I hope you already read my PUBLIC post this week at my PATREON page... I will try not to repeat myself, but who knows....
I have been busy most of the time... today has been a tired and not feeling well day... but, mostly, I have been OK. The weather where I live was suppose to be rainy and cloudy (If I remember the little weather pictures right...) but it has been sunny and nice.
I have seen all the weeds growing in my ivy project space (anyone remember that???), and some wildflowers are in places I didn't remember them being. I have been "stealing" the wildflowers from one patch because they are so beautiful, and putting them in my containers with trees that are trying to grow, etc. I want to take them with me when I move, if I move. Otherwise, they are nice to have in my containers.
My blackberry patch is growing... it looks like it might need more fencing, or higher fencing... it is really getting big and falling over the wall I put up to try to keep it from falling on the ground when the berries get ripe.
There is another huge berry patch growing between the neighbors yard and where I live. I cut it back two falls ago to see what was under the "canopy" of vines and to see if it would grow back fully the next summer. It was really full of dead vines. I realized all those big blackberry patches you see along the roads are really just new vines growing on top of the dead ones !! :-) Last summer/fall, I just kept the vines contained there... and watched what happened. This year they are growing huge and spreading out all over the place... I will have to go trim some of them back. The vines get bigger in some places, with bigger blackberries. I haven't figured out why yet.
I am still working on my freezer containers and canning jar supplies. Last summer I saved squished berries in 2-cup containers for making small batches of jam/jelly through the winter. I ended up using the juice instead... some jelly, some syrup. I am not sure how I will process the berries this summer. It will depend on how many berries grow, and how many containers I have.
I found a freezer container maker online one day when I was looking for the sizes I need. I decided to suggest my perfect product to them and asked for some freebies if they ever make it. The sizes I think I need are a half-cup, one-cup, and two-cup, which can be nested as a set if they make them right. Also sold as sets of one size, if they make them. I would have made them myself, and sold for income, but you know my story... no money yet. :-( If they don't make my perfect containers, I will... after I "win the BIG lottery prize!" :-)
My budget for MAY is pretty much done. I will check it over again, but not much changes when you have a budget. Fixed expenses are the same every month, so the only thing that changes is the "extra" money you have over the fixed expense amount.
I have always hoped my online selling efforts would create the income I need. It hasn't happened yet. FAITH is what I live on. When GOD doesn't provide the way you expect Him to provide, all kinds of thoughts go through you mind. In the beginning of this quest, I wondered if there were any unconfessed sins that kept Him from blessing me. Later I decided it must be some kind of spiritual warfare... because of WT and other things. I searched the Bible for things that might tell me why... and thought a lot about GOD and us, good and evil, money and poverty, etc. In the end, it's all about GOD. We are His when we get saved. His Will is our duty. So, every day, I just focus on the options for that day, and leave the rest up to GOD. If He wanted to provide, Satan couldn't stop Him. So there has to be a reason I just don't know about or understand.
I have so many things on my list I wonder what to do first sometimes. If I get ill, like today, the list has to wait. I updated the WT homepage finally... and need to add some PAYPAL links for WT NEWS and INMATE NEWS. This is an income effort for WT. It may be good to wait a day or two, to make sure the details are figured out.
I'm doing a one-month promotion for WT NEWS... for $15 you will receive six months of email newsletters, from JUNE to NOVEMBER. In December we have the annual Membership Drive.
INMATE NEWS is one of my PATREON projects, so I decided to add it to the webpage. International mail is the problem for print options... I am just learning how to do international mail... and media mail... and repeating publications. Inmates have to have printed copies. Other people can get email versions. How to accomplish that financially, is a real challenge. I may have to wait to sell this subscription... until I have the Patreon funding, see lawyers, get helpers... PRAY for this project. It is so important.
I also revised my webpage link for #My2020PatreonChallenge !! :-) I will start spreading it around as much as I can... maybe with every social media post. I don't know yet. Take a look and share it if you can.
http://work2gather.us/2020-PatreonChallenge.html
It's just a basic page for now... I want to make it better, more formatted, more photos, more update options... This is the second version. I had to remember a lot of the HTML codes just updating this!! I need to remember how to do webpages and figure out a code plan. :-) (Make a design.) If I get the ADOBE suite, I can use their software to help.
I am reading a bunch of books about online selling and how to make books to sell at Amazon -- Kindle and paperbacks. It is a lot of learning time. I'm going for the 30-page version or the short read first (100 pages or less, I think).
