Ebby Pearson

I haven't intentionally watched the news....since.....oh.....2010?
I saw a man in a GIF of all things, like before shorts were thing, laying his 3 dead children down and crying over their dead bodies. I couldn't eat for three days. I had just become a mother of 2 at that time and that was the big NOPE for me.
I literally just let my husband filter the nonsense and if it pertains to life or something I'll hear about that will poorly effect me, he lets me know and I'm pretty okay with that.
I've been living with less stress and anxiety because of it so there's that.

And it's not like I don't discuss current events, I just have a person filter the stuff that doesn't matter.

I know I'm ten years too late, but maybe this will help other moms like us starting out.
What we did:

Start with easy projects not complicated or long ones. Those aren't just hard on kids, they're taxing for the momma too. (or dad, if you're here). Small accomplishments help you achieve more success over time.
like having kids go on a hike and identify flowers, plants, bugs, etc.
you it first- easy stuff like common weeds and flowers.
then have them draw what they saw.
OR
Collect things to make a collage.
Keep repeating what you know and they'll get interested and take it seriously later.
it isn't art but small garden projects like potted plants (they can decorate the pots with markers even) and use easy growing plants like herbs (marjoram, mint, basil) helps them want to grow their own things.
Don't impose too many rules for the project. Makes it less fun and littles need that freedom to enjoy the art.

There's some pretty good general stuff on youtube. As long as you don't get too hard on yourself- eat the meat and spit out the bones. Do that with literally EVERYTHING on youtube. Getting started doesn't have to be complicated, give yourself grace and remember most of these people started somewhere.


( I edited this post because I got off on a gardening tangent - I have a lot of toddlers distracting me and I was initially on here for a gardening thing, lol)
Hope this helps someone.

Personal experience- hobbies are alive and well and plenty of people have them they just don't broadcast it. Or, they are working and don't need or want one. Seen plenty of both.
More importantly, why can't people bring back ice cream socials? Important questions.

I enjoy the non-invasive emails with tiny ads that aren't annoying and are generally very useful and not flashy. They don't have dumb click bait titles and I both enjoy reading or deleting as I see fit.
They're great.

I'm a gardening newbie, but looking through this was really helpful and is making our families endeavors WAY less stressful. We have really dense clay soil too so it's been cool just doing the dump it all on the ground method.
My younger kids enjoy reading it and learning with me. So that's another bonus.

That wood working art is just, wow. Beautiful.
I'm neither old, nor cranky. Photoshopped covers are just...disappointing.

I'm really, really new here. But, my husband also just published a book.
Different topic though.

Your cover, while it does have awesome stuff, looks really busy. It's hard to focus on any one thing and it doesn't really present a powerful idea. I got really lost in all of the depictions. So instead of being curious about what SKIP really means I became disinterested because there was so much going on.

Is your audience for people already doing this, or is it for new people, or both?