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Archive for the ‘Random Thoughts’ Category

We all tooled over to our friends house yesterday since it is summer vacation around here now and the kids are home from school for a while until they hit the camps/daycare rounds starting next week. Anyway, these particular friends have an absolutely beautiful home right on the ocean with amazing views. It helped that the sun was out and it was warm enough to eat our lunch outside. The house is not huge but amazing nonetheless (4 bedrooms and a rec room so not too shabby).

On the drive home, as we rounded the corner into our own neighborhood I couldn’t help but experience a twinge of regret that our home is not as lovely. I do like to live here, and trust me I am not complaining, but it seems to me that everyone ought to be able to live in a nice house on the ocean. What an idyllic lifestyle my children could lead under such circumstances! I thought it might be good to note, however, that even with such obvious wealth coming in, that family still shops at CostCo, TJMaxx, Target, and the other discount stores. Isn’t that something?!

At any rate, their family circumstances are much different than ours (the father is never around and he is MUCH older than we are), but we certainly aim to strive for that kind of lifestyle. I honestly would not mind spending my money on such a home - it would definitely be worth it.

The 3 year-old blues: no, I am not talking about sad 3 year olds, I am talking about sad parent’s of 3 year olds! For any of you out there raising someone this age - hats off to you because this is tough! Let me just give you the run down of my morning.

6:20am - “I want cereal” “I want a peanut butter and jelly” “I want a different kind of cereal” “Peel this banana”

6:30am-8am - I let both kids watch TV for, gasp!, 1.5 hours! Call the parenting police! My usual guideline is 1 hour a day, tops, for both kids, but this morning I must’ve sensed that it would be a tough day so I let them watch PBS Kids for a bit longer than usual. That was probably the quietist most peaceful moment of the day.

8am - 12pm - Sheer h*ll. He wanted food constantly, then he couldn’t get along with his big sister. Then both kids got their corn chips taken away when they couldn’t stop complaining about who got more. Then he pulled her hair, REALLY hard. He got sent to his room. Then he wouldn’t stay in his room. Then there was the tortilla incident, oh yeah, but that was after the Throwing Stuffed Animals at Mommy incident. The tortilla pieces were left in his room (where they aren’t supposed to be in the first place) so he was told to pick them up. Oh boy did that unleash some fury. Let’s just say that about 1 hour later he finally picked up the tortilla pieces, which were now torn completely into shreds, making them very hard for him to throw away.

I don’t normally recommend drinking as a way to solve one’s parenting problems, but let’s just say that the normally disgusting-sounding Bourbon, which was all the alcohol we had in the house, was sounding REALLY good at about 11am!

The Alcohol Alternative - Cupcakes!

Once big sis was off to kindergarten for the afternoon, I figured the only thing that was going to get me and little bro through the next few hours was to bake something. So I came up with cupcakes. After some complaining about how he does NOT like cupcakes, I got him started. He cracked the egg and put the cupcake liners in the cupcake pan. Then he worked the Kitchen Aid like a pro and helped put the butter in the microwave. 30 minutes later we had some cupcakes and he decided that yes, indeed, he DOES like cupcakes! Well imagine that. So do I.

Nothing can cure a bad day like some cooking. This whole experience just shows how important it is for those of us who have little kids around to keep cooking supplies on hand at all times!

Somewhat facetiously, my husband and I came up with an absolutely fantastic product idea, which we dubbed “Polly Pocket Pants.” Should you be of the entrepreneurial type and want to take this fabulous idea and run, you may want to call it something else, of course.

The Concept: Pants and shirts made for parents. The clothing has little hidden pockets sewn into it that you can hide your treats in and secretly graze on them throughout the day without your children noticing (and thereby eating your entire treat).

How the concept came about: It was 8pm. The oldest child had gone to bed but was not quite asleep yet. I wanted to snack on some Skittles that my husband had so kindly purchased for me hours before. I had not yet had any for fear that my kids would hear the bag rattle. What parent wants to establish such bad candy-eating habits in their children? Not this one. Anyway, so I got a handful of these Skittles out, got my newest book “The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business” out, and settled onto the living room floor. I put the skittles into the leg of my jeans so they would be hidden should my oldest child decide to get up for any of the myriad things she suddenly decides she has to have at bedtime. My husband saw my little trick and thought it would be a riot if we sewed a pocket into our t-shirt sleeves so we could surreptitiously take little candies out during the day. You should have seen us pantomiming.

So there you have it: I am sure it is one of our best business ideas yet.

I have been thinking about the dichotomy between keeping up a successful image and being frugal. On the one hand, I think it is important to project success in order to be successful. This is for two reasons: 1) so you yourself can believe that you are and will continue to be successful and 2) so that others will view you as a success and thus be more willing to come to you first when a job needs filled, a project needs done, etc.

And how do we project a successful image? Well, for a lot of people that will come not only from their personality but also from their visible material possessions like cars and clothing. That has got to be the reason that people spend so much money on those things when you could get very acceptable cars and clothing for much cheaper (think a Civic over a Beamer). For those of us in various types of self-employment, many of our clients would not want to do business with us if we drove around in a beat-up, lime-green car. Indeed, it would project the idea that “nobody else does business with us so why should you”?

On the other hand, very successful people sometime drive around in beat-up cars! I once knew the owner of a big engineering firm that eventually got bought-out for a large sum. The guy drove around in this thing that was probably 25 years old and he did all of the maintenance on it himself. So he was both frugal and successful but if you met him on the street you certainly wouldn’t know it. Would you do business with him? Well, these are my thoughts on the matter for now. I don’t know where I stand on this. Probably somewhere in between. There’s also a line between being frugal and being disrespectful of yourself (like not bathing or eating cheap and unhealthy food when you could easily afford fresh fruits and vegetables) that I wouldn’t want to cross. How about you?