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EPnews -- from The Entrepreneurial Parent
a work-family resource for home-based entrepreneurs
@ http://www.en-parent.com
October 11, 2000
Lisa Roberts, Editor:
epideas@en-parent.com
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_______________CONTENTS_______________
The Funny Things EP Kids Say
& Do
EP Times -- " The Distracting Sounds of Silence"
EP Q&A's -- Workstation Hutches
What's Happening at EP -- Help Us Help EP's!
_________________________________________
Editorial Note: EPnews is distributed
the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of every
month, except during the summer. The Entrepreneurial Parent web
site is
updated on an ongoing basis throughout each month (en-parent.com).
Welcome
all new subscribers!
====================================
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___________________________________
THE FUNNY THINGS EP KIDS SAY & DO!
Submitted by NAEP Member, Anne
Ramstetter Wenzel of Econosystems,
(mailto:awenzel@e-conosystems.com):
One evening at bedtime I was
reading to my son, "Big Thoughts for Little
People: ABC's to Help You Grow" by Kenneth N. Taylor.
We were reading about
the letter "G":
"G is for God;
He's your Father above.
He made you and likes you
And shows you his love."
Following the paragraph describing
God's qualities there's a "SOME QUESTIONS
TO ANSWER" section. So I asked him the question, "Where
is God?" and he
answered, "Well, he's not in heaven." I asked him why
he
thought that and he said, "You know, you say that prayer,
'Our Father, who
aren't in heaven.'"
=====
Why work at home? So you can hear the funny things your EP Kids
say
throughout the day. Share with the EP Community something your
child said or
did recently that made you smirk, giggle, or LOL. Send your submission
via
e-mail to:epideas@en-parent.com.
And if you need a stockpile of
smiles to get you through your EP day, check
out Grace Housholder's heartwarming "The Funny Kids Project"
at
www.funnykids.com. On
those stressed-out EP days, you'll be glad you did!
Grace's coffee table book is
also available at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0963871536/theentrepreneuri
__________________________________
EP TIMES -- AN EDITORIAL
"The Distracting Sounds
of Silence"
© 2000, Lisa M. Roberts
What do Entrepreneurial Parents
long for the most? Let me guess -- more time.
Long, glorious stretches of uninterrupted time to catch up on
work, move
forward with new projects, or simply take a breather from it
all. A stretch
of time that spans, say, not just a few hours, not just a 9-5
work day, but a
weekend...a very long, tranquil, lingering weekend...
Sound beyond wonderful to you?
OK, truth is, I'm the lucky EP who got her
wish. Over the Columbus Day weekend, actually from Thursday night
(7 p.m.)
until Monday night (10 p.m.), I was a free woman. No kids, no
spouse, no
"someone else's" schedule. For 99 hours, my husband
took a road trip with my
four kids to his mother's home near Pittsburgh, PA, and I got
to stay behind.
Bliss. Absolute bliss.
Oh, yes, I had plans. I was to
catch up with friends, family, sleep, and
ALLLLLL the deadlines looming around the corner. Without the
threat of the
slightest unauthorized interruption, I was empowered to take
on the world.
OK, maybe not THE world...but MY world. And with 99 hours stretched
leisurely
ahead, who could stop me?
I started the extended weekend
earnestly enough Friday morning, working at my
computer station until it was time to catch a train into NYC
to meet a friend
for lunch, my sister for dinner, and then my brother and mother
for a 24-hour
family-bonding mission to close our summer cabin for the year.
By the time I
had returned home and was back at my desk, it was 64 hours into
my allotted
"free" time. OK, the pile of work was still high, but
I still had 36 hours to
work up a storm and stay comfortably ahead of my deadlines for
the week.
It was in those remaining 36
hours that my revelation hit. Accustomed to
being incessantly "on call" for my children (even when
they're all in school,
think the inevitable call from the school nurse), I felt sluggish
and slow
without them. I also found the long-awaited sounds of silence
to be way
overrated. Instead, they were awfully distracting. Where was
the urgency to
get anything done? Where was the challenge, the "beat the
clock" game I revel
in playing on a daily basis?
Without a fire underneath me,
I am as motivated as a tortoise to move fast. I
clearly work best when the unexpected is behind every wall. Knowing
that my
kids are going to come barreling through the door any minute
pushes me over
indecision, under multi-task mode and straight through to my
deadlines.
Knowing they'll come lumbering through in 36 hours, I might as
well rent an
old movie and take a long walk,Ķ
So in the end, my 99 hours meant
some quality time with friends and family,
the opportunity to soak up all the sleep I could possibly need,
and the
reality of making a mere dent in my action pile. But I'm not
sad. As they
say, two out of three ain't bad.
=====
What would *you* do if *you* had 99 hours all to yourself? Let's
hear it.
Email "editor@en-parent.com"
and we'll share your dream plans in our next
EPnews issue. Until then, enjoy the push-pull of your EP life!
=====
Lisa Roberts is the mother of four, Site Producer of The Entrepreneurial
Parent and author of "How to Raise A Family & A Career
Under One Roof: A
Parent's Guide to Home Business" (Bookhaven Press, 1997).
