Good Riddance to May

What a month! I won't be sorry to see May end. I have had a lot of deadlines this month. My friend and I made a quilt for the pastor of our church, my other friend had 2 quilts to make for her grandchildren and needed a lot of help and I had a quilt I had to make for Quiltmaker magazine.

All of this, along with computer problems and regular life mixed in, made May a tough month for me! Anyone that has been reading my blog for awhile knows that I teach quilting and sewing classes on a regular basis, design quilts for my own pattern company and take care of my aunt (and one of my best friends) who has MS.

Last year I had to reduce my teaching hours at my regular job to make taking care of my aunt my "regular job". Unfortunately, my aunt has had some setbacks this year and she has been back in the nursing home for a couple of months which gives me a little more time for my other jobs, but now I am no longer receiving the small salary I was getting as her caregiver. The hours I gave up at my teaching job are no longer available and I want to remain free to go back to taking care of my aunt if and when she needs me again.

I am typing this post on my husband's ancient computer as my four month old laptop is being repaired.

I taught a class earlier this week in which I had a very disturbing experience. I had a student pack up her supplies and machine and announce that she was "done" and that she'd had "enough". I have never had this happen before and was so shocked that it took about 5 minutes to realize she was upset with ME! Anyone that knows me or has ever taken a class with me knows that I go out of my way for my students. I make sure they understand what I am teaching and have actually redesigned projects for some students who have difficulty or want to see what a project will look like in a different color way or size. I'm still not exactly sure what I wasn't doing for this student that she expected me to do. I had made several visits to her side and always check to see if anyone needs help during the course of the class. I give my cell phone number to anyone that wants it if they have any questions after the class ends. I had at least 3 of the other students contact me the day after the class to thank me and tell me how much they enjoyed the class and how much they appreciate me, so I'd like to think the problem was with her, not me.

I know this post seems like a series of complaints, and I suppose it is, but I consider it venting so feel free to ignore it or if you feel the need to vent a little yourself post a comment!