Pack Leader?

My partner and I recently started hanging out with a couple from a town a little ways away. They are, quite frankly, a little older then I am but considering my partner is 9 years older them me, I figure it's a good thing for him and I really like them to so it's no bother. Anyways, the first thing you discover is that this family has dogs. Really, really big dogs. If fact, I have never seen dogs this size except on pictures on the T.V. They have what are called Mastif's. It also turns out that they are dog trainers. That's exciting. First thing that comes to mind is "The Dog Whisperer". When you hear this couple talk it is like taking a walk with Cesar Millan. I love it.

After visiting with this couple for the past couple of months we have really grown to like them and trust each other with privledged information, such as favorite cereals or flavor of ice cream, and so they know our financial situation. To say the least it's a little bare at the moment. It will get better soon though so I'm not to worried. However, in the mean time, they have offered to let me work with them and the dogs out at the farm when they need help and a little extra cash will go a long ways. I'm excited about that too.

This leads to me learning more about being a leader. While learning about leading the dogs I am going to be learning more about myself and what kind of leader I am and what I am capable of. In fact people have commented that just watching the show has helped them understand themselves better and to be more assertive leaders. Great! Just what I am looking for! So, now I've got a few more books (great, more reading) and I'm leaning how to be a pack leader. Hopefully, this is going to do it and I can update you further on my leadership training.

I did It!!!

So far I have been flying for about 4 days. Or maybe I should say fluttering, but I am on my way to bettering my life. That whole leader thing and bettering yourself now applies. My sink has been shiny for a 4 whole days. My partner is almost the most happy I've ever seen him and there's this calming feeling when I look at it. It's a great feeling. Like a nice cold drink on a very, very hot summer day. It really is that refreshing.

Been walking a little lately but it's been so cold it's hard to get the desire to go outside to excercise even if I am going into the local arena to stay warm while I do it. I played Wii with my sister and her fiance for a few hours the other day but I don't think that is included in the "work out" catagory. It doesn't help that Illiana absolutely refuses to have a nap. She's now been screaming for 2 hours but the end is in sight finally.

So the road to bettering myself and towards being a leader that people can believe in is rough but I'm trying. So far my house and a significant increase in excercise. Soon, I hope to be helping a friend train dogs and so learn to be a pack leader and maybe understanding that role will help me to understanding myself as a leader.

FlyLady

So I've decided that I'm going to learn how to "Fly". Finally Loving Yourself, is a website a friend of mine introduced me to, and considering how I feel about housework I figure I'll give it a try. I'm sure that cleaning up my environment and getting a regular schedule will help in the long run to help me lose weight as well which is one of my New Year's Resolutions.

Dolce, who must be a very insightful woman, wrote what I figure is the perfect definitions of different levels of clean. I fall somewhere between the messy and dirty catagory. Yes, I know, something slightly embarassing that you probably shouldn't admit to but I have very little shame.

The FlyLady is an online help or guide to getting your house and your life a little more organised. Not in a religious way, or book type of way but by helping you set a routine to do little things everyday so your house will gradually get to a level that is "clean" without being "OCD". They also send out little e-mail letters with encouragement as well as reminders about what you are suppose to do everyday to stay on top of things. The FlyLady's motto as that your house didn't get cluttered in one day and it won't be clean in one day so take it slowly with little steps and develop a system that works with you and your schedule. According to their website, it works for everyone whether you're a STHM or a business woman. I'll give it a try and see what I can do. I'll keep you posted on my situation and see if I can declutter my life.

Tricks for Babies

So as much as I don't want to turn my blog into a mom blog and stick to thoughts and random ideas about what I'm reading or learning I have to take a moment to comment about how cute my baby is.

I taught her a trick yesterday. It took me about 4 hours but I finally did it. When I ask "How big is Illiana?", she puts her hands high in the air and smiles and then cheers herself on with claps. I know that this isn't really a big thing for someone with older children but for me being a first time mom I have to add it . I love how cute she is.

The second trick that she figured out all on her own is to shake her head to mean no. However, it is so very, very, cute I have a friend who says she looks like a bobble head. You know the ones that you put on the dash of your car.

That's all for today. I promise I will try to keep the mom stuff to a minimum.

Resolutions

So after looking through a number of other blogs I have discovered that there are a number of people that have posted their New Year's resolutions so I figured. Why not.....maybe I'll be more accountable then. I am, unfortunately, very late posting this as it is now the 17th of January but I figure no one is following this anyways so it really is only for me right now.

1. I am going to lose 20 lbs by the end of June for my little sister's wedding and 50 lbs by the end of the year for myself and my daughter.

2. I am going to get my home business going enough that I can can stay home with my daughter. Of course, I really want to earn enough to do things like take a few trips and pay off our house but enough that I can stay home is my goal for the end of the year.

