Tuesday, March 20th is the first day of Spring! Hooray! Go and celebrate with a FREE Bloomin’ Onion from Outback Steakhouse!
Here’s what you need to do! Tell your server that you’re there to “Bloom Into Spring”. That’s it!
There are other coupons on their site also!
Happy Spring!
I am not a biker chick by any means, but find a recent development between a new social media networking site HarelySpace.com and the brand Harley-Davidson quite interesting, if not a bit confusing. You see, neither am I a paralegal, law student or lawyer. Having watched enough of ABC’s Shark Tank, I do know that trademark infringement is serious and big business and $$$$ to some.
The creators of MomnBaby.com created the new networking site and within two weeks of it going live they received an email basically asking them to take down the site and to stop said infringement. You can read all about the creators’ email here and Harley-Davidson’s email here and the creator’s lawyer’s letter here (pdf).
What do you think? Should they stop or is Harley-Davidson just exercising their corporate muscle to squash an up and coming popular site?
Would love to hear your thoughts!
It is always exciting to learn of a person who is doing what you want to do. In my case it’s work-at-home. I know, I know, I am doing that already, but let me finish. Work-at-home and make enough money to obtain financial freedom for our family. Those are my goals and have been during the last four years since my husband was laid off and earning less than he did. Carrie Wilkerson minces no words in her new book, The Barefoot Executive and how she reached her financial goals.
Carrie shares her own journey and the lessons she’s learned in this book. I pretty much marked my copy all up reading it because what she had to say is what I needed to hear/read.
Quotes I like from the book:
“You simply cannot spend your life in fear of losing your job, your health, your life or your wife. I decided that I had to create my own financial reality and job security. Was I afraid of failing? Yes, but I could continue being scared and broke, or I could be afraid and well paid. I chose the latter. At some point, you have to be more afraid of not trying than you are of failing. ~ Carrie Wilkerson”
“Never, never, never give up.”
“To live an extraordinary life, you must resist the ordinary.” ~ Frank Mckinney
“Most miss opportunity because it shows up in overalls and looks a lot like work.” ~ Ben Franklin
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci
Those quotes were just nibbles, I could add a slew more!
This past weekend I spent time going through Carrie’s websites, videos, blog etc. and I must say I was impressed. Impressed but still skeptical, but only because that is my nature. I am impressed because in some ways she echoes what I have heard in the past but Carrie has more credibility than the others. Carrie has made her money. She’s been on CNN, Forbes, Lifetime.com, Success and others. She’s established herself as an expert and I want to learn from her. There are not too many business books I go ga-ga over but I have gone ga-ga over The Barefoot Executive.
If you have ever been waiting, waiting, waiting for something and then it was all of a sudden right in front of you, wouldn’t you be in relieved? Excited? That’s me. I feel like this book was written specially for me at this time in my life.
You may learn more about Carrie and her book at http://BarefootExecutiveBook.com/
Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
Social media is a huge part of my life, mostly because it is what I do online. As a blogger being active in the social media world is a must, after all blogging is considered social media too. As a Virtual Assistant, well, what I do is what my clients either do not have time to do or do not know how to do it and for most of them it is social media. But what is social media? It is a place to network with friends, business associate or family over the internet. It is a place to do business, find leads, make referrals or even make sales. Social Media sites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and there are probably more but I am just too tired to think of them right now, as it is nearly midnight. These are big ones for my world.
Yet, I know people who do not use Twitter, much less know what it is. Then new social media sites like Pinterest come along and BOOM another way to connect online. Pinterest is becoming very popular because it is fun, easy to use and different. It is different in that it is all about sharing photos. I began using it a few weeks ago. Quite addictive if I do not limit myself to 15 minutes a day.
Today I learned about another new social media that launched in December of 2011, in beta since January and is now accepting new members. It’s called Zurker. I have only been able to sign up and take a quick look around. It has a clean look to it, doesn’t look as “busy” as Facebook but best of all it is owned by it’s members. There are no sign up fees so being a member costs you nothing but you can own vshares (or equity not stock shares) in it? What’s the catch? Nothing that I know of so why don’t you join me and we can find out together?! What do you have to lose? Again, nothing. That’s what I thought too. If you like Facebook, then you’ll probably like Zurker too.
