July 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 3
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On a Personal Note: Success in Harmony 2.0
by Sara Hurd, CFCC
Hello, loyal readers. I recently simplified my list by making the subscription an email subscription to my blog feed. If that’s all Greek to you, it’s not really important. I sent out an email requesting that my subscribers resubscribe, and you did. Thank you for reconfirming your subscription! We are fewer in number now, but I figure you’re the readers who really feel that I have something to say. Thank you for that!
My original goal with Success in Harmony was to publish a monthly newsletter around the middle of the month. I started in 2004, and I’ve enjoyed writing and sharing my thoughts (you can view all my articles at keywaystrategies.com–recently redesigned!). It’s become more difficult as my family has grown to publish three articles in each issue each month. As I’ve considered what to do with what I’ve started, I’ve kept the original look and feel, but Success in Harmony may morph as I continue to simplify my life.
I will not promise a monthly newsletter. Because it’s become a blog, posts may be more or less frequent as I feel I have something to share. Periodically, I’ll still publish a series of three articles in short succession, “On a Personal Note,” “Feature Article,” and “Recommended Resource,” but I may also share other things in a more informal way.
The blog also invites and accepts comments on each article, so I’d love to have you participate in the discussion. In that way, I’ll be able to still “talk” to you to provide you with helpful tips for life, but you’ll also be able to “talk” back. I look forward to it!
Continue reading ‘[SiH] On a Personal Note: Success in Harmony 2.0′
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February 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 2
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On a Personal Note: Prayers / Donations Needed
Once in a while, an opportunity comes along to truly help make the load lighter for someone. I’d like to ask you, as my readers, to consider helping with your prayers and/or donations.
This week, a dear friend of mine and her husband learned that the two beautiful children that they were adopting from Haiti were no longer theirs. Although the adoption was in process, the mother came back to the orphanage and demanded the children back. More than anything else, this little family could use your prayers. You can read more at countdowntohomecoming.blogspot.com.
One of my other dear friends from high school is receiving a wonderful gift from dear friends, if they can raise enough money. Steve has Multiple Sclerosis, and the disease has progressed to the point where he was confined to a wheelchair at age 30. Because their home is not currently wheelchair accessible, he often falls while trying to traverse the hallways. Friends of Steve and his wife, Teresa, submitted their story to Extreme Makeover - Home Edition, but did not hear anything back. Deciding to take the project on themselves, they began to reach out to the community to see if they could raise enough money to remodel the home themselves. Please read more at homemakeoveraf.com, and if you can donate (even a little bit!), please do. And, if you can pass the opportunity around to your own family and friends, every little bit helps!
*****
On a completely unrelated note: I am going to be changing web hosting–again! I will try to minimize site downtime, but if you click a link and it doesn’t take you where you want to go, try again a few days later.
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January 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 1
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On a Personal Note: Goals for the Year
One of my recent networking contacts, Jason Alba of JibberJobber.com, is a great example of “living out loud” by sharing his goals on his various blogs. He finds that the more he shares, it becomes more and more likely that people come forward with unexpected and wonderful offers to help.
My goals for the year are as follows:
- find a good method to begin home schooling my oldest daughter. Get a routine in place so schooling is happening without a struggle. Create a good mix of work on our own and activities with other families.
- find a good team of independent business owners to join me in my SendOutCards business. Initially, I’m looking for three good people who are interested in generating some residual income through a home-based business. Alternately, I can always use customers who want to use the fantastic service that SendOutCards provides!
- find a few ways to extend coaching past the one-on-one session model–perhaps using group coaching, self-coaching through a step-by-step program, or informal teleseminars. Continue to provide coaching one-on-one to a few select clients.
- keep myself, my kids and husband healthy and happy!
Let me know if there is any way in which you can help me, and I’d also love to hear about your goals for the year in the comments. Maybe there is some way that I can help you!
. . .
Last Sunday evening, a man I admire and respect greatly passed away. He was a great example of love, vision and good humor. Glenn Beck paid a great tribute to this man on CNN, and said, “We could learn a lot just by watching good examples from time to time.” You can read more on my personal blog, The Hurd Herd, and also see news items here.
. . .
On another note, I want to thank an anonymous reader who sent a baby gift to our newest through Overstock.com. The gift message was blank, so either you intended to remain anonymous, or Overstock messed up! Thank you so much for your kindness! I want to also thank all of you who sent gifts or congratulations to us. The baby is growing and smiling, so we’re doing well!