I think that's pretty much the only real big goals I have for the year. Other small things like eat healthier and excercise more fit in with the weight loss.

Leadership Quotes

While reading about leadership and learning more about myself I have discovered a few quotes that I really liked and I just wanted to share them.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. - Bill Gates

The best morale exists when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it's usually lousy. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. - John F. Kennedy

We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors. - Lyndon B. Johnson

Your failures won't hurt you until you start blaming them on others. - unknown

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. - Eleanor Roosevelt

Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better. - Bill Bradley

To succeed...you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. - Tony Dorsett

Jenn Lawlor

So I finally got up the nerve to phone Jenn Lawlor. I stuttered and said something about not really believing that I would get through and then she said that she was spending time playing with her kids and asked if I could phone her back in about 4 hours. I said sure.....and never did. I froze.

I had a list of questions for her like: What do I put on a squeeze page?, and How do I make a squeeze page people will find?. Instead, I didn't phone her back.

She only wants interested candidates to phone and now I sound like someone not interested even though I want to build a home business worse then anything. I've never really wanted to do anything so much in my life as this. I want to stay home with Illiana and be able to be a supportive and stay at home mom while still bringing in money since one income isn't enough anymore. I guess I blew the phone call....maybe I'll phone back in a couple weeks and try again. Maybe by then she'll have forgotten that I even phoned.

Scary just plain scary

Tonight I was reading more about cleaning products and how dangerous they can be. I discovered some very, very disturbing information for all the moms out there. Companies put fermaldahyde in almost everything we keep in our home including but not ending with baby shampoo, and the particle board that most cribs are made out of. I just threw my baby shampoo out and switched to the Melaleuca alternative.

These articles I was reading also covered a number of other cleaners you use around the house. I want so bad to stand on my rooftop and yell out to everyone about the danger of these cleaners. I read stories that made me cry about young children crawling through bleach and drinking toilet bowl cleaner. If I could tell the whole world about how terrible and dangerous these chemicals were I would but I guess I'll have to tell the world one person at a time and hope that people will listen.

My Value

What do I have to offer? I keep hearing the phrase value over and over again. So I started to think what value do I have. I think I've come up with a few things.

I have a caring heart to offer. I care about people and about the world around me. I was the child that cried when I watched Bambi when I was less then a year old. It's true!!! My mom told me so and she wouldn't lie. I also cried during an episode of Rin-Tin-Tin when a little boy was hanging off of a cliff and was going to die. I want people to succeed in their own lives and experience success. Success can be anything you want it to. It can be having a healthy family, or a great career, it could be running the marathon that you always wished you could but never did. Success could be making tons of money or visiting the Parthenon. I want for people whatever they want for themselves.

I think I am a very loyal friend. I have friends that I have known for years that I am still best friends with. In fact, I still regularily hang out with people that I have know for 7 and 8 years. That must be a sign of some sort that people want to be friends with me that long. Especially after they get to know me.

I have integrity. I do what I say I'm going to do. I believe that what happens behind closed doors shouldn't be any different from what you do in front of people and what you say behind someones back you can say to them in person. Having integrity though can be hard sometimes. There are days that it can be tested beyond all measure. I watched Mad Money tonight and it makes me think of integrity. Could I refuse to take the money if I had a sure fire way to get it? I have refused opportunities like that in the past. I worked for a company in management and could easily have pocketed some of the money but I passed up that chance so I could keep my integrity.

I think I am an honest person. People who know me would say that sometimes I am brutally honest. I think sugur coating many things only make it worse. If things like the news wasn't sugur coated maybe our world would be different.

I'm sure that I have many, many more things that make me valuable but at this hour my mind is running towards a dead end. Value is something that you need to be aware of in your own life though. The day that you no longer have value in your eyes then it is time to speak to someone about it because I'm sure that someone that you know will have something positive to say about your value.

Being A Leader

I watched a video on youtube last night done by a fellow the name of Jonathan Budd. He was talking about what it truely takes to be a leader and some of what he said has really stuck with me.

His one comment was that to be a leader means you no longer need help from anyone else. Not meaning that you can't have a mentor but that you can make the decisions on your own and can answer any questions you need without having to turn to your upline in network marketing. He also said that you are not a true leader until you have helped someone else reach that level. I think it is a very valid point. It also complements something I read the other day about appearing as an expert in your business. Regardless of what happens, you should appear to know what the answers are. You don't need to know everything you just need to know more then the person that you are talking with.

