{ My Friends: Inspired to Soar! }

I am the proud member of a women's entrepreneurial community, "Women Take Wing! Inc." Members are wonderful, talented women busily following their dreams of business ownership. Early each week, in our community's forum, members have the opportunity to post a hyperlink to their blogs with a snippet of information about what they are doing or talking about. Each Thursday these links are gathered up and posted on the Women Take Wing! blog and on participating member's blogs so that our readers have the opportunity to learn about some of these inspiring women.I am delighted to invite you to visit a few of my friends!
Welcome to "Inspired to Soar!"
Sparkles from Beach Haus Designs- Exciting things are happening from becoming an Ambassador for Crystallized Swarovski Elements to new design techniques.
Check out what is happening at the beach!
Keeper of the Pennies talks about averting disaster as a single employee when life hands you unexpected changes.
Raised In Cotton Blog - Carol is headed to the beautiful Texas Hill Country to shop the wonderful antique shows taking place!
Island Tea Bits Dori announces Island Tea Company's Spring Fling sale and shares photos of her building's completed exterior re-do.(WTW members, remember to stop by the forum early each week to post your blog and news bit!)

{ Preparing for Hiatus }

When my mom passed away suddenly three years ago, I spent an entire day in her office wading through the stacks of bank statements, trying to find all of her online accounts, in an effort to help my dad in some small way. I remember looking at my niece and saying, "I forgot how Grammy could always ignore her filing. Don't ever be like this." As I prepare my office to be closed while I'm out for a medical hiatus, I am faced with oddly familiar stacks of paper. I've always been a firm believer that no one person in any business should be irreplaceable but what happens when you are your business? I try to not have so many open projects on a client that the file(s) could not be easily passed off to another bookkeeper or accountant quickly and with as little interruption to a client as possible. Admittedly, the last week has been a wake up call. I've got a lot of open projects that would fall under "it's just easier if I do that then try to explain it". Not a good place to be. I'll be working double time this week and weekend to close those gaps and to be sure that they stay closed.

{ Happy Birthday To My Missed Mom }

This year would have been my Mom's 60th birthday. Make no bones about it...if she were here she would be having a small breakdown over being 60. We'd play "Little Old Lady From Pasadena" and Elvis for her. She'd dance around the house just to prove she still could - how she loved to dance. Chocolate malts with extra malt would be on the menu at some point in the day and I am positive that pedicures would also be on the birthday list. There isn't a day that goes by that her absence is not a tangible living thing in the world of my family and her friends. Today is a day of sadness but also of celebration. While we didn't get her for 60 years, we got her. I'll be having a malt today and while I sip, I will turn it over to the "oldies" station and think of Mom. I hope she's dancing in heaven.

{ Not Allowing Fear to Set In }

I don't mean to convey that I am unaffected or unaware of how bad the state of the economy really is, or to ignore job loss numbers that we have or the very real foreclosure and bankruptcy rates happening at the moment. No, those things are ever present and touch my life and the lives of my clients every day in a myriad of ways. However, if I were to listen to the media, if I were to be reactionary, I would be paralyzed by fear...and well, I'm just not. One of my nearest and dearest friends is moving jobs soon. Leaving a steady, secure (not too inspiring) job for a new exciting cutting edge job with a shorter history of stability (but stable, no the less). He didn't leap blindly, but if he were to listen to the media hype he should have just stayed put. My sister and bro in law are considering expanding their business. While they haven't committed to the idea 100%, if they were to listen to the media, they would just sit still and be grateful for what they have now. I have a close friend who is launching her business next month. After years of dreaming and months of planning, she is thrilled to be launching...and we're thrilled for her! In my own home, we are strategically planning to both be self employed (currently, I am the lone entrepreneur in the family). This shift may not happen overnight or even next year, but steps are being made to build a second business and step out of a very very safe job in education. I have two friends whose primary or only income spouses lost their jobs. After the initial "holy crap" moments, both households got really creative and nothing became sacred. Yes, they were up for moving even if it meant selling their homes from near break even prices. Yes, they could go to one car. Yes, the stay at home spouse could go back to work. They met it with very open minds. Both households have new opportunities but the landscapes of their lives are very different today then they were six months ago.
My point is this, we cannot be ruled by fear. There are many ways to get to an end result. If you stop looking - or even acknowledging alternatives - then your world becomes a small place and you begin to feel trapped. That's when it becomes easy to let the fear set in and in fear we make small choices.

{ Proud Auntie! }

I just have to say congratulations to my "kids"...the oldest (who just turned 21 this week! OMG!) is volunteering his time to Little League, going to school, running his own business and preparing to transfer to ASU in the Fall. The youngest (who is about to turn 18 next month! OMG!) is maintaining straight A's, attending college classes at night has secured scholarships for NAU next year AND has been invited -with full scholarship- to attend the summer session at NAU. I am proud of these kids just for BREATHING but today, I'm over the moon excited for them and all they offer to the future! And may I just say, that as much as brag about them, I do need to send a big shout out to my sister and bro in law...they've raised great kids.

{ Longing for Middle }

Like so many people, we are weary of the news...more jobless, more homeless, less equity, a lower stock market, lost retirements...it's overwhelming some days. We are fortunate to have work and a humble home that will be all ours - barring any unforeseen circumstances - in 240 more payments. But like so many others we are treading water, careful with our pennies, mindful of what goes out, mindful but not fearful. Tonight as we watched on the news about the downturn we began to contemplate what the world would look like in 5 years or even 10?
Will the economy change so profoundly that we will not recognize it any longer? Will we simply return to old bad habits once the worst of this storm passes us by? My hope is that somewhere in the middle we will find a place of compromise. We valued things over everything else for far too long. We have shunned hard physical work in this country...leaving it for the newly arrived or the under educated. We have under valued those who nurture our young in favor of those who "lead" or "administer". We have surrendered our power as consumers to corporations and multinational groups. Now we no longer know how to build or grow or produce, we have only been taught to consume. Somewhere in the middle is where we need to be. We must learn to spend within our means, save for rainy days and savor our successes be they small or large.
When I was young, my father told me that change is made from the middle. At the time we were discussing politics but it's relevant in the current circumstances. We have lived on the edges too long. Today, I long for the middle.