Captive Mommies

by Myla Madson

When I first got interested in writing an eBook, I scoured the Internet looking for instructions on just exactly how to do it…they didn’t exist.

I found a ton of advice on writing about what you know, how to discipline yourself to write and even schedules for writing. All of that was fine, and even useful, but I needed to know how to actually publish one of the eBooks and nobody was giving me that information. If you are in the same boat, here’s how you do it:

First, you must use Microsoft Word to write your eBook. Make sure you start each new section on a new page. Include a table of contents and a title page. If you are not familiar with this program, search for a tutorial online.

Once you have your eBook written and formatted correctly, you need to get it in PDF format. This is what everyone writing an eBook does now. It’s safer than an .exe fie because you cannot put a virus in it and Internet users are aware of this fact. Also, Mac users can read PDF and you don’t want to exclude anyone.

Adobe Acrobat has a free trial version you can use to publish five eBooks. Go to Adobe Acrobat and set up an account, all you need is an email address.

Click on the button that says “create PDF”. You will see a browse button that allows you to locate your file in your documents folder. Make sure you click on the “Publish as an eBook” selection and then list the pages you want to convert (1-how ever many pages there are).

You will need to select how you want to retrieve your eBook when it is done. I always have them email the link to my eBook. You have five days to pick it up.

Click on the link in your email to pick up your eBook. You will be given the option to view your eBook, which is what you will want to do to make sure everything worked properly. You can then hit the save button within the document and save a copy to your computer. I always save it into my pictures folder for easy upload to my website.

That’s it in a nutshell.

I would certainly recommend you get a detailed instructional course on this subject if you plan to write an eBook to earn money. I have a very in depth Ebook on how to write and publish your eBook on my website. It is free of charge and should be extremely helpful in not only writng your eBook, but marketing it as well.

eBooks are often given away free to build your list of future potential buyers of your products. Make sure you give them value or they will never spend money on something else you have produced. This is why it is so important to do an excellent job writing and formatting your eBook.

You do not have to make it a long ebook, but it needs to answer the readers questions and leave him or her feeling they did not waste their time and can realistically apply what you have taught them.

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For more information on writing, publishing and marketing your eBook, pick up a free 168 page copy of my latest eBook titled, “eBook Marketing Revealed…How to Write, Publish and Market Your Own eBook”. http://MylaMadson.com/friendsofmyla
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Article Source: http://www.thewahmshack.com/articledirectory
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by Stephanie Foster

Back to school means it’s time to go over your child’s wardrobe. What fits, what doesn’t, what’s stained, what’s plain worn out?

Even if there’s still a good selection of clothes you’ll probably still do some back to school shopping. What child doesn’t like having a new outfit for the first day of school?

This can also start the annual debate… what kind of clothes are you willing to buy for your child?

I’m lucky. My daughter is 6 and still doesn’t care about brand names, although if you put a princess on it she’ll want it. I don’t expect that situation to last forever. Not for the brand names, and please oh please not the princesses!

But problems can be more than just the brand names. You may not approve of current fashions. Too short skirts for girls, questionable sayings and sometimes just plain ugly (to your eyes anyhow) clothes. Shopping’s a pain if you don’t agree on the basic styles to buy.

Fortunately when you’re the parent, you can decide what you will spend your money on for your child’s wardrobe. You earned it after all. If he or she doesn’t like it, that’s their problem.

And if they’re old enough to buy their own, you’re still the parent and you can set rules for the kinds of clothes that can be worn.

I don’t recommend being an utter tyrant about it, of course. Appropriate compromise can make life much more pleasant for both of you.

At my daughter’s age, we start out with appropriate clothes, but she gets to decide how she combines them. As she has absolutely no sense of what goes with what, her clothing combinations can look ridiculous, but she’s happy. I’m content so long as it’s appropriate to the weather.

In contrast, I see many of her classmates already in carefully coordinated outfits. I don’t know whether it’s the child making that choice or the parents, but that makes little difference to me. My daughter is happy and in clothes that she is not feeling self conscious about.

I gather it can be somewhat different for boys, as many are reputed to care less about what they wear, or have a single favorite item that must be worn repeatedly. My son right now has a few favorites, but at age 3 it’s out of sight out of mind.

But just as with girls it comes down to which battles are worth fighting. So long as the clothes are kept reasonably presentable, is it a disaster if he chooses to wear the same shirt frequently?

