Oh wow!! I never expected all the "likes" on my OP! Thank you, everyone. And thank you to all who replied with kind comments - I really appreciate all the support! I'm very proud and relieved, lol! And yes, I alternated between feeling isolated and incubated - you hit the nail on the head. But I feel that now things are starting to turn around healthily. I could have mentioned a whole lot more people than Kathy and Jane in my OP, but I was afraid of forgetting some. These forums have been SUCH a blessing to me over the years. And I'm so glad that many of you veterans haven't left. :D

Something Jane in NC has often encouraged here over the years has stuck with me since the first time I read her advice. She often says to "look for local opportunities." When my kids were younger I despaired MANY times over our personal situation (one vehicle, no public transportation within reach, and low income) and not being able to take advantages of the many opportunities even just within a 30-minute driving range of home. (I still despair sometimes, but not as often) I looked around at all our homeschooling peers who had their kids in all kinds of classes/field trips/co-ops, and often panicked that we could not provide all that for our kids. We could do some things, like the occasional (free or low-cost) field trip that took place when I could use our vehicle. But I constantly worried that without "extracurriculars," my kids were missing out on that elusive something. But then when we would be sitting down working our way through math/grammar/Latin/writing lessons, I would think, "But I think this is good, too." And I would breathe calmly when I periodically realized that my kids had quite a bit of time to just read, play outside, visit with other families, do some project they would dream up on their own or from a book, re-enact Lord of the Rings together, or whatever. And periodically Jane's advice would come to mind. For awhile, I couldn't even see any local opportunities. So I trained my mind to think, "any opportunities that come up that work out for us." I worked hard to recognize "opportunity" in simple things such as going to the wildlife park on a Saturday family outing, even when we'd been there several times. And then we did have some opportunities for a few years to take road trips to see my sister, and staying with friends and family along the way. I learned to see the "opportunity" in these adventures (four-hour stop in Washington DC to see the Space Museum for FREE? And then to experience the earthquake there while driving around DC??? Hello! I figured out how to "spin" that for our year-end homeschool reports! :D). And I kept trying to block out the other opportunities I saw my peers and their kids having (and people on these forums, lol). :D And only lately have I told myself that it was actually rather stupid of me to look longingly at others' opportunities, because I didn't start off thinking of homeschooling as a life full of extracurricular classes and field trips. I looked at it as a time to educate my own kids within our own means and situation and family. Anyway, all that to tell you about my struggles over the years. I'm starting to see that as kids get older, more opportunities do arise for them, and the few they've had so far, have, just, well, worked out within our means and situation and family! And each time I see something materializing, I breathe another sigh of relief. I'll tell you about a couple of things (finally getting to the small brag, lol). A few months ago, our neighbour across the road (we've only met them a few times) learned that ds16 loves computers. He engaged him in conversation about this, and ended up asking ds to come over and help him with some computer problems. Two hours later, a satisfied neighbour gave ds $60!!!! This neighbour also hired ds last summer to mow the lawn a few times while they were away. He ended up giving him more money than he originally said he would (which, to me, was quite a bit already). Also, dh and ds began attending a local church (about 2 km down the road) last spring (long story, but we left our church of 17 years - dh and ds first, dd and I this past fall). Dh had two friends there who ran the sound system for the service, but one friend was moving. So the minister asked dh if he would help run the system. And since dh and ds had run sound at our old church, dh got ds involved. Ds was happy to do so, because he likes technical things and he wanted something to do other than sit there, lol. Anyway, so ds has been helping since last summer, I think. A few months ago, the minister told dh, the other sound guy, and ds that some church committee (I am still trying to figure out the church structure) had voted to hire people to run sound for funerals, and they gave dh, friend, and ds first dibs at taking these jobs as they arose. Well, guess what - a funeral came up last week, sound guy couldn't do it, dh couldn't commit to the entire time, so ds took the job. Dh helped him for most of it, and then had to leave (but because it was local, ds could WALK home - yippee!!!). The church is paying ds $75!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For each time!!!!!!!!!! So far it has only been a two-hour commitment - although, ds may have to commit more time for some of them. Another funeral happened today, and ds got to run sound for it again!!! You can imagine ds is pretty excited. The other sound guy told the church he wasn't available to do it during weekdays, so if the minister is happy with how ds is doing (and he seems to be - he gave ds the thumbs-up after the service today), ds will have LOCAL opportunities (thank you, Jane, for your words over the years) to make good money, AND to learn to work with others AND to keep learning new tech skills. And to meet other people whom ds can get to know and ask questions of about their careers, education, etc. (there seem to be quite a few professionals and well-educated people in this church)(and ds is actually comfortable with the idea of talking with this minister about faith questions - he wasn't in our previous place) And mainly because of starting to attend this church, our VERY social butterfly dd13 has also had opportunities open up. She pretty much instantly made friends there, and has had chances to get together with them more often than she had chances previously, simply because they live near us (one of them being granddaughter to neighbour across the road). This past weekend this whole crew put on a spaghetti supper at the church, and spent all Sat. afternoon cooking and decorating together under the supervision of some really great adults there. Dd loved it!!! I've had so many comments about her - about how sociable she is, and about how she relates well to people of all ages. And both kids got to go to a hockey game in the city - something we couldn't have afforded, but one of the parents had access to a VIP section, for free, so they (and some of the other great adults) took a bunch of these kids! I was very grateful for their kindness. Oh, and dd was able to join the children's choir last fall at this church, because the choir director lives nearby and could drive us to the practices. Now another nearby mom-of-choir-kid drives us, too. Anyway, this might sound small to some readers. But for us, it's huge because it's something I've worried about for so long. I'm just so grateful that my kids are getting some local opportunities now. :D And thanks to Jane for reiterating that advice over the years, and thanks to Kathy in Richmond who once told me about how and why she had felt the same way. Thanks for reading. And thanks for the continued support - I love these forums! I can't believe I've been on here since ds was in Grade 2, and he will be graduating in a little over two years, and I only have about five years left of homeschooling!!!! I'm thickly in careful-accounting-of-high-school mode and guidance counselor mode and steer-girl-through-13-years-old-without-losing-my-sanity mode, but all of you who said having teens is FUN were correct!! (oh yes, we've had many ups and downs, but overall, this is fun - my kids are funny and smart, lol - thank you forum people and WTM book for helping me do this)

