Cravings

The first craving i had was for ice. Not surprisingly as Summer was already starting in Abu Dhabi by April. Although the drinking water in the office where I used to work was already cold, I'd still prefer my drink, be it water, juice, or cola, to be with ice as in lots of ice. Then on my second month, I remember I craved for a burger. I looked for a nearby Burger King's number and hope to have a home delivery but unfortunately it wasn't available at that time. Since I'm about to get off work in less than an hour, I decided I will just go to Mc Donald's near our accommodation. At Mc Donald's I took home a "tasty" burger meal which was the same size of a quarter pounder, or probably bigger. That meal can actually be shared by two persons but I finished it all...alone : )

The next craving I had was for singkamas. I don't know what's it called in English but it's a white root crop that tastes like water but it's quite sweeter. A friend says she saw some being sold in one Filipino store but she can't remember where. Ritchie (my husband) has a colleague (Cely) who has gone home (Philippines) for vacation so I just requested Cely to bring me some singkamas when she comes back.

The next craving after that was for custard apple. I was happy to find some in Carrefour Supermarket but they were still raw so I kept it to ripen which never happened and they only produced molds. It was my roommate who's also a close friend, Ingrid, who found some ripe and really tasty custard apple in another small supermarket. Since Ingrid and I work in different shifts, she just left the custard apple on my side table as I was still sleeping when she came from the supermarket. When I got up and saw the custard apple I ate it right away not even knowing who gave it.

The funny thing was most of the cravings I had were for fruits and delicacies which are exotic or native to Philippines like the singkamas. The other cravings for Filipino food I had were suman (rice cake), siopao (Chinese dimsum), cassava cake, ensaymada (bread with margarine and cheese toppings) among the few. Luckily, these other than singkamas were readily available in the nearby Filipino Restaurant.

In the Philippines, there's a belief that if a pregnant woman's craving was not given or satisfied, she will then have a stomach pain or her baby will be ugly out of frustration. I'd say this isn't necessarily true. There were some cravings I had which I either didn't get right away or did not get at all but my baby is still cute and really charming.

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Blogvertise

Blogvertise or Blog Advertising is one sure way to monetize your blog. If you really want to make money out of writing or blogging then this stuff is the real deal. They have Advertisers who pay bloggers just to write about their website's products/services. In writing, you can simply make a review, endorsement/recommend, or even complain about the Advertiser's product/service. No matter how you want to do it is okay as long as you maintain three links in your entry to the Advertiser's website.

Joining Blogvertise is easy and best of all it's free. It only takes two days to approve an account registration and once it's approved you will then receive the topics/tasks in your email and you're ready to go! If your entry is accepted, you will automatically receive your payment through your Paypal account. So what are you waiting for? Click here to register now.

Monetize your Blog

I'm sure all Moms out there have countless of stories they would want to share. Well now it's not only therapeutic to write and let out those emotions but it is also an opportunity to earn cash! So Moms, if you haven't blog 'til now I suggest you create one. It's easy, free, and best of all you can get to earn real cash if you do the right stuff. Of course I'm here to show you how.

To monetize a blog you must have one : ) But before you create one, I suggest you first think of what topic to blog about. It should be something you enjoy talking about or your forte. The more you like to talk about the topic because you either enjoy talking about it or you know a lot about it the better. Ideally, you should post an article concerning your subject in your blog daily or if not at least twice a week.

1. Now create your blog. I use Blogger but I know some people who prefer to use Wordpress. If you know your way to Wordpress then you may create a blog there but for the purpose of this topic let's choose Blogger. In creating a blog, they will require you to indicate the title of your blog and to come up with the blog URL. For example you chose to blog about parenting. You may then name your blog Parenting 101 and your URL as http://parenting101.blogspot.com. Your blog URL should be short and concise as possible. If in case the chosen blog URL is no longer available, try adding your name or any word like http://parenting101withlea.blogspot.com.
2. Before you create your first post, you may wanna familiarize your self on posting and editing how-to's by clicking Help in the Blogger dashboard. Now you may post as much articles as you want!
3. To start monetizing your blog, you should first learn how to go about adding a third party page element to your layout. The most common blog money-maker is Adsense. Would you believe there are actually people out there who earn around $200,000 monthly from it? To be able to put an Adsense ad in your blog you should first sign up and register your blog. They will then ask you to wait for two days to check and approve your blog. When your blog is approved you may start putting Adsense ads in your layout. Warning though, do not click on your own Adsense ads as this will cause you to be banned and totally disqualify you as a publisher.
4. Now that you're already an expert in adding a third party page element to your layout, you may join other affiliate/associate programs to earn income using your blog. There's a lot of these programs to choose from like Amazon, BidVertiser, Text Link Ads, Linkshare, and Blogvertiser to name a few.
   

