consider it my chill pill

 

   

Ask Samantha: How to pick a locked door knob

My youngest child, Samantha, has a little bit of Fancy Nancy, Eloise, Ramona and Calvin in her. She is wickedly bright, funny and very mischievous. She used a hairpin the other day to unlock her sister’s door. Honestly it seems like nothing can stand in her way. Not even a locked door. I don’t know whether she’s being cute or crazy right now but her antics are driving her sister up the wall. A burr in her saddle but a delight in our lives.

doing right by people

My mischievous 6-year-old hit someone with an ice ball this afternoon. “I hitted (hit) him with an ice ball, Momma. I hidden (hid) it behind my back and he didn’t know I had it,” she said. “This is what you have to do. It’s already made for you. Do you want to see where I got it? I can show you. I see some ice on this street.”

So I’m thinking about this, and I tell her: “I just thought of something: This is the wrong sort of snowball. It hurts. The right sort is somewhere else. Soft and white. We just have to look.”

“Where? “she asks.

I hadn’t thought about this, as there is no more snow.

“Next time it snows.”

She’s that sort of child. This beautiful, smart and rambunctious child burning over with creativity. She’s part Fancy Nancy and part Ramona.

But she’s got to do right by people. So I put a hand over my mouth, and whispered: “Will you very sweetly apologize?”

nostalgic, for rolodexes

I was using matches to light the luminaries one day during the holidays when a neighbor suggested I use his car’s cigarette lighter, as he figured I’d light more candles in less time than with matches. He ran around to the back of his house to get the lighter so I didn’t see the make or model of his car but I figured it was an older model. The standard DC connectors have replaced most of the lighter receptacles these days. Now back in those days (did I really just say that?) you could use the lighter receptacle to power an electrically heated cigarette lighter.

Then today I had another “then-and-now” conversation with one of my clients during a focus group session. She asked her administrative assistant who is also a college student if she ever heard of Pollyanna. She didn’t. She also had never heard of a Rolodex.  But I have heard of Pollyanna, and even used a Rolodex in college.

Now I’m not that old; yet I’m not that young. Sure am feeling nostalgic for these things.

coworking: better than working at home or a coffee shop

It’s fun to boast about something you’ve done but it is more fun to put the spotlight on other people, I think. I wrote this article, which is  in this month’s issue of Southern Neighbor and it’s about my client and iBC.

iBC is an idea my client has been considering for some time now and it is a service she herself wants to use. I think it’s worth repeating the last part of sentence. It is a service she herself wants to use.

This is key to starting a business. That and the drive, motivation and the $$.  Create something you want to use. Something that will solve your problem. Then see if you can expose a huge market of people who need the same thing. So that’s where we are at with iBC.

a little woodland fairy of our own

done raking – maybe