My Own Version of Heaven

Okay. If you read my blog often, you know how much I love books. My dream is to live right across the street from a library. So when I saw this, I could not believe it. It's my dream chair. I could live in that chair. Of course, I'd need a coffee machine nearby. But that's easily arranged.My most current dream, and one that doesn't appear to be in the offing right now, is a vacation. It doesn't have to be exotic. It doesn't have to be luxurious. In fact, I found this vintage vacation on the same site as my dream chair, and it would be just right. Nice and quiet. Low stress.Last but not least, the Kahlua-flavored brownies found on...

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Were the Seven Dwarfs Right?

I came across an article recently at Pick the Brain that really has me thinking. It was about how listening to music can increase our mental focus and productivity. Blog author, John Wesley, recounts his "aha!" moment while playing video games to music in Focus Better by Listening to Music. He found that if he played while listening to music, his style of play became much more natural, and his decision-making process sped up measurably.It's long been recognized that music can change a person's mood. I know an upbeat song will lift me when I'm feeling down. Inversely, I cry every time I hear Johnny Cash sing "Hurt." But it's a good cry....

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Food or Gas? That is the Question

Am I the only one having to make hard decisions about where I will and won't drive? I've never been one to fill up my tank. I just can't afford it. But I've started putting more in lately, simply because if I don't, I might as well camp out by the pump. Ten dollars worth of gas is getting me nowhere.The Associated Press reports that recent polls show that 46% of Americans believe that near-record gas prices will cause them serious financial hardship this year. The worst of it is there seems to be no real concrete reason why gas is so high. Somehow, the fact that gas prices in European cities like Oslo and Norway are three times higher doesn't...

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Top 5 Stress Busters for Worn Out Parents

I've been feeling pretty stressed out lately. So I've been trying to come up with ways to cut back on the chaos around my house or at least soften the edges a little bit. And after reading lots of articles on said subject, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to be able to get rid of all my stress. It's just a natural byproduct of life. But I might be able to limit it in some fashion. And so I present the Top 5 Stress Busters for Worn Out Parents:1. Stop procrastinating. Procrastination leads to stress. For me, this means forcing myself to spend 30 minutes a day tackling something on my list of "Onerous Tasks That Must Be Done."...

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Cool Site O' the Day

Just stumbled across this site. It has the most comprehensive list I've seen of tools for freelancers. It's The Freelancer's Toolset: 100 Web Apps for Everything You Will Possibly Need at Codswallop. There are organization tools, calendars, money management tools, storage solutions, writing, design, and productivity tools, virus and spyware protection programs, networking tools, website building apps, and just some plain neat things that you'll want to check out. I'm still investigating the list myself, but I've already found some great stuff! What does the word "codswallop" mean? It's an English term for nonsen...

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Cool Job: Work From Home as a Copyeditor

Since my last Cool Work From Home Job was freelance writer, I thought a look at copyediting would be fitting. What is a copyeditor? Well what a copyeditor is not, is a proofreader, although proofreading is part of the job. Copyeditors go over written copy before it's set into type, correcting errors in grammar, spelling, style, and usage.Sometimes copyediting includes fact checking, although in most instances, this is not the case. It occasionally even means rewriting a piece to make it tighter and more readable. If you work at a magazine or newspaper, your job as copyeditor might include such things as layout or writing captions and headlines....

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Life on a Deadline

If there's one term telecommuters are familiar with, it's the word "deadline." This is the point at which "it" - whatever "it" is - absolutely, positively must be done. I'll admit I've had a problem with deadlines lately. Part of it is simply that I'm going through a little burn out. But it's mostly because I haven't been very good at budgeting my work and sleep lately.Deadlines are important, if only to propel us forward. But due to the very nature of working from home, sometimes they just can't be met. And when that happens, we have to either cut ourselves a little slack by asking for an extension, or suffer the consequences of stress...

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Free Books!

If you read this blog often, you know that I'm a big reader, that I love, love, love books. I love having a stack of them beside my bed. I love the smell of them, the feel of them. The more books, the better. And so I have to share Friedbeef'sTech.com's Best Places to Get Free Books: The Ultimate Guide. It really is the most comprehensive list I've found of free e-books, real books, audiobooks on the Net. Enj...