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December 2007 - Vol. IV, Issue 11
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On a Personal Note: Looking Forward
I have truly been blessed in 2007, and I look forward to the changes and growth that I’ll experience in 2008. To recap:
- My husband and I added another daughter to our family, for a total of three beautiful girls. They are the light of my life, and because they’re young and require a lot of care, fill up my days!
- My husband took a new job last spring that required a completely different schedule for our family. Instead of having four days off a week from his full-time nursing gig, he now only has the normal weekends off. As a result, I had to reevaluate my commitments and wrap up and discontinue some business obligations. The great blessing is that now we have him at church with us and home with us on weekends and holidays all the time instead of half the time!
- This past spring, I discontinued (at their request) a professional relationship with a company for which I had worked for several years. The process left me with mixed feelings. Although it was difficult, the break has given me the opportunity to use my time for business pursuits that will allow me to grow rather than remain stagnant. And I can also feel good that I remained in integrity throughout the whole process.
- I aligned my business with two product lines: custom greeting cards by mail through SendOutCards, and books and other media through BookWise. These are both organizations and product lines that I feel passionate about because of their life-changing potential. SendOutCards especially has changed the way I do business and how I connect in my personal relationships. I find myself expressing gratitude and letting someone know I am thinking of them, not to mention celebrating accomplishments and remembering birthdays, much more often than I ever have before. My business and personal relationships have deepened as a result.
- I rediscovered reading for pleasure instead of just reading for business! I made a lot of “friends” in Mitford and made Esther’s famous Orange Marmalade Layer Cake on Christmas Eve.
- I switched web hosts twice and learned some internet marketing. I’m still learning and will be making more changes this year!
In 2008, I’ll continue to evaluate my commitments so that I can keep my husband and kids - and my own spiritual, physical, and mental wellness - my highest priorities while I take great care of my fantastic clients. I’ll continue to keep you updated!
I hope that your 2007 has been full of blessings and that 2008 will hold even more! I would love to receive updates from any of you about what you’re doing now. Feel free to comment on the website or reply to emails you receive from me!
With Love and Appreciation,
Sara Hurd
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November 2007 - Vol. IV, Issue 10
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On a Personal Note: The Baby’s Coming!
I have been waiting to send my ezine out this month in hopes that I could include some baby news. Well, we haven’t had the baby yet, so I figured I should get this month’s newsletter out before I run out of time. However, we will probably have the baby tomorrow! She hasn’t been in much of a hurry to arrive and is now overdue, so we’re going to give nature a little push. Stay tuned for another announcement as soon as I can get myself together and send it out!
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September 2007 - Vol. IV, Issue 9
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On a Personal Note: Rediscovering TV
I have to admit, I’m hooked a couple of TV shows. It’s been a while - we’ve had only rabbit ears hooked to our TV since we moved into our home 4 1/2 years ago, and we get snow and static on most of our local channels. However, we do get a couple of PBS stations (thank goodness for children’s educational programming, we love Between the Lions in our house) and a couple of other network stations. For the most part, we haven’t really watched much TV and haven’t really missed it! But the one thing I regretted was that ABC does not come in at all, so in spite of my desire to watch Dancing with the Stars in the past (yeah, I took ballroom dancing classes in college and loved it–unfortunately I married a non-dancer), I had to miss it.
Well, this season, ABC has posted full episodes of select shows on its website, abc.go.com. On demand, I can watch Dancing with the Stars with a few commercial interruptions (but fewer than live). I can’t vote, but I can enjoy the fun the next day. I wish they’d use more classic ballroom music and less pop, rock and rap, but there are some great performers among the stars and professionals. For those of you who are also watching, I’m really liking Helio Castroneves and Sabrina Bryan for their sharp performances and dancing talent. You’ve got to admire Mark Cuban for his work ethic–his dedication to the show and to doing his best is amazing–and Marie Osmond is such an engaging performer and so fun to watch. You can’t discount Jane Seymour, who is gorgeous and graceful at age 56. I’m looking forward to seeing who makes it to the top!
The other TV show I’m enjoying (if that’s even the right word!) is Ken Burns The War, a seven-part documentary about World War II. It’s currently playing on most PBS stations, and I’ve watched all but the last two episodes so far. I have increased my knowledge of the war itself, but most of all, I have increased my appreciation for the fine men and women who sacrificed in so many ways for the war effort. The horrors of war are made very real in this documentary, and that has been hard to watch. Personally, as a former missionary who lived in Japan and loved the people, I have had to deal with new feelings about the Japanese military and the brutality and cruelty they showed to not only Allied POWs but also Allied civilians and their own citizens. Ken Burns remains a masterful storyteller as he threads the personal experiences of real people through the narration. One of the things Ken Burns and PBS have done is to launch the Veterans History Project to collect and archive the wealth of personal experiences and capture the stories of World War II. For more about The War and the Veterans History Project, see http://pbs.org/thewar.
