I'm a full-time mummy

I am continuing on with my reading on the "Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World" book from Zig Ziglar (I love love love this book!) and I would like to share this part (in red font) where Ziglar mentioned the following:

"A solid foundation for children involves a solid moral base. Parents who teach their children honesty but fail to practise it themselves create real problems. For example, suppose parents repeatedly tell their children to be truthful, but when the telephone rings, they call out to the child who's answering it, "Tell them I'm not home." The message to the child is clear. If children are taught to lie for parents, they are taught to lie to parents."

Think about it. Of course Ben is not at the age of answering calls or even talking properly yet, but what I'm trying to get the message across is, to raise a child with solid moral base, we as parents have to walk the talk first.

"As another example, suppose parents lecture their children on the importance of obeying the law, yet install a radar detector in the car to evade being stopped for speeding. The message again is clear. It you're going to break the law, don't get caught. Be smart like your dad or mom."

Are you starting to worry about what your child is learning from you? Whether consciously or subconsciously?

For me, everytime I'm deciding on something, I think "How am I going to answer to God if I decide this or that?" and then I think of "How will it affect my loved ones around?" and whether I could sleep through the night if I take this or that decision.

Think about it.. I will continue sharing the excerpts from the book if I happened to come across any that I find worth sharing with you guys. Have a nice day!

I am halfway reading the Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World book from Zig Ziglar (I love love love this book!) and I came across this part where Ziglar mentioned this lady (a SAHM) who gave a very good response when people commented that her brain should be put to better use in the working world instead of at home. Please take some time to ponder on the excerpts below taken from the book:

"For those mothers who are sometimes looked down upon by an ignorant or insensitive person because they have chosen to stay home and raise their babies, I love what Linda Burton, a mother of two, says when her working friends tell her that "her mind is too good to stay at home":

I'll second that and add that the most important, demanding and rewarding career a mother can have is to raise her kids positively in a negative world".

Oh I so, so, so, so truly agree with that. I used to think it's a waste of my talents and brain for quitting my job to be a SAHM but yeah... the best minds are required at home... by my own child. I always have the opinion that no strangers should raise my own child cos well, I give birth to my child and so, it is my duty to raise them up, not some strangers.

I am particularly fond of this Polish Proverb: "You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once." That's what I thought of when deciding to quit. I can always find some job later (if I want to) but my child grows up real fast and no time or money can replace that memories of being part of their life as they grow up.

* Image from Google search

So, back to this topic, I do agree that our mind is too good NOT to stay at home with our children! With that, I leave you with this short poem:

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.

~Diane Loomans, from "If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again"

Btw, just want to let you guys know 2 years ago on this date, we found out we're expecting a baby boy! Now look at him, all grown up!

I have previously wrote a post about The Birth of a Blog. This time, I'm going to write about: Blog Widgets.

What is widget you ask? According to Wikipedia,

"A widget is a stand-alone application that can be embedded into third party sites by any user on a page where they have rights of authorship (e.g. a webpage, blog, or profile on a social media site). Widgets allow users to turn personal content into dynamic web apps that can be shared on websites where the code can be installed. For example, a "Weather Report Widget" could report today's weather by accessing data from the Weather Channel, it could even be sponsored by the Weather Channel. Should you want to put that widget on your own Facebook profile, you could do this by copying and pasting the embed code into your profile on Facebook."

Get it? In simpler terms, widgets are like mini applications that you put into your blog as add-on accessories. Mummy bloggers tend to put in widgets like baby birthday tickers, or anniversaries tickers. Foodie bloggers tend to put in recipe or food of the day widgets. Book lover bloggers will put in book shelf widgets. I can go on and on about the type of widgets I came across throughout my blog hopping adventures.

Now, why does this concerns you? Please read on to know the benefits of adding widgets into your blog:

Next, what are the widgets that I think are good (and my reasons) to put into our blog:

You don't really see much widgets in my blog btw as I've removed quite a number of them lately. Of those that I keep, I do so for my own reasons. I mean, I own the blog, I can put whatever I want (heheheh...), such as the Visitor Stats, which I like to see. I mean, sometimes when I get blogger's block (or writer's block) I look at the stats and goes "Whoa... there's actually this amount of page views on my blog" or "Whoa... look at all the countries my blog visitors are from!". And there is the "Motivation for Moms" widget which gets updated daily with inspiring quotes and sometime bible verses.

Just a tip for you guys, I look around for widgets from this awesome site: http://www.widgetbox.com/widgets/ You can browse around by the category or even make your own widgets! Just be sure to read through the feedback from the people who used the widgets as some of them does not live up to their reputations and some are even out of order.

You can also get more inspiration from other blogs by searching around and trying them out. Also take note of the time taken to load the widgets into your blog, for me, if it takes longer than 10 seconds to load it, I say ditch it.

So there you go... I think I pretty much covers all there is on the topic of blog widgets. I've always treat my blog as if it is my child (ok, lower ranking than Ben of course!), and I think you should too! Please do look around the Net to find the widgets you like (please don't just copy it off my blog!), test and play around with the widgets. It's a nice feeling to have when you realised how a widget can make your blog looks oh-so-much better!

Nurture it, build it, have fun and make happy memories with it as how you would do with your child. It does bring joy to your heart! Feel free to leave me a comment if you would like to find out more on a certain topic.

Until then, happy blogging!