Busy brain

We've been busy the last few weeks. After Ling's List's Facebook Read-a-thon Challenge for Backpacks for Aussie Kids, I've been helping a fellow mum with her online business setup. The rest of the time was plotting on how to get my online bookstore known.

Started networking with a few other businesses and giving out promotional goodies for their goody bags. Went round to shops to have a look at rental and space.

If you've been to Sunnybank Plaza recently, they have a new shop : mYcube. It's where Coles is, towards Commonwealth Bank. The concept behind mYcube is that retailers rent shelf space to display their products for sale. It is helpful for new businesses trying to get the word out. The lease term requires a minimum of 3 months. Which will come up to about $160 per week. Cheaper than renting a shop front and there's no need to be in store everyday.

This other mum and I are planning on renting from them. We'll have to sit and talk about it a bit more and have a chat with the managers.

The other plot I had was to call on Word bookstore at Eight Mile Plains to ask to rent a shelf space from them. Unfortunately, they said that their store is full and is unable to accommodate any more things. Sigh. I'll give Koorong a try next week. Or the week after. When the church camp finishes.

Checked the casual leasing at the shopping centres and they cost too much to be profitable for a once-off effort.

Southbank markets are also on the list. Will need to get the products photos to be sent in to them for approval. With Southbank, I'll be putting in all sorts of items for sale, not just the books. Gifts and souvenirs seem to be selling better at these markets. Oh well, I'll include the books too.

Also working on rebranding Ling's List. Time for a new look, I think. Spent the last 3 weeks talking to husband, sister and praying about changing names to a more Christiany (if there's such a word!) shop to reflect the Christian focus. But eventually decided against it, because Ling's List sounds more personal.

Will be registering the name as an official business name by the end of the year and will be trading officially under "Ling's List".

Thought of purchasing a caravan and doing it up as a mobile bookstore. But don't have the thousands of dollars to do it. We'll shelf that till later.

So, apart from business craze, it's also household maintenance and looking after children. Babysitting. It was great to be able to still be in pyjamas till lunch for a few days a week! haha!

We've also decided to rear some chickens. My reason? To eat away the grass so that I can attempt to plant things. Weeding is too much work on that big backyard of ours. Saw these battery hens up for adoption. We had a lengthy discussion on it. Initially wanted chicks so that P can learn about the growth of chickens. But reading about the battery hens made us want to adopt them all the more. You can read about them here. This is a home-based project run by a family. They do the purchases once in a while and find homes for the hens. Our work now is to design and make a coop for them. This will be interesting... Sphere: Related Content

Abba Changes Everything

"Abba Changes Everything" is an article on Christianity Today on adoption. It looks at adoption as a physical matter but brings in the parallel in the Bible that all Christians are adopted children of God.


Truth be told, I have, since I can't remember when, thought of adopting children. Yes, I love to have my own children, and already have one, but knowing that there are millions of them out there in the world with no parents to love them somehow makes me guilty of having my own.


Children are such precious things and I cannot help but sympathise with those who have lost their parents, whether by natural disasters or by man (abandonment, accidents, etc.).


This article is quite long, but the words tugged at my heart. Russell D. Moore, the writer, wrote :
After all, there are no "adopted children" of God, as an ongoing category. Adoption tells us how we came into the family of God. And once we are here, no distinction is drawn between those at the dinner table. 


I don't know if I will ever adopt or not. It is very costly to start with and the procedure long. But I know that there are little things that I can do to help. Perhaps running the Read-a-thon Challenge on Ling's List's Facebook page wasn't as impulsive as I later thought it was.


The Read-a-thon Challenge will finish this Friday, 9 July 2010 at 6pm QLD time. It is a challenge for people to read as many books as possible in 2 weeks for me to donate books to Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids, a non-profit group made up of like-minded volunteers who prepare backpacks for foster children.


Came to know of foster care when I started working as a day care mum. Since then, and even before we started trying for a baby, I told my husband that I would like to adopt if I cannot bear children and foster care is another option that I will leave open too.


Until it becomes a nagging prompt from the Holy Spirit, I'll stick to having children of my own and give to those in need for the time being. Sphere: Related Content

Done with day care, now what?

A big thank you to all friends and family who have read the previous blog post and commented either personally or via email. Thank you all for your understanding and support. God has given me the peace of mind when we made the decision. It was a huge step for me, as day care was the source of income to fund the online bookstore, Ling's List. Blogging this post to explain what I will be doing after day care.


I am happier now that I can do my laundry while children are here, clearing up more time over the weekends to prepare for church and meet up with friends. Not having to write in all the different forms and papers does lighten the load considerably.


With day care finished, I can concentrate on Ling's List better. More time can be spent in marketing the site and products. There'll also be more time to build up relationship with other churches in letting them know of Chinese Christian resources available in Brisbane.


And what happened to my day care children? Most of them are children of friends, so they'll still be coming. Most of them pay me a small sum to cover the day's activities. Not that I mind how much they give. I can now enjoy playing with children without having to remember what they did. And to be honest, with 4-7 children doing things at the same time, it is a challenge to my pea brain to remember and record their developmental observations.


I'm not the best day care mum around. Only been in this work for 4 years, when others continued for 20-30 years!


Where finances are concerned, hubby is happy for me to just take care of our household needs and run the family well. I did, however, call up the relevant government departments asking for information to private care.


One option is that I can register myself as a babysitter/nanny. They call it the "Registered Carer". With this, I can accept payment and give families their due CCB. But no Child Care Rebates will be given to the families. So, families pay the full sum and claim their benefits with the receipts from Centrelink.


Another option is to run my own independent day care, fully licensed and with insurances, so that parents get the full government benefits. But, by doing so, I'll be putting myself into the whole cycle of paperwork once again.


The last option is to run it privately. No benefits, no insurance. Which is what I'm doing now. Parents give what they want, what they can.


Who knows, I might register myself eventually to be an official nanny/babysitter.

Sphere: Related Content

The Rules of Parenting by Richard Templar

Just blogged about this book on my online bookstore's blog. Wanted to share with you this post.

I found this book really handy and helpful because it covers a wide range of topics and in very easy to read snippets. 100 rules in all, and each only taking up 2 pages. I don't know about other mums, but I struggle to even finish a book. Reading a chapter of a novel a night can be challenging. But 2 pages? No problem.

The Rules of Parenting by Richard Templar Sphere: Related Content