The Sensible Mom

Food, DIY, Chicago Mom Blogger

Sandra

Latest Blog Design: Just Kisha

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justkisha

I recently had the pleasure of creating a new blog design for Kisha, who writes the blog, Just Kisha.Β It was a joy to work with Kisha. She was truly a fantastic client, and it was so much fun creating a blog design for her that expressed who she is and her unique style. Head on over to her blog to see her new design for yourself. πŸ™‚

One of my favorite parts of Kisha’s design is her Let’s Connect sidebar section.

social media

Is that cute or what?

Kisha’s blog was designed using theΒ Blogger SensibleΒ package that we offer.

Thank you for the pleasure of designing your new blog, Kisha.


10 Goals for the Week

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10 Goals to Tackle This Week

I’m excited to have a fresh new week to tackle more goals.

Are you?

Last week, I did pretty well on my goals except that I didn’t get on the treadmill and whenever I started to dust, there seemed to be some hindrance. Other than that, I made decent progress.

Here’s a look at how I did with last week’s goals:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Look for a devotional book Ruben and I can go through with the kids – I found a free devotional for kids on Amazon (Kindle – I don’t have a Kindle, but I do have the free Kindle version for computers and the app for my phone.)

2. Spend more time playing with the kids in their rooms – Joy! I even got a little cleaning done while I was in there.

Personal Goals:

3. Drink juice at least 3 days this week

4. Finish reading the bookΒ Sacred MarriageΒ by Gary Thomas (affiliate link). – I didn’t make much progress in this book, because I’ve been reading a lot about ebooks. I’m writing an ebook on how to your own homemade health and beauty products! πŸ™‚ Super excited! I will be sharing more about this on The Sensible Mom later.

5. Walk on the treadmill at least 2 days this week – I didn’t exercise on the treadmill at all last week.

Home Management Goals:

6. Unpack 2 boxes from the garage

7. Dust – I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped, but it’s a little less dusty around here this week thanks to having this as a goal last week.

Business Goals:

8. Begin reading a book I’ll be reviewing here on The Sensible Mom (books is titled, Mother of Pearl)

9. Pray about writing an ebook and the topic it should be focused on

10. Pitch to like-minded businesses – at least 1 or 2

Now for this week’s goals:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Start doing daily devotions with the kids

2. Make a double batch of whole wheat pancakes with Breanna

Personal Goals:

3. Drink juice at least 3 days this week

4. Do more research for the ebook

5. Walk on the treadmill at least 2 days this week

Home Management Goals:

6. Unpack 3 boxes from the garage

7. Clean the school room

Business Goals:

8. Continue reading a book I’ll be reviewing here on The Sensible Mom (the book is titled, Mother of Pearl)

9. Finish first draft of the ebook (big goal)

10. Return emails

What are your goals for the week?


Mom Talk: where I share about my real life

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mom talk

I’ve been reading books and blog posts about writing.

The same two words keep coming up.

“Just write.”

That’s what I keep hearing, so today, I’m going to do just that. Write. Even though, at this moment, writing is sometimes difficult to do with an 8 month old nursing baby in my arms. (When I need to, I’ll take a break, but then I’ll get back to writing.)

I started this blog post by beginning a fresh new post and simply typed in the title, “Mom Talk.” I don’t know exactly where that came from, but it just came to mind, and I like it.

Then I quickly realized that I needed an image for my post, because although I’m trying to “just write,” I can’t create a blog post and not have a picture in it. That’s just not me. My ‘inner designer’ won’t allow me to do that. πŸ™‚

So I quickly powered up Photoshop, went through some of my most recent uploads, settled on the above picture, cropped it, took a few minutes to add the pink background & the words, “Mom Talk” then saved it and uploaded it to WordPress. Whew. Done.

I’ll probably switch out the picture in my Mom Talk posts periodically, but for now, I like the picture of my girls. One 9 yrs. old, one 8 months old. Both in need of a mom who is present, not behind the computer too many hours a day, who listens to their stories and babbles, and who cares about the state of their hearts.

Anyway, today was an eventful day.

I had an appointment that ended up lasting almost twice as long as I thought it would, and by the end of my appointment…

  • The kids were starving.
  • My thong of my flip flop had broken. In public.
  • I didn’t have any extra shoes with me, so I had to drag my foot as I walked so that it wouldn’t be so embarrassing noticeable. I can’t help but laugh at this now, even though, it wasn’t very funny at the time. Just ask my husband. Poor guy.
  • Elisabeth was on her last diaper. And I mean the last diaper. I had Ruben go to the car this morning to get the very last diaper we owned from the diaper bag we keep in the car in case of emergency when we are out of the house. I had intended to stop at the store after my appointment to get more diapers, but who knew my flip flop would break?Β Instead (on the way home), we made a quick stop at Publix where Ruben went in and bought a bag of generic diapers. We’re not really picky about the brand of diapers we use.
  • My phone was about to die. I had been using it to read a new ebook I downloaded on writing. I just installed the Kindle App on my phone yesterday after reading Amy’s blog post on ebooks. Love the app!
  • I’d decided that we’d be getting fast food on the way home.

We were all glad to finally be home. After we ate and unwound a bit, we left again to make it to the library before it closed. I had a book on hold waiting for me, and Breanna and Nathan needed some new reading material.

On a side note, we’ve started a new system with our two oldest kids to get them to read more. It’s working wonders. Breanna didn’t really need any motivation, but Nathan, our 12 year old son, did. He really needed motivation to read books with a little more substance and pages for that matter. Basically, we pay them one penny per page that they read. The books that they read need to start with at least 100 pages. That is unless they ask to have a book approved that is less than 100 pages. If the book has substance, and it’s 60 pages, I usually say, “yes.”

This is working wonders. My 12 year old son is now a voracious reader. He’s saving his money to buy LEGO sets, of course. And he’s totally cleaning us out of pennies.

That’s the gist of our day.

End of Mom Talk.

What did you do today? Have you ever had a flip flop break on you in public? Lol! πŸ™‚

 


10 Goals for the Week

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10 Goals to Tackle This Week

As much as I tried last week, I wasn’t able to get all of my goals accomplished.

But I got quite a few either done or half-way done.

Here’s how I did:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Continue working toward making family worship time a habit. I want to keep this on the list another week.

2. Spend quality time reading to the kids. Isaac has several β€˜bug books’ from the library that we need to read.

Personal Goals:

3. Drink juice at least 3 days this week

4. Read 120 pages of the bookΒ Sacred MarriageΒ by Gary Thomas (affiliate link). – I’m around page 94 in this book. Its been a good read, and I’m looking forward to finishing it this week. I hope.

5. Walk on the treadmill at least 2 days this week

Home Management Goals:

6. Unpack 4 boxes from the garage – As much as I tried, I was only able to unpack 2 boxes.

7. Organize the office room closet

Business Goals:

8. Spend time praying for this blog

9. Spend time in prayer for our design business

10. Create a sponsorship page for The Sensible Mom

And now for this week’s goals:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Look for a devotional book Ruben and I can go through with the kids

2. Spend more time playing with the kids in their rooms

Personal Goals:

3. Drink juice at least 3 days this week

4. Finish reading the bookΒ Sacred MarriageΒ by Gary Thomas (affiliate link).

5. Walk on the treadmill at least 2 days this week

Home Management Goals:

6. Unpack 2 boxes from the garage

7. Dust

Business Goals:

8. Begin reading a book I’ll be reviewing here on The Sensible Mom (book is titled, Mother of Pearl)

9. Pray about writing an ebook and the topic it should be focused on

10. Pitch to like-minded businesses – at least 1 or 2

What are your goals for the week?