Chocolate Amargo
February 15, 2008 | 3 Comments
Well I just spent the last ten minutes learning that there is no Spanish word for blog.
I was going to get all fancy and name this post “blogging for chocolate” in Espanol, but that’s a little hard to do when you:
- 1) had about 15 minutes of Spanish class in 7th grade and
- 2) there’s no word for it anyway!
- Well, I’m sure the cool babywearing mom on the left would know how to say it. Maybe it’s something like “online journal” or “website diary” or something. And I found that picture at stock.xchng and have been waiting for just the right post to publish it in! Yea me.
And you know the best hot chocolate has a little cayenne pepper in it? Same for chili (served up with a little cocoa powder in it, that is).
- But I don’t know the Spanish word for blog, so, this post is simply titled “plain chocolate”.
Here goes.
Show that inspired this post: Marie Ynami’s show with yours truly at Mommy Community
100 words: Marie was a sweetie and invited me to talk about my Ultimate 365 Salad Cookbook.
Which, incidentally, has at least 5 Mexican/Latin inspired dishes. Including Mexican Green Bean Salad. And Mexican Beef Salad. And Jicama Cole Slaw. And California Chicken Salad featuring tomatillo. Say it with me. TOE-MAAAHH-TEEEE-YO. And Mexican Pasta Salad. And other recipes featuring Spanish olives.
So, go buy it. Ahora!
Link to Moms Talk Radio
Soul Food and Chocolate
February 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
LaTara of Vegan Family Living talked about soul food on her show last week.
I grew up eating soul food like black eyed peas and collard greens, fried chicken, sweet potato casserole, squash casserole (one of my favorite foods in the world), fried okra, cornbread and dressing, pinto beans, with chow chow on the side….. mostly I got these delicacies at my Grandmother’s house (my Mom was a great cook but she’s from out west, she didn’t cook “Southern” so much).
A lot of these dishes are actually quite healthy. Southerners like my Grandparents ate a lot of vegetables and beans. People make fun of Southerners because of the way they eat, but most of the older people I know who ate bacon with breakfast every morning were eating vegetables they had grown themselves in their gardens, meat they raised by hand, eggs from chickens that were pets. In my opinion their diet was far superior to a lot of people’s today. They also worked very hard and burned off all that fat.
I am amazed that LaTara can make vegan “fried chicken”! But, I’m probably never going to eat chitterlings.
Raw Chocolate Candy
February 14, 2008 | 1 Comment
All this talk of chocolate reminded me about my raw chocolate candy recipe that Tiffany Washko asked for last week. These snacks are yummy for anyone, but if you or your child is sensitive to wheat, they’re flourless too!
Raw Chocolate Candy
1 cup cashews, chopped fine
1 cup almonds, chopped fine
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 carob (you can also use cocoa if you prefer)
1 tsp sea salt
1 T. all natural vanilla flavoring
1 cup grated coconut
Warm honey by placing the jar in a bowl of hot water. Mix honey, carob or cocoa, salt and vanilla and mix well. You can either chop the nuts in a food processor or the blender. Process until finely chopped. Add coconut and pulse until blended. Place in bowl and add cocoa mixture, blending well.
Place greased wax or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Spread mixture on top. Place in refrigerator until firm, typically several hours. Then form into balls, or cut into small squares. You can also use other nuts if you wish.
Promoting Your Blog
February 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Since we talked on Moms Morning Show about promoting your blog, I thought I would share some ideas that I have used to get more traffic to my blogs.
- Write Articles - Turn some of your lengthier, informative posts into articles and publish them at places like Ladypens.
- Link Out - When you see great posts by fellow bloggers (especially those in your niche), link to their posts and talk about why you enjoyed reading them. They will often link back to you or become a reader.
- Read and Comment - Find other blogs in your area of interest or expertise and follow them. Leave meaningful comments (don’t spam).
- Blog Carnivals - Submit some of your best posts to Blog Carnival for more link love and traffic.
- Write Good Content - No matter how hard you work at building traffic, if your blog is boring you won’t keep people around. Show your personality, be informative and don’t run totally from controversy. This is probably the most important tip. If your content is good, people will link to you more and you will find yourself getting contacted by media.
- Consider Keywords - When you write posts, think about keywords that people could use to find you in search engines. Blogs should be people friendly first and search engine friendly second, but it doesn’t hurt to name your title (and in the case of Wordpress blogs) and post slug something catchy that includes keywords and phrases.
