I am a stay-at-home mom, and I am so thankful for the blessing of being home with my daughter all day long! It has allowed me to witness all her "milestones," given me time to gently mold her and correct unwelcome behavior patterns, and provided me with millions of memories I get to keep forever.
But when I get together with other moms, the conversation inevitably turns to the nitty gritty day-to-day stuff. It seems all moms want to hear what other moms do with their kiddos hour after hour, day after day. And it makes sense to be curious… because those hours do stretch on sometimes! I often wonder how other families pass the time (ahem… I mean "make the most of it.")
There are a lot of mommies out there who do an enviable job of entertaining and educating their children throughout the day… all without any help from the TV and on a razor-thin budget to boot. But to be honest, some of them intimidate me!
I'm just not someone who is going to painstakingly dye rice 10 different colors for my children to use for "sensory play." The suggestion alone stresses me out.
Rainbow Rice hiding in every crevice of my kitchen from now to eternity? No thank you. Stay away from this household, Rainbow Rice!
(By the way, I have the utmost admiration for those of you who do make Rainbow Rice. And those of you who pull out drop cloths and aprons and let your kids cover themselves in paint. And those of you who create baking soda volcanoes, and math-themed Easter egg hunts, and hand-sewn doll clothing . I aspire toward such greatness.)
But if I'm honest with myself, that "really cool" stuff happens maybe twice a month around our house. And it's not because I'm lazy (okay, maybe it's a little bit because of that) but mostly it's because I know my limits. If I stretch myself too thin with projects/goals/scheduled activities, my fuse shortens and my family suffers the consequences. And that's no good.
So where does that leave us non-crafty moms? Those of us who want to stimulate our children's minds, invite them to learn and grow, & include them in fun and educational activities around the house, but would rather not resort to Rainbow Rice?
Well, for me and mine, it means doing a lot of activities that are not only fun and educational, but also practical for our family!
If I need to work in the garden, my daughter comes with me to help. If I need to sort coupons and go grocery shopping, it's an opportunity to teach my little one about budgeting and making wise purchases. If I need to get dinner on the table, I include in her in preparation.
These activities may not be Pinterest-worthy, but they are such valuable learning opportunities nonetheless! And even more importantly, they provide a backdrop for you to spend quality time with your little ones.
Pulling weeds is the perfect activity to promote conversation! I always like asking questions like, "What is one thing you did today that you are proud of?" and "What is one thing you would do differently today if you had a do-over?" These are the conversations that become the building-blocks for your children's entire life. They are invaluable!
Here's a short list of some FREE activities I do with my little one.
Take long walks outside (when the weather is nice)
Go to the park — we do this almost every day
Cook & bake — dinner for the family, treats for friends, anything!
Read stories
Bath time
Go to the library
Collect leaves, pine cones, or flowers (depending on the season) to decorate the house
Chores (yup! Laundry and cleaning does NOT have to wait until nap time)
Invite friends over
Work in the garden
Listen to praise CDs and dance/sing along
Exercise! — stretch, do jumping jacks, jump rope, push-ups… my little one loves trying to copy the moves
Run errands — go to the bank, renew vehicle tags… you know, fun stuff!
Memorize scripture — you'd be surprised how young they can start this!
What are your favorite FREE, non-TV activities for kids?
I am a wife, a stay-at-home-mom, and a food blogger! I love the Lord, my family, reading, writing, and cooking. We stick to a strict budget because we are saving up to buy our next home, so I have to get very creative in the kitchen at times. I blog at Pretty/Hungry about food, wellness, and family life!
Jesse and I spent time really discussing what my focuses should be for 2014 and we nailed down four areas that are my priorities for this year:
Marriage: to continue to invest time and energy to strengthen and nurture our marriage and make it one of the greatest priorities
Mothering: to continue to invest in our children with the goal of teaching them character, life skills, and raising them to be responsible adults
Myself: to make my health a priority and to invest in my personal growth as a Christian, business owner, writer, speaker, and leader
MoneySavingMom.com: to invest time into blogging — not just overseeing the business and my team, but making writing content pieces one of my top blogging priorities
Having these specific areas determined at the beginning of the year is really helping me to prioritize and giving me much clearer direction on when, where, and what to say no to this year.
Here's my progress for my 12 goals for 2014:
Marriage Goals
1. Read 6 marriage books. (I've finished two marriage books so far.) 2. Write 50 love notes to Jesse. (I've written 16 love notes so far.)
Mothering Goals
3. Read 40 books aloud to the kids. (We've finished five books so far — I’m really hoping to catch up on this goal over the summer!) 4. Finish memorizing Romans 1 together. (We've been working on this!) 5. Go through a cooking course with the kids.
