Using Intuition Skills When Faced with Important Decisions

After you have done your research, weighed up all the pros and cons of making your decision, then you also need to pay attention to what your body and intuition is telling you. Is having a home business what you are actually meant to be doing, is it what is best for you on a soul level? I know that sounds deep, but there are some subtle things that can give you these answers if you pay attention to them. We all have intuition; we just need to learn to understand our personal individual intuition.

Does the idea of having a business make you feel at peace, does it make you feel lighter? If having a business is the right direction for you, you may feel at peace about it and light. If it is not the right thing for you, the thought of having a business may make you feel heavier.

Where did you get the idea of starting a business from? Did someone else give you the idea, do you feel forced to start a business as you think it will be your only option to make money or be at home with your kids? Did the idea come to you in a moment of inspiration, in a dream or is it something that has been in the back of your mind that you are increasingly feeling drawn to?

Pay attention to your thoughts, emotions and physical body. If the idea brings any feeling of being pushed, forced, stress, negative thoughts, negative emotions or negative changes in your body. Then your intuition may be telling you it is not right for you. Changes in the body could include - heaviness, aching, illness, shallow breathing. However if you want to start a business and are feeling inspired, lighter and more peaceful, then this may be your intuition telling you it is the right thing for you.

Also pay attention to your dreams and your thoughts, especially when you are in a relaxed state. For example meditating, doing art and craft, writing, drawing. Messages from your subconscious can come through your dreams and can also be reflected in your drawing and writing.

You are the one who ultimately will know whether starting a business is right or wrong for you. All you need to do is begin by paying attention and noticing the differences the subtle differences between;

• Feeling pushed, forcing yourself and being drawn to, feeling like a natural thing, flowing.
• Feeling blank, confused and clouded; opposed to clear and inspired.
• Feeling heavy, more achy or uncomfortable in your body, opposed to feeling lighter and at peace.

Once you begin paying attention to these things, then answers become loud and clear.

Pro's & Con's of Starting A Home Business

Should I start a business. This is the million dollar question for many mums.

I was originally going to write two seperate blogs, one on 'reasons not to start a home business' and the other on 'reasons to start a home business. However I have combined them into one blog.

Reasons Not to Start A Business

Reasons To Start A Business

You should not   start your own business if your think you will have freedom. This is an   illussion, you owning your own business can be a 24/7 thing. You will   probably work harder and longer than you have with any employed job.   Increased   stress and worry because you are all departments in your business. With means   you are responsible for organising everything, running everything and solving   any problems.   You   dislike paperwork, customer service, confrontation or organising. These are  also an important part of having your own business. If you are not able to do this part of your business are you able to employ some one else to do it? You have poor time management, are   disorganised. You   want to start your own business because you want to do your passion. Will it   still be your passion after doing it for 12 hours a day, seven days a week? You   think you will make a lot of money. It is possible, but usually in the start   you will work more hours than you are paid for. About 50% of business fail in   the first year and many business operate at a loss for the first few years. You   are pregnant and wanting to find a way to stay home and not return to   work.  Having a baby you is busy and   stressful enough as it is. You   have a baby and/or young children under school age and have no one to babysit   them and not able to put them in day care. If this is the case, it most probably   will be hard to get much done, especially if you have more than 1 under   school age.

You   like the idea of being your own boss and making all the decisions. You   like a challenge, achievement and can handle worry and stress well. Setting up and running can be a challenge, it can be stressful at times. However you feel a sense of acomplishment with every little idea and every little step you take. You   are able to multi-task and have a wide range of skills. If you are lacking  skills in certain areas then you are willing to do some training to improve   them. You   have researched your business idea, written a business plan and also  understand what is involved in setting up and running a business. You   are organised, have good time management and don’t mind doing paperwork. You  want to start your own business because you will be able to something you   enjoy and have the motivation and dedication, to work hard and make it happen. You   like the idea of making money and are willing to put a lot of time and effort  to build your business up to be succesful. You   are pregnant and willing to start a home business, even though you know you   will be busy with the baby. You are willing to focus on your business when   the baby sleeps, late at night, are able to put the baby/children in daycare,  have very supportive friends or family who   have offered to babysit on a regular basis so you can get some work done. You   also accept the possibility of building your business up much more slowly   that you would have if you did not have a baby or young children.

There are many pro's and con's for starting a business, but like many people a few things in each column will probaly relate to your situation.  I'm sure there is also many other reasons why you should start or should not start a business. At the end of the day, the answer lies with you. My blog next week is about understanding the subtle signals with in your body that are pointing you in the direction of the right decision.

