Random Thoughts

Well, It has been a while since my last posting.  I hadn’t meant to have more than a year between entries, but what a year it has been!!!  Stepping out on faith, my husband opened his own consulting business.  Although it was a bold move, it has turned out to be a blessing, because we are now paying all of our bills and accumulating a little savings.

It is amazing what having even a little bit of savings has done for me.  It has reduced my stress considerably, because I’m not worried about what might happen.  With the stress and worry about bills gone, I have been doing something more productive with my time – dreaming.

When I was in school, it was my habit to daydream whenever things got boring.  Therefore, I spent  a lot of time dreaming in elementary school.  Somewhere along the way, I had a teacher, or two, tell me, “Monica, you need to be more productive.  Quit daydreaming.”  The implication being that daydreaming was not as important as the seemingly never-ending pile of ditto sheets my teachers were determined that I complete, so that I could be promoted out of their class.  As I grew older, schoolwork became more difficult, so I stopped daydreaming and started paying attention to the teachers – saving my dreaming for after school hours.  Somewhere along the way, most of my childhood dreams were not realized, due to my unrealistic expectations and realities of life.

My husband was the one who encouraged me to begin dreaming again.  Not long after we started dating, he asked me about the dreams I had for myself.  At the time, I didn’t know how to answer him, because I had let most of my dreams lie fallow, due to lack of encouragement.  Fortunately for me, he not only did not laugh at my pitifully small dreams, but he actually encouraged me to dream bigger.  This encouragement didn’t stop, not even when we were nearly penniless, and most of my dreams had shriveled.

Now, my dreams are fairly straightforward.  My biggest dream is more for my children than myself.  I hope and pray that my children will never have an employer.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t want them to earn a living.  I just don’t want their livelihood to be at the whims of an employer, who can (and probably will), lay them off whenever it suits the employer.  I want them to enjoy their work and derive such satisfaction from it, that it isn’t tedium, like those endless ditto sheets were for me.

Over the years, I have learned that dreams don’t typically come true without any effort on my part.  So, in order to keep my children free from an employer’s clutches (unless, of course, they DO want that), I’m going to start a home-based business.  Hopefully, this business will provide financial stability for my kids, so that they can pursue their dreams.  Or, if they want, they can help me run the business.

It wasn’t all that difficult to come up with ideas for my business.  All I had to do was start dreaming, again!  To begin with, I’m going to make and design soap.  I have several other ideas for different products, but making soap is first.  Before I’ve plumbed the depths of my soap making, I will branch out into other bath products.  Then, I will pursue other areas of interest, as time allows.

I have no idea where my dreams are leading me, but I have no doubt that it will be an interesting trip!