So I know I’m slacking. It’s been a week since I’ve updated. But I’ve been really really busy between teaching and I’m not sure what else right now, but trust me, I’ve been busy. Started my website over the weekend, hoping to have it up sometime soon, probably will take a few more weeks though.

I’m having a hard time- I’m really frustrated. Everyone I pitch Pilates for Mommies too loves the idea, wants to work with me, but doesn’t have the space or has worked with prenatal programs before that haven’t been successful. Chris is really encouraging, but still, it’s hard not to really question the whole concept. I really thought it would be easier than this- Pregnant women need to exercise. Why is it so hard to reach them to tell them about the program?!?!?!?!?

I’ve been really busy with Next Big Nashville stuff too, I’m excited at how that’s coming together. I honestly don’t know if I’ll put up another entry this week or not, i”m out of pocket until Friday though so don’t expect one sooner than that.

Wow. Time flys. So, here’s what’s been keeping me busy:

Friday: Honestly don’t remember what I did Friday morning, I think it was working on Next Big Nashville Stuff trying to get it organized. At around 11, I set out to the public library, list in hand, looking for all of the do-it-yourself website design materials I could find. After checking out 6 -2+inch thick books, I came home and promptly bought myself the domain www.pilatesformommies.net. How is it that all the pregnancy & maternity related domain names in the dot com realm are bought, but not a single one has information up???? Squatters. Ugh. Anyway, after a few hours of reseach, I learned that my fabulous iMac was already equipped with the software I needed, and knew how to use. iWeb is my friend 🙂 I created a fun page holder, complete with a link to email me, while I plan out the site. I have an entire day this week reserved to do just that.

Saturday I taught, and worked on VIP stuff for NBN. OH! That’s what I did Friday morning- VIP list stuff. Anyway, we had a lovely dinner with Chris parents on Saturday night, and a quiet evening at home watching the 2nd Bourne movie. I haven’t seen the first, but Chris visited all of the movie stores in town and was unable to find a copy of it for rent. Didn’t seem to matter much though, I still enjoyed it.

Sunday I was sick. Was awake most of the night unable to breathe or get comfortable, and woke up feeling miserable. Summer cold, brought on by the insane amount of air conditioning required to keep the oven that is my body comfortable.

Because I was sick, I sort of took Monday off- I was supposed to teach two lovely ladies, but canceled on them both to recover. I ended up working on NBN stuff for a few hours in the morning, took at nice hour and a half long nap, and left to run some errands. As I walked out of the house, I realized that the sky was blue- after weeks of having a gross haze over the city, the nights’ thunderstorm seemed to have cleared it off a bit. So, I grabbed my camera, and added city scape photography to my agenda for the afternoon. There is a hill just north of my house with a spectacular city view- when the sky isn’t gross, so I was excited to go take some pictures. Unfortunately, the sky was still gross over the city. Looking north, away from the city, it was a pretty blue, but a haze still clouded the buildings in the skyline.

I did climb up to the top of Love Circle and take a few pictures from there, it wasn’t horrible but not what I was hoping for. I spent the rest of the afternoon at starbucks, nursing my drink and reading “20 Things You Must Know About Music Online” (http://www.newmusicstrategies.com/ebook). It has a lot of great information for bands building themselves a web presence, but beyond that, for businesses building a web presence. I recommend it if you do anything business related on the internet.

This morning started out early- I popped the tire on Chris’s car last night so he had to take it in to get it repaired, so I was on the computer working by 7am. It’s 9:30, and I have updated the NBN website with all the bio information I’ve received, I’ve prepared and submitted another program proposal to a Pilates studio that I think would be a great fit, and I’ve written my morning pages. I have crossed everything off my to-do list for the day, other than working my way through “Making a Name for Yourself” which I am going to dive into right now…

I just finished eating a very good lunch. Not quite as good as I was hoping, but good, and cheap. There is a local deli that has a sandwich called a “Gobblin’ Goat”- it’s sliced turkey with goat cheese, served on grilled ciabatta or sour dough bread. I bought the ingredients to make it myself- total they all cost about $9, which is enough for 4+ sandwiches- $9 is also what the deli charges for the sandwich. Anyway- mine was good, not quite as good as theirs, but for the price difference I’m okay with that. I ate breakfast at a little after 7 though, and it’s 1 now, that was way too long to go without eating.

