Archive for March, 2008
March 22, 2008· Filed under Reflections
My good friend Wendy has an expression – it has something to do with challenges, hard decisions, and new ideas – its called “renting space in your head.” There has been something that has been renting too much space in my head lately – and that is the purpose, direction and function of this blog.
When I first started this site 18 months ago, it was the “personal” side of my professional blog, Essential Keystrokes. I picked the title Casual Keystrokes to reflect that, however, I was new to blogging and didn’t really have much of a plan. I thought I would I talk about parenting, balancing working from home and life, and anything else that came to mind.
For a while it really worked, but as I learned more about niche marketing, blogging, and making money online, the harder it has become to define this site.
This week the issue really started taking up head space and became a source of distraction. I consulted two of my mastermind friends to talk things through.
Gayla had a fantastic idea (which I am going to keep to myself for now) that involved rebranding this site, giving it a new focus, and giving it potential for growth. I may pursue this direction in the fall.
Wendy, on the other hand, listened to me talk about some of my other web properties and the opportunities they hold in the near term and gave me completely different advice. Knowing that we only have so many hours in the day, she advised that I scale back my posting here and kind of let this site coast for awhile so I can free up head space to focus on the opportunities at hand.
And while there is part of me that feels an obligation to keep this site going (it has a PR5, afterall), the opportunities over the next 6 months are just too good to let slide by.
I know I have quite a few regular readers – I really value our relationships – so I would like to invite you to join me at some of my other sites. Don’t feel like you have to visit them all – just what interests you. Here is where you can find me:
- Essential Keystrokes – Monday Motivation will be moving to my professional blog, along with more posts on working from home, running a business that is based on the Internet (web design, affiliate marketing, blogging, technology trends), tips, tutorials and social media.
- Weary Parent – Once I got my B5Media gig at Weary Parent, I found that most of my parenting stories, advice, and thoughts started going there. My co-author, Christine, and I talk about a HUGE range of topics for parents who are dealing with the challenges and joys of raising our tweens and teens. Never a dull moment over there – I promise!
- Raising a Healthy Family – Menu Plan Monday, recipes, ideas for green living, my weight loss journey, and the daily drama of cuts, scrapes, sniffles and other childhood ailments are just some of the topics I deal with at Raising a Healthy Family. Yes, I could deal with all of those topics here, but the domain name and focus just isn’t as good.
- Sports Girls Play – I have 20+ years experience coaching girls gymnastics, three athletes under one roof, and am a huge advocate of kids sports. With the Olympic games this summer, I really plan on ramping up the site even more. Also, if you are parent of an athlete and would like to share stories, pictures or advice, just let me know – I’d love to get more viewpoints.
- Doll Diaries – We are having a lot of fun on this niche site these days. The focus of the site is everything dolls – from American Girl to Barbie and everthing in between. With the first American Girl movie coming to the big screen this summer, I know this site will be hopping!
- Printables4Kids – My fun site for free printable activities for kids (most of which I create) is really taking off. I am working on a redesign for the site, pursuing some exciting sponsorship opportunities, and getting even more great activities ready for those long summer months ahead of us.
I won’t abandon this site completely, but I am not going to be posting here nearly as often as I had before. It has been a really tough decision to make, but I just needed to evict this conflict from my head.
If you have read this far, you deserve a big hug!! Thanks for your support and understanding. I look forward to continuing our relationship on another one of my sites.
March 21, 2008· Filed under Casual Friday
Happy Friday everyone! Today is the first day of Spring Break for my kids and they are already enjoying some well deserved down time.
Have you already had Spring Break or is it coming up? Or are your kids too young for school anyhow? Are you going anywhere exciting or do you have any fun plans for spring?
Our next few days are planned but still have plenty of room for relaxation. This afternoon I have to go to a funeral – sooo sad. One of my daughter’s teammates (who is 9) lost her Dad this week. He passed away at the very young age of 45 and we are all still in shock.
Tomorrow is the end of season party for the ice hockey team. The whole family gets to skate and there will be a pot luck dinner so we know everyone will find something they like.
