Search Results for: blog your priorities and your family

Balancing Blogging and Mothering

I squinted to make sense of scattered letters through the glare on my screen.  Focused attempts at deciphering HTML became distracted by bursts of giggling from the other side of my window.  Rejoicing from finally making a text box that scrolled, I missed a small excited voice asking me to “look at me”.  Dripping hair and sopping wet footsteps ran inside to beckon me to join their mini water park complete with a blow up monkey pool.  Promising just five more minutes I shooed away wet fingers from my computer.  Next I looked up and the time for sprinklers, popsicles, and water slides … Continue reading →

Teaching Your Sons to Be Better Men

In a world where playing video games is more appealing than providing for a family or going to college it is especially important to teach our sons the value of working hard and growing up. While I intend to keep my son little forever, eventually the universe is going to combine against me and make him grow up. For some men, this doesn’t mean much. They are grown up but living in a child’s world. Believe it or not the number of men playing video games between the ages of 18 and 34 surpasses those between the ages of 13 … Continue reading →

Striking the Balance Between Healthy and Cheap

As a mom, I have to strike a balance between making healthy choices for my family and making financially sound ones. That word, “balance” is key. While I want the best for my family, the best is sometimes out of financial reach. In order to stay health but be cheap, we employ the following strategies in our household. Know the Priorities There are some things that you can compromise on and some things that you can’t. Making sure that the kids get regular medical and dental care is top of the list, organic produce is good, a gym membership can … Continue reading →

Know Your Seeds: Seed Language

The language of seeds can be intimidating for a new gardener. What’s a hybrid? Hint: it’s not a plant that grows cars. What’s an open pollinated seed? Aren’t all seeds pollinated? Here’s a quick guide to some of the more common seed language you’ll see this winter. Hybrid seeds are created when two lines of seeds with desirable characteristics are crossed, and the resulting seeds are collected. Hybrid seeds are good if you’re looking for a specific characteristic. However, since these seeds breed with the characteristics for a single generation, if you try to save the seed from a hybrid, … Continue reading →

Tips For Combining Working at Home and Parenting

Being a stay at home parent is a full time job in and of itself. Small children have big needs, and making sure that those needs are met takes a great deal of time, effort, and patience. Some home-based professional parents work at home to keep their professional skills sharp or because they do not want to wait until a later date to keep moving towards their career goals. Others work from home out of economic necessity. Whatever your reason or combination of reasons, you definitely want to be successful in both your role as a parent and your role … Continue reading →

Homeschooling and the Work-at-Home Mom, Part Two

The other day, I spoke about working from home and homeschooling, and shared my thoughts on the concept of balance. Today I’d like to talk about involving our children in our home businesses. Our goal as parents is to give our children a solid foundation of principles and skills so they can go into the world as caring, responsible people and be able to create a good life for themselves. You can take your home business and use it as a teaching tool for your children, a way to help prepare them in these areas. 1. As you work your … Continue reading →

Priorities 2

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Last time we took a journey through my personal history of prioritization (or lack there of). We left off at graduate school, where I wasn’t handed a planner, but a handbook. Did I dutifully learn to prioritize now? Did I learn to abandon procrastination — forget its very name — and press on boldly into the future? Did I do all of those things that seemingly guaranteed my success as a student and (theoretically) as a future professor? Did I? Or did I fail to do those things, find myself wallowing in a pit of despair (of my own making), … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Relationship at the Center

Today I had a phone call from a good friend who is facing some good changes in her life. Her husband is feeling a little out of the loop, insecure about what this means for them and their relationship. As I talked with my friend, I remembered a time in my marriage when I went through the same thing – a change in my life’s direction, for the better, and my husband’s insecurity about the whole thing. I shared with my friend what I had learned from the experience, and how we grew together as a couple the more we … Continue reading →

Don’t Fall Asleep At Your Desk – Reclaim Your Energy Now

When you work from home, you are often balancing work with other things in your life, such as taking care of children and taking care of your home. You need a lot of energy to be able to accomplish everything that you do each day. Sometimes that energy is hard to come by. Here are a few different ways that you can boost your energy level without reaching for the coffee pot (again). If you can pinpoint an underlying cause for your lack of energy you can make a big difference in how you feel. One major culprit of low … Continue reading →

A Baby Does Change Your Life

I think some people have the attitude when they are getting pregnant, that a baby doesn’t have to change your life. I think this is funny now that I am a Mom with two kids. But, I’m sure I was a little naive too. I remember right before my first was born, and there was only about a week until my due date and I had a little break down. I remember crying and crying to my husband that it was never going to be “just us” again. I hear people say things like, “A baby doesn’t have to change … Continue reading →