My Mompreneur Life

Supermom Sunday - Hot Buttered Rum

2009-10-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

Technically, Supermom Sunday did not involve Rum of any sort. What was a major component was Trader Vic's Hot Buttered Rum Batter. Since our cupboards have become extremely bare the past week, due to overall illness and mom not feeling up to our regular marathon shopping, I had to get creative for breakfast yesterday. Also, as my son was quick to point out, last Sunday was an epic fail on my part. I didn't cook (I was sick, I did have an excuse), and even worse than that, I had forgotten to pay the satellite and they had NO TELEVISION ALL WEEKEND.

I decided on apple cinnamon pancakes and a warm nectarine topping. I took a bag of nectarines that were beginning to look... ugly... and peeled and diced them. I threw them in a skillet with some melted butter, and a nice scoop of the Hot Buttered Rum Batter. While the nectarines cooked down and caramelized with the brown sugar, I mixed up a batch of pancakes with a box of Jiffy Apple Cinnamon muffin mix, some leftover Bisquick, and some leftover Apple Bran Muffin Mix. The nectarine topping had just the right amount of sweetness and spice to it that no maple syrup was required. Needless to say, breakfast was gobbled up in a minute, and Troll Baby was a very happy camper.

I spent my afternoon in the office, working in the relative quite away from football. Pretty soon, I heard Bill in the kitchen. Before long, things started smelling really good. He was making his own improvised version of Paella, and let me tell you, it set my stomach to growling. By the time the rice was done, and the kids were all home to eat, I was more than ready to chow down. It is always a nice treat to end the day having someone else do the cooking.

My Mystery Shopping Experience

2009-10-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

This month, I have completed 5 mystery shops. Two were grocery shops, and three were retail shops. I have come to the realization that this is just not my thing. Now don't get me wrong, it sounds great... Get paid to shop, something you do anyway right? This may be true,but it takes a certain kind of personality to do Mystery Shopping, and I do not fit the bill. If you have a get in, get your stuff and get out way of shopping like I do, then the Mystery Shopping process will drive you batty.
This post, I will cover my Grocery Shopping Experience. For one thing, there is a lot of paperwork involved. For each shop, there is a set of criteria you must meet. On average there are five pages of instructions for you to follow. These pages basically cover what you must enter into the computer after your shop. You have to evaluate customer service, whether you were greeted when within a certain range of the employee, how you were greeted, what the employee was doing when you encountered them, etc. You must evaluate the service deli and bakery for service, for example, did they offer you a sample or try and make a sale. In the check out line, you have to see if the store is observing the three is a crowd policy, did the cashier discover the big item at the bottom of the cart, did they tell you how much you saved, etc.

For the grocery shops, I was paid $5 and reimbursed $15 for groceries. So far, so good. If I were to do four of these a month I would get $80 towards my grocery bill. Who can't use that kind of money towards their grocery bill? Especially if you have teenagers? Problem is, the shops require you to spend about 45 minutes browsing in the store, attempting to have encounters with the employees. BORING! You see, they want you to have encounters with employees in the enter aisles of the store... the ghostland... the place where the employees only go between the hours of 5 and 7 am, before the store opens, when it is stocking time. I chose to go on my shops around 4:30 pm, on the weekend. I figured during this time of day, it should be bustling with activity. So I entered the front of the store on right, did a reconnaissance of the front of the store, checked out the cashier stations, and then began to work my way through the store from left to right, up one aisle and down the next, making my slow, slow way through the store, vainly attempting to run into an employee in the middle of the store. I did this two times at the first grocery store, and never saw an employee outside of the meat, produce and deli sections. At the second grocery store, I lucked out. I ran into an employee stocking in the center of the store right off the bat, so at least I didn't have to wander around and round.

After your shop, you have to enter your evaluation into the Mystery Shop website. You have to enter the names of the employees you encountered, their description if you were unable to read their name tag, what they were doing when you encountered them, etc. Unfortunately, the process is set-up so that they expect you to enter three employees per area, and if you only encountered one, you have to complete two additional pages explaining why you were unable to complete an encounter. You evaluate the stores cleanliness and layout, behavior of the employees, etc. It takes about as much time to fill out the web form and scan in your paperwork as it does to complete your shop. chances are, i won't be doing any more of these shops in the near future, as the time involved does not quite compensate for the reimbursement level.

Stay tuned for my next post, revealing (among other things) why you need to pay attention when your shop application asks if you have sensitivity to perfume, and why you should just say no to shops that ask you to rate associates by how attractive they are. Also, find out how to easily terrify a cashier by asking his name.

