Keep Learning

Not too much of action today. As I keep learning as I go along I can’t always move forwards, instead it is something like "today I do, tomorrow I don’t". Some days I publish an article, I do research for another article or another website. Other days I just have to sit down and keep learning to be able to advance.

I have all sorts of books and reports about SEO and building your income online. And actually with children so small that they need you at every little step that they make this life is as hard as it can get. I am already knackered however I know that if I want to achieve something I can’t go to bed now, that thought only is what keeps me up every single night. Tomorrow at 6.00 am a new day starts whether I slept 4 hours or 6. As they say “if you want something, you’ve got something to give” however these days I read something like “Poor people work hard for their money, rich people make their money work hard for them” Does someone know the secret?

The Attachment Parenting Book

I just finished doing the research of a new article that will be published tomorrow. The article is about the different aspects of something I believe in; attachment parenting. For some of you that don’t know too much about attachment parenting I would recommend to read the book by Dr. Sears a pediatrician for nearly thirty years and a complete expert in attachment parenting, his advice is really respected and followed by millions around the world.

Dr. Sears supports a natural and intuitive way of parenting, attachment parenting doesn’t follow the traditional methods such as letting the baby cry to sleep and similar prescriptive patterns, it just follows a more natural approach trying to build a strong bond with your baby from birth and especially in those early years when the baby is more dependent. In this way, instead of spoiling your child, your child will grow in a more balanced way, becoming a more balanced and self-confident adult.

Attachment parenting supports practices like co-sleeping and breastfeeding, it follows a series of principles such as the practice of positive discipline versus traditional punishments and responsiveness to your baby’s needs with love and respect.

The Attachment Parenting Book provides also scientific research that explains how and why this approach works and it is more positive than the traditional one that has been followed in the western countries.

Learning and marketing

The end of another day! I promised myself I would write 2 posts today, apart from all the stuff I had to do. I have updated one website with one more article and it is still left to do some marketing for today.

I have been up and down all the day, and although I don’t believe caffeine is good for you I have been stopping myself from having too much tea, to keep me going. From 7 am in the morning I have been everywhere, gone to buy some books, gone to the post office, printing some photos, gone for shopping, cooking, washing clothes (by hand), gone to the library, done the house. Today I have dedicated every single minute I had spare to study a report I got hold of (not yet finished, by the way). I don’t consider myself an expert in Internet marketing and online business, however if I intend to leave on it, I have to learn as much as I can. So while I am active building websites, updating and doing marketing and stuff, I am also learning a lot about affiliate marketing, adsense, SEO, niche websites, keywords and everything that might have an effect on the results. Because although I am killing myself every single night until 1-2 am, it would be ridiculous to make things half way because of laziness or just pure ignorance.

So there you go, still here and now ready for some marketing, otherwise as we say...”no marketing, no visitors. No visitors, no business”

The business of being born- Ricky Lake's birth story

I just thought that anyone interested in natural parenting would be interested in this documentary.

This is a really interesting documentary. If you haven’t seen it before you shouldn’t miss it. Ricky Lake presents and is the direct protagonist of this documentary where you will see the recorded birth of her second son. The documentary talks about the business of the “birth industry” in America, the different options available and the experience of parents that have made different choices. You can check an interview with Ricky Lake about the documentary for the CW11 Channel.

The Secret to Online Success

I just recently had the chance to watch the film The Secret, although I had to struggle to see the complete movie (because of lack of time) I finally managed to finish it and I felt it was really worth it. From time to time I need some kind of positive input in my life and when you are alone all the day at home with the kids, the house chores, the shopping to do and your work online until late at night, you actually need something to pick you up, to put some motivation in your life, to renew a bit that worn out energy.

These days I am starting to think that the secret to online success might be lying in multiple streams of income and residual income (that means income that is still coming again and again for a work you have done before), at least this is what I am concentrating at lately. I keep updating my other sites and trying to find better niches. This is actually taking a lot of time in the day (or better to say “in the night” ) and then, all the marketing involved. I am wondering if I will ever get there.

Making a healthy marmalade

Here is also my recipe for a healthy sugar free orange marmalade. If you prefer you can substitute the orange by lemon. I have done both successfully with the same quantities. Just adjusting the sweetener. I like to use Splenda when I use sweetener in my recipes is the only one I have found that has the taste more similar to sugar, but doesn't affect your blood sugar levels. To me Splenda is the best alternative and it is not expensive.

Ingredients:
4 oranges
4 spoons of splenda
28gr. (1 ounce) of unflavoured gelatine
Water (as needed)

Preparation:
Wash the oranges thoroughly in water and dry them properly with a towel. Cut them in half and squeeze the juice out of each orange. Separate the skins from the pulp, seeds and rests of fruit and place all these bits in a little cloth bag or muslin bag (it is easy to make your own and keep it for cooking purposes). Cut the skin in very thin strips and put them in a pan together with the juice. Place also, the bag with the remaining bits of fruit, add more water until the orange skins are covered. Boil the water and leave the mixture simmering at low fire and covered until the skins are very soft. Remove everything leaving only the skins in the pot.

Place in a cup a bit of hot water and dissolve there the gelatine and the sweetener together. Pour the dissolved mixture on top of the skins and mix well (taste that the amount of sweetener is right). Place the marmalade in jars previously sterilised and close them tightly. Let them cool down before storing. Once cold place in the fridge or freezer.

And there you have it, your own jam and your own marmalade ready for breakfast. Without preservatives or any other artificial stuff. I feel proud that they are healthy as they don't have any sugar and inexpensive, as I usually get the cheapest fruit in the market.

Making your own jam

Sometimes when you go to the market late in the afternoon you might find good bargains of sellers that want to get rid of fruit. There is when I get lots of them for the whole week, even for longer. You can cook it and store it, pickle it or like me, make your own jams.

It is so easy, the good thing is that you know what goes on it, you know that has got plenty of fresh fruit and specially no sugar, at least I try to make the healthy version of it.

Of course, sugar is the one thing that preserves the jams so, sugar free jam wouldn't last as long as its sugary version, but still it will last a good 2 weeks in the fridge and a whole lot more in the freezer.

Here is my recipe, you will need:

3 cups of ripe strawberries
1/2 cup of concentrated apple juice
1 cup water
4 spoons of unflavoured gelatine (follow manufacturer’s instructions)
1 spoon of sweetener (optional)

Preparation:
Wash the fruit and blend it.
Boil the water in a pot, add the gelatine and move with a spoon until the gelatine is dissolved. Add the strawberries, the apple juice and the sweetener (taste before adding it and add accordingly). Leave everything at low fire for 2 minutes more. Remove and place in jars, close them tightly and allow them to cool down.

Apple juice is used usually instead of sugar, so you might find out that after using the apple juice you don't feel like using the sweetener. Or you might have really sweet teeth and find that you want actually more than is in the recipe. Well, that is the time to taste it.