Writing for associated content

I'm doing some writing for associated content. I submitted some of my blog entries to be published there. My byline there is Keisha Broach. I signed up under the email address SprtDrmr@aol.com. These blogs, and those articles submitted, are my original work.

Advertise On Modern Traditional Wife

Updated 3/27/09

Advertising Rates are as follows:

Position Number One
Top, Right Hand Square Banner
Size 125x125 OR 120x240
Price: $25/month
Includes Alphabetical Text Link for Life of Ad
Email me at SprtDrmr at aol dot com to discuss availability


Position Number Two
Below At Home Picture
Size 125x125
Price $20/month
Includes Alphabetical Text Link for Life of Ad
Email me at SprtDrmr at aol dot com to discuss availability


Position Number Three
Below Labels
Size 125x125
Price: $15/month
Includes Alphabetical Text Link for Life of Ad
Email me at SprtDrmr at aol dot com to discuss availability

Position Number Four
Bottom
Size 468x60
Price: $10/month
Includes Alphabetical Text Link for Life of Ad
Email me at SprtDrmr at aol dot com to discuss availability

Position Number Five
Bottom of every fourth post on a rotating basis
Size Up to 468x60
Price: $50/month, four spots available per month
Includes Alphabetical Text Link for Life of Ad

Text Link
In Link Area
Alphabetical Listing is free with return link
Top Listing is $5.00/month
For free link, just leave a comment on a blog entry that you've linked to my blog, then I'll visit yours and get a link up to yours. Please note that return links can take a few days, especially during the summer wildland fire season.
For paid link, email me at SprtDrmr at aol dot com to discuss availability


Review of Product
Post just to review your product or service or site
Text Link to Post in Link List for one month
Reviews are posted weekly, on Fridays, which is also when Giveaways are announced, so it's a heavier traffic day.
I can't honestly review your product or service or site without being able to use it, but cost of product or service is usually exchanged for the review. So, if you have a site that one needs to pay to use, I'll need a minimum membership. If you have a product or service, I'll need the opportunity to use said product or service, but usage will be agreed upon prior to writing of review, so it's fair to both of us. Preference is given to family owned businesses. To discuss a product review, email me at SprtDrmr at aol dot com with product review in the subject line.


All ads are placed from the first of each month until the end of each month (January 1-31, etc) and must be paid for by the 20th of the prior month, to give me time to get the ad ready. If, due to family emergency or active working fire, I am unable to get your link up by the first, but able to do so before the fifth, I will refund 50% of your ad rate. If I am unable to get your ad up by the fifth, I will refund 100% of your ad rate and still put your ad up for the remainder of the month.

If you wish to continue your ad, and your ad space is available, you must notify me prior to the 10th of the month in which your ad is running. Continuing ads are billed at a 10% discount. In other words, if you book ad space for January, I will hold the February spot open until January 10. If you see a great response and want to rebook, you will have first right to that spot until January 10. After that, you will need to wait until the next available spot.

Why should you advertise on Modern Traditional Wife?
If you sell products or services for families, children, babies, or coupons or gardening stuff or stuff for country living or survivalism or preparedness or stockpiling, my readers may be interested in what you sell. My readers are typically mothers, who have disposable income but are smart with it, who work or who stay at home, who have children at home, who enjoy bargains and who do a lot of cooking. They typically have Christian viewpoints, but are outspoken and free thinkers.

Really, how stupid are we?

On Friday, I had arranged for the littles and middles to go to daycare. I had been introduced to a friend of a friend of a friend who was relaunching her website and needed some quick copy writing and promotional work done. I did the copy writing work last weekend, at an agreed upon (verbal) of $100. Thursday and Friday were supposed to be the promotional work-submitting her site for link backs, writing small ads for relevant directories, etc. All of this in anticipation of a Saturday launch.

Well, by Wednesday, the friend of a friend of a friend had disappeared (as has, I fear, my verbally agreed upon $100). I went ahead and took the littles to daycare on Thursday, hoping that the client would show up or at least contact me by phone. Things happen, I understand, when you work at home and have children. Spent the day investigating domain names for a copy writing business to do on the side, putting together some articles for Associated Content, and contemplating that whole post I wrote yesterday.

By now, of course, I know that she isn't going to show up, but the middles have their heart set on going to daycare now. See, Miss Megan has this huge yard with fruit trees, and lots of cool outdoor toys-a big change from the yard in our apartment complex. So I take them up on Friday morning, and walk by the store on the way home to get some powdered donuts (hormonal craving) and some yummy lunch for Aimee and I. Since we never get to spend time just the two of us, I decided we'd at least have a good lunch together. I picked up some frozen lasagna that we could cook in the oven.

So I walk into the kitchen to put the lasagna into the oven, and I check the package to make sure I have the oven set on the right temperature, and here is what I read:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (check). Do not exceed 350 degrees (umm, OK). Remove tray from box (really? do I have to?). Remove film cover (check).
2. Assorted cooking instructions, which are logical and sensible.
3. (In bold print) Using potholders and both hands, carefully remove baking sheet with tray from oven and...(seriously? Seriously).

Is there someone out there so stupid that they won't protect themselves from the heat of the 350 degree oven, fling the baking sheet carelessly about, and then finally throw it across the room, hoping it will land on the dining room table?

Well, apparently there must be, as they felt the need to point out the need to not do so right there in the instructions.

