I haven’t posted in awhile, because I have had my hands full.  Moving a family of 8, along with 4 dogs and 2 parrots – clear across state in a one way move…well, it’s a bit challenging.  After 7 years in the same home, we accumulated a lot of STUFF.  Unfortunately I learned quickly, during the sorting and packing phase, that much of our “stuff” was not very worthy stuff…  Trying to fit all that was worthy, into a 26 ft truck, and one 12 ft. trailer – proved to be…impossible.  Another trip is necessary (good thing we weren’t headed across the country or a lot MORE of the worthy stuff would have needed to find new homes…stuff like bikes and lawn chairs!)

<Walking outside in the yard, in the dark, a noise.  ”What was THAT? … Oh GOOD, just a deer.”> Yes, much to learn.

So, while I have LOTS I could write about, regarding our venture, our change, our new lives…I will leave you with a visual of our neighborhoods, past and present, as us city folk try to learn how to now become become country folk.

We went from this neighborhood…

…to THIS neighborhood (yes we do have a few neighbors believe it or not).

(The Bernese Mountain Dog seems to feel right at home, go figure…I can hardly get him inside.)

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Sounds easy enough – boil up some eggs! But how often do you peel off half the egg because the shell is sticking to it? Or what about those off colored centers? No biggie, unless you are trying to make beautiful deviled eggs – which do not work out if the outer white portion is picked apart and dented to no end…takes away from that smooth delicious beauty.
So, here’s what works for me every time. And I mean the eggs peel very easily, the shell coming off in big sections (love that!), and the center is perfectly cooked through and perfectly yellow.
So this is just for those who have not yet figured out the sure way for producing perfect hard boiled eggs: Put your eggs in a pan of water, making sure the eggs are all submerged. Bring water to a boil. Let boil hard for 3 full minutes, then turn the stove OFF and cover with a lid for 10 full minutes. Then, immediately run under cold water. Voila!

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I love watching my son play baseball!  He is very different than I was in his approach to team sports like baseball.  I remember feeling intimidated when up to bat – excited but intimidated, “what if I don’t hit the ball?”  I desperately did not want to let my team down.  My son just goes after it.  He said his favorite position to play is first base because everyone throws the ball to him.  He can’t wait to get up to bat.  He’s so much fun to watch!  Last night, the weather was perfect for a game, coolness in the air after a warm spring day.  I smiled as I watched my boy hit on every opportunity up to bat!   Here he is…Batter Up!!

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With six kids (and a husband!), I am used to sleep being elusive – a luxury I get to enjoy occasionally  Short on sleep is one thing.  A normal thing.  But then there are those nights…those dreadful nights, like last night, where sleep is laughable – just ain’t gonna happen. (yeah that’s intentional, for all you grammar buffs).  So, I manage to fall into a light sleep (because I’ve not known another kind of sleep since my first child was born, really) around 11pm or so last night.  My little one, age 20 months, is sleeping next to me, and begins stirring…a bit too much…around 3am.  He then goes from stirring to sitting up and pulling on my shirt to get me out of bed.  No matter how much I explain, plead, or lead by example, he is not accepting that it’s sleepy time.  To keep him from waking the hubby, and our 4-year-old who has crawled into bed with us by this time, on the other side of me (leaving me about 4 inches for which to place my much-larger-than-4-inches body…),  I go ahead and get up with him.  I’m thinking I can try to see what he needs, then quickly get us both back to bed.

Once we make our way into the living room, he begins pointing and “asking” (his asking is more of a caveman-like grunt at this point)…but I get it.  See we have started watching videos on the computer together, so now he requests it each morning…only it’s not morning!  I try to explain this to him, walk back toward the bedroom, tell him no…  But these 1 year old people can be very demanding, and just downright crazy at times.  They don’t listen very well…Perfect example right now:  ”No honey – don’t eat those, they’re spicy.”  I push the wasabi peas further on out on the table, a bit out of his reach.  I turn my head a moment, and he climbs up and gets one anyway. …told ya…”They’re spicy, huh Bubba?”  :)  His face says it all.

So, here we are at 3am.  I’m trying to reason with my 1-year-old.  He does not have any sympathy for me.  My pleas to come back to bed fall on deaf little ears, because he wants what he wants.  So, once again, to avoid an full blown household disruption, I give in.  So, I had the mid-slumber joy of watching The Duck Song, followed by the Gummy Bear Song.  Oh…if you have not seen them yet, you must join the other 100 million people on youtube who have!  These are the joys of motherhood!  Gotta love ‘em!!

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Today’s instant gratification world demands competitive, cutting edge, hi-tech gadgets – and the Kindle Fire definitely deserves a front running place in the race.

I love to read.  My main attraction often falls into metaphysical, spiritual, or quantum physics categories, though I do enjoy a great fiction read, often finding my way to the hottest books only after movie talks are being made.  I love Amazon.com because I love books – but they offer so much more, including competitive pricing, customer reviews, easy navigation, and affiliate programs, among other features.  So, my love of reading coupled with my love of Amazon, leads to quite a spark for the Kindle Fire.

I was lucky enough to get one for my birthday (thank you Mommy!).  In the few short weeks that I’ve had it, I have thoroughly enjoyed it, from it’s one click purchase option, to free Kindle book options, to its instant download and access, to streaming in YouTube videos on demand.  The battery seems to hold a charge for lengthy periods, as I have not yet ran into a low battery situation, and I have listened to music, watched videos, and read books.  It has been easy to use and navigate, which is always a bonus in the world of techy gadgets.  There are so many android features and apps, that I honestly have not truly explored its full potential.  Based on what I’ve experienced thus far, I give it a “smoking hot” rating!

Kindle Fire, Full Color 7″ Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi

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A Tribute to Warrior Barbie

Warrior Barbie

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I’m not new to being a work at home mom, as we have had a family flooring business for nearly 7 years now, with most of the administrative, customer service, accounting, web marketing, and other responsibilities, resting with me.  I have learned how to balance working at home with being a mom, and have found that I do, indeed, need to be my own “boss”.  It takes discipline to get the required work done, and it takes discipline to put the work down and make sure family is first.  The biggest benefit to working from home is being my kids’ mother, all the time.  So my children and my family must come first.

Granted, I have much to learn, and much that I could implement, to make my life easier.  I don’t like making lists.  I understand why people make lists, but to me, I just look at it as something more that requires my time and attention, and I’d rather skip it.  Plus the list itself may get too long, and then it seems daunting… But, I have made lists for, say, grocery shopping.  I normally don’t, but I have.  AND I DO find they help, A LOT.  I actually remember to get everything I need, and I spend less.  So, why don’t I just get on board, get organized, make lists, and make my life easier?  That is an excellent question.  One that I am asking myself right now…though not answering fully…

Recently I had a new phrase thrown at me – one that raised my eyebrows, yet dropped my jaw.  The phrase was, “7-minute work week”.  No, that’s not a typo.   Let me ask you, can you imagine earning money every day, for simply taking a minute and placing/ registering an ad with the company you’re placing the ad for?  In other words – do you see the little Zeekler ad on the sidebar of my website?  Great.  Ads just like that one.  The program is called ZeekRewards. So, I simply let them know where my ad is placed, every day, which takes just a minute every day, and I earn some of their daily profit.  They pay me.   I’m still fairly new, but I SEE.  If it sounds too good to be true, you should at least spend a few moments to learn about it.

And Zeekler is a penny auction you can feel good about. Not only are people able to save up to 90% off great items including brand name quality items, but it is even bigger. Do you know that someone recently won a $25,000 Mustang, for $3500.00? AND the guy who won the penny auction only ended up spending about $100 worth of bids!! (see interview with ZeekRewards COO on youtube)

Here is a video, that was really put together for our team, but also offers a great overview.  I encourage you to take a look, if a 7-minute work week is something that peaks your interest:

ZeekRewards Income Disclosure Statement Click Here

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Yesterday, I posted some tips on getting your website or blog noticed. These tips hold true whether you are a mom blogger, a network marketer, or have a traditional retail business. If it involves a website, then the strategies outlined will serve as a boost to more visits, views, and sales.
In the world of internet marketing (and even if you’re “just” a blogger, as long as you are trying to gain readers and visits, then I’m talking to you too!), you want to keep on the look out for free advertising. It is possible to achieve a good audience with a low-to-no-budget approach. Look for sites that allow free directory listings, importing of your blog and posts, link sharing, and link exchanges.
Social and networking sites are often beneficial because often their individual pages are crawled, so your business listing can be found in yet another place on the world wide web. I want to share a little secret which I hold a bit close to my heart, as it is a project I’ve had my own hands in for some time. Today, I invite readers, bloggers, and webmasters to MyOggy.com. MyOggy.com is a business directory and social marketing network website. They do allow free directory listings, as well as blog importing, RSS feed shares, link sharing and submissions, as well as article publishing. There are several ways for each person to submit their website or business – and it’s all free. The pages are then searchable, and will lead seekers right to your website links.  Not only that, but you can also integrate your Twitter and Facebook accounts as well, easily!  MyOggy.com now offers full page business listings as well, as a new and recently added feature.   With its monthly page views approaching the half million mark, it’s definitely a smart move to list your business, blog, or website on MyOggy.com. It takes just a few minutes, and it’s completely free – and you gotta love that!

