Mommy's Home Office

Ok, guys! I’m gonna get a little woo woo in this episode but I want you to stick with me because I know how powerful this is. I’ve been studying and practicing the law of attraction and manifesting for quite some time now and just recently was reminded exactly how much power I have through it. So before I go into the whole story,  I want to give you a quick crash course in the law of attraction. Law of Attraction 101 Basically, it’s the ability to attract into our lives whatever we are focusing on. Meaning that all thoughts turn into things eventually. So if you focus on negative doom and gloom you will remain under that cloud. If you focus on positive thoughts and have goals that you aim to achieve you will find a way to achieve them with massive and inspired action. This is something I wholeheartedly believe in. You are where your attention is! If you are in a negative mindset then negative things tend to happen to you. We all know that one person that is always focusing on the negative stuff that happens e

Mommy and Kid Routines  Y’all, back to school has been a struggle for me this year.   I got sick on the first day of school and of course on a week that my hubby was out of town.  I’m not talking just a little cold. I’m talking hit by a bus, zombie-like sick.  It’s a miracle they got to and from school and fed that week. But we made it through.  The second week, I was better but still not 100% so it was better than survival mode but not great.    I needed to make a change.   I’m an ENTJ personality from the Myers Briggs test.  I’ve taken this test several times over the past 15-20 years and it never changes. I am a problem solver by nature.  I may not always have the emotional sensitivity side but if you want a solution to your problem (or the 8 million that I create inside my head every day) then I’m your gal. So I saw the problem = total chaos, meltdowns, tantrums and listening skills were nonexistent in my kids the past few weeks. I had to solve it and solve it fast.  I couldn’t go on like this. There isn’

My business planning follows the school year!  A lot of people do their planning at the beginning of the year.   I don’t. I use the school year. Because I’m a mom of school-age children and it just makes more sense for me.   I used to do the yearly thing but then every summer it seemed that my plan got hijacked by the kids, vacations, etc. So I switched to have my work calendar to follow the school year.   Now, I feel more ready for the summer when it comes around and I don’t feel so guilty or like I have to work my ass off to keep up. I enjoy my summers a whole lot more. Here’s how I do it. My business planning process. The 1st week of school, when the kids are out of the house... I sit down for an hour or two and plan. I pull up my Google Calendar, you know...where my life is. And I also print a yearly calendar.  It’s just one of those calendars that have the entire year on one page. Then I grab some highlighters. First, I download my kids' school calendar and I insert all of their holidays and days off int

Over the past year, I have fallen more in love with Instagram than with Facebook. I don’t know what it is but it just feels better. Plus, I’m kind of addicted to Stories.  I usually story 7 days a week with anything and everything that is going in my life.   I know you’re dying to know what I’m having for dinner, the crazy shenanigans of my 3 boys, what I’m up to each day or where we are traveling to. So, I can’t deprive you of that info, I would feel horrible.  

Today, Sarah and I will be digging into how she had a baby while running her online biz.  We'll talk about what to expect and all the juicy bits that go into it.  Check it out! Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss: Sarah's biggest mistake when planning for her baby in her business. How she took the leap from working in a traditional personal training job to starting her own thing. The critical lesson that she learned after having her baby. Hint: It's one of my favorite topics. 

I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me sooner but I think this could be really helpful for those of you that have a small local service-based business. I don’t know if you know this but marketing is my background.  I’ve done it for years and it was also one of my favorite subjects in college. If there’s one thing I’m good at its marketing and biz development for a local business. It’s one of those things that I’m just naturally good at and it comes so easy to me.

Summer is over!  School starts on Monday for us and I have 10 million things to get done before then. Join me next week, I'll go into how I plan my yearly calendar around the school year.

I get asked all of the time by well-meaning people... How do you balance working as a mom?   I stare back at them with a WTF look on my face and say “um, I don’t.”   There is never a time in my life where I have kept all of the plates spinning for more than a second or maybe two before they all come crashing down. Honestly, perfect balance is impossible. There are times when you the weight shifts more heavy on work and then your parenting or family time has to pay the price.    That’s ok.   It’s normal. Or maybe it’s like me this summer where my work has paid the price because I needed to spend more time with my kids and on traveling. You can never be all things to all people and your attention has to go where it’s needed. Some plates are going to drop. Just think about it. As a mom, society tells us that we are supposed to run every aspect of the house (cooking, cleaning, groceries, laundry, and about a million other things), everything with the kids (childcare, doctor visits, sports, PTA, teachers, homework

