Staying Motivated

We have all experienced those days that we would just love to sit and just not think or move. Turn the TV on to some show that needs absolutely no brain cells and tune out the world. While this is OK once in a great while, it is not something that we should do daily. There is always something we should be doing or need to be doing.
Some days for me it can be a bit of a battle. So I find things that help me stay motivated.
For some it might be that they want to lose weight. So they find something that they can focus on. It may be a favorite pair of jeans that they have, that they may lay on their dresser to remind them they want to wear them again, or a shopping spree.
Some people may want to take a vacation, so they hang on the refrigerator pictures of the place or a list of what they want to do on the trip. This is to remind them to save their money up to take the trip.
For me I sometimes need to be motivated into my housework. I know terrible right! I am not saying all the time, just some of it. So I will record a show I want to watch and then not allow myself that 30 min break until I have completed the daily housework.
Sitting down to my computer and taking the steps necessary to work my home biz is something that I do have a lot of motivation for. The drive behind why I do this is huge. It is making that change for my family. Being able to pay off those bills, and debt. It is helping others do the same. Meeting new people, celebrating their success!
So whatever it is that you have to do today, or want to do, and you are dragging your feet. Think about what is going to motivate you. I guarantee that at the end of the day you will be proud of yourself, will have a accomplished a lot, and will be rewarded. And if your like me, chances are the list will have been long and you will be exhausted!!
So go on and get busy and good luck!!

Follow Me Back Tuesday!

Thanks for stopping by on this Follow Me Back Tuesday! I hope you hop on by often! It is the 1st of March and a wonderful way to start out the month. You can link up with the blog hop HERE!
Have a fun a productive day!!

Spring like weather!

It is so much nicer out today, 10:00am and already 50degrees out there. It sure makes staying inside hard. I can think of a ton of things that need done or I want to do. The yard needs a good cleaning, thanks to the dog who thinks that if it isn't in the yard it should be. He has brought in logs, sticks, tumble weeds. He has found some trash ( I think he secretly must clean the ditches along the road when we are asleep). I can not imagine where he finds all this stuff.
Then there is all the horses. Who in their right mind has so many to work with. They all need to be walked and messed with, a whole winter without anything, I have to wonder did they forget everything?
I would love to plant more flowers this year ( dog permitting, he dug up most of them last year). This means I need to get clever and probably add fencing of some type. It will take some planning.
I discovered Mulberry trees in the tree row behind our house a couple of years ago. I don't know if they had been inactive for all these years or what exactly was the deal, but one day walked out to the edge of the trees and right there was a small tree, set with berries. In a bigger inspection I had a big nice tree of them in the middle of the trees. So for the last two years, plan has been to clean out a nice path to get to the nice Mulberry tree. Before the dreaded snakes all come out!
Days like today make me want to get out and get things done.
Oh and our little family terror, that makes some jobs possible and others impossible is this big yellow member of the family.

Gotta Love Him!!

Crafts with the kids!

I got a big surprise last night while sitting down to supper. Jayden pops up with " I have to decorate a valentines box for tomorrow!" After a slight moment of panic I went over in my head as I served up supper what we might have on hand to make her box. This was going to be frustrating. Once we started the hunting and gathering this is what we did. It turned out well I think, and was not complicated!

First we had to gather our materials, we grabbed a cereal box, scotch tape, scissors ( and side cutters), pencil, various permanent markers in black, construction paper, stencils, ribbon, tissue paper, some fake roses and other floweres, and wrapping paper.


Then we cut a square out of the cereal box( place to put in the valentines) and then wrapped the whole box with wrapping paper.
We located the hole we made by pressing a bit and poked a hole with pencil in center of that spot. Next we cut out to each corner so that we had 4 triangles. we folded those in after putting a little piece of tap on the point to hold it back.

Next you start your decorating. We picked about 3 flowers and cut the stems a bit long. We bent them a bit and taped them down. We taped a some little white flowers behind our roses we chose to help them stick out. Then we cut out a heart shape out of red construction paper. Wrote a saying in this case, BE MINE. Taped it over the stems so that it looked like a vase or something that was holding the flowers.
We went online to find a printable picture of cupid and printed it out on red paper. Using our stencil we cut a heart around cupid. Then used a larger stencil to cut out white tissue paper in a heart shape. We taped it behind cupid to look like lace.
Added a bow in the corner and a cut out heart on a piece of ribbon with her name and hung it out of the flowers.

We had fun doing this project and were really surprised at how well it turned out since we really only had about half an hour to complete it. I do have to admit though, next time I hope she lets me in on the secret a lot sooner. The snow day that we had the day before would have been a perfect day for such a project!!

Follow Me Back Tuesday

Follow Me Back Tuesday!!



Welcome to my blog! Glad you stopped by! You can link up with Follow Me Back Tuesday, to check out some great blogs, and to share yours with others! Look forward to "seeing" you around!

