Christmas week came on the tail of 2 weeks of college finals so I find myself not ready for the holidays. The tree still needs to be trimmed, gifts have not been purchased and holiday baking is only a thought at this time. I find myself consumed with college and caring for my daughters with little time for preparing for the holiday season.
Holiday preparation is not the only thing suffering. My writing has suffered greatly over the past few months as I devote much of my time to my classwork. I have not posted in this blog since August. I continue to write for AC/Yahoo in the pregnancy/fertility category. I have not done any work on my weight loss or fitness book despite the fact that both are near completion. I find that being a fulltime college student although an important part of my life right now has consumed so much of my time that it is becoming difficult to accomplish my writing projects. I wish I knew how other adult college students juggle college, career and homelife?
My only plan for surviving the holidays is to take each day as it comes devoting my time to whatever seems to be the most important task. My daughters are on school break right now and my finals are done so I am free from college demands until January 5th. Now is the time to attend to Christmas preparations.
Sunday I picked up approximately 20 bags filled with groceries and delivered them to my church for distribution to the families in our Hillsdale Care program. There were also gifts for each family to be delivered along with the food items. I was thankful for those that volunteered to help me unload the bags from my car. I ended up delivering to one family after church because the person that was assigned to that family was absent from church Sunday.
My youngest daughter helped me to get the tree in the stand last night and tonight we put three stands of lights on it and the garland. Tomorrow we will put the ornaments on it.
Hopefully I can get some gift shopping done over the next few days. I finished paying all but one of my December bills so I have a pretty good idea of how much money I can spend on gifts.
Not sure how much baking we will have time to do but we will bake up a few batches of cookies to take to neighbors because that is a family tradition. I did make up some chocolate candies Sunday night but that is almost gone.
We have an advent wreath that we have been lighting each Sunday of Advent and will light the Christ candle on Christmas eve. I have been using the church bulletin advent passages as part of our advent family service. The advent wreath has been part of our Christmas celebrations ever since the girls were very young and I think they really look forward to it each year.
I am really looking forward to Christmas eve service and then spending time with my parents, brothers, sister and Mary on Christmas day. I will call my other sister sometime on Christmas. I really miss her especially on holidays.
Its Christmas week. Are you ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus?
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Changes at Associated Content
Recently Associated Content and Yahoo joined forces and all of the content contributors on the AC site including "yours truly" are waiting to see how this will impact our income.
Recently I submitted a targeted assignment (2 articles) for Pantene and although it was exciting to try a new product as usual there are hoops to jump through just to be paid. The letter that came with the free products (to be reviewed) detailed that "if you intend" to promote the assignment (the 2 articles I write) you have to disclose the nature of your connection to the advertiser (Pantene).
Well I have NO intention to promote these two articles...just wanted to write them and be paid by AC. A few days after I submitted the two articles I received email notice that they were both rejected because I did not disclose through CMP.ly.
OK...I forgot I put an AC widget on my website: quintile.info that shows my most recent written and published articles on AC AND an AC widget that automatically posts a link on Twitter to my most recently published articles.
That's the problem with widgets...set them and forget them LOL.
Now I just wait for the email that comes after registering at CMP.ly to arrive so I can finish the process and resubmit my two articles to AC.
UGH
This experience has made me wary of accepting any future special targeted assignments involving products to be reviewed or at least will read and think more carefully before accepting them to determine everything requested of me. Live and learn.
Well, that is it for now readers. I am working on some special projects and when they are done I will post here about them.
Happy reading and I sincerely hope you are all enjoying the end of summer.
Laura
Recently I submitted a targeted assignment (2 articles) for Pantene and although it was exciting to try a new product as usual there are hoops to jump through just to be paid. The letter that came with the free products (to be reviewed) detailed that "if you intend" to promote the assignment (the 2 articles I write) you have to disclose the nature of your connection to the advertiser (Pantene).
Well I have NO intention to promote these two articles...just wanted to write them and be paid by AC. A few days after I submitted the two articles I received email notice that they were both rejected because I did not disclose through CMP.ly.
