Author Archives: Susan

I Want to Travel

When I chose our homeschool curriculum, I had 4 Social Studies topics from which to choose. I chose Geography & Cultures. Over the past month we’ve been homeschooling, we have reviewed the continents and oceans, and then went to Europe. We discussed the continent as a whole, located all the countries on a map, and have studied deeper about the bigger countries. We have about one more week to spend in Europe, and then we will move on to Africa. My traveling dream has really sparked seeing all the breathtaking pictures and videos about these beautiful countries. The kids are definitely not as fascinated as I am though.

As a kid, I didn’t care that much about traveling. We took our vacations to the beach every year and occasionally went to the mountains. We weren’t that family that just flew or drove anywhere and everywhere. 95% of our traveling was no more than 4 hours from our house, and that was fine by me. Even though I loved our vacations, and the traveling to and from the destination didn’t bother me since I slept the entire trip, I was (and still am) a big homebody.

The older I got, the more I wanted to travel, but still wanted to stay “close to home.” I still had no desire to “cross the pond,” I just wanted to see the contiguous United States. I’ve often thought about purchasing an RV so I would be able to accomplish this dream. That way I would be able to be at home without being at home.

There are basically three types of dreams: realistic dreams, dreams that aren’t outrageous but still probably unobtainable, and knowingly unobtainable dreams. These types of dreams are different for everyone. For me, an example is a realistic traveling dream would be the kids and I vacationing at the beach this summer. An example of the second kind of dream would be me purchasing an RV and visiting 48 of the 50 states. The third type would be me traveling the world. Sure there is a chance they could all come true, and there is a chance none of them could come true.

I am too much of a realist to put too much thought into unobtainable dreams. However, it doesn’t hurt to fantasize. I will continue to look at pictures, and will probably add more countries to my fantasy list as we learn more about other countries. Currently, my top two places are England and Finland. I may even search how much it would cost. I just don’t see this dream becoming a reality.

I have already looked at the prices of RVs, and also learned how difficult it is to maintain them, which is why this is a dream that isn’t necessarily outrageous, but it probably is unobtainable for me. However, this would be a dream for which I would start saving money. It would be more like an “after the kids go to college” type of dream.

The plans for the beach vacation are already in the works, thanks to a nice little nudge from my sister. It will be nice to put my toes in the sand and stay in my happy place for a few days.

What are some of your dreams, realistic or other? I would love to hear about them!

A day in the life

Leave a reply

Have you ever looked at houses while you’re riding down the road and wondered, “what are their lives like? What do they do? How do they live their day-to-day life?” Well, if you’ve ever wondered that about me, here ya go! Right, wrong, pretty, ugly, and pretty ugly this is my life.

My typical day has changed so much in the last year. Not only did it change tremendously when the pandemic started, but it has also continuously evolved in the past eleven months. My typical day today was not my typical day a couple of months ago, and it definitely wasn’t a typical day over a year ago.

Pre-pandemic life was very strictly scheduled. Every week was a copy and paste from the last week. Every Monday thru Friday the kids had school from 8:00-3:00, and I had work from 8:30-3:00. I went to one job on Monday and Friday and the other job was Tuesday through Thursday. Monday nights we had Scouts. Tuesday nights I had a meeting with my direct sales team. Wednesday nights my younger son had guitar practice. Thursday nights were my catchup night. The weekends were for cleaning, laundry, yard work, homework, Scout activities, and working my direct sales business. The kids were in bed most nights by 9:00 and some nights by 10:00, and I wasn’t far behind them.

The pandemic put the breaks on just about all of that schedule. The kids were still in school and I was still working during the same hours, but we were all at home. Scout meetings halted for a while and then moved to virtual meetings for the older kids in the Troop. For the scouts in the pack, it just stopped. Tuesday night direct sales meetings switched to virtual. Wednesday night guitar lessons switched to virtual until we decided to quit until we could be in person again. Then summer got canceled. Well, I guess summer didn’t technically get canceled, but all the activities we had planned got canceled. All weekend and summer camps we had planned were canceled. Summer was full of extra yard work, many trips to parks to help battle cabin fever, and some deep cleaning and purging of rooms in the house.

Here lately our days have looked more relaxed, but are still busy… well at least for me. I’ve been waking anywhere between 8:00 and 10:00 (ok maybe more like 10:00 or 10:15). I fix my coffee, walk the dog, and turn on my computer. I am starting to work by 10:30 or 10:45. My younger son is usually up, but he is like me in the morning. He likes to wait to eat breakfast, and he’s usually relaxing and watching TV. I’m not exactly sure what time he has been waking me up, but he tells me it’s nine something and sometimes ten.

I work for a good hour to an hour and a half with practically no distractions. I may get a “will you fix me something to eat” from my younger son unless he can fix it himself. Then I start trying to wake my older son. Waking him is equally the most aggravating and most fun thing I do all day (probably for the both of us). I usually start by ticking or poking him and say “it’s time to get up” in my sweet voice. Then I start pulling covers off him and his bed. If all of that doesn’t work, I get Alexa to play the loudest most annoying music. As a last resort, I squirt him with water. He gets mad, then laughs, and chases me out of his room. The whole process, start to finish, usually takes a good hour. What can I say, he gets it honest. During the process, little man and I are usually eating lunch.

