A Weight Off My Shoulders

All the 1099s are mailed. All the W-2s are distributed. The 941 and 940 reports have been filed, the TC-941 completed, and the Unemployment Insurance office has their tidy little check, too. If you don't know what I am talking about then you probably don't own or work for a small business. Tomorrow is the deadline for Fourth Quarter Tax Reports and year-end form distribution. And I finished yesterday.

Owning a small business, consulting for my dad's businesses, and doing pro-bono bookkeeping work for my in-laws' business puts a particular strain on this time of the year. There is a certain satisfaction I get from being the one person (in the whole world- except you, Krista (please note the sarcasm) (and who does parenthesis inside parenthesis, anyway?)) that can print and mail these forms.

All my efforts in the past weeks to meet this deadline and my stress over the cashflow strain of our own company caused me to reflect upon the blessings of owning your own business. It takes a good measure of discipline and faith to own a small business. We have had countless experiences where a check arrived just in time for payday, or even when money didn't come in and things didn't go as planned Heavenly Father still provided a way for things to work out. When I get really worried about thinks Shem always reminds me that Heavenly Father will take care of us. And he always does. Always.

With a small business things can get really tight, but things can also be abundant. While the cash continues to be tight in the current construction market, we feel abundantly blessed to have everything we need and so many of the things we desire. On Friday we received a final payment on a very large job. Several of our vendors have been screaming (quite patiently, actually). If payment was not received by the end of the month (Friday), additional finance charges would be accrued to the tune of over $400. We prayed that the check would be ready by Friday. It was. Vendors were paid.

I spent several hours on Saturday cleaning up overdue bills and postponed payments. It was such an overwhelming relief to have our Accounts Payable cleared that I went upstairs and danced in the kitchen with my family. I feel so blessed to be provided for and to have a wonderful husband who works so hard to provide for our family.

And speaking of weight off my shoulders...or perhaps my hips and thighs...

I have lost 26 pounds since Thanksgiving! I was committed to getting my body back before Colin turned one in February. Thanks to some hard-core healthy eating and my training for a half marathon in April...I'm almost there!