Homeschool Blindspots - Joshua Harris

Thank you to a friend of mine for sharing this article. It was very insightful. I decided to share it myself. Homeschool Blindspots - Joshua Harris

Stalker

        Apparently, I am now "cool" enough to have my own personal stalker.  At first it was just a smidge irritating, but now it's just plain creepy and I have been forced to cut all ties with this person.  A few people have suggested identity theft, and while I think that may be a little extreme, you never really know.
        It all started with a meeting.  A young woman and I met through a mom's group and decided to grab a coffee and chat.  She seemed normal and conversation flowed fairly easily.  We both mentioned a few of our interests, and although she had never begun any hobbies of mine, she showed interest in them.  The one thing I knew for certain was that she loved anything having to do with cupcakes.  When we met though, she was merely decorating her home with them.  A month or two passed and I started my business as a cake decorator, and baker of anything sweet.  I ordered my business cards and posted on a social media how excited I was .  The next day I recieved an email from this woman asking how I had started.  I told her.  A week or two later she announced on the same site the she, too, had ordered business cards and was starting her own business making cupcakes.  My husband was able to get her husband a job working with him, and when he brought in her cards he noticed they were the EXACT same design as mine!  Same colors, same logo, the only difference was the name and contact information.  This bugged me a little, but I just let it go and chalked it up to her having a weak personality.
        A little while later, I noticed that she had started a "My Photography" album on this social media site (some of you know I have two albums like that on my page).  Only, these weren't really examples of good photography, but merely pictures that had been edited by a program.  This time I thought maybe it was just a coincidence.  In the meantime, she sent cupcakes to our husbands' work.  I felt a little sorry for her when my husband came home and told me how bad her cupcakes were, how a few people gagged, and the rest have been in the fridge for weeks without being touched.  I continued being friendly with her, and even had her and her family over for dinner.  Now keep in mind, I had already told her that Brandonn had sent a few of my cakes and goodies to work along with some of my business cards.  I have always believed that friends shouldn't compete with one another, so I was a little irritated that she would market her business to the same people that I had.  I accepted the competition however, and sent some of my own cupcakes.  Everyone raved about how good they were, and a few placed orders.  I would be lying of I said that didn't make me feel great!
       Some of you may know that I am an avid scrapbooker.  I had mentioned to her once that I was the co-organizer of a scrapbooking group here, and she seemed interested but cancelled on me when I invited her.  Eventually, she started posting that she was going to start scrapbooking, and had bought all kinds of supplies and such for it.
        Recently, I asked my sister who is an illustrator to draw me up a new logo.  Obviously I can't keep using the one I have now thanks to little miss copy cat.  About a week after I posted that information on my Sugar Mama Sweets blog, this chick posts on a social media that she is having a new logo drawn up too!
       After requesting the council of some Godly friends and family, we all decided that it was too much to call it "great minds thinking alike", and that it was bordering on identity theft.  They advised me to get far away from her.  So that it what I am in the process of doing now.  Unfortunately, she knows the web address for my blog, so she will probably continue to copy everything I put on there.  But what can I do?  My only other option is to get rid of it, which I refuse to do because then she wins.
       There is a funny part to this story!  I can almost guarantee she will turn everything around and blog about it!!  I know this because I posted on a social media that a pet peeve of mine is people who can't think for themselves but instead copy the hard work of others; be your own person.  That night she posted that she was tired of people competing against her and one-upping her, stealing her ideas and doing them before she can.  She made that invisible to me on her page, but she forgot I was married! haha!  Brandonn showed it to me, and when I commented back she made everything invisible to both of us.  I must admit that part genuinly cracked me up!
         It is a shame that she turned out to be so creepy.  I just need to be a little more careful when choosing friends I think.  I have so many wonderful people in my life....I think I can afford to be choosy! :-D  I don't know why people are so silly and petty.  I guess because it's all part of sin, which taints everything.

 I hope you all have a SAFE splendid day!
       

"This has taken long enough! Give me some of that patient stuff!"

The title of this post was taken from a song on a cassette tape that I listened to as a little girl.  My parents would often remind me of this song whenever I was losing my patience over something.  The song went a little something like this, "Gotta have it, gotta get it, gotta have it now!  I want it more than ANYTHING!  This has taken long enough! Give me some of that patient stuff!  Just be patient little rabbit!"  It was a cute tape full of other bible songs, and I am sure my parents got tired of me listening to it every once in a while.  It is, however, a good reminder that often we want God to give us what we want RIGHT NOW!
        I have been especially thoughful of this lately as we are in the process of buying a house that is in a short sale.  By the way, whomever came up with that term needs to be shot.  I may have mentioned that before.  Anyway, we were told that although it COULD take up to six months to close, it would probably realistically only take 2-4 months.  Six months apparently is unusual.  So, we signed a 90 day contract for the house we fell in love with.  Now that it has been almost 120 days we are starting to get a little impatient.  We will be meeting with out broker today to discuss our options at this time.  I must admit that I really have not prayed much lately about the house.  In my head I keep thinking, "If it is in God's plan for us to have this house, then the contract will go through".  I am starting to wonder if the delay is due to my forgetting God in this process.  Also, for some odd reason I thought that waiting the 2-4 months would be exhibiting patience.  So I have had to re-think that!  Maybe patience is not necessarily waiting on the Lord for the amount of time you expect, but when you continue waiting on Him past that time.  Just a theory anyway, lol. 
     On another note, I have recently started providing childcare in my home.  So far, it is just my children and one friends' baby.  This has been good for all of us.  My kids have another child to play with, and the little girl gets more interaction with other kids as well.  It has also forced me to become more organized, which is never a bad thing!  I have accepted my new responsibility with a healthy appetite to create a fun, loving, and educational environment.  I spent all of last week researching daycare schedules and came up with one of my own that I think will be beneficial to everyone.  I have also found a pre-school curriculum that I have already begun using.  The children seem to be adapting very well to the schedule, and they are enjoying their "school time" very much!  I am pleased overall, and have considered a future in home daycare.  Here in florida, you must be licenced in order to accept more than 4 children.  So, if I am to take on any more, I will need to take a few classes.  I am in the process at the moment, of creating several menu plans that will be rotated weekly.  We'll see how it goes!!!!