How to Avoid Rogue Movers When Relocating and Some Tips on Moving

Last time I visited Geoyl's blog, she said that they have arrived safely in the U.S. Then, I remember some of my  expat friends who also have already relocated to other parts of the world like Canada or the U.S. What I remember is that some of them had to move some of their things here over to their new location.  That included not only boxes of clothes and personal items but even some of their appliances in order to save on some of their expenses when they get there.

One of the problems in moving things is finding the right professional movers. Some may not be really professional movers but professional scammers waiting to take hold of your household goods and your money since most would ask for upfront cash deposit. The Better Business Bureau and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration gave a good list of warnings on how to spot such rogue movers and good advice to consumers who are in the process of moving.

I think what is important in order to avoid rogue movers is not to base your choice of a moving company on the price alone. As they say, you get what you pay for. Also, one needs to check all the necessary details of the moving company like their business address, their business license to operate and the like. It also helps to read some BBB business reliability reports at www.bbb.org like this one of the UMoveFree Review. If you can do this, you can avoid the possibility of dealing with fraudulent movers.

I know that someday my family would also be moving, probably to the Philippines. But who knows, maybe the Lord will also bring us to the U.S. or Canada. 

Here is also a video from You Tube plus some related videos to watch for tips on How to Pack Your things when moving.  Hope you also learn something.

Join Pinay Mommy Online's Thanksgiving Giveaway

This is the first giveaway I am joining for 2011. I would like to invite everyone to join Pinay Mommy's Thanksgiving giveaway. Let us join here in expressing her thanks for the blessings she received in 2010.  To encourage us to join her, just look at the prizes she and her sponsors are giving away:

For the First Prize Winner:
$100.00 Cash!
Wordpress/Blogger Make-Over
COM Domain + Hosting for One Year

For the Second Prize Winner:
$50.00 Cash!
COM Domain + Hosting for One Year

For the Third Prize Winner:
$30.00 Cash!
COM Domain + Hosting for One Year

Special Prize Winner: Most Number of Referred Giveaway Participants
$20.00 Cash
COM Domain + Hosting for One Year

Wow! Great prizes.  What are you waiting for?  If you're a blogger and would like to join, just head on over to Pinay Mommy Online's Giveaway page where you will find the complete giveaway mechanics and details. 

Have a nice day!

How to Lose Weight in 2011 - My Personal Plan (Part 1)

Regarding My Personal Goals for 2011, I'm almost done with my final to-do-list for 2011. I am able to execute most of them already.  But what I haven't detailed yet is the how to lose weight part.

Lose Weight Now.  Image by Alan Cleaver, Flickr

Having some background in Nutrition way back in college, I know that in order for someone to maintain his ideal weight, his calorie intake should equal his calorie expenditure. If one would like to lose weight, either he reduce his calorie intake or increase his calorie expenditure or balance both.  Choosing the third option is what I would like to aim for.

So, how am I going to do just that? First, regarding how to reduce my calorie intake, let me just say that I am still breastfeeding my 2-year old daughter. That is why sometimes it's still difficult for me to control what I eat. When she breastfeeds, sooner or later I would feel hungry.  Anyway, research says breastfeeding also contributes to the burning of extra calories.

Here are three things which I could think of doing regarding my calorie intake:

• Choose the food I eat. It is a fact that carbohydrates and protein contain 4 calories per gram while fat contains 9 calories per gram. So, if I want to consume lesser calories, it is an option to eat lesser fatty foods.

Moreover, fats usually get stored in the body. This is because the way our body consumes energy, it uses up first those from carbohydrates and protein. And by the time fat calories is to be consumed, usually we stop needing the energy or stop doing activities.

So, maybe for 2011, I would go for more vegetables and fruits without the mayonnaise based dressings and then less dessert also. I love cakes and brownies, but aside from being sweet it is also packed with lots of fat, so I have to let go of that, though I could still take a bite, I guess, once in a while.  There would also be days that I would go meatless or maybe just fish (not fried).

• Do not eat after dinner.  I have this tendency to eat a snack again after dinner because I'm a late sleeper and by the time I go to sleep I feel my stomach growling already. Anyway, I have been trying to avoid eating after dinner (not necessarily after six). I read somewhere that we need to space at least 4 hours between our last food intake and going to sleep to make sure that the food has been sufficiently digested.  This time, I just drink a glass of milk at least then go to bed.

• Eat six small meals a day. This is still what most nutritionists advice.  Eat small meals everyday to avoid binge eating. I would like to emphasize on the "small". Because sometimes, when the viand is really tasty, I tend to eat more rice. Got to watch out for that rice, half a cup (125 grams) already contains about 175 calories. Check this food calories list to see how much calories regular servings of food have. Using this food calories list, I can roughly compute how much of eat I should eat to stay within the 1500 - 1800 calories I need everyday (calorie requirement is based on my height, gender and age, I think).

So, six meals means having breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and evening snack. But since I am trying to lose weight, I am foregoing the evening snack. Right (grin). 

