The holidays have been fun but also stressful so I had to prioritize, again—family, friends, social obligations, self. Christmas shopping, family gatherings, family trips, and visiting friends were just some of the things that kept me away from blogging.

I wanted to write about 2011 and how that year has been really good to me, to us as a family, but I didn’t find the time. Now that every thing is slowing down, I could start picking up from where I left off. I’ll start with updating my blogs to working on blog design projects. I also plan to launch my online store not later than March so I hope that I could really populate it by then.

Family wise, every thing is doing great. My baby is healthy, happy, and active. He’s an amazing baby and he is growing up quite fast. My husband and I are as happy and as in love as ever. I thank God every single day for blessing me with such a wonderful family.

My career is another story. I wont say it’s doing great because it is not really the case but I wont say it’s a crap either because I am not really trying. My career as a freelance web designer/writer is just as successful as I am allowing it to be. I could be more successful on my job but right now, it is not my main focus. My family is my number one. I don’t mind not earning plenty of $$$ as long as I am doing great job at being a mom to my baby.

This 2012, I’ll continue prioritizing family over work. I will continue putting my baby above all the other things I have to attend to. I’ll sure accept some web designing and writing gigs but not more than what I can do in my free time.

Originally, I wanted to write a post about my freelancing gigs but unfortunately, there’s nothing to write about because it’s been almost two months since I last work on anything. There were some inquiries about my web designing services but after my last client, I took a step back. Why? Well, not really sure but I’ve never met a client so…I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t mean to but she stressed me out and gave me the feeling that I am working under pressure–which was the main thing I wanted to avoid when I asked for a 10 days turnaround (and she agreed to that). I don’t know but there were plenty of negative vibes during the project. BUT I have to say that I am still quite proud of the outcome of my work despite all that.

Now, I am working on populating my online store. I am designing premade themes to sell later on but I am taking my time. That’s the beauty of working for myself… no pressure.

On another note, my latest acquisition is a Bamboo Stylus for my iPad and here are two artworks I did using my Bamboo Stylus and my latest favorite app: Auryn Ink

digital watercolor is super cool

lovin' my bamboo stylus and auryn ink app

Just when I bowed to update my blogs a little bit more often, something happened that did NOT allow me to keep my bow. So from now on, no more talks of updating my blogs more often.

But you’ll probably want to know what took me away from my blogs for two months so this post is just going to be about that. Why didn’t I blog?

Answer: My husband got sick. And while that is not the only reason, it is where all the other reasons rooted. Before my abrupt disappearance from the blogging world, I was really very motivated to work on my blogs—to redesign them, update them more often, accept more opps, etc. At that time, I felt like my blogging will dramatically incline. Unfortunately though, my husband got sick and I had to take care of him. For two months he was at home and the first few weeks were really horrible. It took him that long to recover because his sickness was not the kind that heals after a few days. It was nothing serious because he did not have to be admitted in the hospital but it was serious enough to turn our life around for a brief period of time. He was too weak to do anything. Fatigue, night sweats, chills, muscle pains, etc… His sickness was keeping us both wide-awake at night. I was, of course, expected to do everything—cook, clean, look after him, do the grocery, etc. And while I am not complaining… I tell you, it was difficult. I had a very ill husband and a 3-month-old baby to take care of. I was not sleeping well even though I felt overly exhausted at the end of each day. I was very stressed. Usually, I don’t cook everyday because hubby eats a big lunch at work so when he comes home, he’s not that hungry and would only request a salad or a small snack. But when he was home, I had to cook every single day and that means I also had to do the grocery more often.

I was really stressed.

I got sometime for myself..or rather, I was able to steal sometime for myself from no other than myself. Do you understand what I mean? Say, I still have 3 hours to sleep before my son wakes up… but because I want to sit for a while, relax a bit, and maybe read a blog I follow or check my FB, I stay up for an hour. I stole an hour away from my sleeping time.

It was really a stressful period for me.

I could have also stolen some time to blog BUT I didn’t. Why? Because.

There were times when I was assigned opps. Decent ones. The kind I’ll agree to do in a heartbeat. I accepted all of them BUT I was not able to do any of them because I can’t focus—hubby needs something, baby is awake, no more milk in the fridge, it’s almost time for lunch, etc. In short, there was always a reason why I was NOT able to sit and write. And when I finally do, the opps are expired.