Girls Night Out for Mum

As a work at home mum, a night out with the girls is such a rare thing. You might find yourself asking "Girls night out, whats that"? I am mum of two girls (1 & 2 year olds) and just found out number three is on the way. I had my first girls night out the other night, well first night since having kids. Between looking after the girls and work, there is just not much time and even when there is - you either don't have anyone to babysit or it is too much effort to organise. Too much effort because you have to race around and get the kids fed and bathed, then on top of that have to get yourself ready. You go out and then get phone calls from your husband saying "The baby won't stop screaming" or "The toddler is chucking tantrums and I don't know to do." So then you feel guilty about being out and not really enjoying yourself but have a few drinks any way only to go home and have the baby waking up all night. Then both the baby and toddler waking at the crack of dawn and you are just so tired it is not funny. My husband is pretty good though, he wouldn't call or text me if the girls are mucking up and would get up with the girls while I had a little sleep in, but I do have friends who's experience is more like that, but you get my drift about how it can me more of a hassle to organise a night out than just not bothering at all.

The other night I had my first proper girls night out since having the girls and I was very excited beforehand. I finished work at 3:15pm, picked the girls up from daycare at 4:30pm, did a quick small grocery shop as we were out of the basics. Got home at 5pm, got the girls dinner, left the job of bathing them to my husband as I was running out of time. Went to pick something to wear,  then have my shower and realised my hair needed washing so I quickly washed it. Looked down and my legs needed shaving also. As a busy mum I don't get around to shaving my legs that often and normally wear long pants or a long skirt. Luckily my husband doesn't seem to notice if I haven't shaved. After my shower I am in front of the mirror doing my make up, which I don't wear very often and dam it, my eyebrows need plucking also! So I quickly do my eyebrows and recieve a text from my friend saying they will be there to pick me up in five minutes. So I'm quickly brushing the knotts out of my and hear 'beep beep' in the driveway. I say goodbye to my husband and kids, then race out the door with wet hair.

My friends husband dropped us off at the local pub. I can not recall the last time I was picked up to go out somewhere and could actually drink with out having to drive home. And yes I know the local pub sounds  very fancy (not) but it has a nice bistro. We had a few drinks, dinner, a great chat and a few laughs. I even had two cigarettes, the frist two in five years! Then the courtesy bus driver came around and asked if we would like a lift because the 11pm bus was the last one. We caught the courtesy bus home because none of our hubands could pick us up because they were all home with the kids asleep in bed. May seem early but its a late night for a mummy with young kids.

It was a good night and most definately have to make the effort to get out more. As a mum do you get to go out often?

New Years Resolutions

As 2012 comes to end it is a time of reflection, letting go of the old and making room for the new. Many of us are thinking about our new year resolutions. Do you make new years resolutions? Some may make serious resolutions, some may do it more for fun, whilst others may not see the point. I can understand all these choices. Personally I am not a big fan of new years resolutions on their own, because I like to make goals through out the year and review when needed. However I do see the great value in making new years resolutions. There can be something very motivating about starting something new along with a new year.

Here are a few tips for making resolutions and goals;

1. Only set one or two major goal. For example giving up smoking, working on managing your anger or renovating your house. All these types of resolutions are pretty big things, which require a lot of time effort and dedication. If you have too many major goals like these, your energy will be going towards too many things which may result in being more likely to not reach your goal.
2. Remember any type of resolution that involves changing behaviour and creating new habits takes time. Depending on your personality type and the resolution, it may take a couple of weeks, but may take up to a few months. Especially if it is something that has been ingrained into you for your whole life or many years.
3. You are more likely to succeed in your resolutions if you re-evaluate them through out the year. Say every few
4.  months, ask yourself "How is it going", "Do I need to modify or change my resolution." Whereas if you make resolutions on just one day a year, without any review, you are more likely to not follow through.
5. Remember to also have fun with it and come up with some light enjoyable things. For example "I am going to go to that Chinese restaurant down the road that I have always wanted to go to, "I am going to read ______ book", "I am going to go and visit my cousin I have not seen in five years", "I am finally going to dye my hair."
6. Don't be too hard on yourself if your resolutions all don't come to pass. They are only a guide and not an absolute. You are the creator of your resolutions. Therefore  you have the power to add, change or modify them at any time. If it is something you really want, you also have the power to make it happen. Just persevere, keep trying and remember to review and modify when needed.

I hope all have a fantastic new  year and wish you happiness, good health and prosperity.

Toddler Friendly Christmas Trees

I was wondering what to do for a Christmas tree this year. With my 1 & 2 year olds, a traditional Christmas tree would be pulled down with in seconds. I know parents who have put their tree inside a play pen so the kids can't get to it. Aside from the space factor, my toddler would pull the play pen across the room.

I was looking on Google for ideas and came across Christmas tree's that were removable stickers. I thought what a great idea and bought the one in the picture above with the circles. It fits perfectly above my cabinet in the lounge room and is a decent size. The cabinet is a perfect place for presents, although I haven't put them there yet as the toddler will drag a chair over, climb up and rip all the presents open.

