Time management

I must admit that working from home has its own set of challenges. I have a 10 month old( tomorrow) who is quite active. I would do great if I woke up early in the mornings, but I don't. He is basically my alarm clock, waking me up with his cries in the morning. Only occasionally do I awake before he does.

Naptime is the 1 1/2- 2 hour crunch that I try to cram most of my writing time in. And, then of course, there is late at night, which is another time that I do most of my writing. I'm doing what I have to do, but it would be so nice to just go at a leisurely pace during the day. When he's sleeping, I make a mad dash to the computer to complete writing assignments. Somedays it's great, other days, I dread looking at the computer.

But, I'm going to keep plugging away at it, and pray that I become more efficient with my time. Someone told me that the best work at home jobs for a mom are certain online businesses. With that you simply answer emails and supply the requested items. She didn't go into specifics on how profitable her business was though. But, it's a nice idea.

All you work at home moms out there, I encourage you to keep going. For those who stay at home without trying to earn an income from home, please remember just how blessed you are.

Being a stay at home mom was my first career choice

I decided to become a stay at home mother when I was four years old. The reason was because I simply hated to watch my mother prepare to leave to go to work in the mornings. I witnessed this on the days that my Dad was home, due to working the night shift. I also hated daycare. It was a cold, uninviting environment that I dreaded going to. Added to the fact that my daycare teacher was a mean old lady with a perpetual frown on her face. I just hated being there. My experience hating daycare, and being separated from my mother made me want to become a stay at home mother.

Throughout my school years, I pondered various career paths that would be compatible with motherhood. A career that would provide a great deal of flexibility, since I knew that I wanted to stay home upon the arrival of my children. I excelled in school, and was accepted to my number one choice for college, a top university that was about thirty minutes from my home.

Even learning and fellowshipping among some of the nation’s brightest students did nothing to dim my desire to eventually be a stay at home mother. However, it was not something that I would broadcast to others. There was a young woman, though, who was very bold about saying that she wanted to be a homemaker. She had no desire to pursue a career. All she wanted to do was get married and stay at home with her children. Ironically, no one I knew derided her comments. I guess, because secretly, many other young women desired the exact same thing. We admired that she felt confident enough to express such an old-fashioned sentiment on a modern, liberal college campus.

Upon graduation, I became an English teacher, and taught for four years. I wish I had used this time more wisely, and focused on paying off as much of my student loans as possible. But, I didn’t. For one of my loans, for every year that I taught, they cancelled fifteen percent of the loan. That helped tremendously. On the other loan, I paid the minimum amount each month, instead of putting as much money as I could toward paying it off.

Since the birth of my son almost 10 months ago I have mainly been a stay at home mother. Not, that I’m in the financial position to do so, but I chose and continue to choose to walk in faith. For four months I worked part-time as a teacher assistant. I rationalized that it was not as stressful a job as being a full-time teacher. No papers to come home and grade. Not leaving earlier to make sure that my lesson plans for the day went smoothly. But, then my husband’s schedule changed, and going to work part-time would mean putting my son in daycare part-time. That was not an option. So, I quit.

Since that time, I have been praying fervently to God to open up doors to earn money from home, and He has been faithful to supply opportunities. Sometimes I get frustrated, because I’m not reaching my financial goals yet with working from home, but I’m gradually getting there. I realize that nothing is worth me leaving my children in the care of others. God blessed me to have a child and another on the way, and I choose to be the keeper at home that He has called me to be, even when it feels like maybe I should return to working outside the home for financial reasons.

This journey has been a wonderful learning experience, and I have gained greater faith in God and have realized that any dream or goal can come true if you are willing to work hard and sacrifice for it.

Hope

Amidst depressing talk of a recession, rising gas prices, and rising unemployment, it would seem like a ludicrous idea to try to work from home. But, I have been steadfast in my endeavors to earn money through writing and tutoring, and coming up with more ideas.

Oftentimes, I wish that I had thought of pursuing work from home while I was single. Then, I would have had endless amounts of time to pursue various opportunities, instead of snatches here and there while the baby is napping. But, yet and still, I will persist. I am inspired by the many successful work at home mothers and writers that I know, and I'm pressing forward to a worthy goal. My children will be thankful that I perservered in the end, and so will I.

PayPerPost

I have heard a lot about getting paid with PayPerPost. It seemed pretty simple, so I signed up and my blog was approved. From there I'm able to write about various products or refer people, and I earn money. There are many different opportunities to write about, therefore, more opportunities to earn money. You can learn more here at: get paid to blog

I encourage anyone who is looking to earn more money, and you already have a blog, to check out PayPerPost. It will be worth your time. I'm always searching for ways to earn money online, and this is a great way to do so. Readers at Moneysavingmom.com have commented on how they have used it and have earned hundreds of dollars each month from writing reviews or referring users to PayPerPost. So, it's a very legit opportunity. So, if you have a blog, especially if you have a faithful following, go for it and sign up, and see the cash start rolling in. You have nothing to lose, and it’s a chance to earn money while doing something that you love to do, and are already doing; blogging. You can make new friends and earn money at the same time. Let me know if it has worked for you.

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Success stories, work at home moms

Today I read from two websites that featured success stories from women who work at home. The first, Internet Based Moms, was all about moms who successfully created and ran online businesses. You can read more here

Another website, called Work it Mom, featured women who balance work and family. There are a few stories that feature work at home mothers and how they began and how they manage their home business with raising a family. Check out their website here.

I always love to read about other people's success.

Home business

I'm excited because I've been researching what kind of home business I want to have for the last few months, and I've finally found a business that I believe will be the right fit for me. I just received a lead today, after advertising for educational services that I will offer.

It feels good to have a glimmer of hope. I pray that this will be a succesful endeavor.

Coward??

Ok. So, I tried to be brave and do a newspaper route to earn extra income. When I started I didn't think that it required bravery. It was simply slinging newspapers out of my car window, right? Quite wrong for me.

One of the newspaper managers rode with me to show me the route and exactly what to do. There were about 100 houses to throw papers to and only about 10 or so where you could easily throw from the car window and it successfully land on their porch. So, basically I had to get out of my car and walk close to their porch and throw it on there.

Mind you, that this occurs in the wee hours of the morning while it is still dark. And spooky. And I would be doing this alone. Me, getting out of my car alone to throw a newspaper on someone's porch. And if it is not done properly, i.e. not thrown on the porch or on the steps, complaints will be lodged against you. So, you have to do it right.

Well, I chose to not go back to do it. I wish that I were brave enough to sling papers and earn extra money. Actually $900/month and I wouldn't have to worry about putting my son in daycare. But, I'm a coward. And, I really wish that I could earn this money that is so desperately needed.

Am I a coward that needs to conquer these fears so that I can be a stay at home mom? Would you take the opportunity?

Update

Well, my precious baby boy was born in September, and he is 6 months old now!! What a joy he is!! I just love him to pieces. I also received another little surprise. I'm expecting another little blessing in the next couple of months. I'm excited about having two little people to love and squeeze on.

Employment wise: I started teaching part time around my husband's work schedule in December, and I enjoyed that. But, now his schedule has changed, and I'm unable to continue teaching. Unless, of course, I want to put Jr. into daycare, which I don't. So, I resigned about two weeks ago. I'm searching for ways to earn money from home or something that is flexible.

Yesterday, I started training for a newspaper route. We'll see how that goes.