Graduated and FREE... Now what?

I find recalling life before having my child nearly impossible.  Now, having graduated from school and left with loads of free time and laundry to do, I’m stuck wondering what normal people do with their 24 hours every day.  I’m sketching out some ideas about things to do for myself and with my toddler son (indoors since Washington State is a rainy place to live).

If you have ideas, feel free to make additional comments!

~Church events participation
~Picking up a novel
~Hitting up Netflix for a movie
~PlayDough with my son
~Finger painting
~Aquatics center for swimming indoors
~Coloring books

One of the fastest ways to show your children that even though you are busy much of the time they are very important to you is by scheduling them in. If you do not already have a calendar system for your family, now is the time to start one. This should not be filled with your work tasks and all the deadlines you might have in front of you. This calendar should be listing all the things that will be important to you child. This is not to say that you should simply list all the soccer games and the school events on the calendar. In order to establish a happy medium with your children where they allow you to do your work during the day because they know they rank in your importance scale you need to make the effort to show them.

Choosing events each week that are just about your family and then sticking to them is important. One night a week could be movie night. This should be displayed with style on the calendar you put out for the family. You should do it up big this night for spending time with the kids, turning off the phone and the computer. Pop up some pop corn and let the kids pick out the movie at the beginning of the week so they have something to look forward to. This is just one thing you could list as a family event that they can anticipate. The children will be more likely to let you do your work if they know they will have your attention at this time for fun. You could even do a big breakfast Sunday where the kids get to pick the food and help you cook it.

These snippets of time that you set aside just for your family will show them you find them to be important enough to shut off the computer and the telephone and focus only on their needs. This could even be small amounts of time set aside such as a 30 minute special lunch just for the kids. Find the balance and show the children how much you enjoy the time spent with them and they will be more agreeable while you are trying to accomplish work related goals the rest of the time.

Article by Mandi Raymond of Mommy Update. Meeting place for parents and parents to be.

1. Time Management Tips

The most important of all the tips for work at home moms is time management tips. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is for a work at home mom to have a schedule. Block out specific times to complete work, specific times to do household chores, and even carve out time to play with the kids. When your children know you will have an hour or so devoted just to them, they will be less apt to disturb you when you are working.

2. Organization Tips

Organization should also be at the top of list of tips for work at home moms. Items looked at every day should be neatly organized on shelves on the desk. Papers, books, and manuals not accessed on a daily basis should be categorized into folders and placed into a filing cabinet. Designate a folder for each client, customer, or business to store all printouts and references. Create email folders for each of your clients and store all emails to and from that client in the respected folder. Finally, create folders in your computer for each client to save documents or spreadsheets in. This will make it easy for you to locate items you need.

3. Productivity Tips

Having designated a certain period for work and organized your workflow based on the previous tip, you will find your productivity increasing. If you have young children, you may have to work in the evenings after they have gone to bed, instead of during the day when they are active and want your attention. One of the best tips for work at home moms is to get an hour of work done first thing each morning before checking your emails or going to your social networks.

4. Summer Survival Tips

Summer survival tips are some of the most sought after tips for work at home moms because when the kids are home all day, a work at home mom often has to change her schedule around. Block out enough time to work, spend time with the kids, and get housework done. Many work at home moms will work early in the morning, before the kids wake up, or will work late at night after they’ve gone to bed. Take your laptop outside and get some work done as the children play.

Hopefully, with these four tips in place, you’ll find that working at home isn’t such a headache at all. You’ll be able to keep both your clients and family happy with these time-management and workflow organization tips, and earn a little side-income as well.

Study T!PS

So you are studying for something?  We have some tips for you that are sure to aid you in your success.  You already know that nothing comes easy, but understand that studying can come easier if you try out some of these interesting tools:

T!P 1: Write your notes on light blue paper.  (This is a memory tool I learned in a psychology class!)

T!P 2: Work in a silent area where other people are also studying (library or study hall ect.)  If you can’t escape your children for a study break, involve them in the process by reading aloud.

