Family business

Did you know that 99% of small businesses fail? Did you know that a large contributing factor to this statistic is a failure to adequately plan. This was one of the first facts I learnt in my high school business studies class.

A love for business was born in me back then which I have not been able to shake since. 14 years later, I have graduated from a degree in business, only my role now is in our home, not out running a business.

Since graduating, I've spent quite a lot of time feeling stupid for holding our family up financially, by investing in an [expensive] education that we can't use to better our financial position. What a waste of time and money I've thought. But do you know what I'm now learning? This degree has taught me plenty for running a successful household and managing money. See, I'm starting to see that families are not all that dissimilar to a small business.

You have the CEO (the husband), the leader of the whole company. The Managing Director (me - the wife) who oversees the day-to-day running of the household. The CFO (someone who controls the finances, in charge of the budget and paying the bills). Money comes in (income or profits) and money goes out (expenses). A place (home) is required for the base operations to take place in. The company (family) has a vision, where they want to be, and a core service offering: providing a nurturing place to support, strengthen and encourage people (children), a platform from which to propel them into the world to achieve all that God has planned for them. Running a successful family requires intense management of resources, money, time and energy; and significant collaboration between the senior management team (husband and wife).

Back to my introductory statement, many small businesses fail for lack of planning. I wonder if this can be true for families also. Many families, while still together, may not achieve all they could or want to for lack of planning. Planning keeps you focused, on track and working together. Planning creates a peace around achieving goals. It increases success and the beauty is that it comes in all shapes and sizes. I like plans and I think they are important. Can you tell? ;)

Anyway, I wanted to encourage all the wives (and mums) out there. If you are a wife or a mum, your role is incredibly valuable, you are also a Managing Director with the potential to have a very successful business!

Encouraging words for Christian mothers

Westley read this to me on 28 March 2006 and I wrote it down. It has been a huge source of encouragement to me over the past six years and I thought it may encourage some other mums out there. They are direct quotes from Rick Joyner in the "The Great Liberation" in the Morning Star Journal Vol. 15. No.4.

• "Our children have a greater calling than Solomon: they are called to reign with Christ. Therefore, every mother of a christian child is a true "queen mother"."
• "What women are called to do in the home, in intercession, and teaching children, is far more important than going out and making money."
• "It is said that our basic character traits are set by the time we are four years old. Therefore, this is when teaching and instruction are most critical. The mothers teaching has its greatest impact on the child during these most formative years, and this can have the greatest impact on the course of a person's life."

I hope they bring encouragment to you too!

The simple woman's daybook

This is my first daybook entry... I spotted these first on another blog and enjoyed reading them, so I thought you might enjoy reading mine...

Outside my window...
it is gloomy and cool. This has been a weird summer, but nice.

I am thinking...
that I should really read more Beatrix Potter to the girls.

I am thankful...
it is Friday. A restful day and we have no pressure on us for today except dancing for the girls this afternoon.

In the kitchen...
it is a mess :( oh my goodness, I haven't thought much about food for today. Probably gluten-free sausages as they are a hit with Mr Harrison. I got our groceries delivered this week and it was brilliant! While slightly more expensive, I enjoyed just ordering the seasonal box of vegetables and fruit so I didn't have to make decisions. Last night we had steak and stir-fried red and green capsicum and onions with a splash of tamari. It was so good, minimal fuss and I so would not have picked those veges up on my own, so it is nice to have the decision made for me :) 

I am wearing...
my pyjamas... I said it was a restful day today ;)

I am creating...
my first daybook entry ;) but I here is where I tell you that I've got grand plans for a patchwork quilt for mine & Westley's bed. I bought the beautiful fabric at a store that was closing down so it was half price. I've not made a quilt before, but I just want a basic square design. I'm hoping I can figure it out. I borrowed a book at the library which has been helpful so far. I have washed and ironed the fabric and bought the thread. Maybe I will progress more on the weekend as I really want it done before my new babe arrives.

I am going...
to get out of my pyjamas and let Sunshine have the computer.

I am reading...

• Rachel's Garden by Marta Perry. It is an Amish fiction story, I read the first one, Leah's Choice and really enjoyed the 'clean' romance and learning about Amish life.
• Hypnobirthing The Mongan Method by Marie Mongan thanks to a kind friend who gave it to me. I have read it before, most of it twice, but need a refresher so I can be a confident, calm birther by June ;)
• I'm also following the 100 days Essential Jesus bible reading plan in the YouVersion app in my iPhone. I've found it great for giving me snippets of gold to think about (and therefore retain!) as some days are just a few verses. 

I am hoping...
For more energy so I can achieve all I want to achieve around the home.