I know what you mean about the turning of the rocks until you know they are RIGHT. But while I like doing that sometimes, sometimes I get soooooooo frustrated doing that, because I just want to KNOW why something works so I can put elements/colours together faster, lol. Thus my rifling through Ornament right now. Yes, yohooooo, mamajudy!! :D Can't wait to hear what you do, Nan!

YES!! I think that's why I've had a creative block this month! So many ideas I'd love to do, knowing I'll never have enough time, and not wanting to zero in, lol. Next month I'll just force myself to sit down and start cutting out some fabric, and then digging through my decorative stuff to figure out how I want to embellish another bag. That'll get me going. Ah, your well-trained training coming into effect here, lol! This totally helps me, too, and I know exactly what you mean about it being useful for classifying the "how-to" library books!!! I was at a local university library on Friday, and got caught up in the (HUGE) art section. Ended up spotting some old books (late 1800s) plainly covered and simply called The Handbook of Ornament and such titles. The ornament was PERFECT for me - Part 1 was The Elements of Decoration (and further broken down into several sensible categories); Part 2 is Ornament Applied to Features, and Part 3 is Decorated Objects. So, the grammar stage (learning what they are), logic stage (analyzing what you can do with them), and rhetoric stage (applying the elements. It totally appealed to me. :D http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Ornament-Dover-Pictorial-Archive/dp/0486203026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390185403&sr=8-1&keywords=The+handbook+of+ornament Are you talking about the basic elements of design? This is something I've been learning about in recent months. Just trying to acquire a grammar stage sense of artistic design. Apparently if I learned this in elementary school as kids supposedly do, it didn't stick with me as a cohesive thing - just a bunch of random art class projects. I would!! lol Well, I'd ask to speak to the manager or owner, and I would hand over a business card, but I totally would do this!! During non-busy times, of course. :D

I am sorry it took me so long to reply!! I have spent this past month decluttering (and getting homeschooling on track after the holidays) big time and rearranging some of our spaces. And telling myself that I need to get creating again, but encountering a block. So I finally sat down and started a couple of just personal projects, just to get me back in the creative mode. I'll start the "for sale" stuff in February.