T!P 3: Draw cartoons of the subject matter to help you remember with a photo memory.  Your children will like to see your art ^_^

T!P 4: Record yourself reading the material that is most challenging to you and play it back as an mp3 during your day.  (Your child won’t mind.  Maybe your little ones can learn with you!)

T!P 5: Put key concepts on sticky notes and place them on the bathroom mirror, the front door, and by your computer.

If you want more advice, write a comment down below, and we can get back to you.  Tell us about your learning style, the subject matter you are studying, and the level of education it is for!  We would be glad to help.

No doubt, being a mom is incredibly demanding and stressful. You pour your energy out all day into others and barely have time to take care of yourself mentally and physically. The ironic challenge is that the less time you have to take care of yourself, the more you need it. Finding a way to exercise and stay fit throughout the chaos is essential. It keeps your self-confidence up; a must to keep your sanity throughout motherhood! It releases endorphins, the feel-good hormone that combats stress and creates a sense of well-being.

Here are three simple ways you can ensure you as a busy mom take good physical care of yourself and stay fit.

1- Cleanersize! Yes, I created a new word there. Cleanersizing is cleaning and exercising at the same time. Jog in place and move your arms while you dust, do laundry, vacuum, etc. You may feel a little awkward at first. You may even feel so goofy you laugh at yourself. But hey, that releases endorphins too!

2-Involve the kids. Part of the challenge is in trying to juggle the cleaning, your work, and the kids. You know time with them is precious and fleeting. You also know you need to take time to exercise. Combine the two. Play a game to see who can run across the yard the fastest. (You might want to let them win, but don’t worry, you’ll still be getting your exercise.) Crank up some tunes and have a dance off. Relive your own childhood memories with jump rope hula hoop and hop scotch. Your kids will love it and will be eager to turn off the TV and enjoy family exercise!

3-Trade off with another mom. As helpful as the first two tips are, the fact still remains that you need a little time to yourself. You need to occasionally go for a jog around the park by yourself, free from the kids and out of the house. Guess what? Other moms you know need this too! Work out a system with another mom where you watch her kids while she exercises and then does the same for you. Not only is this a great way of getting some much needed exercise and alone time, it will also help form a closer friendship with other moms. Some hectic day down the line, you’ll need that. So will she.

Don’t let the stresses of motherhood distract you from taking care of yourself. Use these tips to keep in shape, get the blood flowing, and release the endorphins!

One of the main things they should do is to have a smooth transition from being a stay at home mom to a work at home mom. Without this transition, the mom will have a hard time making a distinction between home chores and her work. This will only pressure them because they will be adding themselves more responsibilities. For this reason, they should ensure they have set apart the time they need to work and the time they can engage in other housework activities.

While at home it is easy to get derailed by the family members, especially children. In order to avoid this, they need to make sure they have prepared the family members for this process. While most of them may have a hard time understanding the fact that mom is at home but not spending time with them, they will eventually get past it. The best thing they can do is explain to them in advance and even give them a schedule of their activities to help them understand.

One other important thing to keep in mind is delegation. Moms should try their best to delegate some of the household chores as this will provide them with adequate time to work and at the same time, they will be teaching their children how to be responsible. They should also learn how to structure their day in a manner that everyone is comfortable but that works for them and their work. To help them deal with this, Work at home moms should create a chore chart, which will list all members of the family and the chores they are required to carry out at specific times.

This will help them develop a routine, but work-at-home moms are required to stay creative. This means that they should change some aspects of the routine as time goes by so that they cater for the changing needs of the family. It is also recommended that they know the needs of their families so that they can come up with a time management schedule that works. While considering the family needs, they should also make sure they have also factored in their needs.

With the right time management practices, the work-at-home moms will have an easier time planning their day. They will also achieve a balance between the home chores and their work, without interfering with their performance at home and at work. They will also be able to spend adequate time with the other family members, without making them feel neglected. Time management is the key to become successful when working at home.

The first thing I did was ask God to guide my plans.  Then, I wrote down  a few plans and back up plans.  Plan A was to get my education online and join the military.  However, recent changes make it so that single parents have a very hard time getting in; they are asked to sign over custody or get married.  Neither of those options seemed in my cards, so I fell onto my plan B: get my bachelor’s online and continue my education in a grad program on a nearby campus.

