What would you do with a Million Dollars?

June 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment

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It was a beautiful night here in New England as my husband and I sat on the deck and watched the kids romp in the pool.  During our conversation, while looking at the projects around the house that needed to be completed, my husband asked what I would do if we won the lottery.

We watch it happen on the news a couple times a month, someone hitting the mother lottery and suddenly being a millionaire.  However, we aren’t lavish people, we just desire to be “comfortable” like most people. So here is my answer to the questions “What would you do with a Million Dollars?”.

First, I would pay off a majority of our debt, not that we have alot, but not having that mortgage payment would be very nice. Then I would finish this house that has been unfinished for longer then I want to admit.  Of course, we would want to make sure those closest to us are ok financially.

But here is where I came up with this idea, it struck me since I’ve recently started reading the work of Dr. Mani and his approach to supporting his dedication to children’s congenital heart defects with his internet marketing and information product business.

Starting a Foundation for Women in Need

The Foundation

Since my husband is a talented carpenter, I would love to buy a house that is in need of some love & attention, re-vamp the house and offer a few single mothers from the shelter the opportunity of a safe place for them and their children.  The stipulation? They learn how to start their own business and provide for their family.  You know as well as I, there are plenty of smart women out there that just need the tools, education, resources and support to be successful.  With their children in a safe, happy and structured environment  they are given the opportunity  to focus and take control of their life again.

I guess it breaks down to a form of a half way house for the dedicated and hard working that just got down on their luck.  This would be set up in a foundation and we would create one house and get the ladies going and hopefully we could create a chain reaction and create another one. We would just need enough money to buy and renovate that first house and support the families for the learning curve.

This combines so many areas that we are passionate about, adding value to a community, paying it forward and helping others, coordinating resources and teaching, adding to a local economy.

That’s what I would do with a Million Dollars.  What would you do? If you read this post, please leave a comment I would love to see what your desire would be.

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

HappySailorweb

June 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment


HappySailorweb

Originally uploaded by SpecialK8

I’m learning a new trick- for whatever reason my picture won’t post from my blog gallery so I uploaded it to Flickr and I’m posting this picture (including typing this comment) direct from my Flickr account… did you know you can do that? Boy, it’s so easy it took me less then 5 minutes from upload to post.

It even lets you choose the layout of the post and where the picture will be and after I post from Flickr I can always go back to my WordPress dashboard and add more text, html or links and fill out my plugin data. What do you think?

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

My Little Navy Man

June 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Our beloved nephew who shipped out to the Navy in Great Lakes at the end of March has now officially graduated his boot camp.  While he still has another couple years of training left, he did get liberty for his graduation weekend.  What did that sweet boy do?  He went shopping!  Well….of course, he ate and slept…but to my kids the most important thing their big cousin did was call them and get to talk to them (it’s nice having a close family) and sent home gifts.

Here is my three year old so proudly wearing his Sailor hat that he only takes off briefly when he sleeps.

Doesn’t he look like a poster boy?

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

Battle of the Day

May 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Yesterday was a productive day for me off line. I’m not sure but maybe the fact that my husband was home all day made me a bit more productive since I was being held accountable for getting my To Do list done. And of course, I couldn’t be on the computer since he hates that.  Of course, for some reason the kids had an awesome day playing outside all day- it’s great to know you can get something accomplished when your not playing referee 9 hours of the day although the husband then asks why I have such a hard time getting anything done….like they play that nice every day.

  • Three kids rooms cleaned and organized- do you realize how long it takes to sort Polly Pockets, American Girl shoes and Legos???
  • Laundry is completely caught up and put away. This is an accomplishment in itself since I have been out of detergent for four days and laundry from 6 people is enough to bury anyone.
  • Three closets cleaned out - winter clothes packed away and snow pants/mittens/hats washed & stored
  • The bathroom I use for our 4 Foster Kittens was washed down, disinfected and re-organized. They are getting so big I bet we will only have them for another week, two at the most.

The result? No stubbed toes, four bags of clothes for donation and three trash bags of stuff the kids won’t miss anymore.

What to do today?????

Okay, I’m posting to see if I can be held accountable to myself.