Have you kept your New Years Resolution?

Most of us start off the New Year with a resolution. Maybe we want to lose weight, maybe we want to be more organized. Some of us want to drink less coffee/pop, or maybe you want to reach for a promotion, or grow a home business. Whatever it may be, you will find that most of us have dropped part of if not all of our resolution. It was to difficult. Got boring. Just slipped your mind. Life got in the way. But think about this, we make our New Years Resolution lumping the whole year all together and reach to meet it in one week. We get frustrated and just give up. I think we have all been thinking of it the wrong way. I was reading an article the other day. It really made sense, it was talking about making goals daily. So here is the thinking with this. You start off every day with a goal, or daily resolution. You will also want to rotate your goals. I believe this makes them more attainable. One day you may have a workout related goal/resolution. So you make that goal saying today before I set down at my computer I will do my workout. The next day it may be a step to work on your finances. Whatever it may be if you break it down into daily goals/resolutions, and rotate them, you eliminate the boredom, putting it off and uncertainty of how to approach it and get it done. It gets your full attention and you can reevaluate every day or week. Part of the not doing is a guilty feeling that you may of failed or not have accomplished what you said you would. Making that daily resolution gives you a chance to look at what you have done, make the necessary change and change what you need to change to get there. So go ahead and dedicate a notebook, day planner or whatever you have. Put it next to you computer, on your nightstand, by the coffee pot. Wherever you will see it every morning, write down that resolution, make a plan, and put it into action. You will see progress daily, know that you have met a goal and this is what will keep you moving forward. By the end of the year you will look back and see for yourself that you have met your New Years Resolution by taking the necessary daily steps. You will be proud of yourself!

What gets in the way of your home biz?

I am a stay at home mom who chooses to work part time from our home. I love it and love the flexibility, who wouldn't? Unfortunately with working at home and being your own boss, there are things that can really get in your way. We all experience something that will take away the focus from what we need to be or should be doing to be successful at meeting our goals. Whether that goal is to have a bit of extra spending money or if it is to replace an income. Speaking from experience my kids. I love them, but they can really require a lot of attention, especially when they know I am trying to focus on what I need to do. This is a kids nature, and I am sure this is what they are put on earth to do. Keep mom off balance just enough that she gets nothing accomplished. We all know this, this is why we have become experts in the matter of multitasking. How do we maintain that balance so we may be able to maintain our bigger picture, and still getting in our biz time? CREATIVITY! ORGANIZATION! Yes those two words. Scheduled activities, why this works, well whether it be the dreaded snow day (especially on a day you had tons planned knowing kiddos were out of the house, or supposed to be) or an extra kid or two you got surprised with having. Maybe it is just the usual "wild" day at home with kids a schedule is necessary. Think about this, kids in school have certain things they do daily at certain times. No surprise, they know what is coming and are ready for it. They know what is expected. When we do this at home we can work with that schedule and around that schedule. It will really prevent kids from having a breakdown because they missed a snack, or nap. That lunch is not on time they are starving and you are working. Inevitable meltdown with these things if they don't know themselves this is coming. Same as times spent with you during your busy day. Schedule these in, even frequently, they are the needy little "biz" partners in your office. It is important to have some new types of things. I am not saying go spend a fortune and buy them new toys and expensive gifts. Present them with a notebook or new coloring book, from a bargain bin or dollar store. These are handy for those just not satisfied whatever is happening kind of day.
Another big way we get distracted and get in our own way is to get sidetracked ourselves. Some scenarios ( not saying it is me, not saying it isn't ;) )your searching for new places to advertise, and it does take some looking, but next thing you know you are reading news stories, or other ads. Or if your on facebook to "check or leave a comment or link something to your fan page" ( I know it couldn't of been for any other reason right?) and next thing you know you have played a game and read and commented on everyones status. You have looked for someone from the past to add as a friend or out of the blue wondered what someone is up to these days. After awhile you realize you spent your 15mins you had or an hour doing nothing that involves what you started out to do. Not productive. We are all guilty of this one.
We are all a little curious when we run across a familiar ad. It is a wonderful part of being part of a work at home team or network. We all love to see that others are passionate about what we do at least as much as we are. You may even click on an ad just to see who posted and say to yourself a bit of YAY, look at them go, and are excited to see maybe it is someone you know. One BIG way to get sidetracked on this is if you take the other road of why are they posting where I want to post and then take the time to email and explain to them how you don't want them posting there. This is such a way to waste your time, and theirs. Always be courteous. We are all whether in the same biz or some completely different kind of home biz, out there doing what we love doing. We are all in the end looking to reach our dreams and goals. If you are taking time to email something to them that is not helpful to either or you it will always come across as unfriendly (no matter how you word it) and just like completely getting caught up on an internet search, you will soon find a lot of time spent without any helpful results!