I swear I’m still here. Deep in Mitzvah season and getting into school and senior photos soon too, plus spring, and 5th grade yearbook creation, theatre rehersal carpooling, still unemployed husband and all the fun that comes with switching your health insurance from regular insurance to medicaid and trying to get two of your favorite meds that need prior authorizations for to go through. Ugh. Plus world war three still going on in Ukraine and politics and the stupid truckers convoy in DC and then the Foos tragedy, I just haven’t had the bandwidth to write. Doesn’t help that the temps the last few days have been WINTERY even though we are past peak cherry blossom season and I’m done. Those few days where we got sunshine and vitamin D were glorious and now mother nature said “NOT SO FAST SUCKERS” and blew in for one last romp.

Have we talked about Boundaries before? They are really good. And a skill that many of us have to learn because it doesn’t come naturally. We have to stop being people pleasers all the time – to parents, to teachers, to bosses, and especialy to peers. As someone who’s been self employed now for almost 12 years I know I’ve had moments where I’ve taken on freelance jobs that I really didn’t have room on my plate for. Or scheduled so many photography sessions in the fall that I’ve given myself tennis elbow. There’s a tendancy for those of us deep in the hustle to always say yes. To always be thinking and working and coming up with more ideas and more plans and moving moving moving. To always say yes to a customer or client. I can drive there! I can shoot that! I can work with your geriatric dog who bites and twin toddlers together lets do it! I’m at a point finally where I’m ok saying no to some jobs if they don’t strike my fancy or I get a weird vibe from the host (it’s rare but there have been a couple jobs over the years that I wish I hadn’t taken). Sure, the money is always nice to have but I’ve learned that the money isn’t always worth it in some situations.

Boundaries aren’t always saying no, but it feels like that sometimes. I have to set them when I updated my pricing. Sure, there are people that will say they are now too high (haha, go find someone cheaper with the same quality in DC. I’ll wait.) but this was a decision made with lots of consideration and my boundary is not apologizing for that. It’s also not writing blog posts twice a week like my original goal. Nope. Not going to stress myself out there. I’ve already flip flopped so many times about the purpose of this website and I honestly don’t care if blog posts are the best way to drive traffic to your site. I only want potential customers to come here. If I get 500 visitors but only 10 of them are local and potential to work with then who cares about the other 490? So I will post when the moment moves me. I have three drafts in my inbox waiting to be finished but I just haven’t had the brainpower so sit they will till I get around to it. Meanwhile, I got a full album of bat mitzvah pics out to a client a week and a half after their event and that’s an excellent notch in my customer service belt.