It kills me to be inside on such a beautiful weekend but things need to get done.

  • I need to figure out why half the images on my blog have up and disappeared…. out of the clear blue.. just jumped on and poof they were gone.
  • Why my theme doesn’t update my “About ME” because I’m finding that very annoying
  • Why my plugin for the footer gives me a fatel error message
  • Switch my wholesale form over to an aweber contact form with auto messages because I can’t keep up this manual work of emailing every body that wants information.
  • Finish Eben’s videos- I can multi task that with packing todays orders

Better get started!

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

Life Twist: Tribute to the Bunny

April 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment

My last post was about the small things the kids did to make me smile before it was even 9:30 in the morning. To show you how quickly things turn and change and show you just how unpredictable life is by 10:30 the house was in a pure state of chaos. The rabbit died.

A Little Life Gone

Not a pretty, go to slip him a carrot and he is quietly sleeping…. the frantic “MOM the rabbit is screaming and flipping all over his cage”. I don’t know what happened but poor bun bun had a series of seizures that he just didn’t recover from. Read more

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

Parenting Moments to Remember

April 23, 2008 | 1 Comment

This is a random post of appreciating the small things in life that make you smile.  It is only 9:30 in the morning and this has been the day of smiles for me:

First, I awoke before the kids. This might not sound great waking up at 6 a.m. but really, it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to wake up and start my day when my body is ready and not when I have someone kicking the side of the bed ready to go downstairs and have their breakfast as I pry my eyes open.  Best yet, I was able to take an shower without being a referee of shouting matches.

Second, I went to get the check on the baby again before going downstairs and I could hear her cooing and babbling from the hallway. I found her lying in bed with Taylor having cuddle time with her big sister and singing to each other. Soo sweet, maybe the eight year difference will lead to a very special relationship.

Next, the kids made their own pink pancakes and sausage. I told them I would clean the kitchen - if you can imagine what it looked like after three kids make pancakes..:))) IF they fed the animals.  The priceless comment, they wanted me to pay them $20.00 to feed the animals!  Serious?? I would feed all the animals in the neighborhood if they paid me that! Needless, to say, I fed the animals.

Finally, the icing on the cake at 9:30 this morning was watching all four kids hang out on the floor as we try to teach Drew (who is 6) to blow bubbles with his bubble gum. I know.. why would I want to teach my kids to blow bubbles? Especially at 9 in the morning? I don’t know, I went with the flow and everyone is happy and giggling and we are just enjoying down time. Taylor keeps blowing bubbles for the baby who is fascinated and watches so intense while licking her lips then leans forward and tries to lean forward and eat the bubble.

It’s the small things.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

Quiet Please

April 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment

School vacation is wrapping up here, and while I love having the kids home and the activity, I have to admit, my ears have a constant ring to them.

Between kids yelling, fighting, laughing while they play (the best sound!), video games, Hanna Montana ringing out her tunes, the toys that make noise long after the kids have stopped playing with them, the dogs barking, the calls for “MOM”, the phone ringing, the IM chiming, the people walking in and out of the house I can’t even hear myself think.

I’m not pleading innocent my own voice that feels like it’s working over time with the “who left…, pick this up, move this, keep your hands to yourself, be nice, if you don’t have something nice to say…”.

The little ones will go into withdrawal tomorrow when there isn’t as much activity.
I can’t seem to get away from noise and even after I put the kids to bed I find my husband putting on the T.V. in every room, even when he is not in it.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

A Typical Day of a Work at Home Mom?

March 12, 2008 | 2 Comments

Lego Queen

I haven’t finished writing the article I wanted to post today, but I can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted so something is better then nothing, right? I have so many friends ask how I balance four kids under the age of 8, work and life… people think I have it all together, boy do I have them fooled!

Here is what my day looks like today:

Up at 5:00 to feed baby. When she goes back down I start coffee and jump in the shower. While in the shower I prioritize my day and what needs to get accomplished, press releases sent out, laundry done, get out some Easter decorations….

