I needed a concrete answer to that question “What is for dinner?” I needed a meal planning intervention. Meal planning is nothing new. Millions of moms for generations have done it. But I needed an option that didn’t involve much of my time, where I didn’t have to search through recipes and write out the list each week. So I went on the search for different meal planning ideas and meal planning services online to see what could help my dinner dilemma. After looking around at different services for a few days, we settled on a site called Relish!.

I have been using it for a year now, and the more I have used Relish!, the more love it. At first, I really liked the flexibility of being able to choose from several recipes, and the nice interface. Some other services didn’t give you an option to choose recipes, and when you have a picky eater at home (and I’m not talking about my son), it would not be helpful to be stuck with recipes they don’t like. So Relish! gives you a selection of several different recipes each week, ranging from “kid-friendly” to vegetarian, crockpots to quick meals. And I so far the recipes have all been delicious and flavorful. You can also add your own recipes into the system.

Every week you select as many as you need for the week (including freezer options, and breakfast recipes), select for how many you are serving, and then it will spit out a shopping list for everything you will need. You do not knwo how much this has saved me in my sanity and my bank account. I am no longer wandering aimlessly through the grocery store grabbing what sounds good. And by sticking to my printed shopping list, it helps keep the grocery bill within budget. Relish! states that 5 dinners and sides keeps the grocery bill under $90 per week and I find that really rings true.

Plus, things are not going to waste, and that is HUGE in my house. Our shopping list is scaled down to just who we need to cook for, so I’m not having a problem with leftovers going to waste, or food going bad that I never got to cooking.

The subscription costs around $7 per month, and I find it is worth every penny!  It has saved this busy mom’s sanity, that’s for sure. To find out more about them, visit them on the web at www.RelishRelish.com.

Relish! might not be for everyone as there are dozens of other meal planning sites I ran across that might work better for other families. If you use some type of meal planning, or have meal planning tips and suggestions, I would love for you leave a comment here! I love to hear what other moms suggest.

*Disclaimer: Megan Barber and VAMommy is not an employee, not a representative, or in any way affiliated with Relish!. We did not receive any money or compensation for mentioning them in our blog. We just simply are a fan and love the service they provide.

That is what I had been telling myself for months since the birth of my son. I would think that I’m simply a stay at home mom who happens to run a business from home too. “Working moms” go to work outside the home and use daycare, nannies, etc, I thought. “I’m not a working mom. No, not me!”

(Just to clarify, I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with moms who choose work outside the home.)

I was in a bit of denial. Yes, I am at home and I am the primary caretaker of my son and the laundry, and the dishes, etc. But I also own and run a business that has to run pretty much full-time in order to make a good income. I finally came to the realization that I am a working mother, I just do it all under the same roof. Essentially I work 2 full-time jobs; that of mommy/homemaker and that of a small business owner. Neither one is an easy feat by themselves.

Now I am not the traditional working mom that goes outside of the home for her job. I have do not have to answer to any boss but myself (well, my son is the boss some of the time too). I get to make me own schedule and decide where and when I work. I also have the luxury have having no commute.

I do have some childcare needs like most working moms do, especially since my son is so young. I tried to be supermom, but quickly realized I cannot do it all without some help. Working moms can try to do it ALL, but you end up doing none of it successfully. And on the business side, I also have some fabulous help in the way of my VA team members. My team has taken much of the busy work off my plate so I can have more flexibility to be a mom and a business owner at the same time.

It has been a bit of an internal struggle, but now I really don’t mind the term “working mom” as much as I used to, and applying it to myself. It really is what I do and not a bad thing at all. It  doesn’t come without a lot of hard work and sacrifice, but I get to be home with my kid and make some income for my family. It’s not for everyone, but it is for me.

Image via Wikipedia

The damn goats next door woke up my napping son today. And it’s not the first time it’s happened either.

This is probably not something you hear every day. But it is the reality of where I am living. You’d think I was living in total bumpkin-ville. There may be a lot of farm land surrounding my town, but really it’s not that bad. I live in a traditional looking house in a traditional looking suburban neighborhood. My property just happens to be bordered on 3 sides by a property owned by “Farmer Bob”, who may possibly be starting a zoo.

