Hi Everyone,

I was tagged by Alyssa Advant for a this great blog meme which was started by Kelly McCausey at Sparkplugging 2.0. So, of course I wanted to join in on this wonderful topic!!

I truly love the ability to be able to work from home. Working from home gives me the opportunity to work in my pj’s if I choose, but better yet, I can home-school my children as well. That is a luxury and a blessing all in one package.

But, let me back track a moment, WAHM actually stands for ‘Work At Home Mom’. And there are many more woman making the decision to work from home and be their own boss. It is a satisfying feeling being able to work from home and not have to go out and work a ‘J-O-B’.

The flexibility is a great benefit as well. The most important thing to remember is to structure our time and remind family members that although we may be home, we are actually working. I remember having to remind my friends that I was ‘working’ and could not just drop everything to run errands for them. But, like I mention the flexibility is fantastic. I don’t have to wait for ‘vacations’ to spend time with my family or have to schedule time to be with my children, because I am HOME and love it!!

It is truly a blessing! I am very happy and lucky to have the opportunity to work from home and make money and still be there for my family when they need me.

I am also very blessed to know other WAHM’s and hope that they will continue this great meme:

Jennifer Houck

Tiffany

The Chronicles continue….

Wow, was I surprised to see that I was featured in another one of my wonderful Ning groups. This group is called Hybrid Mom Community and I love it!!

I posed this question on a discussion board after my post here on my blog. I wanted to know if I was the only one having difficulties saying ‘No’. As part of my cleaning house, I chose to clean house on the computer as well.

I was in many, many different groups and although they were fun and amusing, they were very time consuming. So, my plate was definitely overflowing!! I chose to remove myself from the many groups on yahoo and other mommy forums because I really didn’t have the time anymore and I wouldn’t have to be cornered into getting involved in something, I couldn’t say ‘Yes’ to.

So, to my surprise, not only was I not alone in this dilemma, but I was also featured:)

If you haven’t had a chance to visit this great group, be sure to click on the image above and take a peek. It is a great group of women and you can have your own page to design as you wish. Come join us at the Hybrid Mom Community…

The Chronicles continue…

Being a busy mom of 5 children it seems very difficult to find ‘mommy’ time, but when I do there are several things I like to do. I love to read, because I am basically a NERD!! I would rather lay in bed in my comfy p.j.’s and read a good book.

When I am not reading and feeling more creative I love to design and make jewelry. I have actually been playing with beads for almost 10 years. I started with just beads, then slowly progressed to wire work and precious metal clay. I used to have a small corner in my bedroom, until I almost burned the house down!! So, my hubby decided to take an empty, storage room from our office and converted it into my own little studio.

Here are photos of my little studio that I escape to for quality, ‘mommy’ time. .

I love my little room, it’s a wonderful place for all my crafts and I can go there and my kiddos will know not to disturb me. Do you have a way to escape? I love to also take baths, but never seem to manage those by myself. My baths always end up being a place where my kiddos come to chat. I guess, they feel they can get my undivided attention there:)

My other love is writing. I remember having a spiral notebook with me at all times growing up. I was always writing poems, or stories and drawing pictures. Unfortunately, my parents didn’t think that I could survive as an author or writer, let alone an artist, so they forced me to study other subjects. I enjoyed the sciences and math, so when I became a doctor, my parents were much more at ease and felt that I had made the right decision. But, after all that schooling, I still LOVE to write. So, now that I have retired to spend more time with my family and home-school my children, I have started writing again. This time I am incorporating my love of writing with health and nutrition. I love to teach and what better way to combine my two loves!

So, I guess the moral to this story is to make time for ‘you’. It is very important to have some time for yourself or you will not be able to successfully function on a daily basis. It may be just a warm bath, or perhaps some time reading or maybe even some quiet time in your room. Find the time and you will be a more relaxed person and your family will appreciate you more.

The Chronicles continue..

Today is a day of remembrance. A day that we cherish our freedom. The day that we thank our proud and powerful men in uniform for the sacrifices they make for our country. Going to Arlington Cemetery was a very moving experience; one every American citizen should experience. It is extremely touching to see all the tombstones that represent all of our fallen soldiers.

While the country is celebrating with family and friends at social gatherings and we enjoy the delicious barbecue treats along with watermelon, cakes and such, we must all not forget what this day symbolizes.

It symbolizes our FREEDOM and the men who fought and died for it. Please remember to take a moment today, to remember our fallen soldiers and their families. And embrace your loved ones and give thanks to be able to live in this wonderful country of ours, the United States of America. I am proud to be an American.

The Chronicles continue…

Yes, I know that I mentioned earlier about unloading my overflowing plate, but I truly think this will be beneficial to me.