You may just wanna know that even Mompreneurs get overwhelmed.

2009-10-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much here on "My Mompreneur Life" the past few weeks. It turns out that my DoozieLife has been a bit overwhelming lately. Although I have been working, I just haven't felt the "umph" to write about it. Now, I have been whining a bit on my DoozieLife blog just as a form of self-therapy, and damn, it does really help! However, despite all this wallowing around in a funk, I have been actually working as well (just so you don't think I am just a lazy couch potato, drinking beer and eating ice cream all day.

Here are a few of the things I have been doing:

Mystery Shopping through Market Force (contact me - I would love to refer you)
Freelance Article Writing

Way fun. I just wrote 10 articles about parenting for a client who happens to run the biggest Blink182 site I have ever seen. I am still trying to figure out the correlation between the two

Paid Blog Posts

I get paid $2 - $3 for a small post with a link to the sponsors sit
I just received an offer today for $10 a post about various parenting and health related topics. They provide the topic, the keywords, 1 required link. I get to write a short post, add artwork of my choice, and 1 relevant link of my choice... Think I will build a Squidoo lens for each of those links...

My First Squidoo Payout

$11.21 for me and $1.27 to La Leche League International

My Son's Surgery at UCSF
Troll Baby's Current Cold/Asthma and Hopefully Not Going to be H1N1
Slowly but surely cleaning house
and last, but not least, 1 huge web design project and 1 small one coming tomorrow

Yippee! My dear client just left, and I have a $50.00 cash deposit for making some small site updates!

Mompreneur Sunday - September 20, 2009

2009-09-21T02:59:00.000-07:00

Today was another great Sunday for this Mompreneur. We had a full house off and on over the weekend, which meant that there wasn't much in the way of productivity happening... that's OK though, sometimes you need to take a break, regroup, and gear up to go full stream ahead come Monday.

This Mompreneur Sunday started off with sleeping in. When I woke up, there was coffee made for me by my wonderful fiance, which sets just the right tone. The guys were already full on with the football when I got up today (when does the pre-game stuff start anyway... the crack of dawn?), so I prepped the kitchen and made blueberry waffles to die for. These are scrumptious, and so easy. Use one box of Jiffy Blueberry Muffin Mix, and 1 cup of Bisquick, one egg, a little oil and about 1 1/2 cups of milk. While I have the waffles cranking out of the waffle iron, I start making my warm blueberry compote. I pour half a bag of frozen blueberries, about 5 tablespoons of sugar, and about 2 tablespoons of cornstarch that has been whisked into approximately 2 cups of water, and mix it all together into a pyrex bowl. I microwave on high about a minute at a time, until the mixture starts to boil. Then, I take it out, crush down the blueberries a bit to help get the juice into the mixture, and continue to microwave until it starts to thicken. By then, all the waffles are made, and everyone can build their plates.

Of course, I have to make sure at least one person is getting some work done...

My assistant ate so much this morning, her little belly was tight as a drum. After breakfast, she was a sticky blueberry mess, so she got to have a very splashy Sunday morning bath. Between the excitement of football, a full tummy and a complete water aerobic work-out, she was ready to conk out right about the time the Raiders won. Amazing, two miracles at once!

Kids Make it Hard to Think Sometimes...

2009-09-18T00:42:00.000-07:00

The past two days, I have found it difficult to commit myself fully to my job. Emotionally, I have had a large portion of my brain dedicated to worrying about my two oldest, and physically I spent most of my day driving back and forth to the Bay Area. It is hard to be torn between keeping up with committments to clients, and your committment to your most important client of all, your family.

Wednesday, my 19 year old daughter had to go to the San Francisco to consult with her Endocrinologist. For those who haven't ever encountered one of these, they aren't people you want to see. Oh, they are quite nice, that isn't the problem. The problem is, if they want to see you, then you definately have a problem. We thought my daughter's endocrine problem had largely been taken care of when the endocrine surgeon took out her thyroid in July. Well, her following doctor wanted to see her in person to make sure things were going well since the surgery. After her appointment, my daughter called me in hysterics from the parking garage at UCSF to tell me that things aren't going well at all. Turns out, endocrine also has to do with hormonal stuff, and with all my daughters auto-immune crap, that has always been off kilter. It appears as if her immune system attacking her liver, GI system, thyroid... these weren't enough. It has also been attacking her ovaries, causing her to not produce enough estrogen. Big problem.

