.  Now I am thinking in terms of individual projects (Silk-Screen prints, silver and gold, melting plastic into useable products).

I really like the ability to limit participation from my end.  I can only make so many art prints by hand, make so many metal castings, experiment without space to do it in.  The only tier that really has flex in it is the CHALLENGE tier, which is why this year means so much to my whole life, past and future.  I really hope and pray that you and GOD will make it into a pivot point for everything.

Jewelry seems to be the most difficult area of my goals to estimate.  What I want to do and what I can do with my current budget are very different things.  They always have been.  Hence, lots of problems reaching a profitable life.

I knew I wanted to use the individual project format, but couldn't find the right way to do this.  Now I think I am going in the right direction.  I have notes and I am still working on the exact projects to do, looking for the costs to share, and planning how to share it with my PATREON audience.  It is very exciting for me to reach this point.  I am not yet at the S.M.A.R.T. space for making my goals, but getting there.  :-)     -----  SMART goals have time limits... I don't have those yet.

I will begin changing my Patreon page as soon as I find the right details to share.  It will most likely be a slow change, but I am not sure... I tend to be a marathon person with things like this, once I get going, I never want to stop until it is done.

Keep checking for the new tiers, and all that is related to changing them.

I am making a lot of samples at PRINTFUL so I can see the actual products before I invest my time and money promoting them.  I made the design above just to try out one of the poster choices.  Change is hard.  We all struggle with it. Finding my path to the future has always been a difficult walk.  I don't know why it had to be so hard, but it did create in me a vision of what needs to be done.  I am hoping GOD will provide the finances to finally start getting things done.

Pray with me for that blessing.

Thanks.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us

patreon.com/DebsRetirementPlan

#My2020PatreonChallenge

27FEB - Doing what you can to move forward

The weekly routines are BEGINNING to find a path in my life... updates, improvements, reorganizing, time... It is still not the way I want it to be, but this is where I am.

I decided to post a graphic I found at CANVA.com, I think... I liked the statement.  I have probably shared it before, but this is a good reflection of how I feel today.

I still don't recall who Brian Green is (right now) but this message is a great reminder when you don't have all the things you want to have.

Yardwork is beginning to take more time, especially in sunshine weather.  :-)  I'm working on my berry bushes in the back yard, trying to contain them, looking for ways to improve the berry harvest from that particular group of plants.  Each year I discover new things about blackberries.

No garden plan yet.  I have plenty of seeds and am now thinking of getting a small shelf with a "greenhouse" cover for it.  :-)  It's about $25 at BiMart here.  I am not sure it is something I need to buy... so I am still in the thinking stage about it.  I have always admired the really big greenhouses and thought that would be great for planting my seeds and experimenting with growing food.  Some food items I want to try are not for this climate, but I understand you can still grow them if you can control the temperature somehow.

I found a seed on one of my son's plants in the yard, maybe an olive tree, and decided to plant it to see if it grows.  I read somewhere, a long time ago, that seeds need to go through winter to be able to grow in the spring... the freezing is said to do something to the inner workings of a seed.  I don't recall all the details, but this seed survived the winter.  Hopefully it will grow.

The yellow plum tree is growing leaves and flowers... probably flowers right now.  I see it when I go outside for something, like walking the dogs.  There is another reddish plum tree growing near it, but I have yet to understand this version of plum.  I have seen them in the Northwest, in Oregon, but not sure if they are worth the effort, maybe a wild plant.  I think last summer I called them plum cherries, because of the size they are.  My yellow plums seem to get bigger and better every year.

Food is very important to survival.  It is high on my list.  If I finally get some land to grow on for the future, deciding what to plant is going to be a big issue.  When we go to the store, we buy certain things because they can be used for so many things... like potatoes, onions, carrots.  Other foods can be expensive because they have to be shipped in... like avocados.  One of my questions still not answered is about wheat... how much wheat do you need to make a cup of flour?  Once you know how much flour you need, you can plant that much wheat seeds.

I had to go to the bank to try to (again) fix problems with my accounts and the person that helped me asked me how I would describe Working Together...  work2gather.us  ... my lifetime effort that doesn't seem to get anywhere.  I realized it was about search terms.  I hadn't thought about what kind of search terms I would use for WT before... just my mission statement and the Body of Christ statement I have created because of it.  (https://www.etsy.com/shop/work2gather - I put it on a mug with the logo design I have for WT)  My plan this weekend and next week or until I find the right search terms for it is to answer that question.

I ended up with "Christian Membership Organization" but I think I will try to find a better one or two to describe it.  Everything is built on membership fees, that becomes our budget for each year.  These words don't really describe the SURVIVAL aspects behind Working Together... but how to get them into a search term... I don't know.