And I saw yours and will get to it as soon as I can!

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I can't figure out how to break up your quote to reply to sections, either. I'll just scroll up and down til I'm done typing, lol. Yes, the church fairs are not the places to sell your paintings to at least get your time's worth or cost of materials back. Do you have any bigger art shows or craft fairs around, where people sell well-made things for higher prices? I thought about consigning some of my things to some local shops (NS has MANY local craft shops, esp. ones that cater to tourists), and I was even approached by a couple of shop owners to do so. But after researching consignment, I decided not to. Too much risk for my comfort. And yes, I opened an Etsy shop, listed two items, and gave up, lol. WAY too much competition there now, and I didn't have the patience to figure out all the ins and outs of listing each item and then figuring out how to promote them just within the Etsy community, nevermind the wider world. And Etsy recently changed policies - they allow crafters to outsource parts of their manufacturing processes now. Which kinda takes away the original spirit of Etsy. For now, I decided to focus on bettering my website/blog and keep promoting my items there and via Facebook and occasionally Pinterest. And through local friends and craft shows. I've made most of my sales through local connections so far. And yes, marketing does take a lot of time. Or at least the setting up of marketing strategies online. But to me the hardest part was setting up FB/website/Pinterest. Now I can move forward with them when I'm ready. Yes, your friend who spends five hours a day is doing what is called SEO - search engine optimizing. It is a skill that I've been told I should learn, and I am just not going there right now, lol!!!! I'm content with a few craft shows and maintaining my current online presence. Because like you, I want to concentrate on my crafting for the time being, not make a major business for myself. No, I have not sold anything through my website. I don't have it set up with "buy" buttons and payment buttons and all that. I might try to learn that in the future, but not anytime soon. I do have all my stuff listed there, though, with prices, descriptions, contact info., and payment options. Probably people would have to want something pretty badly in order to go through this, heavens, difficult process, lol!! Pricing - you know what, just keep asking artists you meet along the way. Esp. artists you admire for whatever reason. Sooner or later someone will give you the nitty gritty. If you have a personal Facebook account, you might try finding a local artists' support group where you can ask questions, too. For crafts, people come up with different pricing formulas. There are some general ones out there. Some of the most common ones I've seen are the following: 2(materials + hourly wage) = wholesale price. Wholesale price x 1.5 or 2 = retail price. 2(overhead costs + materials + hourly wage) = wholesale. And then the above retail formula. Overhead being electricity, business cards, website cost, etc. I've played around with different formulas this past year. At first I was including my materials costs, but after I paid back all my materials costs and sold off some of my materials, I stopped. I have lots of materials to create with now, and I accumulate them via thrift stores. So it was a pain to have to keep calculating tiny amounts - just seemed unnecessary (which business gurus would probably chastise me for, lol). I just calculate my time (I'm sticking with just above min. wage in our area for now), and multiply it by an amount. Oh, and I did figure a wholesale price then retail, but then I decided I was never going to wholesale anything cuz I will never have time, so I just do a retail price. For this past fall I experimented with wage times three for retail price. And people did buy at that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which shocked me. But not many. Some of that had to do with the types of fairs I was at. So, for spring I may calculate wage times somewhere between two and three for retail, and experiment some more. I would like to get more established in my region for what I make, and aim for a juried show next fall. Where I might be able to calc. wages times three for retail. It's all one big huge experiment, this pricing thing!! And other crafters I've met through Facebook and fairs have said the same thing. You can also do a google search for art pricing formulas. And on that note, I will tell you this. I got to do a fair right down the road from me, which was great because I also want to get known in my immediate area (though we live in a smaller and older house, this area is growing with many two-income families and professionals). Anyway, this was their second annual fair, and it was put on by artists!! Just this group of artists in this area who have been painting together for years - they decided to start selling together, and this year they invited other crafters from the area to join them. It was so fun, and I made the most money ever at this one! Anyway, the paintings that various ones displayed for sale were in the hundreds of dollars. That is what they are WORTH for the time the artists put in. And I believe some paintings were sold. Oh, and don't ask people what they think your paintings are worth - not that I think it's impolite (I don't) - but because you will get a huge range of answers, and you will be too vulnerable to criticism. For me, it has been a mental journey. I had to try increasing my prices and see people still buying in order to believe that people will pay for my time and skill. So, my advice would be to just try out some pricing strategies and keep researching the best places to find YOUR customers. The people who will want YOUR paintings. They are out there, you just have to find them. And you will - your paintings are beautiful. OK, I lost my point, lol.....um, so yeah, don't ask others what your paintings are worth, because you will only confuse and doubt yourself and get too many answers. You have to come up with an initial pricing strategy that you can live with. You can always tweak it as you go along. And because you go through this thought process, you also become more confident for when someone