First Day at School

BEFORE FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL
Timmy; "I feel older today"
Mom; "Why is that?"
Timmy; "Cussss I'm going into 3rd grade" {jesh mom you should of known that}

AFTER SCHOOL
Mom; "Did you feel older all day"
Timmy; "No, it was tooo easy"

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Timmy

Always a sparkle in his eyes
That no teacher could deny

His smile is like a crocodile
Charming all that passed by, while

Energy and excitement abound
Like a stirring twister gaining ground

Bright ideas fill his head
No stopping him unitl they are all said

No student could escape his latest stimulation
The colourful artist was his inspiration, the teachers lesson his motivation

Paper, paint and brush all ready
Two at a time, it was him and Eddy

Colourful paints and white blank paper
Blind eyes and mind in a caper

A daub of black here, a daub of blue there
Heaps of paint everywhere

Swish, swish, swish, splat, splat, splat
Dribble, drip, splotch, splash

No colour that reflects all light
His masterpiece was dark as night

Holding up the painting with his arms
Oblivious to the impending harm

Drip, drop, splat on chair
Drip, drop, splat on hair

TIMMY, TIMMY students yell
STOP, STOP till silenced fell

Paint still dripping on his head and this is what he said;
"Dinosaurs are dead"

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Rain in the Desert

I lost my Timmy (my youngest - he is 7) for 15 minutes this morning while getting ready to take him to vacation daycare and after a night of rain. My search tactics were;

1.) Random calling his name in the house but not too loud to wake his older brothers at 7:00 in the morning. NO Timmy.

2.) Basic calling his name from the front and back door but not too loud as to bother the neighbors. NO Timmy.

3.) Go outside and check on top of the shed (last time it rained he was up on top of the shed inspecting for water damage to the gutters.) It doesn't rain much in the middle of the desert. Its like snow to people winter climates. NO Timmy.

4.) Do a complete circle around the house hoping he didn't fall from the roof, not that he has ever climbed up there. Checked the park in the back on my way around. NO Timmy.

5.) Expanded the perimeter of my search, which included checking up and down the road. Put the trash cans down to the road for Timmy's older brother. NO Timmy.

6.) Go back inside and look under the bed, he could be hiding there, but probably not very plausible since it rained last night. NO Timmy.

7.) Go back outside and check up the road. Ah ha, a little boy barefooted in soaking wet pajamas with a broken umbrella in his hands and a large grin on his face. TIMMY!

My first inclination was to yell, which I did. But the grin on his face was full of fun and excitement it just made me stop and think - he's just a kid living for the moment. Learn from this 7 year old I told myself and we walked inside as he chattered away about all the damage from the rain.

Check out the book "Five Secrets You Must Discover Before you Die" by John B. Izzo. The 4th secret is live for the moment. Kids teach us this everyday.

Timmy making a path for all the water to go into the gutter after vacation care.











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Bagel Diversion

I’m currently reading the book World Wide Wave by David Meerman Scott. The book title caught my attention because I have always been fascinated with how it only takes one person to affect several if not thousands. The wave is spread by a trigger, which is different depending on your audience. My audience is my children which I’m always trying to look for their trigger.

At home I'm the negotiator, trying to bring peace to the family tribe. This is a thankless job. I have devised ways to combat the daily challenges that arise and hope I'm fast and ingenious enough to settle the one off situations. Which reminds me of an instance this past week with my border-line ADHD (at least that is what we are hoping) seven year old. He comes into the kitchen asking for the bagel he spied the night before. I think his stomach has a brain. The bagel had been already eaten by one of his older brothers so I could just feel the waves of the impending explosion. So my mind was working double time to come up with a clever response to him. When he was rummaging around the frig trying to find the bagel I quickly asked him;
“So, what would you think you would like for breakfast if there were no bagels?” In which he blurted out, “there are no more bagels?”, which I confirmed.
I could see his mind working double time and he replied;
“I can make a bagel……get me two pieces of bread.”
I didn’t set that coming, but surprisingly if you give your kids a choice to solve things they do so in the most interesting ways. Of course that’s our Timmy.
I’m not always that quick in thinking of clever ways to side track an episode, but I’m getting better with practice. Okay, so this is my fourth child and I should be an expert. But my reply would be “They are all different and have different triggers to handling their different ways.
Kids ask adult questions all the time because they are curious. By turning the table and asking them how they might handle a situation, then they own the problem not you.