If I get a stimulus check, I might go ahead and subscribe to the online sites I am thinking about. CanvaPro has a 30-day free trial. I am going to do that in MAY if that is still and option. Office365 has a shorter free trial, but I may try that as well. It depends on what I can do with the CanvaPro first. Anyone with good tips for these software options? I'd love to hear about them.
Until next update...
May GOD help all His children to become ONE BODY IN CHRIST.
Deborah Martin
work2gather.us
etsy.com/shop/work2gather
ebay.com/usr/work2gather
30 April, 2020
23 April, 2020
New blog topics today -- no focus on my challenge :-) I hope!
I almost forget this entry because I was watching the second documentary I rented at Amazon yesterday, along with 8 Kindle books!!! (You will have to search at Amazon videos for Urban Farmers as I couldn't find a website to link you with.)
I don't think I will be good at saving money... not really. I had enough, and only bought 99-cent books, one was only 49-cents! :-) The documentaries were the overspend, but they were only $1.99 each. :-(
URBAN FARMERS was the first one I wanted to watch. Rural people have more options than big city people, especially the poor. This film was about New York City's food issues... food deserts, no land for farming, farmer's markets, CSA's, and whatever else they have there. One thing I discovered in watching the film is the distance they have to go for farm products. The CSA speaker said they get food from a 250-mile radius. I was trying to decide how to apply that information to Oregon, and remembering Los Angeles issues.
Someone was smart enough to save the last piece of farmland relatively close to the main city. I think that was Queens County Farm. It's 47 whole acres. Since it's a county property now, they do school field trips and more.
One other really interesting part for me was the online site Cornell University put together to connect the farmers and the people who want their products. I still have to find it online and see what it is doing these days, but the idea sounded wonderful. I am all for LOCAL emphasis. I have been trying to advocate for emergency planning to know what food sources are around their region so they know where to go for food in a crisis. That kind of website would be really good for everyone to think about establishing.
I thought they would have some roof gardens because the main movie photo shows green on top of roofs, but they didn't show any. The CSA's are helping provide a lot of good food for the city people and helping the farmer's survive. The Farmer's Markets are growing. One neighborhood farm project was on temporary space, I think. That is a real problem in developing food sources in places that are just not able to be developed at the time. They work so hard and then they get destroyed by the owner of the properties.
A SIMPLER WAY was filmed by someone I support (slightly) at PATREON right now... I think. I haven't found out for sure yet because he hasn't answered my messages. I suppose he must be busy if he's doing films like the two I have seen, this one and one called LIVING THE CHANGE, also set in Australia. I have decided he must live there. His name is Jordan Osmond. I wonder if he will be able to build a Patreon page like a Kickstarter page... this will be interesting to watch, for now.
I checked for the website and found a link to watch it free (as of tonight...). See what you think of young people trying to make a community from not much.
Here's my Earth Day offering for this post. I didn't make a new post. On social media I shared the three graphics I have on Earth Day issues. I still remember my previous effort to share a Canva creation here... it was way too big. I will have to do more of the size above... right?!
I spent a lot of time today looking through some of the Kindle books I bought. Some classics like As A Man Thinketh and The Greatest Secret. Ones on publishing books, social media marketing, building email lists, selling, etc. I am trying to decide what kind of books I want to publish, and how to do it... with my current situation. One comment in a book I was browsing today was that no one has time to read anymore... so the online books seem to be very short. He has a formula. :-) I am still checking it out. Amazon has a "short reads" section and the limit is 100 pages I think. That was my first book goal... to do a short read.
I think I am done for tonight.
Until next time,
May GOD help us all to be better people,
and to reach the goals He has put in our hearts to accomplish.
May He protect us from harms we cannot overcome,
and help us to find our way through the valleys we must go through.
In Christ,
Deb Martin
work2gather.us
patreon.com/DebsRetirementPlan
etsy.com/shop/work2gather
I don't think I will be good at saving money... not really. I had enough, and only bought 99-cent books, one was only 49-cents! :-) The documentaries were the overspend, but they were only $1.99 each. :-(
URBAN FARMERS was the first one I wanted to watch. Rural people have more options than big city people, especially the poor. This film was about New York City's food issues... food deserts, no land for farming, farmer's markets, CSA's, and whatever else they have there. One thing I discovered in watching the film is the distance they have to go for farm products. The CSA speaker said they get food from a 250-mile radius. I was trying to decide how to apply that information to Oregon, and remembering Los Angeles issues.
