Five years ago today, we had our first production day. We spent more than a year researching how to make labels, but when we finally had orders to fill – that was the real thrill! It seems hilarious looking back. Everything was an experiment. Our idea of “busy” was hilarious. We’ve definitely learned a lot. These are some of the things I’ve learned:

• If you don’t love it – don’t do it. If you don’t LOVE a design, a product, a sales pitch, a colour, a sentence, a photo.. anything – don’t do it! There have been times when we thought “I don’t really like this, but some people might like this”. Turns out – we are our best test market and we can’t stand behind anything we don’t love.
• Authenticity can’t be faked. We know this is true because as consumers we can spot it in other companies. Being honest, being true and being authentic has served us well.
• Sleep is a waste of time, but so precious. Should have learned this as a student. Should have learned this as a Mom. But babies + growing business brought us a whole new perspective on sleep!
• Women ROCK. We are still amazed, warmed and propelled by the power of women to support each other. Bloggers, journalists, our staff, teachers, friends, moms, mompreneurs, retailers, strangers… we owe everything to the power of Women and their kind word-of-mouth.
• Quality will get you everywhere. That’s just so obvious – but so many companies miss the mark!
• There is a lot of Karma in business. Can’t explain it. There just is. It works for us every day. This is a lesson learned for me, because I really didn’t understand Karma before starting this business and meeting with so many incredible opportunities.

There are many more things I’ve learned, but these are the things I need to keep learning and keep practicing (along with ‘how does Google work?’ and ‘how do I get on Oprah‘?).

The EB usually brings springy outdoor stuff to our house (bubbles, skipping ropes and sidewalk chalk). This year I told the three bigger ones (ages 5, 7, that I (not the EB) was going to get them cool Easter presents, namely toys with wheels. The five year old is getting a scooter, seven-year-old gets some roller blades, and big boy is getting a skateboard. They are actually doing in-line skating and skateboarding at summer camp this year so from my perspective it was a no-brainer….had to buy the big ticket items anyways. But, you don’t want to start setting precedent. When I go back to bubbles and skipping ropes, there could be an uproar, a revolution, children taking to the streets demanding toys with wheels! What if the next Easter gift with wheels they expect is a Porche?

Truth is, this is not a real concern for me. I’ve got a quiet comeback that shuts my kids down on the spot. They can transform from Captain Greedy Guts to humble selfless creatures within moments of hearing only two words come out of my mouth. What are those two magic words you may ask? Veruca Salt. Do you remember good ol’ Veruca? My kids can’t bare being compared to that obnoxious spoiled child from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I only have to whisper her name under my breath and it’s game over.

But I do have one annoying Easter issue. On Good Friday we have our neighbourhood Easter Egg Hunt at the local park. Parents fill up a dozen of those plastic eggs for each of their children, then hide them in the park in the age designated location about an hour before the hunt. Kids arrive with their baskets and get to collect a dozen random eggs resulting in a mix of Easter goodies. Happy kids, friendly neighbours….ahhhhh suburbia.

First issue for me is that I have five kids which means there are an outrageous number of stupid plastic eggs that need filling. Tonight I was out with all the kids so called Daddy-O and gave him the project while the house was quiet. Instructions were simple: get the items from my home office and put them in the eggs. When I arrived home, I discovered that he put ONE little foil wrapped chocolate egg in each plastic egg. ONE! So not only do I have a bunch of stuff hanging around that was supposed to go in the plastic eggs, this act of cheapness is likely to get traced back to us…I’m not sure how, but I’m convinced it will. I was momentarily struck with a ‘what will the neighbours think?’ It made me feel all dirty and yuk….don’t know how anyone can live with that feeling on an on-going basis.

I felt rage. You know the rage I’m talking about – when it is so obvious that your husband just didn’t listen to you. I have five little people who are already masters of selective hearing, I had hoped that the grown-up in the house would be capable of following my simple two-step instruction. Seems I was mistaken.

When my rage cleared, I looked at the bags of colourful environmentally-damaging plastic eggs. I then realized that no amount of shame or embarrassment was going to get me to crack open 60 of them to re-fill!

We got some pretty bad news about Pa. He has cancer and things are not looking great. So on top of being sad and having a husband who is pretty much a basket-case, looming overhead was the overwhelming and inevitable question of how to deal with the kids.

