Another WAHM motivation

My two oldest daughters are starting to play softball again! Like I said before, I had forgotten how much fun it is to see them practice and play, to learn and grow. This is one of the other reasons I want to be a full time WAHM ~ so that I can go to any sports event they have. Eventually, they'll probably get a chance to travel ~ I want to go too! I'm glad they are excited about the new season.

My six-year-old is getting more and more coordinated so she's getting better at the basic fundamentals of throwing and even catching. She had so much fun yesterday just learning how to throw. I'm so glad she likes playing because I want her to play, but I also wouldn't want to force her since she's already given it a try by playing last year.

My oldest daughter was worried about having to move up an age division. They will no longer use the softer, "incredi-ball" type ball, but a regular "hard" softball. She was worried that the girls throw harder and she might get hit with the ball, but after these first two practices, I think she realizes that she can handle it and is getting more and more comfortable so that's cool.

Anyway ~ I've got to go for now. Got a pamper to change ~ Mom duty calls. I'll be around later.

Traffic is back

I'm not talking about website traffic. I'm talking about regular traffic. Now that the Christmas break is over, I'm hitting traffic on the way to work. What a bummer. On top of that, they are doing construction and building a high rise where our parking lot used to be so the parking situation stinks. *sigh* ~ Every day I drive to work, I'm reminded of why I don't want to have to go there all the time. I am down to 2 days a week so I shouldn't grumble. I still don't like traffic though!

How to be a Good Wife, the WAHM Version

I saw this article at www.LadyPens.com which is a site that has free re-print articles written by women. I wanted to share it because I like the husband tips. I know when I was a full-time SAHM, I didn't do the things suggested in this article. Now that I also work outside the home, I have to say, while I wouldn't have thought of it myself being a SAHM, I totally understand it as a person who also works outside the home. Some of the other entries in the article just made me smile. Hope you enjoy them too!

How to be a Good Wife, the WAHM Version

By: K.C. Gagne

Have you seen the famous article "The Good Wife's Guide" from Housekeeping Monthly, 13 May, 1955? This is almost identical to the legendary textbook lesson that Snopes.com reports as "undetermined" in authenticity. Fake or not, either version is amusing to read. Here is my WAHM version:

1. Have dinner ready. Do your best to have a warm meal on the table for your family at a reasonable hour. If your schedule allowed time for a fresh home-cooked dinner, great! Your husband will certainly appreciate the fact that he "lets" you stay home to take care of everyone. When you just don't have time to cook, grab from one of the frozen double-batched meals you made over the weekend for this type of dilema. And if worse comes to worst, call out for pizza!

2. Prepare yourself. Grab a wine glass and fill 'er up! It's been a long day and you need to relax and take a break before the evening shift starts.

3. Clear away the clutter. Close the laptop or shut off the PC. Stack and remove the papers from the kitchen table or counter top. (You need someplace to eat that warm meal.) Pick up some of the toys that are sprawled all over the floor. Make it look like you didn't just spend the entire day sitting in front of the computer monitor.

4. Prepare the children. At least know where they are and what their homework is.

5. Minimize all noise. Heck with that! Turn on the radio or CD. The music will help you keep moving while clearing away the clutter.

6. Some don'ts: Don't turn on the TV. Don't sit on the couch. You've worked too hard for it to look like you sat on the couch eating Bon-Bons all day.

7. Make him comfortable. Meet him at the door with a hug and a kiss. Appreciate him for dealing with the 50+ hour work week and for his long commute. Then have his children hug him while you make a break for it and leave him with the kids.

8. Listen to him. When he finally breaks free from the kids, before you start informing him of the chores you've done and what the children got into, let him tell you about his day. Even though you have no interest in hearing about the corporate blabber, pretend you care. It will make him feel important.

9. Make the evening his. Let him go do his thing. After all, you have to get back to work and finish the things you couldn't get done with your preschooler wrapped around your leg.

10. The Goal: Try to make it appear that you have it all under control and that you being at home is the best thing for everybody. It is, isn't it?

11. My One Addition: Make sure to spend some time with your children and husband instead of just working all the time. Don't forget your "why".

Article by:
K.C. Gagne is the "modern day June Cleaver" pretending to have it all under control with her website about life balance for the work from home mom.

Softball stuff

My coaching season is coming to an end soon. This week is play-offs for our conference. We are the defending conference champs, so hopefully we can get back to that championship game. If we do, we'll also have a spot in next week's state tournament. After that the season will be done.

My daughters, on the other hand, just had their very first practice for their season! One ends and another starts. I forgot how much fun it was to watch them play. I'm looking forward to seeing them learn and grow this spring! :)

Affordable WAHM Marketing Resource

Just wanted to share a resource I recently found out about. This is something I am going to purchase for myself. Article marketing is something that I've found very useful for traffic to my websites. Basically you write articles, submit them to other website or article directories and you include relevant links to your site within the article or at the bottom in a byline.

This does two things:
1. Gets people to your website by giving them good information in the article ~ they want to click on your link.

2. Creates incoming (one-way) links to your website. This is something that search engines, especially Google, like to see. The more one-way links you have, the better for your search engine rankings.

Easy Article Marketing is a tool that will help you with this even if you are NOT a writer. For me, I've already begun writing articles without this tool, but it takes time and a lot of thought. Easy Article Marketing will provide the tools to make this process easier for me. One thing I always have a hard time with is thinking of something to write. Easy Article Marketing will help me choose topics to produce useful and interesting articles and help me with that writer's block.