- Blog Frequently - People who love to read blogs like to read blogs. If they click on your site and you haven’t updated in a week or more, they might remove you from their feed reader. If you find that you don’t know what to blog about sometimes, read this article: What in the world do I blog about?
How I Got Out of Debt
February 14, 2008 | 1 Comment
I’ve been meaning to post this for several months, but listening to Marie Ynami interview Christine McKinley on her podcast reminded me. They talked about Christine’s free teleseminar (which is now passed but if you check out her site she offers this information in ebook format) all about getting out of debt.
Basically, this is what I did to pay off my credit card debt:
- Stopped using the cards - You can’t get out of a hole unless you stop digging!
- Paid off the smallest card first - I did this for the psychological boost it gave me. It had a small balance and getting it over with made me happy.
- Created a large visual - I put a large chart on my office wall with my debt, income and savings. It was exciting to see my savings and income grow each month while my debt got smaller!
- Sold stuff of value - I got rid of things that didn’t mean a lot to me but that could be turned into cash. And I disciplined myself to use that money towards the debt.
- Started an emergency fund first - While this seems backwards to some, it helped me feel safer and in control. I thought it would be awful to get out of debt and then have all 4 tires fall off my car or have some other emergency and have to get back in! So having that “baby contingency fund” gave me real peace of mind and made me feel proactive instead of reactive.
- Ramped up my income - I worked hard in my business to step up my earnings.
- Tracking my spending - I kept a small notebook in my purse and wrote down EVERY penny I spent. Just the act of doing that curbed my spending! Plus it pointed out weak spots (coffee and books) that I could work on.
- Rewarded myself for being frugal - I budgeted a small amount (less than before but still something) on little treats for myself so I wouldn’t feel totally deprived.
- Transferred balances - I transferred balances on two cards to one that offered zero interest for 6 months. And I paid it off in 6 months then closed the card. Teehee! I beat the evil credit card companies at their own game!
- Read a lot about personal finance - I read a lot of books during that time about debt, personal finance and emotions around money. I discovered some great blogs!
- I made sacrifices - I temporarily stopped paying my kids an allowance. I talked to them about my goals, about debt and about what we would do when the debt was paid. One of the things I did when the cards were paid was buy my oldest a guitar. I also didn’t buy myself new clothing for a few months. I just kept focusing on what I wanted, which was to not be beholden to anyone, and did whatever I could to meet that goal, which meant sacrificing things that weren’t as important to me.
- I spoke my goal out loud - I shared my goal with others who were close to me, and because of that, opportunities came my way because I had declard my intention.
I hope that helps someone else
Postpartum Depression and Work at Home Moms
February 14, 2008 | 1 Comment
WahmTalkRadio this week was really wonderful. I have never really thought about the implications of depression and postpartum depression for the work at home Mom, but Wendy Piersall did an awesome job of not only sharing her personal story, but giving other moms some advice if they find themselves in that situation.
When I listened to the show I thought about my I’ve always speculated about postpartum depression - I believe that PPD is multi faceted and there are several factors that come into play, but that most of it is due to the modern family situation that Moms find themselves in. Making new moms spend most of their time alone (in the case of a sahm) with a new baby, isolated from family and support, is a recipe for disaster and a modern invention.
Wendy reiterated something that I said on Mom’s Morning Show last week too… that “faking” happiness works! She said that she had to remind herself to put a smile on her face when she sat at the computer. Some of her practical suggestions for managing a case of the blues or full fledged depression are:
Get out in the sun. If your depression is caused by or made worse by Seasonal Affective Disorder, this will definitely help. Put your home office in a sunny area of the house, not the basement or a closet.
Eat your vegetables. Good nutrition supports a healthy mind AND body. Getting some fatty fish would be a good idea too, since the Omega 3’s have been shown to help depression. There are other foods that help S.A.D. listed here.
Schedule spirituality. It’s easy to forget about the things that fill our buckets, but we can’t afford to leave it to chance. Taking time to meditate, pray, do activities that remind you of your spiritual need.
Nurture your social life. When you’re feeling blue, often the last thing you want is to socialize, but isolating yourself makes things worse. Force yourself if possible, to get out and be around people. Even if all you can do at first is take your laptop to the coffee shop.
How do you make money with a blog?