I am looking forward to...
my first yoga class at the gym tomorrow and dinner with two girlfriends friends who I have not seen in a long time! Oh, and it's Friday so Escape to the Country is on - I love watching and dreaming about living in a snug cottage in the English countryside.   

I am learning...
to teach Sunshine to read. This is the first time I've gone through this as Sunshine is our first to enter our home education program ;), it has been a journey but this week we hit a milestone and Sunshine read her first book. I'm stoked!

Around the house...
I have been working on the laundry! Sorting it out, making it tidy, getting the huge pile of dirty things down. My huge win this week was figuring out how to re-jig the small room to permanently accommodate our clothes horse so hubby can have his office looking clean and inspiring again.

I am pondering...
the time... good grief! what happened to my morning?

One of my favorite things...
pretty much all things Peter Rabbit (by Beatrix Potter). Sweet stories, and I love that Harrison has been asking for the Peter Rabbit dvd to go on regularly, and the Peter Rabbit book because I am hopeing he will love the sweet stories and drawings too!

A few plans for the rest of the week...
back to the gym baby! ...and normal, normal life. Ballet this afternoon, and a few errands tomorrow and girls night out dinner tomorrow. Should make church on Sunday. Next week I will see another close friend I have not seen in about a year. Oh and the new homeschool playgroup I have started attending. I'm looking forward to that! It is so nice to be around other people in person who have made the same educational choices as me.

You can find out more about participating in The simple woman's daybook, by clicking here.

I joined a gym!

Guess what friends? I joined a gym for the first time in my life. It had always been a luxury out of my reach but I was finally able to justify it, so yay! I can get fit. I've been feeling like my body is falling apart and I know that I am in my prime. 30 years old, I should be looking my best, feeling my best and it ain't no excuse for me to think that I'm into my fourth pregnancy in six years. Pregnancy or no pregnancy, I'm 30 and I want to feel like it. So I bit the bullet (while the joining fee was zero) and signed myself up for 12 months. I found a good women's gym five minutes down the road that had a good atmosphere (I have to want to go there!).

I have a bit of experience with exercising while pregnant so I'm not going to do anything crazily intense, my intentions are to just walk on the treadmill a few times a week, maybe some light weights on my arms and a weekly yoga class (or two). I'm excited! Excited to feel good and hopefully I will be in my best state to give birth in June... and get back in shape again after my post-birth rest is over. I'm also hoping this will provide me with peaceful time each day just to myself, sowing into my health, which I am also hoping, will make me a better wife and Mum.

Hopscotching the lesson away

Sunshine and Sweet-pea were asking me about hopscotch and showing me how they try to play it on the tiles inside the house. That got me thinking, why not give them some chalk to draw on the concrete, we could have our own hopscotch going on and they could get some exercise and turn it into a bit of a lesson. So that is what we did!

I didn't really have any learning objectives set, I know that Sunshine could always do with reinforcing her number writing so I knew she was going to write her own numbers. They both tried to draw the squares but it didn't work out so well so I did that bit and wrote the numbers for Sweet-pea (but she had to tell me which ones to write). As I they were doing it, I realised they were refining they're coordination (we introduced the pebble throw to skip blocks).

Once they were tired and ready to go inside, Sunshine insisted on drawing  a picture of it on paper and writing about it. So we rolled in some copywork to the activity also (I wrote a sentence about it for Sweet-pea which she copied over and Sunshine composed a very long sentence which I wrote out for her to copy). Turned into quite a big lesson which all enjoyed!

I have news!

So, it's been a long time... but I have been busy. Busy growing a baby! We have a baby girl due in June. My first winter baby. It is a bit weird, I didn't really think of myself as having four children and being at home to raise and educate them (a nice sized university bill will testify to my plans of a lucrative career climbing the corporate ladder!). So I am still figuring out what this life of mine has for me when I spent so many years working towards a life that contradicts what I actually want to do now that I'm here. I know for sure I want to be here with my children but what does that mean? What does that mean for me in 15 or 20 years? I don't know... Something for another post. But what I do know now is that I love babies. I love my children and I am excited to have a million of them and raise them and educate them with Westley. Okay, well, maybe not a million, but four or five would be ace ;)

Long time no speak...

I guess here is where I tell you that I'm not really a writer. It doesn't come naturally to me. Westley is a born-writer, but me, no, no, no. So it is kind of weird that I have a blog. I know. Doesn't make sense, but I guess that is me, I am full of inconsistencies. Hmm... I guess that is all I'll say on that ;)


Anyway, I just know that I am learning all the time. My family is growing and I am changing all the time and sometimes it is nice to document these things and I kind of think that maybe if I share something I learn then the road for someone else might be easier. I know that my road has been easier because of other people who have shared their learnings with me. So I hope that you will feel better off for reading my posts. However infrequent my posts become at times :)