Personal Goals
6. Read through the Bible. (I'm on track with this.) 7. Memorize Romans 2. 8. Run a 5K race and go through P90X again. 9. Read 150 books/ebooks. (I've read 34 books so far this year.)
Blogging Goals
10. Write 150 substantive content pieces for the blog. (I've written 54 substantive content pieces so far this year.) 11. Write 50 DIY/Recipe posts for the blog. (I've written 14 DIY/Recipe post so far.) 12. Blog about/participate in the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge (I finished April's challenge.)
Did you set goals for 2014 yet?
If you've posted an update on how you're doing on your goals for 2014, I'd love for you to share your link in the comments. Or, if you don't have a blog, feel free to just leave a comment with an update on how you're doing on your goals. Let's encourage one another to live lives of intention and purpose!
Are you joining us for the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge? If so, it's the weekend and guess what that means? It's time for our weekly check-in to post our progress.
May's Challenge:
We're focusing on developing the habit of cutting back on sugar. I encourage you to set a simple and doable goal for drinking more water and to stick with it.
My goal for May is to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep every night.
I'm also hoping to keep up with January's habit of exercising at least 4-5 times every week, February's goal of eating a big salad at least six times a week, March's goal of drinking 8 glasses of water every day, and April's goal of eating dessert once a week.
This Week's Progress:
I got 10 hours of sleep the first night of this month and a little over 7.5 hours of sleep last night. Yay!
I hit my water goals five out of the seven days, exercised three days, ate a salad five of the days, and had dessert three times. So yes, I’m not hitting all my goals perfectly, but I’m going to celebrate the progress I’m making!
How Are YOU Doing?
Leave a comment telling us how you did on your exercise goals this past week. If you're blogging about this challenge, leave the direct link to your blog post about the challenge below. Are you on social media? You can also share your progress on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter by using hashtag #12MonthstoaHealthierYou.
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Like many stay-at-home moms who are trying to live within a budget, I have tried different ways to supplement my husband’s income while being at home with my children.
I’ve found that there are a lot of opportunities to make money online, especially since I have a product to sell. The products I sell are paper and digital products crafted by me and I have tried selling them on eBay without much success. But several years ago I heard about Etsy, an online marketplace for crafters, and decided to give it a try.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t have much success with Etsy at first either. Slowly but surely my sales have grown and I have learned a few tricks about what it takes to boost Etsy sales.
Here are the top ten tips I suggest to increase your bottom line:
1. Find Your Niche.
There are several categories on Etsy that are completely saturated, and if you try selling in one of them it may be rather tough to get sales going.
What makes your product stand out? How is it different from the other 20,000 results generated from an Etsy search?
Think about every detail of your product and how it’s specific to your target audience. Use this information when creating your titles and description.
2. Offer the Same Item In Two Different Categories
I sell “Day You Were Born” pages and started them out in the Scrapbooking section selling them as Premade Scrapbook Pages. I soon realized that by taking some information out, I could also sell them as “Day You Were Married” pages and offered them as anniversary gifts. This is my most popular item!
Get creative and ask others opinions on how you can sell your products from a different angle.
3. Use Different Tags Than Words Included In Your Title.
Besides using keywords in your title, you can also include “tags” or other keywords at the bottom of your listing. Your listings can be found if a keyword is a tag and not in the actual title, so use different descriptive words as tags that you used in your title. This gives your listing more search results and more opportunities for sales!
4. Offer a Freebie
I offer a free digital product from my store to anyone who shares one of my listings on Facebook or Pinterest. This is effective, inexpensive advertising.
5. Offer More Items
The more items you have listed in your Etsy shop, the more you are going to sell. This goes back to my second tip — think of ways you can tweak an item to make it a completely different listing.
6. Invite Users To Share With Their Friends
Etsy includes Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter icons with each listing. Be sure to enable these and encourage your customers to share with their friends.
7. Promote Through Fiverr.com
I’ve purchased a few gigs on Fiverr.com that were only $5 that brought decent results. If you are going to pay for advertising, I suggest you try Fiverr.com’s Online Marketing gigs.
BlogMentions and Social Marketing are my favorites.
8. Use Better Pictures
A picture is worth a thousand words. If you can capture your product with a nice background that is pleasing to the eye you will get more customers.
9. Answer Questions Quickly
I’ve lost out on a couple of sales because I didn’t quickly reply to emails. Because some of my products are digital, I can make them up and email them right away. I sometimes get requests from customers who need their item NOW and when I quickly respond I usually make a sale.
10. Create A Facebook Page For Your Etsy Shop
This is something I haven’t completed yet, but I’m working on it and know it will improve sales!
If you persistently implement the tips I just shared in promoting your Etsy store, you will see results!
Shannon is a stay-at-home mom married to her best friend. Together they are raising six kids. You can find her Etsy shop here.
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