moms

14 Great Gifts That Every Mom Will Love

April 26, 2018 Leave a Comment

When it comes to buying a gift for a mom, do you stumble around wondering what to do? Join the club. Picking the right gift for moms is an emotional experience. Finding just the right gift to give her is more than shopping, it is our way of conveying heartfelt love and appreciation.

Here are 14 great gift ideas for moms. Click through the list and see if that perfect gift is there, waiting for you!

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Gold Rose Love Forever Long Stem Gold Foil Trim Dipped 24k Real Rose – moms love fresh flowers and they love pictures of flowers, too, but gold covered roses are stunning keepsakes that last forever!

Blisse Essential Oil Diffuser, Gold Diamond trim, Dark Wood color, Rose shape, Ultrasonic Aromatherapy Humidifier, 400ml, modern style, Ultra Quiet, 7-color LED Light, Cool Mist, Child & Pet Safe – does she love scents? Does she use essential oils? Then this stunning diffuser may be just the thing!

#3a

Gift for mom … White love you mom pears …Great handmade gift for that wonderful lady!

#3b

Mom gift … blue love you mom birds -Three handmade clay birds for gift giving, ready to ship Say “Love You Mom” with handmade blue birds instead!

Hammered jewelry necklace for that lady who is mom grandma and greatgrandma too #ad

Mom grandma great-grandma necklace – hammered jewelry – lovely keepsake for her to wear!

Family birthstone necklace – handmade jewelry by Danique. She will love it forever! ♥

Mom Coaster for Coffee Mug – Cute Gifts for Mom from Daughter Son – Engraved Mothers Day Present ideas under 10 dollars Is mom a coffee lover? This sweet gift is so affordable for young kids to buy.

Nespresso VertuoPlus Coffee and Espresso Maker by De’Longhi – now this is a coffee lover’s dream come true. The kids can buy the coaster (above) and you can give her the coffee maker. Wow!

Muggies Best Mom Ever Inspirational 11 oz Personalized Coffee/Tea Mug For Mother and Wife, Great Gift Idea For Her – coffee lovin’ moms will adore using this mug because it is from you!

Flip Belt for Moms Who Walk or Run – waist band cell phone holder! Makes their time out and about so much more enjoyable! Comes in 9 popular colors!

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MAMI WATA Fruit Infuser Water Bottle – Beautiful gift box – Unique Stylish Design – Free fruit infused water recipes eBook and insulating sleeve – 24oz …so pretty!

#11

Women’s Original Frosted Cupcake Apron – one of many cute apron styles for moms who love to cook!

#12

iRobot Roomba 690 Robot Vacuum with Wi-Fi Connectivity, Works with Alexa You may not be able to afford to get her a maid, but you can get her a ROBOT to vacuum the house for her!

#13

Canon EOS Rebel T6 Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm EF-S f/3.5-5.6 IS II Lens + 58mm Wide Angle Lens + 2x Telephoto Lens + Flash + 48GB SD Memory Card + UV Filter Kit + Tripod + Full Accessory Bundle – simply put, it is a really great CAMERA for moms!

#14

Canon PowerShot ELPH 180 20MP 8x Zoom Digital Camera (Silver) + 32GB Card + Reader + Case + Accessory Bundle – another great deal on a great camera w accessories!

14 great gifts that every mom will LOVE ♥ #MothersDay #mom #gifts Click To Tweet

Enjoy!

Top 10 Ways To Be More Productive

December 1, 2017 2 Comments

What is “productivity” anyway? Simply put, productivity is getting more done in less time. For those of us who are way over-booked, finding a little free time would be lovely. Am I right? So, let’s talk about some simple ways get some.

blogging tips, WAHM, time saving, planning, scheduling, success tips

1. Plan Your Day the Night Before. Before you go to bed, make sure to sit down with your planner or calendar and write a to-do list with tasks for the next day. Identify three things: the goals you want to achieve, the tasks you need to finish and how much time it will take to do each thing. This works for two reasons. First, now that you wrote it down you can stop thinking about it and get a good night’s sleep. Second, when you wake up in the morning you will be ready to go – no floundering around wondering where to start!

