Captive Mommies

by Kara Kelso

In the summer months, rarely do we think about the children going back to school or what we plan to do when September gets here. But if you are in business, summer is the most important time to start planning since many of you may be experiencing the “summer slowdown”.

So let’s take a look at what you could be doing right now to prepare for the fall months when business picks up.

1. Organize
Take a few days to organize yourself. Clean off your desk, file your paper work, etc. Don’t forget to organized your online files as well!

2. Study trends
Now that you are organized, take some time to go over those files you have sorted. What sells best? What doesn’t ? What customers haven’t ordered in awhile?

3. Follow Ups
Since you have your papers out and are studying them, now would be a good time to follow up with some of your past customers. They might be too busy to hold a show right now, so ask if by fall they would like to host a show and would like you to call them back. Be sure to keep good notes!

4. Update and Improve Your Website
If you still don’t have a personal website, now would be a good time to build one. If you do have one, make some changes. Those files you studied a bit ago - use them to make your changes and highlight certain items on your website.

5. Start Your Christmas Marketing Plan
Are their products you know your company will have during Christmas? Do you have a design in mind for your website or personal catalogs? How about your mailing list, is it in order? Mark down dates in a calander for the best time to mail and contact your customers.

6. Plan Events
If you weren’t involved in any summer shows, start calling around for information on indoor fall and Christmas events. These places can fill up fast, so be sure you have the details first and can get the best spot!

There are other tasks you can do to help you get better prepared for the fall and winter, use this only as a guide. As long as you keep busy, your profits should rise come September!

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About the Authors: Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank are two busy wahms, and the owners of Direct Sales Helpers. For more Direct Sales Success Tips, visit: http://www.directsaleshelpers.com/newsletter.html
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Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
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by Arlene Pellicane

Is it unreasonable for your husband to want a sexy wife? What if you just had a baby and it seems like an impossible task to lose that baby belly? The stress of being a new mom can be overwhelming without thinking about losing weight and counting calories. You may be thinking, “He should love me just as I am!”

On one of my Losing Weight After Baby podcasts, I talked about the husband’s need for an attractive wife. Men are visually stimulated and it’s very important to them to feel physically attracted to their spouses. Dr. Willard Harley says it best in his excellent book, His Needs, Her Needs: Building an Affair-proof Marriage:

“By calling for a wife to be attractive I mean she should take pains to look something like the woman her husband married. After all, that was the woman he fell in love with, not a movie star or some other fantasy. Does this mean a woman must stay eternally young? Of course not, but getting older provides no excuse for letting weight creep up and up, not fixing your hair, and dressing like a bag lady.”

Did you hear that ladies? Getting older and having a baby is no excuse for:

1. Letting weight creep up and up
2. Not fixing your hair
3. Dressing like a bag lady

How’s that for hitting home? The good news is that you are not a helpless victim. A box of twinkies will not attack you when you wake up. You can take charge of your health and look your best for your husband (and yourself too!).

You don’t have to spend one hour primping in front of the mirror. Hello, moms don’t have that kind of time! Just take 5-10 minutes to put on makeup, comb your hair and wear something that flatters your figure (I know that’s a post-pregnancy challenge!).
So how are you doing mom? Do you look like the bride your husband married? Of course, if you just had a baby, you’ve gained some extra pounds and rightfully so! But are you working hard towards getting that pre-baby body back? To look like the woman in your wedding pictures?

Today’s Action Step: Take out your wedding album. Look at the photos of you and your husband. Do you look like that woman he married? Are there changes you need to make to look attractive for your spouse?

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Want to lose your baby weight once and for all? Get FREE tips that work at Arlene’s website http://www.losingweightafterbaby.com or blog at http://losingweightafterbaby.wordpress.com
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Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
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by Nicole Calhoun

When my son Jordan turned ten, we wanted to do something fun, yet inexpensive, for his milestone birthday. After all, the kid was growing up. He would no longer be in the single digits, anymore, and we wanted to celebrate in a way we hadn’t before.

My husband and I both have large families, and there is a great mix of ages. There are grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and all range from the late sixties to two years old! In order to have a party that would not exclude anyone from being able to enjoy themselves took real creativity on our part, but we pulled it off!

We wanted to have a celebration that would be memorable for our son and still be able to make sure that everyone would have an activity that would cause them to feel appreciated that we considered them, as well.

So, what did we do? We thought about the times we had gotten together as family and tried to remember when everyone had the most fun. That simple exercise helped us remember the perfect venue for holding our son’s 10th birthday party.