I have a tendency to procrastinate over taxes, but this year I have been working hard to do better. I have been sorting my receipts, gathering my mileage logs, adding up my different streams of income and comparing them to my 1099s, plus getting my checkbook and PayPal ledgers either updated or printed off. There is a lot to do to get ready for tax time. I kind of miss the days when I didn’t have to do anything, my husband just took care of it all. But alas those days are over.
Over a month ago, maybe even less, I organized my office. Now, in preparation for tax season my office has got disorganized because I have been going through files and receipts for each business. I am a paper person so there are usually piles of paper here and there. However, I like my desk to be mostly cleared when doing important paper work so I can keep track of everything.
Another thing I like to keep track of is my pens and pencils. I found a nifty little lamp last summer at the thrift store with compartments to keep things on my desk more organized. That’s where I keep pens, pencils, erasers and sticky notes, etc.
We use a lot of pencils between business and homeschooling. During tax season it’s nice to have sharpened pencils on hand, but I discovered that ours had bit the dust and had to buy a new one. Nothing like having tons of pencils in the house and nothing to sharpen them with! Talk about maddening. There were a few different ones to choose from, but I bought the X-ACTO Spira pencil sharpener because I had a coupon. You can even see photos of my shopping trip here.
By the way, the new sharpener works great! Probably won’t be able to keep the children away from it. If you would like to learn more about X-ACTO products, please consider the following pages:
Elmer’s Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/elmers
X-ACTO Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/XACTO
Then have fun filing your taxes! Ha!
This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions expressed are my own.#CBias #XACTO
It’s a brand new year. A fresh start. A bright outlook…well, that is a matter of opinion and choice, isn’t it? For me, it is bright. I have faith in God’s awesome power and provision. I have confidence that 2012 is going to be a great year. And no, I have not always started a new year with such an optimistic attitude. But as DC Talk’s song Nu Thing states, “God is doing a new thing…”, I believe it and am determined to live by it far better than I have in the past. The past can drag us down. It’s always better to embrace change and new beginnings.
So what is new for 2012? Here are a few things on my list, don’t forget to share your own in the comment section:
No significant snow fall. We have had no significant snow fall yet this winter, which is a first. All we’ve had is snow flurries.
Weekends off. I took the last two weekends off, which is one of my New Year’s Resolutions. I tend to work, work, work and work so much that I turn myself into mush. Mush? My definition is of mush is that I just need to veg out. I veg out by reading or watching movies or taking lots of naps. Yeah, I do. I have made the mistake in the past by working all my weekends and I am determined to take more of them off this year. This won’t include classes that I will be assisting with or any events we will be vendors at because our essential oils business requires availability to a greater extent than my VA business or blogging.
A new certificate. Yes, I earned a new certificate. I was a new student to the NSC Defensive Driving Course over the weekend. Due to my car accident in October, I opted to take traffic school. It was my first time to do so, but I am glad I did. It was good to refresh my knowledge of the laws of the road etc. I actually did learn a couple of new things too. I also nearly fell asleep in certain parts….zzzzzz….
A new cell phone. My Blackberry died last week and I bought replacement on Friday night….an iPhone 4! I was eligible for an upgrade with my carrier contract and got a great deal. The iPhone is so cool, but there is a learning curve. Though I must say it is easier to figure out than my Blackberry was. My kids love my iPhone and most of my apps are free educational ones for kids! Yearning for an iPad now…..
A new camera. Woo-hooo! The unveiling of our new camera is coming tomorrow. My oldest is ecstatic to start her photography career. Our family now calls us the “paparazzi”. 
This camera is awesome! It is fun just clicking away! As our photography skills improve, a new camera will offer better quality photos for this blog, family memories, and hopefully open up other opportunities as well. My daughter and I are thankful for the paid opportunities the Lord brought our way in December to justify this purchase. Here’s to hoping and praying for more in 2012!
A new vehicle. No we haven’t found anything yet, but we have been slightly occupied with other things – holidays, work, getting our roof fixed and our gable put back up, my mother-in-law’s fall which resulted in a fractured shoulder and surgery last week. We are still using her car and the pressure is off to get it back to her now that she has been rendered immobile while her shoulder heals.
A new client. A couple of weeks ago I got a new client, which is looking like it will result in regular increased income, Lord willing. I am learning new things, which is daunting as well as exciting. This all came about because I had been in contact with a VA company months ago and because their business had increased they contacted me again to see if I was still interested!
So far those are the new for 2012 for our family. I am sure we will experience new adventures as the year goes on but this is a start….a mighty fine one if you ask me.
As many of you know, these days I wear many hats. Not only am I a wife and homeschooling mother to eight, but I also run two businesses, with a fledgling farm waiting to burst forth from the side lines.
It’s obvious that being a wife and homeschooling mother to eight is a full-time job in and of itself. Then why would I want to add a business…or two…or three…or four to that mix? It happened out of necessity nearly four years ago on January 3rd or 4th when my husband came home to say that he lost his job of 25+ years. What a shock that was!? It came out of no where even though we had been on shaky ground from the end of 2004 when my husband learned his boss of 24 years was selling the business. At that time we had no idea if we would even have a job once the sale of the business occurred and felt we had to do something as a back up plan… just in case.
Rewind a Few Years
I am going to let you in on a little secret, when I had three children three and under, I had a yearning to have a home business and have my husband home more to help out. Ha! It was hard work keeping up with my three little girls and all their needs! But by the end of 2004 we had 5 children and I had just experienced a pregnancy loss at nearly 20 weeks along. I wanted, needed something to help me survive the grief I felt. That is truly when we discovered that I was the “Idea Lady”. There was something inside of me that went into survival mode to keep our family afloat to survive the job loss. So we started an online Christian bookstore in early 2005, but obviously we were not the up to competing with the online giant, Amazon. We did keep at it for the fun and love of our treasured books, but finally close down shop in 2010 due to its lack luster sales and needing more time to grow our other businesses.
The Beginning of Unemployment
By 2008, we were expecting our seventh child when the layoff occurred. We had six months of unemployment and an extension. With the help and grace of God we embarked on starting our second business mid-2008 that would include both of us and use more of our skills and experience as Virtual Assistants. As you all know it takes time to build a business and while our little VA business did not bring in much to start, we were thankful for whatever work did come our way. Most of which came to me, not my husband. He picked up a few odd jobs here and there but nothing every panned out for very long. I also cleaned houses for a couple families to help offset our slow start.
Personal and Professional Growth
We both grew a lot, both personally, spiritually and professionally, while waiting for God to increase our income upon losing a good paying job that provided well for our family’s needs. But to be honest, by late 2009 we were very concerned, unemployment had run out, no jobs in sight and a family member was faithfully assisting us. So when my husband was offered his old position back, with less pay, for a new owner (the third one, if you aren’t keeping track) we felt we had to take it.
Recovering
We are still recovering from that nearly 2 year long period of being without a job, which is why I continue to work. Recovering from a job loss doesn’t magically happen overnight once a person does get a job. It has been an uphill battle. One we are still overcoming, by the grace and strength of God.
Business Today
Thankfully today between VA Clients, blogging and our essential oils business we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If you were a fly on the wall in our home you would see me online much of the day, emailing clients, writing, checking website statistics almost daily because not only are these stats important to our livelihood but that of my clients. Whether we are bloggers or other business owners, we all like to know how much traffic is coming to our website. There are companies like Omniture (Omniture.com) provide online businesses with website optimization tools necessary to make online marketing a success, which is very helpful.
We are grateful for the slow, but steady growth of our little online enterprises and the part they have had in helping us survive a job loss and slowly gain back the income we have lost.
Yesterday was basically down time. My second oldest daughter and I were out from 9:30am to 11:30pm on Wednesday. We did have one hour at home for dinner and to quickly nurse baby before heading back out again. We had two classes to attend and help “work”.
Then we had friends stop over for lunch yesterday and to do a Zyto Compass Scan, which is a service I offer for our essential oils business. But other than that it was down time.
Today was rather mellow too. Friends from our barn stopped by after dropping off our girls, as she has offered to take them to the barn as our schedules allow. Nice on days when I don’t have a vehicle.
Why is it after being busy I just want to zone out? Would it have anything to do with driving five hours on Wednesday and just being flat out busy for nearly a week? I don’t know I haven’t figured it out yet. But zoning is what I am doing!
Update on Oven
The oven part actually came on Wednesday, but do you think we can find the repair man’s card? So no chance of getting it fixed earlier if we cannot call them to reschedule the appointment! Arrghhhh! That’s what I get for leaving an itty bitty business card on the counter and going out all day so it gets lost!
Update on Vehicle
Still no vehicle. Not sure when that will happen. My husband looked at a used one last night and decided it was not for us. I think he plans to go out tomorrow to a local dealer who has some sale going on, plus following up with our car sales man friend.