OK...I forgot I put an AC widget on my website: quintile.info that shows my most recent written and published articles on AC AND an AC widget that automatically posts a link on Twitter to my most recently published articles.
That's the problem with widgets...set them and forget them LOL.
Now I just wait for the email that comes after registering at CMP.ly to arrive so I can finish the process and resubmit my two articles to AC.
UGH
This experience has made me wary of accepting any future special targeted assignments involving products to be reviewed or at least will read and think more carefully before accepting them to determine everything requested of me. Live and learn.
Well, that is it for now readers. I am working on some special projects and when they are done I will post here about them.
Happy reading and I sincerely hope you are all enjoying the end of summer.
Laura
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Update on my Educational Path
If you read my last post you will realize that there has been a big change in the direction of my career path. This change has initiated a change in my educational path.
Previously I planned on pursueing a much desired goal of mine to return to the medical field. Those of you whom may not have read my earlier posts may not know that I was a Naval Corpsman(wave) from 1975 to 1979 and loved being in the medical field. I had planned on becoming a pediatrician but at the end of my Naval career discovered my first daughter was on her way and decided to be a full-time mommy instead (big grin). My focus changed to getting my RN degree as soon as all of my daughters were old enough for me to be away from them at long stretches of time. That never happened (laugh) until recently (some 30 years later), I felt that I could obtain this degree and had looked into attending MedCentral School of Nursing. See 2 posts before this one for info about that plan. If you have read the post below this you will understand what career change has occurred.
My educational goal is now to finish my BS in Business Administration but take only 2 classes per term so as not to overtax my 'older brain' and to save more of my time for my daughters who thankfully although teens and one adult still for some reason want to spend time with me (huge sigh of relief). I will still graduate March of 2011 with my BS in Business Administration but I will then continue my education by pursuing another BS degree which will also be combined with a Master's degree in a program Kaplan University Online has that will also allow me to be capable of taking the state boards for nutritionist. This educational path better fits my new career which is a combination of writing and sharing with others about how nutrition is key to healthy living through in-home tastings and community seminars.
Wish me luck readers!
Have a fun, safe and healthy summer.
Laura
Previously I planned on pursueing a much desired goal of mine to return to the medical field. Those of you whom may not have read my earlier posts may not know that I was a Naval Corpsman(wave) from 1975 to 1979 and loved being in the medical field. I had planned on becoming a pediatrician but at the end of my Naval career discovered my first daughter was on her way and decided to be a full-time mommy instead (big grin). My focus changed to getting my RN degree as soon as all of my daughters were old enough for me to be away from them at long stretches of time. That never happened (laugh) until recently (some 30 years later), I felt that I could obtain this degree and had looked into attending MedCentral School of Nursing. See 2 posts before this one for info about that plan. If you have read the post below this you will understand what career change has occurred.
My educational goal is now to finish my BS in Business Administration but take only 2 classes per term so as not to overtax my 'older brain' and to save more of my time for my daughters who thankfully although teens and one adult still for some reason want to spend time with me (huge sigh of relief). I will still graduate March of 2011 with my BS in Business Administration but I will then continue my education by pursuing another BS degree which will also be combined with a Master's degree in a program Kaplan University Online has that will also allow me to be capable of taking the state boards for nutritionist. This educational path better fits my new career which is a combination of writing and sharing with others about how nutrition is key to healthy living through in-home tastings and community seminars.
Wish me luck readers!
Have a fun, safe and healthy summer.
Laura
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Writing and Direct Sales Can the Two be Combined?
A change in my life has taken place over the last week to twelve days that will hopefully greatly improve my families financial resources as well as allow me to realize a vision that I have had to insure that no family goes hungry in my community and in other communities. I have signed on as a sales representative with Wildtree Herbs Inc., a company headquartered in RI, USA.
My plan is to use my Wildtree business to introduce the idea of cooking and baking with ingredients that do not add preservatives, MSG, harmful dyes or other toxic chemicals to the fresh foods we prepare for our families. I will continue to write about nutrition and the key role it plays in keeping our bodies healthy as I have been but will also be writing on behalf of my vision in the form of books, ebooks, articles, reports and community cookbooks as part of in-home tastings and seminars that will be the platform for sharing information about the Wildtree seasonings, sauces, rubs and other products, information from a local chiropractor about how our bodies can heal themselves, and information about growing, preparing and storing fresh fruits and vegetables.