By this point I’ve started to work again, my older son has fixed himself some breakfast, and my younger son is watching a show somewhere. From there, I’m working off and on until about 4:00 or 5:00, and the kids are keeping themselves occupied. After I’m done working for the day, we all eat again and I take a break. My “break” consists of me cleaning up a few dishes, walking the dog again, feeding the dog, and straightening up my desk from work so I can get ready for homeschooling.

We have been starting our lessons around 5:30 or 6:00 each evening. If the kids worked independently during the day, I check what they did, and we discuss anything they didn’t understand. If they didn’t work independently, I make sure they understand their Math, Language Arts, and Reading assignments, and they complete the assignments. Then we do Geography and Science together. We are done with homeschool by 9:00 at night, and then our nighttime routine starts.

The nighttime routine consists of showers and baths, housework, eating a bedtime “snack” (which is actually another meal), another dog walk, brushing teeth, and getting into bed. The kids are usually in bed by 11:00, but that doesn’t mean the older one goes to sleep. I still lay in bed with my younger son until he goes to sleep. A part of me hates that I still do this because I feel like he’s too old for me to lay with him every night. Then I think “he’s only young once,” and “he won’t always want me to do this.” Plus, it gives me a chance to wind down. I lay there and play games on my phone and for about thirty to forty-five minutes I get to just relax.

After my younger son is asleep, I get up, work on my blog a little, and look over my schedule for the next day to make sure I’m not missing something important. I make sure my alarms are set (even though I won’t hear them), and turn on a show I’ve seen a million times, and go to sleep. I’m usually asleep anytime between 1 AM and 3 AM.

There is my typical day. Naturally, not every day is exactly like that, but generally, that’s how my days are spent. Exciting, huh? Weekends get mixed up a bit, but they are usually spent getting caught up with housework, planning the next week, grocery shopping, and occasionally throwing in something fun.

I often wonder what post-pandemic life will look like. I’m hoping for a healthy mix of “current life” and “pre-pandemic life.” I don’t want to go back to the busy schedule we had before, but at the same time, I miss the things we did. One thing is for sure, I do not want early pandemic life!

Now I Know Better

As mentioned in my previous post, “Better,” I spent 2020 working on personal growth. Part of that was centered around my direct sales business. I felt like I needed to have a better mindset so I could better serve my customers. This is not the first direct sales company I’ve been with, but it is the one I’ve been most passionate about. I have seen first hand how the products work, and being with this company has bettered my life. However, I was losing my passion and was not feeling comfortable with how I was being told I SHOULD run MY business. So I joined a few Facebook communities that have shown me the error of my ways.

There are so many wonderful attributes in direct sales. For the most part, with most companies, you have the flexibility to work as much or as little as you desire. If you want it to be a side hustle, wonderful. If you want to go to the top, fabulous. There are plenty of people who are “making it big” in direct sales to prove that it can be a lucrative business.

Direct sales businesses get such a bad rap though. I have heard so many people say so many bad things about the business and the consultants. All these consultants want is to help people with a product they believe in, and make some money to help support their family. What the negative people don’t understand, that consultant wants to do everything correctly to succeed. All she or he knows is to follow the suggestions and examples set by their mentors.

As direct sales consultants, we are told to contact everyone we have ever met in our life. We are told to stop everyone, with whom we come in contact in day-to-day life, to exchange contact information. We are given challenges to text 50 people and post on social media. We are getting graphics thrown at us to post on social media. We are told to not worry about bugging our customers because we truly aren’t bugging them. Our customers and potential customers want all the information. They compare our marketing strategies to the big chain stores’ marketing strategies, and tell us if those stores can do it, so can we. We are told to get out of our comfort zones and just do it.
While I understand this is how it can be done, and this is how most of our mentors have succeeded in direct sales, it makes introverts like me cringe and want to quit. It also makes many of our potential customers cringe and want to run in the opposite direction. It makes our friends roll their eyes, ignore our texts, and keep scrolling on by on social media. It makes us lose some of our friendships. So while, yes, we may gain some customers and maybe even some consultants on our team, how much did we lose to get those?

I got into this business to help women with their self-assurance. I wanted to guide them to the life they deserve. I wanted to help give them the tools and information that will help build their self-confidence. I wanted to show them it is selfless to take time for themselves, not selfish. The absolute last thing I want any person to do, when they see or hear me, is to roll their eyes, cringe, and run the other way. I don’t want my friends to not want to talk to me because they are afraid I’m going to sell them something or try to get them to join my team.

If in the last year and a half if you have felt I was been pushy or spammy, please know I was just trying to do my “job.” You will never know how much I have very much appreciated your support. There are some things I will continue to do and there are some things I will no longer be doing. I will continue to reach out and check-in. I will continue to share some wonderful tips and other helpful information. I will continue to keep you informed about all the wonderful products our company has. I will continue to offer in-home and virtual parties. I will continue to do my best to make your life better. I will continue to be passionate about this company, its products, and my customers.

Remember, I’m still a work in progress, but if there is anything you want to see more of (or less of), I welcome any and all feedback! As always, if there is anything I can do to help make your life better, please let me know.