"EP Times" is a
continuation of the "Home Business Diary" essays originally
created for her
book, which is available for purchase at:
http://en-parent.com/order.htm
and through Amazon, at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0943641179/theentrepreneuri
____________________________________
EP Q&As
Have a question? Our EP Expert
Panel is available to all EPnews Subscribers.
Visit them at http://en-parent.com/experts.com
(follow the "Q&A" links). If
your question isn't answered there, then send it to: experts@en-parent.com.
They'll be glad to help you out if they can!
Q. I have a desk, phone table
and file cabinet. On my desk is, of course, my
phone, printer, computer, speakers, fax, and a lot of papers.
What I need is
storage above my work station. Can you give me some ideas, or
tell me
where do go to find pictures of a work station? On this work
station I would
like to put my printer, fax, speakers, and have room to store
papers and
maybe some decorative things. Thanks.
A. Dear Randy,
What you need is a simple item
called a "hutch" or an even simpler item
called an "off-surface shelf." These durable shelves
go on top of your
desktop, much like the "hutch" concept in a dining
room. Hutches may have
multiple shelves while an off-surface shelf only has one additional
shelf.
The best advice: go to www.officedepot.com and do a search first
for "hutch"
so you can see the systems. Then, do a search for "off-surface
shelf" so you
can view an image of Tenex's units that run from $54 to $73.
You'll need one
that is universal and fits onto any desktop. But, if you prefer
to see these
items in person, any office superstore will have them in stock
on the floor
so you can see if they are spacious enough for your needs. Good
luck!
====
Marilyn Zelinsky is our "Home Office Design Expert,"
senior editor of Home
Office Computing magazine and author of "Practical Home
Office Solutions"
(McGraw-Hill, October 1998) and "New Workplaces for New
Workstyles"
(McGraw-Hill, January 1998). For more advice from and info on
Marilyn, visit:
http://en-parent.com/Experts/exp-zelinsky.htm
__________________________
WHAT'S HAPPENING AT EP
---> Help Us Help EPs!
We're halfway through our survey
period (Sept. 1 - Nov. 30, 2000), and new
surveys are coming through daily. But the more "Entrepreneurial
Parents" we
hear from, the more lively, amusing, insightfuly, poignant and
useful our
book on EPs will be! Please help us in our research by spreading
the word
about our survey to your circle of colleagues, friends, family
and all the
other possible EPs in your life. You can make a real difference
by not only
filling out the survey yourself, but by sharing our survey info
through your
favorite email loops, newsgroups, bulletin boards, newsletters,
web sites and
the like.
The short story:
http://en-parent.com/survey.htm
The details (and please feel
free to copy & paste the following & use as
needed):
PUBLICITY OPPORTUNITY FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL
PARENTS
If you work at home and are also in the throes of parenthood,
we have a
publicity opportunity for you! Paul and Sarah Edwards, best-selling
authors,
columnists and speakers on new and better ways to live and work,
have teamed
up with the founder of en-parent.com, Lisa Roberts, to write
"The
Entrepreneurial Parent: How to Earn Your Living at Home in the
Internet Age
and Still Enjoy Your Family, Your Life and Your Work," to
be published by
Tarcher/Putnam in 2002. They are currently conducting research
for their book
and are looking for parents -- Dads, Moms and Parenting Couples
-- who are
juggling working at home with parenting issues.
If that's you, stand up and be counted! Just email <survey@en-parent.com>
to
receive a full questionnaire by email, or go to:
<http://en-parent.com/survey.htm>
to take their "Short" and "Extended"
surveys online.
All survey respondents will be immediately eligible for the two
"Survey
Prize" drawings, to be held in early December.
FIRST PRIZE: A Bundle of Books by Paul & Sarah Edwards, including:
** Working from Home: Everything You Need to Know About Living
and Working
Under the Same Roof (1999)
** Making Money in Cyberspace (1998)
** Getting Business to Come to You: A Complete Do-It-Yourself
Guide to
Attracting All the Business You Can Enjoy (1998)
** Teaming Up: The Small Business Guide to Collaborating With
Others to Boost
Your Earnings and Expand Your Horizons (1997)
** Finding Your Perfect Work: The New Career Guide to Making
a Living,
Creating a Life (1996)
SECOND PRIZE: A $100 EP Gift Basket, filled with:
** Items from the "EP Gift Shop," a specialty online
gift shop stocked with
unique and original inventory created and/or designed by parents
who work at
home
The Survey will run from September 1 - November 30, 2000, so
if you're an
"EP," stand up and be counted today!
Good luck to all!
_____________________________
CONTACT/SUBSCRIPTION INFO
The Entrepreneurial Parent, LLC
is not engaged in rendering legal or
financial advice. If expert assistance is required, the services
of a
licensed professional should be sought.
This newsletter may be redistributed
freely via the Internet. Re-publishing
of separate articles for your print publication needs approval
first; write
to: Roberts@en-parent.com
for permission.
© 2000, The Entrepreneurial
Parent, LLC
Editor: Lisa M. Roberts
POB 320722, Fairfield, CT 06432; http://en-parent.com
Ph/Fax: (203) 371-6212, Email: office@en-parent.com
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