Every single time I go on vacation or towards the end of summer I get a strong urge to get back on schedule and back into my routine. We just got home from our vacation for my 40th birthday in St. Lucia. It was amazing and Bin and I really connected again. So it was amazing. I have been wheels off this summer and barely working. I planned some of this but have definitely gotten less done than I thought and planned for at the beginning of the summer. By the time our trip was coming to an end, I was craving routine and schedules. So I thought about it for a bit on the plane ride home and decided to get it together and start the next week fresh and with a schedule. Today, I’m going to share the 4 steps I took to get me back on track. 1. Get back on a good sleep schedule. Sleep is super important and really plays the leading role in your life. Everything from weight loss to concentration and especially productivity. So this is where I started. I made a conscious decision to focus on getting at least 7 ½ hours per

I’m 40.  Now what? 3 Things I’m going to do differently. Turning 40 hasn’t been as traumatic as turning 30 was for me.   I feel like I have it a little more together than I did back then. A lot has happened in the last 10 years. I’ve had 3 kids 5 surgeries I broke my 1st bone We live in a bigger house We bought a rental property I drive a minivan I’m not active in the senior living industry anymore I started 2 businesses I have to color my hair regularly to cover gray I lost my 2 fur babies I’ve been to 12 countries I wouldn’t change any of those things because they make me who I am today. However, there are a few things that I do want to change now that I don’t want to take with me for the next 40 years of my life. Negative Self-talk I have decided to quit this habit.  This is a serious problem for me. I recently heard a quote from Brooke Castillo.  She said something like we need to talk to ourselves like we are supporting a friend.  We would never talk to someone we were responsible for helping the wa

We all get stuck in a funk sometimes.   We have days when we wake up and just can’t muster the energy or motivation to get anything done. I recently went through this, it’s miserable. I really didn’t want to get out of bed. At first, I thought maybe I was getting sick or fighting something off but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the case. I gave myself a day to rest in case I was fighting something. But when I felt the same way the next day, I knew it was just a funk. A down feeling that I couldn’t shake.   It’s summer, I don’t have a lot of time to get stuff done because of the kids' schedule and vacations. So I have to make the most of my time and this was really annoying me. I made the decision to get out of the funk. Here’s what I did to get out of it. 1.  Drink water I drank a big glass of water.  Most of us are dehydrated and our bodies are something like 70% water so it’s kind of important.  Your brain needs it to function.  2. Listen to a podcast or Abraham hicks to get pumped up This is one of the best w

1) Workaholic - I love Mondays Sometimes I love working more than other things like dealing with the kids or hubby or house stuff Let’s be honest, screaming kids, hubby, or laundry or making dinner isn't exactly fun stuff I’m a data junkie & strategy junky so I can get lost in work forever and be happy 2) I have body image issues like crazy I’m have tried every single diet, every single gimmick. In college, I used to be extremely restrictive and used to purge after binges it was an ugly cycle.  I don’t do that anymore and haven’t in 15 years or so. I spend a crapload of hours each week thinking about my weight, what I’m going to eat what I will do for exercise I hide from pictures I have so much negative self-talk about this it’s ridiculous But I’m working at it.  I actually just started a new 6-week course that should help me with all of the mental stuff around my issues 3)  I had a hysterectomy and a tummy tuck I’m on estrogen and testosterone And I still don’t have the body that I want 4)  I can

Last week we talked about being kind to yourself and adjusting your schedule for more time with the kids and vacation. So today let’s kick ass during the time we are actually working.  Here are my 5 strategies to get more done in less time. Templates - If you find yourself doing anything more than once, create a template.  Stop recreating the wheel every time you need to do any of these: Emails: If you write the same type of email over and over create canned responses that you can copy and paste.  Then all you need to do is tweak and send. Graphics: Creating similar graphics for social media or blog posts, create a template and then just switch out the image or change the color and text. Blog Posts or Show Notes - create a shell so that they look cohesive and you can just pop in the new info but the format is the same Spreadsheets: Any spreadsheet you make more than once Timers - you guys know my love of timers but in case you haven’t heard here it is.  I do amazing under pressure and sometimes all I ne

This episode is short! Be kind to yourself.  Stop trying to be everything to everyone and just slow down and enjoy the time you have with your kids this summer. I'm on vacation at the beach with my kids so I'm taking my advice and accepting that I can't get it all done right now.   Have a great week!

