When Little Man and sugar combine, the outcome is never pretty. Sugar rushes thru his little body like a raging river and he turns into an uncontrollable cyclone of energy.

After the rush wears off, Little Man always gets a defiant attitude about him that doesn’t seem to go away until he lays down to sleep. Talk about frustating!

That’s why I was so happy when my roommate pointed out that the cereal we were giving Little Man was chock full of sugar and probably to blame for his recent bad behavior. Daddy and I immediately looked at each other and had one of those, “Why hadn’t we thought of that?!” moments. We’ve always tried to provide Little Man with healthy snacks, but never considered that his breakfast – the most important meal of the day – wasn’t really that healthy.

Since this suggestion, we’ve pretty much completely cut sugar from Little Man’s diet. He’s been having honey oat cereal for breakfast with the occasional egg or pancake.

Have you ever had one of these AHA moments regarding your little one? If so, please share! I’m always open to ideas and tips!

It’s been over a year since I started CA Monkey Momma and I have to admit, it’s been a bumpy road. More than once I’ve considered throwing in the towel and finding a new profession. As a writer, though, there are few occupations that allow me the artistic freedom that blogging does. For that reason, I’ve always pushed through the rough times and been happier for it.

With our recent move and general chaos that surrounds my life, I feel like my blog has suffered. Every time I start to write a post or scan the internet for interesting topics to write about, I get distracted with something else like laundry or cleaning. While they are legitimate reasons to put the mouse down and walk away from the computer, all I’m really doing is making my job harder and more stressful when I DO finally get time to blog.

Whenever I need inspiration and motivation, I always turn to Mama Makes Cents. Nikki has been a WAHM for a few years now and has done more research on the subject than anyone I know. Whenever I need to make a few extra bucks, she’s always ready and willing to help with a long list of reputable and legitimate money making web sites.

To help me get my life and job back on track, I knew to turn to Mama Makes Cents. In one of Nikki’s posts, How Bloggers Are Considered Part Of The Work From Home Craze, she discusses how she has a schedule {or check list} of daily activities she does concerning her blogs and writing. I seriously think this is something I’ve been lacking and have begun my own list of activities I’d like to get done daily. I think having a list to go off will help me stay organized and happy.

If you’re like me and trying to regain control of your blogging career, check out Mama Makes Cents and try a few of these helpful tips:

1. Get Organized – Maintaining a healthy balance between work and home life when you work at home can seem overwhelming at times. Getting organized can help ease the stress. Organize your desk so that everything has a “home” and make sure you spend a few minute sat the end of the day putting everything back in it’s “home”. You’d be surprised how much stress you can relieve by simply being organized.
2. Make A Schedule – I’m a Mom who is constantly on the go, jumping around from task to task. Creating, and sticking to, a schedule is the only way I can ensure that I get thru every task I set out in a day.
3. Network -  Whether it’s commenting on blogs similar to your own, or visiting forums to educate yourself on the newest blogging tools and ideas, networking is a VERY important part of blogging. How is anyone supposed to find you if you don’t put yourself out there? Showing off your blog and informative posts will bring more readers to your site and ultimately, build your site’s ranking making  you more influential in the blogging world.
4. Social Media – I check my media outlets {Facebook, Twitter, etc.} multiple times a day. Since people check their own pages at various times of the day, posting often will ensure you catch the eye of as many readers as possible. Interact with them, show-off interesting posts, and share deals you find on products you know they’ll enjoy trying!

Watermarking my pictures has been a concern for me since I first started blogging. While I love the security that they add to my postings, I feel that the watermark, however small or big, takes away from the picture I’m using.

Here, let me show you:

No Watermark

Watermark

See the difference?

I feel like having the watermark there draws your eyes away from the flower and down to that obnoxious little symbol!

So why am I having this struggle?

One of the first things I learned as a blogger was how easy it is for someone else to steal your work. Whether they were taking your picture and claiming it as their own, or they copy and paste the entire article you’ve written and posted it somewhere without giving you the rightful credit you deserve, copyright infringement is a big occurrence in the “blog-o-sphere”. I’ve had a few people close to me get their material stolen and I really don’t want to deal with the headache of contacting someone for taking MINE.

From now on, I’ve come to the conclusion that I won’t be watermarking MOST of my pictures. If my son is in the picture, though, I’ll be taking the time to slap a watermark symbol on there. While I know it will bug me, it would bug me more to find a picture of my son on some stranger’s web site.

What’s your views on the subject?  Have you ever had or known someone who has had their pictures and/or content stolen? If so, how did they deal with it? What are some routes you {or they} took to get the content taken down?

I’m not calling it a New Year’s resolution…

I’m not putting that much pressure on it…

I’ve made a pact with myself to walk daily and, for the past week at least, I’ve been walking daily!

Now that we live in the city, I’ve made a deal with myself that I have to walk somewhere at least once a day, even if it’s just down the road and back. Walking just a little a day will be such a big step towards a healthier lifestyle.

One way that I’ve made it a pleasurable experience is by making it my “me” time.  It’s once a day that I’m pretty much guaranteed to just clear my mind of all worries and responsibilities. It’s a time that allows me to think through any issues I’m currently working on or absolutely nothing at all.

I’ve also been making a conscious effort to drink more water. My roommates are trying to drink more water, too, so we’ve been keeping 2 large containers of water in the fridge so there is always cold water available.

While I refuse to call it a resolution, I am excited about my new goals towards a healthier lifestyle… that happened to coincide with the beginning of 2012…

Well, what was supposed to be an education-packed day of letter recognition, shape searching, and playground time officially became a LAZY DAY this morning when I woke-up to a raspy voiced toddler – not fun!

It’s amazing how quickly a day can go from good to bad when you realize your little one isn’t feeling well. From the moment he awoke this morning, he’s been laying in my bed and complaining that his belly & body are aching.

I feel so bad when Little Man feels sick.  He’s been running a fever all day and has only left the bedroom to go to the bathroom – both times he returned complaining that his belly and head hurt after walking around. I’m hoping he feels better in the next couple days. He has a play-date on Thursday and I know he will be heartbroken if we have to miss it!

On a lighter note, I’ve gotten quite a bit done on my blog today! With Little Man kind of quarantined to the bed, I’ve been free to concentrate on uploading my new theme and tweaking the settings to my liking. I’m sure it doesn’t look much different than you’re used to seeing when you visit {as though there are thousands of people who visit CA Monkey Momma every day LOL}, but it’s definitely a lot cleaner than it was and I have much more control over the colors, images, and other various settings that compose a functioning web site.

As I’m sure Little Man will still be a little “icky” tomorrow, I’m trying to figure out how I will spend the day. My room could use a little re-organizing.

How do you spend your day when your chid{ren} are feeling ill?