The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started inve
6:30 am ~ woke Savanna up for school... Maddie was awake and wanted to go out. It's like that on most mornings. Still dark outside, and fog and what looks like steam is coming off the lake out back. The ground was crunchy and frozen and glistened even in the dark. It's so quiet on these mornings I can practically hear a pindrop outside. Standing outside in my flannels I just hoped to God she would go potty quickly as the chill of the air is going through me. Seriously, 30 something degrees in Florida? Unbelievable. I'm wondering if I'll have any plants left in the front yard besides our queen palms. Whether or not there's nothing I can do so I didn't sweat it. Come to think of it, I haven't sweat anything for so long since it's an iceberg here.
6:45 am ~ Come back inside and make Savanna toast with cinnamon/sugar, milk, get her lunch money, feed Maddie, and sit down to check and answer my mail. Eat piece of leftover crust from Savanna's toast and make cup of tea, Work on line up for Friday night's prayer and pancakes event, do a music chart and lead sheet for new song to introduce Friday night, Put Sunday order of service together and send to my asst. Cathy to prepare band and frontline books for week, do worship ministries blog update, finalize plans for leadership teleconference.
Say good morning to my sister Shari who is now awake...
Shari wants hot chocolate for breakfast. Put on a small pan of milk on the stove to make us both Ghirardelli hot chocolate with whipped cream.
Have to figure out how to get Savanna a sports physical at the last minute so she can try out for soccer since she was crying about it last night and I was so busy at the holidays I totally dropped the ball on this one. Called our doctor who is in Citrus Park, asked them to fax her records to Urgent Care which is right down the street from me so Larry can run over sometime today to take her for a quick physical. Doctor's office informs me the fax is not working. Oh joy.
Finally find a fax they can send it to. The hot chocolate helps me not to get too worked up over this. It's my own version of Xanax.
Called Larry and told him the records have been faxed. Start preparing casserole for dinner and when I get half way through figure out I don't have three ingredients. Drats. Call Larry and ask him to stop on his way home after work. Take the half made casserole, cover it and put in fridge to finish later. Peel 1/2 bag of potatoes for dinner and put in water for later. Take three phone calls that come in from the church office and handle what needs to be handled. Sit down at the piano and play through the chart I did to make sure it was workable.
Sit down with Shari to do the other 2/3 of her resume we left undone previous night. Half way through, Western Regional Manager from Next Job calls with an assignment for me. I give Shari some things to work on for the resume while I take the call and fulfill the other assignment. Come back to the resume a bit later. Finish another 1/3 of it, and jump up to answer the door. Fedex man is there, to pick up package. We are getting hungry. Get up and wash hands, and prepare a BLT for Shari and for me. (We both love them.) While eating we finish the resume. She's amazed and can't stop saying, "oh my gosh!! Oh my gosh! I think I'm going to get a job!" (Duh!!!!!!! Of course. By the time we're done everybody's going to wonder why she's not the flippin' president.)
Take another call or two from church. Email worship team about rehearsal. Email choir about a missing CD I need to track down. Clean up dishes. Pick up remains of a stuffed animal Maddie shredded on the living room floor while we worked. Shari says, "Having a dog is like having another child. Are you tired? Do you want to lay down? I'm can go read for a while." I say "sure" but don't intend to stop working, I just want her to feel free to read. She reads. I answer my e-mail that has piled up, and go over my calendar for the rest of the week to make sure I don't miss anything. Doorbell rings again. It's another Fedex man, this time dropping off a package. I finish a few writing projects. Shari gets up from reading.
I come into the kitchen and by this time Larry walks in the door with the three grocery items and is a little peeved to find out he also needs Savanna's birth certificate AND to have the forms notarized. I said, "no problem, go to the bank and they'll do it for $2." This doesn't seem to excite him. He hands me a magazine he picked up at the checkout. It has Amy Grant and Vince Gill on the front. He knew I'd want it since I'm Amy's greatest fan. I really don't want to devastate him but I already had the magazine as my sister immediately pointed out a day earlier how much it was a necessity in my life that I have it since Amy was on the cover. Shari is excited because she's taking the other magazine home with her on the plane.
I finish the casserole and set all the pans and dishes out to finish dinner while I make a cup of tea and tell Shari to keep an eye on the potatoes to make sure they don't bubble over or burn while I get ready to have a meeting with Kathryn. She's more than happy to. Shari is salivating over the casserole and says she is depressed to think about going back home and eating peanut butter and jelly. (She can cook but doesn't cook because she's by herself.)
Before I get on the call with Kathryn, my assistant Cathy calls to let me know there's been a glitch with something important that I ordered last month for our upcoming launch. I'm not happy. This particular company has let me down once before and I decided to give them one more chance. Now they have royally screwed up. I tell Cathy what to tell them and then I realize it won't be easy for her to demand out of them what we will need to fix this problem and not feel completely like Cruella DeVille while she does it. I tell her to have them call me as I don't want to put her through this difficult call. I am a Christian but I'm not a doormat. And when it comes to business I expect to get what I'm expecting. Cathy warns them that I'm not happy. They call and apologize and I ask them to do what it takes to earn my business back since this is their last chance. We spend about 30 minutes and renegotiate the contract with all set up charges dropped and a rush on the order at no additional charge.
I think Shari is surprised by how much my phone rings even though she's experienced it before when she's visited.
Larry picks Savanna up from the bus stop and takes her straight to Urgent Care for a physical. I meet with Kathryn while supper cooks. Always an amazing time to talk to her whether for business or pleasure. After finishing my call I quickly come out to the kitchen where everything is now cooked except for corn. I make the corn and then put everything out on the table where I announce that I have about 25 minutes to eat before I have to set up the church prayer teleconference. We eat and have a nice chat while we do. I head into my room to have quiet while I get the call set up. Larry hops on the other phone to join the call and we have a prayer teleconference with our leaders.
Following the teleconference I wash up some remaining dishes and call Shari into the room to tell her we're almost ready to start watching the season premiere of American Idol. Amazingly my sister has never seen even ONE EPISODE of Idol. She rarely watches TV. Honest to God she'd remind you of a young Mother Teresa. She just spends her days praying and helping people and has no idea who Adam Lambert or Kris Allen are. It's probably just as well. I make some brownies and we watch Idol. Since I'm going on a strict diet Monday when Shari leaves I really don't care that I ate an absolutely huge brownie.
After watching Idol I wake up. I had fallen asleep on the couch and decide to go to bed for the night. Shari decides to do the same. I check mail one last time, answer it, and go to sleep.
Today's another day! People often ask what I do on any given day. Now you know what a typical Tuesday might be like when I work from home, except yesterday I had Shari here to help me, which was nice. I also usually have quite a number of calls on Tuesday nights for my other job. I am normally working with people who are on a different time zone which makes doing business that late possible. But this week I don't have appointments which is rare. Tonight is Fusion! Can't wait.
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