Hi Brain,
We made it through another week. :) This one's been pretty hectic. You wouldn't
think 3 little hours of school would make that much difference... but it really does.
Balancing vs. Juggling
I recently picked up a copy of Mandi Ehman's (of Life Your Way) ebook. In
the very beginning of the book she tackles the concept of "balancing" your life.
This is a concept I've struggled with for quite some time... as you know I have
a tendency to lean "all or nothing", so the whole idea of balancing ~ a little here and
a little there doesn't really work very well for me.
I end up managing to "balance" things for a day or two and then things get all out
of whack again and I feel bad.
However, Mandi countered this whole "balance " concept with the idea of juggling.
In the beginning of something you have to spend a little extra time... you have to
gain a little momentum to get that thing off the ground.
Once it's off the ground it takes less effort to keep it in the air, which frees up
more time/energy for the next thing.
This concept was like a breath of fresh air for me. It allowed me to let go of
the whole insane notion that I could give the "same" amount of time/energy
to everything in my life so I would have "balance".
It gave me the freedom to spend a LOT of time on one thing at the beginning, and
less time on it later once it's going. This is true for Hanna ~ she took a LOT more
time/energy the first couple weeks of Summer... but now we're getting into a rhythm
that works for us. The Time to Shine Challenge then started taking up a LOT of time
to get it off the ground and find a rhythm. Now I'm started to get a handle on that,
and I'm sure another project will come in and fill in the gap of time/energy that's been
opened up.
Sure, I still spend time on all these things, but the time needed to keep them up in
the air, to maintain them is much less and more comfortable than that initial stage when
you just get going.
It's made all the difference for me to look at things in this way... a lot less guilt, and a
lot less time spent beating myself up because I've spent a LOT of time on this and
not the exact same amount on something else.
If you find "balance" a completely unattainable concept you might try juggling for a bit
and see how it fits. :) The rest of Mandi's book is just as wonderful and helpful. You can
read my full review and buy it here.
Which brings us to this week's juggling act. :)
On the work front:
Lots going on on the work front this week... with the big kick off of the Time to
Shine challenge I've been spending a lot of time on work.
We've started strategically looking at our brand, and what our site/business is all
about. And took some steps to build our brand from the bottom up.
We started looking at different ways we can "be everywhere" and started with
how to choose blogs and bloggers to connect with.
I did my first interview of the Time to Shine Interview Series ~ and nearly missed
it because Hanna had finally talked me into taking her to the pool. We were
half way there when I remembered I had an interview to do... phew. Luckily
my guest was still on the line when I came speed dialing to the call. (Don't worry
we made it to the pool after the interview lol).
I talked with Amanda Morgan from the site NotJustCute.com ~ which is a site
I absolutely love. We talked about how she's managed to build such a large
following for her blog in a short 18 months. We also talked about guest posting
and community. It was a really great conversation...even if I did start off
completely flustered :). You can listen in here.
This week I also added a new plugin to Internet Marketing for Mommies, and
will most likely be adding it to wahm life as well. It's called GASP (growmap anti
spambot plugin). I've been having terrible trouble with tons and tons of spam comments.
The comments are getting worse in some ways, and more human in others, so I
decided to install this plugin. Now you'll have to click a little checkbox before you
can post your comment. I felt like it was the least intrusive thing I could do to
keep them out and still make it easy for you to comment.
If this doesn't work I'm looking at moving to a third party comment system, like
Disqus or something... which I really don't want to do. So we'll see how this goes.
One last "work" thing. I read this post from Ash of The Middle Finger Project,
it's actually a guest post on Red Head Writing... I was stunned and speechless
for the rest of the day. Literally. It is an astounding story of how this amazing
woman went from homeless in the Kmart parking lot to making over 10K a month.
It's really a MUST READ!
On the Home and Kiddo front:
It's been almost as busy.
We've been doing a lot of swimming ~ in our own kiddie pool in the backyard,
as well as the big pool in town. I've pulled the patio table out to the backyard,
found our beach umbrella fits nicely through the center hole so I can have some shade
I've dragged extension cords out to the table so I can plug in Ryan's laptop. I never
really think I need a laptop until Summer comes around... then I'm irritated that the
one we have doesn't hold a charge in the battery. :) Definitely think new laptop
is on the list. :)
We cooked Hanna's first vegetarian meal ~ which was delicious. Ryan was out
harvesting wheat so we were able to sneak in a no meat meal. :) Here's the
recipe.
I found some fantastic things around the web this week. I posted them
all to the Fanpage... so if you haven't "liked" the page yet, you definitely
should!
Here's a couple of my favorite things though...
Lemonade Cupcakes in Mason Jars
I'm Bored Activity Cards ~ an excellent project we are probably going
to tackle this weekend.
I was thinking about gathering up all the links to fun summer activities
and what not, but now I don't have to. Mandi did it for me.
101 Ways to Embrace Summer. ~ Killer post!
Well... I guess that's about it from me. I've got a few more things on
my list to do today and then (since it's not 105 today) maybe we'll
get outside for an adventure.
Thanks for reading, and if you need anything, remember, I'm just a
reply button away and I love to hear from you. :)
Jackie Lee
www.InternetMarketingforMommies.com
www.ItsaWahmLife.com
648 W 90th St South , Wellington, Kansas 67152, United States
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