Nessa's Notes

I missed a few days in the 30 days of blogging , but the nice thing about this project is that it's so easy to jump back in. :) Prompt 20 is to share a childhood memory. When thinking about what would make a good recollection to share here, I reminded myself that the topic of this blog is wealth creation. That led to thoughts of Carolina Florist, the business my grandparents owned. "The Shop" as we called it was one of my favorite places to be and there are so many fond memories to recall. Grandpa's whispery whistle as he worked, creating his beautiful arrangements Grandma V teaching me how to update customer files when payments came in Watering and dusting the potted plants and "dish gardens" kept in the window displays Making endless boquets and corsages for Mother's day, and hundreds of palm crosses for Easter The elation when after countless tries, I finally learned to make a bow-ribbon pompom It was a good place and a good way to learn about busines...

Prompt 17 in 30 days of blogging is to visit one of the other participants and tell something about her. I picked Heidi Caswell , who I first met on the Ryze network. I have long admired Heidi for her sense of balance in raising a large family and running a successful business at the same time. Connect Simply is the name of her website, and a philosophy that many would do well to take to heart. She gets to the point and tells it without trying to make things more complicated than they need to be. How refreshing!

All the cooking and feasting seems to have put me a day behind in this adventure. But that's ok, I'll catch up. After all, it's a journey - not a race. :) Prompt 13 in 30 days of blogging is to write about strengths and what brings joy. This is an important topic that everyone should explore occasionally. The two subjects are closely connected since we usually like to do those things we do well, and we tend to do well that which we like. I believe that I have three main strengths: The first is something that I have always loved; reading and writing. Books have been my friends since before I can remember. (A trait I inherited from my English teacher/librarian mother) And I have a good ear for languages. The next would be that I am a caretaker. In addition to being a mom and foster parent, I've been an emergency medic, a doula and a group home manager for disabled adults and children. Helping support people as they develop towards their personal or business goals just com...

Day 5 of this exercise sounded simple at first: make a list . Of ten things that are important to me. My first thought was if I could narrow it down to only 10. So, I started thinking about what is truly important to me. According to my friend Mr. Webster, important means: marked by or indicative of significant worth or consequence : valuable in content or relationship. Significant worth. Valuable content. Relationship. My next thought was if there were 10 things that were worthy of such a list. 1. God and Them. 2. My children, steps, their friends, my neices, Godchildren, granddaughter, and all those wonderful folks who call me Mama-V or Auntie-V. 3. Books, words, reading, libraries, literacy and books 4. Pictures, letters to and from and special memories of number 2 5. Music 6. Friends. The ones who have fun with and make fun of me. The ones who come and go, and come back again. And especially the ones who love me and show me the way. 7. Grace 8. Beauty I think that's enough. Thi...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words - and photographs can speak especially loud. A photograph captures a moment in time, for all time. And yet, a photo can still be open to interpretation. First, I started to post a few photos of my kids and granddaughter (as they are the subjects of most of my favorite photos). I have several of those posted around the web. And I'm trying to stay in the neighborhood of what this blog is supposed to be about: entrepreneurship and wealth creation. But I believe children and family are the most important reasons for entrepreneurship and wealth creation. I'm not trying to ramble here, but there are times when bouncing thoughts around really is the best way to find your own truth. :) My grandfather was illiterate. He could read and write his name, but that was about it. As one of the oldest of (I think) 15, it had to be that way back then. But he raised 7 children who all graduated high school - and at least two who loved books and readin...