If you are thinking about enrolling into school, online and/or on campus, just be sure to have back up plans as well.  Know how you are going to afford it, which career plan suites you, and get an AA or BA in a program that has a lot of options profession wise so that if you change your mind or get bored, you can use the same credits to transfer into something else.  For instance, I went into my AA program before pregnancy and took the same classes I needed later on down the road for my BA program not in nursing.  The BA program I chose was supposed to be easiest of the easies so I could hop into the military as an officer, but then those credits still aligned with a grad program I chose when the military plan fell through.  Keep doors open by having back up plans and open ended majors.

I know that doubt wants to settle into your mind about whether you can accomplish your school career as a parent.  Just know that whenever your strength fails you, you can lean on God’s power.  I know that He is the only way I have gotten this far.  Sometimes, I think about the thousands of dollars in loan money I have accumulated, but then I remember that God has a plan and will open the doors for me when the time is right.  Nothing is bigger than God!

In my own experience, I have found the boundaries of what is possible through my strength. Actually, I cannot handle a lot of stress. God can, so as I venture forth trying to juggle a babysitter, the right outfit to hide my muffin top, and all my nervous anticipation, I find myself leaning on God to overcome the barriers that hit me before I even see my date! There’s a whole other round of anxieties after the date begins, but getting our feet wet into the dating scene is crucial if we are to ever find Mr. Right someday.

How do we find him? Be diligent, sister. Tear up the online dating scene, connect with people at church, talk to strangers at the grocery store, wave nicely to a cute guy when you are stuck in traffic. It might be totally out of your comfort zone to meet new people, and Mr. Right might be someone you actually already know, but in any case, if you fail to be social, the chances of you dating people that will stick around decrease.

For an example from the Bible on romancing in the face of difficulty, turn to the short book of Ruth. Ruth lost her husband and became very poor, yet she finds love again along with great wealth. So can the single mom!  Be safe and be sure he has a heart bent on loving Jesus!

Photo by Michael Jastremski for openphoto.net

Distractions are commonplace for work at home mothers. One of the biggest challenges is learning to avoid them. Of course, not all can be totally avoided, but by being away of them you can arm yourself against them.

1. The children. Obviously, if you are a work at home mother you probably have children around. For the majority of mothers working from home there is no in home child care. This means you will need to care for and tend to your kids while you work. The easiest way to deal with this is by planning to work when children are at school or napping, but that isn’t an option for most women as this does not leave enough time to get all their work done. Other options are working in blocks so you can spend time working and time entertaining the children, allowing them to play quietly near you, offering rewards for behaving, and working with other mothers to take turns having play dates and allowing you some time to yourself.

2. Housework. It is also likely a work at home mother is in charge of the bulk of the housework. It can be easy to try and clean throughout the day when you should work but it is important to try and keep your work time and housework time separate. Clean after your work hours, not during. Offering your children rewards such as allowance for helping with the cleaning is also helpful for this.

3. The phone. It is easy to get distracted talking on the phone, which is okay in the evening when you are trying to relax. It is not so good during work hours. Get caller ID. Screen calls and only take important calls and business related calls. Remember to try and keep them short unless they are necessary as a long phone call can really cut into your time.

4. The doorbell. Friends or family coming to visit is something that happens. While it can be a nice surprise it can also be a killer to your time. Make sure your friends and family understand your schedule and your need to plan ahead for visits. If you have time to plan you have time to make sure you have time to visit when they stop by.

5. Email and social networking. If you are working from home you probably have a computer in your work area. Checking Facebook, Twitter, your email, or any of the many other social networking sites can quickly become a huge time waster. Unless you are waiting for a specific email, schedule ahead of time when you will check your email and stick to it. Stay off of social networking sites while you are working unless it is necessary for your job or you are on a scheduled break. If you  are on them, try and set your status to invisible so others do not try and start a conversation with you.

Distractions are a part of every work at home mom’s life, but with a little work you can overcome them and help your productivity immensely. Don’t underestimate how much extra time and stress you can save yourself by trying to avoid these distractions.