I can go on about the weirdo things “Farmer Bob” has been doing of on his property, but will not go there now. Rumor has it that he wants to start a horse farm on his property, and has one sad looking horse I see roaming around behind the chain link fence. He also had chickens with a lovely rooster that crowed all hours of the night. Now, there are goats.

I first noticed about a dozen goats wandering around on his property about a month ago. Didn’t think much of them other than, “Holy cow! That is a lot of goats!” And we would take the little one to the fence and show him the goats and tell him what sound they made. Baaa! So cute, right? Great teaching moment, right?

Well recently, I have noticed how loud these things are when they are hanging out close to the fence line. BAAA! BAAA! I have especially noticed this now that we had the A/C off and the windows open. Bordering on annoying. And has become a nap interrupter.

Now, nap times are very precious to me. They have been since my son was a newborn. As a busy work at home mother, I NEED those nap times to accomplish as much client work, laundry, dishes, etc as I can in that 2 hour time period. And my lovely son takes 2 of these blessed naps a day still. I will weep on the day that he stops this.

My son was sleeping blissfully, and then 45 minutes in, there is some apparent goat fight happening right behind the fence. And apparently, the babe can’t sleep through incessant “BAAAs” going on outside his windows. Crap! And now he is super cranky because he didn’t get enough of a nap. Double crap! My uninterrupted work time is going out the window today.

I am so hate those goats right now.

I must be honest here. I am not having an easy time of it lately, trying to balance it all.  I started this WAH business to with the idea that I would be able to be home, take care of my kids and house, all while making a great income. This was all before I had a child. Now, I’ve been in business for 5 1/2 years. My business has taken off even more, and my 1 year old son is at an age where he gets into everything and needs lots of close supervision. I am finding it incredibly hard to keep it together, keep from stressing, and keep the mommy guilt at bay.

I am working at home to be with my son, I keep telling myself. But at times, I feel like my son is getting the short end of the stick. I always seem to be trying to get “just one more email” out. My mind is elsewhere thinking about client calls and projects that need to be done, while I am playing with my son. This is not what I envisioned.

I do have a Mother’s helper 2 days a week that helps out a little. But even with that, I feel under pressure to justify that whether or not the extra cost of child care makes up for the little bit of extra time I get to work.

So I want to hear from all work-at-home moms out there that have been there. Please leave me a comment and share your knowledge. What is your secret? How do you do it? I need to get all the tools I can. I need to know if I can still do this.

Tomorrow, I’m leaving on a jet plane and I couldn’t be more excited.

The past few days I have been preparing to to travel this week to Phoenix, for the IVAA’s 9th Annual Live VA Summit. I am super excited to get out of my office, drop off my little boy at grandma’s, jump on a plane, and descend upon Phoenix with 100 other Virtual Assistants to network and learn. It is giving me a chance to get out of the isolation of my own home office and to meet in person with other Virtual Assistants, many of which I have come to know and respect from my online social networks and VA forums. It’s an opportunity to be “Megan” instead of “Mommy” for a few days.

This brings me to the tremendous importance in-person networking for the Virtual Assistant. I’m talking about getting  out from behind your computer screen, and networking in person with other Virtual Assistants or small business owners. Working from your home office can feel somewhat isolating at times. You don’t have the regular in-person interaction with co-workers or customers and clients. I have my moments where I feel like I don’t have much social interaction with anyone beyond my11 month old son and my husband.

I really look forward to the times where I get to leave my home and go to one of the regular DVVAA luncheons to be in the company of other Virtual Assistants. We talk and at times, commiserate about the ups and the downs of our VA businesses, our awesome clients, and what is generally going on in our lives. I love getting together with this great group of people and it makes me feel less alone in my online business world. Not to mention, I have fun Getting out and networking is necessary for my own sanity.