That's it I guess for this post on how to lose weight by reducing my calorie intake. Next post, would be how to lose weight by increasing energy expenditure.

By the way, if you have ideas for me to lose weight also, share it with me, please.  Thanks.

My Personal Goals for 2011

In my previous post about How to Set Your Personal Goals, I told myself to sit down and write down my lifetime goals and my smaller goals.  I would like to write here what my personal smaller goals are for 2011.  These will serve as my guide for my final To-Do list and hopefully this would give me the boost in accomplishing what I plan for this year. I pray that at the end of the year, I could look back at this goals and say "goals accomplished."

To Do. Image by Mattox, Stock.xchng

I've categorized my goals as to spiritual, financial, physical and family.

• As for spiritual, I would really like to stick to my daily quiet time with the Lord. I must admit that I failed to be consistent on this the past year so I would like to start anew. 

• For the financial aspect, I'm so thankful to God and to my husband. God has been good in giving my husband the job to sustain our family needs. I'm also thankful to my husband that he is a very responsible man. But I would also like to help in my own little way.

I've been writing for HubPages for more than a year now and I am amazed at how profitable it has been. As I've shared in my previous post Making Money at Home with HubPages, as of that writing, I was earning about $20-25 Google Adsense income a month. But now, I'm earning about $45 plus per month.

In view of that, I would like to challenge myself to write more hubs (articles). My target is to write about 100 hubs this year. So, that is about 8 hubs per month or 2 hubs per week.  I'm also working part-time as an online freelancer, but I think writing hubs will be more profitable. Compared to freelancing where I get paid one time, in writing hubs, I get paid over and over for my writing as long as I keep it published online (on HubPages).  It is sort of a source of PASSIVE INCOME for me.

By the way, if you would also like to earn by writing on HubPages, let me know (use my contact form or leave a comment here), maybe I could help. I could give you tips. What's the catch? Well , nothing much. I'm just hoping you would sign up (it's free to join) through my referral link.

• For the physical aspect, I know how important our health is.  Since I gave birth to my daughter 2 years ago, I still haven't reached the body weight I like. Before giving birth, I weighed about 76 kg and now I'm 63 kg.  The body weight I'm aiming for is about 50 kg, a difference of 13 kg.  So, I would like to lose at least 1 kg or 2 lbs per month this year to reach that goal.  How I am going to do that? I still haven't thought much about it but one thing for sure, I would need to be more active and eat less.

• With regards to my family, I would really like to have some devotional time as a family. I bought a kids' one-year devotional and I would like us to read it together and share thoughts on it and pray. This is a must if we want our kids to grow up knowing and loving God and His Word.  

Aside from that, I would also like to be more organized at home. My first project is actually finishing up all the laundry for ironing. Would you believe I have about a luggage of clothes that need to be ironed?  That would actually mean that I should really prioritize what I should do with my computer, because it does take much out of my time.  I would also need the help of my kids in keeping the house clean. Got to have that chore chart ready.  It will not only help in the delegation of house chores but it will also teach my kids to be helpful and responsible.

Now, that I've put these goals written down, I need to work on my final To-Do list.  Need to work fast on that since we're almost into the third week of January.  Oh well, that's it for this post.

Remembering Janel's First Drawings

These are Janel's drawings. She drew these when she was just 3 1/2 years old.  The first one is just faces. I was surprised when she showed this to me and gave me a laugh. The second one is her improved drawing. Now, it's not just faces but there are hands and feet.  I love it.  Every mom sees something beautiful in her child's work of art, right?

These drawings were made almost a year ago now. Janel has learned a lot and made lots art works since especially is Nursery school. I will post some of those in future posts in this blog.

Keeping Warm with Snuggies for Kids

It is still not yet that cold here in our place but I'm expecting that it will still get a little colder.  It would really be great if we could keep warm by not having to wear those very thick sweaters or jackets at home.  We could use the heater all the time, but just think about the electric bill.

Sometimes, my kids wear double or triple layers of clothes instead. I saw this picture of a kid comfortably wearing  a snuggie (a long blanket with sleeves)  while reading and it reminded me of my son who was trying to study yesterday. He complained to me that he was feeling cold and feels distracted.

Snuggies. Image by OakleyOriginals. Flickr

It would be great if I could buy snuggies for my kids.(I've seen wonderful colors and designs available online which are reasonably priced.) While at home they could warmly and comfortably wear that even while doing anything: reading, writing, playing or watching TV. Even though we have cozy blankets for them while they sleep, I bet these snuggies would work better with them. It would keep them covered all the time since they have it on unlike the blanket which gets thrown off them when they move or make a turn while sleeping.

I think I would also like these snuggies. I could work on my snuggies while housekeeping or when doing my blogging or freelance work on the computer everyday - a sure way to keep me fired up whatever it is I'm up to.

How to Set Your Personal Goals?

We are already into the second week of January and I haven't really sat down to write my personal goals for this year.  I prefer to say personal goals instead of New Year's resolutions.  I just think that there is this notion that New Year's resolutions don't work or they don't stick long enough.