I love to write and I have decided to offer my services. I will be developing a website to promote my services and will post here when I have finished it. My articles will be focused around health and nutrition.

As a retired Doctor of Chiropractic, I decided it was time to put all my knowledge down on paper and share with others. I love to educate and writing in forms that are easy to read is what I aim for. I plan to write articles that are easy to understand and a thesaurus or PDR will not be necessary.

I never thought that I could do this, but after much thought and prayer I have realized that it can be done. I have many articles on my health and nutrition blog. Please take some time and visit it at http://healthynutritionhints.com

So, as far as reducing my load, I believe that I actually have. I am no longer in many of the social groups that took up a lot of my productive time. Now my productive time will be just that, productive.

I hope to share my new site as soon as it is up and running and hope that you will share it with others as well. I now will add another title and hat to my collection, this one of writer.

The Chronicles continue….

Have you ever felt like your plate was overflowing?? The plate being your life?? Being a mom of 5, which I also home school is hectic enough. But add in business owner, administrator of our Chiro office, online net worker, writer, mom and all the other hats we choose to load our selves down with, just makes me wanna scream!!

There, now I feel better, how about you?? Sometimes, I feel like I can do anything, and I really can..but at times I am just frustrated!!

So, I decided it was time to unload my overflowing plate of responsibilities. I started with my online social networks. I decided which ones I was very active in and stayed with those and eliminated the others. Wow, that felt good!!

Next I made a list of all the house hold chores and assigned each one to one of my many children. Allowing me, more time to do other household duties. That felt even better!!

Next, I decided to limit my time on the computer!! I know, it sounds crazy. But, if I set a timer, then I can actually get work accomplished and not surf the web and let my mind wander.. I am actually writing this with 3 minutes left on that handy dandy timer, so I am doing good.

As soon as I get my house hold chores accomplished I will tackle my menu for the coming week and start my grocery list with it. Wow, I will actually be ahead by 2 days!! This scheduling thing might actually work.

Unloading my plate is not easy and I know I will probably add more to it, when I have figured out this little system, but when I start feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, I will look back at this post and remember why I am frustrated. I must learn to delegate and all will be well; or so I’ve been told.

I am a very active person and feel like I must always be doing something, or I will go crazy. But, I just realized that I may still go crazy if I continue to keep going with out end, like the energizer bunny. Hmm, sound familiar??

Well, I am off to sort the laundry that is calling my name, but I feel much better now, how about you? When will you start to delegate some of those responsibilities and unload your overflowing plate? Start today and you will feel better and your family and friends will love you for it.

The chronicles continue…

So, yes I am guilty!! I belong to a lot of social network groups and have two different blogs… Since I have many children I really don’t make much friends because although I go to my kids activities, I don’t really have ‘me’ time. Online social networking groups are perfect for me and fit my schedule.

Well what a surprise to see myself featured on one of my groups!

This was posted on one ofmy Ning groups.

Never heard of Ning? It is a the next biggest craze. You are able to join different groups and have your own page to personalize as you wish. This particular one that I was featured in is called: The Mom Bloggers Club, here is the link http://themombloggersclub.com (or you can click on the image above)

This is a great group of women with wonderful blogs. There are several groups you can participate in and they always have great discussions.

Want to join a great group visit The Mom Bloggers today…

Sometimes I wonder how I manage to keep a clean house with 5 children and 3 dogs!! First off, I’ll be the first to let you know that it is not easy but it is possible with some patience and organizational skills.

There are times when I go on a rampage and want everything spotless! That’s when my kids run to their rooms and hide under their beds! Those times are not very often, but I must admit they do happen. It can get frustrating to spend hours cleaning the floors, and polishing the furniture, washing and drying dishes, to have it all look a mess in a matter of seconds. My kids are like mini tornados!

So, what I do to keep my sanity is write out a schedule on Sundays for the entire week. This schedule will include the meals for the week as well. This plan has helped me tremendously because having a family of 7, with 4 very active children and many activities, would drive anyone crazy!

I usually will do the major cleaning on Friday mornings, while everyone is asleep, so I can enjoy my weekends. This will consist of sweeping and mopping all the floors ( I have wood floors), and cleaning the bathrooms. Mondays and Wednesday are laundry days, and I usually have my younger girls sort the laundry and place them in designated baskets in the laundry room. On Tuesdays I clean the kitchen, I usually will pick a specific area of the kitchen to clean each Tuesday, today was cabinets and refrigerator day, next week will be cleaning out the drawers and organizing the cabinets and shelves, etc. Thursdays I do touch up cleaning, usually dusting and cleaning the ceiling fans, and I wash the towels and sheets on this day as well. The weekends we usually just touch up, and make sure the house is not a complete mess for the following week.

