Help! I Need Somebody!

If I've learned nothing over the past few months, I have learned that I absolutely can't get to the next level alone. But it's not just about having help, it's about having quality help. And the kind of help I truly value is the help of someone who knows how to do things I don't, someone who works like me and/or someone willing to do whatever they can without complaint. I've found I need that in my business. I've found I need it at work. I've even decided it's time to embrace the fact that I need it at home. To have that help is to free my mind to do what I do, whatever that may be depending on where I am.

And so I now have my virtual assistant whom I pay. She knows more than I do about a variety of things AND she works and thinks like me AND she's willing to do whatever it take. Who can't appreciate that? And I also have my virtual assistant who has been with me since day one - literally - my mother. She has done so much of what we have needed to lay a foundation for Village Works. We are on our way to making her glad she was there.

At work we have a really good set of interns who prove that you can find quality people still in college, even high school. It has brought a glimmer of hope that I can get out from under an ever-growing mound of work that is a mix of keeping track of yesterday, keeping up with today and planning for tomorrow. To-do lists are resurfacing because of this glimmer and I'm determined to make the most of this good fortune.

At home it's time to give up the things I hate. There are many things that don't bother me. I can do laundry any old day. My hatred of washing dishes when I was young has turned into a greater disdain for sinks overrun with them. But the refrigerator and the stove? I don't know what it will cost me, but I am giving them up.

In one of the many teleseminars I have listened to, one expert said you have to stop saying, "I can't afford it" and start saying, "What do I need to do to make this investment?" And so I ask and I move forward.

The result? The business has been busy every month and I'm about to dive in deeper with the business coach who leads the inspiring group I am a part of. I expect to see that next level I always knew was there.

At work, I can feel the control coming back stronger than ever as I give up some of the minors in order to make the majors. After all, one of my strengths there is being the person who knows the history of things and the where and why, in addition to managing projects in a way that makes it easy for the person behind me to do what they need to. I like being that person and I want to strengthen that as much as possible.

At home? Well, I still have to find someone to do what I need and then I'll be able to say for sure. But I imagine it'll be a sweet feeling to click away on my computer knowing that my family at least has a clean stove and fridge to use. I don't need much more than that. After all, that's what kids are for and it's for them that I'm doing this in the first place.

Ah! Things are lightening and brightening making it easier to go far. Stay with me. We'll get there.

I Want to Sleep. I Want to Thank.

I am tired. I get this way sometimes so I'm not worried about it. When you do a lot like I do it's bound to happen. All I want to do at the moment is go to work, go home and do whatever homework the kids have that's not done (there is always undone homework no matter what time I get home), and then watch TV or play sudoku on Son's DS. That's it. I'm not in the mood for anything else at the moment. So my life is waiting on me. It's a puppy I tossed outside to do its business and now it's clawing at the door trying to get back in.

• It's the lesson I need to complete for my children's writing course.
• It's the bio I need to write for the woman who interviewed me for her book.
• It's the HUNDREDS of emails I need to go through in my business emailbox.
• It's the single page I need to write (and the other page I need to update) in order to be done with my book proposal.
• It's the email I need to send out to reconnect with people who took an interest in our puzzles.
• It's the ad I need to create to go in the newspaper some time next month.
• It's the catalog I need to review.
• It's the people I need to respond to about hopefully using/selling/advertising our puzzles.
• It's the printer I need to visit about some projects and a proposal my partner and I want to make.
• It's the greeting card copy I need to write. (This dog is getting bigger by the letter, right?)
• It's the labels I still need to print off for the last of the puzzles we repackaged.
• It's the 2 articles I need to review before passing them on to a friend to edit for me.
• It's the vending this month I need to start preparing for.

So what's in the way?

• My son has more work to do to complete his Bear Badge requirements. He can't do it alone. And then come the extra badges.
  
• My son has signed up for Little League and the first clinic to help him start getting ready is this Saturday. There's another in 2 weeks. Then maybe some training in March. LL starts in April.
  
• My daughter sings in the children's choir and though rehearsal is currently only once a month, it's still something else to do. (It's going to go 2x a month soon.)
• We're thinking about signing Daughter up for swimming lessons so she can finally do what she thinks she can do - swim. Son has enough on his plate right now. He can learn later.
  
• Every. Single. Weekday, there is homework I have to help finish or a project that is coming up - for either kid, sometimes both and sometimes this require library visits.
  
• You know, that refrigerator does NOT clean itself. Nor does the tub. Or the dishes. And the laundry, though full of pieces with perfectly good arms and legs, refuses to pick itself up and walk upstairs for me. I think I've told you in the past this is OK because the spouse tends to cook and clean the rest of the bathroom and vaccum and grocery shop so no, I can't put any of this off on him.
• Daughter wants me to read to her. I don't do it every night but she tries. After a certain hour, my reading skills are zapped, I keep telling her.
• I really need to do Daughter's hair. That means at least 4 hours out of any given day. Probably closer to 6 depending on how small I make her braids, if I braid it that same day. In the meanwhile, the puffs she loves so much taunt me. Daring me to wash them. (This is one of those times I thank God for our hair and the fact that we don't have to wash it every day.)
• I should probably factor in the myriad of other events that crop up - The graduation dinner I went to last night for people I know who graduated from the business workshop I took years ago; the PTA meeting tonight, the hair appointment Friday night.
  

