Change and such

So here’s what’s up. I’ve been a little MIA. And no, I did not die. Thanks for your concern though. 😉

For three months, I blogged EVERY day. Now I’m lucky if I blog once every couple weeks. The reason? I’m moving on. I reevaluated how I am approaching this whole ‘running your own business” thing. I feel like I’m breaking up with MD… I guess I kinda am.

“Sorry, Motivated Decor,” (like it’s a person) “you’re just not what I’m looking for in a business. I need a little bit more passion in my relationships – and your just not doing it for me.”

A little dramatic? Yes. Cheesy? Definitely. But I came to realize that the posts I love doing the most are family related. I don’t blog about design and fashion and home decor. I blog about life. I blog about my family. I like to associate with blogs that do the same. I tried really hard not to fall into the “Mommy blogger” category – but that’s what I am. And that’s what I love. So, I’m changing some things. Here’s why:

1. The stuff I write about would not be what most people would expect when they go to what they think is a home decor blog. My business/blog name is holding me back from reaching out to all the awesome women out there.

2. I don’t really have a target market. When asked “What kind of readers/customers do you have?” I cannot answer that question. I don’t know anything about the people that read this blog. I don’t have relationships with my customers. Mainly because I don’t have a general point of interest with most of them.

3. When I try to market my products, it feels forced. Like I’m a creepy salesman. I don’t use my products. I just design them and expect people to buy them. How can I sell things I don’t use? It’s impractical. And stupid. Don’t forget stupid.

4. My passion is my family. When I’m at work, I don’t fantasize about home decor and design. I wish I was home, playing with my little and cleaning my ridiculously messy house.

Motivated Decor was founded with good intentions, but not with passion. Passion drives all things. MD does not have passion. That’s why after 3 months of it, I started making some changes. “So then what the heck are you going to do, Amanda?” Good question! I’m still designing things. But not home decor. I’m designing things like meal planners, budget forms, blog planners, home management binders, to do lists, organization logs and shopping lists! These are all stuff I use! Stuff I can make changes to and adjust as I get feedback. Stuff other moms use. I’m really excited about it. So excited that I wanted to keep it a surprise. I’ve been working on this since December 2013. I’m getting all my products ready so my shop is stocked once I open it. I’m getting my blog designed so it looks good from the get go. I’m doing everything differently than how I did MD. I’ve learned some things. 🙂 So hang in there, I’ll make an announcement (with links and such) on my new stuff as soon as I’m ready.

Just know that I didn’t die.

Women and the 2nd Amendment

My husband and I have recently felt the need to have guns and Concealed Carry Permits. There are so many awful stories on the news. I can’t even watch it any more. I am absolutely terrified that I will be attacked in the parking lot. Every time I go to the store, I constantly think that will happen. But honestly, I’m more afraid of what will happen if I don’t have the protection that I need. I am worried that I will not be able to protect my self or my kids. I cannot control what others do, but I can control my end. If I’m going to be attacked, I can control how I handle the situation. I can practice with my fire arm. I can take self defense courses. I can learn the laws and appropriately enforce my rights.

We are getting guns and taking the CCW course.

This is the gun that I am getting. Ruger SP 101. We went shooting on Saturday and I shot so many guns. This one was by far my favorite. It fit my hand so perfectly and was a clean smooth shot. The recoil was not bad at all. I am excited to get it and practice as much as possible.

Learning self defense does not stop when you get a gun. That is actually the beginning. You need to practice withdrawing your fire arm. You need to safely role-play with your instructor or family members. You need to learn how to escape life threatening situations. Owning a gun irresponsibly is worse than not having one at all. If you do not arm your self with knowledge, you put your self at higher risk.

Also with owning a gun, you need to appropriately teach your kids gun safety. I’m not an expert on how to do this yet. But I can refer you to my new favorite website: The Well Armed Women. I will also read so many books on this! My daughter is only one year old, so I intend to knock the curiosity right out of her. I will teach her and show it to her. I will  learn as much as I can about children and gun safety before she gets old enough to do any thing with it.

On The Well Armed Women website, I read all of the women survival stories. So many women were able to defend themselves because they had their fire arm. Others wished they would have had it. As my mom always says: I’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. If you are considering getting a gun for self defense, I encourage you to read those stories. It can happen to any one, even YOU and your family. Don’t let it. Be the protector of your home. Keep yourself and your family safe from all those crazies out there.

(Click pictures for links)

I will read as many books and take as many classes as possible to make sure my family stays safe – at home and in public.

Do not mess with this momma bear.

Period.

More Family pictures

Around Thanksgiving time, we did family pictures with my husband’s side of the family. I posted those a few weeks ago. My sister flew in from Germany for Christmas, we took the opportunity to take some family pictures. My friend …

New posting Schedule for Motivated Decor

For the last 3 months, I have been waking up at 3 am every day to update my blog and run my business. Then go to my day job from 7 am to 4 pm. I even work on more of my business stuff on my lunch break too.  After 3 months of it, I am starting to burn my self out. I’ve been so tired when I get home from work that I don’t want to do anything. At all. I would so much rather just sit and watch TV with some fast food. That’s lame and honestly pathetic.