Someone was smart enough to save the last piece of farmland relatively close to the main city. I think that was Queens County Farm. It's 47 whole acres. Since it's a county property now, they do school field trips and more.
One other really interesting part for me was the online site Cornell University put together to connect the farmers and the people who want their products. I still have to find it online and see what it is doing these days, but the idea sounded wonderful. I am all for LOCAL emphasis. I have been trying to advocate for emergency planning to know what food sources are around their region so they know where to go for food in a crisis. That kind of website would be really good for everyone to think about establishing.
I thought they would have some roof gardens because the main movie photo shows green on top of roofs, but they didn't show any. The CSA's are helping provide a lot of good food for the city people and helping the farmer's survive. The Farmer's Markets are growing. One neighborhood farm project was on temporary space, I think. That is a real problem in developing food sources in places that are just not able to be developed at the time. They work so hard and then they get destroyed by the owner of the properties.
A SIMPLER WAY was filmed by someone I support (slightly) at PATREON right now... I think. I haven't found out for sure yet because he hasn't answered my messages. I suppose he must be busy if he's doing films like the two I have seen, this one and one called LIVING THE CHANGE, also set in Australia. I have decided he must live there. His name is Jordan Osmond. I wonder if he will be able to build a Patreon page like a Kickstarter page... this will be interesting to watch, for now.
I checked for the website and found a link to watch it free (as of tonight...). See what you think of young people trying to make a community from not much.
Here's my Earth Day offering for this post. I didn't make a new post. On social media I shared the three graphics I have on Earth Day issues. I still remember my previous effort to share a Canva creation here... it was way too big. I will have to do more of the size above... right?!
I spent a lot of time today looking through some of the Kindle books I bought. Some classics like As A Man Thinketh and The Greatest Secret. Ones on publishing books, social media marketing, building email lists, selling, etc. I am trying to decide what kind of books I want to publish, and how to do it... with my current situation. One comment in a book I was browsing today was that no one has time to read anymore... so the online books seem to be very short. He has a formula. :-) I am still checking it out. Amazon has a "short reads" section and the limit is 100 pages I think. That was my first book goal... to do a short read.
I think I am done for tonight.
Until next time,
May GOD help us all to be better people,
and to reach the goals He has put in our hearts to accomplish.
May He protect us from harms we cannot overcome,
and help us to find our way through the valleys we must go through.
In Christ,
Deb Martin
work2gather.us
patreon.com/DebsRetirementPlan
etsy.com/shop/work2gather
16 April, 2020
16APR - Trusting GOD for the details
It's been a long week since Monday's update at Patreon... I guess this will be the only PUBLIC update... I may have to change the way I do things with my updates. The goal is to make Patreon the only place for my Challenge news... but, then how will I find people. It's a real decision-making process to try to overcome the info connections. You'll find out when I finally decide. This may be the APRIL decision.
I ordered a book by Phyllis Schlafly (The Power of the Christian Woman) and received it (finally) yesterday. When I started reading it, I was amazed at how great she shared the details of being a woman in GOD's Kingdom... wanting to be a "Mom At Home" and happy there. I suggested to the Eagle Forum they need to share the first chapter, at least. (If they don't, I might.)
I haven't finished the first chapter yet, but I am working to get the book read. I seem to be "distracted" by any little thing, and real needs. I had to take two naps today because my body just wouldn't keep going. I guess I have an irregular schedule... I end up being up in the middle of the night and sleeping small amounts over the course of each 24-hours. I do what I can in the up hours, and take short naps. The "distractions" are the main problem. I have to find a way to get through them.
So, the book. I am glad I bought both of the titles I did. The other book was, "A Choice, Not an Echo" and it is about electing Presidents. Some of the browsing bits I discovered are from before I thought of elections and what they mean. As a child, my main memory of politics is a wonderful vinyl recording of President Kennedy's speeches. I don't recall if I had it before or after he died. I was very young when that happened.
I have seen videos or photos of her with Reagan. I don't really know her politics. I am not sure I will read that book right now. Moms and the freedom to be at home are my interests. I tried my whole life to be one... without poverty.
I just checked the copyright for the Christian Woman book and it was published in 1981... what was happening then... I don't know. I had two sons by then... I think I was fighting poverty somewhere... maybe it was Lincoln City (Oregon) then.
My CHALLENGE is focused on PayPal.me right now. I am wondering if it could work as my one-time $5.00 payment option. It is a new payment idea for me this week. I have to find out how I can make it work for my needs.
