Tips for WAHMS

9-11...Today we stop...we remember....we say "NEVER AGAIN!!!!"

When you are a work at home mom, things can get kinda hectic. So, it's important that you learn how to survive. Here are some tips from one work at home mom to another that will help you to preserve your sanity.

Tip #1 - Learn Quick Cooking - Learn how to come up with quick meals for your family. This could include looking for quick recipes or even making extras a few nights a month so you have some meals frozen to pop out when you get particularly overwhelmed with work.

Tip #2 - Try to Help Other People - Work on helping others. When you do so, it makes you feel better and also reminds you that your problems and challenges aren't all that bad.

Tip #3 - Keep Yourself Healthy - It can be easy to forget about staying healthy when you work at home. So, take some time out to go for a walk, go to the gym, or play outside with your kids to burn off some calories and improve your health.

Tip #4 - Stay Organized - If you stay organized, you'll save a huge amount of time. Clear your desk, organize your email, and come up with innovative ways that you can stay organized and save more time. Remember, time is money.

Tip #5 - Use Great Time Management - Time management is imperative. Make sure that you prioritize your time to get important tasks done. Remember, you want to spend as much time as you can with your family, so manage your time accordingly.

Tip #6 - Take Time for the Family - Take time for your family - your kids and your husband. Take time for games, meals together, and special time for you and your husband.

Tip #7 - Laugh Every Single Day - Laughing is so important and it will help you keep your sanity as a work at home mom. Look at cartoons, read something funny, or just find something to stimulate that laughter. It is healthy for you and you'll feel better for the rest of the day.

Are you interested in this years election? As a work at home mom, you should be. Believe it or not, work at home moms are an important group of voters and your vote could make the difference. It's important that you take the time to learn more about the election, the candidates, and where they stand on all the issues.

So, for all you work at home moms, I've started a new blog that I'm truly passionate about - one of the left behind conservative women out there that are interested in learning more about politics. I'll give you the political information from the conservative standpoint of a work at home mom, highlighting issues that are important to women.

If you're ready to learn and get your political information, then take time and visit my new blog:

American Politics for the Conservative Woman

If you're a work at home part, particularly in the freelance writing business, finding more gigs is always a concern. Well, I'm going to share with you one of the bests tips for wahms that freelance.

I have found a great site that you may not be aware of that actually does the job searching for you, and every day of the work week, brings you numerous job opportunities that you can apply for. For work at home moms that don't have a lot of extra time, this is a life saver.

Wondering where it is....

Here's the link: Freelance Writing Gigs

Not only will you find great jobs, but tips and articles that will enrich you as a writer as well. Since this has been one of the sites that was key in helping me develop my freelance writing career, I wanted to share it with you all. Who knows, it could help you too.

Confession #1 - I hate getting up early, I just pretend to like it.

Confession #2 - It's not as easy as it looks.

Confession #3 - Sometimes I just want to take the day off and go to the beach.

Confession #4 - I occasionally forget there is a real world out there.

Confession #5 - I don't really like washing dishes.

Confession #6 - I should have invested in the earplugs.

Confession #7 - Yes, I procrastinate from time to time. (Usually it's to do laundry or go grocery shopping)

Confession #8 - Sometimes I work all day and never get any work done.

Confession #9 - I've decided cleaning is exercise.

Confession #10 - I feel guilty when I tell people no.

Confession #11 - Occasionally I lose my cool.

Confession #12 - I love school....I mean the kids going to school.

Interested in becoming a work at home mom or perhaps you already are one and you sometimes find yourself wondering how to make it all work? Well, having your own home business can definitely take up a lot of time and have your life going 100mph or faster, but it definitely can be done. No doubt you want to be a successful work at home mom, and while it can seem impossible to take care of kids, run a home, and have your own home business, it can be done. Here are some of the top secret tips that can help you become successful with your own work at home business without losing your mind.

Secret #1 - Create a Schedule...But Don't Always Follow It - Organization is going to be important if you are going to work at home, so you will want to create a schedule, whether it is on paper or in your head. However, it's important to remember that you don't always have to follow the schedule. Just because you plan to work for certain hours on your schedule doesn't mean you'll actually get to do so without interruptions, especially if you have kids at home. Sometimes your life seems to have a life of its' own, so if you don't always follow that schedule exactly, don't stress over it.

Secret #2 - Make Menus - While it may sound simple, another top secret tip for being successful as a work at home mom is to make sure you plan out menus. You'll spend far more time figuring out what to have for dinner and then cooking it if you don't already have a menu planned out. Of course if you want to know more about making a menu, grocery shopping, and saving money, you should read my previous post, "Take 30 Minutes and Save $100."