Well, I have to go get something done right now, so this will be it for today... I think.  I may add a second post later.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin
#My2020PatreonChallenge
work2gather.us
and more

20 FEB Update - Thinking about prison things

Trying something new...


Faith and Prayer
20 FEB 2020
apx 8 pm my time
Thursday Update
#My2020PatreonChallenge

I guess this has been a strange week...  I haven't felt well, slept a lot, and then got sidetracked by a search on Bernie Madoff.  I discovered they have all kinds of videos and movies about him, documentaries, and news shows.  There was an "anniversary" themed program I watched... ten years later.  I kept seeing different details about the same events. I discovered family members I didn't know about, and wondered how much was true and how much was Hollywood "drama."
I haven't really paid much attention to all that over the years.  I decided to write to Mr. Madoff after his son was found dead, with their young son in the apartment with him.  I'm not sure I believe he hanged himself.  In watching the videos, I still wonder.  His wife said his first text was HELP, then later there was a text about having someone come get their son.  I don't know about autopsies, how they can determine someone had done this to him/herself.  I figured the loss of money had something to do with it. Vengeance is a terrible motivation.

Money is the god in some lives.  It makes people do very terrible things.

The Bible tells us to want as much as we need, not too little and not too much.  Poverty isn't good, neither is extreme wealth when you don't have a purpose for it or your life.  I have only know the poverty side, but I have expected GOD to provide wealth for Working Together and building the future for His people.  (work2gather.us)  It hasn't happened so far, but I also have felt the battles at spiritual levels.

I have never received a reply from Mr. Madoff.  I write to him because what I did see in the news made me pray for him.  Later on, I also felt that he might be able to change the prison system on punishment for crimes of theft.  I have come to believe it would be better to focus on making financial restitution than building more prisons.

My perspective on this change comes from my experience with my sons in the system, and seeing that a lot of theft is drug-related, poverty-related, and survival related.  I discovered prison doesn't seem to change the future.

As our moral characters decline with the rejection of anything godly, more crimes will happen.  We can't just build more prisons.  In time, there will need to be "prisons" to keep good people safe.

We need to find a better way.  Theft seemed like the easiest place to start.  Legal consequences could become related to work, education, mentoring, and other programs that provide the foundation of change in the lives of criminals... especially those who will be released one day.

I guess you could say my INMATE NEWS project was my hope for this big need.  I created a special project tier for it iat my PATREON page to see if I could raise the necessary start-up finding for it.
Money, again.  It is what we need to achieve good, and what seems to be a way of valuing our worth.

I guess I failed that test.

In my mixed efforts to reach out to inmates and to find a way to reform the prison system, I have suggested they need to write a book about their side of their story.  It would help them and help us.  They can take a hard look at their lives, we can begin to understand why we are here and they are there.

The only version most of us have of an inmates life and crime is the media version.  We don't go to courtrooms, know these people individually, understand their situations, the why's of their crimes...and efforts they have made to change.  It would allow them to speak, and be something other than the media record when they try to be released.

I also advocate for the government to create an "eBay for inmates" so everyone can benefit on the way to their future.  Books are just one thing inmates could make to sell and earn money for themselves and their other financial responsibilities, including restitution.  The prison system could generate non-tax income for their own needs.

There is a lot that could be done, but it seems to be a hopeless cause.

The request by Mr. Madoff for compassionate release is why I revisited his past through an online search.  I don't believe he will (or should) get a release, but I do think we all would benefit if he was released through a restitution program.  His consequences have already been huge, and they will never go away.  How much is enough?

The Bible teaches about making restitution for doing wrong in things that restitution can resolve... like theft, like destroying property that belongs to another, and whatever else it cites.  What I remember right now is that it says restitution is to be made if it takes everything you own.  That is the consequence... paying for your crime... replacing what you have taken or destroyed.

In my own thoughts, I have considered that the restitution amount would grow with any subsequent thefts.  This is from thinking that the amounts would be small, and the inmate would be younger.  Over the course of time, and repeating programs, work, mentoring, education, the criminal would become a different person.  Court costs could be included if there is a repeating event.  I just think the current idea to stick everyone behind bars is not working.  We have to find a better way to the future.

We all face the consequences of our choices... they are part of the crime package.  What are the right consequences is my focus.  Housing people in prison can make them worse.  If someone is going to be released, they need to be ready to survive, or helped until they are ready, at release.


I decided today to make writing the book about Working Together and my vision for it the second project tier for WT ($10).  I spent so many years developing its framework, and trying to find funding, now it seems the best I can do is to write out everything I can and share it with the Christian Community.  Hopefully, it will make them think about what is heading our way... and how to protect their loved ones from as much as possible before the Antichrist rises to kill us.

I guess I need to decide how much I need to be able to get that done.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin
work2gather.us