Who moved my chia seeds?
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Who Moved My Chia Seeds?

four minutes to peace

8/12/2014

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Every parent is busy. Truly.  I do consider myself to be on the higher end of the spectrum though...I run a thriving business with two locations.  I have a part (sometimes full) time gig as a mortgage lender, train for marathons, the hubby and I own self managed rental property and I take care of my munchkin nearly full time (i.e. we don't use daycare.)   We tend to be pretty good at managing our time, which allows us to do all of this, but sometimes things don't go as intended.

Today was an exceptionally busy day.  The hubby was back at work for the first full day (he's a teacher) and me...well, a loan closing was blowing up and was completely out of my hands.  I had 7 minutes to get an order in for juices for my shops before the 10 AM cutoff for an entire week and I was in the car with  my son.  I pick up the phone, put it on speaker and said, "Honey...I need to make a call so I need you to be quiet for a minute."  His reply melted my world.  "Mama, no, mama, I really yike talking to you though."   Oooohhhhhhh.  "Honey, it'll just take a minute, I have to get this order in," I pleaded.  "But Mama, I really really yike talking with you!" Okay, kid...let's talk.  "What do you want to talk about then?" 

"Mama, I wanna talk about why are there leaves on da trees?"

After a lecture that would qualify me to teach freshman biology about how leaves turn sunlight into food for the trees, he sat silent and watched the trees as we continued to drive. And I still had 3 minutes to place my order.  The loan ended up closing (Hallelujah) and I made my kid, and me, happy. 

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Skiing in August

8/11/2014

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What. A. Day.  Today I felt like I was at the top of a mountain, ready to ski down what I thought was a green slope.  Lo and behold, my safe green quickly turned to a black without any warning and in a blink I was tumbling, skis over head over feet over butt.  To the point where you just close your eyes, relax your body and hope for the best, certain it will probably all be okay but not really sure til you hit.  As expected, it DID end up okay, but could have gone horribly wrong.  In fact, it even ended up better than I had hoped with a lovely email from a past employee: 

Hey Katie!
This is (name of new favorite person) I just wanted to take the time to let you know what an amazing boss you are, and to thank you for  everything you did the three years I worked at (The greatest coffee shop ever.) I have worked for two other companies since yours, and I haven't experienced a manager/boss who treated their employees as well and kindly as you did! I really do appreciate all the little things you did, such as having the "Family" Dinners so we all could hang out, the texts making sure we were okay when you noticed that we didn't seem ourselves, and just the incredible flexibility and understanding you had in every situation. If we ever had any suggestions or comments, you always considered them to make sure our voices were heard and we had the best experience as possible. For that, I just wanted to thank you again, because I have never felt so comfortable and enjoyed my job as much as I did at (The greatest coffee shop ever!) I hope everything is going well!]

Well, shucks.  I'll tumble down a mountain any day to get an email like that at the end!




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    Author

    My name is Katie VandenBerg and I grow my life on a beautiful lake in Central Illinois.  I am part-owner of a thriving coffee shop which I founded when I was 24.  I'm also a small business consultant, real estate investor, board director, wife to a 7th grade teacher and mother to two. 

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