I was already signed up when I checked, but I hadn't been able to decide how to use it so it went out of my daily thoughts. I guess you can just provide the link and anyone can make a payment to your account. If you want to do that, my account link is :: https://www.paypal.me/work2gather :-)
I have tried to contact PAYPAL.com for more information and to make sure my plans are within their general guidelines, and to make sure all my links go to the right accounts... but contacting big sites is like trying to fly from the west to the east without a plane.
I don't see posting it at Patreon will work... because of the fee issues, I suppose. I still want to make it part of my selling options. So far, I plan to post it on my social media sites with things to sell.
I had a problem with FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE this week... they decided my digital download for Etsy, SERVANTS, was objectionable and I am having to appeal that decision. I mentioned that their actions are very unclear... they just tell you "it might go against their policies" and expect you to delete it. I shared that when people get a ticket they at least know what law they have broken. They need to decide what specific "Law" at F/B has been transgressed so that the persecuted can appeal the right policy.
I vaguely recall having another problem like this... but I think the same thing happened with ETSY and my writing about the Rapture to Christians. There's no real appeal process at Etsy. I have always hoped GOD would bless so I could create a fair and protected selling place for Christians... probably WT Members, but maybe open to the public. If GOD provides the funds, I'll make those decisions then.
The main cause is the gay community, I think. If it's not the employees, it's media pressure, which the gay community uses so well.... as they are doing with Phyllis Schlafly these days, and the rainbow, and Christian businesses, and.... No one knows how to deal with them... I call it Bible prophecy coming true. They are bringing the future into being. And this is why WT was created.
So, what else has been happening...
It's all a blur. :-)
I keep trying to keep my Journal up to date, but it ends up with lots of missed details. I will work through this year, but may have to go back to my other style of keeping track of things. :-)
EARTH DAY is next week. I was looking at my calendar and realized how fast the month has gone by. I like my tote design. I keep trying to decide if I should get one for me, or wait until I design more and pick one of them. I guess Earth Day will be lost in the VIRUS CRISIS as well.
There are only so many things one person can do. The rest of the battle has to be put into GOD's Hands. I know that one day GOD will make everything right... how, when, I am not sure... before we die, after we die... I don't know. It's His decision. My faith is in GOD. I trust Him.
I have tried to find one way to explain how this works but so far DAVID is the only story I can think of... We wonder why he chose to sin with Bathsheba, but he did. When GOD made sure there was no way to hide it, but the pregnancy, he thought there was some way to hide it. WHY he thought that would happen, no one knows. We can be sure the staff and lots of other already knew. He chose to try to hide it. That choice cost lives and took the Hand of GOD's protections from David and others.
Eventually, GOD sent someone to make sure David knew that GOD wasn't letting it go. How long that took is not known -- I have never heard a real verified timeline. What I like to say is that we also don't know if the judgment GOD made for David's sin would have been different if David had made things right with GOD before the prophet was sent to him.
There is always a consequence to sin. It goes on forever I have decided... like the popular "ripple" effect (Think "'Pocahontas" movie for an example.) --- everything we do affects others... expanding into the future.
Maybe you can see it as the "domino fall" -- when you topple the first domino, the rest follow in quick succession... Life is a domino fall that never stops... each day is a domino...
I guess I am saying I have to do my best to reach the future by GOD's path, and leave the details of that journey to Him... It matters what we choose... as individuals and as families and as communities and as nations. I guess business decisions are in there somewhere. Money is not the right goal. What is good is the right goal. I have only found one place to know what is good - the Bible.
I hope you read it and discover what I mean.
In Christ,
Deborah Martin
work2gather.us
I ordered a book by Phyllis Schlafly (The Power of the Christian Woman) and received it (finally) yesterday. When I started reading it, I was amazed at how great she shared the details of being a woman in GOD's Kingdom... wanting to be a "Mom At Home" and happy there. I suggested to the Eagle Forum they need to share the first chapter, at least. (If they don't, I might.)
I haven't finished the first chapter yet, but I am working to get the book read. I seem to be "distracted" by any little thing, and real needs. I had to take two naps today because my body just wouldn't keep going. I guess I have an irregular schedule... I end up being up in the middle of the night and sleeping small amounts over the course of each 24-hours. I do what I can in the up hours, and take short naps. The "distractions" are the main problem. I have to find a way to get through them.
