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CEO Daily Update – 10.2.2020

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Hobbies + Mental Break | Cisco Catalyst WS-C3750X-48P-S | PPE Specials | News to Start Your Day

It’s Friday!! You’ve made it!

Welcome to the CablesAndKits CEO daily email. Read more about this email by scrolling to the very bottom.

TGIF, friends!

This week has been fast and furious for me, and I am looking forward to a slower paced weekend. Since I began working in CK again this summer, the change of pace from weekday to weekend has become more dramatic and completely flip flopped from what it was before. Pre-Covid we typically reserved weekends for more going and doing, hanging out with Craig (because he was gone to the office so much during the week) and seeing friends. Mondays were restful, a reset back to “mom’s pace” for the girls and me. In our new routine it feels like we run from Monday to Friday, so by the weekend I’m in need of a mental rest. Since this season of life with littles doesn’t offer much physical rest, I try to do things that help my brain take a break or at least do things that offer a change in mental activity. Two of my favorite things to fill that space are reading and working on mood boards for redecorating rooms in our home.

I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember. As a pre-teen I had a subscription to The Babysitter’s Club book club. Each month I received a package with three books plus Babysitter’s Club themed merchandise. It was one of my favorite days of the month, and I usually read the books in just a few days. As I grew older and eventually came into the business world, I tried to translate my love of reading to more how to, business, and learning books, but I honestly still struggle to spend my reading time in these type of books. Reading is an escape for me, like watching a good movie, usually of the chick flick, comedy or drama variety. For some reason I used to find it embarrassing in business circles to admit this or talk about it, perhaps because so many good learning type books are referenced in business conversation. Here I am now “confessing” it to all of you.

Last weekend I read The Lies That Bind by Emily Giffin. I hope it’s eventually made into a movie like one of her other books has been. It was a great escape/mental rest for me. Tomorrow is library day for me and the girls, so I’ll be looking for my next reads. What are some of your favorite books?

Besides reading and digital mood boards for décor, I also like to cook and do photography. Craig bought a watercolor art kit for me last Christmas that I have yet to try, but I expect it’ll be a good mental break type activity as well.

What are your hobbies? How do you change the pace of your days to have a physical or mental rest?

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CEO Daily Update – 10.1.2020

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Thoughts on Balance | Cisco 8500 Series Switch + Sale | Nitrile Gloves | News to Start Your Day

Happy Thursday! 

Welcome to the CablesAndKits CEO daily email. Read more about this email by scrolling to the very bottom.

Faith. Family. Work. Friendships. Hobbies. There are so many things that can take up our time each day. Often I hear people throw around words like balance and multitask,  question how they’re going to juggle all the things, or perhaps wonder how does that person “do it all”?
Balance.
 
How we express our Core Values at CK has morphed over time, so we say this a little differently now, but in 2014 we would’ve expressed our desire for time well spent with the core value  “Balance Life and Enjoy the Journey”. Those words are still thrown around between our team from time to time, usually in an encouraging way when someone is taking some time off for vacation or to do something fun with their family. I believe it is still a good sentiment, we should strive to balance our life and we should enjoy the journey. From where I sit right now though, as business owner, wife, homeschool mom, and more, I can’t help but wonder if the balance we seek is more of a fluid situation, a pouring of resources from one cup to another at the appropriate time rather than the more traditional, measured picture of a scale balanced and waiting for just one thing to be added or taken away that will cause it to tip one way or the other.
 
A couple of days ago a friend asked if I could come help her finish taking some things out of the house she is selling so that photographs could be taken for the real estate listing. I struggled to find time in my calendar to give to her, but I knew I needed to make it happen. This friend and her husband had been slowly moving to a new home in what was supposed to be a months long situation that had turned into years … yes, years … and now, he has cancer. Just like that the weight of this moving and cleaning out project came crashing down. I listened as she struggled with what to do next and I prayed for them, and eventually I told them that we wanted to help. In fact, we nearly insisted on it. So a few weeks ago we started the final phase of this moving project, helping them get ready for a huge garage sale, working the sale, cleaning things out, and listing items online to get them sold. Today we moved the last of the items out of the house and into the garage, photographs were taken and listing documents were signed. Whew! It was a great day.
 
… but you know what I didn’t do today? Full homeschool lessons with my kids. We listened to our book we’re reading in the car, we talked about bugs and the pilgrims as we drove, we served our friends in need. And it will all be ok. Life lessons. Balance.
 
[Earlier this week I saw a Twitter screenshot from an author floating around on social media. The sentiment reminded me of these thoughts from today. Here is a blog post about the viral tweet of the words of author and mom, Nora Roberts.]
 
May each of us be able to recognize today which of our balls are plastic and which ones are glass.

Christin

Today’s Product Updates from Rebecca (our “Rock Star” Product manager):

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