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Writing Successful Blog Posts and Articles

Learn how to write successful blog posts and articles from a freelance writer. Attract more visitors with better content!

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You wouldn't believe the things others think about Work At Home Moms. What is the truth?

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Every mom hates the moment when they step on a lego...So how do you keep those toys organized?

Product Review Vs. Promotion

Are you properly reviewing a product or just promoting the product?

Mar 31, 2011

Kindercare Summer & Spring Camps! Fun and learning rolled into one!


My daughter has wanted to attend summer camp for a few years now.  Unfortunately, we have never been able to find a place that is educational, as well as fun.  I am one of those parents who won't just send her daughter to any camp to get them out of the house, I want her to learn something when she goes.  I never saw the fun in spending money for a camp that they just play, swim and do nothing all day.  My kids could do the same at home!

Mar 29, 2011

Tuesday Blog Hoppin'!

I barely got through Monday, but at least I made it.  Starting my diet (again) yesterday was great.  I actually loved the feeling of eating healthy and not having to worry about feeling fat, stuffed and disgusting from junk food.  I also made an amazing Chile Chicken recipe for lunch, which I am actually going to share later on today!  It was so delicious!  My mom & kids actually ate it, which says a lot!

Mar 28, 2011

Monday Mingle (text version): Couponing, iPhone apps and Music!

I want to vlog these questions, but I am going to have to do that when I get home.  Unfortunately, I got up early and had planned to do this early, but my kids woke up too and got me busy.  Alayna decided she hated the uniform I had picked out for her -- she didn't want the khaki jumper, she wanted the navy blue jumper.  I choose my own battles and decided that I would just wash her stupid navy blue jumper.  Ha!  On top of that, getting my kids to eat breakfast is a battle all in itself.  Got Alayna to school and had time before work, so I was going to go home and do Monday Mingle... Starbucks decided to give me a Macchiato instead of what I asked for... Such a mess!

Mar 27, 2011

Let's Get Social Sunday: Can't stand the disorganization!

I love bloghops lately!  Finding new sites and blogs that are interesting and awesome and meeting new moms/bloggers is definitely one of my favorite things to do.  So much fun! So I'm participating today as well!  Yay! 

If you're new to my blog, you can find a great wealth of information about me on the right sidebar. >> Maybe even more than you even wanted to know! (But you'll read about it anyway!)  I'm silly, smart, fun, a single mom, just turned 26 and trying to be a mom and a normal 26 year old at the same time.  It's not easy. :)

Mar 26, 2011

The Bottle / "Baba" Dilemma!

Alayna was such an easy going baby.  She lost the pacifier by the time she was 4 months old and before she was a year old, she shed her bottle as well.  She didn't want anything to do with being a baby, even at 11 months!  As soon as she could talk, she proclaimed herself a "Big Girl" and has been that way since.  Olivia is a different story...

She was great with the pacifier.  She quickly got rid of that by the time she was 4 months old; just as her sister did.  We're having a problem with the bottle.  I don't know if she finds it her security or she just likes to drink from a bottle because she can use it at bedtime (I know, I'm a bad mother if I give my child a bottle at bedtime)  but she just won't give up the "baba".  Trust me, I have tried numerous times.

Mar 25, 2011

Cupcakes and Speech Therapy

Olivia had her first speech therapy appointment the other day.  We had originally taken her back in October for an evaluation because she wasn't speaking at all.  Maybe 3-5 words were in her vocabulary.   I voiced my concern, because she was almost 3 and still could not speak an entire sentence.  Every child is different, yes, but Alayna started talking when she was 15 months and hasn't stopped since.  Due to that fact, I felt that I should get Olivia evaluated to see if she needed speech therapy or if it was just stubbornness and her not wanting to talk.  We waited 5 months for a call back and finally got one last week.


Mar 22, 2011

Why Do I Blog? How do I fit it in?

I saw this topic on another mommy blog and I thought I would blog about it too.  Do you blog as a hobby, business or do you want to make a living from it?

Actually, I have had a blog since 1999.  I was blogging before I was a mommy and before mommy blogging even really came about.  Back then, it was called "Personal Blogging" and "Cam Girls" were big. (2000-2004)  Not the slutty "Cam Girls" you see now, but in the definition of teenagers who had webcams and pretty much took pictures of everything along with captions. 

Mar 21, 2011

Miscellany Monday: Exhaustion, Clothing Swaps, Insane Weather and more!

