One post at a time...

A couple of months ago there was an online entrepreneur essay contest. My personal favorite was written by Mark Wainwright...

"This isn't a rags to riches story; if you want that, just go ahead and move on now. This is more a story of rags to... let's be honest... rags.
Bill and Christine have raised 5 children, the youngest (twin boys) will be graduating high school this June. They currently have 5 grandchildren whom they adore. They are both active in their community, their church, and in local politics.
Bill and Christine are small business owners who will never be rich. The company may never really be profitable... Bill's personality precludes him from having a really good business model. He wants to, and works endlessly to, provide his customers the best products with the best service; but doesn’t have the heart to charge them for it. He keeps his prices as low as (actually lower than) possible and at the end of the day he is left tired, virtually penniless, and genuinely happy.

Bill and Christine started a business in the 1990s which they fittingly named A Better Fence Company. It is in every way a family business. When they incorporated a few years ago, the corporate officers were Bill, Christine, and the children who then were old enough to work with them. The payroll has at some point included all of Bill's children plus his brother, a nephew and his son-in-law. The handful of employees that weren't actually related, were quickly adopted and invited to family trips to the lake, barbecues and movie nights. One of the company's first non-related employees in particular, still keeps in close contact and is treated like a son and brother.As you might expect, it isn’t always easy. There are good times and bad, and the stress of running a business has taken its toll. Health, time, two mortgages and dozens of dreams and aspirations have all been sacrificed to keep the company afloat. Once when Bill was feeling the strain of being pulled in every direction, he wanted to change his ad in the yellow pages:
Best Materials
Best Installation
Best Price
Pick any two.
Christine didn’t think it was a good idea. Bill listens to talk radio and is an avid reader—mostly non-fiction books. He works hard, seems to have boundless energy and never takes a day off. That doesn't mean that he doesn't take time to go mountain biking with his teenage boys, haul the family to the California coast for some winter body surfing, or act as a personal guide of the best local hikes when friends visit.... he does all that... but that is about the only thing that can get him to stop working. Even then, he usually makes time by doubling up on work before and afterward. If Bill ever wakes up with nothing to do, it is time to worry--the apocalypse is here!Christine is the kind of friend that you never let go, regardless of time or distance. She has spent the last 30 years doing the delicate dance of raising a family and working from home. Initially trained as a secretary, she taught herself computers, accounting, and business management. She still answers the phones and handles the day-to-day office work of the business. However, her work never stopped her from supporting each of her children as they developed their social lives and went through school, (all of them honor students), nor from being present to cheer them on in their extra-curricular activities including sports, arts, music, drama, and Eagle Scout rank.
I guess I have a unique perspective on Bill and Christine’s business. They never sold anything to me... or bought anything from me. They raised me. They taught me from early on in my life, the value of work. When people talk about work ethic, they usually mean how many hours you put in. Bill and Christine taught me the ethics of work (long hours was definitely part of it). Big companies tend to measure business success in profits, cash flow, growth or revenue. Bill taught me that success comes from hard work, integrity, honesty, and love. You wouldn't think that there is a lot of love in the vinyl fencing industry, but let me tell you, it's there. First of all, if your fence is built with love, you'll know it, you can tell while it is being installed and decades later when everything else seems to have fallen apart around it. But that’s not the only love that goes into the business. I've been working in the southwestern desert on a 120° day, covered in dirt and concrete digging post holes by hand, dripping with sweat and thinking how much I loved my job. Now let's be serious, I didn't love the heat, the work or the blisters. I loved working with my family. I loved the pride of taking a hard job and doing it well. I loved the opportunity to find creative solutions to real world problems, and the accomplishments of dealing with a lot of responsibility and autonomy at a young age. While Bill and Christine might not leave their children a large inheritance in the traditional sense (number of dollars when they die), they have left an invaluable inheritance of skills, values, and character that built up day by day, and post by post."



Very well put Mark!

Doddle King

I was listening to NPR the other day and they had some sort of Doodle specialist on talking about the importance of doodling even for adults. He said that if adults did it more often then the youth would do it more because it would be important. My brothers have been working on art portfolio's for high school and college classes and watching them, my son has recently discovered the love of drawing. He loves it and draws about 10 or more pictures a day.

The doodle expert said that most people stop doodling because at some point we decide that we aren't any good.

On two occasions my son has come to me and asked for safety pins. When I asked what for he said,

"So I can stick my picture on my shirt and show my friends" Then excitedly with a big grin he added, "They're going to Love it!" I helped him tape it on his shirt (had to snap a photo as shown) and he ran off to knock on the neighbor's door to show them. As I watched him run out the door, I was hoping that he would return just as convinced that they loved it. Wouldn't the world be a different place if all of us felt like that about everything we do?

Kissing it Better cont.

I gave my kids a ziplock baggie of raisins to keep them occupied while I had some visitors the other day. Later that day my daughter brought me her bag to get a re-fill, but the corner of the baggie had been chewed through. (For some reason she has a hard time digging things out of the corners and chews through the bag instead.) I told her I couldn't fill it because there was a hole in the corner and they would fall out.

"Oh, sorry," she said and she promptly kissed the bag, then said, "better" and held it out for me to fill. Another time I was changing her diaper she noticed a scratch on the wall and kissed it better too.

Let's go fly a kite!

The kids love the fact that you can pretty much fly a kite any time you want at our new house.

Thanks to uncle Brandon & aunt Valerie for giving us the biggest kite ever.

Uncle Bryce taught us that paper airplanes are even better in high winds--now he just need to teach Mom to be able to make such cool paper airplanes

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Imagine--the life of a 2 year old

Two year olds have great imaginations. I caught my daughter emptying my bathroom drawer the other day and laying out the hairspray, shaving cream, lotion and other bottle carefully in a row on the floor. When I asked her what she was doing she put her finger to her lips and said, "shhhh baby sleeping" while gently patting them with the other hand. Then she lied down next to them and covered them with a towel blanket and continued patting them like any good mother putting her children down for a nap.

Since we moved she decided she loves showers! She gets in my shower any chance she gets and just lets the water run over her for as long as I let her stay. Sometimes I find her standing inside just pretending she's taking a shower. We have a video tower with adjustable shelves. She loves to empty out all the videos, remove the shelves and gets inside. She calls it "my shower".

She has just started singing and doing hand motions. It's still a little hard to tell what she is singing, but it is so cute.

Ironies of motherhood

Sometimes motherhood can be a rollercoaster. I often find myself doing ironic things like yelling, "stop screaming!" or swatting at a swinging arm while saying, "Don't hit your sister!"

Somedays I wish someone would give me a "time out!"

Of course you always will at some point do something your mother did that you swore you would never do. But it is just as sobering when you see your child do something naughty you remember doing as a child.

By the end of the day my arms ache from holding my children.

But, when I am away from my children, my arms ache to hold them.



Some days I think I could do a lot if I had a day without them.
But really, I don't know what I would do if there came a day I had to live without one of them.

My mother used to say, "I hope that someday you have a daughter just like you." It was used as both a blessing and a curse!

At times over the past few years I have found myself wishing we were to the next stage--smiling, sitting up, self-entertained, walking, eating alone, weaned, nursery, potty-trained, preschool, etc. but then when I actually stop and enjoy a moment with them, or see an old photo, I realize how fast it all goes, and wish I could slow down time.

I love it when I see my children doing something that I have taught them...except when I didn't mean to teach that to them.

Scrubbing fingerprints off windows, mirrors and walls gets old, but when they get old I will probably miss the little reminders of play and exploration.

Happy Mothers Day to all mothers!