The seminars will be the portal for community members to share with each other recipes they use and enjoy that feature fresh foods grown in home gardens or farms and/or purchased from the store. The community seminars will be used to not only share the recipes among other seminar attendees but to put those recipes into a community cookbook written by me that will then be sold locally and on Amazon.com with the proceeds (50%) going back to the community for the purpose of feeding families in that community.
This is an awesome undertaking but I fully expect to be supported by the community members that will be benefiting from the vision.
I look forward to what God has in store for me and this vision that He has impressed upon my soul. I know that my writing and my past experiences in direct sales will both be called upon to bring this vision into being. I also know that there is a reason why I know that it is important to spread the word that no family should go hungry to as many communities as I can.
Can writing and direct sales be combined? I say, yes.
Until next time, faithful readers, have a safe and happy summer with family and friends.
Laura
My plan is to use my Wildtree business to introduce the idea of cooking and baking with ingredients that do not add preservatives, MSG, harmful dyes or other toxic chemicals to the fresh foods we prepare for our families. I will continue to write about nutrition and the key role it plays in keeping our bodies healthy as I have been but will also be writing on behalf of my vision in the form of books, ebooks, articles, reports and community cookbooks as part of in-home tastings and seminars that will be the platform for sharing information about the Wildtree seasonings, sauces, rubs and other products, information from a local chiropractor about how our bodies can heal themselves, and information about growing, preparing and storing fresh fruits and vegetables.
The seminars will be the portal for community members to share with each other recipes they use and enjoy that feature fresh foods grown in home gardens or farms and/or purchased from the store. The community seminars will be used to not only share the recipes among other seminar attendees but to put those recipes into a community cookbook written by me that will then be sold locally and on Amazon.com with the proceeds (50%) going back to the community for the purpose of feeding families in that community.
This is an awesome undertaking but I fully expect to be supported by the community members that will be benefiting from the vision.
I look forward to what God has in store for me and this vision that He has impressed upon my soul. I know that my writing and my past experiences in direct sales will both be called upon to bring this vision into being. I also know that there is a reason why I know that it is important to spread the word that no family should go hungry to as many communities as I can.
Can writing and direct sales be combined? I say, yes.
Until next time, faithful readers, have a safe and happy summer with family and friends.
Laura
Friday, May 14, 2010
Had my first two classes
Attended the first class for each subject I am taking for the first term back to Kaplan University online and survived them.
LOL
They were not as difficult as I imagined them to be which is a relief.
Two classes this first term (Arts and Humanities and Intro to Finance) and then 3 classes next term and 3 the final term at Kaplan. I should be done with my BS in Business Administration by December 20, 2010 and graduation date is March 15, 2011. Not likely I would make the trip to Florida for the ceremonies so I will just have my own celebration over the 2010 holidays.
The BS degree should help greatly in my writing business and launch me into the next phase of my education plan which is to take a 15 month accelerated nursing program from MedCentral School of Nursing in nearby Mansfield, Ohio. My writing business will hopefully sustain me financially until I take my RN boards and start working as a nurse. I plan on always writing articles and books to supplement my nursing income.
Thank you for reading my blog. Have a great day.
LOL
They were not as difficult as I imagined them to be which is a relief.
Two classes this first term (Arts and Humanities and Intro to Finance) and then 3 classes next term and 3 the final term at Kaplan. I should be done with my BS in Business Administration by December 20, 2010 and graduation date is March 15, 2011. Not likely I would make the trip to Florida for the ceremonies so I will just have my own celebration over the 2010 holidays.
The BS degree should help greatly in my writing business and launch me into the next phase of my education plan which is to take a 15 month accelerated nursing program from MedCentral School of Nursing in nearby Mansfield, Ohio. My writing business will hopefully sustain me financially until I take my RN boards and start working as a nurse. I plan on always writing articles and books to supplement my nursing income.
