Fly Me to the Moon
…and let me play among the stars. Frank Sinatra gave us beautiful words to live by and I feel this moon fairy is embracing them. Having peaceful moments, even when everything seems to be all stress, anxiety, terribleness, is important to us all. Even one moment of peace among the chaos helps us from breaking down completely.
It’s been no secret here that I have had struggles, especially lately from recent traumas. Crafting through the pain brings me those moments of peace. This moon fairy is part of that effort. Having the outlet to write here, hopefully uplifting even just one other person, brings me those moments of peace. It is why I keep doing this. My own mental well being and sharing what I can with anyone with the hope of helping someone makes the constant posts and projects with no intended purpose worth it.
I have had questions and comments in the past wondering why I make projects with no intended purpose. The simple answer is that I like to keep crafting to improve my skills and continue sharing tips as I learn. The more complicated answer is it is a way to continue teaching others while focusing on myself and my family, doing what is best for mental well being.
Former Teacher Here
I think I may have mentioned it before, but for those who don’t already know, I used to teach elementary school before moving to California. I loved my job, my students, my coworker, my principal…it was all great. What I didn’t love was the constant pressure from the district and state to make teachers and students endure such extensive testing, stressing to meet specific benchmarks, and pushing our students to learn as much as possible in such a short amount of time between even more district and state testing.
I worked with students in special education with mild to moderate disabilities. I wanted my students to learn and to help them close the knowledge and developmental gap between themselves and their same age peers. What I did not want was to keep cramming content at them and continuously move on, regardless of whether or not they comprehended the lessons, just to keep up with an instructional calendar set that does not take individual learning into account, only end of year testing. It was doing nothing for my students, who grew continually frustrated year after year, and I with them.
I made a difficult decision after moving to California to step away from teaching, at least temporarily. There was time taken to complete my masters degree in educational leadership and curriculum design and instruction. Afterwards, I began crafting, finding joy in sharing knowledge with others when I can. Then the pandemic began. Needless to say, it will probably be some time before returning to a classroom.
Why Share All of This?
More than anything, I find this blog as a great release…a sort of journal for expressing myself. While I don’t share specifics most of the time, I still find it quite cathartic to share my projects with those interested, providing tips and guidance where I can, while also sharing thoughts and emotions. Hopefully in doing so, some may see they are not alone in their struggles and find some kind of solace.
In the mean time, I will continue making projects as much as possible with or without purpose and continue sharing my thoughts with each one. By all means if at any point you feel exasperated by my potential oversharing, just let me know in the comments. 😉
Until then, I’ll keep oversharing and making beautiful decals, like this stunning moon fairy.
