My New Office

We’ve made a switch here on the farm as far as offices are concerned. Jim took over my office at the soaproom and my office is now located in the new kitchen building. When we designed the new building, we dedicated a part of the furnace/utility closet to a mini office. Right now, since nobody is using this building very much, it’s really quiet. That means I’m “locked” away and not frequently interrupted – mostly because the children haven’t figured out to look for me here yet!

I’ve just got the basics in this office, but I thought I’d give you a little tour. On my desk are the things I use most: laptop, printer, stapler, pens, paper clip, and extra paper/notepads/sticky pads. Then of course is my “Hewitt loves Mom” Lego that he made for my birthday.

I admit, I currently have a little stack of papers that I have to deal with (to the right of the laptop). I don’t usually have that, but with launching the new caramel candy, I’m a little behind.

You’ll notice that there is NO telephone on my desk. That’s the best part of my new office. I can actually concentrate. I do have my cell phone in my pocket if I need to make an outgoing call. But that’s it – when I’m here working, I’m here working. Jim and Brett (and me when I’m there) are answering phones in the soaproom.

On my other desk is my RESPeRATE*, my “Give Thanks” reminder, my ever-present glass of water with lemon, and a 3 drawer bin for stuff that I don’t have to deal with right away. On top of the bin are folders with the items I’m working on that I use too regularly to bother filing right now (the construction and equipment info for the new kitchen, the information on the Grade A dairy we’re planning, and our annual workers compensation audit). I’ll be happy when I can file that last one away for the year!

My “Give Thanks” reminds me (when I’m grumpy because I’m dealing with paperwork and regulations and the parts about owning a business that I don’t like), that I’m doing that work because I’ve been blessed with a business that employs my whole family and helps people with their skin conditions. It’s a great reminder and I keep it right where I need it. My RESPeRATE is a device that Jim got me years ago that is intended to lower my blood pressure. I absolutely love it. I’ll try to write a post about it soon.

I also have my small filing cabinet and a paper shredder. We make sure that we’re very secure with all the information we deal with. It’s one reason we don’t keep credit card numbers on file on our website. Anything even remotely sensitive gets shredded as soon as it is finished.

On top of the filing cabinet is a bin that holds everything that needs to go back to the soaproom to be scanned into evernote (also the subject of an upcoming blog post).

I also have my ball chair*, which I’ve talked about before. We have lots of them- some red, some black, and some purple, but there is only ONE green one. The green one is mine (green is my favorite color). It matched my old office nicely, but there was no way I was leaving it behind for Jim to use.

And then of course, there’s my mini trampoline* and a pair of 5 pound hand weights. I’m a big believer in exercise and eating right. I like to make sure to keep my lymph moving and the mini trampoline helps with that. I simply bounce on it, I don’t actually jump on it, so my feet never lose contact with the black surface. And the hand weights are for when I take breaks to do compound exercises – like squats with a shoulder press or lunges with a bicep curl. I’m all about “multi-tasking” when it comes to exercise, so I try to work as many muscle groups as I can.