Thank you for reading my blog. Have a great day.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
3rd try at BS in Business
Making the effort AGAIN to achieve my Bachelor's degree in Business.
I first made the effort in the 80s when I attended Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. During my last quarter there I ran out of money and had to drop out as to be financed through loans/grants required $500 from me to fill in the gaps and I just did not have it to spare. I tried to borrow from family members but was told no one had it.
My second attempt to obtain my degree was in 2006 and 2007 when I attended Kaplan University Online. They had a fast start Bachelor of Science in Business Degree program. I was again in my last quarter with just 3 classes to go before graduating. I was so excited! Unfortunately, my brother was putting pressure on me to move a year sooner than I had planned (for good reasons) but still my dream of finally achieving my degree was soooooo close I could taste it. Reluctantly I agreed that the move should happen at that time. I found a job in the new location and did the hour commute to and then home from the job during the two-week interim between being hired and moving. I was also running my writing business and going to classes fulltime while single-parenting my daughters. Needless to say something had to give and unfortunately the time to complete my final papers was what fell apart. I attended all three classes but did not have enough points to receive a grade in any of them.
I am seriously contemplating going back to Kaplan to finish up those 3 classes. I have already made contact with the lender of my student loans, looked into grants President Obama has stated are available to single moms making X amount of income and have spoken by phone with my academic counselor at Kaplan.
The next step is to complete my FAFSA and complete an essay on why I am returning to Kaplan, submit the paperwork and pray I am re-admitted to finish up those last 3 classes. I sincerely hope that I can graduate this time and pray that there is no move in my near future this time.
My goal is to achieve this degree to finish what I have started as well as to improve my chances for securing better income opportunities for my family. I am also looking forward to how this degree may open up new opportunites for my writing career.
Thank you dear readers for allowing me to share my educational endeavors with you.
Have a blessed day!
Laura
I first made the effort in the 80s when I attended Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. During my last quarter there I ran out of money and had to drop out as to be financed through loans/grants required $500 from me to fill in the gaps and I just did not have it to spare. I tried to borrow from family members but was told no one had it.
My second attempt to obtain my degree was in 2006 and 2007 when I attended Kaplan University Online. They had a fast start Bachelor of Science in Business Degree program. I was again in my last quarter with just 3 classes to go before graduating. I was so excited! Unfortunately, my brother was putting pressure on me to move a year sooner than I had planned (for good reasons) but still my dream of finally achieving my degree was soooooo close I could taste it. Reluctantly I agreed that the move should happen at that time. I found a job in the new location and did the hour commute to and then home from the job during the two-week interim between being hired and moving. I was also running my writing business and going to classes fulltime while single-parenting my daughters. Needless to say something had to give and unfortunately the time to complete my final papers was what fell apart. I attended all three classes but did not have enough points to receive a grade in any of them.
I am seriously contemplating going back to Kaplan to finish up those 3 classes. I have already made contact with the lender of my student loans, looked into grants President Obama has stated are available to single moms making X amount of income and have spoken by phone with my academic counselor at Kaplan.
The next step is to complete my FAFSA and complete an essay on why I am returning to Kaplan, submit the paperwork and pray I am re-admitted to finish up those last 3 classes. I sincerely hope that I can graduate this time and pray that there is no move in my near future this time.
My goal is to achieve this degree to finish what I have started as well as to improve my chances for securing better income opportunities for my family. I am also looking forward to how this degree may open up new opportunites for my writing career.
Thank you dear readers for allowing me to share my educational endeavors with you.
Have a blessed day!
Laura
Monday, February 08, 2010
First Book in Print
I just published my first book, "Conversations with Laura about Pregnancy".
You can now see the book cover and purchase the book by going HERE
The book is an inside look at what pregnancy is like. The chapters include announcing the pregnancy, first trimester, second trimester, third trimester, prenatal testing, and giving birth.
I am so excited to finally be taking this next step in my writing career.
You can now see the book cover and purchase the book by going HERE
The book is an inside look at what pregnancy is like. The chapters include announcing the pregnancy, first trimester, second trimester, third trimester, prenatal testing, and giving birth.
I am so excited to finally be taking this next step in my writing career.
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