Being involved in so many business adventures is a huge blessing! Yes, each one is hard but they come with perks and benefits that involve everything from awesome friendships to leadership trips. I couldn’t think of abandoning any of them.

This year I asked the hubs if I could go to a writers conference. Specifically, to the SheSpeaks Conference. In the past, I’d wanted to go to Mount Herman, and Blue Ridge… just never managed to make it due to financial and scheduling conflicts.

I brought it up a week ago, and that’s when hubs said no way, absolutely not. Wha?! Let me tell you something about the hubs. If you think you like ME, you should get to know HIM. He was God-chosen for me. He humors me, makes me laugh, keeps me grounded and humble, and tolerates the millions of crazy ideas that pop out of my head. There would simply be no way I could do what I do
without him.

This year has been no exception. He held the home fort down while I went to San Diego in January for a leadership trip, and humored me when I asked if, on the way home, could I please swing in through Houston and visit a friend. He gave me the go-ahead to make an impromptu trip to Florida for some quick training and team-building with our travel agency owner in March. He didn’t complain in May when a business trip led me back to Houston, and then up to Chicago. In June he gave the go-ahead for me to drive on a solo mission up to Washington DC for my cousin’s baby shower and a concert. Then he humored me enough to let me attend that same concert tour a second time when they came to Nashville three days later. He already has on schedule the Earmarked conference coming in September, and I have to assume at some point there will be onsite training available for Jewell at the home office in Ohio.

Am I forgetting anything? Oh yes. Thirty-One has our annual conference this July. It’s my fourth, and Thirty-One’s 10th Anniversary! Unfortunately, I won’t have the vacation days to go the entire time, and paying full price for just a couple of days isn’t good sense, as much as I would love to go. SheSpeaks, however, isn’t as many days off of work. I would only need one day of vacation. And then we come back to our original question… If you do have time approved off of work, how much vacation time from home is okay? And if the tables were turned, for you ladies out there, how many times a year would you let your husband run off to a half-business-half-pleasure work trip before you said “no more!”.

In the grand scheme of things, I really am blessed. God has given me a man who not only supports my goals as well as my whims, but he tolerates my traveler’s spirit and sense of adventure like I truly doubt any other man could, and I try hard not to take advantage of him. Maybe for you, you have a spouse that isn’t perfect in someone else’s eyes. I encourage you to look at him with only the eyes that YOU can, to see the man that God brought to you, and recognize the ways he helps you do what you do in your own life.

And as for that original question… I think bribery may be in order for those upcoming vacation days, what do you think?

XOXO,
Karen