Becoming a work at home mom is a difficult decision for any women. The idea of trying to balance working and caring for children for a stay at home mom, or leaving the work place to work at home for a career mother, can be daunting to say the least. There are many wonderful reasons to do it, but there are also drawbacks to consider. In the end it is a very personal choice as every woman’s situation is different. Just to help get you started though, here are some reasons working from home can be great.

1. More time with your children. Undoubtedly one of the main reasons a women will consider working from home. As a work from home mom, you will have the chance to be part of your child’s daily routine. Sitting down for lunch with your toddler, welcoming your child home from school and hearing about their day, helping with homework. It gives you even more time to watch and enjoy as your child learns and grows before your eyes. After all, they only grow up once, right?

2. Earning money. Most likely the other main reason most look at becoming a work at home mother. By working from home you will be bringing in income. In today’s economy every penny counts and most families are feeling that. More and more mothers are turning to working from home as a way to keep their family financial in order.

3. You will save money. While most business ventures will have costs of their own, by working at home you save money in a lot of areas. No more daily commute to work means less gas will be needed. Daily child care is no longer needed if the mother will be working with the children at home. Most work at home mothers also find they spend less money on clothing, opting for more casual attire at home and saving traditional work clothing for special occasions such as meetings with potential clients or employers.

4. Gain a sense of control. Many mothers say they tend to feel a loss of control in their household. As a working mother many feel like they lose a lot of control by not being home during the day and not being with their children as much. Stay at home mothers that do not work on the other hand tend to feel like they have no control over the financial situation of the family. Either can be very stressful. By working from home you are free from both of these.

5. Flexible hours. Though the self-employed work at home mom will have more flexible hours than the telecommuting mother, either normally presents more flexible hours than the traditional job. This allows you to choose when you will work, whether you want to work while your child is at work, before they wake up, or after they fall asleep, or you would rather work in shorter bursts during naps and play dates.

6. Escape the workplace dynamic. While many women love the social aspect of working in an office, many also will enjoy the freedom of not being distracted by unnecessary meetings, social gathers, and colleague chats that distract from work and lower productivity. By being able to focus on your work and get it done without those distractions you will be allowed even more time with your family.

Now that we have explored the benefits, it is also important to look at the drawbacks. Obviously working from home isn’t going to be perfect either. Here are six disadvantages of working at home.

1. Blending work and home. Many women have trouble mixing their work and home environment. Not everyone is able to easily balance the needs of work and children. If one has trouble saying no to either you could end up with too much on your plate, and falling behind with either your work or family can be a huge issue.

2. Negative effect on career advancement. Telecommuters are quite often passed up for promotions. By being outside of the office they tend to be “out of sight and out of mind”. Because of this you can expect to have a much harder time being noticed for a promotion. Many employers also tend to be unsupportive of telecommuters, seeing it as a sign of lack of commitment.

3. Isolation. Many new work at home mothers are very used to the social interaction working in an office. This can give many women a feeling of isolation being at home all day with their children and often alone for most of the day if their children are school age. It is important to try and keep some kind of adult social interaction.

4. Distractions. Working at home brings a whole new slew of distractions. Even with in-home child care, you will hear a child crying through a closed office door. It is easy to get distracted from work with so many things going on in your home. It is important to have the ability to concentrate on the task at hand.

5. Bad eating habits. With a refrigerator just on the other side of the house and kids that will normally eat all through the day, it is extremely easy to pick up those eating habits and snack all through the day. This can lead to eating more than you would normally eat, having a less balanced diet, and can result in less structured meals for the family. It can take a lot of effort to maintain proper eating habits.

6. Quantity vs Quality of family time. Just because you are home all day does not mean you will be able to have all the quality time you could want. This one is especially difficult for the stay at home mom starting to work. You and your child are probably used to spending a lot of quality time together. It will be a hard adjustment to be able to dismiss your child while working so you can concentrate.  Sure you can share in your child’s enthusiasm, but that does not mean you will always be able to give them the attention that either you or they want you to.

Once again, the decision to become a work at home mom is a very difficult and personal choice. Before deciding it is important to look closely at your situation and personality to decide if it is the right fix for you.