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10 Interesting Things About Me

Okay. I've been tagged by Christy at Christy's Coffee Break to list ten interesting things about myself, which is probably one of the hardest assignments I've ever tackled. Ten interesting things about me? I'll give it a shot.1. I am a night owl. I like to stay up late. Very late. Usually working, but sometimes reading or playing on the computer.2. I drink way too much coffee, which you probably already know if you've been reading this blog.3. I am the mother of three girls - two of whom are fraternal twins with looks and personalities like night and day. One is blonde, blue-eyed, serious. The other is brunette, brown-eyed, lots of fun....

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Beautiful Betty

My mom was a Betty, a born in the 1940's, grow up, get married, have two children Betty. She got married while she was still in high school and had me, her first child, two years later at age 19. I know how young that is, because I have a daughter who's that age now. Two years later, my brother came along, and her family was complete.She occasionally worked outside the home part time. But she was a stay-at-home mom for most of my childhood. And it was a great childhood. I could roam our neighborhood from morning 'til dusk, secure in the knowledge that Mom was there if anything should go wrong.Her life wasn't always easy. There were financial...

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Cool Site O' the Day

As a single mom, I know there have been times when it was a struggle just to put food on the table. And so I'm really excited about Angel Food Ministries. This organization works primarily through churches all across the country to feed families in 32 states.Anyone is eligible to purchase a $25 box containing a week's worth of food that would otherwise retail for $50. Every month's menu is different, and consists of high quality, brand name food. No dented cans or out-of-date goods. This is all fresh meat, vegetables, produce - everything necessary to create wholesome meals for a week.There is a FAQ on the site which explains exactly how...

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Are You a Beta Mom?

I recently came across a term that was wholly new to me, and unless I'm way behind the curve, it probably will be to you also. It's the recently coined name for moms who do the best they can with what they have, and feel that's good enough. They're not perfect. They make mistakes. But they love their kids, and are doing the best they can at any given moment to raise them well. Think Julia Louis Dreyfus's character in the sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine. They're "Beta Moms."There's a great article by Sharon Jayson at USAToday.com about this new "laid-back" brand of mom, along with some signs that you might be a Beta Mom. And to...

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The Hardest Word to Say

One of the hardest things about being a work at home mom is that people tend to think if you work from home, you've got more time than they have. So why don't you lead the class field trip, organize the church bazaar, or babysit the neighborhood kids when they're out on school holiday? And while it's nice to be more available to your kids - that's the main advantage of telecommuting, in my opinion - that doesn't automatically translate into having more time.And that's why it's important to have boundaries, and to learn to say no. N-O, no! Sounds simple. But for most women, it isn't. And that's why I love OnlineOrganizing.com's 20 Ways to...

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Pay Yourself First

I've been thinking a lot lately about what's going to become of me in my old age. For many of you, that worry is years down the road. But I'm in my forties, so this subject is looming large in my mind. How can a single work at home mom with three kids to support hope to retire one day, when it seems there's never anything left over at the end of the month?And that question, says author David Bach, demonstrates exactly where I've gone wrong. In his book The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich, his number one mantra is: "Pay yourself first." He claims there are six ways to get rich. They are, and I quote:...

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Cool Site O' the Day

Just ran across this neat site. You can fax anywhere in the U.S. and Canada for free. All you need to have are a computer with Internet access and an email address. It's faxZERO.com. You can send a .PDF, a Microsoft Word document (.DOC), or an Excel spreadsheet (.XLS). They state in their FAQ that they hate junk email and junk faxes, and will "absolutely not" send any junk email or fax...

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Cool Job: Work From Home as a Freelance Writer

Whether it's writing articles for online content, blogging, writing ad copy, or writing a book, many work at home mom's have found freelance writing to be a fulfilling and flexible career choice. With submission sites like Associated Content and Constant Content, and informative sites like FreelanceWriting.com, where writing gigs are regularly posted, a new world of opportunity has opened up for writers who want to work from home.WritersWrite.com posts a paying markets list that currently boasts 677 magazines, ezines, reviews, journals, and online sites that are open to freelancers. On Freelance Writing Jobs, freelance writer Deborah Ng posts...

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