Work at Home Moms Articles – WAHM Articles

One of our newest authors is Julie DeHart, who is a homeschooling stay-at-home-mom and a missionary serving the urban poor in the Philippines.

If you’ve been visiting WAHM-Articles and reading our weekly WAHM Tips newsletter lately, you will already be familiar with Julie and her wonderful articles on cooking and parenting. I hope we will have the opportunity to publish many more of them and share them with you!

You can learn more about Julie by visiting her website Keep-Your-Home-Cooking.com

Welcome Julie!

~ Denise

I just started mine tonight. I have never left it this late before, but these last few weeks have been too hectic for me to get it done. There is one redeeming point about leaving your Christmas shopping to one week before Christmas though. You’re under pressure so it’s much easier to make decisions! But it’s still not so last minute that you’re making bad decisions.

How about you? Is your Christmas shopping done?

~ Denise

Another successful work-at-home-mom recently joined us at WAHM-Articles!

Jennifer May is a WAHM who  enjoys helping, sharing and supporting WAHMs -   those looking to work at home and those who already do.  She is already a Professional Writer for Examiner.com and runs a  Home Business with Ameriplan .

She’s dedicated to the online WAHM community and owns two very successful work at home groups on Cafemom – I Want to Work at Home! and Work at Home Directory

Thank you for joining us Jennifer, and we look forward to publishing many of your WAHM articles!

I know I am.

As I’m trying to get this blog post up, I’m wondering what the kids decided to make themselves for lunch. I hope they remembered to include at least one vegetable!

And the accumulation of cat hair in my office is starting to make me sneeze. I REALLY need to find some time to vacuum today.

Oh, and I’m wondering if the potential client who contacted me last week was pleased with my proposal. I still haven’t heard from her…

You see? It’s enough to drive me to… to distraction!

Here are some ways I’ve found of working around all these niggly things that scream for my attention.

1. Put my headphones on and play some soft music. It really does help! All of a sudden, I can’t hear the kids arguing in the next room. (They’re teenagers, so they can handle most disagreements on their own.) The voices in my head reminding me of everything else I have to do quiet down, and I just focus on the music and what I have to do right now.

2. Write a to-do list. Whenever an idea pops into my head, I jot it down on a list. Whether it’s something I have to do later, or an exciting new idea I want to pursue, it’s written down so I don’t have to remember it anymore. Instead, I can return to it when I’m ready.

3. Schedule lots of breaks into my day. For a long time, I was in the trap of believing that since I could work whenever I wanted, I had to work ALL the time! I’ve found I’m much more productive when I give myself plenty of breaks to take care of household chores, talk to the kids, or even read a few pages of a book. When I return to my desk, I’m refreshed and able to concentrate again.

4. Take care of whatever is bugging me. Sometimes it’s one big thing that’s really driving me crazy and keeping my attention from where it should be. I’ve learned the big thing sometimes is to just deal with it. Usually, it’s something I’ve been procrastinating on, or something I don’t like to do. But once I take care of it, the distraction is gone and I’m ready to handle everything else.

What are your biggest distractions when you work at home?

What are your secrets for dealing with your distractions?

Denise Willms is a Virtual Assistant and work-at-home-mom to two teens. You can find more articles about working at home by visiting WAHM-Articles.com

Another writer who recently joined our community of authors is Devon of Vintage VA. Welcome, Devon!

Like most of us, Devon is a work at home mom and wants to share what she’s learned with others who want to work at home too. She’s planning to write about Virtual Assistance, internet marketing, and working from home.

Thank you for joining WAHM-Articles,  Devon, and we’re excited to see what you have to share with us!

~ Denise

I have another new author to announce today!

Work at home mom, Kari Day,  joined the WAHM-Articles family a few days ago.

Kari runs an online business, a home daycare, and takes care of her family of five. She really is the perfect picture of a successful WAHM!

Kari is going to be writing about how to make all the various aspects of your life work together…  the mom thing, the business thing, the faith thing.

Kari, thank you for becoming a member of WAHM-Articles! We’re thrilled to have you!

~ Denise

OK, I’ll admit it.

When I first started my Virtual Assistant business, I did NOT identify myself to anyone as a work-at-home-mom. In fact, I didn’t even think of myself in those terms. I was simply a Virtual Assistant – a professional who worked from home.

You know, even when my kids were younger and I ran a daycare in my home, I didn’t consider myself a work-at-home-mom. I was a childcare provider who operated out of her home.

