i really need to start going to bed sooner

but its hard when you get inspired!

i'm feeling like i'm starting to really get revved up on ideas for the new year!

i've been working on my new mommy newsletter for mommy chats...i'm planning on sending it out on jan 1. i've never done anything like it before...i'm including lots of content such as recommended blogs and links and books and music and such. things that i think other mommies might like to read. no articles though...i don't have time to write them and usually don't have time to read any either, so i'm going short and sweet. although some of my reviews are getting longer than anticipated, LOL! but its getting really fun! and i'm going to do this every month. use it as a way to sell some more advertising and drum up more interest in mommy chats...draw attention to chats as i add them, and just share some great info with moms out there. :)

the web is quite overwhelming...its hard to dig through all the crap out there. i just thought it might be nice to give a slice of the best that i've found and see if anyone else might like it too. :)

anyway, i'm just feeling fired up about it and its got my brain going a million miles a minute about all sorts of other things as well. but i need to stop that now and go to bed! i can think more in the morning! i swear thinking is like a goddamned drug to me! it fires me up like nothing else can! (except maybe my husband, hehe)

holiday hoopla over

well nearly over. it was supposed to be over today but i didn't have everything done.

this is an annual event i do on my website mommy chats. this was my 4th year doing it! i can't believe its been that many years!

anyway tonite was the games chat...very fun! i host it and i do all sorts of fun chat games...scrambled words, holiday bingo, holiday trivia, name that song, name that movie...fun!
and i get to give out all kinds of prizes!

i was going to also pick the winners of the treasure hunt and cookie hunt...but there was a lot i needed to do to the file with the answers in it before i could call winners. i had to delete all the incorrect and duplicate answers and such...clean it up so it was just all correct answers, and only one per person per answer. took me hours to finally get it all done, but i just finished it and so i'm ready to draw the names now. i'll do it tomorrow.

i like to do it in chat because its more fun that way. people get all excited. chat events are fun! :)

i want to think of some new games for another year...but right now i'm just glad to be done with it. its not a huge amount of work, but its some work. in spurts. i got some money out of it. not a lot, but enough to help us through christmas.

next i'm going to work on my new newsletter for mommy chats. i have a bunch of fun things i'm going to put in it...book reviews, music reviews, links, product and business picks and such...things that should hopefully draw a lot of interest. and then i can start selling ads in the newsletter. i'll be doing it monthly. and hopefully that will get me some more income as well.

with adam's pay cut, we need the extra money. so far we've been doing ok. but i know we're going to eventually really feel it. especially if anything happens that requires an extra chunk of money we don't have. so anything i can do to help, helps ease that burden. if i do really well, we won't even really feel the pay cut.

i think i mentioned before, i used to easily bring in about $500-600 a month in advertising. it had dwindled down to barely $100 recently due to various reasons, one of which was neglect on my part. i just wasn't putting any time into my sites. but now that i need to, i'm doing what i need to do to get more interest going.

the more things going on on my sites, the more potential advertising, because they will want to advertise their biz's where there are mommies! and its fun anyways, so i'm glad to have a new burst of energy to get things going again.

its late now, though...so i think i'll start working on the newsletter tomorrow.