I decided to look for guidance through my trusty message board of local moms. Someone out there would surely have some sage advice. I was shocked by two things.

Revelation #1: I got SO many amazing responses from parents who have already been down this nasty road. The support was incredible. I don’t know why it always shocks me since that has always been my experience, but I couldn’t help marvel that these very busy women took time (that I know they don’t have) to help me out with this.

Revelation #2: My instincts about dealing with kids and cancer were ALL WRONG! I fancy myself as having pretty good guts with this parenting stuff, but I couldn’t have been more off base. I was thinking I’d just be a rock, and I’d peer pressure Simon into being the same way. Turns out this is wrong on so many levels. Hmmm, who’da thunk it?

So today was the day that I dropped the bomb. I did a decent job of it…..explaining what cancer is, how it’s treated, what Pa will have to go through, inviting them to ask any questions, explaining that the grown-ups might seem sad or worried….you know the drill.

The question period started. Expecting a newly seven-year-old Posy to be my tough customer, I prepped diligently. I was a bit sweaty in the brow at the start of the round, but I was ready for her. Heck, I had even done research so she was not going to stump this prepared Momma. The Q&A opened with a predictable “is he going to die?” to which I applied my well rehearsed answer. The questions kept coming at me, shooting from every direction. I was on fire, fielding them all with style and grace.

One of her questions reminded me that there was one huge omission: you have to tell kids they won’t catch cancer from their loved one. Phew, since I was not reading off my ‘How To Tell Your Kids About Pa’s Cancer” info sheet, I missed what is considered to be one of the biggies. Q&A period provided great opportunity for any missed tidbits.

I was not expecting my eldest to come up with anything too hard to tackle. He has autism so sometimes this tricky stuff goes over with a little more ease. Turns out, I was not off the hook. Mack comes out with “so we can’t catch it like we can a cold, but Pa has DNA and he’s our Pa so does that mean we have the same cancer DNA?”

DNA? Why does he know about DNA? Has he been getting up late at night to watch CSI re-runs? How could I have possibly prepared for that one?!

I expect that as hard as I try to prepare for this journey with my family, I can only do so much planning and prepping. Some of the kid questions are going to be too hard, since I’ll be asking a lot of the same questions myself.

Today is my birthday. Happy birthday to me, and all that. All I really wanted for my birthday this year was to sleep in until 7:00am and have a shower during daylight hours. The big sleep in would require Daddy-O not leaving for work at his usual time of 6:30am. I almost got that. I woke up at 6:45am to screams at the kitchen table. Apparently Daddy-O sat them all down with some paper and markers so they could make me birthday cards. Then he promptly got onto his laptop because he was having such a late start to his day. So I got my sleep in, but was woken up to “she stole the red marker!” and “I want the blue construction paper!” Apparently when Daddy-O is on his laptop, he doesn’t hear this.

Birthday wish #1 ticked as being mildly successful.

When I came downstairs the kids decided that I had to work for my cards, so they all hid and I had to find them. When that job was done, they turned to Daddy-O and asked where the presents were that they got me. One gift bag was sitting there for me to open. You’ll never believe what was in it….are you sitting down? It was a game of scrabble. Yep, scrabble. I started searching through the box quite sure that there was cash or jewels hidden among the scabble letters, but not so! Simon claimed he was being sentimental because we played scrabble very randomly when I was pregnant with our first child 9 years ago when we did not have a TV. Since then, our game repetoire has included buckaroo, operation, and lucky ducks. I’m not sure when he thinks I’m going to have time to take up scrabble again.

The day went on much like any other, though facebook provided me with many birthday wishes. As I was about to put the kids to bed, Daddy-O pulled out a frozen chocolate cake to celebrate the big day. In the end, it made teeth brushing a nightmare and you know how it is putting kids with sugar highs to bed.

As for birthday goal #2 (being a shower in daylight hours)….that didn’t quite happen, so just be thankful you don’t have to look at me as you read this.

So the lesson is, though we Mommas don’t ask for much, apparently it is too much. I’m thinking if anyone is looking to make their millions, there is a manual that needs to be written that instructs husbands how to deal with birthdays when they have wives with young children. I’ll even proof read it for you!