A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

I barely got out of bed in time this morning to get Pumpkin up and get her ready for school. I threw on the hideous red sweatpants and stained t-shirt I had on yesterday as soon as I got up. Once I woke up a little, I remembered that I had to go to the phone company and pay part of the cell phone bill while I was out, so I threw on this black denim button-up shirt that I hate. I know they say that black is slimming, but I swear that shirt makes me look twenty pounds heavier.

So I went out and took Pumpkin to school and went to pay the phone bill. I ended up standing in there forever because they were having computer problems and had to call the main office to get my balance. I finally got out of there and hightailed it home so I could try to get some work done. When I walked into the living room and saw myself in the mirror, I was horrified. Did I really go out of the house like that?

I mean, I usually put on some makeup before I go out, and today was no exception. But wearing what I was wearing, I think not wearing makeup would have been more fitting.

You’re probably thinking I’m vain right about now, but I’m really not. I just like to look presentable when I go out in public. And this morning I was (and still am) anything but. I guess I should give in and wash some clothes so I’ll have something decent to wear.

I got a writing assignment last night that included, among other things, an “About Us” page for a small company. I nearly jumped for joy. I love doing about pages!

I’ve done a few of them, but unfortunately I can’t share most of the links because they’ve been ghostwritten. But I can direct you to the About page for TBA Deals, because that’s my site.

The one in the example is rather short and to the point, because that’s how I (usually) write when writing for myself. But given enough information, I can write much longer about pages, and optimize them for the search engines if requested. So… if there’s anybody out there who needs an About page for a website or blog, I’m here for you. My prices are quite reasonable, but they do vary based on number of words requested and how much (if any) research is necessary.

Interested? Email me at kristy at awahmsblog dot com (without the spaces). One day I’ll take the time to learn how to do links to email addys in javascript, but until then I have to do something to reduce spam.

It’s the end of the month, and we’re all but broke. At least I did manage to buy some groceries last night. If I didn’t have to keep up our eating habit, I might have been able to pay one bill anyway.

Our cell phones are probably going to be cut off, and our satellite and long distance are in danger as well. But those are things we can live without if necessary, so I’m not stressing out over them too much. The thing that did have me worried was the car insurance. I pay it by the month, and it’s coming up on 20 days late. I knew the company would be none too happy, so I was trying to find a way to scrounge up enough money to pay it. I called Hubby and asked if he had any idea how much the pawn shop would loan on my rifle, and that’s saying something considering how this mountain woman doesn’t like to be without protection.

Hubby said that he thought he had enough to add to the tiny amount in the bank account to cover it, and we would get it all figured out this evening. Then I turned on my computer and saw that I had received an email from the insurance company saying that new activity had been posted to my account. Uh-oh.

I held my breath and logged in. And it said that I have until the 17th of next month to pay without being canceled! I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

The bad news on that front is that we have to pay an outrageous late fee. But I’m just glad that I don’t have to worry about it being canceled over a matter of a few days. Now if I didn’t have that to worry about with everything else, that would be great.

This time of year in the mountains is always interesting, to say the least. One day it’s almost warm enough to wear shorts, and the next you’re freezing your buttocks off. That has been the story for the past couple of weeks here.

There have been a few days that made me want to break out the camping gear and go be one with nature. Then, this morning, Hubby said it was cold out, so I put on my corduroy jacket and went out to start my truck to take Pumpkin to school. As soon as I came back in, I hightailed it to the closet, put the reasonably warm jacket up, and got out my thick coat.

I’m just glad we still have a few warm days every now and then. In a month or less, it’ll probably be back to the deep freeze for a looooong time.

I had more Internet trouble over the weekend, and now I’m even further behind on my work. I think my ISP should have to reimburse me for the work time I lost. But that’s a pretty unrealistic expectation.

Things got back to normal as far as connectivity yesterday, and I had to bust my butt to get some work done that was due on Sunday. And now I think I might have to do some rewrites, because I slightly misunderstood some of the titles. I think I got all of the topics right, but some of them were supposed to be like top 5 or 10 lists and I missed that part. And I didn’t realize it at all until I had already finished them and sent them in. Nice one, Kristy.

Today I need to do some work on the monstrous project. I definitely have to have that one out of my hair within a couple of weeks at least. And like a big goof, I accepted some more work that needs to be done by Friday! At least that one is not required, I just get a bonus if I do get it done. So it’s not the end of the world if I don’t make it.