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2. Find The Right Planning System For You. It doesn’t matter whether you use a notebook or a mobile app to keep on track. Find a system that fits your style. If you are all about technology, Google calendar is a simple FREE app you can use from your computer and on your phone.

My mom had a simple method. She used sticky notes on the bathroom mirror! Mom was a major league organizer and it worked for her. You just don’t mess with success!

Many of us do very well with a planner:

3. Know Your Internal Time Clock. What time of day do you operate best? Early morning just as the sun rises? Later at night, when the kids have gone to bed? Make best use of the time of day that finds you more focused and energetic. Save the “mindless” work for times that your energy levels may be running low.

4. Set Priorities. Let’s say you are more productive in the morning. Do you get up and spend an hour checking email? That may not be the best use of your time. Change it up. Identify the most important jobs to get done first. (Remember, you will be planning all of this the night before.)
What accomplishments will make the biggest impact on the success of your day? Focus on those tasks during high-productivity time.

5. Set Goals and Milestones. Goals keep us motivated. Goals
give your work meaning and purpose. A milestone is simply a
mini-goal. Milestones mark the path along the way.

Example: let’s say you are writing a book. Some milestones might be to finish the outline and then finish the first draft. Next, edit the book. Milestones are like road-markers. They help keep motivation high. You have reached the goal when the whole book is written.

Top 10 ways to be more productive and free up some time #success #tips #life #momlife Click To Tweet

6. Be On The Lookout For Disruptions. The biggest productivity busters are those sneaky interruptions. You know, when the phone rings, your child knocks on the office door, or you glance at Facebook in the middle of a project. Ugh. Got to love them but so much time can be lost! Just be aware.

Top 10 ways to be more productive and FREE up your time! #tips #success

Guard your time. Hang up a “do not disturb“ sign. If you are writing online, sign out. Write in notebook or a Word document, uninterrupted, first. That’s right, leave the internet and WRITE! When it is ready to go, sign back on, copy and paste it into your blog or web page and do your formatting. One of my friends is a very successful, high-earning blogger. She sets apart half a day every week to simply write. No internet. No distractions. It works!

A trick to help #bloggers to be more productive - go offline! #tips #bloggingtips #success Click To Tweet

7. Set a Timer. Using the timer will help you to stay on schedule. A food timer is a better because you can turn OFF your phone! No distractions, remember? If you must complete your work by a certain time, setting a timer will help you to relax and stay in tune with the task at hand. Set it with a little “wiggle room” after it rings so that you are not rushing to your next appointment.

8. Keep a Pen and a Notebook By Your Side. If you are one of those people who always has ideas coming, instead of getting distracted by that new idea, jot it down in your notebook. This also works well when you remember something that you want to do or must do. Just jot it down on the paper and get back to the task at hand.

9. Schedule Administrative Tasks for Down-Time. Just as there is a more productive time of day, there is also a low-energy time when it is harder to stay motivated. That time of day is perfect for administrative tasks. For many, it is the afternoon. Catch up on paperwork. Set up your list for the next day. Next? Leave it. Put your work aside and spend quality time with family and friends.

10. Skip “Perfect!” “Perfect” isn’t real and perfectionism has robbed many a talented person of their productivity. You can get so hyper-focused on making every detail “just so” that the day will run away from you. Get a lot done and go back later to fine-tune.

Reaching goals and milestones feels great and that free-time you are about to come up with is even better! My best advice – savor each moment.

As for me? I am about to take one of those free-time moments – pour myself a great cup of coffee and stare out the window at a beautiful blue sky!

Looking for success? Top 10 ways to be more productive and FREE up your time!

What makes YOU most productive?

Share it with us in the comments!

Enjoy!

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Ways To Streamline Your Responsibilities In The Midst Of A Crisis

July 27, 2017 Leave a Comment

“There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”

Henry Kissinger

Can I get that line engraved on a plaque? I will put it over my desk, and in my kitchen, in the bathroom …and in the car! As Mr. Kissinger implied, if you are going to have a crisis, it really would be nice to be able to schedule it. Crises are unwelcome, unannounced intruders. They just muscle in the door at the wrong time and stay for way too long.

