Staying at home, raising kids, has always been my dream. If we are being honest, I don’t like working. I don’t like working because I have never had an employer that I thought had any loyalty to me. The relationship has always been one sided.

I have to show up on time, work eight hours, and always produce the demanding results of whatever field I was in. In return I was paid minimum wage, offered health insurance that I wasn’t paid enough to afford, given an option to contribute to a 401k that I couldn’t afford, and had to deal sexism and ageism.

One day I decided to become a teacher and it was the best job ever but I was so stressed. I had hives all over my body, every single day, all school year. I complained about mold in my classroom that was ignored. The standardized testing industry has a stronghold on education and militant parents push for unreasonable teacher expectations even though they have no idea how to educate.

Nevertheless, I loved teaching. I loved figuring how to reach students and to get them to love history. The field of education is awesome and I love following it and seeing what curriculum teachers come up with.

In the first few years of staying home with my child (now children), education never left me. I still wrote curriculum. I still conducted research. I still read educational statistics.

Then one day, I read an article about Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) and their most successful seller. I didn’t fool myself into thinking that I could make $1 million but I figured I could make some money. I dream of replacing my old salary, $40,000, and paying off my student loans. It would be amazing to have an outlet for my thoughts and creativity and to stay fresh in education in case, one day, when my children are grown, I decide to go back into the classroom.

In May of this year (2017), I signed up for my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I had read tons of blogs and looked at hundreds of stores and knew that all successful teacher-sellers encouraged newbies to buy the premium seller account. That was my first investment. I paid $59.95 for the membership and now I earn a higher commission.

In June I uploaded my first products. Every month I add at least one new product but usually two and now boast 14 products. It is tiny in comparison of all successful stores but it is growing.

Honestly, I am having so much fun creating these products and figuring out the marketing. My days are filled with babies and squeezing in “work.” I am my own boss, don’t have to endure sexism and ageism, and even though at this point, I have made pennies an hour, I am excited to set and meet my goals.

Right now, I am looking to make sales every single month. As I reread that line it seems ridiculous but I am working to make a few sales every month. I look at that as progress. I look forward to the day that I make all of my investment money back but I have to be patient and keep working.

As I share my TpT journey I am going to share my experiences with design, Canva, Pinterest, Tailwind, pinning parties, administrators, and many more things. I have learned so much about my new industry from blogs but so many are plugging their affiliates. And that is fine. If you have garnered enough followers to have affiliates that pay you, please continue doing what you do. Good for you. But sometimes I don’t read the best information. I hope to share my honest experiences (mostly good) and without worrying about affiliates.

For more information about Canva, visit my blog about them or visit their site. I am not an affiliate of Canva.