I highly recommend that all Virtual Assistants get out and network, attend luncheons, chamber events, business conferences, whatever, and just get away from your computer. If you are a brand new Virtual Assistant, try looking to see if there is another VA that lives close to you and take them to lunch. Or perhaps there is a local VA networking group like mine (DVVAA) that has networking lunches or events. And last but not least, save room in your budget for attending one of the live VA conferences like IVVA’s Live Summit or VA Networking’s conference slated to happen in 2011.

And if you’re heading to Phoenix this week for #IVAA10, be sure to say hi and exchange cards.

**Contest Alert** I have a Rockstar Poken to give away to a lucky VA while I’m at the Summit in Phoenix. The first person to come up to me in person and say “I want to be a rockstar” gets the lovely rockstar Poken. What is a Poken, you ask? Check out my review of them at my other blog here.

Fast forward 4.5 years. In May 2009, my little Joey arrived and my whole world changed. In the previous months I was on the verge of freaking out because I realized I knew how to run my business sans kids, but had no idea how I would do it with a baby in the mix. Everyone told me that it wasn’t a very easy thing to plan for since all babies are different. But Joey was here, and I was thrust into the roles of being a mommy, a wife, and a VA business owner.

It took some getting used to being in a world of bottles, diapers, sleep deprivation and all that jazz. Add that to the client calling, the mailing projects, client websites, and real estate craziness, it has all been quite a job. I’m an at home mommy, just like I wanted. But I’m also a working mommy, the venue just happens to be at home too. It is a unique situation with no real how-to or instruction manual.

I’d be lying if I told you that it has been easy and I didn’t struggle with trying to do it all. It has been hard trying to juggle the responsibilities of motherhood, marriage, the household and a home business all at once. And even though he is almost a month away from his 1st birthday, I am still figuring it all out.

I am enjoy being a mommy. My son is my whole world and wouldn’t give up motherhood for anything. I am also still loving being a VA business owner, being my own boss, and the flexibility it affords my family.

I am a VA Mommy and LOVING it!

(I’d love to hear experiences from other virtual assistant mommies or mommy business owners, so please leave me a comment!)

Things have changed in my life, and my business has changed. I became a mom and started experiencing everything in a different way. So here I am, starting VA Mommy as a place to reflect and share my experience and advice as a Virtual Assistant business owner, as well as tales from my motherhood experience and being a mommy business owner. I wanted a place where I can talk about it all. This blog will be a mix of business and real life, because well… this is all my real life.

My VA Resources  blog was formerly known as, “The Virtual Perception” (not to be confused the the A Virtual Perception Podcast, which is awesome by the way). My original intent of my old VA blog was to give tips and resources for new and aspiring Virtual Assistants. I enjoyed doing it, but things slowed down over there and life got in the way. I moved the posts and resources over here, now just under a new name and new brand.

I plan on continuing to share resources and helpful tips for Virtual Assistants right along with my mommy business owner tales. And I am hoping to invite other VA mommies along for the ride to share their stories and advice. So I invite you to subscribe and I welcome your feedback, so please leave us a comment!

Well this fabulous article, Seven Deadly Sins of Home Office Security, was brought to my attention by my husband and I wanted to share. The article is geared towards anyone that works from a home office, and I think it gives us VA “old-timers” a great reminder, but also is a great resource for new and emerging VAs who are just setting up their home offices. So just how secure, accident proof, fireproof, or otherwise if your office files, equipment and network?

So the definition of a Virtual Assistant as taken from my own website:

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an highly skilled administrative professional who provides a wide range of business services including administrative, technical, creative, marketing & web support services to small business and entrepreneurs. A VA partners with their clients, learn about their business, and help them with your specific business needs for the long term, unlike most temps.  VA’s are independent contractors and work “virtually” out of their own office or from anywhere, and their clients can hail from all over the globe. VAs primarily communicate with their clients via internet, fax, telephone or other methods of communication.

One thing I want to stress above all that being a VA is not just another job one can get, but is a serious small business venture. You work as an independent business owner, being your own boss, setting your own hours, and finding your own clients, etc. As I’ve stated before, it isn’t always easy being a small business owner, and this is definitely not a “get rich quick” scheme at all.

Being a Virtual Assistant can be hard work, but it is a rich experience that I wouldn’t give up for the world.