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Everyday Life

It all comes down to the everyday things in life that mean the most. I guess thats why I embarked on this journey of producing the MyColourCup product so that I could have more time for those important things, my family. At this stage of the product life cycle I’m just waiting for the manufacturer to produce these personalized plastic cups. So I have had plenty of time to think about why this venture is so ingrained in my head and why I’m so actively pursuing this change of life. I have a great job that I have been doing for the past 17 years that pays well, my eldest is attending university, my youngest is going to make my hair turn grey and my husband not so sure about this idea, yet he is starting to come around. The first thing that came to me is that I need a change, I’m in a rut, and I definitely can’t have any more kids. But my first motive is that I want this product for our family and I want to prove to myself that I can do something different, new, and challenging. I want to show my kids that you can do anything that you put your mind to. I have tried to involve them in all the steps that I have gone through depending on which kid is interested. They mostly think I’m crazy or going through some mid life crisis. I guess I can say this since I just turned 47 this month. I just saw the movie “Up”. It was a bit depressing at the beginning. But the theme came through loud and clear. The everyday things in life are what you will cherish most, so don't let them pass you by. And my life is all about my kids, which I try to put myself in their shoes every day.

My 10 year old Zach has been my biggest fan of this idea, he is my little entrepreneur. Anything to make money he is in. When I first started working on the design and name of the cup he was ready with flyer in hand to spread the word throughout the neighborhood. It wasn’t going fast enough for him. But it has sparked some interest in him to do something for himself. He now has his own eBay account with my help and is trying to sell some of his unwanted toys.

I have been working on a video to be uploaded to YouTube to demonstrate the MyColourCup product. I wanted it to be entertaining so I have involved the two youngest boys as actors. My oldest son has benefited from my interest in video production. He is an avid skateboarder and is constantly videotaping him and his friends then uploading to YouTube. So we have been working side by side with our dueling kitchen computers giving each other support.

I really don’t have an eye for design/colour so I have gotten some pointers from my daughter who is currently in university studying graphic design. I have tried not to burden her too much with my constant consulting. She has given me some basic help with colours and format. I think she thinks I’m crazy but I hope she knows I’m having fun.

Talking about fun that’s all my seven year knows. He is constantly reminding me by his actions and words that life is fun. Like the other day when we are in a hurry to get to footy on time he is busy eating his cereal with a plastic newspaper bag on his hand.

So each and every one of them I hope will look up to me and know that they too can succeed and have fun in life by just trying or as the Aussies say “just give it a go”.

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Starting on a New Path

“That’s not my cup!”, “That’s not my cup!”, is a nightly echo throughout our house usually before dinnertime. Cups scattered on coffee tables, kitchen counters, and computer desks but not one would be claimed for use at dinner. All the kids would scramble to get a new cup out of the cupboard. I guess the fear of accidentally getting their 6 year old brothers backwashed germs cup was too high a risk.

My goal was to change this nightly ritual chant to “That’s my cup!”, . No more fighting over the abandoned cups scattered throughout the house. No more “Which one is my cup?” And this is how my journey of discovering a new product and in turn allowing my buried self to come to the surface and discover a inner voice that I did not know I had.

My first attempts at changing this behavior involved little schemes like “cup landing zones” and “cup drying racks”. This would work part of the time but did not resolve the abandoned cups throughout the house. So then I went in search of a product on the internet. A cup that could easily be changed to identify the user of the cup, but nothing was out there. So I started to think about all the things that I would like this factious cup to have; easily changeable names and it definitely had to be dishwasher safe. No way was I going to wash cups by hand. So I started to design this cup in my head. Then I designed it using a free 3D CAD product I got off the internet called CoCreate Modeling PE. My current job involves CAD design so I just had to learn the 3D part, which was fun, hard but fun.

Not sure where I was taking this, I started researching plastic manufacturing and custom label companies. All this was new and a bit daunting but I just plodded through trying to learn this industry and not feel stupid asking questions. I sent several emails/phone calls to Australian plastic manufactures and had a hard time trying to get anyone to respond and/or follow up. Then I expanded my search to include China and Star Prototype responded immediately, which I have been dealing so far.

One of my biggest obstacles was my pessimistic husband compounded with my low self esteem. I kept hearing his words “just write names on those plastic red cups”. So I started reading books on motivation and how to influence other people. The book that helped me the most was “100 Ways to Motivate Yourself; Change Your like Forever” by Steve Chandler. It really got me motivated to the fact that I could do this.

I also started reading books on innovations, marketing and business. There is so much to learn, but I compelled to gaining more knowledge. Knowledge that is going to help me pursue this passion to resolve this family problem.

I then conducted a survey on Facebook to prove to my husband and myself that there were other people out there who thought this idea was great. I received so much positive feedback that I knew I had to keep moving forward. I go back to that list of over 70 people who responded in a 4 day window with such positive comments, it keeps me on track.

It has been almost a year since I started thinking about this product and now I have a business plan, completed innovation patent, registered a trademark, website, and produced a prototype. The test cup has been knocking around our house and my kids are fight over it when it comes out of the dishwasher.

My plan is to manufacture these personalized cups, which I've called MyColourCup in September and turn on the http://www.thepersonalizedcup.com/  site to start selling this product online in October 09.
 
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