Photo Credit: Wordplay

Happy birthday to my blog, dutdot.com. Happy birthday to me. Today marks my 2nd year in blogging at dutdot.com. The blog is two months older than my first born. I delivered my 1st baby on March 27, 2009 in Kuwait.

Looking back through the past two years, it was a roller-coaster of emotions for a new mom like me. Other than my hubby who stood up with my ups and downs, (trials and errors as a new mom, the period of being nannyless for over a year after giving birth, my work then in a company here in Kuwait which I had to leave or had to let me go, my doubts of putting off my work over my baby, and more), this blog has served well its purpose of being my sounding board. Like a personal coach, this blog has harnessed my talents in writing, in blogging, in making the most of myself – mostly as a mom, and as a business person.This blog witnessed how many times I had been torn between going back to the workforce – corporate world or remain as who I am now: a startup work-at-home mom; a startup founder. UNTIL I realized I didn’t need a job outside home.

We were nannyless, as I  said earlier, for over a year (and having a new baby then as a first time mom) was something that my powers weren’t prepared – overseas. I was even told by my hubby’s relative to just go home and find a nanny back home so I could work at the province. No. It’s not the life that I wanted for my family.

I have a job at home, and it’s not the wrong one for me. Isn’t it true that “life is too short for the wrong job“? In fact, I don’t call it a job. I call it a lifestyle. It’s only lately that I have embraced my new found calling – I now have a WAHM career. I have been doing my business for almost two years as a work-from-home mom, and I am venturing as well into other related fields such as affiliate marketing, and bringing to the next level my Internet marketing skills, but never did I consider it as my WAHM career. I thought then that having a career is something that one would just get at the corporate world. NO. The thought that I have a WAHM career has liberated me more than ever. Along with this is the realization that there’s purpose in what I am doing. More about this topic soon when my new Web site is ready…

…Two years of blogging at dutdot.com and counting!

Here’s to great life ahead. Cheers!

She wasn’t drinking her milk; she was hungry, yes, but, she just kept on rolling her tongue along the nipple of her feeding bottle. She rolled over on her back. She arched her body again for several times. She wanted to be alone. She doesn’t need mommy or yaya to carry her. My baby. My not-so-ordinary four-month-old baby.

My head ached, once again, for heaven’s sake. I was a bit angry. Maybe she saw the “anger” from my eyes, for, I wasn’t smiling. I was pleading her to drink her milk. I cradled her and put her on my chest. She squeezed her body away from me, crying, and red-faced, and she didn’t want to look at me. She scratched my neck with her sharp fingernails. Whapak! Ouch. I cried foul.

I talked to her, gently pulling her arms together, trying to tell her to look at mommy once again. Nada. I cried. Her yaya cried, too. What on earth did I do? What on earth should I do? My four-month-old baby is no ordinary baby. She knows when mommy is angry. She knows when she’s being “reprimanded”. I wasn’t scolding her. I was just trying to tell her to behave. She wanted to do things on her own.

Her yaya told me that she has three kids, no one was alike my baby when they were still young. She told me that her kids would just sleep, and cry when hungry. She could do all of her household chores when her babies were still young. But me? Oh, I’m lucky to use the Internet for straight 30minutes or 1 hour (I am establishing my startup company these days, and I could not just concentrate; but, well, I chose to be a hands on mommy, and a stay-at-home one. I’m not feeling sorry. I love to take good care of my baby.), then, my baby would wake up – to drink milk, to play, to arc her back, to sing, to talk, to look at the colors around her, to scratch her neck, to touch mommy’s or daddy’s face, to scratch her yaya’s neck, arms, and hands, to watch Baby Einstein video, to listen at her nursery rhymes, to listen at stories from storynory.com, to read books with mommy, to play with her interactive laptop, and, to dance. Yes. She’s now dancing – at over four months. We just discovered two days ago how she would wriggle her body and arms whenever we would tap the “press me” button of her dancing teddy bear. She is mimicking the basic dancing style! Hurrah! Read the rest of this entry »

This post isn’t something that would give readers a heads up or advisory notice on what I have in mind about startups. This is just a reflective post.

Two years ago, I had this vision of putting up an online site (not to be divulged here) that I knew would click. My hubby and I thought of that site and suggested it to someone else, who may have the money and the position to do so (although technically it would be my hubby and me who would be doing the hard stuff). Sad to say, it wasn’t sold. Then a few weeks back, I was searching the Web, and gotcha, a new Web site popped up on the sponsored listing of Google…wow, the business had the same idea that I had. Uggh. Oh I thought that it’s now fully functional after several months of press releases, but, no, still blank – just the usual interface of “COMING SOON TO ….” I wish I would get someone to backup my business idea in this place. If only I am in my home country, putting up any business wouldn’t be a big problem. Anyway.

Just a week ago, another idea hit me! I knew this startup idea would work here and elsewhere and would generate a lot of money and users. I can’t wait to get started!

I got preoccupied with downloading of e-books from KnowFree (how I love freebies, particularly, when it comes to harnessing my mind!).  Good thing my baby’s a sleepyhead today. I should be sleeping, too, but goodness, I couldn’t take my hands off from the keyboard. I downloaded a lot of e-books today. I still have a lot of e-books pending to be read. Haha.

I browsed the Cash Management (making your business cash-rich without breaking the bank) book by Tony Dalton, and I got really hooked. I decided then to continue reading about it. This is just a preliminary review of the book. I am not making a thorough review yet of this book since I am just in the first few pages, but, one thing that struck me is that it’s not enough that a company is making profits. The question is, how positive is its cashflow? How is it being managed? Read the rest of this entry »