The second point that he brought up really really stuck with me. He said that if you want to get professionals to work with you then you must appear as a professional. That makes sense. People tend to bond closest with the people that they have something in common with. This would also argue that if you want to be a professional then you should surround yourself with such people. Watching them, and examining how they deal with a situation will encourage growth in you as a leader. Finding a mentor that can help answer your questions and reinforce you with positive feedback and constructive criticism being aware of you as a person as well as being strong enough to tell you when your wrong is an essential asspect to learning to lead.

Wow!! Sol-U-Mel is amazing!!!

So like I said earlier today I tried Sol-u-Mel. I found some info on what it can be used for. They have 101 things listed and I'm sure there must be more. I tried a few to see if they actually worked and this is what I came up with along with a few more things I intend on trying.

They use it for wallpaper remover, air freshener, sticky residue from price tags and gum removal, kitchen odors, pet odors, mold and mildew, and air purification. This just lists a few of the things that it can be used for and I've used it for all of these except for the wallpaper and it really does work. It can be used to remove stains from clothes like pen and oil and yet it can be used in the diaper pail for cloth diapers to help with the smell and the staining. You can use it as a disinfectant, and on your plants to kill afids, you can even bath in it. I bathed my daughter in it because she was having problems with diaper rash. It cured it right away. I just want to note that you shouldn't use this on a newborn baby as there will most likely be an adverse affect. It is ok to use on older infants that can sweat or on adults with bedsores or heatrashes as long as it is very diluted.

I must admit that this is somthing I would never have believed. Something that is strong enough to remove wallpaper and kill mildew yet is mild enough I can bath my baby in since it is all natural. Wow!! I am going to have to try some of the other items on this list of 101 things and find out what else it can do!!

Bleach in our Children's mouths?

I care about my family. My family is a small one. At least the family I live with. I have a daughter and a partner. My daughter is just about a year old. Next month, I can't believe it, is going to be her birthday and I'll be planning a big party.

Becoming a mother was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I found all sorts of new fears and ideas that I had never dealt with before this point. One of the biggest fears that I dealt with was the dangers to my daughter. Throughout my learning I have discovered just how dangerous our world can actually be. For one thing everyone tells you to do the basics like baby gates and making sure there's no cords hanging around. What they don't tell you is that many of the things that you use to clean your house is so dangerous. At least I didn't think about it until I had my daughter.

Everyone knows bleach is dangerous. We use it in our laundry, to clean our bathrooms, and kitchens, even the toys that our children stick in their mouths. Now lets think about it. Bleach in our children's mouths? Wow, that's a scary thought. So I went looking for something better and I found it. There are a few products that I found that work absolutely amazing.

There is a product called Sol-U-Guard that is EPA approved to kill 99.99% of germs without harmful chemicals. In fact, they use products that we have in our own home that we never even thought about before, and they're environmentally friendly. It uses thyme oil, and citric acid both naturally occurring and safe alternatives to bleach to clean our kitchens and door handles with without harming our child. It even has a pleasant scent and if your child puts it in their mouth it won't hurt them. More and more studies are showing the danger of many of the chemicals that we use around our home being bad not just for us but for the environment as well but this option won't do anything to the environment except kill the bacteria in your own environment.

The other product I found is Sol-U-Mel. It actually has a 101 uses, not even kidding, I got an e-mail and have been slowly trying them. It also uses natural products like Melaleuca tea tree oil to disinfect and get stains out of things. Sol-U-Mel can be put in the wash with oily clothes or put in humidifiers to make the air smell fresher without the chemicals that are in the traditional air fresheners. It can be sprayed onto furniture or used to clean your child's crib. Again, 100% safe since it uses all natural products that are safe for your family and the environment. How can you go wrong with products like these?

A start to being a Leader

The other day I discovered a woman on-line named Jenn Lawlor. She is a mom that lives with her family in Alaska and runs a home business making money that many would be envious of. She runs a few web sites and has videos on YouTube.com that teach about network marketing. She manages to run a successful business and still be a stay at home mom.

One of the first topics she covers is about being someone people are willing to follow in your home business or any business really. In business it isn't the products or the services that are in question. For the most part you wouldn't be supporting them or supplying them if they weren't worth investing in. Business is about selling yourself. The advice she gave was to start by looking at why you are failing in business and evaluate what the problems are. She also said that to be a true leader you need to be constantly bettering yourself. Her next set of instructions was a logical step to evaluating problems....basically find a solution. Her advice is to go get a book and start bettering yourself. I'm not much of one for self-help books but I figure I can't lose anything by giving it a try.

I got a book called "The Nature of Leadership" by B. Joseph White who just happens to be the president of the University of Illinois. To me, just his position screams LEADER but I still remain doubtful as to how helpful this truly will be. So far I am about 40 pages in and it seems to make sense. Be both hard and calculating, and soft, and comforting. We'll see where this information leads me and then look towards the next step to being a leader and a stay at home mom with a thriving home business. That's my dream anyways.