I haven't done Miscellany Monday in quite a while and I did miss it!  Honestly, I love the fact that I can put different random thoughts in one post and not have to worry too much about how it flows.  Effortless; almost!  Anyone who knows me, knows that I am very random.  I can be talking about one thing and the next minute I will just come out with something completely unrelated.  It's hilarious (to my friends) and it's annoying to people who don't understand how I can be!  Miscellany Monday gives me a reason to be random.  So thanks to those @ Lowercase Letters who came up with a great idea!

Why I want to someday adopt...

Twenty six years ago, there was a little girl that was born to a mom with two other kids already.  This mom had placed a little girl for adoption two years before, since she couldn't take care of another child.  This mother made the selfless decision to place this new baby girl for adoption as well to give her a better life.  She knew that she could not take care of this little girl, as much as she wanted to, and it was the best decision to make.  It's a brave and selfless decision that is made with the heart.

Mar 20, 2011

Leopard Print Madness! My favorite items.

Working for a fashion website really has it's downfalls.  While assisting customers with items that they want to find, I usually find a wealth of items that I can add to my own personal "want list" and "wishlist".  I've compiled quite a bit, while working, and I'd love to share some of them with you!  This is going to turn into being a regular weekly post on our site.  We are always looking for sponsors who may want me to take a look at some of their products to be featured in our section, but most of the items I will handpick from things I love! 

Most of these items, I will never have!  Prices on some of these are absolutely insane, but they're things that I would buy if I had the money.  (Other items, I will actually save up for and use to reward myself for my weight loss!)  So, on we go!

I have been so in love with animal prints lately.  Leopard, Cheetah, Zebra, they're all trendy right now and something that I've become attached to! (Maybe it's a jersey thing...)  I already have a small collection of animal print items, which I definitely want to add to!  They're edgy and cute at the same time!

(Click Below to expand and see my favorites!)

365: A photo every day for a year!

I tried Project365 last year and forgot to take the pictures daily like I should have.  I'd love to blame it on being busy and the thought escaping me, but I think it was just laziness and not putting enough thought into remembering to take the pictures.  I'm determined to change that and I am going to start my Project365 all over again!  I'm going to use a new Flickr in order to post my pictures, and I will link them on the site too!  I'm excited.  Maybe I can brush up on some of my photography skills too.

Mar 19, 2011

The REAL Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Shopping Addiction - I don't know that it's an actual illness/disease, but it is an addiction.  It's one that is very close to that of a drug addict or alcoholic; a shopping addict or shopaholic.  They definitely do exist and I am living proof!  I am here to tell you that is is just as damaging and just as debilitating! 

Not actually remembering when the addiction started bothers me.  When I was younger, of course I wanted every toy there was, but I learned the value of what I had.  We were a middle class family and since I was adopted, my mom spoiled me rotten.  I didn't get everything I wanted, but I got my fair share of things that were on my "want" list.  A lot of the kids in my neighborhood envied me because of how my mom spoiled me.  Of course, that meant that I always had to bring my toys out for everyone to play with.  I hated that, as did my mom!  But I digress...

Random Thoughts...

This post is going to be very random, but just things that I thought of throughout the day and jotted down.  Today was definitely a very lazy day.  I worked my full time job from 2pm-10pm, but that's about all I did do!  I had to take off from my morning job because Alayna was sick and stayed home from school.  We thought Olivia was getting a stomach virus too, but she seems to be ok now.  Maybe it was all that yummy ice cream cake yesterday! :) 

Mar 17, 2011

HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

Today, March 17th, is my 26th birthday!  I was born March 17th, 1985 at 11:59 PM.  Yes, very close to March 18th!  Technically, I have less than a minute left of my actual birthday!  I'm Italian and Polish and born on an Irish holiday!  Who cares, I love my birthday!  Even though I was born today, I didn't go home to be with my mom (adoptive parents) until April 19th. 1985.  So, I technically have two days that we celebrate within a month of each other!

Mar 16, 2011

Light bulb off for Easy Bake oven in 2011?

My daughter got an Easy Bake Oven this past Christmas from Santa.  She absolutely loves it, and has already made me a "birthday cake" and many other goodies with it.  We got it for her because I remember the fun I had with my own Easy Bake Oven as a child!  Of course, mine wasn't as sleek and modern looking as this one is, but then again, that was the 90's! ;) 

Mar 14, 2011

AWESOME iPhone App: Mercury Browser

I love searching for apps for my iPhone and absolutely love to search for apps that make my life and business easier.  While browsing through the app store, I found something called Mercury Browser.  