I met with Jason this morning and am excited to dive into working on his administrative stuff. I got IWork ’08 yesterday, and I’ve spent the morning getting to know the software. It’s great so far. I made new planner pages- I am on a lifelong quest to find the perfect organizational system for me, and I’ve made vast strides this year. We’ll see how these work- if they do I’ll share how they’re organized. Planner systems cost too much to buy, in my opinion, when none will perfectly fit what I need. That is what spreadsheet programs are for- to take a good idea and tweak it.

Well, it’s been another day. But, I will start with yesterday as that’s how this is supposed to go.

Yesterday I had to catch up from the weekend and being gone monday- so I went grocery shopping. And I canned. 2.5 pints of tomatoes, 2 more pints of pickles. With the tomatoes I made spaghetti sauce. Yummy. That pretty much shot my day though- I read the new chapter of The Artist’s Way, did last week’s exercises, and one chapter from Making a Name for Yourself. I’m having a heck of a time trying to concentrate though- especially when I’m at home.

I went to the studio at 4:30 and did two hours of self practice, no one showed up for my class so I took the time to get together more information to send out to businesses. Glad I did- I got three responses today and we are going to be listed in the next issue of Nashville Parent. WOOHOO!

Today, I started the day out bright and early at 6am at the studio, did an hour of self practice, then taught for an hour followed by another hour of self practice. Then I went to the dr., where I found out not only is my blood pressure still high- it’s actually going up. So, they don’t want me to lay on my back anymore at all. Which is fine, except that is how I have to position myself in order to do any self practice hours. We’ll work out something at the studio, just not sure what yet. It’ll help me tap my creative juices though.

Finally, the other great things that happened today were that Jason finally emailed me the stuff so I can start working with him, and I had an amazing lunch with a fellow Pilates teacher who is leaving a part time PA job that I may be able to snag! And I received my last paycheck from EMI (unused vacation pay) which was not in our budget, so I am feeling really good.

Good enough to go take a nap now 🙂

Yesterday, I took my first day off and went and visited a friend from high school. We met in Marion, IL which is about half way between, and had a fabulous time! She’s 19 weeks pregnant, so we talked a lot about babies and stuff. It was nice to have a day off, especially after having teacher training all weekend.

So far today, I’ve knocked a boatload of things off of my to do list. Yay me!

Yesterday that is. Today, not so much at this point, but yesterday was good. I had a client (my first “real” client) in my pilates class for pregnant/post pregnant women, and I heard from a member of the editorial staff at Radiant- they are interested in my series if/when I choose to write it. Which makes maintaining this blog all that more important. I didn’t, however, do my “morning pages” which I feel a bit guilty about. And I haven’t done any of the to-do’s for this week from The Artist’s Way, so I should work on that.

Today, so far, I’ve sprained my ankle, been visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses, spent two hours sewing a bumper cover from faulty directions, and found out that it’s going to cost $40-$50 to complete the bumper I was making for Lily’s crib…to save money. Yeah. Apperantly, flame retardant foam is not cheap. So not cheap in fact, that we are going back to plan “A” which is to just buy a bumper. The cover (which I completed yesterday) we’ll just keep around for once she ruins the one we buy.

Oh- the other thing I did yesterday that makes me feel very accomplished- I put details into my business plan, along with the word “deadline.” Now I need to go back and actually pick dates.

So, since it’s hard for me to blog about the day at the end of it, I think I’m just going to be resolved to blog the next day about what happened the day before.

Yesterday I had another early morning- 6 & 8 am classes which went great, then I went to the coffee shop to kill some time until I met up with our friend Jason. During that time, I laid out a rough outline of what by business plan was going to look like.

Met with Jason, very excited about that, he’s putting together this huge festival here in town next month, and I’m going to help him out with some of the administrative stuff.