Secret #3 - Learn How to Say NO! - In order to be successful, one of the most important words you need to learn is "NO!" Many people are going to want to take advantage of your time. Your brother may want you to babysit, or the school may ask you to bake 6 dozen cupcakes for a bake sale, or perhaps your mom wants you to go get her dry cleaning, since you're at home. Well, remember, you're working, and time is money. You need to make sure that you meet your deadlines and get your top priorities taken care of. It's important that you become excellent at saying NO to the people who want to distract you from your work and you need to do it without guilt.

Secret #4 - Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help - Asking for help is important as well when you're a work at home mom running a home business. After all, you're not Superwoman, even if you'd like to be. Your family is there to support and help you and remember to assign tasks to everyone. The children are capable of taking care of chores and you may even want to ask your husband to help as well. When everyone works together, the work will get done and just asking for a bit of help can provide you with great rewards.

Secret #5 - Take Care of Yourself - Taking care of yourself is imperative if you want to be a successful work at home mom. You take care of the kids, the house, the laundry, your work, and more all day long, but it's important to take some time to take care of yourself as well. If you are not at your best, things can get pretty dicey. So, take the time to enjoy a few chapters of a book, a good movie, taking a walk, a nice warm bubble bath, or just a trip out for some time alone.

Secret #6 - Establish Goals - The last top secret tip that will help you become successful with your home business is to make sure that you establish goals. Visualize the goals you want to meet. Where do you want to be in 6 months or a year? Do you have goals to make more money? If so, don't just have the goal to make more money, but figure out how you want to spend it and how having that money will change your life. When you have goals and you visualize how your life can change when you meet those goals, you'll be far more motivated to achieve them.

So, if you're looking for success as a work at home mom, these six top secret tips can help. Remember, being a work at home mom is a powerful thing and you're probably the envy of all the moms on the block. You have a great career that is stimulating mentally and you have time with your family as well. So, yes, it really does appear that you are "Super Mom."

Many work at home moms today are getting involved in freelance writing and it's actually one of the most common pursuits for moms who are working from home today. Well, if you happen to be in the freelance business, no doubt quite a few jobs come your way. However, one of the important tips for success as a freelance writer is to know when to say "NO" to a job that is offered to you. More than likely you've taken a job before that you wished you'd never seen. So, here are four signs that you should say no to a freelance writing job you are offered.

Sign #1 - It Only Pays Revenue - One of the biggest signs that you should say a huge "NO" to a freelance writing job is that it only pays you in revenue. Now in some cases where a site or blog already has a huge following this may not be such a bad deal, but if you have to build up the following yourself just to get a percentage of the revenue, you might as well put the energy into building your own blog so you get all the revenue. Usually these jobs require a lot of work with very little pay, and the whole point of working at home is to actually make money.

Sign #2 - The Pay is Pennies Per Word - If the pay is only pennies per word, this may be another sign that you need to say "NO" to the job. After all, there are plenty of great paying freelance writing jobs out there for work at home moms. Why waste your time writing for a penny per word when you can make so much more. You don't want to be chained to your desk writing for pennies. It's not worth it.

Sign #3 - The Client Refuses to Pay Anything Up Front - How many people have been scammed out of their money because a client did not pay them at least some of the money up front. I know I've learned that lesson through hard knocks. Do a job, get promised money, and then you never see it. It's frustrating to never get a chunk of money that you worked so hard to earn. So, if the job is not going to pay you part of the money up front or at least hold money in escrow for the job, why waste your time on it if you're not sure you'll really get paid?

Sign #4 - They Ask You for Money - Last of all, if a freelance writing job offer asks you for money - RUN! You should never have to pay to get your writing out there. The freelance writing job market is an excellent one and there are plenty of people willing to pay great money to qualified writers. You shouldn't ever have to pay to work for someone as a freelance writer. The audacity that writers should pay to have the opportunity to work. It's absurd. So don't fall for it.

It's 2am....and what am I doing? That's right, here I sit working. Sometimes that's just par for the course when you're a work at home mom. Why am I working now? Well, this was one of those days that just didn't go as planned. Sure, I had good intentions at the beginning of the day, but there were many distractions (I'm sure you know what I'm talking about) that seemed to take away from my productivity. So, here I sit working after everyone else in the house is fast asleep.