Today started out so bad, I just wanted to crawl back into bed and not get back up. It’s not just me having bad luck either. It seems like there’s something in the air that’s just screwing everything up.

Hubby had some stuff to do today, so he left around 7:00 this morning. I lay in bed for a while, then decided to get up and get in the shower and try to get some work done while Pumpkin slept in. The first thing I noticed when I got up was the fact that my least favorite time of the month was here. Lovely way to start your day, no?

Anyway, I took my shower, got dressed, and turned my computer on to warm up so I could get started working. I had breakfast, then came in the office to get to work… and my Internet connection was nonexistent. I fiddled around with the computer for a few minutes, then decided to cut straight to the chase and call tech support. After being on hold for about 15 minutes, someone came on and informed me that they were having an outage. In a way I was relieved to know that it wasn’t on my end, but I know how long it takes them to get these things straightened out so I wasn’t happy.

I decided to take the opportunity to do a full virus scan, since it had been a while since I did one. Once I got it started, I went in the kitchen and ran some dish water. I got the washing side full, and started running rinse water. Then when that side was about half full, the water pressure took a nose dive. Suddenly we had no water whatsoever. Great.

There was no one home at the landlords’, so I just went on about my business. I was able to do the dishes, rinsing was just a little tricky. But I had planned on washing some clothes and cleaning the bathroom when I got done, and those plans had to be put on hold.

When I was done with the dishes I came to check on the computer. Wouldn’t you know, I had a virus. I’m normally extremely careful to avoid them, but I had a lapse the other day and I’m pretty sure I know where it came from. It doesn’t appear to have done any damage, but I’m going to investigate further.

My Internet was still down, so I shut off the computer and started folding clothes. It was one thing I could think of that I really needed to do that didn’t require water. When I was almost done with them, the landlady called and asked if we had water. I told her we didn’t, and she said they didn’t either. As it turned out, the switch on the pump had frozen. No biggie, and they had it fixed in about a half hour.

When I got done folding clothes, I started cleaning the bathroom. I decided that the toothbrushes needed to be boiled since we have all been sick. So I put them all in a pot and turned them on. Meanwhile Hubby called and asked me to get some clothes out for him and his friend. They had fallen in the river and were freezing their butts off.

I got the clothes out and checked on the toothbrushes, which were just starting to boil and appeared to be fine. I let them boil for five minutes, then poured them out in the bathroom sink and rinsed them off. All were fine, except for my new one. It was apparently made of a type of plastic that can’t withstand boiling, and it is now shaped sort of like a shoehorn. Good thing I didn’t throw my old one away yet.

Hubby and friend got home and got changed, and after they went back out I came to check on my Internet and it was on. So all is pretty much back to normal now. I’m just going to have to work late tonight to make up for lost time, because I have a bunch of articles due tomorrow. But at least I have a reasonably good chance of getting them done.

Mine was good, thanks. We went up to my mom’s for dinner, and had lots and lots of food. Nobody ever goes to her house for a holiday and leaves hungry.

I got to see my sis and her family, which I hadn’t seen in its entirety in who knows how long. Those kids have grown so much! Thankfully they’ve calmed down somewhat too. There was a time when I almost dreaded seeing them coming, even though they are my nieces and nephew. But Pumpkin played with the younger two quite a bit, and everything went pretty smoothly and a good time was had by all.

I didn’t get to see my brother and his family for long, because they went to eat with his wife’s parents before coming over. But I got to sit and talk to everyone for a while anyway.

We left and came back home and had a couple of friends over to celebrate Hubby’s birthday. I felt like crap because I wasn’t able to get him anything, but I’ll make it up to him sometime. We all had a blast, and that’s the most important thing.

I had a lot of issues with self-esteem when I was growing up. I struggled with my weight, experimenting with anorexia and bulimia at times. I would lose weight, but it was never enough, and I would end up giving up. I guess those are two things that it’s good to give up on.

The summer after I turned 15, I decided to start working out regularly. I didn’t dedicate my life to it, but I started walking four or five days a week, using my mom’s stair stepper, and doing sit-ups. I kept it up for a long time, and I lost about 25 pounds. By then I was skinny as a rail, ribs sticking out, but I started getting really muscular thighs from all of the exercising. I quit working out because I didn’t want to have to buy bigger shorts to accommodate them.