says, "I love it! How much?" The other thing is that people love to get to know the artist/crafter whose product/painting they are admiring. So you having that pricing process in the back of your mind can be handy, too, because if need be you can talk about the work that went into your painting. Which can serve to make the painting worth the price in their mind. They come to understand the work involved, and they get to know the artist. So whenever they look at the painting on the wall of their living room, they think of Nan the artist and her story behind the painting. Let's see...I was also asked a couple of times to participate in one of those co-ops you mentioned. As for you, it was going to be too much responsibility and commitment for me. Sounded fun, but in reality, too much for me. Unique - when I said unique, I just mean making my own signature style. Around here, people (mostly fellow crafters right now) have started telling me that they recognize something of mine because of certain characteristics (which was fun to hear!!). With your art, I am certain that your own style will become obvious, simply because each person is unique. You might be painting trees along with a thousand other painters, but did they paint the exact tree you did? Do they have the same reason for painting that tree? Probably not. While you are painting, your unique story is going into the painting. Tell people that story when they are admiring your painting. Facebook - if you have a personal account, you can create a "fan page" for promoting your artwork. Once you do this, you can get people to "like" your fan page. Then you can post status updates and photos periodically, to let people know what you are up to or show them your latest painting, or even show them photos of the process - anything that lets them get to know you and your work better. It keeps people interested, and when they "like" a photo or status update of yours, or if they comment on your page, their Facebook friends will see. Which opens up possibilities for more people to "like" your page, gaining you more fans. And then there are more specific FB strategies you can use to gain fans and to increase your chance to sell something. Pinterest - I think Pinterest has business accounts. But I just have a personal account. Basically, Pinterest lets you create "pinboards" or what you and I would call bulletin boards. You can make as many as you want, titling them whatever you want. And on each board, you can "pin" photos related to that board, from other websites or from other "pinners" on Pinterest. So I have boards such as "Colourful Crochet" and "Colourful Bags" - I collect photos I like onto these boards, and occasionally I will "pin" photos of my bags for sale from my website to my pinboard. That way, my Pinterest "followers" can see them. And they can pin the photo. Which gives my product exposure to other people. If people like a board you have, they can "follow" it. There are entire books written just this year, devoted to using Pinterest as a marketing tool. In theory, it's a great tool. In reality, I've had no sales yet that came through that, lol. But, again, it's all set up now, and I can maintain it in a few minutes per day if I want. And just so you know, those last two paragraphs? If I'd read those even nine months ago, my head would have been spinning, lol. Online marketing is an extreme exercise in logic. By the way, I "followed" your blog - whenever you post a new post, I will receive notification when I log in to my blog/website. :D painting to sell vs. "true art" - ah yes!!! When I started, I was making simple hat patterns in pretty colours and cotton yarn (that no one else was doing) - it was mostly to keep my hands occupied during boring times, so that was really mass production. I built up a stash, and started selling. Then last year when I bought all that fabric to make bags with, I did another mass production run. And this past spring. People loved the bags I was mass producing (and my prices were not even giving me min. wage, I later realized - no wonder they were selling!). But I got sick of mass producing. So I started thinking of other ways to craft and play with craft and art. I decided that while I did want to sell, I did not want to get into custom orders and running in and out of fabric stores to buy fabrics people wanted (boring!!!) - so many others were doing that around me. Now, if someone says "Can you make me a silk bag from that pink silk you used on this other one?" if I have any of the thrifted pink silk left, I'll do it. But, my crafting time is for me to develop my creativity and skill, so I will make what I make and put it on the market if it's quality enough. I am of the mindset now that someone out there will "connect" with my style and will buy if they like it. And that's good enough for me. Although, if I ever got stuck and wanted some quick cash, I know how to make a basic fun bag that people have liked, lol! One experiment I tried this fall a couple of times was this. I came up with a new bag design, and made three of the same design. Different fabrics and colours, but same design. Three times. Three because I would want to have tried the new things more than once (esp. after all the time it took me to come up with a design I liked), but would have gotten bored after three, lol. I did a set of three with wool bags, another set of three with silk bags, and another set of three with linen bags. I might apply that principle to hats, cards, brooches, too. Or different styles of bags. Or different materials to use in bags. And I can always start tutoring reading/spelling again if I got really stuck for money. I recently acquired a reading student again, after many years' hiatus. I might advertise for more this coming year - we'll see. Yes, making things is very satisfactory!! Esp. when others admire it! Gosh, Nan, I hope you get into some fairs or something this coming year - you will see how fun it is when people stop and admire and ask you questions about your work!! Oh, and if you do any fairs, bring a piece to work on, so people can see you in action! I'm getting fuzz-headed and I feel like I'm rambling now. And, yes, you can go to these links to see what I'm doing: http://colleensharpe.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ColleenSharpeOwner http://www.pinterest.com/colleensharpe1/

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I think of it as beans and whole grains, and I agree that beans-n-rice is a metaphor for whatever is inexpensive in your area. Here, rice costs a lot more than wheat or oats or rye (or potatoes). And yes, we eat this a lot. Helps us to live within our means. I have huge sacks of legumes and grains in the freezer. Legumes are very versatile. Complaining....I've tried various things over the years, but ultimately I now just ignore complaints, lol! My kids are welcome to dress up beans if I haven't done so, because I don't want to spend tons of time trying to make beans in different ways all the time.

Oh boy, this is going to be REALLY fun to converse with you about!! Hope to get to it this weekend!!

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I don't see how you have made a huge mess with this kid - seems to me you took him out of ps to hs him because you wanted to HELP him with his academic difficulties. And it sounds like you have done a good job with this. I am wondering if this isn't a matter of him just being 14/15. My son was pretty resistant to my teaching in the recent couple of years, too, but has slowly outgrown it. Now, you mention your son being depressed, too. Could that be the result of accumulated years of being frustrated about his academic struggles? In asking this, I don't mean to try to simplify what is a complex situation for you - I only mean offer an outside perspective to a Mom who seems to be beating herself up unnecessarily. Maybe he does need some more immediate help for his depression - but maybe there is also hope beyond that. The fact seems to be that he does struggle academically, and he does still need help there. Maybe if you can somehow let him know that his struggles are OK and that you will continue to help him, he will soften up to let you start teaching him again? Sometimes we mothers can get all frantic and run around trying to find just the thing to help our kids, and then we beat ourselves up and our kids don't really care about our current solution - they seem to want something more basic. Maybe for him he just needs some help for depression right now, so that he can receive your message about wanting to help him learn basic math/reading/writing skills and so he can have a look around the community himself and find something outside that he wants to do. I know I'm talking outside my realm of experience compared to yours. But to answer your last questions - you said American School wasn't really working for him, so I would start over. I would go right to where he needs help. If it's learning to write down steps in a math problem, so be it. If he needs a refresher in the basics of reading mechanics (phonograms, sounding out words, etc.), so it. If he needs to practice reading for fluency, have him read aloud to you every day. Find some good books for him to practice from. Get him involved in the choosing. If he needs help with the mechanics of writing sentences, have him do copywork. Maybe have a look at the Instructor Guide for Writing With Ease, and use the info. in that to teach him this stuff (using your own chosen reading material). Try to stop beating yourself up, and put on a fake smile and attitude for now even if you don't feel like it. Sometimes our kids need us to do this so that THEY can start believing that there is hope. And then hope comes and our smile can turn real. Hang in there.

