“Un-friekin’-believable!” shouted my husband in disbelief as the ink cartridges held out to print my 450th CD and DVD labels. He said it was like Elijah and the oil. The ink for our printer is so expensive that my husband was calculating our expenses (for transforming my workshops from digital to physical products for the conference vendor tables) to be through the roof. He was surprised when the ink just kept going.
After all, this is my first vendor table. Yep. I’ve had my business for well over a year. I remember speaking at the Inland Northwest Homeschool Conference last year. The audience burst into applause at the end of my workshop and asked if they could buy my products.
“Uh, I have no products. My website is fun. It has a lot of articles. Here’s my card,” I said. Now, a year later, I have 14 products, mostly of writing classes I’ve taught, unit studies, and early childhood demonstrations. I am continually amazed by how God keeps giving me a fountain of ideas, when for all intents and purposes, I should be burnt out by now. Really. If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’m an emotional mess at the moment, trying to forgive people.
I’ve been sick with a cold for two weeks. I recorded a “Greek Feast” YouTube video (that I haven’t put up yet) about a week ago. My kids had a fabulous Ancient Greece Feast, but as I was editing the video, I noticed that I looked old. Really old. Like, if you look at my YouTube video about organizing bins, I look all young and chipper, maybe in my 20’s. (I was 39.) Now I was watching myself cook a Greek feast, and I looked tired and old. I look 40. Crud. This 6-month trial (of being spiritually attacked by slander) has really aged me. “It’s like the presidency,” I said to my husband. “I didn’t know redheads could go gray, but I have three gray hairs coming out of my head.”
I lost my voice completely two days before the conference. My husband looked at me. He just shoveled $2,000 out the window from his own salary to fund my homeschool business, and I had to start turning a profit if I wanted to finish producing my videos, since my husband says we’ve run out of money. My next conference is in two weeks, and I wanted my best-seller (“Organizing for a Fun Homeschool”) to be professionally packaged. I have no hard copy of my best-seller. I said to my husband, “We’re leaving money on the table if we don’t have those available at that conference.”
The night before speaking, I suddenly started sneezing and coughing and my nose was dripping like a faucet. I was supposed to be on a date with my husband, but he said, “You sound terrible. Maybe we should go home.”
“I just want to crawl into bed,” I said. I threw myself on the mercy of God, which is a very familiar place for me recently. I told my husband, “I can’t forget to bring a water bottle tomorrow.”
“I’ll replace the water with cognac,” he joked. “Now that would be an interesting workshop. I wouldn’t mind going to that one.” I had no comment. My husband is not allowed in my workshops. He would be way too distracting.
The next day I felt slightly better, but I was nervous because my workshop was 1½ hours. Would my voice hold out? God came through at the last minute, and nobody knew that I was even sick. My workshop was filmed. My audience responded very positively. (I made a mental note to myself to add more humor, since that connected me to my audience really well.) The room hostess beamed from ear to ear and told me I would for sure be returning next year to do my learning center workshop.
Several people who heard me speak bought one of everything on my table. “Give me one of each,” they said. I just wanted to pop confetti and streamers, and give them cash and prizes, because that’s how they made me feel. This early childhood conference only had 200 people attending, and I somehow made hundreds of dollars. So for those of you praying for me, thank you. I kiss the ground at your feet and am truly grateful for your prayers.