Last year I bought some willow branches (second picture),they were already painted silver and came with the lights on them. I placed the willow in a vase with small rocks, which held the will in place. A few Christmas decorations looked great and I was able to put it up on top of the table. I got the will branches from one of those cheap two dollar shops.

The third tree picture, is my friends tree. She created the tree out of wood planks and hung lights on it. If you are happy to let go having a traditional tree, there are so many ideas and possibilties of what you can do to create a toddler friendly Christmas tree. All you need to do is think out of the box. It will save you having to guard the tree all the time and repeatedly have to rescue it.

Easy Crab Cakes

This is an easy recipe which my girls both enjoy. However it only makes about 5, so you may want to double the ingredients if you want more. You can serve with mayonaise, however in the picture I have serve them with french onion dip, which was really yummy. I forgot to flatten my patties, so in the picture they aren't as flat as they should be.

Ingredients

■2 cans (170gm each) crabmeat, drained, flaked and cartilage removed

■1 cup seasoned bread crumbs, divided

■1 egg, lightly beaten

■1/4 cup finely chopped green onions

■1/4 cup mayonnaise

■1 tablespoon lemon juice

■1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

■1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

■1 tablespoon butter

■2 tbspn mixed veggies

Directions

■In a large bowl, combine the crab, 1/3 cup bread crumbs, egg, onions, mixed veggies, mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic powder and cayenne.

■Divide mixture into eight portions; shape into 2-in. balls. Roll in remaining bread crumbs. Flatten to 1/2-in. thickness.

■In a large non-stick skillet, cook crab cakes in butter for 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden brown. I actually put these in the oven at about 175 degrees until golden brown.

Makes: About 4-5 patties

Changes to Work at Home Hub

Many of you have probably already noticed that Work at Home Hub has begun undergoing some changes. I am writing this blog to let our followers know what the changes are and why we are making changes.

When I first began Work at Home Hub, it was a very small facebook group and page under the name of Central Coast WAHMS. My reason for starting the group and the page was because I really believed that work at home parents (especially mums) are in need of a genuine place where they can network, meet other mums and promote their business in a cost effective way. This is particularly the case with mums who have babies and children who are not yet in school. Often they are not able to attend networking meetings because they are not child friendly and also can not afford to do much advertising, particularly the low income families and single mums. My vission for the group and page was to help provide another avenue where mums can network, promote their business, be inspired and have discussions about parenting and work/life balance.

I have found that Work at Home Hub has gone down the road of being primarily business promoting with minimum genuine networking or parenting discussions. This has happened in both the groups and the page. I have made some attempts to try and change this but have not been so successful. I think in part because our name is Work at Home Hub and many of our followers have either joined the group or liked the page because it is clearly a work at home page where they can promote their business and partly because  it has been running this way for a while now, so many people already have a perception of what we are about, which is predominantly a place to promote their business. I do understand that no matter what your business or name is, you can still receive spam, however since I changed the name to 'Work at Home Hub', the amount of spam in the groups, page and email  greatly increased. I think because some people just see the work at home part and see it as an opportunity to create hard sell/get rich quick claim or to spam. This would be fine if this was our aim and we primarily wanted to focus on providing a place for business promoting and offer related services and blogs. However the business promoting is only a small part of what we are all about and what I envision for Work at Home Hub. I really do think Work at Home Hub is a great name, it is just doesn't truly reflect what we are about.

Hence the reason for our new name 'Work Parent Life".  All our social media forums will be changed to this name.m We also have a new group called "Central Coast Mums", for Mums on the Central Coast (NSW), which has a couple days each week where WAHMs can network and promote their business. The rest of the week being for parenting related things and inspiration. Our Facebook page and all other social media forums will also have these two days where WAHPs can network and promote their business. In making these changes we have already begun to attract new people who are interested in being part of a community where they can meet other parents, discuss parenthood, their kids and be in an environment that is supportive to work at home parents. We  know many of our current followers will about these changes, however we are also  aware it may not be for everyone, because there are people that have joined primarily for the business promoting and not so much for the other stuff. That is ok because with 'Work Parent Life', we are now  moving back towards my original vision for this community. In doing this I feel renewed passion and enthusiasm.

Mostly this website will still be the same, the banner and image will be changed to reflect 'Work Parent Life'. We will still be doing both parenting and WAHP related blogs, the WAHP directory will remain, however we are not going to continue with the forum at this point. Most of our discussion is in our Facebook groups and not so much in the forum. All advertising will remain (banners, interviews) with the addition of some pregnancy, parenting & baby banners and interviews.I have also added a pregnancy and parenting menu to the website.

Since originally writing this, Facebook approved the name change on our Work at Home Hub page to 'Work Parent Life' and both pages have been merged together.

If you have any further questions, then you are very welcome to email me at workparentlife@bigpond.com

Kym Presdee - Owner Work Parent Life