Heading Out In the Morning

McKenna and I are almost all packed for our weekend show/trip to Raleigh. The kiln is cooling, Joey has my displayed strapped to the roof of the truck and I'm looking forward to spending time with some wonderful old friends and family members. I spent the week grading exams, answering many, many emails from concerned students and also playing nurse to a very sick little girl. My pots I have to admit played second fiddle to all of this. The steady income that has been coming in from my art history classes has been a nice contribution to our household in this economy. The one unfortunate thing about this is by taking on this responsibility, I have had to give up another.

Last week I gave my notice at Clayworks which is a studio that I teach two classes for once a week. I have been teaching there for about 8 years and have loved the students I have met and taught. My decision to stop teaching has been a hard one but one that was needed to focus on other responsibilities and loves in my life. Our home in York SC is an hour away from the studio and each year the drive back from Charlotte has concerned me more and more. Since I get up at about 6:30 every morning and don't usually get to bed until 12am every night, driving home at 10 has become a issue for me.

My other reason was my children. I really do enjoy being a mom and the best thing I always think that I can do for them is to just be here. I enjoy taking them and bringing them home from school and helping them learn how to organize there little lives from day to day. This week I had to put my five year old child, who had a temp. of 104 in the car and drive her 1/2 hour to my parents so I could teach. I thought about this through out the course of my classes and just wanted to be home. Both these situations have made me stop to think about my priorities and the fact that I need to slow down a bit. My family always comes first, doing what I love comes second and filling in our financial gaps the best way I can comes third. Time is so precious to me because I seem to have so little and would like more.

I hope I can continue my relationship with the folks at Clayworks. I hope all the great students I have had will continue to challenge their instructors, ask for new things to be taught, give lots of feedback and ideas and strive to make it the best it can be when it comes to educating people about ceramics.

I'll miss you guys come next fall. I guess your just going to have to come out to little Old York for a visit!