Grate. Ful.

 It's Friday morning at 10:30 and I am feeling good.  I'm done with school for the week (two day work weeks rock my world) and today I get to stay at home and clean, do laundry, work on my blog, work on a new project I've got coming up (so excited for this!  I'm hoping to announce within the next week or so) and play with my baby.  This Friday is good.  (But it's not Good Friday.  Classic mistake.)

I feel like I have really hit a balance lately with work and home.  This is significant because I have never once in my entire life felt this way, and by next week I will probably not feel this way any longer so I must celebrate while I can!  I am working every other day at the school and on the other days I get to stay home and be with my girl, manage the house, and work on other goals like blog, small business, etc.  Sometimes I get to meet my mom for lunch or go with a friend to a park.  

I am so grateful for these days at home.  And I'm so grateful for my days at school.  I miss my baby when I'm teaching, but I like that I miss her, and I like that it makes me enjoy the time I have with her that much more.  On the reverse side, my days away from the school give me the space from work that I need to miss my students and miss teaching.  On my days at home I'm excited because I get to teach the next day, and on my days at school I'm excited because I get to stay home the next day.  I don't know that a better situation exists for me and I am feeling grateful grateful grateful.

My students are so sweet this year.  I don't know where they came from.  Angels from the mountains.  It seems like every year my students get a little sweeter.  I'm pretty dang lucky to get to teach them.

I am also grateful for this blog- this space on the internet and those of you who come to read here.  This blog has been an emotional outlet for me from the beginning, and I feel like I understand the world better because I am allowed to come here and write about it.  Lately I feel very grateful for the paid sponsorships that I have been given.  Sometimes I hear other bloggers complain about sponsorships and what a drag it is to do them, but I genuinely enjoy my sponsored campaigns and feel honored and grateful to be selected for them.  (The campaigns I am working on now are this one- probably the most important campaign I've ever worked on, this one- my greatest weakness, and this one- my goal to get our family eating healthy.)

Sometimes I have people say "Wow!  Isn't it so crazy that you make money from your blog?  Can you believe that you get paid to do that?"  My answer is yes, I can believe it.  I have worked really hard to get to where I am at.  I have put in thousands of hours into this blog and into my writing.  For every paid post I have written, I have written dozens of unpaid posts.  My first three years of teaching I would wake up at 5:45, commute 45 minutes to school, teach an entire day, commute 45 minutes home, and then get to work on this little blog- writing, promoting, hosting giveaway after giveaway.  Emails upon emails and guest posts upon guest posts.  Then there was Instagram and Twitter and for awhile I felt like I was doing work work work with absolutely no reward.  I ate lived and breathed this blog.  In the summers I went to the library every day for four hours and spent that entire time visiting others' blogs and commenting on them.  Then I'd set in on writing my post, answering emails, etc.  I received not a penny of compensation.  Here I am now, four years later and I have to work significantly less to maintain this blog and I am paid significantly more.  It is an absolute gift and I am so grateful to be in the place I am now. 

But no, I'm not too surprised.  I have worked much harder to get this "job" than I worked to get any other job I've ever had.

This mentality is not my own.  It is adopted from Amy Poehler.  If you haven't read Yes, Please she has a chapter where she explains how people often show surprise at her success, "Can you believe you do comedy for a living?  Can you believe where you are?  CAN YOU BELIEVE YOU'RE FAMOUS?"  She says yes she believes it- she endured years of small comedy clubs, meager wages, doing anything to get a gig.  She worked hard, she devoted her life to it, everything she had went into that career.  It was hard and it sucked and she hit the ground every day to make her dream a reality. So yes, she can believe it.

I've reread those paragraphs about six times because I don't want it to come off arrogant or snooty or entitled.  Just know that good things come to those who work for it.  And of course, it always helps if you have amazing readers, supportive family, (and a gas station nearby that provides a never ending supply of diet coke!) like I do.

 

I am so grateful for this blogging community... sending out my love and good juju to all of you for the weekend.  XOXOXO.