Anyway, after that, went and got lunch with Chris at the pizza place, came home, got sick from the pizza, and laid down for a glorious 2 hour nap. When I woke up, I pulled out my plan outline, and put some meat into it. My plan is broken up into 5 phases. I still have to put a timeline and budget with it, but at minimum, it looks like it’s going to take about 5 years to get to the point where I could consider opening my own studio. But, now that I have everything out on paper, I can go into each phase, create the timeline and projected costs/profits, and get into the nitty gritty of what needs to be done without my mind going in 500 different directions. I’m really excited about it!

No title for today- I just ate an AMAZING lunch, cooked by yours truly, on the grill, all by herself! It was a grilled chicken and eggplant pita, with FRESH tomato sauce (I made it while the stuff on the grill was cooking). I think I may try to write a lunch time cookbook. Add it to my list of creative endeavors for the next three months.

I finished “A Girl’s Guide to Starting Your Own Business” while I was eating, and, seriously, I feel like I should go buy the book just to support the authors (I got it from the library). It is so full of useful information! I took good notes while I was reading, so I don’t really anticipate needing to go back to it for much, so I probably won’t buy it, but it is really good! The resources that it provides you with alone are worth the price of the book.

Someone is signed up for my class on Saturday morning. This is very exciting to me- it proves that I’m not insane, and a Pilates class geared toward Pregnant women is needed in Nashville, and I’m fulfilling a need.

The rest of my day is going to be spent canning tomatoes, and possibly, if I have time, making bumpers for the crib at church and for Lily’s crib. Tomorrow I am meeting with a friend that is putting together a big weekend music festival, I’m going to be helping him out with some stuff, so between my classes and meeting with him tomorrow I plan to outline my business and marketing plans. Therefore, I’m taking the rest of today to think about them. And make notes, in between jars of tomato sauce.

I’m sitting at the studio, with the sun in my eyes. That’s the problem with too many windows. They are beautiful and give us this nice open feel, but when you sit at the computer you wish you had sun glasses on. Oh well, this is why I don’t work at the front desk.

You may have noticed I didn’t blog on Saturday or Sunday. This is because, although it’s contrary to everything I’ve read about starting my own business, I don’t want to work on Saturday and Sunday other than the teaching & teacher training I have to do. I didn’t read any of my business books, didn’t make any lists. It was a little bit liberating and I think that I am excited to dive back into it today precisely because I didn’t overdo it on the weekend.

In addition to the business books I’m reading, I’m also reading The Artist’s Way. I have read only week 1, but I’m really enjoying it. I have an idea for a children’s book, and I’m going to see if I can get on the list to do an art exhibit at church sometime next year with my photos. I guess maybe I should talk to Chris about that first, he may want to be involved to, but regardless he’ll be supportive. I’m excited about my children’s book idea, it requires me to go back to Radnor to take more pictures in the near future (this week, today even, would be best) but it is just so stinking hot here!

Oh- my meeting on Saturday went really well- owner seems excited about me at the studio again which was a huge boon.

On my list today: Finish “A Girl’s Guide…” clean oven, wash bed sheets & Lily’s new stuff, go to radnor? take a nap! (My first class was scheduled for 6am today, and I didn’t sleep so well last night- literally saw the clock EVERY hour. Ugh.

So I forgot to write yesterday. Oops. I guess it is kind of bad only one day in, but geez, I’m busy! It’s crazy that my 4 hours of work per week are keeping me busier now then I was when I was at work from 8:30-5:30. But, that’s because I can do whatever I want with my time now. Yesterday I organized Lily’s room and hung up her name, which was fun. I also did some reading, right now it’s, “A Girl’s Guide to Starting Your Own Business,” which is amazingly informative and a great resource. I hope to finish it by the end of the weekend.

I also had, what I thought, was a stroke of genius- I contacted Prenatal YOGA teachers to find out what they did to get word out about their classes, and I’m a bit discouraged by the answers I received. Only one studio in town offers classes, and the instructor has a very good relationship with the midwives at Vanderbilt, so that’s where her students come from. The others that I contacted said that they couldn’t get enough people to come to have a dedicated class just for pregnant women. Bugger. Today I’m going to visit a boutique in Berry Hill to drop off some brochures and talk to the owner, and I also posted info on two baby-boards online. Hopefully I’ll get some sort of response.

This afternoon I get to go stand in line to renew my car tags (oh joy) but then, I’m having coffee with a friend from my old job and off to see John Mayer tonight.