Boomer Grandma Continues to Find Her Focus in Part-Time Business

Part one…The obstacles learned in life are not always easy to bare. Sharing them with friends somehow ties in the lesson and hopefully others can learn alongside of us. My story, from becoming a newlywed bride to an empty-nesting baby-boomer ends in focus. The story picks up at the first pangs of empty nest syndrome.

From empty nest to fiery grandma

It seems that life is a series of chapters. When one chapter of our life ends, a new one is born. We laugh now as we look back and can see it is really like a roller-coaster ride one of ups and downs.

Just about the time, we got used to having just the two of us in the house our son asked to move back in. We regained our quiet house, our time and freedom only to lose it once again. Although we love helping our kids, we were getting older and somewhat more selfish with the time we had to ourselves.

Now I started to understand why my mom and grandma acted the way they did when my siblings and I left home. It all made sense; this is what they call the circle of life. A chapter in a book that begins and ends then a new one begins and ends, again.

The phone call from our daughter was one of shock, sadness and sheer joy all wrapped up in one. We were ecstatic to find out we were going to be a grandma and grandpa. Just as we were getting used to that idea the next phone call came…announcing they were moving to Ireland. Any hopes I had of walking down the lane with my little granddaughter was whisked away in one quick phone call, utter shock had taken it’s toll on me.

We became grandma and grandpa with the announcement of the birth of our first granddaughter, Maebh…over the phone half a world away. Yet, the heartstrings were taut and strong. Etching memories in our mind, we felt the bond by looking at those first pictures. That roller-coaster ride was an E-ticket for sure, not a kiddies roller-coaster.

Another phone call came several years later, this one announcing they would be returning to the states to live nearer to home. Now our focus was on gathering our family once again. Like a mother hen, gathers her chick, this fiery grandma was running around like a chicken with her head cut off. I could not wait to get my hands on that baby and my daughter.

Meanwhile, we put our jobs and part-time business on hold while hubby and I rode the roller-coaster ride one more time. It seems we would learn how to ride better, yet it just does not get any easier with time.

Finally figuring out the benefit of focus

This past weekend was Labor Day, one that typically we go camping or to the coast with our family. It has been over a year since I started working with a business coach trying to learn how to bring our part-time business online, to get a clearer focus on our direction.

She gave us the opportunity to accept a challenge and most of my friends and I did so. My family means the world to me, it does not matter if I am a wife, and mom or grandma…I love them in all of my many roles as the matriarch of our family. My desire is to succeed in our business, to gain the freedom to spend time with the grandkids when I want to, for how long I want to.

The babies grow too fast and time is something we cannot buy. On one visit my little granddaughter said something that really hit home for me, it made me stop and think. “Grammy, do you have to work all the time”? She did not care if I could buy her a gift, or take her out for a hamburger. She simply wanted to play princess, make believe and Barbie dolls. The boys wanted to play cars and ball like little boys do.

Therefore, I took my coach up on her challenge. It is time for this anti-aging baby-boomer, fiery grandma of four to focus. Then my Facebook friends and family wanted to know what we were doing for the holiday weekend. A brilliant (or so I thought in the moment) idea came to me. The reason I could not focus was the mess I found in my office.

Asking for help, I asked them all to hold me accountable, to encourage me over the weekend to keep going and they did. This fiery grandma realized that she does not have an empty nest, no her nest is fuller than it has ever been. Our daughter and her family welcome us in when we travel to Idaho for a visit with our grandkids. Our son has a room for us at his place when we travel to enjoy country western concerts, like Joe Nichols.

Finally, but certainly not least are all of our family here. YOU on Facebook, Twitter and through our email…you welcome us right into your homes every week. It is because of you and our whole family that this boomer grandma has found her focus and is inviting you all to join her in living this chapter of her life with her.

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Helping Turn Back the Clock,
Carla J Gardiner
 
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Carla Gardiner is an auto transport broker, dispatcher, health coach and a fiery baby-boomer grandma. Her passion and purpose lies with the people she works with daily; the client, dispatcher, broker and truck driver. Her frustration within the industry has birthed a new division of her company; one to properly train, encourage and mentor others in regaining their health while building a part time business, too.
 
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