Today’s sort of a lazy day for me, the work-from-home momma. Well, it’s how my schedule permits me to do so.

There were times I worked like hell, say, 12 hours a day – like yesterday, 6 hours was spent in answering clients’ emails, and the rest for other important things in my business — (whew, 12 hours – I don’t care, I am working for myself!; in my previous works for other companies, I worked for 14hours non-stop a day!).

I realized that working for myself for 12 hours or less doesn’t make me feel tired at all. It’s because I know that what I’m doing is for myself, for my family’s future. Unlike when I was still working outside home, and when I rendered free overtime, there was always a feeling of tiredness (I wasn’t a complainer. I was a good worker for others; but I give my best for myself now).

Anyway, so back to my topic for this post.

I just couldn’t resist my baby’s sweet voice when she’d tell me, “momma, come…come”, and we’d play with her toys or study in her blackboard. Just this morning, I was thrilled when I introduced to her the vowels of the alphabet (A E I O U), and she knew them at once. She got thrilled when we drew her hand on the blackboard, and she thought, too, that drawing her foot was possible.

After an hour of tutoring her, I told her that “mommy’s gonna be back to work” (in my home office), she wasn’t pleased. I asked her to join with me in going to our room. She saw my ballpen, asked for it, and started to doodle on the piece of paper. She sat down beside me. When she saw that I was typing at the keyboard, she went down from her chair, went under my table, and started to put the unplugged USB of the speaker back to my laptop. She wanted to watch her favorite singers, Charice and Justin Bieber.

As my baby’s secretary, all that I could do then was to save all that I was doing in my laptop, and clicked on youtube and watched the videos with her. After 30minutes or so, I told her that mommy needed to finish my pending tasks. She obliged and went down from my chair. I noticed that she wanted to see more of her idols. I told her to use her mini-laptop. We got her laptop, and as I was opening it, she said, “mine…mine”, meaning it’s her laptop – her hand on her chest. Whoala. What a smart baby!

After her laptop had powered on, the inevitable happened. She immediately grabbed the laptop from me, and started to pounce heavily on the keyboard. Ahh, she knew it’s her laptop so perhaps she could do anything with it. Huh. With my laptop, she would type on the keyboard but lightly, and whenever there’s a video playing on my screen, she’d just watch it and would occasionally press the mouse. I got back the laptop from her, and told her, she’d use it as soon as she turns 2 – that’s exactly 2 months from now.

We played again — in our bed, and I got surprised kisses from her! She must be overjoyed with the time I bonded with her. And, that meant, my work was interrupted for several hours. But, who cares, my baby dictates my working hours. Nah. I work when I want to, where I want to – the beauty of working for myself. The most important thing is the emotional bonding I have with my baby.

Her soft, little kisses still linger on my mind.

While the article says Cheni Yerushalmi’s No. 1 piece of advice for emerging entrepreneurs: “Get out of the house.”, work-at-home moms can still network online.

Networking is crucial for entrepreneurs. “Master the art of conversation,” Yerushalmi advises. “If you start talking, you’ll realize the value of going and talking to people and asking their opinion about pitching your product.”

Read more…

An article by Ashleigh Russell talks about using mom communities to make money.

Women inventors and entrepreneurs are the fastest-growing demographic in the business sector. I believe much of this is due to necessity. Motherhood seems to breed more than children. It also breeds its own community.

Read more here…

Today is a very special day for me. I just turned two years old – no – my blog dutdot.com just turned two. They said it’s the terrible twos — but, rather the terrific twos — to borrow a quote from a book.

I learned a lot of great deal as a work-from-home mom. One lesson that has helped me in shaping my thoughts and actions is Emmanuel’s wisdom. Read below.

What you love to do, you do well.

What you do will earn you money.
If there is not a formal occupation that honors your vision,
then I would say it’s about time you take your
creative power and design a job for yourself.

Look at history.
Those who amassed great fortunes did not follow
in the footsteps of structure.
They moved with their own creativity.
What brings you joy will bring you abundance.

As with all things, work is another opportunity
to find the self. The workplace  allows you to challenge
illusions, come face to face with a great many fears
and to find the gifts of talents that you have.

If you step out of fear, you will find that money holds no power.
It’s simply a means of exchange – pieces of paper and bits of metal.

~ Emmanuel’s Book II: The Choice for Love