We have touched on this before... the estrogen thing. However, BC pills (a common way to replace estrogen) can't be used due to her liver disorder. We tried the patch and it made her practically homicidal (umm, that's not good). We kind of backed away and decided to tackle some other physical issues, figured we would get back to the estrogen thing later. Turns out, it is a bigger deal than we imagined. Her immune system may have caused enough damage that she will face infertility... She could try hormone therapy, but we kinda think her assorted specialists will find out reasons why this could be harmful for her. My beautiful red head, who truly believes that it is every red head's duty to try and save the red headed genetic strain, is basically being told she shouldn't have children. The risks to her health, the difficulties she would face getting pregnant, and the unknowns about whether her various autoimmune disorders would be passed down to her children are all big red flags.

Needless to say, I have been an emotional wreck since we got the call Tuesday asking her to come in. I do not know how to comfort her. I am like fertile myrtle, and have been so easily blessed with four wonderful children. What do I say to this young woman who wants to someday have a family, to be a mommy to little red headed babies... Selfishly, this is what I want to... I want those little carrot top kids running around. I try to think that maybe it still will be... Maybe we are being premature in our doom and gloom. My daughter is being the mature one, thinking how unfair it would be to have a child have to go through health issues like her... Already, she is hitting up her best friend for egg donation... Looks like I may have to start fundraising, because I am sure her insurance isn't going to call invitro-fertilization a medical necessity.

Aside from that, today, well yesterday if you consider I am writing this at 12:30 am on Friday... On Thursday, I woke up, emailed a couple clients, worked on a client's web page for about an hour, and then drove my son to see the orthopedic surgeon. I need to just put a SHOUT OUT to Dr. Ma and the Orthopedic Surgery center at UCSF. They are great professionals to work with. My son is scheduled in just 3 weeks to have surgery to take some screws out of his femur, they are doing it as an outpatient surgery, and agreed to do the pre-op consult over the phone! That saves so much time, since pre-op usually has to be done at the hospital or clinic a day or two before. While preparing to go to the appointment today, I packed my notebook planning to try and write on some articles I need to send to a client. Didn't happen. Troll Baby needed to tag along today, and it is just impossible to write when you have a toddler trying to roam the waiting room of a clinic filled with fragile people on crutches, in wheelchairs, using canes, wearing braces and generally at great risk of incurring damage from an underfoot child.

So, today was a bust as far as work is concerned. Tomorrow should be much better. I get paid for my Boosters layout, all the kids will be at school for several hours (not counting Troll Baby - but maybe I can bribe her with Little Bear and Yo Gabba Gabba), and I should be able to concentrate better on work knowing that the best professionals I know are concentrating on fixing my kids.

Ups and Downs

2009-09-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Well, the ups are that I have finally gotten all the materials from my client, and delivered the file to the printer for proofing. Now, I will sit back and nervoucsly await the nitpicking. I adore my client, but she loves to put her projects together, and then say... "Can we move this ad to this page? I think this ad should have a helmet instead of a football... Can we change that font? There are too many daity ads close together , we need to spread them all out." Now, these may seem like little things, but oh, can they throw a wrench in the gears. In other words, these little fixes can be a pain in the ass. However, there is one thing I decided long ago... As long as I am getting paid to do it, it doesn't matter. If a client wants to change an ad five times, I am getting paid, so it doesn't matter.

Another up... I also got contracted last night to write 10 trial parenting articles for this absolutely charming british guy. Well, he is either british, or an american who is located in England. Should be fun. He runs a huge Blink 182 website (how this relates to parenting I have no idea) so I think he will be great to work for, as well as a real challenge. I guess he plans to have some sort of mom blog thing going on in the future. Mom blogs, parenting articles, Travis Barker and tattoos... Most of my favorite things!

Now for the downs... Today is my birthday, and frankly, I think it should just be skipped. Nothing good ever comes of birthday, unless you are 1, 5, 15, 16 or 21. Anything over that is overrated. Where I am at, I am just glad I have survived another year without my entire head of hair turning gray (Actually, maybe it has... it has been so long since I have seen what my hair really looks like that it is entirely possible). In all actuality, today should be nice. My daughter already brought me a pumpkin spice frappachino from Starbuck's, and plans on cooking beef stroganoff for dinner. What a treat!