The park! But not just any park. This park had it all: barbecue grills, a tennis court, a basketball court, a sandy volleyball court, a playground, a walking trail, numerous picnic areas and huge shade trees scattered abroad!

I mean there was something for everyone! The tinier tikes played tirelessly at the playground that had equipment suitable to their needs. The ‘tweens (eight to twelve year olds) enjoyed everything! If they weren’t playing on the playground, they were on one of the sports courts.

The teenagers played basketball and volleyball and made new friends with the others who were their enjoying family time, as well. The folks in their early twenties to early thirties enjoyed playing against the teens…just to show them that although we’re older, we could still kick their butts in a sporting event! And for the record, we whooped them in every sport…but the next day, we were all feeling it!

The more mature adults, our parents and aunts and uncles, chitchatted at the picnic table over hot dogs and hamburgers that had been grilled to perfection!

So, for a child’s birthday party, the park is a great place to hold the party to rival all parties. It’s free to use, and it comes equipped with everything you need for everyone in attendance to have an enjoyable time.

Our son and lots of his guests (young and old) tell us to this day what a great time they had at his birthday party. Everyone’s excited to see what we have in store for him, this year!

You know what? We figure, if it’s not broke, we won’t try to fix it. I’m thinking the park is going to make a great place to hold number eleven, as well.

So if you’ve been painstakingly thinking about where you could hold a party for your precious little pumpkin, the park is a fantastic location. All your guests are guaranteed to have a good time!

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Nicole enjoys spending time with her son, Jordan and her husband, Muri. She loves to travel, work her home-based business, shop and meet new people. If you would like to spend more time with your loved ones, please contact Nicole. http://www.fulltimefamily.com
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Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.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 Cindy Ashworth

Summer is here. Kids are home and just when you think all is fine and everyone is happy, you hear those words you dread… “Mom, I’m bored”.

Yes, school keeps our kids busy during the day and homework keeps them busy at night. But during the summer months, it is easy for kids to get bored. It’s as if our kids rush to get everything done that they want to do in the first couple weeks of their summer vacation. Then entering the third week they find they are bored and have nothing to do.

Here are some simple summer time tips that may help.

1) If you don’t have a swimming pool, take your kids to your local community swimming pool. Or if you are near the beach (that’s where I would be). I have a baby pool that my kids find themselves having alot of fun in when they are bored and it’s hot outside.

2) Set an hour aside and show your kids your creativeness. Maybe you have a plain picture frame laying around and you would like to personalize it. Grab a few buttons, beads, uncooked macaroni noodles, and have your kids choose the places they would like to add these items and glue them on. You can even use finger nail polish and paint stars and smiley faces on the frame.

3) Don’t forget the Lemonade sale I don’t see kids do this as much anymore. But I believe this teaches more than just selling lemonade. It also teaches the kids that they have to do a little work to earn a little money. Let the kids make the lemonade as well.

4) Grab your garden hose, bucket of water and wash your car with your kids. This shows kids the work it takes to keep a vehicle clean and you will have fun along the way. When you can spray each other, let your kids spray you and wash your car at the same time, and have fun doing it, life does not get any better.

5) Grab a blanket and lay outside under the stars. You will be amazed the the conversations you can have with your kids by doing this. You will find yourself relaxed and creating another bonding moment with your children.

6) Go for a nature walk in your local metropolitan park. They all have trails that you can walk through. Not only is it cooler with all the trees and shade, but you never know what kind of animal you may stumble across and walking through the streams of water, looking at the fish, plants and rocks is really fun for the whole family.

7) Have an ice cream party. Grab all the toppings you can think of. Sprinkles, cherries, nuts, caramel, hot fudge, whip cream and marshmallow. Kids love to make their own creations and odds are, no matter how it turns out, they will eat it anyway.

Go for an evening stroll with your kids. It is cooler in the evenings and much healthier for our kids to be out walking instead on inside playing video games. And if losing a few pounds is on your to do list, this could very well help.

9) Head to your library. Our library has so much to offer. We receive a newsletter lettng us know all the classes that are coming for adults and for the kids. Every class is free, too. But most require pre-registration so they can have an idea of how many people will be coming. From a story time class, arts and crafts class, bingo evening, movie night. There’s something for every age a couple times each week.

10) My favorite. A cook out at the park. Grab a few friends together and head for the park. Most have a pavillion and grill where you can prepare a nice lunch while the kids go play on the playground. After a few hours, the kids have let out some of their energy and everyone is happy, full and tired.

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Article Source: Cindy Ashworth @ www.mykidsmywhy.com and www.successfulwahm.blogspot.com
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Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
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