~Giving Birth~

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I've been in labor for almost a week now...No, not with child! But with my business.

Working from home has its challenges, especially since I stay at home most everyday and my level of interaction with the world has its limits. So, I connect via the Web and have been working on a website to show off my wares (and eventually my photography business, too!)

Actually, I've been **learning** a lot, too, and staying up really late!

Searching for a 'deal' with a new website, I decided to go with yet another blog and attempt to sell things there, but I wanted it to look like a business website.

I bought a domain from Blogger, http://www.designsbydaune.com/ and began working on it immediately. Then, after all my effort, I still wasn't satisfied and I was frustrated because when I'd view other's blogs and how they had a business on theirs, I realized I would probably have to pay someone to have a nice one...until I stumbled upon Microsoft Office Live for Small Business websites for free! Just the thing I'd been searching for all along!

Well, I still have to buy a domain to have the name I have now, but initially I'm using the free one until I actually sell my stuff! Here's the Designs by D.A.U.N.E. website! If you visit my site, please accept my apology beforehand because although I've given birth to this creation, she's weak and needing much nurturing. But, she's alive and the labor to deliver has been worth the pain!

It definitely has affected everyone in our home! Yet, we all are working together as a family to learn what it means to own a business, to serve each other and to walk in grace and truth toward one another!

So, now I have four blogs and one business website...if only I was savvy enough to figure out how to have only a couple or somehow melt them altogether into one (and get some sleep!)

...Another day!

So, if you have a moment and would like to visit Designs by D.A.U.N.E. ,be sure to stop by my 'About Daune' page and read my bio! If it's off a little, it might be because I wrote it at 1 a.m. last nite!
God bless and happy blogging!

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**Short note**: I've learned through all this that God is for me, He wants my attention, my heart and He desires that I put Him before anything else, especially a business. I see the propensity I have toward running from Him or ignoring Him because I've condemned myself for not living up to expectations that I set for myself, not what He's set for me. This mind game is exhausting. Yet, He is teaching me what grace is. How He relentlessly pursues me and has a plan for me that is better than any my mind can conceive. I realized, too, that when one is learning something new, that there is this thing that happens...you go to bed thinking about what you're learning, dream about it and wake thinking about it...like when I worked outside the home and began a new job...wanting to learn everything immediately and do my best and focusing on this new job had a way of working its way into every area of my thought life until I had it down pat and became second nature...I hope this is making sense cuz I wanted to jot down that Jesus is working in my heart and I am growing...it's just growing pains and sometimes I forget to relax and ride the wave of change...I hate how hard I am on myself...His yoke is easy, His burden light...I will get this down, if it takes me all my life!!!

...and I haven't written in so long and have missed sharing my heart...

(Oh, this pool is time consuming, too! Having to walk around and skim so often is so boring to me, but it's wearing the boys out to play and that's a great thing!)

Hope you all had a great 4th! We drove to Burger King, bought cones and watched the fireworks on the curb! NO traffic or fussing...then we all came back home and swam...it was 103 degrees at 8 p.m.!!! It felt more like bathing!

Life is so good!

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...Where Do I Begin?...

Let's see. First off, my mom is in the hospital for the ninth time this year, I think !...then there my new website : Designs by D.A.U.N.E and eventually, when I make some money and get rid of the ads on the page and have more storage space, I'll sell my photos as well. But until then I'll let that go...('focus, Daune, focus...')
But the most wonderful thing to share is that:

I'm going to be a gramma again!!!!

While searching the thrift store for "Batteries Not Included" (which we never found), I got a phone call and the funny thing is that when I heard Rachael's voice, for some reason I knew what she was gonna tell me...we couldn't be more delighted and thrilled! Trinity Faith will only be thirteen months old when either Preston Allen or another little red-headed girl comes on board!

Is she ever gonna need me and am I ever gonna need her! God is in charge of that department.

Today I was thinking about the criticism I've received for leaving family and traveling this far to follow my husband.

On the surface, it looks like I am selfish and don't really care about my family-ie. my parents, daughter, grandchildren, friends, etc...but, the truth is that I care deeply, but if I care more about them and what they think than I do about Fearing God and obeying His Word, then I am not fit to follow Him. I am not going forward if I focus on what I left behind. My focus is on where I am today, what my husband's purpose is and how I am to position myself to serve Him by Serving him. 'Wives submit to your husband as unto the Lord..."...to the degree I serve my husband, that is the degree I am serving Jesus.

I suppose this is what Grace is all about. My heart is at peace to be here with everyone I know dearly and love deeply up there. Unless one experiences it, it's difficult to explain.

These are just some of my ponderings lately...

Thanks for sharing them with me ;o)

daune