On Being the Middleman... Well, Middlewoman

2009-09-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

I often do graphic design for my ex-employer. I have worked off and on for this locally owned printing company for ages (literally), floating between actually working in the shop or being an independent contractor depending on how my parenting life, their financial status, and better job opportunities have fluctuated. This time around, I am hoping to be able to financially stay afloat on my own, and not go back to being an employee.

Whenever they get bogged down, or have a really complex design job, or a stinker of a job they just don't want to do, or a customer that is disfficult to deal with... they call me. It's ok, really... After 20 years in design, I have dealt with plenty of deadlines, crappy jobs, whiny and procrastination prone clients. I guess you can say that it's all in a days work.

Monday, Monday... Off to a late start...

2009-09-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

My usual routine is to get up at 7:15, get my son ready for school, make some coffee and then jump into work. Thank heavens for my daughter, who picks him up each morning and takes him to school on her way to work. It makes it so much easier on me, and I don't have to drag the baby out.... She's really starting to make up for the 19 hours of labor it took to get her here!

This morning however, I felt like crapola. so I got my son up, gave him his clothes and his instructions, and went back to bed. Until 10:15! Ugh! So I will be racing today trying to catch up. Luckily, when I checked my email, my football program client has not emailed me the materials I need, so that makes me feel a little bit better.

Well, I have my Chai Tea ready, I ate my Cocoa Crispies, so now it is time to go forth and conquer!

One last thought... If you have teens, in particular a teen who you recently congratulated on a well written paper... Ban them from your blogs! Last night my son was critiquing my spelling, my grammar, suggesting I use more similies and use alternate graphics...

Workin' Mom Sunday

2009-09-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

Thank God it's football season! Now, that may not normally be something you would hear come out of my mouth. I mean, I like football. I like the food, I like having company over to watch the games... heck, I even like watching the games in small doses. However, what I like the most about NFL Football is Sunday. The guys are busy and out of my hair all day! I can work with virtually no interruption.

At our house, Sunday is my morning to cook pancakes. It is my gift to everyone, and helps get things off to a good start. This morning, I made Apple Cinnamon pancakes that were absolutely scrumptious. These are pretty easy, and make you appear to be some sort of Goddess in the kitchen. I start with Bisquick, and whatever quantity of mix the recipe calls for, I substitute half with muffin mix. Today, I chose to do a bran and apple cinnamon mixture. Muffin mix tends to make you batter thicker, so I increase the milk to make my pancake batter thin enough so I don't end up with muffin high pancakes.

Now, everyone is full and happy, and I can sit back and work in peace. Today, my project is to wrap up the football program. I am over halfway finished, and should knock it out today, at least enough for the initial proof. I was up late last night, going onto MaxPreps to find the players roster, since the client didn't have the players photos labeled with jersey numbers or names. It is a bit of a pain in the butt to have to do this, but I would rather get the players laid out in the program now, instead of waiting for my client to get the coach to do it.

A Sickly Mompreneur Saturday

2009-09-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

I have a cold... It sucks... My desk is starting to look like a sick ward war zone. I have my bottle of Mucinex - generic of course, because I am a tightwad. I think I took the Mucinex twice, because when my daughter called me this morning to remind me to take it, I second guessed myself, couldn't remember, so I took another dose to be sure. My tissues ran out, so I am down to a roll of toilet paper and leftover Togo's napkins. My little trash can is threatening to overflow. I have my secretary locked out of germ's way by the baby gate... Not sure what this will do, since I still have to nurse her, but at least I am not sneezing on her constantly.

So, what am I actually accomplishing workwise? Today, I am working on the Football Booster Program for the Hilmar, CA Yellowjackets. In case you haven't had a kid in football, this is one of those printed ad programs to raise money for the football program at the school. Local businesses buy ad space, parents by ad space, and the profits after my set-up fee and printing go towards booster projects like maintaining practice fields, buying equipment, and anything else the sports program needs. the program also lists the team football and cheer rosters, as well as schedules.

What I do is take all the raw material, photos, business cards, word docs, etc. and lay them out in Adobe InDesign. I build ads, placate the printing company who is always stressed, push the mom in charge of getting me materials, and generally work my butt off to get their program done in time for their first home game. These sort of jobs have a small window of time within which to work, and the person in charge will inevitably wait until the last minute making changes.

If you are interested in having an ad booklet built, feel free to contact me. With about twenty years experience under my belt, I can get anyone's ad program off the ground.

