Vibrant Happy Women 78: Teaching Kids the Value of Work (PJ Jonas)
PJ Jonas is a business owner, goat-wrangler, entrepreneur, and mother. After getting goats to provide healthy milk for her eight children, she decided to put some excess milk into a batch of handmade soap. That decision was the beginning of Goat Milk Stuff, a growing goat milk products business that includes Goat Milk Soaps,cheeses, candies, fudge, gelato and more! PJ lives in Indiana with her husband, Jim and eight children. The entire family along with 6 full time employees work hard to promote the goodness of goat milk. You can explore more at www.GoatMilkStuff.com
Nuggets of Wisdom from PJ:"Thomas Jefferson - I’m a great believer in luck and the harder I work the more I have of it."
"All that hard work, ultimately, leads to the success that we are looking for."
"By teaching our children how to do things, to cook, to do the dishes, to do the laundry, that frees a lot of my time and leaves me more time to spend having more fun times with them. When everybody works, all the work ultimately gets finished for the day."
"When we started Goat Milk Stuff, everything had to become more focused. Starting a business from the very beginning, I had to involve my children in all the business aspects. It’s all something that we all had to work side by side."
"You start small, you are not going to change something big overnight. That’s where a lot of us Go wrong. We have too drastic of a change too quickly. Pick something. Start with something small. Start with cooking. Pick a meal that you can teach your children to make. Don’t try and do it all radically because if we change too fast, it just falls apart. It’s all hard but it’s worth the effort."
Some of PJ's Favorite Things:"SLEEP is the priority. I go to bed early. Don’t have time to go to a gym. I incorporate exercise into my day: 10-20 squats in the bathroom and 2 pushups against the sink, calf raises while washing dishes, 1 legged toothbrushing."
Favorite kitchen gadget: Cutco Knives
Niyc's Favorite Books: "Margin by Richard Swenson. Having space in your life. Time, physical energy, finances, and emotional energy. Keep space. That space between being overwhelmed and being able to keep up with where you’re at. Just keep that little bit of space, life will be so much more enjoyable."
Best advice received: "Remember what’s important… You have to look 20 years down the road. Is what I’m doing contributing to that? I want my kids to be best friends and have successful marriages and families of their own and put others’ needs in front of their own. "
PJ's Happiness Formula:"Sleep + eating well + doing nothing with my family. That would make me happy. Just together being a family. Telling stories, laughing -for me that’s what it’s all about."
A Challenge from PJ:"Let go of something and create more margin in your life. Say no to something and free up more time. Figure out something that you can let go of. "
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