This summer’s school break is great for parents and kids alike. We all have the chance to sleep later and stay up a little bit later, go places and do things that we couldn’t do during the confines of the school year. We got to enjoy life a little more. All of the enjoyment, however, comes at a price. When you’re a work at home mom, the productivity and workload can take a hit.

Summer Income Drop:

Recently I spent a little time analyzing my summer income numbers. It’s no surprise to note that there was a drop in income during the past two months (gasp). I wrote enough to keep income coming in but I wasn’t as prolific during the summer months as I had been in the spring. Luckily I do have a few residual income sources that weren’t affected by my lack of productivity.

Now that it’s time for the kids to go back to school, I’ll be able to re-establish my writing schedule. After all, this is the time of the year when businesses get back to work preparing for the holiday season. As a work at home mom, I’ve got to follow suit.

Lesson Learned:

Write like the dickens during the school year to beef up my residual income sources so that next summer I’ll have a larger residual income check to enjoy.

The other day I was flipping through the channels (yes, when you work from home sometimes you catch a few more TV shows than you’d like to admit to), I saw Maria Shriver on Oprah. I happened to flip at the time when Maria Shriver asked the question, “What do you want to be famous for?”

A little soul searching

Maria Shriver’s question coupled with the very recent and unfortunate passing of a loved one brought the whole legacy and fame issue to the forefront of my mind. I won’t bore you with my personal epiphanies and revelations, but I do want to pose the question to you, on a much less personal note. What do you want your blog to be famous for?

Did you create a blog just for the sake of making money or did you create it because you are passionate about your topic? Did you create your blog to help others or to right a social wrong?

Why I created this blog

Personally, my reason for starting this blog is the realization of a dream that began a little over 17 years ago. Way back then, in the stone ages, before the internet was so commonplace, I wanted to find a way to make money from in a way that would enable me to stay home with my children.

I was able to make a little extra money from home using my typing skills, but not enough to replace the income I was making from my full-time job. My dream way back then was to come up with some type of business whereby parents could earn money from home and not have to worry about putting their children in childcare.

Not being the salesperson type, Tupperware, Avon and all of the “Home Party” type businesses just were not for me. I tried several projects, but they just didn’t seem to work out as I had hoped. Now, several years later, I get a chance to share information and lessons I’ve learned along the way to help other parents become successful in their quest to work from home.

No other option

Now that I’ve rendered myself unemployable, my money making source of choice is through self-employment, of which the Internet plays a major role.

Back to the original question…What do I want this blog to be famous for? I’d like it to be known as a down to earth blog that shoots from the hip to provide information, insight and encouragement for anyone looking for ways to earn money from home.

Only time will tell if I was successful in achieving that legacy.

When you work from home, you tend to blur the lines between work time and down time. I know that when I first started, it seemed like I worked all the time. I enjoy what I do and I also wanted it to become lucrative fast so I spent most of my waking hours at the computer.

Yes, I did manage to throw together a few meals for the family in between writing articles, formatting websites and making blog posts and searching for new opportunities. I also managed to wash a few loads of clothes, go to the grocery store, take the kids to the doctor and the dog to the vet, but the remainder of the time was work, work, work.

Potential Problem #2 – Lack of Exercise

Although my brain and my typing fingers were working overtime, that’s all the physical work that I did (well of course there were the errands). As a result, after a few months of working at home I not only gained an appreciation of the work schedule, I also gained a rather rotund rear end.

It’s not that I changed my eating habits so much; I just changed my movement habits. All work and no exercise makes Felicia a rather round person. It’s not too noticeable because the work at home dress code allowed my mid section to expand because sweat pants are forgiving. It wasn’t until the first social outing where sweatpants were not an option that I rather sadly (and very emotionally) came to the conclusion that I needed to make a change.

Work Habits and Exercise Habits

I then realized, just as I had to develop the work ethic to continually write, find new opportunities and doggedly search for viable income streams, I had to apply the same determination to getting rid of the “work at home” bulge.

I now apply my work at home work ethic to my workouts. The only problem is, I thoroughly enjoy working from home. The workouts…well that’s another matter.

It all comes down to…a person’s gotta do what a person’s gotta do. I want to be healthy enough to enjoy the fruits of my financial labor. How about you?