Tuppence & Time

Colt and I were driving home from St George the other day. I actually enjoy this drive because it gives us around an hour and a half to talk. We were talking about restaurants and Cafe Rio. Colt said that Cafe Rio's big mistake was that they didn't expand fast enough and thereby didn't capture market share which let Bajios, Chipotle and other similar chains spread more quickly.
"There's more to life than market share."
This leads me to the question: "What is your definition of success?"
Owning your own business, it's easy to get caught up in money, and success. It is a hard balance to earn enough $$ to provide for your family, but not get so wrapped up in it.
When is it enough?
What we spend our time on we literally spend our life doing. What do we trade our life for? We trade our time, indeed our very life, for money $$. Is it worth it?

This will sound kind of weird, but one of my favorite places to be is a cemetery. I used to go regularly and I took River for the 1st time yesterday. I really enjoy being there in the lovely kept grounds with the quiet and the memories. There is something that is inspiring there for me. I love to look at grave stones and wonder what their stories are: What did they do with the time they had?
Some have 1 year, some 20, others 55 there was one we noticed with 101 years on Earth.
What do I do with the time I have?
We never know when our last day will be. Looking back on our life, what will we have done with it.
I like to step back from the every-day activities of taking care of a family and reflect that life passes one day at a time. It builds minute upon hour upon day upon week upon year. One day at a time builds up your life. I went to the Seminary graduation yesterday: I had Silver and River and asked the parents of the graduating Seniors: "Does it really go that quickly" They said Yes! One day you're asking yourself, with a 3 year old and a baby: "Will this day never end so I can get these kids into bed" and the next they are out of the house on their own.
What memories are we making?

Water Balloon breaking on Baseball bat!

In parenting classes I have taken they ask what the goal of parenting is? My answer: To Raise responsible adults: Everything I do is to prepare them to one day be a contributing member of society as an adult. I enjoy working with the YW because it gives me this perspective: My little baby girls are going to be YW before long - it impacts how I raise them now to realize that they will be teenagers and then adults.
We don't know how many years we have here, that is up to the Lord. What we each have is 24 hours a day to choose how we will spend it. We will all choose that based on our priorities, but we have all been given the same amount of time in a day.
This concept to me is similar to $$ - We all have different incomes and amounts of money (kind of like years on earth) to work with, but how we choose to spend it is up to us. I sometimes wonder why people spend their money in a certain way, but then Colt reminds me that we all have different priorities and that things that are important to me are not important to others, and things that are important to them are not important to me. It helps me to see things this way: that my way is not the only way.
We need to be wise stewards with both our time and money.
I loved Elder Hales talk about this in last conference: Becoming Provident Providers Temporally and Spiritually. He talks about the need to have things as an addiction, which it is:
http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1032-2,00.html

With time and money we can ask Where did it go?
As a financial advisor, Colt helps people invest their money. It is amazing how consistent money saved now and compound interest can turn a modest investment into a sizable sum come retirement. What a great feeling knowing that you are investing in your future so you can take care of yourself at that time. Like kids leaving the house, it will happen before you know it it will be upon you and then it will be too late to save.
Colt has also taught me to spend money on things that build memories. I am pretty miserly sometimes - it is important to us to spend money on gas for trips to see family and have an adventure/experience.
It's amazing how little expenses can add up. The "latte factor" some advisers call it (a coffee every day at a coffee shop can add up to quite a sizable amount in a year). For an LDS community :) this could be junk food, movies, clothes, beauty products, anything that we regularly spend money on.
After the comments about market share on our St George trip, Colt and I laughed about the two Tuppence songs on "Mary Poppins". Mine would be "Feed the Birds - Tuppence a Bag" (literally I LOVE feeding birds - we have to buy extra sugar for our food storage so our Solutnees will be taken care of) and Colt's would be "Tuppence invested in the bank"
Here are the words:

If you invest your tuppence Wisely in the bank
Safe and sound
Soon that tuppence, Safely invested in the bank,
Will compound

And you'll achieve that sense of conquest
As your affluence expands
In the hands of the directors
Who invest as propriety demands

You see, Michael, you'll be part of Railways through Africa
Dams across the Nile
Fleets of ocean greyhounds
Majestic, self-amortizing canals
Plantations of ripening tea

All from tuppence, prudently
Fruitfully, frugally invested
In the, to be specific,
In the Dawes, Tomes Mousely, Grubbs
Fidelity Fiduciary Bank!

Now, Michael, When you deposit tuppence in a bank account
Soon you'll see
That it blooms into credit of a generous amount
Semiannually

And you'll achieve that sense of stature
As your influence expands
To the high financial strata
That established credit now commands

You can purchase first and second trust deeds
Think of the foreclosures! Bonds! Chattels!
Dividends! Shares! Bankruptcies!
Debtor sales! Opportunities!
All manner of private enterprise! Shipyards! The mercantile! Collieries! Tanneries!Incorporations! Amalgamations! Banks!

You see, Michael, Tuppence, patiently,
cautiously trustingly invested
In the, to be specific
In the Dawes, Tomes Mousely, Grubbs
Fidelity Fiduciary Bank!

Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul's
The little old bird woman comes.
In her own special way to the people she calls,
"Come, buy my bags full of crumbs.
Come feed the little birds, show them you care
And you'll be glad if you do.
Their young ones are hungry,
Their nests are so bare;
All it takes is tuppence from you."
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.
"Feed the birds," that's what she cries,
While overhead, her birds fill the skies.
All around the cathedral the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares.
Although you can't see it, you know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares.
Though her words are simple and few,
Listen, listen, she's calling to you:
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag."

:) Oh, that makes me smile. Colt's not that bad :) In fact, he would buy the Bag of Bread to support local industry and people making a go of it any way they can. (he can NEVER pass up a little kids lemonade stand)!
I love that man and his entrepreneurial spirit! (Welllll, some days his entrepreneurial spirit tries my patience.....but....I love him anyway!)

Here's some pictures and 2 videos of our Family Night tonight: