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Here are two thought-provoking questions I want to answer from my friend TV’s post, Can You Change After…
“Have you identified a quality you’d like to change in yourself particularly around/after 30? If so, were you able to change it and how did you do it?”
Since I turned 30, several qualities in myself had to change. 1) Be more consistent. 2) Be more observant. 3) Become a morning person.
My husband and I were just talking about this on our 8th Anniversary celebration. I attribute many of the changes to our marriage and having children.
1) Be more consistent. Prior to getting married, I wasn’t consistent in many areas of life. I have many interests and got fairly good at all of them, but was not consistent to excel at any one of them. Talent does not equate to long-term success. By necessity as a stay at home mom, I trained myself to follow a regular routine.
2) Be more observant. I used to assume more than I observed. Part of a mom’s job is to be observant and listen well, if I want fewer headaches 
Hubby was the one who pointed out to me that I wasn’t observing others’ needs very well at the time. It was humbling and I’m so glad he did, cuz I didn’t have a clue! Now, I do my best to be more conscious of others’ needs and listen to them first before assuming I know what they need!
3) Become a morning person. I was a night owl all the way up to college graduation. My health suffered a little, then a lot more after giving birth to children. Eventually I just got tired of being tired all the time, so I began to eat better, wake up earlier, give thanks in the morning, and do my exercises. Now I prefer the morning air, it’s crisper and more rejuvenating.
So there you have it. A quick look at things I changed after 30. I don’t always succeed at being 1, 2, 3 – but I give it my best shot everyday!
Here’s another one. My kids started school this week with my youngest beginning kindergarten. I’m feeling bittersweet as many parents do. I’ll be adjusting to my smiles & giggles being elsewhere for half the day.
At the same time, as business is taking off, this blog will see some changes too. Starting next week, I’ll be posting 2 (maybe 3) times a week instead of 4. It’ll be an adjustment period as I gain some sense of balance among all the things I juggle. I hope you’ll continue to drop by. I read all my comments and will do my best to get back to you. I appreciate you so much! Have yourself a wonderful weekend!
Tags: Fun Friday
Life has a way of moving right along, whether you feel ready or not sometimes. My kids just finished their first day of school and boy was I emotional. As a mom, you just never know when the mighty maternal feelings within take over your body and you begin to sob uncontrollably. Good, cleansing sobs.
This week I’m thankful for:
1. An awesome weekend with my Hubby. We celebrated 8 years of marriage and enjoyed a dinner in the city, watched the musical Wicked, had a quiet church visit, and enjoyed a nice lunch out. I’ll remember this weekend for a long time!
2. Hubby suggesting I take a day off to grieve our kids’ first day of school. It had such a wonderful cleansing effect.
3. Our kids did so well on their first day. My son just went to his seat, sat down and didn’t cry. He did better than I did! When I picked him up, he came out of that room with a look I’ll never forget – a triumphant, shy look as if to say, “I AM a big boy. It’s my turn to come out of the room, just like sister did.”
4. The gift of music. On my day off, I took extra time to sing and play my guitar which lifted my spirits and reminded me what a wonderful way to spend time with my God.
5. An enduring relationship with my God. Sometimes I forget just how loving He is, until I take the time to simply sit with Him and listen to His soft whispers of love for me. The day my kids started their first day of school was the day my God lit my heart with His fire again. And believe me, it’s different when He lights it
Head over to Mama’s Little Chick for more people giving thanks!
Tags: Thoughtful Thursday
Today is the first Work At Home Wednesday after this summer’s blogging series.
It’s also the first day of school for my kids…and while that means more time to myself during the day, it also means fewer smiles & giggles.
My hubby suggested I take today to grieve. The beauty of working at home is I can do that. And being the dictionary geek, I looked up the word grieve.
grieve – to feel intense emotional suffering caused by a loss
I don’t know about you, but when I think of taking time to grieve, I think of big losses like death, divorce, job loss, etc. But grieving over a child entering school? Isn’t it supposed to be a time of celebration? After all, they’re growing up!
I’m extra emotional because my youngest is entering kindergarten. He’s my baby and he’s growing up. Perhaps before I can fully embrace and celebrate that the kids are bigger now, I need to cry. I need to let myself FEEL the loss of time with them.
As I let go of the previous chapter of life with them, I look forward to making more room in my heart for the next chapter…
What about you? Do you grieve big or small losses?
Tags: Work At Home Wednesday
Hey there, hope you had a fun weekend!
Hubby and I had so much fun celebrating our 8th Anniversary! Saturday was dinner and the musical Wicked, in the city. Sunday was church on our own and another lunch date! We talked up a storm and re-discovered the fun-loving goofiness in each of us. How special that after 8 years of ups & downs, 2 kids and many transitions, we continue to pour out our hearts to each other and grow more and more in love…
In this post I wanna share a song called Pour Out My Heart. In the 1st video, I demonstrate a 3/4 time guitar strum. The 2nd video is a finger picking pattern using the same song. This is also for my friend Joyce who’s learning guitar and doing very well! Keep up the great work, Joyce – keep practicing 
My apologies it’s a bit dark, hope you can still see the movements.
Which video do you like better for this song and why?
Do you enjoy pouring out your heart to those closest to you?
Tags: Mindset Monday
Wouldn’t you say having fun is supposed to be intuitive?
Meaning, you don’t need to be taught how to have fun, you just do!
Especially for children.
For some people though, it’s not that easy to have fun…
That being said, I must make a disclaimer. By no means am I an expert on fun, in fact I really could use more fun in my life!
Seriously though, the question remains at the end of the day…
What do you and I do for fun?
What do you enjoy doing? Do you get to do it?
Or have the responsibilities of life taken up most of your time (and mine) so that all we’re doing is running to do the next thing on our list?
It’s easy to let life become a series of to-do’s, after all we have many many things to take care of. If I’m not careful, I can become a slave to my to-do list instead of the master. I prefer to be the master
I prefer to have my priorities in order so I can enjoy regular guilt-free fun!
Wouldn’t you?
Here’s a time management principle I learned that seems counter-intuitive:
1. Ask yourself if lack of time or money were not an issue, what would you do?
2. Let yourself be in touch with what you enjoy doing.
3. Schedule an hour (or more) of time to do what you enjoy – even when you don’t think you have the time to fit “fun” in, or you feel guilty for doing so.
The counter-intuitiveness of this is that after you’ve forced allowed yourself to have fun doing something you truly enjoy, you’ll feel so rejuvenated that you’ll have more energy & motivation to work. And you’ll get more done in less time
Back to what I enjoy (and I’ll need to let myself make time for these)…scrapbooking, making crafts, playing guitar, singing, all things artsy craftsy expressive-sy! And last week, I started doing something to tone down my tummy and it ended up being really fun – Pilates for Dummies! Sweetie did it with me too, it was so cute with her on the couch following along.
There’s more to explore, I’m not done yet…what about you?
What do you do for fun? Does anything stop you from doing it?
Tags: Fun Friday
This morning I felt far from feeling grateful. I knew it was just a funk, so I did some vacuuming which helped me appreciate clean fluffy carpet. As I sat down to write this post, I thought what a blessing and privilege it is to give thanks this week for the following:
1. My kids being super helpful. Sweetie volunteered to help with Tuesday’s laundry day. Her younger brother followed suit with loading clothes into the dryer. Wednesday they both asked to fold the clothes!
2. Hot weather with highs of 105! You must know I don’t enjoy hot weather too much, but it allowed us a chance to BBQ and eat dinner out on the patio, which our kids absolutely loved. Never mind the flies and yellow jacket bee getting into our Korean Bulgogi beef.
3. Hand washing clothes. With the hot weather comes an opportunity to hang clothes outside and have them dry in a few hours. What a special treat having them drip “rain” on the kids – it was real fun!
4. Hubby’s perseverance. He’s a trooper when it comes to working and his job. I love his dedication to us and he’s also neat and tidy.
5. Hubby’s t-shirt drawer. You just gotta see it – it inspired me to redo mine and I ended up making room for another row of shirts!!
Head on over to Mama’s Little Chick to be inspired by others’ giving thanks! Have a wonderful Thursday!
Tags: Thoughtful Thursday
Hey there, welcome! If this is your first time visiting Work At Home Wednesday, we’re finishing up a series on blogging by ProBlogger Darren Rowse – 31 Days To Build A Better Blog. This will be done via question/answer format.
The wonderful SITS group over at BlogFrog.com has also gone through the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog this summer! In fact, the questions are from their discussion forum.
If you’d like to increase your skill sets in the area of blogging, I encourage you to follow along. Today’s post is packed with a LOT of useful info. Probably the best way for you to get the most out of it is to scroll down and skim through the titles of each day’s tasks. Whatever catches your eye, ask that day’s discussion questions of yourself and your blog…Let’s begin!
In honor of my A-ha moment from Day 23, I’ve simplified the following call to action after the double asterisks.
**I’d love to hear from you! Scroll down to leave a comment answering the question at the very end of this post, or share about your latest project on your blog.
Day 23 – Call Your Readers To Action
Today’s task has us write a post in which we ask our readers to do more than just be passive participants in our blogs. By getting readers to do things like comment, participate in a poll, buy a recommended product or visit another site, we are creating a more interactive experience that will hopefully encourage people to come back.
ProBlogger recommends reading 12 Tips To SNAP Readers Out Of Passivity to gain more insight into calling readers into action.
Questions:
1) Have you written a post in the past that has encouraged readers to do something other than just comment on your blog?
Yes, I’ve encouraged readers to visit other blogs and participate in linking up.
2) How has this task changed the way you look at making your blog more interactive?
I got an A-ha moment from Tip #2 of Darren’s post “12 Tips to SNAP Readers Out Of Passivity”. Give one call to action per post. This gives them a simple next step rather than overwhelm them with too many choices. When I wrap this concept around my head, this will simplify and shorten my posts considerably!
Day 24 – How To Use A Magazine To Improve Your Blog
Finally, an offline activity and excuse to go to Barnes & Noble and relax for an hour!
Today’s task is to take some sticky notes, a notebook, pen and magazine and analyze it for marketing, design and post ideas along with tips on writing, monetizing your blog and engaging your readers. It’s also a great way to study up on your niche!
Questions:
1) Did this exercise inspire you to try anything new with your own blog?
I’d love to interact more with readers. The magazine started with offering a simple thought/quote, then a few pages of ads later, there was a question. Answers to that question from 20 different readers were presented in the next 2 pages. A few pages later, a question from a reader and the answer to it. I’m inspired to incorporate something like this into my blog.
2) What magazine did you choose to analyze?
Real Simple Family
Day 25 – Ask A Question
Today’s task is to ask a question of your readers. In the e-book, Darren gives us 10 reasons this is a good idea as well as 12 tips for asking questions of your readers.
Key Takeaways:
- Asking readers questions can increase their sense of community and participation
- Question posts can rank high in search engines and generate incoming traffic
- Ask questions that are relevant to your blog’s type and actually have answers.
- Consider following up your question post with summaries of answers.
Questions:
1) Have you written a question post in the past? How was the response? (include links!)
I’ve written posts with a question at the end. Some readers responded to the question, some offered other thoughts that came to mind while reading. One time I asked a question on Facebook, got a lot of great answers, and wrote a post summarizing the top 8 answers.
Here’s a link to that post: 8 Common Misconceptions About Staying At Home
2) Have you seen a question post on another blog that got you involved or drew your interest? What about the post got you interested?
I’ve seen questions on many other blogs that have gotten me involved. I enjoy being engaged with answering them! In terms of a question post that ProBlogger talks about, I haven’t seen or gotten involved with those yet.
Day 26 – Improve Another Blog
Key Concepts
You can make a MAJOR impression on another blogger by helping them achieve their goals for their blog. The key is to ask yourself what their needs might be and attempt to fulfill those needs in some way. A few ideas are:
- Write a high quality guest post that will be useful to another blog’s readers
- Leave helpful and insightful comments
- Link to the blog and share your readers with them
- Promote the blog in social media and start a social bookmarking campaign for them
- Recommend to your readers to subscribe to their blog
- Email the blogger with some suggested topics you’d love to see them cover
- Introduce them to a potential advertiser
- Share with them an affiliate program that has worked for you
- Write an email telling the blogger how you found one of their posts helpful.
Perform a significant action for another blog. Don’t just leave a comment on 50 blogs; focus your energy on one other blog in your niche.
Questions
1. Which blog did you choose to support for this task? Why did you choose this blog?
Positive Kismet. This blog is a positive gratitude blog, which is close to the heart of my blog. The author wrote a phenomenal article called 10 Reasons To Be Grateful. It gives a complete picture with unique angles to something as familiarly simple, yet as elusive sometimes, as gratitude.
2. Which actions did you take to support the blog? Were they acknowledged by the blogger?
I emailed the blogger to let her know her article has helped me immensely. I plan to promote her post on my Facebook and other communities I’ll be building up.
Day 27 – Hunt For Dead Links
Today’s taks is to spend some time hunting for dead links and either deleting them or updating them on your blog. If you have WordPress there are some great plugins you can use to do this and Darren recommends a couple in his Ebook. I use (and love) the Broken Link Checker for WordPress.
Q1: If you’ve used a dead link finder on your blog before, what were the results? What tool did you use to do this? Did you find it useful?
I’ve not ever used a dead link finder before this task.
Q2: How will you manage dead links on your blog going forward?
I look forward to learning to use the Broken Link Checker for WordPress recommended here!
Day 28 – Write A Review Post
The web is used as a resource for gaining advice. As such, ProBlogger recommends writing a review post. A review increases the likelihood that readers will see you as an authority.
Key Concepts:
There are many different ways in which you can write a review post. The most important points are to:
- Give an opinion
- Give a rating
- Be balanced
- Think about keywords
- Make comparisons
- Use an affiliate link
- Say who it’s good for
- Be personal
- Add visuals
- Give details on how to obtain items
Questions:
1) Have you written a review post in the past and if so how was it received?
No, I haven’t written a review post in the past.
2) For this challenge, what kinds of things could you see yourself reviewing?
Books, another web site in my niche, an article from a magazine or website, a tool or piece of equipment relevant to my niche.
Day 29 – Develop A Plan To Boost Your Blog’s Profile And Readership Online
We’ve been building our blog’s profile all along whether we realize it or not. Commenting on other blogs, discussing issues on forums such as Blog Frog, Tweeting, responding to emails, you name it! Any way in which you interact publicly or privately with your blog readers is a small step in the larger goal of building your blog’s profile.
Bloggers mustn’t go wandering around the internet willy-nilly if they want to drive readers via their blog profile though, so there are some tips!
- Set an amount of time per day or week to build your blog’s profile. (Don’t ignore your blog to do this!)
- Take 10-15 minutes to describe your desired reader. Remember during the chat when Darren mentioned he created his own Reader Personas? Doing that activity would come in handy here!
- Ask yourself, “Where are my potential readers gathering online?” Flickr, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Blogs, Forums?
- What opportunities do you have to build your prescence on these sites? Guest posts, leaving useful comments, signatures, advertising?
1.) How does the way you build your blog’s profile change after reading this task?
I’ve been developing my own blog content and mostly spending time commenting on other blogs and my own. I’m getting ready to spend more time on Facebook, Twitter, and Blog Frog – so to avoid wandering aimlessly, I’ll need to set an amount of time per day or week to do this. Also, describing my desired reader will help me focus.
2.) Give us an example from your strategy! For one site: how much time will you spend there? What are you going to do? When’s the site most active?
I’m starting with Facebook again (I used to be active on Facebook before I began growing my blog). 15 minutes/day commenting on updates and leaving an update. 15 minutes/day building a fan page. Facebook is most active on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
Day 30 – 17 Statistics To Monitor On Your Blog
The task for Day 30 is to spend time looking at your blog’s statistics to see what you can learn from it. There is a LOT of information in the e-book, but I’ll try to pull out some key points.
Key Takeaways:
- If you haven’t done so already, install tracking on your blog. WordPress has built in tracking, and Google Analytics is also a popular way to follow your numbers.
- A few of the statistics Darren highlights are Overall Visitors, Most Popular Posts, Referral Stats, Bounce Rates, Daily/Weekly Trends, and Exit Pages.
- Don’t become a stats addict! Darren has a huge blog, and he glances at stats a couple of times a day but puts aside only an hour or two a month to go deeper into the numbers.
