Tag: fun ideas

Posted in brain games, Find the Difference, Fun Puzzles, life, spot the odd, Thoughts

Spot The Odd Bird Challenge Your Brain🦢🐔🐦 Find the Difference Quiz: Can You Find Them?

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

It has been well over a year since I have actively posted something to this blog, because of the uncertainty created by having to sell our home thanks to the sky rocketing cost of living. I figured that it would be a while before I would have a chance to post again, so I set up about six months of articles that would automatically post. Hoping that by that time we would have found a stable place to live. Was I ever wrong.

In less than a year we moved 7 different times, going from one AirBNB to another. Until thankfully, my Uncle recognized that we were in danger of ending up on the street and invited us into his home. And true to the saying, no act of kindness goes unpunished, one health disaster after another has resulted in my mother and I being unable to drive for the last 8 months. Instead of enjoying leisurely days, he has had to ferry us from one doctor appointment to another, take us to pick up meds, and even drive us to the grocery store.

It is sad but true that stress is the word of the day and has been for the past few years. And it certainly has not been reduced by looking at the price of housing. Ouch! It is hard to believe that a moldy, hole ridden, major fixer upper, now cost as much as a two story, 5-6 bedroom, 4 bath home, with pool did only a few months after we moved into the house we had to sell in 2008, never mind what it would have been able to get when I was a kid.

Needless to say, I needed something to get my mind off of the intense stress of wondering if we would ever be able to have our own home again, and what will happen next if my health keeps slipping. 24 iron infusions in a year triggering major fibromyalgia flare ups hardly establishes confidences in one’s future. We are definitely giving our trust muscles a major workout as we do our best to cast our burdens on Jesus.

I knew that I needed some type of down time as we try to regroup and figure out what is going on and what we should do next. Yet I also wanted a way to advertise my books on Amazon and activity packs on Etsy. Thankfully the Lord opened a door to an inexpensive course about creating quiz videos for You Tube. I was already making Bible games, but it had never occurred to me to try and make quiz videos using some of the games in my activity packs.

I do not know if my little quiz channel will take off. Nothing I do seems to work. I certainly give it my hundred percent, but sometimes I think that my hundred percent is equal to -1000. It really is frustrating, but as long as I have reason to believe this is the path I am supposed to be walking in right now, by the grace of God I will plug along like a determined turtle trusting that one day He will help me to win the race.

It might never take off and grant me the hundreds of sales that I need or even reach the mark for getting monetized (although I wish it would and that is my goal), but at least it has been fun to make. And maybe if I am lucky, it will at least bring me an extra sell or two. I hope that you enjoy this video. It was the very first one that I released for my new quiz channel.

Posted in life, Thoughts, Uncategorized

My First 3 Sales

Posted on by katherinebrianneparilli

It is so exciting, the other day I made my 3rd sale on Etsy. That is a one sale a month average. Hardly an exciting start, as 1 sale a month is far from a living wage or even enough to buy a pizza. Depending on any discounts and cost of ads, it might barely be enough to buy a small pint of on sale ice cream, yet for me it is a huge deal as it gives me a minute taste of success and gives me hope that someday I might be able to make my dream a reality.

How long it will take for my shop to become a success, if it ever does, is uncertain. Like the Etsy and self-publishing experts warn, if you want to build a business that will last, you have to be in it for the long haul. You have to go in with the mind set that this is going to be a long term investment of your time. Otherwise you will be tempted to take short cuts that will hurt your reputation or even shut down your business.

You have to go in with the understanding that, especially if like me, you do not have a large media presence and a host of family and friends ready and waiting to buy your books or your latest Etsy creation, it is highly unlikely that your shop is going to start with a bang.

Like the tortoise in the story of the tortoise and the hare, if you want to have any hope of winning the race, you have to ignore the fact that you are not blessed to be one of the lucky few who can race out of the gate and within a few days be selling hundreds of dollars worth of goods. Like the tortoise you just have to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that it will be days, weeks, months, and even years before you have a flourishing shop.

Instead of focusing on how far you have to go, you have to take aim at the first goal, then the second, the third, and so on. Knowing that even though it does not appear like much today, like a puzzle, you are creating the frame work that will one day fill into a beautiful picture that you can be proud of.

Sure there are going to be a lot of days where you feel discouraged because it seems like nothing you do moves the cart in the direction that you want to go. That no matter how much time and effort you make, success refuses to acknowledge you. Sadly, while you dream of making a thousand sales in a month, you might for a time have to celebrate that solitary monthly sale.

But hopefully with a lot of prayerful work and persistence, the day will come when one sale turns into two, then three, four, a dozen, and eventually one glorious day enough to pay your bills and enjoy the life of your dream.

If you would like to check out this fun collection of word games, mazes, and more, click here.