Hey there, I’m Kathleen, my friends and family calls me Kathy. Thanks for stopping by. This blog is an expression of life experiences and opinions as a Woman, Mom, and Friend. My purpose is two fold: First, to share knowledge beneficial to women, and second to illustrate midlife doesn’t have to be a crisis!
Being a mother, wife, and owner of a specialty construction company gave me plenty of experience and content to blog. Having children at the onset of the information era and being a stay at home mom opened the internet door. Monitoring the kids’ online activities sparked my interest in, or perhaps even intrigue with, website design and coding. Now at midlife, blogging has been added to the list!
This is my story:
Married Business Partners, Oh My!
He is the brawn and I the brains. Well, at least that what he tells me. Working with your spouse can be both challenging and rewarding. The experts once said these partnerships rarely work out.
CnnMoney offered an in depth look the subject – “Most entrepreneurial couples say they work out strategies to separate home from office and to divide labor in both places. And they treasure the advantages of their arrangement. When you have to explain to your business partner that you need to reschedule a meeting because your child is in a play, it’s a lot easier when that child is also your partner’s.
What’s more, running a business adds another dimension to the relationship and deepens it. Many couples say it’s like raising a child of a different sort.”
The mixture of hubby’s passion and knowledge of the trade along with my “we can do anything” attitude made for a successful small business. We think alike in many, many ways and both have a huge amount of trust and respect for one another. These are the key factors to our success as married business partners.
We began 20 years ago with no capitol, one truck, two children, and a load of debt, Boot Strappers they called us. Creative financing and honesty along with hubby’s reputation for high quality workmanship provided the start up necessities. While the housing market continues to be a huge challenge, we manage to overcome.
Motherhood, Oh Really?
I never intended on being a mother. As a teen, I worked in restaurants and never accepted baby-sitting jobs. Never. While I loved cooking, my dream was a career in medicine, particularly hematology. Maybe that is why I was blessed with two boys. God knows I have seen my share of blood with those two! After dropping out of college, I met my first husband. That marriage lasted five years and produced a beautiful baby boy, and the only good thing about the relationship.
Moving from the burbs of Philadelphia to SW Florida presented a completely new lifestyle and eventually my second husband followed by a second son, aka Red.
That’s Red in the picture with me. Working from home afforded me the opportunity to ALWAYS be available for the boys, as well as most of their friends too. Our house was the neighborhood “safe house” or in all truth, crazy house. Hubby and I helped raise a few other kids in addition to our own. We have daughter in part, and two sons away from home, as we labeled them. The extended family and close friends claim we are exceptional parents. Truth be told, hubby was nothing more than a scary teddy bear (just don’t tell the kids). I was the disciplinarian, driver, and supporter. How ironic is that, me the anti-child professional, exceptional at motherhood, huh?
Today my oldest is married and living in Hawaii after serving 8 years in the Marine Corps. Red is back at school studying fine arts, photography major, to achieve his bachelors degree. The associate degree in digital photography just wasn’t enough. Our daughter in part is happily married to great guy and has a beautiful baby girl. Son away from home 1 is studying to be a sound engineer while working full time in the trade, and son 2 a husband and Marine who made a perfect score on the military test. On May 16, 2012 my 2nd son away from home made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. RIP Brandon, we love you.
I have to admit the kids nearly drove me crazy. Nonetheless, I had a complete blast with them and would not trade those times for anything. Amazing how life revealed my true passion and callings.
I do believe my twitter name, @WomanMomFriend, really says it all.
Hope you enjoy my blog, finding it both useful and entertaining!
