A while back, I had started a “Cross Blog Conversation” with a few of my fellow bloggers. I was really excited to see an answer to one of those questions this morning in my inbox.

Neena is a very busy mother of 4. The question that I asked her was: “You have such great parenting tips on your blog A Mom’s Life. What would be your best tip to other WAHM’s for juggling such a busy life?”. She answered it in a post on her blog A Mom’s Life so go check it out. She has some great tips on how to juggle everything and stay sane. I really love the tip on keeping the car stocked, and Sunday planning - excellent.

As part of the cross blog conversation, she then gets to ask me a question in return. Her question to me was this:

I love success stories and you are obviously one of them. As a new blogger, I am wondering how long you have been blogging, how much time you devote to blogging, is blogging the only business that you run from home, and at what point did you feel comfortable enough to make the switch from corporate America to working at home.

So here goes…

Actually, “Home with Heather” is my first real attempt at blogging. I did have another website, “Our Kids Are Special” to help parents of special needs children which I have since turned into a blog, though I don’t get nearly enough time to play there.

Home with Heather will have it’s first birthday on October 30, one week from today. This year has really just flown by. When I started HWH, it was really a kind of catch all blog dealing with parenting, pets, work at home, kids, just about anything you can think of. I have since really tried to streamline the blog more to coach and help “newbies”.

I’ve always loved to coach and teach others. Whenever I was in a corporate role, that’s what my job would naturally lead into. It is my hope that through blogging on any of my blogs that I will be able to do just that.

As to how much time I devote to blogging. Some days way more than others LOL. Right now with my home renovation, I’m having a real time management issue (same as you Neena). I’m trying to help knock out walls, paint, and pull trim, as well as be the interior decorator during the day and then blog at night. Not a really good combination, but a very temporary situation. Normally between writing, researching, networking, learning and EVERYTHING all wrapped up I put in between 30 - 80 hours a week.

Does that narrow it down for ya? No probably about 60 hours/week. But you have to remember that for me this is fun and play, not work and torture. And because I’m home all the time with my kids (in my situation we are very home bound) lots of days it is my social break as well.

When did I feel comfortable enough to leave the corporate world? Well again, I was a bit backwards there. I worked in the Steel Industry here in Canada for about 8 years, when I left I was the System Administrator, Inventory Analyst. I left that job in 1998 to work out of my home with children affected by Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FASD) and other special needs - I know that is a pretty big switch, but my family (mother/sister) have always worked to help children with special needs so it was natural for me to go there too.

I still do that as well as this.

As my own boys needs became more severe, the ability for me to go out (or back to a corporate job) is almost non-existent. I need to be here and available for them 24/7, not complaining mind you I quite like it that way. But I needed something to keep my mind active, and so I turned to the online world because it fits so well with me being home.

That is actually how I got the name “Home with Heather”. A lot of thought there, I know.

Am I starting to babble yet? OK I’ll quit.

Side Note: Please keep watching over the next week for what I’m planning for the big One Year Celebration of Home with Heather. I will be planning some special stuff all through the month of November.

O.K. Neena back to you…

I noticed that you linked to a post in another blog of yours “Blog Resources Online“. How long have you had that blog, and which one do you spend the most of your time on?

To all my Readers: Who would you like to have a Cross Blog Conversation with? If you have a question that you’d like me to answer, write a post on your blog and let me know about it. This is fun, and a great way to learn about fellow bloggers.

Expect the Best,

blogging fun, cross blog conversation, meme, networking, questions, Taking a Break!, WAHM, work at home

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 7:36 am and is filed under Taking a Break!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.