6:00 all kids are up and I start to make breakfast and husband/kids lunches. I’m embarrassed to say, that this process takes a full hour because no one wants the same thing and when I pack lunches they seem to unpack what I pack because they don’t “feel like that today” so I have to re-pack with “what they feel like”. Oh yeah, feed all the dogs and cats and empty dishwasher that I started before I went to bed.

7:00 it’s the getting dressed shuffle and doing the final back pack check (can’t wait until we don’t need to fit snow pants & boots in those bags!)

7:50 Shoes and coats are on, pack the baby up in her snowsuit and we head to the bus. Today, the kids slept late so I decided to drop them at school so we actually didn’t leave the house until a little after 8.

Leaving the house today, one of the bunnies that lives in our yard was squashed in the road at the end of the neighbors driveway. Sadness….poor bun bun.

Morning Errand- take the babies to the hardware store looking for “something” that he wants me to track down. My luck, they don’t carry it even though I looked it up online (to avoid going through all this work) and they said they did.

Returning home I see that no one has removed the rabbit (even though all the neighbors sat at the bus stop most likely staring at it). So what do I do? Pull in the driveway, get the shovel and go pick up the rabbit. I bring it back to the house and dig a hole and bury it. This took approx 15 minutes and yes, my three year old watched. That’s life, you go in the road, you get squashed, lesson learned. He was happy it wasn’t his rabbit (that no one else seems to take care of but me…)

Home I jump on the computer for a quick email check. Jump to a couple Dlist blogs to post a couple comments for back links. do my post and check the RSS feed for news worthy of an article. I accomplish this in the half hour as the baby plays with her floor mat gym and Dylan has a second breakfast while coloring next to me at the counter.

That’s my day so far, here is what I “plan” on happening for the rest of day. Only tonight will I know if this is what actually happens.

Now, I will head up to the attic to pull out the Easter decorations with Dylan and then I’ll put him in charge of setting up some decorative baskets for the shelves. Then the baby will be ready a snack and a nap so I’ll feed her, put her in the car seat and we’ll head to the Library. While she sleeps and Dylan plays I’ll fire up the laptop and submit the Press Release to my goal of 10 outlets for this morning.

We will then walk from the library to the auto shop where I need to drop off a check and walk back to the library. Keeping my fingers crossed it has stopped raining by then so we can get the outside walk in.

We will return home for lunch and “quiet time” and I will run a couple loads of laundry while we eat lunch. Dylan will then play a game or look at books while I get my five articles written.

Fold and put laundry away and get after school snacks ready.

Get one kid off the school bus, give a snack then we need to pack everyone up to go pick the other one up from after school Cheerleading.

We will arrive home around 4:30, just in time to start cooking dinner. Kids will sit at the counter and complete homework while I cook and we will eat about 5:30. Then upstairs for showers, and family play time and reading. The kids go to bed about 7:30, although, with Daylight Savings time, this has been off a bit but we’re hoping to be back on track.

I clean up the kitchen, put the baby in her jammies and give her a last feeding (by the way, through the day she goes with the flow and is generally on my hip). By then the husband is home and will rock with her for a few minutes then puts her to sleep while I’m cleaning the kitchen.

Now, about 8:30-9:00 I sit down to do more of my work To Do list. I’ll work until about 11 go to sleep for a few hours and get up to work around 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. Go back to sleep from 4sh to 5:30 and TaDa, my day starts over!

There you have it, the schedule of a typical day for this work at home mom! After reviewing this I notice that my husband is not really mentioned… but really, he leaves to work at 7 a.m. and returns around 7 p.m. then eats his dinner while I have the kids upstairs getting ready for bed. He generally will come up and read a story but then takes over the baby duty while I clean the kitchen. I work on my laptop at the counter and he sits next to me and watches the kitchen T.V. and we talk as we go.

Yes, it’s distracting, that’s why I generally do thoughtless type of work like emails, keywork & niche researches, directory submissions, while he’s around and I save my “thinking” work for the middle of the night when the house is quiet and I don’t have someone pulling or yelling “I want” “I need” “mom” “did you”…..