My children help a lot as well; they don’t have much of a choice. They are responsible for keeping their rooms clean, as well as their beds made and drawers and closets organized. This is a weekly chore for them, because quite honestly they are piglets. I usually go in and monitor their cleaning and make sure they are not shoving everything under their beds…..

Keeping a clean house is a never ending job, but much easier to manage with a schedule and a little bit of discipline. It is also easier when you have help, but sometimes I would rather do it alone. Cleaning and organizing is a type of therapy for me and actually contributes to my sanity.

The Dr. Mommy Chronicles will continue….

I have a friend who is an organizing junkie, so I am posting this here to see what your organizing tips are..

Share your tips:

~Start copying here

The Organizing Tip Meme

To participate:

1. Post your favorite organizing tip on your blog and tag 3 other bloggers
2. Copy and paste everything shown here into the post
3. Add your link to the bottom of the list

More Great Organizing Tips:

1. http://lifefrommylaptop.com/2008/05/20/favorite-organizing-tip-meme/

2. http://drmommychronicles.com

3. http://cinnamonspicecrafts.blogspot.com

~End copying here

My organizing tip: I like to use utensil trays in all the kitchen drawers to keep them organized.

now sign my mr. linky and I can then visit your blog

Wow!! That’s all I can say about the rebellious teens of today!!

Now I am not blind to the fact that we all were teens at one time and were rebellious as well, but it seems that today’s teens are out of control.

I attribute a lot of the changes to the media and today’s society and culture. When growing up, no one ever interfered with my parent’s skills of discipline. Or the many ways they would punish to teach us a lesson, or so, they would say. Children were more respectful of elders in general. Children were ’seen’ and not ‘heard’ during adult conversations. And the craziness in today’s school system was unheard of.

What is going on? It seems that we, as parents are not allowed to discipline our children today, in fear of damaging their ’self-esteem’. I believe that this is all crazy!! Don’t get me wrong, I am not for child-abuse or verbal abuse, but discipline is very important!

There are ways to discipline that don’t involved physical harm or psychological harm. I was raised by very strict parents, and although I didn’t like their ways of handling situations, their system worked. I went to school, excelled in my career, became engaged, married and had children, in that order..

I am not saying that those who decide to have children first and then schooling or no schooling are raised bad, no, no, but I am saying that we were not disrespectful and became adults that are aware of our responsibilities and handle them correctly, whatever they may be.

I have 2 teenagers and although I do not raise them like I was raised, I do instill many responsibilities upon them. RESPECT is very important in our household, and something that is important in their daily lives and will be forever. They know that the decisions they make are something that they will have to deal with and that mommy and daddy will not bail them out.

Another important ingredient in our household is our FAITH, and I have worked very diligently to instill that in them. It is difficult in this day in age, because not everyone attends church, so when I can bring my entire family to service every Sunday, that means something. My children know the importance and relevance of our Faith in our home and I appreciate that.

Every family is different, but what strikes me the most is the teens of today! With all the electronics and technology we have available today, it seems our teens are much lazier.

That is something I deal with on a daily basis. Peer pressure is even worse today, than it ever was! Thankfully, I home school my children, but peer pressure exists in extra curricular activities as well. Some peer pressure is positive but the majority is negative and very damaging.

Being a parent today is not easy and I would imagine that it wasn’t easy in our parent’s time either. Everything is relevant. The biggest difference I see today is the lack of RESPECT and responsibility placed on our children. Just recently, I read that children that are in their 30’s are moving back with their parents because they were not successful in the ‘real’ world! That is crazy!

It is up to us as parents to instill morals, and values in our children. It is not an easy task but one that is necessary. When my daughter is seen as a role model because she is still ‘pure’ at the age of 17, there is something wrong with society. It should be seen as normal!

But, unfortunately, that is another result of peer pressure and upbringing. My daughter is very proud of who she is, and although she is quite rebellious at times, I am very proud of her too. I can’t imagine growing up in today’s society and having the pressure from all angles and still be able to stand your ground.

I am also proud of my husband and I, for rearing her and guiding her in the right direction. It is not easy, by any means, but it is something that must be done. And I am not finished yet!! I will soon be dealing with her in college and the added influences and pressures that come with that experience.

But my job is far from over, I still have 3 younger children along with my teens that are experiencing everything in our household as well, and the fear of getting punished is one that keeps them in line. Wow!! Parenting is not an easy task, especially with rebellious teens.

Those parents that still have infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers, cherish those moments, because the road ahead is a challenging one. Although it is challenging, it is fun and I love all the experiences I have dealt with to date. Some were not any to be proud of, but the good out weigh the bad. And so far, I am surviving the rebellious teen years….

The Dr. Mommy Chronicles will continue…..