Productive Week Here

This is one of those weeks where I actually feel VERY productive! Amazing!

I spent quite a bit of time working on business things. I am trying to get my business off the ground and doing so takes TIME! I have invested time in website pictures like the one above this week, product making this week, research and development including new scents AND new products like my new sugar scrub pictured here and working on new scent blends too. Created a Citrus Burst, one lemony one for my daughter that smelled like Lemon Head Candy and a Chai Spice on that my best friend should love!

In addition to that, I have dealt with a little boy who decided that if he was potty trained during the day he should wear undies to bed...GREAT right? Well, 4 dry nights have also ended up with 4 HORRIBLY wet days! Like 5-6 times a day after a month of only maybe once a day at most! I so do not understand the workings of a 3 year old mind!

I have been trying to garden plan a little bit and have a friend coming on Monday to plan what seeds we will be using in our shared garden this year. Planning ahead on garden projects too, like asking my hubby to create a tomato cage/stake combo and discovering I should think about using that for peas too!

Then I have had my "normal" things like laundry and dishes and cooking (I did resort to freezer meals a few times, glad I made them a month ago!) and cleaning and being a taxi (for my children and the Amish), and parent/teacher conferences, and a broken down (then repaired thanks to my hubby) van, and the list goes on!

How in the world do people run a house and work outside of it also!?

So as I sit here with a new recipe in the oven, wondering if my kids will like it, I think I need to work on labeling all of the products I made, and I should think about preparing dinner...but instead I am typing!

Wanna know my recipe? I twisted a recipe from this site.

I didn't have quite all the ingredients so I just started tossing in things I thought would work! :-) Yeah, that is totally how I roll! So, my revised recipe?

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup grated coconut
A healthy handful of peanuts (roasted and salted because that is what I had, but I eliminated the salt later then!)
I was gonna use raisins, but found a partial bag of chocolate chips and decided to treat the kids!

 Mix these separate and pour over:
A healthy bit of vanilla (I never measure!)
A couple good spoonfuls of JIF Chocolate flavored Hazelnut Spread
A bit more than 1/2 cup of honey...it just seemed a bit stiff yet so I added a bit more.

I mixed everything together and put in a 9X13 pan lined with parchment paper and pressed flat. I then put them in the oven at 325 for 20 minutes because my kids would rather have chewy than crispy crunchy granola bars! And now I wait! Only 5 minutes left! Oh! Hey! Guess what! I (who don't like chocolate!) do not have to be the guinea pig! See, my 12 year old is home sick today!

Doesn't she look like a good guinea pig all curled up with our Daisy with her? I think she looks hungry! She needs a snack!

So as I close and take the granola out to cool, I am moving on to the 3 year old not napping, the packaging that needs done and contemplating labeling changes on the product I made yesterday. I'm just not happy with trying to fit all the info on one label.

 

Sickness, good business and a little of everything

So I have been busy this week. Many of the Amish near me have had tremendously sick children. This got me thinking about how we deal with sickness.

I tend to deal with it in seclusion! If my children are sick...they stay home! If they have been sick recently...they stay home! If I have someone who has recently been sick and I believe they have not gotten their strength back and are still fighting with a weakened immune system...they stay home! Are you seeing a pattern here?

And yet, if they stay home the school discourages that. Says I keep them out too long. If my hubby (who works at a hospital that claims to have a policy that if you have symptoms you stay home) actually stays home from work, he get a "point" that stays on his record for an entire calendar year. If he is sick for 3-4 days, it is 3-4 points. After that many points he starts getting warnings. So they want him to stay home, but stay home and get in trouble. Stay home long enough...or even just a couple of bouts of sickness in a year and he could possibly lose his job. This makes NO sense to me!

So as I listen to these Amish talk about their sick, hospitalized with RSV, pneumonia, flu, etc. children, I am hearing a constant....they went to church....in homes (or sheds with no heat!) on open buggies, with tiny babies being passed around from person to person and many other sick and coughing children around. Then their little ones end up sick.

Okay, so I admit it, I feel a little strongly about this! It is time for this world to take the focus off of business and focus on family! Realistically, a sick person is not an effective employee anyway!

I'll move on....I did have a positive experience I wanted to share this week!

We needed to order some products for my daughter's new rock tumbler. I hesitated to order but found what I thought was the best buy out there. Of course, it was to spend $16 on the product and $18 on the shipping! I was SO pleasantly surprised when I got a note from the seller that she had overcharged me the shipping and had already refunded my PayPal with over $9! (see picture below) Seriously! I was so surprised! Not too many businesses would do that anymore so I wanted to give a shout out to Sister's Rocks for great business practices. They definitely earned my repeat business and if you need anything to do with lapidary work or rock tumbling, check there first! That being said, they have NO idea that I am posting this and I am totally not getting paid! Just rewarding a job well done in my book!

I also ordered from eBay. I ordered some vanilla beans from someone I have bought from before. In the past I always got VERY prompt service and great quality beans! Today my phone rings. It seems I ordered something and he personally wasn't happy with the quality and didn't want to ship that to me without confirming that I was okay with it! We discussed some things and modified my order and the product should be in its way! Thank you to Vanilla Products USA for your prompt, friendly service and for working with me to ensure that you are providing the best quality product to the customer! Once again, he has NO idea that I am posting! I just believe in praising business practices that make me stand up and take notice! I think people are too quick to point out the negative but not equally quick to point out the great jobs that many companies do!

That all being said, this prompt service and honesty about shipping price goes a LONG way in solidifying me as a repeat buyer for these businesses!

Do you make it a point to remember companies that do great? Do you make it a point to promote them (even without being an affiliate?)

Exciting New Adventures

Spent a few hours with my sister today setting up a new blog. Okay, it is seriously not done yet but it is exciting anyway! I am starting to make my own vanilla and am looking to market it online. Don't know how this will work but I will keep trying! I am going to be putting recipes and such on there too!

If you are bored today, check out Windy Hill Vanilla. Let me know what you think! I am TOTALLY open to comments and suggestions! Just remember it is in the beginning stages! And I am apparently a lot more computer illiterate than I thought I was!

Have a great day!

Suz