We are blessed – with our health, with our home and especially with our finances. Few people can walk away from the only steady income a family has and turn out to be more financially blessed because of it. Just a few years back, it would no have been possible. We struggled hard to get to the place where we are and we will continue to crawl can climb until we reach the pinnacle of abundance.
Our struggle was recently recounted in an article at In Touch magazine (Dr. Charles Stanley). “Breaking the Debt Curse” – found on page 22 of the April issue of In Touch - is one of my first big publications and also the first step to being completely honest with people in my writing. I was reading it with my hubby yesterday online, and it is overwhelming how far we have traveled in the last several years.
Today we are both staying at home. I’m writing full time. He is starting an Arts Academy. Together we are working the land and making a go of the “small farm” life. We have truly been blessed – but we have worked hard to get to a place where we can receive the blessings.
If you have a dream or a goal and you fill like you are just spinning your wheels, look back in your journal (I know you keep one 
) and see where you were just a few years back. Keep remembering that although you may not be where you want to be right now, you are much farther along than you were yesterday (or last year).
Abundance is having a plentiful supply. Now that we have broken the debt curse for our family and for our future, we will make it to abundance in every aspect of our lives.
April 3rd, 2008
Working at home is something I have been doing on and off since my first child was born (now over 11 years ago). I started out doing office work from home for my mom’s medical billing practice. There have been a few pauses and breaks (and stumbles) along the way, but some
things always seem to remain true.
Peculiar Thought #1: Some people will call to chat even though they will ask if you are working and you will respond yes. It’s almost as if they are asking to hear the words come out of their own mouth and not because they want a response.
Peculiar Thought #2: It doesn’t matter what your schedule looks like or how well you plan ahead – if you have kids in the house and you are working at home then the odds are good that you will work in the early morning hours (before the kids get up) or the late night hours (after they are in bed).
Peculiar Thought #3: The entire family and most of the rest of the world (including aunts, cousins and others that you may not know exist) expect you to do the little things that people who work just can be bothered with doing – like taking Aunt Pearl to the eye doctor or getting the Family Dinner planned and organized or putting together the church newsletter - because you don’t have a real job. These distractions can make work impossible.
Peculiar Thought #4: Even if you are making a nice living while you work at home there are those days when you will think that life would be easier if you just did the “normal” thing and got a real job.
Peculiar Thought #5: No matter how good you have planned out the work, there is always something that comes up or something that happens to try to throw everything off balance. Always be prepared for the unexpected, be organized and orderly, and work in advance. Procrastination and disorganization will eat you alive if you decide to work at home and let them rule the roost.
Peculiar Thought #6: The more money you make when you work at home the more money you need to make when you work at home. The government is taking a HUGE chunk of America’s income and when you write that check yourself you become very aware of it. And the more income you make, the more the government thinks it should get.
Peculiar Thought #7: Almost every venue pays less for online work than for print or in person. I haven’t decided if that is because the quality is so low around the industry or if the industry is just that cheep.
Peculiar Thought #8: The comment “so you don’t have a real job” will come up at least once when you are out in a new social situation no matter how successful you might be when you work from home. Society has a certain game plan and you must step in line or else you must be wrong.
The world of work at home is fun, interesting and it seems it is always changing (at least in this house). The best thing is that I’m here – enjoying each and every minute of my children and the craziness that is our lives. It may be a peculiar road to walk, but we are skipping along the way, so does it really matter all that much if people stare?
April 3rd, 2008