Top 10 Tools for Work At Home Moms Alright, moms!  Here are my top tools for work at home moms.   They might not be typical tools you’re used to hearing about but these have definitely made my life easier.  I hope they can do the same for you. So let’s get to it.   I’m going to talk about tools for the home first. These are my favorite tools that I use weekly if not daily. 1. Alexa – Amazon Echo Dot or Siri or Google Assistant I use Alexa and talk to her all day.  She tells me the weather, the news, she sets timers for me (and y’all know how much I love timers from episode 4), and I ask her all sorts of random questions. My kids love her too.   They love the bedtime stories skill, the interactive Open the Secret Door Story, they ask her to fart (yes you read that right) and the all the random facts that they ask her. Plus they can play all the Kidz Bop songs they want. My 3-year-old even know how to pair Alexa to bluetooth.   So it’s definitely a good tool for both me and my kiddos. Check out Alexa HERE. The

The Power of the Mastermind They say it takes a village to raise your kids well, I believe that it takes a village to raise your business too. Today is all about support and having a village for your business. Have you ever heard of a mastermind group? Simply put, it's a group of people that come together to work on their goals and get feedback from the other members. Napoleon Hill, the father of masterminds and author of Think and Grow Rich (one of my favorite books), attributes his success and the success of other high performers to the power of masterminds. Here’s a little backstory on my mastermind experience. I have been in a mastermind group since 2013.  I started my first mastermind not even knowing what that was. I just knew that I needed other like-minded business owners to be around and run things by them. I found out that other small local senior living business owners were craving that same connection. So we started with our group of five and we met for 8 months.  It was great at first but then we

Today, Christine and I will be digging into how to make your business legal (#protectyourself), raising three kids under 3 while starting her virtual law firm and what it's like to have a spouse that's an entrepreneur too.  Check it out! Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss: The most important thing business owners need to do get legal. Her tips on having the right contracts in place. What it's like to have three kids under 3 years old while starting a virtual law firm. The ins and outs of Christine and her hubby being entrepreneurs. Links mentioned in this episode: Fincher Stroud Law Free Online Business Starter Kit Thanks for Listening! Check out these recent episodes: Do You Need a Momcation? Why I Think You Should Travel with Your Kids Online Business and the Mommy Juggle with Erin Chase How to Make $10k a Month as a Virtual Assistant To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Ask a question over on hello@MommysHomeOffice.com To help out the show: Leave an honest review on

Why I think you should travel with your kids. So take whatever romanticized idea of a family vacation and toss it right out.  Traveling with your kids is not for the weak. But it is amazing and opens the world to them and I want you to travel with your kids. Ok so you might have young kids, what’s the point right?  They’ll never remember any of it anyway. Well, we are literally learning from the day we are born, like little sponges. So it’s totally not wasted on littles. We took our kids to Vietnam 2 years ago for my sister-in-law’s wedding.  At that time, they were almost 6, 3 and 20 months. My oldest remembers a lot, my middle guy and little remember probably because of the stories we tell with our pictures. But they talk about it all of the time. Going abroad or even just to different places in the US exposes them to different people, cultures and situations.   It can help open their eyes to the larger world around them.

Happy Mother’s Day to all my mama’s out there.  I hope your day was full of love and family. And today’s topic is right in line with Mother’s day and self-care. I know you’ve heard it before… You need to take care of yourself. Well, how do you do it? For me, it’s daily.  I give myself 5 minutes to meditate, eat good food, move my body and sneak in a little guilty pleasure screen time.   But once or twice a year I like to take a momcation. What is a momcation?  It’s a vacation from being a mom.  Don’t get me wrong, I love being a mom but sometimes I need a break. A momcation can be anything really.   It could be having the kids in school or daycare or at a friends house and staying in bed all day with Netflix.   It could be leaving the kiddos with dad for a few hours on the weekend and getting a massage and going to lunch. It could be girls weekend or anything that gets you back to feeling like you and just a mom stuck on the mom hamster wheel. My momcations usually consists of me going to a hotel for at least

Online Business and the Mommy Juggle Today, Erin and I will be digging into how she makes online business work for her family of 6.  Plus, we get to learn about all about her meal planning tools. Check it out! Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss: How Erin accidently became an entrepreneur. Her tips on how moms can separate biz time from family time. Erin's tools that help you feed your family on a budget. Check out these highlights: How her recipe blog turned into a business. [2:07] Writing a cookbook and how she managed her littles.  [3:50] She finally had to get some help.  [4:18] Figuring out the family/biz balance.  [5:44] Erin and the Miracle Morning. [10:20] All of the awesome tools for feeding your family that Erin offers. [12:48] Freeze Easy Meals and how it evolved. [14:47]  Intentional Bites Planner is almost here [17:00] Links mentioned in this episode: 5 Dollar Dinners FreezEasy Meals Online Business Starter Kit Thanks for Listening!  Check out these recent episodes: The 10 Tools I Use t