Susan,

Ah, you bring back such fond memories of the past.  I think most of us had been there at one point or another.  You are correct though that the strong survive.  The agents that stay in this business and are successful have all weathered storms at on point or another in their careers.  There was a time 9 or 10 years ago that a friend had asked me to list their Mother's home.  I told her that I was not sure I was going to stay in Real Estate.  She told me to let her know if I decide and she will list with me or ask if I would recommend someone.  Well I decided to list the home that another agent had on the market for over 6 months.  It sold in 3 weeks.  She came back to me and said that she could not imagine me doing anything else after the great job I did for them.  11 years later I'm still plugging.  Perseverance will win in the end.

Thanks Mike, you and I have the right handle on this and my team leader agrees.  I cannot tell you how many times he has told me that I am the model of perseverance.  This year I am on the "board of directors" in my office, the ALC committee in my Keller Williams office, due to productivity.  I am nearly at 3 years in the business in Michigan, actually in the real estate business, period.  Each year I've advanced.

Great post.  I did not know that people actually do cloth diapers. Did you use S.S.  back then ?

Fantastic, well said!  It's so true the weary will wither away.

Susan, yesterday after the Welcome Reception,did you see the video yet? We met with our financial planner and we have a lot of catching up to do, ALOT !! Glad I've always told my 5 children THEY are my retirement. 

Susan you made me smile and reminisce with this post.

When my oldest son was born Michigan was going through some times.  Hubby was laid off one month before he was born, and we lived off of $194 per week in unemployment.  Yes, I used cloth diapers also :-)

Along comes son #2 almost 3 years later and the same thing happened.

We survived.  Heck, it's in our blood to survive rough economic waters!

Retirement?  We'll get there...eventually :-) 

Ryan, what is S.S. ?

Carmen, Yes, it can be wearying now, but so was raising little children!

Missy, Haven't seen the video yet but will look for it now,  and regarding retirement, my kids say they are sending me to a retirement home the minute it is appropriate - I don't know if they are kidding....

Kris, I sometimes wonder if I would have done the cloth diapers anyway rather than the mountains of disposables we would have had instead.  We have had huge swings in finances too, fortunately no layoffs as you have endured, only those interruptions that were imposed by my job changes by choice.  Or the time we bought a fixer-upper vintage hope.  Yikes!  Tighten the belt; that is what we have always done.

Thank You for the inspiration. Thinks have been really rough around here, but I'm not about to give up.

Lissa, As we learned at our recent KW conference in Atlanta, when someone asks how the market is, the answer should always be, "UNBELIEVABLE!"  It covers all manner of truths.  Hang in there, it can only get better.

Kris, one additonal comment as I now see your $194 figure per week to live on.  My husband had a weekly lunch allowance for a long time that was $5 and when he got a raise, it went up to $7.50!  My grocery budget, including non-food items, was $30 per week.  It is amazing what can be done with so little.

I only used cloth diapers on my DK's. My oldest is 17 and the youngest 11, and flats which required folding before pinning were par for the course at that time, as were rubber pants. I did the clothesline thing too, and somehow it made the whole cloth diapering experience that much more meaningful. Maybe it was matching good old-fashioned with old.

Barb, My diapers were the old type too and I learned by trial and error that J.C. Penney had he best rubber pants around - they lasted forever!  I think I would do the same now although finances are a bit less constrained (those diaper kids are in college now) but global warming and waste reduction is so key - one day could fill a trash can with disposables if I used them (as I did) after the newborn stage.

The finances being tight does not make life bad.  You figure that out right away when you are on the better track .  You soon realize that the money is not the happiness,

Carol, Our son is our best educator there - he truly is not ruled by money.

Hi there Susan. Thank you for the reply. I used to buy rubber pants at both Woolworth's and Kmart. If I remember correctly the ones from Woolworth's department store were the most durable. I hand washed them, then pinned them up to dry on the outdoor wash line with the diapers. I'm another mother that would use old-fashioned diapers again in a heartbeat!