The self-esteem issues were pretty pervasive up until a few years ago. Don’t get me wrong- I still have lots of things that I would like to change about myself. I weigh more now than I ever have, and I don’t like to go out of the house without enough makeup to cover up my recurring breakouts and enhance my features. But there are things that I love about my appearance, such as the fact that everyone thinks I’m about 10 years younger than I really am. And at any rate, the way I look is not the be-all and end-all of my existence.

The Next Generation

Pumpkin is only in first grade, and she already has issues with her appearance. She has the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen (took it after Hubby), and yet she says she wishes it were like mine. That’s sweet and all, and I would trade with her in a heartbeat. But I worry about her having more hangups as she gets older.

I try to do everything I can to build her self-esteem, but it’s not easy when I’ve always had issues myself. She’s got a little belly on her (not nearly as much of one as I had at her age though), due to her extremely healthy appetite. And I find myself struggling to find the right way to tell her that she needs to eat healthier foods without making her self-conscious. And I must admit that although I want her to be healthy, part of the issue is that I don’t want her to go through the teasing and criticism I did.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty

I recently got the privilege of an inside look at Dove’s latest efforts in their Campaign for Real Beauty. I had heard of it and seen the commercials and thought it sounded great, but hadn’t gotten around to checking it out on the web. After taking a look, I truly believe that it’s something that every mother with a daughter needs to see.

Their latest project is the Dove Reality Diaries, a web series of confessionals from teen girls about how self-esteem has affected their lives. It reveals just how universal the issue is. The site is geared toward teens and preteens, but I took a lot away from it too. I saw a lot of things that reminded me of myself when I was younger while watching.

But why are things that way? A big part of the picture is how the media portrays women. The video above shows an example of what takes place from the time that a model shows up for a photo shoot until her photo hits the billboard. Things like this portray an unrealistic picture of what girls and women should aspire to, and when we miss the mark, we often feel inadequate. And in the case of kids, they often pick on other kids because of their own self-esteem issues, making them feel even worse and starting a pattern for a lifetime of problems.

The media needs to start recognizing that beauty does not mean that we all have to be super-skinny, blond, and perfectly symmetrical. The world is beautiful because everybody doesn’t look the same. Dove is doing a wonderful thing by promoting these types of ideas to the young girls of today. They have resources for both mothers and daughters on their site, so go visit them yourself and introduce your daughters to the videos and interactive activities.

Before I became a writer, I sought out inbound home call center work. While I don’t have any experience in an actual call center, I have done a good bit of in-person customer service work. Unfortunately, the only company I could find that would hire me did cold calling. I gave it my best shot, but I was just not cut out for it.

I recently got the opportunity to review The Little White Ebook of Homeshoring Jobs, a book about home-based call center work. The first thing that jumped out at me is that it’s far from little. It’s 213 pages! But the truly astounding thing is that there’s no filler in all of those pages. It’s 100% useful information for anyone who is looking to get started in home-based call center work.

The beginning of the ebook tells us how to prepare for a job in these companies. It goes over the experience needed, how to make your resume as attractive as possible, and even how to ace the interview. The remainder is filled with detailed profiles of companies that hire home-based professionals (178 of them to be exact). It provides links to the company website, online discussions about them, and their BBB reports. It tells about scheduling, pay rate, and whether they hire employees or contractors. And it tells about specific requirements for each company.

If you’re considering applying for home-based call center work, this book is exactly what you need. I have a friend who has been trying to get such a job, and you can bet I’ll be recommending this to her.

When I took my lunch break, I turned on the tube to see if I could find something to watch while I was eating. My beloved Rock Fest was on VH1 Classic, so I was happy. It was something I could watch without getting too attached to when it was time to get back to work.

They were playing some pretty awesome tunes, so I decided to leave it on and listen while I worked. I came back in the office, got back to work, and rocked out. Then the rocking stopped, and something that sounded like one of those trippy old kids’ movies started.

I thought it was just the beginning to another video, but this went on for about 10 minutes. I finally decided to get up and investigate. It turned out that The Song Remains the Same, the Led Zeppelin movie, was on. And I was missing it!

I wanted so badly to sit down and watch it. But it lasts 3 hours with commercials, and I need to spend that time working. I would have recorded it, but if I had done that I would have wanted to start from the very beginning. I’m weird like that.

So, heavy-hearted, I turned the TV off and came in the office and sat back down. Then I looked at the clock and realized that I’m also missing Steve Wilkos. Noooo!!!!

The TV is becoming way too big of a distraction. If I had my way, I’d just sell it and use the money to help pay the bills. But Hubby and Pumpkin would both flog me if I did.