Now, before you start feeling sorry for me, I must admit, it's actually kind of nice. All I can hear are the sounds of fans running in the house, a few snores from my husband, and otherwise there is a golden silence. No Barney playing in the background, loud music blaring, or kids popping in and out wondering how long it is until dinner. The laundry is done and there are no grocery runs to be done in the middle of the night...yes, this middle of the night thing is turning out to be quite a productive time.

Within the last hour I've written about as many articles as I got done the rest of the day, so it appears I make more money at night. LOL. However, on the negative side here, I keep hearing my bed calling me and knowing the time I have to get up in the morning makes me cringe, but otherwise, this late night, or rather early morning, working is a great idea. Sure, I wouldn't recommend it every night, but armed with caffeine and some chocolate, I'm good to go. Look out work!

As a work at home mom, this is definitely the desk that I need. Just think, get all your freelance writing jobs done, cook dinner, and do the laundry and never have to move away from your desk. I'm still trying to figure out if that's convenience or a nightmare.

Although there are many important aspects of being a freelance writer and stay at home mom, one of the most important is the ability to meet deadlines. It does not matter how brilliant you writing may be if you are always missing your deadlines. Grant it, there are moments in life that occur that may occasionally stand in the way of a deadline or two, but part of the way to build credibility as a freelance writer is by making those deadlines every time! If you have several deadlines hanging over your head it can get a bit hectic, but there are things you can do to help those deadlines work for you, instead of you being owned by them.

Tip #1 - Organization
Organization is one of the key things you can do to keep yourself on track to making those deadlines. Taking a few minutes to organize your paperwork into separate files can be a great help. Have a folder designated for pending jobs and have a folder specifically for completed jobs. This allows you to easily see what jobs you have left for completion. Keeping an online calendar or even a desk calendar can help you as well. When you have all your deadlines organized on a calendar it is easy to get the big picture of what you need to work on to get your work sent in on time.

Tip #2 - Make Your Own Deadlines
If you find yourself constantly working right up to the last minute to make deadlines, you may want to start making your own deadlines to avoid some of the last minute stress. If you start making yourself complete projects 24 hours before they are due, this will give you time to critically look them over to avoid errors and will make your life less stressful as well. Making a weekly schedule can help you organize your projects and your self-imposed deadlines so you get them done on time.

Tip #3 Avoid Burnout
At times, having multiple deadlines can leave you cramming to complete a project right before it is due. Many freelance writers make the mistake on working on only one project at a time, which can lead to burnout on a specific topic or style. You can avoid burnout by working on different projects in spurts. Devoting just 20-30 minutes to one project and then working on something else can help keep that feeling of burnout away. Dividing your time between different projects helps you keep the creative edge that you need to create an exceptional completed project. Writing on one topic too long can cause your brain and creativity to burn out, so work in spurts to be the most effective.

Deadlines can be frustrating and at times stressful for a work at home mom but when you learn to use them to your benefit and work with them, they can help you become a more effective writer. Deadlines can help keep you on track if you know how to manage them and becoming efficient at meeting deadlines will make you a quality and impressive freelance writer that other will want to work with.

Sometimes it's so easy to get so overwhelmed and busy with everything that you have to do as a work at home mom that you begin underestimating the value of a nap. I used to have such a hard time taking a few minutes to take a power nap, feeling that I was slacking, but I've started to realize that naps are worth that time off.

You see, sometimes I get so busy and involved in working that I find myself getting grumpy, losing focus, and beginning to get a bit negative about all of it. Well, usually it's because I'm tired, and there are even times I start falling asleep while I'm still typing away. Lately I've been learning to just take a break, walk away, and take about a 20-30 minute nap.

That power nap really does do wonders for me. I simply set my alarm or ask my husband to wake me up in about 20-30 minutes and take a little snooze. Usually I fall asleep quickly, but even when I don't totally get into a deep sleep, I still end up feeling refreshed. When I get up I feel better, I'm more rested, I've walked away from work for a short bit, and I get a whole new perspective. Then I'm able to get back to work with renewed vigor and I actually find myself doing a better job.

So, never underestimate the value of a nap. While you make think that you don't have time for one, some days you'll save time by taking that nap. Give it a try...it really works for me.

If you're like me, most of you other work at home moms probably love finding a way to save money! No matter how much you're making from home, you're probably feeling a bit of a crunch right now, with gas prices soaring and food prices not to far behind them. In fact, within the past few weeks I've seen general grocery merchandise take a quick leap in price that's been making grocery shopping more like a brain teaser than a Saturday afternoon run to the store.