Just want to add one more quick thought. We do have one of the thick physics textbooks on our bookshelf. Ds looks through it periodically to read further about something. It is interestingly written and it explains things well. But I felt that the STG was better for us to use as a spine/overview, *because* it was thinner. We just find it easier to have something that is an overview, and then find other ways to dive into the specifics. Hope that makes sense. I just don't want anyone to think I'm against textbooks - I am not. :D

I'm hoping I'm reading you correctly, Nan, when you said adventures - I assume you mean crafting pursuits? Here goes! In 2010 a friend pushed me to sell some of my creations in a fall craft fair. I was terrified!! Yet I had been making all these hats just as a way of keeping my hands busy during some stressful times. I couldn't imagine anyone actually BUYING something I made, lol. But buy they did that day. I couldn't believe it. Best of all, I recovered the cost of the yarn I had bought, plus some. It was a great feeling. So I signed up for two craft fairs in 2011, and then three in fall of 2012. During the fall of 2012, I started learning about other local craft fairs that weren't just about selling pairs of mittens for $5, so I started networking with some participants in these, via Facebook. Through that I signed up for two fairs this past spring. And because I kept getting encouragement about things I was making, I signed up for six shows this fall 2013. Oh, and I branched out from hats. I designed a cross-body bag after I lucked into a really inexpensive source of beautiful cotton batik fabric and polyester batting. I made a bunch of those for last fall and spring, and sold far more than I ever thought I would. Ended up paying back again for all the materials I bought. I also made flower brooches out of various thrifted-but-luxurious fabrics (silk, linen, cotton - will do wool sometime, too). For this past fall I designed another bag pattern (a zipped pouch, because I also lucked into a cheap stash of zippers), and made a few one-of-a-kind zipped bags from linen, wool, and silk (I added decorations to each, too). I've also dabbled in card-making, but not the kind where you glue pre-made things to cardstock - I came up with my own artwork, so each one was a unique piece of art as well as a card. Looking back on this year, I consider it to be a year of branching out into trying different things in crafting and art, and I haven't really zeroed in on any one or two areas I want to do more in. But I did narrow myself down to bags, brooches, and cards and maybe hats still (I only sold two this fall!! Lots of crochet hatmakers around here now - and kids' hats are hugely popular but not what I want to do). And making each one more unique and artistic instead of mass-produced. And I learned a lot about craft fairs, making better product displays, and a bit more about what's on the market around here. And where to find the people who will pay for quality goods, lol! And I learned about pricing. And I learned how to make a Facebook Page, a website, and a Pinterest page that would ideally attract people's attention. I learned that social media marketing is very complicated and ever-changing, but I put a few basic methods in place for myself. What else....no, I haven't made a ton of money from this, but I have made some (that I am saving in hopes of getting into a big juried show next fall), and I have enjoyed it all. I also had opportunities to do product/service trades with other artisans - collecting some beautiful jewelry for myself!! For this woman who has lived frugally for years, this is a fun perk for me. For now, it's a creative diversion for me. A chance to try out my imaginative ideas on practical items and see how people react. :D I'm not really developing any one skill area right now...but at least I am getting more chances now to do hands-on crafting. I can see myself doing this for at least another year, to give myself a chance to try out many more ideas I have. It fits in well around homeschooling, limping through my continued academic (re)education, and home duties. That's the short version. And now I am distracted by family activities going on, so I will sign off here.