- Remember that blogs take time to build, and consider setting exponential goals instead of numerical ones – for example, doubling your subscribers or growing by a percentage each month.
This particular exercise tends to become more and more useful over time. Problogger recommends using this as a part of your regular blogging routine.
Questions:
1) Did you track your statistics this month? What did you see?
Yes, there’s a percentage of growth in traffic.
2) Which statistics do you feel tell you the most about your blog or readers?
Most Popular Posts, Referral Stats, Keywords that Send Traffic, Outbound Clicks
Day 31 – Plan The Next Steps For Your Blog
Key Concepts
- Successful bloggers often set aside time to think strategically about their blogs every now and again
- Figure out the things you feel are most important in blogging and develop a plan for next month by specifying tasks you want to achieve each day
Sample Plan
- Six posts a week (Sundays are a day off from posting)
- Each post day having its own type of post
- Time on Sundays for determining the specifics of each post (topics, titles etc.)
- An administration task each Monday
- Promotional activities on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays
- A day for readers (Fridays) for emailing, answering questions etc.)
- Stats analysis on the last day of the month
- Brainstorming on the first day of the month
- You still have to keep up with daily tasks like comment moderation
- Don’t bite off more than you can chew, or you may get blogger burnout
- BIG recommendation: Look back over the last 31 days of tasks and identify which ones you might want to perform regularly on your blog.
Questions
1. What tasks will you continue to perform regularly on your blog?
Using an editorial calendar to plan out blogging schedule. Each post day having its own type of post – list post, link post, etc. Ask a question, Solve a problem. Calls to action. Leave comments on other blogs. Pay special attention to a reader.
2. What is the most important thing you’ve learned throughout 31DBBB?
Start at a pace you can sustain and build up. Know your niche and describe your desired reader.
This concludes the end of the 31 Days To Build A Better Blog series on Work At Home Wednesday! I’ll be continually incorporating what I’ve learned into my regular posts and will reference back to this series from time to time. I hope this has been helpful to you in your own blogging journey. I’d love to hear from you!
**Please leave me a comment answering the following question, or share about your latest project on your blog.
End-Of-Post Question: Which of the 9 tasks above caught your eye and might be something you’d like to do on your blog? What are you currently working on for your blog?
Tags: Work At Home Wednesday
Especially a genuine smile.
A smile says…
I’m approachable. I’m ready to listen. I’m here for you. I’m having fun!
The other day, our family went into a local PetSmart store. We were looking at tropical fishes when a store clerk approached us. He gave us a nice smile and asked us if we needed help.
Let me tell you that normally when a store clerk approaches me, I tell them I’m just looking. I’m not sure that most of them really want to help me. But this one did.
Maybe it’s the way he smiled that showed us he was ready to help. He asked us what we needed and told us to take our time looking. Also to let him know when we made our choice. Talk about phenomenal customer service! We felt very comfortable telling him what we needed.
What has been your experience with store clerks who smile?
Tags: mindset, Mindset Monday
Happy Friday!
My fun for today is to announce the winner of the Coffee or Brownies!
Congratulations to…
Shari G!
Who said:
Congrats, Shari!
You’ll get the $5 Starbucks gift card!
And an email from me! Enjoy meeting daddy for lunch
Tags: Fun Friday
“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” ~William Faulkner
Have you ever thought of gratitude that way? I interpret “gratitude discharged” to mean gratitude expressed. Logically that means in order for gratitude to continue to exist, one must express it (discharge it)…
This week I’m thankful for:
1. My family. Having a family to love and care for!
2. Sweetie and Buddy. The joy of hearing them giggle at the smallest things I do, like turning a door knob. The satisfaction of watching them respect the rules at Pump It Up, and be considerate to other kids on the slides.
3. Eliz at Positive Kismet. She wrote a wonderful article “10 Reasons To Be Grateful” over a week ago that’s still on my mind. The quote above is from her post.
4. Soul-stirring music. Our church hosted singer/songwriter Larissa Lam and hip hop artist Only Won this past weekend. They rocked the house!
5. For my resilience that has developed over the years. I thought I was stretched too much, but found it was just right for the growth path I’m on.
Have you ever thought of how gratitude is produced and discharged for you?
Tags: Thoughtful Thursday
