Sticks And Stones

Finding the balance in our lives is probably the toughest thing, that moms have to tackle. How do you balance work, blogging, children, husbands, and every thing else that pops up during the day? I’ve heard so many women say that they’re “overwhelmed” and many have forgone at least one part of the ginormous equation that faces multi-tasking moms every day. So how do the “super moms” do it?  For answers, I went directly to the sources. Here in part one of  Finding The Balance, Dr. Mommy tells us how she does it. Dr. Daisy (aka Dr. Mommy) is a Christian, Doctor of Chiropractic by profession, wife to a loving and supporting husband and home school mom to 5 beautiful children. She is a speaker, problogger, freelance and content writer that devotes her time to educating the public on the importance of health, nutrition and wellness.She has several sites you can visit:http://drmommychronicles.com (mommy blog),http://drmommywrites.com (writing site),http://drmommyhealthtips.com (health site).

 

My name is Dr. Daisy (aka Dr. Mommy), I am a Christian, Doctor of Chiropractic, wife to loving and supportive husband, home school mommy to 5 beautiful children, freelance and content writer, speaker, problogger and Health/Wellness Advocate.

 

Many have asked me how I balance my busy life. First off it is not difficult it does however require dedication and organization. I have been homeschooling my children for over 10 years and the last 5 years I have been helping my husband (also a Chiropractor) manage our family practice. Besides doing that I also manage our home and have an online business and several blogs. Again, I tell you that it is all possible with scheduling. The most important thing to remember is that your home is also a business and if you look at managing your home as a business it will run much more smoothly.

Many times I hear women say that they are exhausted when they come home and don’t have the time to devote to their home much less an online business. I determined long ago that I wanted to be successful in my home as well as in my business so I had to change my way of thinking. I developed a schedule where there is time to manage my home, manage our private practice, manage my homeschooling and manage my online businesses. I have also learned to delegate and that has been a true blessing. The schedule works so well that I actually have down time and can relax an enjoy a good book or movie.

From the time my children were young (age 2) I trained them to clean up after themselves. It is not an easy task but with time they understand that it must be picked up and put in its designated basket or box. As they grew older chores were assigned and they had to check them off as they were accomplished. To this day, they must complete their morning chores before beginning their schooling and continue the upkeep throughout the day. As far as homeschooling, it is an all day venture. In the beginning we had set hours to do homeschooling but life always seem to get in the way, so that quickly changed. My children are learning every minute of the day and are also learning to do independent studies which will help them in the future. They learn to cook by the time they can reach the counters and understand the rules of the kitchen. They also help with the laundry and grocery shopping—all lessons that will be applied to their lives when they move on.

As for my online work, it is a pleasure to do. I love to write and enjoy doing it on a daily basis. Once again I have designated times that I can go online to work and times that I can play. Yes, I allow myself downtime so as not to overwhelm myself. I have a planner with all my projects and client work and assign different tasks for different days. My children are aware of those times and are sure to ask me if I am working before they come into my office. They respect my time online and that is something that has been taught as well.

I do not consider myself a wonder woman or super mom, because none of this is possible without my faith in the Lord. I am thankful and extremely blessed to have the opportunity to do what I do. There was a time that I was not happy. I made a decision to give up my profession to stay home with the children and dedicate my life to them. As they grew, and I was able to manage doing more, the Lord blessed me with online opportunities where I could share the knowledge I worked for many years to attain. I now am able to help people online and offline and feel very blessed that I am able to do this.

I want to thank Debbie for inviting me to write my story for her beautiful site. I hope I was able to inspire some of the many wonderful women that sometimes feel that they can’t do it…I am proof that it can be done. With a little help from above and determination on your part, anything is possible!

 

Stacking those stones so that they don’t come crashing down around us can be difficult.  What’s the biggest stone keeping you from balance? How do you achieve the balance in your life? Everyone has a different stone, everyone has a different way to deal with balancing  home, work, and online presence. Let’s talk about Finding The Balance.  Leave your thoughts or questions for Dr. Mommy or me here. We promise we’ll talk back!

