One of the things I’ve tried to avoid this pregnancy is focusing on it to the exclusion of my other two kids. It’s quite the impact on their lives, after all. They’re both old enough to know that a baby means I will shortly be very busy with baby’s needs, and to wonder how I will cope with theirs.

This makes it very important to keep doing fun things with them.

For example, yesterday I made chocolate cakes in mugs with them. They were quite delighted. Not the best of flavors for a chocolate cake in my experience, but you know kids. They’ll enjoy foods that adults find merely tolerable.

Then today and Friday (unless I go into labor first), I want to make some special time for each of them. Those are my husband’s days off, so I can take each child individually. Pretty much my last chance to do that until baby is old enough for a bottle.

That doesn’t mean I won’t make special fun for each after baby is born. There will just be more limitations on where we can go, as the baby will probably have to come along or the trip will be short.

Good thing little stuff like making popcorn and watching a movie at home counts as special to children.

Here I am, 38 weeks pregnant and really, really ready to go whenever this baby girl of mine decides to make her move. So what am I doing online?

Getting things ready to run smoothly while I’m busy, of course!

My husband jokes that I nest online. It’s true enough.

It amazes me that I’ve managed to get so much writing done in these past few weeks. If I’m lucky, I’ll have things pretty well done through February, and be able to just work lightly when I feel rested enough after baby comes. It’s a really nice feeling. But I’m not that far ahead yet.

Of course, I’m leaving room for those times that I want to make a more time sensitive post. Most of what I’ve written lately I could post any time of the year and it would work just fine.

I like that because it means that if I want to blog more for some reason, I can just move things around. Or not. Nothing wrong with multiple posts on a particular day, even if that’s something I rarely do.

This is also a lesson in just how much can be achieved in more normal times. If I were this productive normally, I’d probably be earning more. That’s quite a thought.

I’ve had some delays in my work, of course. Lots of heavy duty Braxton Hicks contractions one night meant I was just plain too tired the next day to get much done. That’s how it is when you’re pregnant. Sometimes your body makes it clear that a day off is the smarter choice.

But I’m thinking right now that it’s probably a good thing I don’t have a laptop, much as I want one. It would be fun to have in the hospital, but could I really trust myself to not overdo it? I don’t know. Free Wi-Fi….

Nah. I know how tired I get after childbirth. I don’t really think I’d be that tempted to work. But I’d sure hate to find out that I was wrong. Do you think the nurses would get mad if they came in for their middle of the night blood pressure check and caught me working?

My daughter is developing quite the interest in business. We got into talking about logos when she saw the new Pepsi logo and absolutely hated it.

This time Walmart got it. She hates the “Save money. Live better. Walmart” slogan. She announced that she wants to write a letter just to explain that she doesn’t like the slogan.

The cutest part was explaining to her what a slogan is. She kept going on about it, but switching the word to “slogo” which works pretty well too.

We told her that if she’s going to write a letter, she needs to have constructive advice as well as criticism. Her letter idea was along the lines of:

Dear Walmart Guys,

I really hate your slogo. Please change it.

That’s 6 year olds for you. Very direct, to the point, and a minimum of useful information.

Considering how interested she is getting in business related matters, I think it’s probably a good time to start her thinking more on what I do. She already has a website, but she hasn’t touched it in a long time. I’m thinking she might enjoy sharing her opinions on toys and such. I’d still be keeping her rather anonymous; we’re talking about a young child, after all.

But it might be a good experiment, especially if I can finally get her interested in writing, currently her least favorite subject in school.

There are many skills that go into working successfully at home. Some are obvious, such as knowing how to do the work you’re doing. Others are a little less obvious.

And one of the most important is motivation.

If you aren’t motivated, you probably aren’t going to do that well working at home. You have to push yourself to work at home successfully. It just isn’t going to go any other way.

Motivation comes in many forms. Children are a great motivation. They’re one of the first reasons many people think of when they consider why they’re working at home in the first place.

Money, while commonly listed, is often not so strong a motivator.  Sure, earning a good living is nice, but there are so many other ways to earn it that it’s often not enough. Add in the tendency many people have of wanting to earn too much to be realistic, and of course money can be as much a frustration as a motivation.

Motivation is related to passion. There’s a reason why passion for your business is so often mentioned. You aren’t likely to stay all that motivated if you hate what you do.

What skills do you find to be the most important?

No, not just fun this time. It’s practical and a great lesson for the kids.

Before Christmas is my usual favorite time, but cleaning out the closets, toy boxes and so forth to find things you should give to charity can be done at any time of the year. The decluttering feels great, and even younger children can be encouraged to understand what a good thing they’re doing to encourage their enthusiasm.

This can be hard, as many younger children really hate to give up anything, even clothes that don’t fit and toys they ignore. But it’s such a wonderful lesson for them too!

Talk to the kids about why you want to send these things to whichever charity you support. Point out how much easier it will be to find the things they really do enjoy. Find that button that you can push to really get your child interested.