Today I finished the compiling and editing of Valley Sunshine, the Christian newsletter I’ve mentioned here before. Tomorrow I will be printing over 60 copies and mailing them. Issues normally consist of 22 – 24 pages of encouragement, poems, stories, teaching, jokes, birthdays, pen pals .. and so on, and are sent out quarterly – Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. Because I took a real vacation this Summer, I am just getting the Summer one out to my subscribers. They’re very patient with me. 🙂 As soon as this one is gone from my house I will start on the Autumn (Fall) one, so they will be very close together. I don’t want to be working on it in November during NaNoWriMo.
This all started in 1985, and back then Valley Sunshine operated by donations and occasional fund-raising. I published and sold 200 copies of a cookbook of members’ yummy recipes, asked members to make crafts and send to me — over 200 wonderful items arrived which I sold at local craft fairs!, and I requested and received members’ beautiful poetry which I made into a book of over 70 poems. I printed off too many of those, though, and I still have some here to sell. Maybe one day they’ll all be gone. 🙂
So, as I was saying, we operated that way for over ten years, then I stopped for about ten years, starting up again in 2007. Many of the same members are with me again, which is nice. I would have tried this time to operate on donations except that most wanted to have a regular subscription fee and were quite happy with the price I set. I’m not making money doing this, that’s for sure; it all goes back into operating and mailing costs.
The first time around I had over 500 members all over the world, and that was a big job along with other projects I had going, and my family and household to manage. I sometimes wonder where I ever got the energy! Because of the expense of mailing overseas, this time I am sending only to people in Canada and the United States, so membership is much lower but slowly increasing.
If you are interested in further information you can send an email to valleysunshine at gmail dot com.
The scripture verse that has always been part of our logo is Malachi 4:2 – … the Sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in His wings.
I have also just started as a book reviewer and have three books here which I have to read and send in my reports, I’ll also blog about them here. The first one I received I’ve begun reading so must finish it soon.
What interesting challenges have you taken on? I’d love to hear about it.
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Polilla Writes 
Wow you do have a lot on your plate! Right now just keeping up with all my homeschooling commitments and my home is just about all I can do! 🙂
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You are doing a lot, Esther, very important things. Don’t ever think it’s not enough. We are to be faithful in all we do.
I didn’t homeschool because I knew I was not suited to it. Instead I put my energy into other things, and some days just being available to my children was enough.
I believe motherhood is the highest calling. We shape minds and families and beyond, you know. 🙂
Thanks for your comment.
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That sounds so remarkable, Lynn. I don’t think you give yourself enough credit for all that you do. 🙂
I haven’t taken on any interesting challenges, just the challenge of trying to juggle work/family/writing. and everything else in between.
I like your new blog look!
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Thanks for the vote of confidence, Laura. Maybe it’s that I commit to more than I can keep up with well enough and that makes me feel as if I’m not accomplishing much. Maybe?
I think that you do have interesting challenges .. work, family and writing? Well, Yeah! Especially when that writing has resulted in a published YA book! Good for you, Girl! And you’re a Grandma, too. (thumbs up!)
Funny you should say you like my blog’s new look … I was thinking about changing it again – unsure if it was easy enough to navigate. 🙂 Thanks, I will wait awhile now. Anyway, I had realized that I liked my first one so much that I was going to easily settle myself into a rut. Time to change it up a bit. As a fallout of that I may make a theme change every few months or so as there are others I would like to try out.
Thanks for stopping by, Laura. I appreciate your comments. 🙂
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