So, the book. I am glad I bought both of the titles I did. The other book was, "A Choice, Not an Echo" and it is about electing Presidents. Some of the browsing bits I discovered are from before I thought of elections and what they mean. As a child, my main memory of politics is a wonderful vinyl recording of President Kennedy's speeches. I don't recall if I had it before or after he died. I was very young when that happened.
I have seen videos or photos of her with Reagan. I don't really know her politics. I am not sure I will read that book right now. Moms and the freedom to be at home are my interests. I tried my whole life to be one... without poverty.
I just checked the copyright for the Christian Woman book and it was published in 1981... what was happening then... I don't know. I had two sons by then... I think I was fighting poverty somewhere... maybe it was Lincoln City (Oregon) then.
My CHALLENGE is focused on PayPal.me right now. I am wondering if it could work as my one-time $5.00 payment option. It is a new payment idea for me this week. I have to find out how I can make it work for my needs.
I was already signed up when I checked, but I hadn't been able to decide how to use it so it went out of my daily thoughts. I guess you can just provide the link and anyone can make a payment to your account. If you want to do that, my account link is :: https://www.paypal.me/work2gather :-)
I have tried to contact PAYPAL.com for more information and to make sure my plans are within their general guidelines, and to make sure all my links go to the right accounts... but contacting big sites is like trying to fly from the west to the east without a plane.
I don't see posting it at Patreon will work... because of the fee issues, I suppose. I still want to make it part of my selling options. So far, I plan to post it on my social media sites with things to sell.
I had a problem with FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE this week... they decided my digital download for Etsy, SERVANTS, was objectionable and I am having to appeal that decision. I mentioned that their actions are very unclear... they just tell you "it might go against their policies" and expect you to delete it. I shared that when people get a ticket they at least know what law they have broken. They need to decide what specific "Law" at F/B has been transgressed so that the persecuted can appeal the right policy.
I vaguely recall having another problem like this... but I think the same thing happened with ETSY and my writing about the Rapture to Christians. There's no real appeal process at Etsy. I have always hoped GOD would bless so I could create a fair and protected selling place for Christians... probably WT Members, but maybe open to the public. If GOD provides the funds, I'll make those decisions then.
The main cause is the gay community, I think. If it's not the employees, it's media pressure, which the gay community uses so well.... as they are doing with Phyllis Schlafly these days, and the rainbow, and Christian businesses, and.... No one knows how to deal with them... I call it Bible prophecy coming true. They are bringing the future into being. And this is why WT was created.
So, what else has been happening...
It's all a blur. :-)
I keep trying to keep my Journal up to date, but it ends up with lots of missed details. I will work through this year, but may have to go back to my other style of keeping track of things. :-)
EARTH DAY is next week. I was looking at my calendar and realized how fast the month has gone by. I like my tote design. I keep trying to decide if I should get one for me, or wait until I design more and pick one of them. I guess Earth Day will be lost in the VIRUS CRISIS as well.
There are only so many things one person can do. The rest of the battle has to be put into GOD's Hands. I know that one day GOD will make everything right... how, when, I am not sure... before we die, after we die... I don't know. It's His decision. My faith is in GOD. I trust Him.
I have tried to find one way to explain how this works but so far DAVID is the only story I can think of... We wonder why he chose to sin with Bathsheba, but he did. When GOD made sure there was no way to hide it, but the pregnancy, he thought there was some way to hide it. WHY he thought that would happen, no one knows. We can be sure the staff and lots of other already knew. He chose to try to hide it. That choice cost lives and took the Hand of GOD's protections from David and others.
Eventually, GOD sent someone to make sure David knew that GOD wasn't letting it go. How long that took is not known -- I have never heard a real verified timeline. What I like to say is that we also don't know if the judgment GOD made for David's sin would have been different if David had made things right with GOD before the prophet was sent to him.
There is always a consequence to sin. It goes on forever I have decided... like the popular "ripple" effect (Think "'Pocahontas" movie for an example.) --- everything we do affects others... expanding into the future.
Maybe you can see it as the "domino fall" -- when you topple the first domino, the rest follow in quick succession... Life is a domino fall that never stops... each day is a domino...
I guess I am saying I have to do my best to reach the future by GOD's path, and leave the details of that journey to Him... It matters what we choose... as individuals and as families and as communities and as nations. I guess business decisions are in there somewhere. Money is not the right goal. What is good is the right goal. I have only found one place to know what is good - the Bible.
I hope you read it and discover what I mean.
In Christ,
Deborah Martin
work2gather.us
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