Breakfast at Last!

We have been officially off our media fast for about a week now, but I have been slowly adding back in a little here and a little there. It seems like this has taught me some sense of moderation that I don't want to lose. But a lot has been happening in our lives. Hmm...a little synopsis is in order, I suppose.

I resigned my job. Yes, it has been wonderful. Sad sometimes too, but overall fantastic. After the last pictures I posted, my house improved dramatically in just a few hours. And even more so over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, I don't believe I took any pictures to show how wonderful it looked. Did I say looked? Sure did. That brings me to what else has been going on.

My kids have started a new business. It all fits in as part of our homeschool life. See, for a few years now my kids have wanted to start a lemonade stand, but with a job and new babies and just general busy-ness, I haven't been much help in facilitating the idea. So once I was a little more free, I started helping them plan for this. Now, being a homeschool family, we certainly wanted to do this with excellence. So...

We went to the library and checked out books about business, money, and entrepreneurship. We conducted market research. We worked out brand ideas, sketching logos and such, and planned color schemes and more. We made field trips to Sam's Club to scope out prices. We went to Goodwill and found coordinating collared shirts for all of us. We borrowed a canopy and table from friends (and we decided that we would conduct business rain or shine), with the plan to invest in those items with our business profits. We decided on a charity to receive 10% of our profits (Children's Healthcare of Atlanta). Weeks after the beginning of this whole process, we designed and passed out flyers to every house in the neighborhood. And we woke up on opening day to a downpour outside.

If only you could have seen my husband and me as we attempted to raise that borrowed canopy for the very first time in the pouring rain at 5:30 am. It was, well, comical! But I was so proud of my little entrepreneurs as they braved the rain and cold, and stood out under that canopy waiting for those mythical creatures otherwise known as customers. Two wonderfully faithful friends did stop in those next couple of hours, and we had prepared the children well for the possibility of little to no success on that first morning because we had not told anyone that we would still be there rain or shine. So there was no bitter disappointment. Just the understanding that driving by and seeing three little munchkins braving that weather to remain consistent and reliable would only help build trust among our customer base.

That was yesterday. Today, we had steady customers the whole time we were open. And the kids also learned the value of a soft open before the Grand Opening...we actually ran out of coffee! Right in the middle of a customer's cup! So we will be getting a few of the kinks worked out this week. Our Grand Opening is planned for next Monday. We are planning discounts and giveaways.

The kids already have visions of franchises in their little heads. :-) Have I mentioned before how much I love to teach my kids at home?

Lots more has been going on, but getting back to the condition of my house. Well, with all this coffee stand business, it has kinda slipped a little bit. Not like it was, mind you, but slipped none the less. Especially yesterday. I spent all day cleaning out the garage so that we can run the business out of it when the weather is especially cold and rainy. So, while mom was working downstairs, you can imagine what the preschool set were doing upstairs! And after getting up at 4am yesterday, I wasn't worth anything by the time I got my kids in bed at 8. I did the dishes and then fell asleep on the couch with hubby playing around on Facebook at the other side of the room. So, well, I guess now I'll put up with a little bit of chaos upstairs while we finish redoing the garage suitably for a coffee stand to run out of it! And we'll figure out how to fit all of this back into a workable schedule over the next few weeks.

Boy, have I missed blogging! I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.