And at work?

• There are columns to read and magically transform into whatever the focus du jour is at that time.
• There's a whole website to periodically go through and keep track of.
• New stuff to write.
• Old stuff to update.
• People to manage off site.
• Questions to answer.
• Info to research for various projects or quizzes or whatever needs to be created.
• Newsletters to write.
• And that's all just a bit of everything I do that I could easily do every day until at least 7 before going home to wrangle homework and force people to take their baths.

I should go to a couple of business networking meetings twice a month but I haven't the energy right now. I should go to my sorority meeting once a month, but I don't feel like tripping up to Hartford even that amount of time. Son's birthday is coming up. I really should start thinking. Daughter saw Dora on a billboard. I really should look into it or else cover up all the windows on the car except the front one. Valentine's Day is coming. I need to go order a cake from the one place I know will make it but it's a special trip, not a stop along any way I normally travel. I need to blog. Oh wait! I'm doing that now. Yay! I should visit my other online networking groups. Soon, I hope.

My fatigue, however, does not keep me or Bizzy Girl from thinking of ways to get the business to work itself while our children are taking over our lives. Her daughter's schedule is equal or greater than my two put together. We have a current idea that we are discussing and it's not a small step to make if we do it; if we can find the right person to do it with us and we have someone in mind but will he do it?

Now, in other news, Eve from Are We There Yet? graced me with an award almost 2 weeks ago! Finally I am able to mention it and thank her for it. She's cool people. A new friend I made in the webosphere. Here's my award. Cool, right?



Here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received the award.

My ten won't be easy to compile because honestly, I don't really have time to follow 10! But the few I have - who actually update their blog that is - fit the bill so easily.
1 - YewNorkBabe
2 - LooneyMom
3 - SixUntilMe
4 - Hot Chocolate Caramel Mocha
5 - Nadine Thompson

All of these women are funny and/or engaging and/or inspiring and/or moms or a wonderful mix of some or all of these qualities. It will do your heart good to visit them all if you can find more time than I can to do it.

Break over. Thanks for helping me chill a bit. Back to work.

Have you voted for us today in the Start Up Nation Leading Moms in Business 2009 Competition? Check it out here. We'd REALLY appreciate it if you vote and you can do it every day until March 31, 2009 PT. There's even a new meter there now to show you how hot we are! Go ahead. Vote! We wanna be hot, hot, hot! Thanks for your support!

Little Women

We have a puzzle emergency. Yes they happen. Especially right now with crazy stuff going on with the customers we deal with at my job too. Overall, it's a busy time with Son's summer program and the puzzles and the vending that is going on in NC right this very moment where we are being represented to potential customers. There's is the book proposal I still need to get back to work on. We've got a newspaper article to our credit now and a podcast too. It's life.

So I am outside on the phone with a die company. Can't get what I want today. I call my manufacturer to tell him the deal. I watch as one woman sloooowly walks down the street assisting another who clearly has issues with her legs. I notice their slow pace and wonder if it's leisurely to the woman who is helping or is she just used to taking it really slow for the sake of this other woman. I think it might bug me a little.

I leave a voice mail message for my manufacturer who is in and out and I keep watching the women walk toward me. As I wrap up my message, they pass me by.

"Ma'am. Ma'am! Ma'am!"

I see the disabled woman is trying to look my way, throwing ma'ams at me like a pushy toddler.

"Um, I presume you mean me?"

"Are you waiting for the bus," she asks for all to hear.

"No I am not."

"I need to take the bus."

I look at the woman with her who watched the exchange like she has no vested interest.

"Sorry. Don't know anything about the buses here. They come. Don't know where they go."

I step to her side on my way back into work. One of the summoned buses arrives just as I finish talking to her. The disabled woman then clasps my wrist as if I had offered it to her.

"I need to take the bus," and she begins to take me along on her little journey to the bus that has now pulled up and opened its doors. So now we are two women walking sloooowly with this woman. The bus driver looks like he knows her. She tells him where she needs to go while she climbs on board. I watch the other woman and tap her shoulder.

"Were you accosted?"

She smiles such a slightly confused and yet patient smile and laughs a little. "Yeah." I watch her wait as the woman gets on.

"God bless you."

"Thank you."

I go back to work.

Life is insane. I can't seem to get a moment of quiet. I think God just took me by the arm and said, "Slow down. You're going to get there. You've just got to help some people along the way."

Johnny Cash Would Be Proud

At last! The post I had to remove on Oct. 11 when this was originally supposed to run. Of course I have blogged since this went up then came down again so the whole "I've been busy" thing may not work so well now but I don't want to re-write this blasted thing! Pretend it's Oct. 11th.

I've been too busy living my life to blog about it. But that's no excuse, now is it? Bloggers have a responsibility to blog or else they not truly bloggers. I concur. Kerri is posting in a couple of different places now and I told her that my blog saw her OTHER blog, tugged my shirt and said, "Why does HER blog get a post and I don't?" So here I am saying, yes, I am alive but it's been nuts. I can prove it.

