Want a Great Hobby? Start Entering Competitions and Sweepstakes

I love entering competitions and sweepstakes. I've done pretty well out of it over the last couple of years, there are some tricks, hints and tips that can help increase your chances of winning a competition.

The easiest way to get started is keeping an eye out while you're online, reading magazines or doing your grocery shopping. Companies give away billions of dollars per year in cash and other great prizes, and it's really true that you can't win unless you enter.

Someone has to win these prizes, and it might as well be you :)

Are your kids Cyber Orphans?

I was chatting to a friend on msn the other night, as you do..... and we started discussing our computer and internet habits and how it affects our parenting.

One thing we both realised we have in common is that some days our children are virtual "cyber orphans". What were we talking about?

If you are a stay at home mum or really any mum or dad that spends alot of time on the computer or online for any reason i bet you can find something in common with our story.

You are engrossed in an idea, a work project or "important" chat conversation, when in the background you hear your kids talking to you. You answer them with a robotic, "yeah, sure, as soon as I am finished here"..... fast forward 15 minutes and this time you hear a louder insisting little voice..... "I said hang on, mummy won't be long!"

You get where I am going.... think about how often you've been in this situation with your own kids?

It's so easy to get swept away in our computers and the world wide web that sometimes we lose sight of what should really be important.

The goal for today and for every day from now is to look your children in the eye when they speak to you, if they have a need fulfill it immediately, take the time to read a book with them.
No, my children aren't neglected, nor will they EVER be neglected but i can guarantee you at times I am guilty of allowing my children to become "cyber orphans" even if just for a short while. I am mum enough to admit it, and woman enough to try and be conscious of it and change it.

Wordless Wednesday

Well, this is the result from my Study - I did this for Tackle it Tuesday to help get me motivated, it's not the best, but it's my first ever collage in photoshop, trying to learn and remember the techniques to use is hard (especially when given not so great photos to work with lol) but exciting :)

Have a great Wordless Wednesday!

Tackle it Tuesday - STUDY!!

Well, plenty of my time has been taken up over the last few months, trying to launch a business, look after the family and STUDY!!!

I am completing a Dip. Multimedia, but I always seem to be behind :(

Just as I sit down to get started you can be sure one of the kids will need something, or Mr 14 months will want some boob, so the progress is slow.

Sometimes I feel like I am stretching myself so thin that I just want to give up on it all, but I'm not one just to lie down and give up, so this Tackle It Tuesday is dedicated to STUDY!!!

I would really rather be cleaning (and if you knew me and saw my house you would realise what a stretch it is for me to say that LOL!!)

So, for today's Tackle it Tuesday I have succesfully finished 2 assignments, one on photo restoration and one on photo collages.... I feel like such an idiot trying to find my way around photoshop, but at the same time I am excited to think about what I might be able to accomplish a year from now.

I hope everyone else has a great tackle it tuesday!

I'm upset over teeth!!

Can you believe it? The subject of teeth and I am upset!!!

You see, my kids have bad teeth. When my son was 2 it cost us over $2000 for him to go to hospital and have all his teeth repaired. Keeping on top of his teeth problems has been an ongoing problem, but I think we have (almost).

He isn't scared of the dentist so has gone to have a couple of fillings replaced and is so brave!! He's 5 now and his first adult molars are starting to come through and I am scared!!

Let me just say before I go on that we don't let our kids drink alot of cola's or fizzy drinks, they don't live on a high sugar diet, I don't even give them fruitjuice!!! They drink milk and water and have an alround pretty ok diet, not perfect but pretty good.

Our kids brush their teeth every day and STILL problems :( I have friends and family who feed their kids absolute CRAP never brush their teeth and they don't have half the dental issues our family faces.

So anyway the other day I look at Miss 3's teeth and what do I find but a big cavity on her back molar, I amost cried. I feel so responsible!!

Now the thing is, that it really sux, and that some of the problem is genetic, they have crap teeth and we will do the best we can to keep on top of the problem, but I mean christ, thousands of dollars a year in dental bills is so hard to cope with.

Hubby and i don't have good teeth either so we are in the midst of spending alot of money getting ours fixed and it just pisses me that I can't see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The dentist that did the original work to my little boy's teeth said it is a problem that will be a continual battle, but I didn't think it would quite be such an uphill one.

So I feel like the worst parent on earth, and i know If I did nothing and let their teeth just rot out of their heads then THAT would be bad, but I can't help but feel responsible for their dental problems.

Ok I am just ranting now, but we don't have thousands of dollars to spend, you know one day I would like a bigger car or to buy a house, but between us all, and this is no exaggeration we probably have about 5 thousand dollars in dental work to have done.

I know there are worse medical conditions in the world to be cursed with, but it's crap when you try and do the right thing and it just blows up in your face all the time.

I guess at least our dentist will love us, we are helping pay for his retirement for sure LOL...

Ok, I'm back!!

I have been in exile long enough.... struggling with a mountain of motherhood duties, study and trying to start an online business..... so much of me feels like I am drowning but I know that through all this hectic struggle that the results are going to be great.

I am going to be qualified as a multimedia designer, I will be working from home and helping my family and while I will NEVER be the perfect mother I will continue slogging away and trying to do my best.

What I have realised is that I need a place just to vent, to be myself, to let everything out, to socialise with other mum bloggers, and you know I still get visitors coming to this blog even though I pretty much desserted it!!!

I am in love with wordpress and having my own domains and hosting, and i would love to move this blog somehow and I might, but i guess for now, staying here and writing here is great, it's a reflection of the start of my online journey.

The beginning, before I understood web hosting, websites, ftp, blogging.. wow it's been a journey and I guess I will write something about that soon, a reflection of past, acknowledgment of present and my goals for the future....

Now, If i remember rightly, tomorrow is tackle it tuesday and BOY do I have some big tasks to complete....... I am really looking forward to reconnecting.

Hope this post finds you well, whoever you are reading this out in blogging land xx

Where to from here

Well, it's quite obvious that this blog is an absolutely neglected barren environment since the end of last year..... I started it in an attempt to experience blogging, while on my path to find ways to make an income on the internet.

Life got somewhat in the road and this poor little blog got left behind. So now, I must decide what to do with it? Should I continue or just let it fade off into the distance with all its fellow long forgotten blog cousins that retire into the vast internet landscape......

If I continue the blog, what format should it take, what do I want to get out of it? What topics should I cover... (well motherhood..der!!) Do I have the time to dedicate to a blog???

I will think about it a little over the next couple of days... I am thinking I may use this blog as my therapy session.... you see most of the time it's just me and three kids together at home.... I NEVER and I mean NEVER get alone time, very rarely socialise with other adults, and perhaps all those crazy thoughts that go around in my head at a million miles an hour with nowhere to be vented can be put here??

Oh man I am rambling... I will be back ......