It’s 5:30 and I hoped on to check for an email I was waiting for. Funny that I talk about my lack of sleep but the only way I can get anything done since I just read a post from WorkAtHomeMamma that goes into the details of  sleep patterns but more important, I know I’m not the only sleep deprived work from home mom!

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

Addicted to Wordpress Plugins

March 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I am getting really close to launching my first set of Special Reports and plan on providing a special page directly off my blog. Today I decided that my blog has become cluttered due to my addition to plugins and spent a great deal of the day trying to re-arrange.

Since I’m not a technical coder, more like a ” I think I know what that means, cut and paste” I was impressed with my ability to re-configure quite a bit of my sidebar. Then it never fails, just as I thought I was in the clear I saved and switched to the preview and there is was “ERROR” and both sidebars are missing.

I spent the next 45 minutes trying to trouble shoot and ended up backpedaling to the original file, copy and paste, start from scratch.

The Wordpress Update is next on my list, although I’m more intimidated by this due to the entire thought of actually deleting files. In a quick search I saw a Wordpress Automatic Update Plugin, perhaps I will attempt that first.

I loaded a couple new WP plugins today but had issues with a couple of them, one for Amazon the WP Sticky. Disappointing.

I am a plugin addict, here is a list of my current:

  • Akismet
  • What would Seth Godin Do
  • Buy me a Beer
  • YouTube Bracket
  • All in One SEO
  • Social Bookmarking
  • Google Sitemap-although I can’t get that to work yet….

I really want to figure out a good way of listing my new Special Reports easily- maybe a button on the sidebar linked to it’s own page?  I’ll keep cruising around blogs to see what I like from other people. Have a suggestion? Send it my way!!!

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

On the Hunt for Unique Birthday Gifts

March 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Maybe it’s just because I have four kids so I’m a bit “jaded” but does Glow in the Dark Bubble Bath not scream “TROUBLE”??

We have a full weekend of birthday parties.  While the kids are always excited about another party, I found the biggest downfall is picking out a gift for a child you have not met. You know the one that is in the same class, but you don’t know the child or family.

You walk thru the endless aisles of toys and not know what they have already or even what they like? So I started searching for unique Birthday Gifts.

That’s where I found the Glow in the Dark Bubble Bath… I don’t think there are too many parents happy about getting that gift, although I’m sure the kids would love it.

Here are a few other ideas:

Mail Just4Me- I love this idea- A birthday gift that comes every month and provides an actual activity not just a toy that will run out of batteries and get lost to the bottom of the toy box.

Custom Cookies- How fun are these? More expensive then I would want to spend for a classroom party, but could be a great option for a loved one. Plus, they are organic!

Nostalgic Candy - Woodstock Candy-While they have options for kids, they also have great birthday candy boxes for baby boomers when you need a unique gift.

Pajamagram- Who doesn’t love a new pair of fun jammies?

Glow in the Dark Pillowcase- ComfyCozy- Custom Pillowcases with themes, names and glow in the dark options. I try to keep a few of these in the house for last second unique gifts. Everyone loves this practical but fun gift.

The age of the child will always be a factor when picking out that special gift. I also find that how many children are in the house makes a difference. I was surprised at the fact that my third child skipped right over the “baby” toys because he was more interested in what the big kids were playing with.

You can also think simple gift- for a first birthday this weekend I went to the store and bought a beach set that came in it’s own beach bag and had a couple different pails and shovels. Everyone that has kids know that you can always use shovels and buckets since they get left behind or break and you can always use them.

Then I then added a couple fun and different bubble blowers, a couple books, little rubber ducks, a kite and soft Frisbee (knowing she had bigger siblings who could play with her). I know she’s not going to run with the kite but she will have fun watching it.  The beach bag made it’s own useful container to hold everything and tied it with a big bow on the handle.

This was an affordable and useful gift and gives you an idea how easily you can customize it. If it was for a boy, I would have added a couple trucks or if it was for an older child maybe a beach towel with their name on it or goggles and fishing net.

Head to the dollar store and pick up a basket of misc items and keep them in a box in your closet- kids love the little toys, coloring books, hair accessories and other small items you’ll find. Then you can pull from the box when a birthday comes up and make your own gift basket on short notice.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life 

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