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September 2007 - Vol. IV, Issue8
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On a Personal Note: We’ve Been Spoofed!
I’ve been dealing with a small cyber-headache the last couple of weeks. A couple of my domains suffered an email “spoof attack.” I guess it’s pretty common–basically, what that means is that spammers take domain names and create fictitious email addresses that they then use to send spam emails. The process is automated on the spammers’ end, and no customer information for that specific domain is compromised; the spammers are just pretending to send email from legitimate domains. Domain owners who have a catch-all email address set up (all @[domainname] emails are sent to that address) are first notified of this suspicious activity when they start to get tons of bounced, out-of-office, and spam alert emails. In my case, spammers used a fake email at wahmcoach.com and at keywaystrategies.com to try to get people to buy pharmaceutical products, software, and other things. I got bounced emails from all over the world!
I contacted my domain registrar to see what I could do, and they set me up with a simple authentication (called an SPF record) that would only allow outbound emails for that domain to go through their servers. Hopefully that will prevent the same thing from happening in the future. However, because any changes like that to a domain have to go through a period of “propagation” across the internet, the change takes a couple of days to become active. And normally spammers will use domains for a few days or a week and then move on to someone else. Some internet experts even say that just “weathering the storm” and waiting for the spammers to move on is the best strategy. Hopefully my domains won’t be blacklisted (blocked as spam), but from what I understand, reputable blacklists use IP addresses instead of domain names. Because my IP address was not used, hopefully I won’t notice any long-term impact.
However, if you notice any deliverability issues with my emails, please let me know. I appreciate it!
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August 2007 - Vol. IV, Issue 7
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On a Personal Note: Out of Commission
The girls and I have been sick the last week or so. With the exception of a very few activities, we’ve been pretty much out of commission. Luckily, I feel well enough this morning to get out my ezine–on the last day of the month! Hopefully, we’ll be over this bug very soon.
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July 2007 - Vol. IV, Issue 6
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On a Personal Note: Adding to the Family
Hey, folks! It’s official: we’re having a girl. Come November of this year, we will become a family of five. Our Certified Nurse Midwife had a tinge of pity in his voice when he told Paul, “get ready for more estrogen in the house!” So far, my pregnancy has been fine and fairly uneventful. We are very happy to continue growing our family!
Now comes the hard part: agreeing on a name. Paul has put forward one viable option that I’m okay with, but continues to reject all of my suggestions. Feel free to post your favorite girl names in the comments!
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June 2007 - Vol. IV, Issue 5
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On a Personal Note: Swimming Lessons
The last couple of weeks, my girls and I have headed to the swimming pool for a summer staple–swimming lessons! Our oldest has gone on her own to her preschool-age class, and has learned how to be more comfortable in the water, blow bubbles, kick her feet, stick her head in, and in general to be more confident. One nice benefit has been uninterrupted time to play with her little sister in the water for a half hour as we’ve gone to the parent-child class. Time to focus completely on her is pretty rare.
One other benefit of swimming lessons has been structured but leisurely mornings. It’s pretty much all we can do to get up, eat breakfast, get the swimsuits and sunscreen on, and get to the swimming pool on time. Applying sunscreen liberally and thoroughly takes a while! And I’m getting better at applying sunscreen to my own back, although sometimes I give up and ask our oldest to get a spot. I’m not sure how effective her gingerly swipes are, but I didn’t get any weird red spots, so I guess we did okay. I’m fully aware that they have SPF 50 sunscreen spray now, and we tried it a couple of times, but I’ve got to build my trust up slowly. Then, of course, getting dressed at the pool, coming home, then bathing and showering to get ready for the day takes a while too. In fact, the whole morning is gone by the time we’re all done. Then with lunch time and getting the baby down for her nap, most of the day has been spent. Yet, there’s something strangely gratifying about it all.
In a couple of weeks, we’ll be back at the pool again, this time for our oldest’s preschool level 2 class. It will be fun to actually see her participate in her class, but the new challenge will be to keep the baby out of the pool and occupied. Wish us luck!
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