How to streamline your responsibilities in the midst of a crisis. Start with "simple!" #tips

This has been an interesting year – one emergency after another. It started in January with my husband in the hospital with heart trouble. He came home with lots of instructions and not as strong as he had been – but he was getting better. Next, a wind storm came through the region so big that it actually knocked over the boxcars on a freight train! The power in the whole community was out for for days. Power came on and then over 20 inches of snow fell in a day – blizzard! After that was over, life became normal, for a while.

At the end of May, we were back in the thick of it. A number of times in the hospital for hubby. Changes in medications. Loss of mobility for him so almost everything became mine to do. While trying to work everything out as best I could, it became apparent that truly we were in survival mode.

There is a breaking point. This week I finally admitted that I have battle fatigue. I need a mom … or a vacation … or both! Anyone have a mom they can spare for a little while? LOL

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Ways To Streamline Your Responsibilities In The Midst Of A Crisis Click To Tweet

So, today I just took the morning off. No blogging. No cleaning. I just went out on my deck in the sunshine with my cup of coffee and an inspiring book filled with scripture but mostly I prayed. I started with thanksgiving. There are still lots of things to be glad for. Being thankful brings the not-so-good things into perspective. Next, I poured out my requests to the Lord. Then I gently thought about what can be done to minimize so that I can do the things that really need to be done better.

I say “gently” because I wasn’t ready to think too hard about anything so I took my big yellow lab dog, Sadie, for a long overdue walk. Afterward, I came up with some simple things to concentrate on:

1. Recognize what REALLY must be done and what can wait till later or be abandoned forever.

The prioritization would look something like this:

a. paying bills MUST happen

b. balancing the checkbook can wait a few days

c. building my blogging business gets delayed till sometime in the future

2. Accept that some things may need to be done in a smaller way. My house needs cleaned BIG TIME! I absolutely cannot do it. No time. No energy. Not now. So, I picked just one thing I could do. I vacuumed the carpets. I needed some exercise and knew I would feel so much better after they were done. I was right. But I kept the promise I made with myself and stopped cleaning after that was done.

3. Enlist help. I have reserved this for the more important times when I cannot be in two places at once. At those times I will call my kids or my brother and sister-in-law.

What I really need is a maid or super-assistant. That isn’t going to happen (if it does, first thing she does is clean my house!)

In the midst of a crisis? Here are some ways to streamline your responsibilities while you are going through it! #tips #moms #family Click To Tweet

At the risk of sounding all salesy, I am sincere in saying that getting Amazon Prime has lightened my load. I order all sorts of supplies that normally I would go to the store to purchase.

For instance, I needed a couple of long sleeved shirts (our summer has been unusally cool) so I bought them through Amazon. There “how does it fit” feature was perfect. Each top is a keeper! Dog food? Amazon! They brought that big 24 bag right to the door in 2 days – FREE shipping! Office supplies? Of course! No traveling for toner again. Groceries? Yes, I have started buying food supplies through them, as well. Amazon Prime is not a maid but definitely like having a shopping assistant!

4. Conserve energy. Minimize the places you go and the things you do. Pick the most beneficial. Besides going to work and taking hubby to doctor appointments, I made going to a two hour family get together as one of my times out. I needed it! We had such a good time. It was refreshing.

5. Think happy thoughts. Crisis situations can lead to negative talk. The problem is screaming for attention all of the time. We do need somebody to talk to but the tendency can be to repeat the situation over and over again.

A little bit of sharing can be therapeutic but dwelling on it – giving it constant attention – can lead to depression. I totally stopped going on my personal Facebook page and I’ve reduced how many people I share with. I’m believing for this man to be healed. I have to keep my thoughts positive. I stopped watching the news, too. Oh, I keep up-to-date on the basics but I do not feed on it anymore. I’d rather talk and think about good things and I feel much better for it.

Ways To Streamline Your Responsibilities In The Midst Of A Crisis Click To Tweet

So, how about you?

How do you cope with a crisis?

Enjoy!