So even tough I could write a non-opp blog entry, I didn’t because I sort of lost my enthusiasm to blog. This happened to me a few times only but enough for me to feel that I lost my blogging mojo. Yeah, that was it—I lost my blogging mojo. At some point, I just didn’t like to blog anymore. I still like blogs, infact.. during my stolen times, I read blogs but at some point, I just didn’t have the inclination to blog anymore.

***

Above post was written last night. I am publishing it today because I got interrupted. Anyway, today I learned from the tweet of my blogger friend, Sterndal, that google just updated its pageranks. WTF!?! I am so annoyed. Why does it have to happen when I don’t have any update for two months.

I just finished designing a client’s blog and I think, this will be the last blog designing gig for the month of September. Unfortunately. But I’d rather have it this way than to entertain rush (anything less than 2 weeks is considered rush, okay.) orders and be stressed out.

I said goodbye to my last active employer at Odesk and I am not sending out applications anymore. I am also not entertaining employer-initiated-interviews. It may seem otherwise but I still want to continue freelancing online. It’s just that… I don’t like stress. Sure, I can juggle being a mom and a (flexible) 40hr/week job but that would only mean one thing: stress. I would have to sleep less, eat faster, forget to shower on some days, forget some of my time-consuming hobbies like reading and watching movies, and many other things. I would also probably need to steal some time from my supposedly time for my baby.

I don’t want those to happen.

I want to really take care of my baby. I don’t want to put him to sleep all the time so I could work. I want to be there for him, be with him when he is awake and when he is asleep, there are plenty of times when I just want to be beside him and watch him sleep. My baby is my number one and even my husband understands and supports that.

I also want to “live” my day. When I say this, I mean, I don’t like my day to be composed of mainly freelance jobs and housework. I also want to have a time for myself. To play with my baby, to read books, to chat with my friends, to surf the net (not-work-related), to blog for the sake of blogging, to go out, and do some other things that make me feel that there is more to life than work.

It’s unfortunate that I can’t get clients who agree to my turn around time but in a corner of my mind, I am also kind of glad. Like this week, I don’t have any turn around time to meet. Great! I can have this time to play with my newly purchased wacom tablet.

wacom tablet for my graphic designing ambitions

This new gadgetry, by the way, is also a fruit of doing online jobs. I hope that this device will serve as another way for me to widen my skills and that some day I can use this too, just like my Macbook Pro, to earn money online.

It’s so easy to lose track of everything so this week, I am making my to-do-list and I will stick to it. Seriously.

DO IT or DON’T DO IT. There is NO TRY. –Master Yoda

I have more than a handful of tasks before me, and I just don’t know where to start. I am not only talking about online stuff. I think that right now, I am referring to housework more than I am referring to my jobs online. Last week, I tried to do as much as I can but you know… housework…it’s never done.

I washed our laundry up to the last piece, but oh, the laundry basket’s full again. That means clothes to be ironed will come in shortly.  Cleaning and organizing is a constant thing unless I want to live like a pig, which I don’t.

So I will continue setting goals this week. Goals that include housework, online activities, and other stuff I should’ve done long time ago.

For this week, I will clean at least one window. That is only in addition to the essential standard housework. For something I should’ve done before but didn’t until now, I will have to select and get my son’s photos printed.

And here’s for my online activities.

I will do it, but I can only do it slowly.  I will not say I will update each of my blog weekly anymore. I won’t even say I’ll try. BUT. I will update half of them each week—this I WILL DO.

I hope I can stick to this…. Errr… I WILL STICK TO THIS.

Cross your fingers for me, will you?

I am beat from doing a bunch of housework today but I promise to update this blog so here I am writing this quick post.

I just want to make a quick report of what I earned from freelancing online for the month of August and here it is:

my work at home earnings for august

I am glad that I was still able to get clients for my blog designing services even though I can only promise a 2-weeks turn around. I am glad that there are people who are still patient. For the month of September, I want to accept more clients. I already have one client on my queue but considering the turn around I have, I myself, would be surprise if I can get more.

I am really enjoying blog designing and it is such a shame that I don’t have the liberty to spend long hours doing it. And so far, all my clients have been nice, patient, easy-to-work with, and are really professional. This makes it more pleasant for me to work on their blog design projects.

I stayed up so late last night and that’s not because my baby was fussy. It was because I needed to finish a blog design. I should have finished it last Sunday but since we spent  five days at my in-laws, I was not really able to work on it. Also, the week before that, I was distracted—instead of designing my client’s blog, I redesigned one of my blogs.

