It’s that time of year again. Ariel’s back in preschool.

Monday was the first day, but not a full day. When you’re talking about a 3 hour school day, not a full day means things run pretty short. Monday was the day to get the kids familiar with the classroom, the teacher and each other just a little bit.

The kids are very excited about the new playground the school had put in during the summer. When I registered her, the school still had the old metal playground, but now it’s the kind you see all over the place. They even have a tunnel with the exterior set up for the kids to climb all over.

The challenge is that it isn’t quite done yet. As of yesterday, the swings weren’t hung up, there was an area still to be concreted in, the track for the tricycles wasn’t painted, and the grass is new and cannot be walked on for two weeks. Good thing the kids are allowed on the other equipment! Read the rest of this entry »

A home business is a great way for stay at home parents to add to the family’s income. The startup costs are far lower than for a business outside the home, but there are still expenses to be considered, and they can impact a tight budget rapidly.

The basic expenses of a home business will vary by the type of business, but you really cannot help but have some expenses. If you join a direct sales opportunity, you will probably want to buy some of the products for yourself. If you start an online business, you will probably have hosting costs.

In all cases you will have some sort of advertising costs. These can be as simple as the cost of business cards or as complex as placing ads in newsletters, pay per click search engines and other places.

Before you start spending money on your new business, you need to decide how much you can afford to spend and how to budget it. Don’t spend anything until you have figured out what you absolutely must have in order to get started. Read the rest of this entry »

What do you want to do with your life?

One of the best things about a home business is that it can help you to achieve your dreams, whether they be so simple as to be there for your family or you have a dream home, dream vacation, etc.

Visualizing your dreams can be a challenge. In the day to day efforts of keeping your home business afloat you can forget the things that you really want to achieve.

How you visualize your dreams is up to you. Some people find it simplest to find pictures of the things they want in life and hang them on a board in their work area. Others use a notebook.

Everyone has those days where nothing seems to go right with their business. Maybe you feel like quitting on those days, as it seems your dreams are no closer than when you began. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve added some new job possibilities to the work at home section. I also corrected or removed a few bad links. Hopefully some of you will find these to be of interest.

I also added a new section on writing jobs. These are typically freelance rather than actual jobs, since that is a lot of what you find for writers out there, but it’s something for those who love to write.

Why is it that I have such trouble getting creative at lunchtime? I have all kinds of recipes for dinner, while breakfast I just stick with the standards. But lunch is a challenge.

I get bored with it. I don’t like just making melted cheese sandwiches, mac n’ cheese, defrosting chicken nuggets, cooking hot dogs and other such things every day. I have an additional challenge in that my daughter, like me, does not like peanut butter, so there goes one lunchtime staple.

I think a lot of it has to do with the habit of eating out at lunchtime. Just think about it. As you go through school, you eat lunch there, whether it be purchased at school or you bring something from home. When you get a job, you probably are there at lunchtime, so once again you bring or buy something.

But when you’re a stay at home parent, you have to make lunch every day, and suddenly the standard sandwich doesn’t seem to be good enough for every day. It gets boring. Read the rest of this entry »