Home office depicts a rather crucial mental photo for me. I grew up in a home based business, where my Mom took the utilitarian approach to decorating. "If it wasn't utilized, store it in the office."

After climbing over my sister's no-longer-used-twin-bed, sideswiping the stack of falling boxes, and wheedling through the mess of stashed Christmas Ornaments that Mom inherited from Grandma, you arrived inconspiciously at the desk. The phone was on the other end of the room, if you stood on your left foot, tapped the wall with your right hand, pushed off the double filing cabinet with your right big toe, and stretched, you could just almost reach the phone with two of your left fingers, nab the receiver and hold it to your ear (if it was still attached to your head after you smacked the shelf hanging over the top of the desk). To write a phone message you had to twist around the corner and grab the pad off the phone stand in the living room (nobody used the office), and the pens were stashed in the box on the floor on the other side of the file cabinet with the broken handle that didn't lock anymore and the drawer kept falling out.

Turn sideways just a little bit and you could sort of sit on the desk chair, and if you balanced the pad on your knee, you could write the message with one hand, while holding onto the phone with the other hand, so the cord didn't snap it across the room and into the plate glass window where the curtains didn't open, because the boxes of files were stacked against them. Replacing the window would be impossible, so you had to keep ahold of that phone receiver at all costs.

This is really, honestly, far worse than the real office, but now that you're laughing...

My own office is somewhat less utilitarian. My desk is a corner variety where my kids sit on one side of the L doing homework while I work on the other part, often doing homework too. My phones are cordless, speaker phones, I'm attached to at the hip, or whatever other place I can hook the thing, so I can go about my day and chatter while I work. Notepads are plentiful on my desk, and stationed at various places around the house (hopefully - I find them all at the appropriate time). Pens are in a great little container I refer to as a pen-cup. However, I have three home schoolers, so at any given point in time, 99% of the pens in the pen-cup don't work, are out of lead, or have a 'messed up clicker', so I use the one I have stashed inconspicuously behind my ear.

My only real dynamic problem with my office, is that I can't quite keep the filing all done, so there is this mysterious stack of horizontal files precariously stacked on one side of my desk, another one in the shelves behind me, and still another dubiously arranged assortment on the small table behind me where the lamp used to sit, before I stole the lamp for my daytime office (the lighting there is terrible).

Remember when someone suggested a paperless office? I'm a writer, that doesn't work.

The clincher of it all is that no matter what your office constructure looks like, if it works well for you, keeps you productive, and allows you to organize your work sufficiently, the specifics of ergonomics are essentially unimportant.

I'd edit this article - but I can't find my red pen.

(c) Jan Verhoeff

Jan Verhoeff

Somewhere between college and life, Jan began to focus on other people. Her intense need to feel accomplishment in her life drove her to finding a deeper contentment than just existing in the hoot 'n holler of southeastern Colorado. While the beauty of the prairie never escaped her eye for color and beauty, the intensity of her desire kept her moving ever onward.

Summers in Michigan and Tennessee brought her closer to something, but it wasn't until much later, as an adult, mother of four that she began to understand that her need for accomplishment included sharing what she had learned along the way. It also meant that her talent for painting the dream and writing her thoughts had a lot to do with her accomplishments.

She began to focus on actually writing down her thoughts and ideas in journals, revealing her prayer thoughts and life events. Bits of paper became treasures of memory, and a notebook became an outlet of hope and a step of faith. Jan put her thoughts on paper, and began to publish them, where she found opportunity, including various magazines, trade journals, and local publications. Her interests in business and new enterprise became a resounding outlet for her talent, and wisdom for those who sought it. Jan's interest in business development became her trademark, resulting in her first book publication in !992, "Building a Business: From Scratch". This 22 page booklet was published by a local printer in a vertical brochure format, selling more than a thousand copies nation wide. It has resurfaced in college classes as the basis for college term papers, graduate thesis, and research documents for small business courses over the past 13 years.

Seeking more diverse outlets for her talents, Jan most recently has written several short stories published in various books, including: "Stories for the Trail" with the Lamar Writer's Group, "Prickly Points of Life" a combination poetry/short story collection of Jan's work, and "Coffee Clatter" a bound collection of written works originally published in a newsletter published by her daughter, Brenna, as a Sophomore Year Project when she was homeschooling at Buchanan Academy.

More recently her work is available in a newsletter she publishes weekly via email, and various blogs listed on the right side of this page.

You may contact Jan at: janverhoeff@yahoo.com