family plan

I'm on my third day as CEO and I can say that my first two days went amazingly well. Having a new mindset has completely changed the way I feel about what I'm doing. I think that I was having a case of the Stay at Home Mom Doldrums. I was needing to reinvent my seemingly mundane life. My life hasn't really changed that much, but my attitude towards it has and now I'm feeling more accomplished and better organized.

My first order of business was updating the Jones Family Plan. We originally created a family plan two years ago. Ceomom.com has the model I used to create our family plan. We followed their guidelines and did this together as a family. It seemed super cheesy at first {which is usually not a problem for me}, but it's amazing how useful this family plan has been. When we made this plan we started by setting goals; daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals. We've discovered over the past couple years that some of these goals work really well for us and some don't work at all. Ceomom also has a great article on how to set goals as a family. After setting the goals, we incorporated them into our family plan.

One of the crucial parts of our family plan is the Mission Statement or Family Motto. We all worked together to come up with our motto. We didn't want our motto to be complicated {our boys were 6, 4 and 2 months old at the time}. We wanted it to be simple, yet reflective of our family values. We decided we should stick to one word. After much deliberation, the one word we ended up choosing was "POWER," which is an acronym for Polite, Obedient, Workers, Enthusiastic and Righteous. Ironically, yet so special, after later talking to my Mom we realized that our family {the one I grew up in} had the EXACT SAME family motto with almost the same exact acronyms. How had I forgotten? {Clint, Krista, Erika...do you remember that?} Suddenly, our family motto became perfect!

This family motto has become an incredible tool in our family. Whenever my boys are getting out of control, fighting with each other or whenever there is tension in our home, I can call all the boys together to do a "Jones POWER" cheer. That's right, we do cheer's around here. It's more of a huddle, "go team" type cheer. My boys absolutely love it and it immediately bonds our family back together. I usually give the boys a quick pep talk about team work or whatever the situation demands and then I remind them that we have "Jones POWER." Whenever I say those two words it always puts a smile on their face. No matter what was going on before, we all put our hands in the circle and yell...

"Jooooones POWER!"

I hesitated sharing this for fear of the harassment that I might receive and because it really is a special, personal thing that we do together as a family. I wanted to share it though because it has become an extremely effective tool in our home for bringing our family together. This silly little motto, I believe, brings my children security and comfort. When we put our hands together it actually helps us all feel more united to each other.

As we sat down together on Monday night and reviewed our family plan, I realized that this company really is on the right track. I feel so blessed to be the CEO of an already successful business. I've realized that so many times in our lives, it's just making a few tiny adjustments that make all the difference.

time budget

Today is my first day at the new job {CEO of the Jones Household}. The first thing I did was make myself a time budget to stay organized. I've always tried to have a time budget, but recently I had not been good about using one. I'm getting back into a routine and schedule in order to turn this company around. This is just a little excel spreadsheet that I've made up. I like things color coded because I know what they represent just by looking at them. On my chart, pink is personal time, blue is family time, orange is household time, yellow is Tim time and red is church time. I like to be as planned out as possible, but also vague so that I can be flexible. For example, I have office time for two hours every day. This time includes e-mails, blogging, balancing the checkbook and basically anything I need to do in my office. Don't look too closely at this time budget or think that I actually follow this perfectly. This is just a guideline or a wish list!

If you're interested in learning {a lot} more about time management or creating a time budget I would recommend reading Julie Morgenstern's Time Management from the Inside Out. I have a copy if anyone wants to borrow it.

back to work

(image via TLC families)

I've decided that it's time I go back to work. I've loved being a stay-at-home mom. Living in my pajamas half the day. Letting the demands of everyone else determine what I will do next. Being at the beckon call of my kids all day long. Checking my e-mail whenever I please or turning on the tv if I want to {which I usually don't}. I love being able to start any project whenever I please and do whatever I want with my time. However, this kind of lifestyle does not fit my personality. I've definitely learned to enjoy serendipity, but I miss the structure, the routine and the security that working full-time brings. I miss the sense of accomplishment. I've been out of the 8-5 workforce for awhile now so I'm sure it will be hard to return, but I'm really excited.

I start my new job on Monday.
I'm going to be a CEO.
Impressed?
You should be.
I'm going to be the CEO of the Jones Household.

From what I've heard, this company is on the right track. They have a lot of wonderful systems in place. The employees love each other so much and there is a great work environment. However, they just need a little more structure and direction from a new and improved CEO {that's me}. Their last CEO was not making the best use of their time, money and resources {unbelievable, right?}. My job will be to make things more efficient. I will put some new systems in place that will make the Jones Household better than they already were. I really hope to improve this company and make sure that all of the time, money and resources are being used wisely. I know it's going to be a lot of work and extra effort for the first little while, but I am determined to make a difference. My hours will be 7 am to 9 pm. I'm sure that I will often have to work longer hours than this, but I know that it will be worth it. I personally know the employees of this company and they really deserve some positive changes, which is why I've decided to do this for a very small salary. I'm really hoping that the Board of Directors is able to increase my salary over the next year, but in the meantime I will be working for much less than I am worth! I'm really excited for this new adventure. I'll keep you posted on my progress with this new company.

Wish me luck.
I'm really going to need it!