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The Challenges of Being a Single Mother

Being a mother is something that I love. However, it isn’t something I always knew would happen. I spent my teenage years swearing I would never have kids. It wasn’t until I was in my late twenties that I even considered motherhood. Since I never really imagined being a mother, I certainly didn’t imagine being a single mother. There are a lot of challenges that motherhood presents. Add in being single and not having the support of the father to the mix and it becomes more difficult. There is no doubt that motherhood is very rewarding. Being a single mother … Continue reading →

Working in Bursts and Batches

I often write about time management and how to carve out efficient time for working at our home businesses. In fact, I often talk about how to protect your work time and create long stretches in order to stay focused and get things done. It dawns on me, however, that many us really do our best work in spurts—we only have time or energy for a little burst here or there and we work in batches instead of being able to spread things out over hours and days. This needs to be an okay way of working at a home … Continue reading →

A Single Parent on the Job—Part One—Supportive Work Environments

One of the typical realities of single parenthood is that single parents have to work. Now, I know that not all single parents also have to work to provide an income and support for their families, but this is true for most of us. As working single parents, many of us face particular issues on the job related to how we are able to work and juggle our family obligations. I think the most important element to being able to successfully juggle work and family as a single parent is to find a work environment that is understanding and supportive … Continue reading →

Can a Single Parent Home School?

The answer, in a nutshell, is of course a single parent can home school. It just might take more time management and coordinated logistics than a stay-at-home parent with spousal support. As one single parent who has and does home school (not all my children all the time, I admit), I can testify that it can be done, it just takes some focus, planning, and flexibility. The age of the child will have a direct impact on how you can go about home schooling. A younger, elementary-age child will need much more direct supervision and guidance than an older teenager … Continue reading →

How’s Your Time Management?

If I was to name one skill that I have had to cultivate and build upon in the course of my adult life, it would be time management. As a single parent of three, often working several jobs, running a household, parenting, volunteering, etc.–juggling and managing time is the thread that holds my precarious world together. Running our own home businesses takes a great deal of multitasking and planning–not to mention wrestling time and trying to stay motivated and efficient! Periodically, I like to do a “time management checkup”–just looking over my day and my activities to see if I … Continue reading →

10 Tips to Finding Time to Exercise

We’ve talked about the reasons to exercise and the need for consistency in your fitness program. Now, I want to give you 10 tips to help you find the time to perform your exercise – this important – because the most common reason I have ever heard from individuals about why they don’t exercise is: I don’t have time. 10 Tips to Finding Time to Exercise Learn to Moderate Your Commitments – Helping out others is great and volunteering is admirable, but if you over commit yourself, you will find your time evaporating. It is important to take the time … Continue reading →

How to Live on One Income

Is your goal to live on one income so you or your spouse can be a stay-at-home parent, pursue schooling, keep house, or another establish another endeavor? Take the following steps to make sure that you are well prepared for your lifestyle change. Get a New Attitude If you are currently living on two incomes, you may need to make some changes, both drastic and non-drastic in order to make the one income work for your family. Embrace money-saving ideas, such as shopping at yard sales or thrift stores, cooking at home, and bargain hunting. Look at these practices as … Continue reading →

Using Your Phone To Manage Your Life

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Remember the day you separated from your ex husband? For many of us that was the day that divided our neat, orderly life from the chaos that reigns today. Let’s face it, it’s hard to be all things to all people, especially when those people aren’t even old enough to cross the street alone. What am I saying? It’s not hard, it’s impossible. All we can do is keep trying to find new ways to get some semblance of control and order in our lives, or make peace with the chaos. For me the only thing that works is lists, … Continue reading →

Greenbuild International Conference and Expo

If you are in Phoenix, Arizona between November 11 and 13, consider yourself lucky! The annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo is going to be there too! What is Greenbuild? It is the largest conference devoted to green building. It will feature prominent speakers such as Daniel Wildcat. Daniel, a Native American is the director of the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. Wildcat hosted an event at the 25th annual Earth Day in which Native American scientists, engineers, and elders talked about the change needed for a healthy planet. He also helped … Continue reading →

Teaching Kids about Responsibility

Today, I opened up the family store. Our family store is a little method that we use to help teach our children about responsibility and about money management. At the same time, the kids get to rediscover old toys, weed out unloved toys and become appreciative for what they have. So far, it seems to be working. This is how our family store works. First, it requires inventory. While we encourage our kids to put away their things every day, that just doesn’t always happen. So we give them a deadline. The downstairs has to be picked up by the … Continue reading →