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While I know this is a mom blog, all about parenting and family, kids and pets, I also know that some of the information I’ve learned over the years about website rank and popularity could be beneficial for many other webmasters, bloggers, and mothers (with mom blogs or websites).
I’ve spent much of the last decade+, creating and working on one website or another at any given time, and usually several websites at any one time. We are creative creatures here, and often try new ventures and launch new ideas, using our website as the primary tool, and the world wide web as our audience.
So it’s no surprise then, that I’ve learned quite a bit about what works, when it comes to marketing online, whether you are actually selling with a business related website, or simply trying to get your website or blog noticed and visited.

Here’s a quick overview of aspects I’ve found important when it comes to your goal of website visits, popularity, and rank:

- Visual Appeal: Try to view your own website from that of a visitor, never having been there. Is it too busy, or confusing? We’ve all been to websites where you literally cannot read the words over the paisley print, and though, “what were they thinking?” So, check yours out too. Make sure it’s appealing and easy to navigate. Will visitors be able to find your navigation menus easily?

- Search Engine Optimization: This means your website is search engine friendly and optimized to be returned in related searches. To achieve this, you will want to make sure you have all of your meta tags created and in line with your content. Meta tags are embedded within your website, created to communicate to robots including search engines, letting them know what your website is all about and how to display it in results.

- Keywords: Along with search engine optimization (SEO), and meta tags, is keywords. Keywords are just that – words that most accurately describe your website; words that when searched, would hopefully return your website in results at some point. Not only do you want a specific meta tag for your keywords, but you want to make sure the content is in line with the keywords, which confirms to the search engine that your tag is accurate, and the keywords valid.

- Quality Content: Search engines (and visitors) want quality content. The more content and information you have, the better. Make sure you are offering your visitors a lot of quality content. While you may be advertising and promoting, make sure you try to maintain a balance, and keep your website quality high.

- Links: Search engines help to determine your value by looking to see how many other valuable sites agree that you’re valuable. In other words, quality better ranking websites that link out to yours, must mean those find value in your website. A good thing, for a search engine to find. And it’s a lot better to be linked on a similar website, with similar content.

- Submissions: Like links, submissions get your website listed and out there. The main difference, is that I’m referring to search engines and directories, when I say submissions. Again, stay on the look out for quality directories to submit to.

- Updating: Search engines know when changes are made, and it indicates your website is staying active and updated. This certainly does not mean you need to update daily, or even weekly – but you also don’t want any robot to think you’ve abandoned ship either.

- Social Media: Sites like Facebook and Twitter (in addition to many more) are great tools for spreading the word and networking. These social sites allow you to connect with like minded individuals, as well as potential customers and readers. Maintain a balance here as well, and social media should take you a long way. And gaining popularity in recent years, is the use of YouTube in conjunction with websites. Many webmasters, business owners, and companies, are now also producing video content to use in conjunction with website and written content, which can be a powerful tool indeed.

- Momentum: Just as with any business, do not lose your momentum. If you are beginning to make progress, seeing visits, numbers, and rank go up – don’t lose momentum, because just as with a car gaining speed up the hill – should you slow your roll…you could easily stop your forward motion, and even roll backward a bit, should you take your foot off the pedal for too long. I’ve been there and done that over the years. So, just stay persistent and consistent.

Granted, this is just a quick overview, of what I’ve learned and found to be helpful over the years, but to me, they are the most important ingredients. And many webmasters, bloggers, and marketers, new to the web or at least to the mastering of a website, may find this little list helpful if just starting out or fairly new. Many of these things can be achieved faster with money backing your project, but it is very possible to achieve higher rank, more visits, and more popularity, on a small to nil budget as well. I’ve made my way through this list with and without advertising funds over the years.

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