Reflecting on 9/11

2009-09-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

All day long everyone has been talking about where they were on 9/11. I was at the Sacramento International Airport, taxiing down the runway, when our engines were turned off and the pilot declared an unknown emergency. I was on my way to Fort Jackson for basic training. It was hours before we actually found out what had happened, and were able to contact our families. My children were terrified, knowing only that I was on a plane that morning flying to the east coast. It was a horrible day for everyone... for those who lost their lives, and for those who freely gave their lives trying to save others. It was a day I hope none of us ever forget. Groups of newly signed soldiers were flued to the televisions, seeing the Twin Towers hit over and over. New recruits began pouring in, wanting to register in the military, to defend their country, to avenge the loss our nation had suffered. What followed were days filled with numbness and dread, as all new military personnel were grounded from air travel due to a fear of further terroist activity. Finally, on September 18th, we were allowed to resume on tavels and begin a new journey in the service of the United States.

What does it mean to be a Mompreneur?

2009-09-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

According to Wisegeek, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-mompreneur.htm , mompreneur is a newly coined term for women who establish businesses at home while also acting as the full time parent of their children. The mompreneur movement is one steadily growing in the US as mothers try to find ways to make money, express their creativity or business acumen, and also to parent their children.

This is my secretary, sporting the latest fashion... Panty Hats.

Ok, so cut the crap... What mompreneur really means is that you get up at the butt-crack of dawn, wake up disgruntled, sleep deprived children, and hopefully get them off to school with their teeth brushed and hair combed, wearing clean clothes. You have your toddler hanging off your boob while you try to type an article, all the while avoiding flailing feet that are trying to drum on your keyboard. When home, your teenager comes in the office (which happens to be a corner of the laundy room) every five minutes because you just have to see this Slipknot video on YouTube.

You check your email. You discover your article has been rejected because you used the word boob in an article about breastfeeding. You see another article has been approved, and rejoice at the $1.99 that has been deposited into your PayPal account! WooHoo, get that breastfeeding one approved and you may have enough money for a frappachino from Starbuck's.

You express your creativity by venting about your family on your blog, and practice your business acumen by trying to keep your grocery budget down to under $500 a month for a family of five, including diapers! You parent your children by turning on Yo Gabba Gabba for the toddler, and keeping a 4-pack of Monsters in the fridge to help the teenager stay awake and get his homework done. Your true business hours are between Top Chef and 3 am in the morning, which is when you have the least amount of distractions.

Crazy? Yes! Rewarding? Absoulutely! Challenging? All the time. Would I trade it for anything in the world? No thanks... I have worked for someone else since I was 14 years old, and I love being my own boss, being able to do PTA (yea, they actually let me do that.. who knew?), be home when the kids are home from school, and listen to whatever music I want while I work!

About Me

2006-10-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

I am 41 years old, oh.. wait... umm, I am 42 years old. I worked for nearly twenty years as a graphic designer for various printing companies and two school districts, where I managed the district print facilities. I always thought that would be my path, and I enjoyed working outside the home. However, call it Karma or whatever, things didn't exactly go as planned.

I have two teenagers from "My Once Upon A Time When I Married Someone Because I Wanted
White Picket Fences and The Leave It To Beaver Life." Well, turns out the hubby wasn't Wally Cleaver, the white picket fences turned into a foreclosure, and my two children have experienced more trauma than most people experience in a lifetime. My daughter has chronic auto-immune disorders including Ulcerative Colitis, liver disease, thyroid disease and hormonal problems. My son was hit by a truck November 2nd, 2007 and just had his most recent (and hopefully last) surgery on October 7th, 2009.

I have two younger children, a 2nd grader and a toddler. My youngest is my good luck charm, born 8/8/08. While I was pregnant with her, my two oldest children had major surgery... on the same day.. at two different hospitals in San Francisco. I made it through that, missed a lot of work trying to get kids to follow-up appointments and physical therapy. My pregnancy was high risk, and I was having to go to the doctor two or 3 times a week for monitoring. During all this, I tried to maintain my job, but eventually al the nights and weekends trying to cram in hours became to much for me. My doctor put me on disability, and I took a break... Finally...

After the baby was born, I thought I would try and go back to work. However, my employer's business had been slowing down over a long period of time, and when I was ready to go back, there wasn't enough work to go around.. (that's ok really... her checks would often not clear the bank, but the unemployment checks always clear). My area is now inundated with out of work graphic artists looking for work, starting sign shops, grubbing for freelance work, so in all reality returning to my prior career probably isn't going to happen. So for the sake of my children, my family, and my sanity, I am diversifying and exploring the possibilities of the WAHM.