Drum roll please....

My newly re-named and re-focused blog is here! After much thought, I have finally arrived at a name that embodies what I'm hoping to do and share here. My primary focus in blogging to focus my own mind on the things most important to me to live a better life.

That's why I'm now blogging under the title: Living the "More" Life

The "more" life is about sharing with you my tips, ideas and thoughts on living a life with more joy, laughter, fun, compassion, love, organization, faith, and more time for the things and people we love most. I hope to also be able to share the tips, ideas and thoughts of others as well.

As a working mom, I all-too-often feel as if I'm living the "just getting by" life. I suspect you know what I mean. And how I feel. So let's commit today to more consciously striving to live the "more" life.

For me, tonight, that means more love, as I'm off to go tuck my Little Girl into bed.

I'm Back!

As I wrote in my last post from oh-so-long-ago, I'd made the freeing decision of being okay with the

Like a phoenix, from the ashes I rise! (Artwork credit)

realization that the time was not right for me yet to start my own business venture. At the time, I intended to keep writing here about other things. But I found that, in accepting the freedom to walk away from my business plan, I also accepted the freedom to focus only on myself and my family for a while. And it's a good thing I did. I've needed this time; adjusting to life as a family of four has been a much bigger task than I expected.

But I've been reading a lot lately, both blogs and books, and I find myself with twitching fingers and an active mind with things to say. This isn't the first time this has happened in the last year, but I've kept myself from blogging out of a concern that my random thoughts and posts would cause my blog to have an "inconsistent voice". (Apparently, one thing I've read too much of is advice about how to be a "successful blogger".)

But I need an outlet for my voice, a place to share my thoughts and ideas and to engage in discussion and dialogue with others. So here I am again, in my little corner of the blogosphere, to share my thoughts, dreams, ideas, and opinions.

I don't really know what I'll be blogging about, but it's sure to contain a fair amount of thought and reflection on parenting while being a working mom, the journey to a healthy lifestyle and finding inner peace with my body image, the road to financial freedom and independence, pursuing my creative dreams and goals, and whatever else strikes my fancy.

To that end, I've also decided that "Grabbing the Brass Ring" is not reflective of my new purpose for being here. I welcome any and all suggestions for a new name for my blog. And I promise that I'll see you all again, sooner rather than later!

Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?

Out of the blue at dinner tonight, Little Girl declared that my mother and I needed to smile at each other so we could be "bucket fillers" instead of "bucket dippers".

"What do you mean, sweetie?" I asked her.


Photo source

In the manner of 5-year-olds, her explanation was lengthy and a bit scattered, but the gist of it was that we need to do things for ourselves and for each other that "fill our bucket" and we need to make sure that we aren't stealing from other people's buckets by being mean to them, otherwise known as being a "bucket dipper". It seems there is a book at her school about this very thing that she read the other day. Clearly, it made an impact.

And she made an impact on me tonight. Her talk of bucket fillers and dippers reminded me of what got me excited about the idea of running my own business in the first place. I enjoy my full-time job and I'm good at it, but it doesn't fill my bucket. What percentage of my bucket is filled by my job all to often is countered by the "dips" from my bucket that happen when my job leaves me too little time or energy for my super-charged (and favorite) bucket filler: my family.

While Little Girl was reading her Bucket Book, I've been reading a book of my own about making the most out of the eight hours a day that we're not at work or sleeping. (And, yes, I do recognize the irony of spending those eight hours reading a book about how to maximize those eight hours.)

I want to use those other eight hours to make my bucket overflow. I want to receive the spiritual uplift I get from using my talents to help fill the buckets of those around me. THIS is what has kept me in the constant refrain of "I want my own business" for the past three or four years. I have talents and gifts to share and I've learned over time that my bucket runneth over when I help others' buckets runneth over.

When I have those moments of self-doubt, those moments of fear - fear of failure, fear of success - this is what I shall return to. My business dreams, and the people I'll help when those dreams are realized, are what will fill my bucket.

What fills your bucket?

Big wild scary wonderful dreams

For too long I've let my job title define me. "I can't run a crafting or freelance business or write a children's book because I'm a career counselor, not an author or an entrepreneur." Why can't I be all those things? With only one shot at this life, why shouldn't I pursue everything that interests and excites me? 

That question is what sparked me to start this blog in the first place; this was to be my "home base" for starting my entrepreneurial dreams and sharing all the fears, challenges, and (hopefully) successes that go with it. Instead I've used it as my home base to talk about everything but that. And that's okay. I've been writing about things that excite me and that I love and want to share.

What hasn't been okay is that I've also been writing about those things as an excuse not to take that terrifying first leap into the business of my dreams. No longer. This post is my announcement to the world that I will shortly be making my business dreams a reality.

I'm tossing out the beliefs that I have to have it all figured out before "going public". Instead, I'm going to learn on the job, just like I have when I've been working for someone else.

I'm tossing out the beliefs that I have to be recognized as an expert by somebody else before anybody will want to hire me. Instead, I have faith and confidence in my talents and abilities. I know my strengths and I know where I have lots more to learn.

I have gifts to share and a desire to help others and a dream of making a better life for myself, my family, and those I work with. 

So, while I will still continue to blog about Northeast Ohio, suggestions for family fun, and other things of interest to me, you'll also start to see more about my efforts to make my business dreams a reality! It's going to be an exciting ride and I can't wait to share it all with all of you!


(P.S. If you're curious about what has helped me muster the conviction to stop procrastinating and just get myself out there already, I encourage you to check out Leonie Dawson and wonderful circles of women she has helped to form over at the Goddess Guidebook Circle. I'm only one week into her Business Goddess e-Course, but it has already helped me to see that my ideas aren't crazy and to let go of that feeling that everything has to be perfect before I can send it out into the world.)

The Hardest Part? Getting Started

I've been a bit neglectful of this blog lately. My apologies. Unfortunately, the primary reason for that is that I've also been a bit neglectful of my goals and ambitions lately.

At the beginning of the year, I had a burst of energy and creativity. I came up with a name for my business, pattern ideas for my first products, even catchy names for a couple of the products.  I talked a lot about my goals and I even wrote them down.

Then time passed....

A few weeks ago, I had another burst of energy and creativity. I ordered labels for my products, set up an account on Etsy, created my Facebook page.

I think about it every day. I've written out so many things - ideas, pattern dimensions, marketing goals.

But I'm struggling with that next step. Part of it is a balance issue. I know I've chosen a difficult time to try and add a new endeavor to my plate. I work a full-time job, I'm a wife, a mother to a busy five-year-old and a nursing four-month-old. By the time I get everybody to bed at night, prepare bottles and bags for the next day, I'm wiped. (I feel asleep on the couch at 9:30 last night.)

But I also can't help but wonder if part of the struggle I have in taking that next step with my business is nervousness about putting myself out there. Once I put all this time and energy and love into bringing my creative vision to reality, will anybody even like or want it?

I won't let that nervousness stop me, of course. I believe in my idea. I want to see it come to life. I will see it come to life.

What's that saying? "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

What project, dream, or goal have you found challenging to get started on? What motivated you to take that first step?