Quiet Weekend
I am looking forward to a quiet weekend at home. I could have worked but I actually said, “NO”. We could have gone out to another event but I said, “NO”. The girls and I are planning to complete some sewing projects as they all need new skirts. Thankfully we were given some fabric, plus we bought some very inexpensively from someone getting rid of fabric out of her stash. We are going to play Christmas music and just enjoy being together while we create!
I am looking forward to baking up a storm next week! We miss baking. And a huge part of our Christmas traditions is baking. The aroma of baked goods filling the house, the music playing and munching on homemade snacks as we deck the halls and everywhere else brings us much cheer this time of year!
Enjoy your weekend!
Business
It was a busy four days and I only ended up working 3 of those 4 days due to my compassionate husband working the holiday craft fair for me yesterday! It was in my favor that he knew our 15 month old was really missing me too.
There was a Chicago Bears game yesterday so let’s just say the fair was not as busy as Friday or Saturday. I had as relaxing a day as I could with five children under nine (insert rolling eyes here ;-))
The business networking event and the weekend proved to be very beneficial and we met some interesting people. We are excited and grateful for the opportunities presented.
Appliance Woes Almost Fixed
We are still without an oven, at least for another week the repair man said, as he has to order the part. Hopefully it will arrive early and they can fit in an appointment earlier. How can I host a Cookie Exchange if I can’t bake cookies? I can’t, I know.
Christmas!
We are getting into the Christmas spirit around here and eager to decorate and get our tree! Just not sure how we are going to accomplish that since my mil’s car will not accommodate a tree. We took the children to cut down a live tree last year and it was such a memory making day that everyone is gung-ho to do it again this year. It was a neat family tree farm that offered fun activities for the children: candle making, wood carving, hot chocolate and more.
A Vehicle
A friend found a vehicle, we just have to decide if it is what we are looking for….beggars can’t be choosers but it is hard for us. Take on a car payment or not to take on a car payment? Buy an older car and have lots of repairs? Ugh….decisions like these are just not easy. Besides we have not even contacted our insurance to see what insurance will cost on the type of vehicle we are interested in getting. Everything costs money….
Home Life
Other than that same old same old. We cleaned the house today and did school. I worked. The girls and I are gearing up for a sewing spree hopefully starting on Friday. I have to wrap up some weekend stuff and have a couple of meetings this week before we can really get going on making some new skirts for the four girls.
Oh and if you are the praying kind, pray we find our camera. Odd request, I know but we think some little hands got a hold of it and left it in some obscure place in the house…hopefully still in tact. We need that for blogging and capturing every day moments of life so the children can look back in wonder and perhaps a little embarrassment too…..I can’t believe how many photos my oldest is embarrassed about when I was simply capturing a “moment”. Ah well, it was not my original intent to embarrass her, nor is it my intent with the rest either.
Yes, the weekend is here but it won’t be our normal relax and do whatever kind of weekend. This weekend is a working weekend. From Thursday to Sunday we have events for one of our home businesses and some long days. Thursday will be fun as it will be with people we know and only a few hours. However, 11am-9pm on Friday! Oy! 9am-6pm Saturday and we are working all day on the Sabbath 10am-5pm. (Insert squeaky “Please don’t judge us!” voice) Can you say I think I am getting too old for this? Not really, I mean every mother works 24/7, right? I am truly thankful for the opportunity to work this event with my older daughters. I am grateful to a supportive husband who stays home to watch our younger crew. I am indebted to my husband’s boss who allows him to maintain a flexible schedule for family’s needs. We are blessed.
We only have a few events left for this year and then my girls and I are planning a sewing fest, which is always fun!
All that to say that I may not have much time to post or if I do it may be short and sweet for the next few days.
A Rip Off
Oh and back to weekend events, last weekend we had an awful experience. We had signed up and paid for a holiday craft fair only to arrive to ZERO cars in the parking lot! We did discover two employee cars after we drove around the buildings and neared the front of the grounds. What a rip off! It was so disappointing and we have yet to hear from the state’s attorney about whether they’ll help us recoup our vendor costs….because of course the promotion company isn’t returning our calls!
On the bright side we commiserated over Subway sandwiches and enjoyed the weekend at home.
Hacked!
Another thing that happened to me in November is my email was hacked! Lost everything. Couldn’t believe it. I am surviving though.
How about you any rip offs, scams or happy weekend memories to share?
This was written Wednesday night, just so you know!
