I never thought starting a blog would become such an outlet for me. Or that I would meet so many great "mom blog" friends. I love that there are so many other moms out there that I can relate to, get ideas from and just vent to. One of my first friends, Alissa from
Mommy and Molly, is one of the first girls I got to know. I met her on a mommy message board and it went from there. What amazes me about her is that she is such a go-getter. She is able to stay at home with her daughter, Molly, and also work from home. I thought it would be great if she posted about how she does it all, and thankfully she agreed to guest blog for me!
Without further adieu...please welcome Alissa, from the blog,
Mommy and Molly:
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Time management is a skill that is necessary as a mother. It is also a skill I lack (along with money management, but that's a topic for another post).
I run two websites, my personal blog and the "D-List", both of which have become way more successful than I ever imagined they would be. A lot of people ask me how I find the time with an 8 month old and to be quite honest, it's not easy. Molly crawls (really fast, I refer to it as run crawling) and I am constantly chasing her when she is awake. The other day she learned how to open drawers and pull everything out of them, she also "cruises" which allows her to cause more trouble than I ever could have imagined.
As cliche as it sounds, I get my website work done when she is doing one of three things:
1. Sleeping (although she does not sleep all night yet, so I sometimes nap when she does)
2. Eating (I give her a biter biscuit and it keeps her entertained for twenty minutes)
3. Otherwise engaged in mischievous behavior (such as ripping a magazine to shreds) but not endangering herself (IE She's right in front of me)
Did I mention I am a single stay at home mom? So, I do everything by myself. Some days I don't even shower because I have a screaming child who does not want to be put down. I make lists of things that do not get done and I feel like sometimes I need a horse tranquilizer and a case of beer to get through my day (kidding).
The key to managing an online network and a maniac child is enjoying every second of it. I visit every blog that joins the D-List (319 members and counting!). I love meeting new mom bloggers and their children. I love finding blogs that make me laugh (my favorite humorous blog is:
http://whisperingwriter.blogspot.com/). I also try to relate to what others write about and find things that can help me in my everyday life. I found an awesome craft blog the other day and I cannot wait to try some of the things she has made.
Another problem of mine is that I have a child that LOVES the laptop. She finds hitting the keys on the keyboard to be one of the most fascinating experiences ever. I try not to let her do it too often, as she has already pulled the space bar off a couple times. She has also jammed biscuit in my cd drive and pulled the closed laptop down on herself more times than I can count. I am hoping I can one day use her already advanced computer skills and put her to work for me. It's not child labor when it's your own child, right?
All kidding aside, I love what I do. I'm marketing my blogs and using technology in ways that I never have before, I am using my brain and my expensive MBA (that still is not paid for...I don't even want to think about it) to network and bond with people from all over the world. I may not make much of an income, but the friendships I have made are more valuable than gold.
To be able to stay at home with my daughter and have instant access to people who I can talk to about anything is a lifesaver for me. I love every single person I have met thus far and I cannot wait to add more people to my network .