Career Options for Moms at Home

Home based business and work-at-home programs are now rampant especially in the advent of broadband internet. Good news for moms as this made it possible for us to personally take care of our baby/kids while we earn a considerable monthly income. What's more, we get to be our own boss deciding on how much time we are willing to allot in the chosen online business/work. Plus, we need not worry on paying monthly rent on commercial space, maintaining inventory, or dealing with personnel because most, if not all, of the business online are into reselling, affiliate marketing, or networking that does not require you to do all those "dirty work". All they need you to do is to get them customers to be interested and finally buy their products and they'll do the payment collection, delivery, and other necessary actions. And YOU get your commission. Isn't that great?

However, if you are one of those people who thinks selling isn't your forte then you may instead choose from wide varieties of work-at-home programs and earn by participating in surveys, blogging, playing online games, reviewing sponsor's site, etc. But before you participate in any of the said programs, be sure to give your due diligence in doing your own research for the same. My invaluable advise would be, "do not shell out cash or buy anything unless you're sure that it's a legitimate program. Be careful so you may not be victimized by scams online. And how would you know if it's a legitimate program?? As I said, do a thorough research on the subject. Get other's opinion by joining in forums, posting the question in Yahoo Answers, or use Google search.

For those who are not very familiar on how to use Google search engine, here's how:
If you're subject's name has two or more words like business online or work-at-home, you type it on the search window with a quote in the beginning and end of the words, i.e. "business online" or "work-at-home". And if you want to add some more words concerning your subject to get closer results, you put a plus (+) sign after the end quote, i.e. "business online"+affiliate+marketing.

Here are some of the programs of which according to my research are legitimate ones and FREE to join/sign up.

1. Affiliate Marketing
2. Get paid to view Sponsored ads
   
3. Get paid to Surf the net
4. Get paid to participate in Surveys!
5. Monetize your blog
6. Blogvertise

My research on these kind of programs is still in progress so if you are interested in knowing the result, pls leave your name and email address in the comment so I can keep you posted on the same. Happy reading!

Morning Sickness

I'm one of the few fortunate women who did not suffer from morning sickness. I normally have migraine attacks before and after my menstruation and on some occasions like if I'm under pressure, tensed, warm weather, etc. But during my pregnancy, I didn't have the headache, nausea, dizziness, and in 9 months I only had a one-time migraine attack and that's it. Then, I thought, this probably mean that this baby does not intend to give me any headache from the beginning and until he grows up. Wishful thinking?? Maybe not.

Tips for expecting Moms:
Although I did not have morning sickness, I do read on stuff like what to eat to lessen or prevent the nausea and dizziness.

1. Eat salted crackers before getting out of bed. You can eat this too if you wake up in the middle of the night famished.
2. Drink ginger ale or ginger tea, or eat ginger snaps.
3. While nauseated, eat low-fat, bland foods, such as potatoes, unbuttered rice, noodles, crackers, toast, cereal, unbuttered cooked vegetables, soft fruits (especially bananas), poached or boiled egg, and most soups.
4. Frequently eat small meals. If for some reasons you can not take a break at work to eat then you may suck on hard candy until break time.

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The Pregnancy

I can't believe I'm pregnant! I actually thought I will be eternally single or, if not, forever unattached. Well, I just thought I am not the marrying type nor a mother figure. But you can never tell, could you?

Morning Sickness

I'm one of the few fortunate women who did not suffer from morning sickness. I normally have migraine attacks before and after my menstruation and on some occasions like if I'm under pressure, tensed, warm weather, etc. But during my pregnancy, I didn't have the headache, nausea, dizziness, and in 9 months I only had a one-time migraine attack and that's it...read more

Cravings

The first craving i had was for ice. Not surprisingly as Summer was already starting in Abu Dhabi by April. Although the drinking water in the office where I used to work was already cold, I'd still prefer my drink, be it water, juice, or cola, to be with ice as in lots of ice...read more