Dare to DREAM!

This week's challenge from the TPT Seller Challenge is a tough one... My husband has asked me a few  SEVERAL times, "Honey, if I made a million dollars and you didn't have to work any more, would you?" My answer is always the same, yes. Truth is, I love my job.  Is it always easy? No. Is it always fun? No. Is it always where I want to be from 7:30-4 (when I have two sweet boys at home)? Definitely not. But I do enjoy it, and really can't picture myself doing anything else. Possibly, stay at home mom, but I think it's good for my kiddos to go to daycare, and spend some time away from me. So I'm ok with being a working mom.  In thinking about what I want the Teachers Pay Teachers money to do for me, it doesn't have to eliminate me working... I like my job and the people I work with (my MOM!) So I had to think about other things that I wanted for my family.  In doing that I came up with this list... 

1. Family vacation EVERY year!  
I want to be able to show my children this wonderful country we live in.. New York, Washington, D.C., Florida Keys, Grand Canyon, Seattle, Hawaii, Mount Rushmore, Disney World... all of it! I want to give them some wonderful experiences that children in my class never get. I was able to do this with my family and have some very fond memories of our trips on the road. 

2. College funds for Jaxton and Hendrix.  
While these two sweet boys are only 2 and 4 months old and are vastly unaware of the possibilities of the word out there, I am thinking about them growing up too fast and that they will one day need a higher education (if that is what will make them happy). My mom, bless her heart, has already started a fund for my oldest, Jaxton. While I will be happy to apply that money to his education, I would like to help out myself and not just rely on my mom, and student loans.  I was blessed to be able to come out of school with only a few student loans (which just got paid off in April! woo hoo!) and I want the same for my two children. 

3. Pay off ALL debt.
This alone would ease the financial burden that I sometimes feel and would free us up to be able to do numbers 1 and 2 on this list.  I know that extra income would help with this goal and it would be wonderful to have the feeling of being debt free. I am so glad we have the house (with new windows coming soon!!), cars (which are mostly paid off), and educations that my husband and I have (his student loans still aren't paid for!) but it would be nice to not have to pay, and pay, and pay, and pay for them. 

4. Help family in any time of need.
My husband and I have been blessed with wonderful families that are willing to help us in any time of need.  Buying our house, my grandparents helped out. My husband needed a new car, his grandma was there with money , no questions asked. We needed new nursery furniture and carpet, my mom was there. New fence for the yard so my two year old can play without us having to herd him outside, my father-in-law helped out. Because of this, we have a wonderful life, but I would love to be able to give back should a time come when they need our help as well with nursing homes anything in the future. 

5. Pay it forward
This kind of goes along with 4... There have been many people willing to help us out when we needed it and I would love to give it back without anything in return.  I would love to make someones day by paying for their dinner, groceries or even just a coffee, unexpectedly.  

I have enjoyed, immensely, thinking about all of the possibilities I have with the supplemented income from Teachers Pay Teachers.  Thank you to the company for starting, Amanda Bryant from A Traveled Teacher for being supportive and polite when I have some OODLES of questions about the social networking world, and the ladies who put together this wonderful TPT Seller Challenge (Sparkling in Second Grade, Preppy, Zesty Teacherista, Teach, Create, Motivate, and Third in Hollywood).  Without this challenge who knows how much longer I would have been putting off wanting to start blogging, Facebook, Instagram and Teachers Pay Teachers all together for Shakin' it up with Mrs. Shannon.  I am in love with this journey and love the support I have received so far.