That said, there are some fashions I really hope aren’t popular when my son gets older. Just for the sheer sloppiness of it.

Whatever your family rules are, start out by shopping accordingly and don’t overdo it. It’s very easy to buy more outfits than a child needs, which wastes money and increases the mess in their bedrooms. Remember that you can always add more if what you start out with at the beginning of the school year turns out to be insufficient.

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Stephanie Foster blogs at http://www.homewiththekids.com/blog/ about being a work at home mom. Get more tips on getting ready for back to school on a budget

by crackmarketing

Henry ward Beecher once said, “The mother’s heart is a child’s class room”. This is quite true. Being a mother, you can teach your child through the process of homeschooling. This is one of the best options if you want your child to be safe from the dangerous public situations and inculcate strong family bonds in him or her. For moms, this is the most exciting and rewarding journey to play the role of both as a mother and teacher. These days quite a number of such homeschooling moms could be found in church and towns. However, there are certain steps to follow, not only to be successful in homeschooling, but also prove to be beneficial for the mothers.

Here are some homeschooling tips for mothers, to help guide them through the process of teaching.

Be clear with your approach: First make a firm decision to opt for homeschooling and you should have a strong reason, why you opted for it. There could be many reasons such as safety of your child, individual attention in academics, religious or philosophical. You should be very much clear with your approach, before you plan out for your homeschooling program of your own and execute the program to guide your children in the right track.

Update self with the homeschooling programs: Usually education laws change and varies in different town and state. It would be better, if you can consult the local school district authority to know the basic requirements of the homeschooling programs in your area. Some of the schools may require a strict curriculum, whereas others may specify particular subjects to be covered.

Be flexible and patient: Till now you were playing the role of a mother, but now having decided to homeschool your child, you become a teacher as well. It is a very difficult job, as some moms could be pushovers. But, on the other hand the teacher ’s qualities in you would expect excellence, as the target or goal is productive education.

Discuss with other homeschooling parents: Internet or the local community groups are the best way to find other homeschooling parents. Parents can meet to discuss about the kids’ science projects, field activities and seek support and advice. However, once there is a get together, new ideas may open up to adopt new process for homeschooling. You can discuss various homeschooling approaches or methods, which could be implemented and prove to be effective. This kind of discussion or get-together can also help to broaden views and the social life circle, which would help the kids too to interact with other home schooling kids.

A working relationship could be developed: Try to develop a working relationship with your child by sitting together and setting the goals. This will make him feel more attached to the studies, as you are also working with him.

Be organized and fix a time and place for studies: You must have noticed that those who have home offices have a specified area or place to conduct business. There is no involvement in family activities during the working hours. Similarly, when you start a homeschooling, its better to keep a specific place for kids, where they can study at the fixed time. The place should be well lit, neat and clean. A secluded area in the home would keep away any kind of distraction. Or the kids may not be able to concentrate and develop interest in studies.

Design a method to evaluate your child: There are programs, which are set to evaluate the child either yearly or quarterly wise. This includes an oral test, project report, test, or anything as per the criteria of the programs.

There are children who have succeeded to achieve best results and these are the same children raised by a homeschooling mother. Follow the above mentioned tips and you could train your child to be the best, as you are able to provide not only the academic knowledge, but also to induce moral and spiritual values.

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Article Source: Content for Reprint - http://www.content4reprint.com
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by Albert Alexander

We all have this favorite expression when it comes to being stressed out, and I wouldn’t bother naming all of them since it may also vary in different languages. But when it comes down to it, I think that it is how we work or even relax, for that matter that triggers stress. Ever been stressed even when you’re well relaxed and bored? I know I have.

Since Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. is unavoidable in life, it is important to find ways to decrease and prevent stressful incidents and decrease negative reactions to stress. Here are some of the things that can be done by just remembering it, since life is basically a routine to follow like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast. You can do a few of them in a longer span of time, but as they say– every minute counts.

Managing time

Time management skills can allow you more time with your family and friends and possibly increase your performance and productivity. This will help reduce your stress.

To improve your time management:

-Save time by focusing and concentrating, delegating, and scheduling time for yourself.
-Keep a record of how you spend your time, including work, family, and leisure time.
-Prioritize your time by rating tasks by importance and urgency. Redirect your time to those activities that are important and meaningful to you.
-Manage your commitments by not over- or undercommitting. Don’t commit to what is not important to you.
-Deal with procrastination by using a day planner, breaking large projects into smaller ones, and setting short-term deadlines.
-Examine your beliefs to reduce conflict between what you believe and what your life is like.
Build healthy coping strategies

It is important that you identify your coping strategies. One way to do this is by recording the stressful event, your reaction, and how you cope in a stress journal. With this information, you can work to change unhealthy coping strategies into healthy ones-those that help you focus on the positive and what you can change or control in your life.