Since I'm pretty sure you are feeling the same way, I'd love to share with you how I have learned to take about 30 minutes and save $100 each week. It may sound small, but it's $400 or more a month, and $5200 each year, so listen up.

I'm always very busy with my job, kids, and a husband, so it's really tempting to just run to the store without a thought to get that grocery shopping done, but when I go I want to make sure that I get good deals. I want my family to eat well while spending the least amount possible.

So, what I do every Friday night is sit down with my husband and we go through all the local fliers from grocery stores, take stock of what we have, what we need, and then we plan a menu and make a grocery list. It takes about 30 minutes or so, but it's so worth it. We look at the deals, and try to plan meals around them. If you begin to do this, I can just about promise you that you'll begin to save about $100 a week, or maybe even more.

When I go grocery shopping, I have a list already with me for ever store I plan to visit, and usually I already know about what I'm going to spend. When I walk out of the store, my receipts show me that I've saved 30%, 40%, 50%, and a few times I've saved more than 60% in a store. All this by taking time to go over the best deals and planning out a good menu.

We eat amazing meals each evening, from Shrimp fettuccini, to Ravioli with Meat Sauce, Blackened Pork Chops, and a variety of great veggies as well, including corn on the cob, fresh broccoli and cauliflower, tomatoes, squash and zucchini, asparagus, peas, carrots, red potatoes, and more. Our diet is much healthier when we shop this way, and the great part is that we save a minimum of $100 a week.

Saving money is important, so I just wanted to share with you a way that I'm able to save an extra $100 every single week, just by taking about 30 minutes of time. It's definitely worth it!

Ever notice how most people get sick days? Me too! I've been noticing lately that in working at home I'm missing sick days, personal days, vacation days, and more. Sure, I get time off to watch my favorite dance show if I want to, but I don't get to call in sick and I definitely don't get sick pay.

This is just one thing that work at home moms are dealing with all the time - the absence of the sick day. Who knew the ability to call off sick could be so important. LOL.

So, today instead of staying in bed, here I am working at my computer, dreaming of my pillow as I type and imagining what my family would do if I gave them a call.... "Hi honey, I'm calling off sick today..."

Hmmm....something tells me it's not happening...but so goes another day in the life of a work at home mom. I've gotta admit though, in the end, it's all worth it, even without the sick days. (we'll have to work on getting those as work at home moms!!!)

Ever had those days when you felt like you were SOOOOOO busy but nothing got done? Yeah, that was my day. I got out of bed and was instantly busy, but somehow I never really did start getting serious about working today until after 10 pm tonight.

It was get up, shower, deal with the kids (who are here all the time since it's summer), start dinner preparations so we actually eat at a decent time tonight, and then I get sidetracked by the mail. Actually, it was the electric bill that got my attention - almost $300 for this months' electric! After I came to...lol...I stared at the bill in disbelief, then ranted and raved to my husband about how horrible it was that they would charge so much.

Of course you have to understand, where I live in Arizona, we've been dealing with heat over 110F and sometimes going over 115F, which is insane. The house never even gets cool. Last months' bill was a killer so, we cut back the air a little, and the bill is even worse, not to mention we've been living in misery.........but I digress....lol....

After recovering from the bill, I finally got one piece of work done, and then I had to run out to the store. Came home, and by that time it was dinner time, so I'm finishing dinner, looking mournfully at my computer and wishing I would have done a little more work by this time. Once dinner is over, it's time to start getting the kiddies ready for bed, making sure they get showers and all that good stuff......and here it is now, 10:46 pm, and I'm just starting on the work I need to get done today. I was so busy, and I really didn't even accomplish much.

I must say, this is one of the most frustrating things that happens when you work on home. You work and run around all day long, but you never get to the work you're supposed to be doing. So, now that I'm exhausted after a long day...it's off to work. Anyone feeling me out there???????

After my share of frustrating moments as a work at home mom, I decided that there have got to be other mothers out there dealing with the same exact thing. If you're reading this, you probably know what I mean...the people who always think you have an endless amount of time since you work at home and that you do nothing by take naps and watch Soaps all day long. (rightttttttt)

Most of you know that being a mom and working at home isn't always so easy - in fact, it's usually downright hectic. So, I decided to create my own blog where I can vent and hopefully meet a whole lot of other "Mums" out there who also "embrace" the work at home mom title.

So, here's the place to vent, get a laugh, share your stories, and even find some tips that will help you out. After all, we "Mums" need to stick together right.......