February 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today on Moms Morning Show Chele, Wendy, Kelly and I discussed making money with a blog and promoting your blog.
When Kelly asked, “How do you make money with your blog?”
My answer was this: “The quick easy answer is, the same way you make money with any other site: selling your own products, selling someone else’s products for a commission, Google Adsense and selling advertising.”
Wendy shared a word of caution when it comes to Text Link Ads and other sponsored posts, she said that Google recently decided to punish blogs who did so, which led to a decrease in her income.
Kelly also asked if there were any bloggers that I had learned from. Absolutely - I mentioned Tiffany Washko, Alice Seba, and Kelly McCausey. I made the observation that you can learn great blogging from ANY good blogger, regardless of their niche or the content of their blog.
Mom Time and Vanity
February 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Moms Morning Show this morning was about taking care of momma. Aurelia, Kelly, Chele and Cara talked about taking the time and spending money on YOU.
I realized years ago that I was a better mom if I took the time in the morning to put on a little lip color, curl my eyelashes and put on jeans and a cute top. When I feel better about my appearance, I’m more effective with my kids. It’s almost like I respect myself more when I’ve taken that 5-10 minutes in the morning to spruce up, and that makes me a better Mom.
But, I have one issue I need to work on.
My nails are atrocious! I have never HAD nails in my life, mostly because I pick at my cuticles until they bleed. Bad, I know. So I never wanted to spend the money on manicures or anything. I don’t want fake nails, but I am realizing that my hands are looking old and I don’t like it.
First I need to stop picking at my cuticles, so I’m going to work on that with EFT. Secondly I need to make it a daily habit to moisturize my cuticles and hands.
I have gottten a LOT of grey hair in the last couple of years, but I don’t want to color it. I want to be a foxy grey haired woman. I think grey hair is cool. My Dad has been prematurely grey since I was born. It’s his signature look. Of course, I might change my mind in the future. I might not want to look as old as my hair makes me look.
If I did decide to dye my hair, I would use something that doesn’t have 4-methoxy-m-phenylenediamine (4MMPD) or 4-methoxy-m-phenylenediamine sulfate (4MMPD sulfate), two ingredients that are linked to cancer. So I would have to research the natural hair dye options available.
What do you think? Are you going to go grey? Or fight aging every step of the way?
What Will Parenting My Teen Be Like?
February 14, 2008 | 2 Comments
When I grow up and my kids are teenagers, I hope I’m as cool as Aurelia Williams. Aurelia’s show is all about parenting teenagers. I listened to this week’s show and thought about the fantasy I’ve always had with my younger kids.
I imagine myself sitting in front of a coffee shop sipping latte with my oldest son Caleb. He has blonde hair that’s really light at the tips and his big blue eyes are shining. (Yes, he is my child. Very blonde and very blue eyed. When he was born I was like, “Did that just come out of me?” So much for dominant genes!) He’s tall and skinny and wearing baggy skater pants. He’s well read and a great conversationalist - this isn’t much of a stretch, he’s both those things now.
I imagine us having conversation. I am laughing at his jokes and generally enjoying listening to his point of view on things. Sometimes he scares me a little bit, but mostly I’m so proud of him I could bust open and spill out all over the sidewalk.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m really looking forward to my teenagers. Despite our stressful moments, we have great communication. Even though I’ve overreacted to things and overdisciplined many times, for the most part I know when to slow down and just listen. Reading books like How To Talk So Kids Will Listen has taught me how to acknowledge and mirror feelings. I’ve also learned how to talk through problems instead of automatically punishing or consequencing. I also know about myself that I won’t take adolescence personally. It’s not about me, it’s about them needing to push/pull to become an adult.
Thanks Aurelia for providing such great information and being so positive about the parent - teen relationship!
What Happy People Know About Chocolate
February 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Not really. 
Moms Morning Show today also reminded me about an awesome book I read and reviewed recently called What Happy People Know.
The science of happiness has always interested me. Why did some Holocaust survivors survive and go on to make something meaningful out of the experience, when others gave up emotionally and die prematurely in the camps? Why do some people who survive childhood abuse become Hitler, and others become Oprah?
A lot of it has to do with our brain chemistry - but we aren’t powerless to change that chemistry. This book tackles some of the “happiness traps”, one of which I mentioned on the show linked above, and that is the expectation that life will behave all the time. Read about the other happiness traps in the book.