Anyway, I Googled to look for some guidelines on how to write my personal goals and I read this Personal Goal Setting article from Mind Tools and it was really enlightening.  But I found out that I have to really sit down to be able to do it.  Why? Because instead of just writing down what I want to do for the year, it would be better to write down first my lifetime goals (what I want to do in the next 10 years or so), then break these down into smaller goals (five-year plan, one-year plan, six-month plan and one-month plan plus the daily to-do list). I think this method makes good sense as it provides a better direction for someone who wants to achieve something in life and make the most of it. 

Most of us are familiar with the mnemonic SMART when it comes to setting goals.  Whatever goals I would be writing down (yes, I have to write them down), they must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.

SMART Goal Setting

I don't know how detailed I could be in writing my personal goals but I will try to do this.  Then, I can have something to look at at the end of the year to evaluate how SMART I was in setting and achieving my goals.

Got to go and work on this.  Have you worked on your personal goals?

Stay at Home Blessings: Income from Home in 2010

There are many blessings to being a stay at home mom. The most important of which is that I get to spend time taking care of my kids. Though there are many times that they are giving me a tough time, I would say that I won't trade it for the world. When they appreciate me as mom, or say a really sincere 'I love you,' it's like I've received the best gift ever. 

Earning online. Image by mmagallan, Stock.xchng

Last 2010, since 4 of my 5 children are going to school, I got to spend a little more time for online income opportunities.  And it's a real blessing that I was able to earn even if I am just staying at home working on the computer. Thanks to the opportunities the world wide web presents, I can now say that I'm really a Work at Home Mom (WAHM).

Let me just share with you some of the ways I have earned online last 2010.  I was actually surprised to know after computing that I have about $1400 gross earnings. I am not posting any more the payments proof. So, it's up to you whether you would believe it or not.

Here is the breakdown of the earnings more or less.

• Paid to Click sites:  $67 (I have only retained a few PTC sites which include the more stable Neobux and ClixSense)
• PeopleString: $26 (A social network that pays you to use their program, play games, etc. Once earnings reach $25, you're paid via AlertPay. To know more about PeopleString, I have linked to my other blog explaining fully about this program.)
• Paid Survey: $50 (This earning is actually accumulated over 3 years from Global Test Market)
• Online Blog Contests: $130
• Microworkers: $21 (Microworkers is a site where you get paid to do various simple tasks)
• Adgitize: $38 (Adgitize is a blog advertising network where blog owners can join for free and earn points that is converted to cash. Once earnings reach $10, you're paid via PayPal.)
• Google Adsense: $268 (Google Adsense is an advertising program which allows online content publishers to join for free so that paid ads can be displayed on their blog or web pages. Here the payout threshhold is set at $100.)
• ODesk: $18 (An outsourcing company where employers and contractors meet.  You can join for free, post your profile and apply for jobs as a freelancer. ODesk gets some fee from the payments you earn)
• Freelancer.com: $447 (This is also like ODesk where you can join for free, post a profile and make bids for projects posted by employers. Per project you win, Freelancer.com charges you $5 or 10% of total project price)
• Freelance writing job: $360 (A private employer)

I hope this encourages those who are aspiring to work from home that it is possible to earn from home. This is actually the main reason why I posted this info. And if you have any questions, I would be glad to answer them. The only thing I ask is no spamming please.

Disclosure: If you decide to join and sign-up on these earning opportunities, I hope you would do so by clicking from my referral links.

How to Have Instant Hot Water Every Time

Every morning, it's a struggle for instant hot water in the showers for my kids.  My husband wakes them up at 6:30 in the morning and brings them to the bathroom for a shower before going to school.  Since it is the cold months on this side of the globe, the normal air temperature is about 5 degrees centigrade, colder than inside the refrigerator.  Just imagine the coldness of the water when it comes out of the faucet.

We do have a hot water tank and heater installed inside the bathroom but it still takes about a few minutes before hot water reaches the shower or the faucet. Most of the initial cold water is wasted down the drain unless we catch them in a bucket for later use.

While surfing online, I saw this home gadget which may be the solution to our instant hot water blues.  It is called Hot Water Lobster instant hot water valve.  It's a simple gadget that is very easy to install (do it yourself in about 10 minutes) under the sink or near the shower.  The way it works is that it has a thermostat which when the hot water in the hot water pipe cools below your set temperature, prompts the valve to open and let the cooled water pass through to the cold water pipes and circulate back to the hot water tank for reheating.

With this gadget installed, we would always have instant hot water, whether we are going to take a shower or just wash our hands. No need to wait and waste cold water.  Aside from contributing to water conservation, it is also energy-saving.  It does not need electricity to function and actually adds 10% more hot water capacity to our hot water tank by keeping the water in the pipes hot.  All 7 of us in the family can now take a bath consecutively without the last one not having hot water to bathe with.

This very user-friendly home gadget will surely be on my wish list.