You know that Choice Hotel commercial that is using Johnny Cash's song? I've been doing everything, man!

I've been to cub scout meetings business meetings wrapping up a school fundraiser mother-in-law's church award thing selling popcorn at CVS business expo held in New York writing editing and shooting a script and in between dealing with sick girl and working long hours on my job projects - I've been everywhere man. I've been everywhere!

The shoot is something my co-workers and I created for our Boss' Day, which is next week but we're doing it tomorrow because one co-worker will be out of town next week and we're all chomping at the bit anyway. (OK. Clearly that didn't happen. Thus the late posting.) Lady Boss is fantastic and deserves this. We all agree. Three of us are writers so we wrote it. One of us is a video goddess so she and her fiance shot it and edited it and we know it will be hilarious. Stress relief for Lady Boss and us too, we expect. We used sock puppets, people. Yes. I stayed up late one night NOT blogging because I was IMing with my co-workers as we worked on the script and made our puppets. We also created T-shirts to go along with the day. Yes, I am 36, not 6 and no, I am not currently pledging a college sorority. Honest. But it was fun. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. This is me (being animated by Co-worker):



And this is me in the drawer with all of us:



We did this AFTER WORK so no finger wagging in my direction! Nyeh!

Now, in addition I have also helped 2 of said co-workers to create a visual representation of the Battle of the Brides. They are getting married next year - no silly, not to each other! - and they are doing it a week apart at that. One co-worker who knows I hate wedding talk (I didn't do a lot of it for myself either) says, "Oh, can't you play with us for just a LITTLE while?!" You asked for it, missy. So I took her idea for the timeline they wanted to create and said, "Squash that. This is what you do..." And this is what they did:



Can you see them? They are building wedding cakes tier by tier. Each cake represents what they have accomplished on their way to their respective wedding alters. Grimace and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle are racing to the top to ring the wedding bells in victory. Yes, this was my idea folks. I was determined to see it through. Good job, ladies!

Now, the rest is A LOT of cub scout stuff (Son sold lots of popcorn at CVS and his being cute helped a lot. Good for him! [I will not pimp my son. I will not pimp my son!]) and lots of library visits as I try to keep my kids in new books weekly (and me monthly) and me realizing that my business needs me to really put the pedal to the medal because these kids are just expensive! I've said it before and I say it again - kids (not babies, believe it or not) cost mega moolah. I wish I had time for a part-time job.

Oh, and in addition to what I've written here, I've been writing with my crit group twice a week and working on my novel outline for NaNoWriMo. What is it, Theresa asked. Why this, of course! See my little award over there in my sidebar? It's getting married next month. Mark my words - literally. I need 50,000 of them to win.

And then there is Village Works for which I have been working on an email campaign that went out this week. I've been through about 1,000 emails that I had to get added to our mailing list program so that took a few days, plus creating the email itself. You see, the fundraiser was a huge disappointment in that it never got kicked off properly and the kids just didn't do the job. Yeah, we got some orders. Yeah, we're talking high school seniors, which may be more than half of the problem here, but that just gave us a huge task for the next couple of weeks to get those orders bumped up to PROFIT level. We've got a one-week special going on and we'll see what comes of it. For certain all this business stuff going on (we met with an accountant in all this busy time too) and all the kid/family stuff that is breaking the bank is making me think it's time to get on the Ladies Who Launch bandwagon and see if we can make a profitable difference in 2008. It's too soon to give up. We KNOW we have something here. It's just a matter of making it work. Maybe I'll watch a little more Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane so I can get inspired. That woman is truly a dynamo and fun to watch. I don't want her life, just her money!

Oh and just so you know, I am also busy reading at night when I should be watching TV - or sleeping, as another co-worker would say. What am I reading? Two books I dug up from the library.

I got this one at the beginning of September and it's actually not bad but it didn't grab me as hard as I would like. Still it's a little bit of a tease so I hold on. The author is Daniel Wallace. He wrote Big Fish which became a movie. You've got a circus and a black magician who is really white. My favorite line so far from Henry the magician to a racist heckler in the audience as he tried to guess the card the heckler is hiding from him:

Henry closed his eyes and took a deep preparatory breath. A quizzical look appeared on his face. "I'm...I'm having trouble locating it. Your brain, I mean. Where do you keep it? Oh there it is. It was so small that for a moment I couldn't see it!

That had me rolling for 2 days. This is why I hang on.

And there there is his one by British author Sophie Kinsella. It caught my attention pretty quickly, something that is not easily done. But the British text can be a little distracting at times. She has this awful habit of having her somewhat gawky, a little inept character say "Er" and "Erm" a lot and that Erm thing is bugging the heck out of me. What is that, anyway? "Er" I can stand but even that is getting run over repeatedly and stabbed with a big stick in this book. Still, she makes me want to know what the heck is going to happen to this girl. She reminds me a bit of Bridget Jones and... darn it! There is someone else too but I can't grasp her book title. It was about a working mother and the juggling she had to do. Anyone recall it?

I think I am sufficiently caught up until the next time I get behind. See you soon!