Some nights getting the kids to bed isn’t easy. They’re bright eyed and bushy tailed when you’re ready for them to get to bed. This has lead to me and my husband joking about a drinking game for getting the kids to bed.

Standard drinking game rules, except you can’t take a drink until the kids are actually asleep.

Child gets up for drink – Take one drink.

Asks for other parent – Take one drink.

Gets up to go potty – Take one drink.

Gets up to go potty but doesn’t do anything there – Take 2 drinks.

Asks for an extra story – Take one drink.

Asks for same story as the night before – Take 2 drinks.

Complains: “I’m too hot!” – Take one drink.

Complains: “I’m too cold!” – Take one drink.

One child is too hot and the other is too cold – Take 2 drinks.

Wants to watch television with you – Take one drink.

The show you’re watching isn’t age appropriate – Take one drink.

The show you’re watching isn’t age appropriate and your child wakes you with nightmares that night – Take 2 drinks.

Mysterious owie appears. It hurts a lot. Needs kisses – Take one drink.

Mysterious owie must, must I say, have a bandage put on it – Take 2 drinks.

Child throws up – Take 2 drinks.

Gets up crying that favorite bedtime toy is missing – Take one drink.

Missing toy is at foot of the bed – Take one drink.

Missing toy is right by pillow, where it had been when you put child to bed – Take 2 drinks.

And of course, kids go to bed with no trouble at all… take a drink if you feel like it. You probably deserve it.

My mother asked me a question the other day that I hadn’t given much thought to in a very long time. Would I be going back to work outside the home when Selene goes to kindergarten?

Umm, well, that’s pretty far in the future. She’s only 7 months old, after all.

Now, my mother is very supportive of me being at home. This is not a topic she’s nagged me on or anything. I know a lot of work at home and stay at home moms do have problems with that, but I’m fortunate in that I don’t have to deal with that so much.

And as it is something a lot of work at home moms do, it’s even a fair question when posed politely.

My first reflex is to say “Heck no!”

Possibly more colorfully than that if someone were to be rude about it, but as I said, that was not a part of the issue.

Besides, while I like to think of it as improbable, nothing is impossible. And if my family need the money, yes I would.

But I don’t think about it because I don’t often miss working outside the home. I can miss the social side of it, interacting face to face with other adults, eating out and that kind of thing. Overall, however, I most decidedly do not.

It’s not a bad thing if you do miss working outside the home. Working at home is not the dream for all mothers or fathers. For many it’s frankly more difficult to work at home than outside the home. Being at home can be a sacrifice in many ways, not just financially.

I love being my own boss, even when I’m being hard on myself for not working enough hours. I love it even when the money isn’t coming in as I’d like. I’m even fairly fond of it when I have to work extra long hours to get something done that just can’t wait.

It’s hard often enough. There’s really not so much a possibility for a break with children around. If I’m not working on business, I’m probably dealing with children. Playing with them is a delight, but it’s not exactly the same thing as taking a full on break where I can do just as I please.

For me, the parts I miss about working outside the home do not come out ahead of the parts I love about working at home. And so, no matter the age of my kids I intend to keep on fighting to earn enough to stay here.

I’ve been watching people just about throwing fits about President Obama making a speech that schools could choose to show students. The controversy amazed me. I get that the original suggested discussion points for teachers weren’t exactly well done, being too focused on the President for many people’s comfort, but an awful lot of people seemed to be having fits over the fact that he was speaking to students at all.

Never mind that he’s not the first United States President to address a speech to students.

I’ve heard terms such as indoctrination, cult of personality and so forth thrown around about this speech. Never mind that it was just a speech about working hard in school and they fixed the suggested curriculum.

I truly loathe it when misinformation is deliberately handed out about these things. My inlaws were convinced that this was REQUIRED for all schools to show, which was never true. If you can’t complain about these things honestly, maybe the problem isn’t all that big!

I read the text of the speech. There really wasn’t anything political about it. Just a standard work hard in school sort of speech, the kind of thing that kids need to hear and probably tune out anyhow.

My daughter’s only in second grade, and I would love for her to be hearing that kind of thing from more than just Mommy and Daddy. She’s a good student but some lessons it doesn’t hurt to hear from multiple sources.

Frankly, a good, non-political, back to school speech from any President is something I would let my kids hear, even if I didn’t agree with that President’s politics. Some things aren’t about politics. And if something is said that I disagree with, that’s what talking to my kid is all about.

I’ve been in contact with Jessica LaFlesch from Arise lately. She gave me some customer service work at home job leads to post and mentioned that a lot of people have misconceptions about the relationship between Arise and people who work with them. She graciously agreed to answer some questions, so as to help put these misconceptions to rest.

