Today I was driving in the car and I heard the song “Lead Me” come on the radio.   I heard the part that said “I’m working hard.  I tell myself I’ll be fine.  They’re independent.  But on the inside… I can hear them saying Lead Me, with strong hands.  Stand up, when I can’t.  Don’t leave me hungry for love… chasing dreams.   But what about us?”

I try not to blog much when my four kids are awake.  I actually try not to blog at all when they are awake, but sometimes I have to.     When I heard this song today, I immediately thought that I needed to share this post with you because I want to share some ways that I blog without letting it get in the way of my Mommy time with my four sweet blessings.  Here are some ways to keep kids busy while you work  on your blog.

1-  When I need to work on something ~ a sponsored post, or a money-making idea, I will go to the gym.      “What?  Exercise?  Aren’t we talking about blogging here?”  
Yes, I will go to the gym.  I take my kids to the gym nursery (that they love), and I will sit in a corner of the gym or in the little office area and I will blog.  I will work for one hour (they gym where I belong gives us two hours, but I just don’t think that my kids would be too happy to be there for two hours) so after one hour, I pack up my stuff and I go back to get my sweet kiddos.   They are normally playing in the gymnasium or on the playground, having a great time.   Oh- this would be a great time to use my trick for writing without distraction for at least 45 minutes, because often times when I get on Facebook, I find that I’ve just wasted my whole hour and I’ve done nothing from my to-do list.  I try to check my e-mails if I have extra time at the end of my writing (here is why it is important to check e-mails & comments.. and respond to them)

2- Mothers Morning Out – Our local YMCA offers a Mothers Morning Out for $5 an hour.  I have to use this on Mondays because I work on Mondays… I am a play therapist (If you aren’t sure what that is, here is a post that I wrote – what is play therapy ).  So, I utilize this service already, but if I didn’t have the gym option available to me, I would use this Mothers Morning Out for days when I really needed to get my blogging work done.   Plus, if you are making money blogging, you can easily pay for this (and it can be a tax write off).

3- Blogging at night.  This is one that we all know.

4- Schedule my tweets and facebooks posts either early in the morning or late at night – this keeps me from getting online all day long. Here are more ways to grow your blog in an hour a day.

5- Write in the car, when you are waiting in the preschool parking lot or the pick up line.  You have to be there anyways, use this time wisely.  See how I write without distraction.

6- Go somewhere.  Our own Paula goes to her local Starbucks one night a week.  She gets a bulk of her blogging done and she gets caught up on things so that she isn’t online all day on the computer.   Her kids are asleep and her husband is at home with them, so she can work while staying worry-free.

7- Put on a movie.  If our kids have not watched TV or a movie all day, they will be glued to it.  I normally save this for when I am cooking dinner (Curious George goes a long way at 5:00 at night when they are all hungry and tired), but if I need to do some sort of work on my blog, I will use this option for this time instead.

Danielle, Paula & I are always looking for more suggestions on balancing family, faith & business blogging.  If you have some tips of your own, please leave them for us!  

Thanks! 
~ Becky