I had this idea that calling myself a WAHM would undermine the image of professional business person that I wanted to create. True, I was a mom of two kids, and I was working at home. So technically the title fit, but I wanted nothing to do with it.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I became comfortable enough with the name to try it out. Now I’m comfortable with it, and identifying myself as a work at home mom makes me part of a community that I’m very honored to know.

This past week I had a meeting with a local businessman. He had heard there are a lot of moms out there looking for work they can do while they’re home with their kids. So, he’d been researching some WAHM job boards in hopes of finding one who could help him.

Unfortunately, after doing his research, he’d come to the conclusion that work-at-home-moms are a bunch of women with kids who want to make a quick buck from home, without doing any real work.

His statement made me feel really sad, mostly for the particular women he had found. Because obviously they wanted to make money from home but were clueless about how to going about it. It also saddened me because that is a poor reflection of the WAHM community I’ve come to know and love.

He was a little bit surprised when I told him I was a work-at-home-mom too. I certainly didn’t come across like other work-at-home-moms he had heard about. I hope I helped change his perspective a little bit.

If you’re starting out as a work-at-home-mom, remember that all the success you want is yours for the taking. The down side: It doesn’t come easy. The plus side: You’re in excellent company.

~ Denise

Ivette Muller, a copywriter who has just started a Virtual Assistant business,  is one of our newest authors at WAHM-Articles.com

You can read her blog at WAHM BAHM , which stands for (and I just LOVE this!) Work at Home Mom, Busy and Happy Mom. Which is what all of us want to be!

With over 20 years of sales and customer service experience, 15 years of retail management experience and 8 years of marketing and public relations experience, you know that Ivette will have valuable work-at-home information for all of our readers.

Thank you Ivette, for joining the WAHM-Articles family of authors!

Be sure to keep an eye on the new articles published at WAHM-Articles.com to learn what Ivette has to share with us.

~ Denise

Do you remember the day the Berlin Wall came down?

It was November 9, 1989. I was 19 and I remember being in class at the university when I heard the news.

That moment is one of those things that has stayed with me over the years because it was the first time I really understood that a group of people, united in a single cause, could create a world of a difference.

It was also poignant for me because all four of my grandparents were from Russia. They had been able to escape to freedom after Russia joined the Soviet Union, just before the borders closed.  Many of my relatives chose to stay behind, hoping the political climate would change. But by the time they realized it was only getting worse, it was too late for them to leave.

Because my ancestors were Mennonites who had migrated to Russia from Prussia during the 1700′s at the invitation of Catherine the Great , and were given special treatment in a country where too many others were starving, they were the target of much antagonism during the Russian Revolution.  Many of my family members who didn’t escape when my grandparents did have long disappeared. Some we know were sent to Siberia and were never heard from again.

The wall coming down was the first wave of a tide that would sweep across Eastern Europe and dissolve the Soviet Union in 1991.

When I think back to my grandparents and great-grandparents choosing to leave everything and everyone they knew so they could raise their families in freedom, I am overwhelmed.  To pack up their young children, everything they could carry, to travel on a 6-week voyage to a country they had never seen, with a language they had never heard… to me, in my life of freedom and choice, it is almost unfathomable.

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada, and Veterans Day in the United States. It is a day when I remember how grateful I am that there have been people throughout history and today, who stand together and choose to make a difference.

Sometimes it is by donning a uniform and taking up a weapon.  Sometimes it is giving up their lives for generations of people they will never meet. Sometimes, as in the case of my grandparents and great-grandparents, it is giving up everything you know for the promise of something better.

On this day, as I am home with my children, with the freedom to teach them what I want, to travel where I want, and to work where I want, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone who has united across the centuries for my freedom.

Thank you.

~ Denise

Today we’re starting a new feature on the WAHM-Articles blog. We’re going to be announcing our new authors when they’re approved. That way you’ll know a bit about their background, and can look forward to the articles they’ll be writing.

I’m so pleased to announce that Angie Newton of Losing It And Loving It has become a WAHM-Articles author!

I’ve been getting to know Angie in our Ning group, and I’m really excited to see what she’ll be sharing with us on the directory.  As you can tell from the title of her blog, she’s going to be writing about  weight loss,  fitness, and eating healthy. All good things that a lot of us need to be reminded of.

Angie, thank you for becoming a member!

To read new articles by Angie and our other authors, you can visit WAHM-Articles.com and search for articles on topics you’re interested in or read the newly added articles.

~ Denise