Lifestyle

Some behaviors and lifestyle choices affect your stress level. They may not cause stress directly, but they can interfere with the ways your body seeks relief from stress. Try to:

-Balance personal, work, and family needs and obligations.
-Have a sense of purpose in life.
-Get enough sleep, since your body recovers from the stresses of the day while you are sleeping.
-Eat a balanced diet for a nutritional defense against stress.
-Get moderate exercise throughout the week.
-Limit your consumption of alcohol.
-Don’t smoke.

Social support

Social support is a major factor in how we experience stress. Social support is the positive support you receive from family, friends, and the community. It is the knowledge that you are cared for, loved, esteemed, and valued. More and more research indicates a strong relationship between social support and better mental and physical health.

Changing thinking

When an event triggers negative thoughts, you may experience fear, insecurity, anxiety, depression, rage, guilt, and a sense of worthlessness or powerlessness. These emotions trigger the body’s stress, just as an actual threat does. Dealing with your negative thoughts and how you see things can help reduce stress.

-Thought-stopping helps you stop a negative thought to help eliminate stress.
-Disproving irrational thoughts helps you to avoid exaggerating the negative thought, anticipating the worst, and interpreting an event incorrectly.
-Problem solving helps you identify all aspects of a stressful event and find ways to deal with it.
-Changing your communication style helps you communicate in a way that makes your views known without making others feel put down, hostile, or intimidated. This reduces the stress that comes from poor communication. Use the assertiveness ladder to improve your communication style.

Even writers like me can get stressed even though we’re just using our hands to do the talking, but having to sit for 7 or 8 hours is already stressful enough and have our own way to relieve stress. Whether you’re the mail guy, the CEO, or probably the average working parent, stress is one unwanted visitor you would love to boot out of your homes, especially your life.

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Webarticlesite is a resource site for those looking for personal development advice or need life coaching. Visit us or check out our personal development articles.
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Article Source: http://www.thewahmshack.com/articledirectory
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by Debbie Allen

I know this could be said of virtually any time in history but I am going to say it about today, right now; the economy is in terrible shape. We are constantly worried about gas prices which seem to be affecting the cost of everything in life, and the impact of financial problems just adds to the stress of daily living. There really is no way to get around the fact that we live in a stressful world. Now I want to tell you about something that you may not have thought of–stress can have a negative impact on your weight!

Before I go any further, I want to say that I am not referring to the weight gain that may be attributed to side effects of some medications prescribed for stress and anxiety, although that is a very real and legitimate concern for some people.

What I am talking about is the fact that many of us find relief from stress in food. I myself am guilty of this. I even refer to certain food dishes as comfort foods. This is not uncommon. Also not uncommon is the fact that my comfort foods are very fattening foods.

Admittedly some people do not eat when they are stressed or frustrated. Some people go the other extreme and actually lose weight because of the lack of interest in food.

Now I cannot say that my focus during a stressful event is food because it certainly is not, but I can tell you that during phases of stressful periods I tend to eat more junk food and do less physical activity. That of course will result in weight gain.

Food diaries are an excellent way to track your eating tendencies. Along with jotting down what you eat, when you eat and how much be sure to include your mood at the time that you ate. It is also interesting to note how you feel after eating.

You may find that eating particular foods always results in you feeling joyful. If that is the case then you definitely need to include that food in your menu. On the other hand, you might find that eating some foods always makes you feel too full or even results in feelings of guilt. Obviously those are the foods that you should cut out of your menus.

With the economy going the way it is, it will be interesting to watch the census data for the next few years. It is undeniable that most people are feeling more stress than usual, so it is possible that the impact will show in the average weight.

I suggest that you use a food diary to find foods that are agreeable in all ways, low calorie and satisfying. Then eat those foods when you are feeling stressed. Yes I know, this is easier said than done.

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LOSING WEIGHT does not have to be difficult. Check out the following websites and see for yourself!
http://www.FitInsidenOut.com/WeightLoss.html and http://www.EatRightLOSEWEIGHTFeelGreat.com
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