I'm going to ramble today about my blogging life. If you've noticed, I haven't been blogging much. There are pretty good reasons why:
1. I have a new baby.
2. I have two other fairly newish babies.
3. I blog when my kids are asleep. Well, my eldest has stopped napping ("I sleep when Mr. Sun is asleep."), my middle has decided to follow his older brother's example, and the new baby, well, he sleeps all the time but he must do it in my arms while breastfeeding. Kinda hard to tap away at the keyboard with a 6-kilo weight!
4. I was bullied last year by some bloggers so I lost a lot of blogging mojo. I wanted to leave blogging. Yeah, I was so affected, I was willing to accept defeat and just disappear. So thank goodness for my sponsors because, well, I have commitments to them so I couldn't kill the blogs. I'm okay now. It took a year for me to get over that whole fiasco, but my mojo is back. Except that with the mojo came the new baby so I'm still having a hard time blogging hehehe!
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| Where I'm blogging now. |
Anyway, like I said, my mojo's back. I still think of my blogging as a hobby; hence, my endless surprise that it's my main source of income. My blogger friends have been advising that I can do and earn so much more if my blogs become professional. So I've been talking to someone who can move my blogs to Wordpress (all the pro bloggers I know said it's time to leave Blogger). I've also been thinking of merging all my blogs into one because one blog is easier to maintain. I have separate blogs because of Nuffnang, you see. Nuffnang, the ad platform that handles Topaz Horizon, requires that we can't publish a new blog post for a number of days after a sponsored post. This is to give the sponsored post more mileage. Totally understandable. Didn't really bother me that much since I had Topaz Mommy and (the now dead) Beauty For A Living. If I wanted to blog, I just hopped on over to the other blogs. The bonus also is Topaz Mommy started earning on its own so now I have two income-generating blogs. Good times!
Then the kids arrived! Oh my goodness. I could handle my blogging/writer/married/mommy life when there was only one child. But with three kids within 4 years... I'm just going to let that trail off.
Can't complain! I'm very happy. In Rick Warren's Daily Devotional he asks:
I'm tired, but a happy tired. I'm tired because I'm a mom of three little boys. They can be a handful. But they make me happy, the work I do makes me happy. I'm happy. You know how when you're doing something you really enjoy, you may be exhausted but you love it anyway? And you hate being interrupted from your work because you enjoy it so much? That's how I feel about every aspect of my life now! I just need to find that balance so I can enjoy everything and sleep, too!
I'm so overwhelmed, yes, but since I'm happy, I know the solution to this overwhelmed state is not to cut back. Not this time. The solution is for me to finally GET ORGANIZED! I'm very chill, very come-what-may, very bring-it-on. But I never quite have a battle plan. This really surprises people because I come across as very on-top-of-everything. Well, I used to be, when I didn't have kids and I had a job in print publishing. But since leaving the corporate world, I've lost structure. That's the great thing about being an employee. You have a boss, she tells you what to do, you do it, you get paid. There's structure. When you're freelancing and blogging, there's a lot of busy today, relaxed tomorrow. There's no schedule. It's so weird!
The good thing about all this no structure is I said yes to a lot of things I wouldn't have been doing otherwise. For example:
1. When people approach me to be their brand ambassador, I go, "Sounds interesting. Okay!"
2. When I was asked to collaborate on bag design, I said, "I've never designed a bag. Let's do it!"
3. When I was offered to be market editor for Baby Magazine, I went, "Well, I've never actually done fashion and product shoots before (I was managing editor then EIC with OK! magazine). But I'm in!"
So that's another reason I'm MIA here. I've got a lot of fingers in a lot of pies. Can't complain again! I'm pumped up with work. Work always makes me happy. More than cooking and arranging flowers and planning meals and cleaning! I'm really a career woman. I'm not a domestic goddess at all (although I seem to give off that vibe. Strange!). But I'm choosing to stay home and work from home—even if that means a huge pay cut!—so that I can be with my baby boys. I'm really happy I can do both!
But for me to do both, I have to get organized. I just can't wing it anymore. I have enough projects that I feel I'm really working again. No more donya mode! I just don't know how to do it! So I want to ask all the freelancers, work-at-home moms, bloggers with day jobs, and full-time bloggers: How do you do it???
And with that, I just heard my preschooler and toddler fighting so off I go. Don't forget to share with me your tips on how to be organized! Mwah!
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Hi Frances!
ReplyDeletePlease keep on blogging! I really like your blog and many readers can relate to you.
When it comes to your question, I gave up the thought of organizing when the kids were smaller. I read tons of articles on how to manage your time and schedule but kids don't care about it. haha!
My husband suggested ( and it worked) to lessen my load. Saying "no" to some projects and choose those worthy of your time.
My schedule got better when my youngest went to preschool but that's for a few hours lang.Still, totally grateful to work at home!
Keep blogging!
Like you, I feel so tired from all the stuff I said yes to. Like yesterday, I was so tired from being in SM North. But I find that putting a hard stop to things (like a budget for time) works for me. For example, I want to read every night but if I do it beyond 11 PM, I'm going to screw my schedule next day. I stop at 11 PM, regardless of where I am in my reading. Or if I'm having drinks with friends, I don't go beyond 10 PM on a weeknight.
ReplyDeleteI do know that you're already doing this but I think it may be worth outsourcing stuff, like I no longer do my own laundry, something I enjoyed doing before cos sayang my time! Anyway, I wish you well in your organizing life and it was so nice to meet Piero :) I miss seeing Vito and Inigo though! :) See you on Thursday!
You are lucky! Blessings keep coming in...God is indeed good!
ReplyDeleteI always tell myself that I will blog once my 3-yo is asleep, but I fall asleep faster than my toddler hehe. Hence, my 2 to 3 times per month blogposts. I think you should retain your two blogs, mommytopaz is more personal and more of your cute kids! And this one is all-about-Frances blog, although I do know based on experience that advertisers will choose one blog over the other even if the other is more appropriate :p.
ReplyDelete