You may have noticed I vanished for a few days. Didn’t post on any of my sites all weekend. Well, I’m back now.

I took the kids on a trip to Sacramento to see my grandmother in the hospital. As things turned out, the kids weren’t able to see her because she had a stroke a couple days before we arrived, and children under 12 weren’t allowed. The stroke was on top of her breaking her hip a few weeks ago, plus a heart attack.

It was wonderful yet difficult to see her. I’m very glad I went.

The kids had a great time. Pretty much the entire family decided to go, so they got to play with a lot of cousins. Just imagine a crowd of six children, all age 6 or less. They had a blast.

Gage had a rough time of it, though. He was the youngest by about a year and a half, and he just doesn’t like to travel yet. Picture a 45 minute tantrum because he didn’t want to nap in an unfamiliar room.

Yes, I’m still exhausted.

But the kids got to do all kinds of fun things. The fair was in town, and while I dealt with that tantrum, my cousins decided to take all the other kids to the fair, so Ariel had a blast. Then we went to Fairytale Town the next day. Add in just tons of family time, and the trip was quite a success on many levels.

With my recent post on the paid posting scam, I thought it was time to go over the signs of a scam. I’ve discussed this before, but some things are worth repeating.

The most obvious way to spot a scam is that it is simply too good to be true. It will offer spectacular results for little or no effort. It’s all guaranteed, honest!

A common way to get caught by this is when the price is set absurdly low. If the price for what you are getting is too low, often the scammer is counting on the deal to get past your guard. All too often people will go ahead and risk “just” $10, even though risking such small amounts adds up quickly if you get scammed out of it.

If you don’t understand how you will earn, it is probably a scam. One of the most common home business scams is where you get paid for recruiting rather than selling. If the money you pay to join an opportunity goes to paying the business and those above you, it’s probably little more than a pyramid scheme. You do not want to get involved in these, as the FTC can take your earnings when the scheme is shut down. Just not worth the trouble. Read the rest of this entry »

Working at home means finding time to work mixed in with enjoying being with my kids. It’s an interesting balance sometimes, but very, very doable and ever changing.

Keep in mind, my kids are 5 and 2, so keeping them busy is pretty challenging and limited by their capabilities. And for those interested, take a look at the ebook on Keeping the Kids Busy I offer for subscribing to my newsletter.

1. Send them outside! I get more peace and quiet from this than anything else.
2. Baking with them. The trick to things like this is that once I’ve done this with them, they’re generally happier about playing on their own, not to mention the fun treat that is then available. We don’t do it very often, but they’re happy when I say it’s time.
3. Haul out the craft supplies. Crafts work best for my daughter, as she’s old enough to enjoy doing things either on her own or with me.
4. Haul out the art supplies. My son loves painting most of all.
5. Computer time. This one is generally limited. My daughter loves playing age appropriate online games. My son loves Google Earth or watching family pictures go by on the screen saver.
6. Science projects. I think my kids’ favorite so far was the Slime. We kept it sealed in a plastic container for months, and it lasted well until my son decided it needed more water….
7. Homework. We don’t really have homework as such to deal with yet. My daughter starts kindergarten next year. But that doesn’t mean we can’t tell her it’s time to practice her letters or numbers.
8. Chores. Both my kids help empty the dishwasher. They know which dishes they are allowed to help put away. Getting them to clean up their toys is more difficult, but possible.
9. Have friends over. When I really want to get some work done, I’ve found that having a friend over for my kids to play with really helps. When they need something, there’s more work involved then, but for much of the time, they’re so busy playing with each other they don’t mind me working.
10. Off to the park! This is especially effective for gaining a long nap from my 2 year old after.
11. Get them involved. My kids aren’t too interested in what I’m working on most of the time, but when they are, I encourage it.
12. Limited television watching. Honestly, I’m not that big a fan of setting the kids in front of the television for too long, perhaps because mine don’t just settle in and watch. They keep wanting snacks, want to tell me about the show, etc. For getting actual work done I’ve found this one not terribly effective for me. But I hear it works for some parents.
13. Get Daddy (or Mommy, for the Dads out there) to play with the kids.

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[tags]wordless wednesday[/tags]

It’s been a long time since I updated this. No sponsored post either, just what I’m thinking about since yesterday’s post on the paid blogging scam.

Things with PayPerPost have been going well. I don’t take a lot of opportunities, but I average about $300/month with them across all my blogs. I could do a lot more if I weren’t so picky about what I blog about. The range of topics is still great, and sometimes I learn about really interesting websites.

I do a little bit of blogging with Blogsvertise. I don’t get a lot of work for them, and I often choose not to do what they do send because it isn’t relevant enough. Pay is on the low side, but not unreasonable. Read the rest of this entry »