I am so easily distracted these days. Like right now…I am supposed to be designing a business card for a client, but for some reason, I just spent so much of my free time on FB again (damn!).

I need self-discipline and I need it now.

Gosh. There are so many things I should do. Other than the design projects I have, I should work on my odesk tasks. I should update my DMP site. I should update my blogs. I should redesign my blogs. Etcetra. And I am only talking about my online activities, okay. I feel so stressed but actually, it’s just me. (It’s not you, Freelancing. It’s me. LOL.) If I could be a bit more responsible, I would not have such problems.

So, if I want to accept more blog design projects next  month, I should get my act together.

Another month has ended and it’s time to report my monthly online earnings again. Some might be shocked to learn that I am working despite the fact that I just gave birth six weeks ago. Well, I actually just started looking at work after a month of giving birth and though I accepted a couple of design jobs, I don’t work on them full time. Right now, my turn around for one bog design project is 14 days (instead of 3-5days). This allows me to have more time to relax. By the way, I only work if my baby is asleep; otherwise every thing’s on hold.

I accepted two blog design projects; one of which is done and the other is scheduled this August. I plan to accept two clients per month. I am not hoping for plenty of clients because I won’t be able to handle them right now. Two clients per month would be perfect.

Here’s my monthly online earnings for July:

work-at-home earnings for july

Obviously I didn’t work on my Odesk task last month but this month, I am sort of oblige to render some hours because one of my employers already started giving me some tasks.

I also did ONE paid post last month. I would have like to do more but that was the only opp I found that offers a pay which is not lower than 4$. There were a lot of opps but I refuse to accept less than 4$. It would just be a total waste of time if I do.

Before I asked for a maternity leave, I told my remaining employer at Odesk that I will be able to do a bit of work again starting July, but it’s almost August and I haven’t reported to him yet so when I got an email from him asking me about continuing work, I was not surprised. I knew that one of these days; he’ll contact me about whether I still want to continue working for him or not anymore. Truth is, I am not really that eager to continue working for him. He is a very kind and patient employer, and the tasks he gives me are very interesting, but the pay is very low. He gives me bonuses every now and then but they are not enough to compensate for the low pay.

I was technically doing jobs for him but it was more like learning stuff and getting a small amount from learning.  The tasks he gave me were really interesting and I had plenty of time so it was okay. But now, not anymore.

I have to prioritize what I do with the very limited time I have for my online activities. I have to choose those that give me better benefits—emotional and financial. Blogging will always come first because, though I am not really earning from my blogs, they serve as an emotional outlet. Blogging has oftentimes cured my boredom, my sadness, my annoyance, and so on so I really have no plans on giving up blogging.  Blog designing comes in second because it serves as an artistic outlet and although I can’t really make a living from it, I earn a pretty decent amount from it. Odesk will have to come in last.

So now that I am slowly coming out of my maternity leave, I am devoting my online time on my blogs and my blog designing services. If I would have plenty of time, I would update each of my blogs once a week, but since I am still just sort of squeezing in my online activities, updating a blog each week should suffice. I also accepted a couple of blog designing projects—one for July and another for August. I told my clients who, despite the fact that I was on maternity leave, contacted me for a spot on my queue, that I can’t promise a 3-5days turn around because I am still adjusting to the whole motherhood thing. I told them that I can only promise a 14days turnaround and if they are okay with that, I can put them in my queue. Two out of four clients said they are not in hurry so they’re the ones I am serving now.

If only I wouldn’t need to do the house chores, I would have time for all my online activities. Right now, my baby still sleeps a lot. I could use his sleeping time to work on my freelance jobs but unfortunately, there are house chores waiting for me. Then there’s also the fact that there are frequent visitors who want to see the new member of our family—this is the main thing that is stressing me right now.

Sigh. I can take care of my baby very well and I can babysit him willingly but as for the housework…I wish for a maid because I’d rather work on my online jobs than do the house chores.

So sorry for not updating this blog but as you might have already guessed, I gave birth and so, you know the rest. LOL.

But it’s a month since and I should start to pick things up with my blogging again. My recovery period is technically until 6 weeks after giving birth, but I feel fine now. I just wish I have more time for all of my online endeavor.

But before I forget, I would like to report my earnings last June. I didn’t work (except for a couple of hours in Odesk) but that does not mean, I didn’t earn a cent. This month’s earnings is nothing compared to my previous monthly earnings but since I vowed to report my monthly earnings from my online freelancing endeavors, here it is:

work-at-home earnings for june