Oh, and, by the way...I used a single clean kitchen washcloth, held in one hand, to remove the baking sheet. No one got maimed, burned or impaled, and the world didn't implode.

Phew!

Am I Still the Modern Traditional Wife?

We’ve been having a slight crisis here lately, which is a large part of why I haven’t been writing as much.

It’s a crisis probably no different than the one going on with thousands, if not millions, of families in America today. We need more income. My wonderful husband works hard, but there’s just not enough money to do what needs to be done.

Now, I have long been an advocate of cutting down on your bills and changing your lifestyle to make it possible for one parent to stay at home. It doesn’t necessarily have to be mom; although in many marriages dad has the higher earning potential, that is not always the case. There have been times when I have worked that I have made more money than my husband. If this is not going to cause issues within the marriage, it’s perfectly acceptable that mom work and dad stay home. Having someone be home with the children, whether it’s home all day with smaller children or available to see the children off to school and be there when they get home, it’s essential, in my belief, that someone be there for the children. Further, when you figure the cost of both parents working, it can be economical for one parent to stay home, between clothes, commuting expenses, and child care.

In our case, though, and I suspect in a lot of other families, we can’t cut expenses any more. We don’t have cable or satellite TV-in fact, we currently only get one channel. We live in a three bedroom apartment. While we have two vehicles, only one of them is running, and it needs a new transmission. Aimee needs new glasses-and we can’t afford to replace them. Our budget currently does not allow for the purchase of one important basic: food.

Now, we’re not starving. I have a lot of food stocked up, because I am a prepper. So what we actually have to buy is minimal. But those supplies won’t last forever. We have beans at least one night a week, and we’re limiting our meat consumption as much as possible.

So the bottom line is, I have to work. There has to be more income brought into the household. To that end, I have accepted a job that starts October 1, as the administrative assistant for the fire department. Yes, the same one that I dispatch for. I have been doing various administrative tasks since I started dispatching, because I’m here all week and our current AA is only here two days a week, and it was a universal decision that it would be sensible to offer me the job. Larry and I discussed it, and prayed about it, and decided that this was the best option for our family.

We were lucky to find a great daycare that is within our price range and will take Roan and Aria part time. Should something come up, she will take Saren and Nikki as well. I will be working 20 hours a week for the fire department. After daycare expenses, I will be adding about $560 each month to our household budget. We won’t incur additional gas costs, because I will walk to daycare and work. We may need to get rides if the weather is especially cold or if the ground is too muddy. I can budget $10 per week for this-far less expensive than it would be for me to drive to Trinidad to work. I will need clothes, but we do most of our shopping at the thrift store, so I don’t forsee a large clothing expenditure. A few weeks ago, we went to the thrift store to find Saren some pants, and they were having a bag sale; I got 4 pairs of pants for Saren, two for Aimee, a few odds and ends for the other children, and several work outfits and jeans for me-all for $30. I need to be dressed nicely, but certainly not in the most current fashions. I understand that it is necessary in some professions to be dressed in expensive, or at least expensive looking, stylish clothing-in my job I can make due with several pairs of slacks, the 4 long skirts I already own, and an assortment of nice blouses, and be set for three or four weeks of work outfits. I do need a few more blouses, and I could use one more pair of black elastic waist pants for “those” days, but other than that, I am good to go. I have an entire work wardrobe for $20, and I’ll only need to spend a small amount more to fill it out. While replacing clothing will be necessary, I will be looking to do that while thrift store shopping or on ebay.

My schedule at the fire department is flexible. If I can’t work a particular day, I can simply switch it for another day, as long as it doesn’t happen too often. I can even permanently switch the days I’m there. I’m allowed to do eight hours of the 20 I get a week from home. So once the littles are in bed, I can do things that can get done on the computer.

But what about that Modern Traditional Wife? Traditionally, the wife doesn’t work. The Proverbs 31 wife created commerce at home, while still managing the home and raising the children. Well, I’m not so sure about the raising the children part. The Proverbs 31 wife would have had staff in her home; specific mention is made of her providing for her maidens. Certainly, she would have been managing her home, and been paramount in the raising of her children. A commentary by Matthew Henry suggests that the Proverbs 31 wife would have been doing work proper for her-women’s work, he says.

But what does that mean in modern times? How do we reconcile being traditional with needing to provide an additional income for our household? For me, being modern has usually meant, well, now that I’m typing it, I don’t know. I have worked in the past, outside of the home, out of necessity; but my life was much different then. I wasn’t a Christian, and while I believe that even then I fit most of the ideals of the Proverbs 31 wife, work was important. My career, as it was, was important to me. Not more important than my family, but I enjoyed the identity of being a working woman.

Of course, I’ve enjoyed the identity of being a Godly woman as well. But are being a Godly woman and being a working woman mutually exclusive? I feel genuinely conflicted about stepping outside of my role in my home. Enjoying my identity as a working woman just reeks of pride to me. Something that I’ve tried very hard to put aside, in my quest to be closer to God.

So, I guess that’s a question I’ll have to figure out along the way. Maybe find a few people wiser than me to ask. I will let you know how I fare on that one.

In the meantime, I guess the sphere of my blog will be changing a bit. Trying to find the answers to questions like the ones above, trying to balance working and still maintaining my traditional role at home. How the kidlets are faring. Stuff like that. Hopefully I’ll figure it out along the way. I hope you take the journey with me.