Need Some Homemaking Motivation?

Last Friday I live posted on the Facebook page different assignments to help you get your house in tip-top shape for the weekend.  We all worked together and got our homes clean in a hurry!

Everyone seemed to really enjoy the challenge, so we decided to create a group to keep each other on our toes to keep our homes clean and organized.

If you need some accountability in this area, come join us!  We have a new habit to work on every two weeks, as well as a focused project to complete each week.

Click here to join the group.

Help for Disorganized People: What to Do When You Get off Track

Last week I shared a number of tips to help you overcome your organizing roadblocks, but no matter how good your plan is you may occasionally find you have slipped back into old habits.  Or perhaps something threw you off your schedule, such as illness or another emergency. However it happens, you will sometimes find yourself back into your old habits of disorganization and procrastination.

Here's what to do when  you get off track:

• Don't give up — You can choose to let the interruption cause you to fall off the cliff or you can grab control and start from now climbing your way back up the mountain.

• Be honest with yourself — Determine what caused you to lose your focus. Are you overly tired; are you eating right; is something else wrong causing you to go back to your old ways of procrastination and disorganization?  Or are you just being lazy?

• Start small — Tackle one small thing to get it reorganized. It's especially important to go back and reorganize the things you've already organized that have gotten off track. Don't tackle anything new until you've at least gotten back to where you were.

• Go back to your calendar — The easiest place to start is your calendar. If you've been writing things in it, even the minutia, then you should have a place to start right there in today's date. If not, start writing in your calendar again.

• Let go — Don't beat yourself up about falling off the path. The important thing is that you're willing to admit your mistakes and start again from where you are.  Baby steps will get you there just as well as leaps and bounds.

• Do what works — If you've discovered a way to do something that works, stick to it. You don't need to reinvent the wheel or try to force someone else's methods upon yourself. If it works, it works; so do it! (Just be mindful that you're not letting disorganization and procrastination be what works!)

If you've gotten off track with your organization efferts, take heart!  You've realized you have a problem and that  fact alone will help you take the steps to correct it.  You can take control again simply because you've accepted that you need to. Even if all you do is start with something small like organizing your purse, filling in your to-do calendar, or cleaning off your desk at work. The fact is, starting is half the battle.

Have you gotten off track with your organizing?  Where do you need to start to put yourself back on?

How to Get Your Blog Posts Shared (And What To Do When They Are)

How to Get Your Blog Posts Shared – it's something every blogger wants to know.

Every time you publish a new blog post, you hope this will be “the one”. This will be the one that really takes off. Everyone will share it and your traffic will increase to numbers you've never seen before.

And when that doesn't happen you wonder why in the world not.

If you're wishing for that share by the blogger with the huge following or for your own followers to spread your latest post like wildfire, here is what you need to know.

Note: this is not meant to be a tutorial on how to make your blog posts go viral. No one can make that happen. But you can definitely make it more likely by making sure every blog post is share-worthy.

1. Content, content, content

First, your content must be awesome. I didn't say good. I didn't say great. I said awesome.

What makes a blog post qualify as awesome?

Content will resonate with people for a number of different reasons including:

• “Why didn't I think of that?  That was so clever!”
• “That really moved me emotionally.”
• “I wish everyone else knew this.  It's so important.”

There are literally millions of blog posts out there.  Make yours the best; otherwise it will get lost in the endless sea of blog content.

2. Headline

After the main content of your post, your headline also needs to be amazing.  Which is going to more likely to compel people to click if they see your post come across their Facebook feed: “Frugal Living Tips” or “The Secret to Debt-Free Living”?  What about “Pumpkin Recipes” as opposed to “25 Mouth-Watering Pumpkin Recipes”

If you need help coming up with compelling blog headlines, you can try out HubSpot's Blog Topic Generator.  It won't necessarily always work perfectly for your topic, but it will at least give you some great ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

3. Blog Design

If you want people to take what you say seriously, your blog needs to look professional.  Even though every content creator is just a normal person, people naturally give more credence to a blog that looks professional.  If you can't yet afford a professional design, at least keep your blog clean, without a lot of gizmos and gadgets.

4. Share buttons

When people see your awesome content and have one of those “Other people need to know this!” reactions, make it easy for them to share it!  Your blog needs to have obvious sharing buttons available for people to share your posts.