1. What kinds of jobs does Arise generally hire for?

We do not hire agents; rather we contact with them and provide opportunities with specific clients to certify on and begin working. Arise has over forty clients in three primary categories: Sales, Customer Service and Tech Support. While the majority of our client needs involve handling inbound calls, we do have some clients who use Arise Certified Professionals to answer incoming emails and incoming chat sessions.

2. What is the relationship between work at home agents and Arise?

The Arise business model is built on a business to business relationship. Essentially, Arise Certified Professionals (ACPs) are considered self employed, contacted with Arise under the business entity established within the Admissions process. ACPs are able to pick the clients to certify on and build their own schedules in half hour increments based on their schedules.

3. What costs are there to work for Arise?

ACPs are considered independent contactors, not employees. As with starting ANY business, there are is an initial investment. However, much of the investment is not paid to Arise, it is invested in things like establishing your business entity with the state and your workstation. I have included a breakdown of the initial investment:

• Background Check – $13 or $26 (Paid to US Information Search)

• ACP101 Basic Certification Course – $99

• Incorporation – $100 +/- (Paid to the state you are filing in)

• High Speed ISP – $100 +/- (Paid to the vendor of your choice)

• Phone Equipment & Dedicated Line – $185 +/- (Paid to the vendor of your choice)

• Client Specific Certification Course $50 – $225

Arise does charge for certification courses. The fee assessed helps Arise to offset the cost associated with facilitating the courses.

4. What misconceptions about Arise would you like to clear up?

The below are excerpts from actual inquiries I have received.

1. “With Arise, you are paying for a job.”

The biggest misconception about Arise is that candidates are “paying for a job”. This simply is not the case. Arise Certified Professionals are independent, self employed individuals who are able to pick their own hours as well as the client they would like to certify with. They are also able to reap the tax and other benefits only available to small business owners.

2. “Nobody told me there was an investment required.”

Arise makes no secret of our business model or the initial investment – this information is located within our FAQs (no login or profile required), however not every candidate takes the time to review these pages before starting the Admissions process.

3. “I heard there are not enough hours.”

As with any type of contact center – virtual or traditional – there will be peaks and valleys in the call volume for each client. As a decrease occurs, there may be a reduction in the number of hours available. Successful ACPs will hold more than one certification to offset this.

4. “Arise brings on new agents while terminating the contacts of good existing agents for no reason.”

Arise will *not* terminate the VSC Statements of Work (SOW / contract) without cause. It is imperative that every ACP know and understand the expectations of the client before they even begin the certification course. Arise is no different than any other type of company – work at home or otherwise- agents must be meeting or exceeding the established expectations or they face the possibility of having their VSC SOW terminated.

The Arise Admissions process is typically open year round to new profiles, however, there are times of year when the demand for additional agents is larger than others. As a client advises their needs have changed and more agents are required, Arise will schedule and facilitate additional certification courses. During slower times of year, there may be a longer period of time in between certification opportunities.

I’d like to thank Jessica LaFlasch for answering my questions. If anyone has further questions, just let me know and I can send them along to her.

Never let anyone say running a home business is dull. It’s not. It shouldn’t be, at least some of the time. There are dull things you have to do in any business, but you should love doing most of it.

But then there comes a crisis. Sometimes then another. And that’s how things have been around here.

Recently, it was my home business computer having trouble. A problem to be sure, but one I had planned for, knowing that computers are nearly as temperamental as cats.

Since Sunday, it’s been watching wildfires.

Wildfires within a few miles of me.

Two of them. Oak Glen and Pendleton fires, for any who have been keeping track on the news. But I’m not in a part of Yucaipa that’s had to evacuate or is likely to need it. I did leave for a while last night after spotting the Pendleton one, just until we knew where that one was going.

Yeah, the air’s pretty awful outside, even though neither fire is headed in my direction. The winds have been kind to me.

Let me tell you, I’m getting pretty good at dealing with this kind of stuff. It was just about two years ago that we last had to evacuate due to wildfires. That was in Poway, not Yucaipa, but still. I still have a pretty good notion of what to grab fast.

My business computer is one thing. Not the monitor, keyboard, mouse or any other parts. They’re all easily replaced. In a big rush I would just grab the backup drive, as it’s fewer plugs to yank, but when I have time, it’s the whole thing.

Otherwise, clothes, important business papers, pictures, whatever can fit in the vehicle available with the kids.

You hope to never need to deal with a natural disaster hitting your home, family and home business, but it can happen pretty much anywhere. Having plans for what you’ll do is a big help in moving out fast.

For now I’m keeping the bug out bags packed, just in case we really do need to go for a while. I don’t expect to have to go, although air quality is making it tempting.