Moving On Up

Part 4 in the series A Dot Mom Blogs™

Hi. I’m Auds from Barking Mad! I’m a professional writer and former radio broadcast and voice-over professional and a die-hard member of the blogosphere. I’m also a huge fan of Deb’s and am glad she’s given me the floor to talk about my experience with different blogging services.

 

I jumped into the blogosphere in May of 2005 via the Blogger/BlogSpot platform. Initially, after finding out I was pregnant, creating a blog was a way to keep family and friends, both near and far (My husband is British with all of his family living in England and all of mine on the west coast of the U.S.) up-to-date on what was going on with my pregnancy and eventual birth of the Little Imp. I am a lifelong writer and blogging seemed a natural extension of that talent. Besides, I knew I’d be total crap at keeping a baby book up-to-date and a blog was a nice, (and easy!) alternative to that.

At the time, I knew nothing about blogging or the difference in blogging services like Blogger, TypePad, and Wordpress; the three dominant platforms. As it turns out, Blogger made it easy for this complete novice to get started. Add to that, the fact that it was free, and that made it pretty idiot-proof for this first-timer. Every aspect of creating a post, adding photos and creating categories was spelled out for me. Features were easily accessible and with the click of a button, one could change their blog template for an instant bloggy makeover! Today, with the recent upgrade Blogger has implemented, it’s even easier to add sidebar items and widgets to your blog, giving it an entirely new feel and more depth.

At some point I realized I was outgrowing Blogger. That realization coincided with my discovery of the entire Mommy/Daddy-Blogger community in January of 2007. I needed more features and more control over access to the blog. I also wanted something with a more ‘grown-up’ feel. I looked around and TypePad seemed to offer me exactly what I was looking for at a very reasonable price. Should the need arise; I’d be able to “Password Protect” the blog, something that was too hard to accomplish with Blogger. I also liked that I had access to edit the CSS in my template with TypePad which opened up more creative avenues for me. I ventured out and asked a few other bloggers about their experiences with TypePad and the feedback I got was extremely positive.

The first 6 months with TypePad were more of a “dating” period than the “honeymoon” period I expected. The TypeLists (their means of creating sidebar items, links, etc.) take a little getting used to, but once you figure them out, and how to design, manage and organize your blog, it’s pretty easy going. The “TypePad Knowledge Base” is an incredible wealth of information on anything and everything related to creating and maintaining a blog through TypePad. If you have a question about an aspect of blogging through TypePad, you’d be hard-pressed not to find it through the Knowledge Base.

I didn’t encounter my first stumbling block with TypePad until this past summer when they moved me to the new beta Next Generation Platform and then, literally, all hell broke loose. I really struggled with the new platform and was very vocal about not being at all happy with the changes that necessitated me using a different browser and then upgrading to a version of another browser I wasn’t as familiar with as I’d like to have been. When that subsequent upgrade caused all of my thousands of bookmarks to vanish, I went through the roof and very nearly moved the blog. I also couldn’t seem to use a lot of the new features that were built in to the new platform which saw the first of many trouble tickets sent to support. Seeing my “tweets” of distress, one of the TypePad/SixApart reps contacted me directly and acted as a liaison between myself and support to resolve my issues.

It was this direct contact with someone higher up in the TypePad/SixApart organization and the virtual handholding while we all tried to work out my issues with the new platform that kept me from bailing on TypePad altogether and made it clear to me that the emphasis was on the customer in their customer service team.

I can’t tell you how important this was and is to me, as the blog has begun to gain popularity, and I’ve decided to start running BlogHer ads, and with my first book scheduled for release in late summer of ’09, it was vital to me that I be able to rely on my blogging platform and the people behind it. I can’t tell you how grateful I was, and will be, for all of the help and time extended to me. Exemplary customer service is vital to me and needs to be part of any experience I have where the marketing and showcasing of my writing is concerned. It’s been nice to know that the folks at TypePad/SixApart take that as seriously as I do.

 

You can learn more about TypePad by visiting them on the web at www.typepad.com . I’d also be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about my experiences with the service. You can email me at iambarkingmad (at) gmail.com

What platform are you blogging on? What are its benefits or drawbacks? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below.

Spot On !

« Previous Page — Next Page »