I'm looking forward to using this new resource. Once I get it, as usual, I will post my personal opinion/recommendation on it.

To check it out for yourself, just click on the banner below.

I don't like weddings

LOL ~ actually, I do like attending weddings, but planning them ~ ugghhh! What a pain. My SIL got married yesterday. She had a big wedding party 23 total counting groomsmen, bridesmaids, flower girls, and ring bearers. There were 400 people on the guest list for a back yard reception. Seeing all of the different aspects that need to be coordinated and overseen made me realize one thing ~ when my 3 daughters get married, we are getting a wedding coordinator!!!! Yes, it may cost more, but I want to be able to enjoy the experience and having to stay on top of all the details to make sure everything is in order is just toooooo much stress! Of course, it'd have to be a really good wedding coordinator....maybe I should start looking now. My oldest is 9 yrs old ~ if she gets married at the same age I did, she'll be married in 10 yrs! *sigh* ~ hopefully her timeline is a bit more delayed than mine. My SIL and her now husband almost went without a videographer ~ she really wanted one and although the expense was a concern, I'm so glad she insisted on it. They finalized the videographer on Monday for her Saturday wedding and the result was priceless. The video shown at the reception was unbelievable! The company did such an excellent job. I didn't cry at the ceremony, but that video brought tears to quite a few eyes. It was so beautiful! What a great keepsake for them to have for their special day.

Against much "advice" my SIL also insisted that the guys be dressed in ivory. Another great choice ~ the men looked stunning! My husband was in the wedding party ~ he looked so handsome. I was also in the wedding party and it was a treat for DH to see me all done up. I'll have to get copies of the pics the photographers took of the two of us. Maybe I'll be able to post one here.

Anyway ~ there was quite a bit that did not go as planned, but it was still an beautiful day and a beautiful wedding.

Yes! AdSense looking good!

After two slower-than-I'd-like months, my AdSense is looking awesome again! I'm definitely on track to earn a check this month! I really feel my outsourcing paid off. That's so exciting. I'll have to do more outsourcing for sure!

Traffic to www.AllAboutFastpitch.com is looking great ~ 1030 unique visitors already this month and we're not even half way through the month. At this pace I'll certainly best the previous high from December of 1843!

Our dog site www.808BluePitbull.com already has over 1300 unique visitors for the month!

So traffic to all sites is definitely increasing. Now I just need to figure out how to better monetize that. Back to MM to do more research on "Websites that Sell".

Sudoku Follow Up - Where to buy

Just as a follow up to my "I'm hooked on Sudoku" post. I'm now finding out that more and more I'm having to print out puzzles from the computer because I want to do them away from home or in other areas of my house besides on the computer.

I'm now seeing the benefits of buying a sudoku book to be able to take with me wherever I want. So with that in mind I went to Amazon and found out that they have tons of sudoku items. They have books, they have software, and they even carry small "take it with you" electronic versions of the game! See some of the examples below of the type of selection they carry. For more information, click on one of the links and do a search for sudoku at Amazon.

Excited ~ getting 1st WC issue!

I'm so excited! I should be getting my very 1st issue of The WC News soon! It's a print newspaper for the Work at Home Community. Can't wait to get it. I'll be sure to post my thoughts once I do get it! Click on the banner below to learn more about The WC News or to subscribe today!

It looks like they still have their Christmas Special going on which means that you can buy one subscription and get a 2nd FREE (great gift for another WAH pal)!

OT - I'm hooked on Sudoku

Now when people ask me what I like to do for fun I can add Sudoku puzzles to my list. Maybe you already know about these, but I just learned about them about 2 weeks ago and finally got to try it for the first time a few days ago. I love it!

It's almost like a crossword puzzle with numbers. It's a grid with 81 squares (9 X 9). Each column, row, and 3 X 3 section has to have the numbers 1-9. Each puzzle starts off partially filled in then you have to do the rest. I love the challenge!

My favorite place to play online is www.websudoku.com. They allow you to choose your level of difficulty, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Evil. You can also print the puzzles out. So sometimes I'll print out two copies of the same puzzle and DH and I will race to see who can get it done the fastest. The first time we did that I got my butt whooped, but I got him back so now we're even. :)

Anyway ~ if you like a mind challenge ~ try Sudoku. Again, there are free games online at www.websudoku.com ~ I think it's easier to do on paper because you can write little notes, but it's cool to be able to do it on the computer too. I also found out that I can download this game to my Palm Pilot ;).

Final Count

Wow - I'm very pleasantly surprised at my stats for the month of December. The final count for unique visitors at www.AllAboutFastpitch.com was over 1800! Yippee!

For www.808BluePitbull.com ~ our stats were looking bad. After a great 2nd month online, our numbers were getting weaker and weaker and it looked like December was going to follow in that path. However, about the 11th of the month, we began working on the site to keep our numbers up and I'm excited to say that the 2nd half of the month was awesome! December was also the record high so far for www.808BluePitbull.com with over 1200 unique visitors! The high before that was under 1100 so that's very, very cool!

Now, I just have to apply this same type of effort to www.my-custom-silicone-bracelet.com and I'll be on a roll! That is one of the top things on my "To Do" list for the first half of January. This is important because even with the limited number of visitors to the site in December, I still had an increase in # of sales. So I know that if I work at increasing traffic it'll be a worthwhile task!