The icon looked eerily the same as FireFox, but I thought to try it anyway.  I've tried numerous browsers for my iPhone and Droid and found nothing that really worked as well as I hoped it would work.  When I am doing something for my blog or for work, I need the data fast and a lot of browsers don't load as fast as I would like.  

Mar 12, 2011

Hurricane Olivia and Alayna, Overwhelmed with the mess!

My girls thought that it was a novel idea to completely trash their room last night.  Well, actually, they were trying to play "department store" (Yeah, my kids are learning the good stuff from me - Shopping addiction how to shop smart.)  By the time I got off from my second job last night, I was absolutely exhausted and had no strength to actually go in and clean up.  I did try to get them to clean their room, but for some reason whenever I suggest my kids cleaning their room, it's like my suggesting that they take medicine, or eat veggies, or walk through a field of bumble bees... Yes, it's that torturous to them.  So when I walked in their room and saw what looked like a hurricane, tornado and every other natural disaster hit the room, I turned around and walked right back out.  Working two jobs, making dinner in between, packing Olivia's "daddy weekend" bag -- It was all too much and totally exhausted me.  I put that cleaning off until this morning.

Mar 11, 2011

Got picky eaters? How to get them to eat.


My 5 year old claims she likes salad and vegetables...

That usually consists of maybe snacking on 2 baby carrots and a few leaves of lettuce out of her bowl.  Sometimes with French dressing, sometimes just plain...  That is her view of a salad.  She claims to her teachers and her friends that she eats healthy -- That would be her opinion of "healthy".  

Both of my kids are very picky eaters.  Their meals are very predictable.  Once they wake up my oldest usually eats toast, waffles or pancakes before she goes to school.  Usually.  There are days where she just doesn't want to eat and breakfast is a battle.  Occasionally I win the battle, but more often than not I end up just packing her more of a snack and send her off to school.  Battling with your kids is exhausting and sometimes you just have to pick your battles.  

If she's going to have a snack at 10:30 AM is breakfast that important?  Well, yes, but I justify it to myself so I feel better about packing her a heftier snack. (Which most of it usually ends up coming home anyway.)  

My youngest usually has a bowl of cereal, waffles or pancakes for breakfast.  She is a great breakfast eater and will eat quite a bit, but put eggs on her plate and she'll complain to high heavens about having some protein on her plate.  (They will eat bacon.  Yum, fatty, fried artery clogging bacon.)



Mar 7, 2011

Stay-at-home moms are lazy?

While at work (haha) I was browsing through some blogs and saw this post by http://herbadmother.com/2011/02/they-said-shut-up/.  She brings up some valid points that I have thought about many times before.  There are so many people who frown upon being a stay-at-home mom.  Trust me, I have been in the middle of that argument before.  When my oldest was born I had been thinking about being a stay at home mom for as long as I possibly could.  I was criticized and put down about spending time with my daughter (how dare I!!) from many colleagues, friends and even family members.  I was told that with my smarts and my education, why am I going to waste my talents being a stay-at-home mom?  

Mar 5, 2011

Expulsion, Termination and Compensated Blogging

Occasionally, mommy bloggers will get a bad rap for many reasons.  Some say we are too demanding, others say we should not get paid for our hobby and some even say that we neglect our children in order to either get good "material" for our blog or to spend hours on our blog.  None of which is true!  There are also mommy bloggers getting fired from their jobs or even children getting expelled from school because of innocent things bloggers are saying.  Is this a reasonable reason for expulsion or to be let go from your job?  Not unless the things being said are damaging to the children involved or something fiercely damaging to the job or employer. With some of the stories I'm hearing, parents are being penalized for writing such innocent stories about their children, about school functions or even a simple statement about their job.  To me, it's absolutely absurd!  True, there are some people who do not understand blogging or even the internet, but they are making rash decisions without even consulting with the parents or employee.  There was one story I recently heard, where a pre-school aged child was expelled for her mother venting about an ordeal she had gone through at her daughter's school.  The mother wrote nothing damaging and she did not name any names or specific places.  Blogging is for venting and is an outlet for emotion and writing how you feel.  Just as an artist paints or a musician sings or composes music.  If we can't write about how we feel and if we can't let our emotions out through our writings on our personal domains, how can we do it?