How to Start a Mom Blog that Actually Makes Money

Blogging / Blogging Tips / Make Extra Income / Work At Home

Inside: Have you heard that moms can make money blogging, but you have no idea where to begin? Get step by step instructions for exactly how to start a mom blog that actually makes money (many blogs don’t), along with information about blogging that I wish I had before I started.

Three years ago, I learned that you could actually make money blogging. One of my favorite mom bloggers mentioned in a random e-mail that she had finally learned how to earn a part-time income from home through her blog.

She started her mom blog as a hobby, having no clue it could pay her bills. Five years later, she consistently earns $2,000 a month.

Without her telling me it was possible, I wouldn’t be earning money blogging today. How I wish I’d known sooner!

It’s not too late to start a mom blog and make money from home.

Read More» Posted by

An Honest Brave Writer Review from a Former Skeptic

Brave Writer / Homeschool / Language Arts
brave writer reviews

Inside: Brave Writer reviews can be extremely polarized and confusing. As a new homeschool mom searching for a unique language arts curriculum, I read them and walked away bewildered, not knowing what to think. So what turned a former skeptic into a Brave Writer enthusiast? Read my honest Brave Writer review to find out. 

A few years ago, I decided to step away from the University Model school my daughter attended and brave homeschooling all on my own. As I was researching various curriculums, I focused my attention primarily on math and language arts.

All my daughter knew of language arts at that point was a phonics workbook she absolutely despised. I’m talking serious hatred: as in she would sit and stare out the window for 45 minutes instead of doing one page in that workbook.

I knew she needed something different, but what?

Read More» Posted by

How to Declutter with No Time and a Tight Budget

Declutter / Minimalism
how to declutter with no time and a tight budget, how to declutter with decision fatigue

Inside: Do you truly want to declutter, but you have almost no time? Is any decluttering time you do have ruined by the decision fatigue that comes when you’re afraid you might get rid of something you’ll need in the future? Then this decluttering guide is for YOU.

Decluttering takes time and effort. It’s something you need to decide you really want to do. It requires a strong commitment and careful prioritization.

All of those statements are true.

That being said, so many of the women I talk to are moms with young kids and bigger than average families (i.e. more than the 2.2 kid American family average). They also work from home, homeschool, or both!

If that’s you, I absolutely believe you when you say you want to declutter – you really do – but time to get the job done is a very real roadblock.

Read More» Posted by

The Easiest Way to Create A Minimalist Meal Plan (& save your sanity!)

Food / Home / Minimalism
minimalist meal planning, how to create a minimalist meal plan

Inside: Use this simple method to create your own minimalist meal plan, something that will save you precious time, energy, and sanity! As busy moms, we have better things to do with our time (can I get an “amen”?!).

If you hate meal planning as much as I do, you are probably constantly on the hunt for a miraculous meal planning hacks. You scour Pinterest and Google searching for the meal planning magic bullet.

You want something – anything – that will make meal planning less of the massive time suck and hair-pulling experience that it is.

I’m pretty sure prior to discovering minimalist meal planning. I tried every meal planning system known to man. And no matter what the system, I still hated meal planning. I dreaded having to come up with 6-7 meals my husband and I would actually enjoy eating – he is picky eater, not me.

And after an hour or two of frustration, I would come up a meal plan.

Finally.

Only to have to repeat the same awful process all over again a week later.

Ugh.

Read More» Posted by

6 Really Good Reasons to Stop Folding Laundry (guilt-free)

Cleaning / Home
Stop folding laundry

Inside: Are you spending all your time folding your kids’ laundry? Here are six good reasons to stop folding laundry and exactly how to do it to get your time back.

Neat and tidy drawers with nicely folded clothes make me happy. I am intent on raising kids who not only appreciate a clean home, but also know how to keep it that way.

And want to know something else? I’m one of those weird people who actually enjoys folding laundry.

I really do! Really.

In fact, I wrote an entire blog post about how the Konmari method of folding clothes changed my mom life (and if after you read this, you still want to fold your kids’ clothes, use the Konmari method).

Messy drawers? Gone for good with all those clothes filed neatly away, so you could see every single piece.

My husband’s drawers were no longer a complete disaster just one day after I put away clothes. Even the kids could keep their drawers straight (mostly).

I do still fold the adult clothes that require folding (and I still use and love the Konmari method for those clothes). About half of our clothes hang in closets, so that just leaves things like t-shirts, shorts, and pajamas.

Deeply wrinkled clothes aren’t really kosher for adults, so I don’t think I could ever stop folding our clothes. Although I did stop folding underwear – I mean, really, what’s the point?

But back to why I stopped folding the kids’ laundry….

So why on earth did a mom who loves neat and tidy drawers and folding clothes quit folding her kids’ clothes?

There are six, really good reasons.

Read More» Posted by

Our Relaxed Homeschool: 3rd Grade and 1st Grade {2018-2019}

Homeschool / Relaxed Homeschooling
homeschool 3rd grade, homeschool 1st grade

Inside: Are you going to homeschool 3rd grade or 1st grade this year? Check out the third grade homeschool curriculum section of this post for our core resources, and the rest of the post for additional resources we are using for the 2018-2019 school year for both grades.

Even though I am writing a curriculum post for the 2018-2019 school year, we are technically year-round homeschoolers.

I suppose you could consider our annual standardized test – as required by the state of North Carolina – the marker for when one school year ends and another school year begins. I typically administer the test in July or August each year.

While we don’t have an official “back to homeschool” day, we are starting a new tradition: an annual “NOT back to school” day!

I’m generally not bothered by the fluid nature of our homeschool days and years, but I know that my kids might need/want more special days to mark the years by.

Going out for ice cream (something we never do), playing board games and watching movies together all seemed like fun and easy ideas for an annual back to school day. Now to pick an official date in early September!

Read More» Posted by

Blog Income and Traffic Report {June 2018}

Blog Income Reports / Blogging / Work At Home
blog income and traffic report

Inside: My final blog income and traffic report! Read how I reached my goal of $1,000 a month income from this blog, and where I will go from here.

Welcome to my long overdue blog income report.

June and July were not very productive blogging months for me, as I was in the middle of my first trimester. I thought the first trimester was bad when I was pregnant with my first baby at 23. Nope! It’s so much more exhausting at 32 with four kids to take care of besides. I did the very bare minimum with blogging for two months in order to keep everything moving in the right direction.

When I first found out I was pregnant with my fifth baby, I thought it was going to be the death of my blog, of all the hard work I’d poured into it over the past year and a half. On the other side of my first trimester – when my motivation is lower than zero – I now see it very differently.

This pregnancy is the best thing that could have ever happened to my blog.

Read More» Posted by
© Copyright This Simple Balance - Theme by Pexeto