I started this business and blog because I want to inspire people to GET OFF THE COUCH and DO SOMETHING with their lives. How can I provide motivation in the “physical” area of life if I’m sitting on my butt eating Pizza every night? Gross Amanda, you can’t. Same goes with all the other areas of life. I feel like the only area that I’m strong in right now is career. I need to focus more on my family and my health. I need to read more and spend more time with friends.

Overall, I need to feel more balance. My blog posts are only half way done. My house is a MESS. I keep forgetting to pay bills (even though we budgeted for them. DOH!). My cute family needs more attention and my social life sucks because we are in bed by 8pm (sometimes 7:30!) every night. So I’m gonna fix this mess!

I told you that I’m reevaluating the way I run things. Here is my new schedule for 2014.

–    Blog posts will take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This will ensure that my posts are higher quality. This will also allow me time to prepare my subject  matter appropriately (instead of just winging it when I start a post). I will still try to cover the 7 areas of life in each post, but it won’t be a strict schedule like it was in the past.

–   Instead of taking all my energy trying to come up with a blog post every day, I will be making a new design everyday. So every post, you will see two new products. If you follow me on Facebook and on my Etsy page, you can see my new products before they are posted on my blog.

–   Every month, I am going to offer 2 free product downloads. You can expect these on the last Friday of every month. I will make a tab on my menu bar so you can access them any time you like.

–   Every three months, I am going to participate in a give-a-way with another blog or business. I might even try to host one. 🙂

–   I will add tutorials once a month so you can see how I do different crafts and designs.

 

I have a feeling that I will love what I’m doing so much more with this new approach. I hope to regain my energy, determination and spit fire personality.

Thanks for reading! See you Friday!

-Amanda

New Year, New approach

Sorry for my lack of blogging the past few days. It’s the first time that I’ve missed a day since I started in October. With this new year, I’m going to take a new approach on my business and my blog. I’m working on re-evaluating everything, but I will let you know on Jan 1st what I plan on doing. I have a feeling that I will enjoy this new approach much better.

 

Thanks for your patience as I re-evaluate. I’ll be back on Jan 1st.

-Amanda

Related articles

• Dreaming BIG but starting small – a different approach to new year resolutions (extraordinaryreality.wordpress.com)
• 2014 is approaching (hummingbirdrevolution.com)

Longing to be at Home

My daughter was sick yesterday. I got to experience my first real vomit clean up as a Mom. That wasn’t fun. But staying home with my babes made it easy to not care about the barf mess.

I ache to be at home with her everyday. I think that’s my biggest sacrifice to becoming debt free. We’ve paid off so much debt that we could probably squeak by financially if I came home. But losing half our income would bring our debt pay off to a screeching halt.

My husband and I had a long talk the other night. In just 3 months he will be at basic training for the USAF. I will be a full time employee, fill both roles of mom and dad, keep the house clean, prepare to move and run a business – all by myself – for about 5 months. I’m so nervous for that. I’m nervous that one of these areas might lack attention. But family comes first. Always. If Chae starts to feel like she’s getting the short straw, some adjustments will need to be made. I’m also nervous because my work is going though some changes. I hope they maintain the same flexibility they’ve shown me over the past 3 years of employment with them. I hope they understand where I’m coming from if I need to leave to take care of my girl.

In just about 8 short months we will be moving to our duty station. It is coming up on us very quickly. My husband and I decided that I will be home with our babes once we move. I would only come home sooner if being without my husband proves too rough and we can make it financially while he’s gone. But for now, the plan is for me to stay at work full time until we move.

All of this is coming quick and I just need to have some patience.

Patience is a virtue that I was not blessed with.

Staying at work is the best and quickest way to have financial peace for the long run. Its just 8 months. I’ll live, my daughter will live. We might just be a little stressed out is all. 🙂

I’m super Mom. I got this.

Thanks for reading.

– Amanda.

We gave our kid financial knowledge for Christmas.

I loved LOVED Christmas morning! 🙂 Last year, Chae was so small; Christmas was SO simple. Last year we seriously just took things from around the house and called them presents. haha. She’s so cute hidden in that swing. Here’s …

Ready… break!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I have enjoyed the nice break from anything work related. I just got to relax and enjoy my time with our family today.

Tomorrow the “fun” begins again. I’ve got some stuff to share with you!! 🙂

See you then! Happy Christmas!
-Amanda.

Christmas Eve

I love LOVE Christmas time. Gathered with family to share quality time together. Joyous. 🙂

Today was really busy. My husband and I both had to work. When we got home, we all took a much needed nap! We woke up and went to Brett’s Grandpa’s house for dinner and fun!

Brett’s Grandma passed away in 2006. This is the first Christmas since her passing that Grandpa has had a tree put up in his home. Thanks to Brett’s family for encouraging him to put it up.

After dinner, we took some of Grandma’s favorite ornaments and put them in a large bowl. We all took turns telling our favorite Christmas memories. After we told our story, we each grabbed an ornament and put it on the tree. Boy did we have some good laughs! What a fun group! This was followed by Grandpa reading the scriptures of Christ’s birth. We got our Christmas Jammies on and headed home.

Santa has came, everyone is asleep and I’m not to far behind. 🙂

Grateful for such a wonderful family.

 

Loves.

-AMANDA