5. Call to Action

Okay, so someone shared your post and you're getting a lot of traffic!  Instead of just enjoying the nice little spike and then going right back to where you started when those visitors leave, make sure you have a clear call-to-action on that post so you can keep those visitors around for the long-haul.

Make it obvious what you want people to do – and don't give them too many options or they will not do any of them.

You may want people to:

• Sign up for your newsletter
• Like your page on Facebook or follow you on Pinterest. (I actually talked how you can decide which of these to do in this post.)
• Click around to related content
• Buy something

Whatever it is, make it clear and obvious.

If you're hoping to get your blog shared and read by thousands, make sure you have all these things in place!  They're all crucial elements to growing your blog!

Is there anything you would add to this list?

If you're looking for more blogging help, be sure to sign up for my email list and/or join my Facebook group, The Busy Homemaker's Guide to Blogging for Profit.  I offer regular tips to help busy bloggers earn some income while keeping their families first.

Free Preschool Printables: Learning Colors

Here's a brand new set of preschool printables I've created.  It includes 5 different activities for teaching colors.

I have moved all of my homeschooling posts to christianhomeschoolfamily.com. You can go here to read this post at the new site.

You can go here to read this post at the new site.

Easy Gluten-free Cornbread

(Have you noticed that most of my recipes have the word “easy” in them?)

My family really likes pinto beans and cornbread, but we have not had it in a very long time – pretty much since we decided that eating non-GMO foods was one of the biggest areas in which we would not compromise.  Non-GMO cornmeal is hard to find and expensive.

Last night I realized, “Hello!  I have a WonderMill now!  I can grind my own cornmeal!”  (Thank you, WonderMill company.  You are my hero.)

I had purchased a humongous bag of Non-GMO popcorn to go with the popcorn popper we got as a family Christmas present.

Lots of cornbread recipes have wheat flour in them besides cornmeal, but I am still trying to stay off wheat as much as possible.  I tweaked a recipe I found online to be gluten-free, and (of course) easy to make.

Head over the Grain Mill Wagon to get the full recipe.

Freezer Cooking Guide: Tips for Success

 Now that you know why you should be freezer cooking, and you know which foods do and don't freeze well, I want to share some tips to make your freezer cooking a success!

1. Be Prepared

 It's important to get prepared for your cooking session if you're going to cook several freezer meals at once. Even if you are just doubling your nightly meal to put into the freezer, you'll need to get everything prepared, and make sure you have all the ingredients and storage containers.

2. Get Comfortable

 You should wear a good pair of shoes (I have these shoes and absolutely love them!  They're the most comfortable pair of shoes I've ever purchased!)  If you can invest in a comfortable standing mat for your kitchen floor that is great too. Have a snack before you start to avoid snacking as you cook.

3. Shop with a List

 You definitely do not want to shop for a freezer cooking session without a list.  Go through all your recipes and write down all the ingredients as well as the amounts you need, taking into account the fact that you may be doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling some of your recipes.  You need to know exactly how much and what to buy so that you will not be lacking anything when you get into the middle of cooking.

4. Cook What You Like

 Most families actually rotate the same 8 to 10 dishes, and rarely try anything new. It's important to understand what you and your family like and work within that parameter to truly be successful with freezer cooking. Try only one or two new things in any give month and you'll be a lot happier with the outcome.  Believe me, I've put some recipes in the freezer that were new to me, and ended up not liking them at all.  Not fun to have to throw it out or eat something you don't like!

5. Get Organized

 Before you start, make sure you begin with a clean kitchen and an organized workspace. Get out the pans and supplies that you need in advance and set them out like you work in a factory so that they're ready to go.  Fill your sink with soapy water so you can wash dishes as you go.  You'll need to reuse some of your utensils for other recipes and you'll be glad to have them clean and ready to go again.  Plus, you don't want to end your cooking session with an avalanche of dishes to wash!

6. Packaging & Labeling

 You can use freezer bags to store a lot of your meals.  Lay them flat and you will find that you can fit quite of bit of food in the freezer that way. You also need to make sure you label everything so you'll know what it is after it freezes.

7. Handling Food Safely

 Do not mix utensils when handling raw meat. Wash your hands often in hot soapy water. Use a thermometer to ensure proper internal cooking temperatures.  Don't leave foods sitting out on the counter; get them back into the fridge or into the freezer. You can read more about the Core Four Practices of safe food handling at fightbac.org.

Are you ready to get some meals in the freezer?