Sunday we will go to my Brother’s house for Easter dinner and a big egg hunt for the kids. For the past 10 years we have done this at my parent’s house but they are out of town this year. The good news is, the hiding spots will all be new and it will be more challenging for them.
Next week we will play it by ear. We still have our regular sports practices, but I think we are going to take a day and go to Busch Gardens or Hershey Park with the kids.
If you need some last minute Easter inspiration, I have posted at list of Easter basket filler ideas at Weary Parent and Printables4Kids has tons of great Easter printables.
What are your plans for this holiday weekend (and spring break)? How was your week? Join the conversation – I’ll be in and out all day.
March 17, 2008· Filed under Monday Motivation
We have a new kitten in the house and I feel like I have been taken back in time to the days where I would work on the computer while one of my babies slept on my lap. Fritz the 4 month old kitty has already taken one nap on my lap this morning and he is so entertaining, I’ll be lucky if I get anything done. And speaking of distractions, the kids will be out of school Friday and I have quite a few errands to run this week, too.
So, how to you run your business when faced with all of life’s little distractions? It’s simple!
- Prioritize
- Plan
- Eliminate the distractions you can control (IM, Twitter, etc)
- Hold yourself accountable
This week will be a challenge, but I plan on:
- Meeting with my (hopefully new) accountant
- Finishing a site design for a new client
- Finishing the client updates I didn’t finish last week so I can enjoy Spring Break next week
- Cleaning my office – down to the file cabinets
- Working on the new Printables4Kids layout
- Optimizing ads on all my sites
And what if I don’t get it done? Well, I might just have to extend the same incentive that I did at Wendy’s last week. If I don’t get it all done, I will design a 125×125 ad banner for one lucky commenter and offer up a month’s worth of ad space for that banner on one of my websites (winner’s choice). In order to be eligible for this payout, should I lose steam, you have to comment on this post or link to it via your own Monday Motivation post.
March 16, 2008· Filed under Family
A few months ago the girls favorite kitty died and they have been asking for a new one every day since then. My husband promised to take them to the kitty adoption center this morning and they came home with a spunky, 4 month old, orange tabby named Fritz.
Fritz is playful, curious and very entertaining already. Something tells me this is going to be one very loved kitty! And something else tells me he is going to provide me with many LOLCAT photos!
March 16, 2008· Filed under Family
Friday after school, I decided that something had to be done – I couldn’t face the weekend with a totally messy house (and the cleaning ladies don’t come until next week), but looking around I realized that most of the mess was created by my three kids. I wanted them to help clean up, but know from experience that there is the hard way of getting this accomplished – screaming, yelling, demanding, and general dictatorship – and there is the easy way!
The secret is MAKE IT FUN! I devised a plan and when all was said and done, it took us about 2 hours to really make this house shine. 
The Ingredients:
- A timer
- Strips of paper labeled with each room you want cleaned (we have done this with actual tasks, too)
- A bowl
- Some fun music
- A mystery/reward
The Plan:Â
We started by having my youngest daughter pull a slip of paper out of a bowl – this let us know where we would start. Once we knew the room, my oldest set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes and my middle daughter picked the tunes on the iPod. We all headed to that room and started picking things up, putting them away, wiping down surfaces, and getting the room clean.
When the timer went off, we stopped - no matter where we were in the process. I added a twist to the fun. As a reward I had planned on letting the kids get a movie off Pay-Per-View and having a family movie night, so I gave them a clue for the reward. I have never seen my kids so excited to get something done (especially my 6 year old who normally refuses to help with anything)!
After the 20 minutes was up, everyone got 5 minutes of free time before we started the process over with a new room. I switched up who got to pick the room, set the timer, and pick the music each time so that the kids felt like they were in charge.
You would be amazed at how easy this was and the kids were so proud of their work. I even overheard one of them reminding the other to pick up something in the bathroom because we had just worked so hard to make it clean!
With spring break right around the corner, I will be pulling out the Chore Chart again as a warm up for summer vacation!
PS – we watched The Game Plan as our reward. It was such a cute movie and totally appropriate for a family movie night!
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