greetings all. a lengthy tstout.com update felt a bit much, so i moved this over to my blogsphere. i thought i would take a moment and express my thanks for all the orders from my recent sale, as well as just update people on 'what have you been up to lately?' - which is a question i get asked now and again.
as for what i've been up to, just life, staying busy, never a dull moment. a handful of years ago i felt like i was missing out on my family's life, working too many long hours, not being the dad they deserved, so i took a step back from non-stop poster production. stopped working nights, shut down the office at 5:30, don't take on as many jobs.
it does mean i don't make as much money-wise, but i have a big family, 6 kids in the home and another one just graduated college, and we squeak by. sarah and i have been foster parents for about 10 years, some need permanent placement, some just need homes while family things get worked out. just trying to be involved with each of my kids lives, volunteer in their weekly scout program, active in the camp they attend each summer. i get to help design shirts and signs for the events they're all involved in, just being present in their lives.
currently my health is pretty good, we've lost some amazing top tier poster artists in the past year, and that certainly is on my mind. no one lives forever, taking time to prepare my kids for life, being the person my dad was in my life, my grandpa was in my life. i feel very blessed to have been a part of the family i had growing up, and my goal is to make sure my kids feel that way as well.
all that to say, i stay busy, i help raise chickens, ducks, goats, do gardening, greenhouses, tree forts. we got five cats (ugh), 4 dogs, sarah's parents live in their RV behind our barn, my parents live in the house next to us (which is nice as they get older). it is by no means a perfect life, a lot of things i would have done differently in my own life, the amount of grace shown to me by sarah is unmeasurable.
all that to say, this is made possible through the stuff i can sell on my site. its difficult taking money from you all, i never want to be a reason for family strife ('you spent how much on that???') or lack of finances ('going to have to skip a few meals this month to pay for this print'), i want to be a blessing not in just my own family's life but in the lives of those that buy stuff from me. might be silly, but i owe a lot of people and that is something i take very seriously.
so, hopefully that answers the 'what are you up to?' type question, as well as conveying how much sarah and i do appreciate the orders that come in. every single sale i always wonder, 'is anything going to sell?' and after every single sale, i am completely overwhelmed with thankfulness on just being able to provide for the family i've been blessed with.
and that's it, nothing else, i could be gone tomorrow from a heart attack or hit by a comet or devoured by flesh eating bacteria, but i do feel pretty at peace with my life. and that's good! my sincere hope for each of you is that peace finds you as well. and if you have to choose between picking up something from my sale or finding peace, choose peace every time. not in a hippy-dippy way, but we've had foster kids come into our homes with a furrowed brow, ready to punch the world for the way its treated them. and seeing that anger in their faces fade away, that look of just feeling safe, that's worth a billion akira variants. and my hope for everyone reading this is just that, a peace that surpasses all understanding.
ALRIGHT HOLMES, PEACE OUT.
