Hello Everyone!!! My name is Philena, but you can call me Phil, and this is
Phil's Real Life! MY NEW BLOG!
For the past 7 years I have been a stay at home mom and although being home with my children has been a blessing, I'm ready to get back to work!
Here's My Story
20 years ago, this year, I graduated high school.I went straight to college after, with high hopes of becoming an elementary school teacher. Things were going okay and then life took an unexpected turn.
I lost my financial aid, my job and my apartment in a matter of weeks. My support system was there, but no one was in a financial position to help me so I moved back home. I stayed with family until I was able to get on my feet..
I found a job and got a place of my own pretty quickly. I tried to save money so that I could go back to school but I could barely pay my rent with the job I was able to get. I couldn't even afford community college.
After a few tries I found a job that paid enough for me to pay my bills and eat good. This job afforded me the luxury of saving a few hundred dollars every month. I was on, in my mind, and there was no looking back. Going back to school was out of the question. My focus was on surviving! Plus I had friends who had graduated from college who weren't making the kind of money I was making, and coworkers who had been with the company for twenty plus years. Where I was at that point seemed pretty stable, so I stayed planted for the next 5 years.
As I entered my fifth year, the climate began to change, and not just at work. After 6 years of being single I met a guy fell madly in love and had my first child all while the company I had grown to love fell apart. Long beautiful story short the company closed, I and several of my close friends lost our jobs, and I have been a stay at home mom ever since.
Why Didn't You Get Another Job?
The decision to become a stay at home mom was not as simple as it sounds. Shortly after being laid off from my job I got married and had my second child. Two kids under 2 was my new normal! To add to that our new baby was born with a skin condition that required several doctor visits per month and made him very uncomfortable. He cried almost non stop for the first three months, which made it nearly impossible for me to work outside our home. After two failed attempts at getting another job my husband and I decided that it would be best if I just stayed home with the kids until they were able to start school.
Staying home was no walk in the park. It was a huge sacrifice. I am fiercely independent so not having my own full time income was very uncomfortable! My husband made sure all of our basic needs were met, but I was in no way a pampered housewife. We had real bills and occasionally we couldn't cover them all, and I had to figure things out.
While my kids were napping I cooked I cleaned balanced the household budget, scheduled appointments. When I was done with that I started an online resale store where I sold my kids clothes and baby items as they grew out of them. I made bracelets and sold them in apps like offer up and five mile. I started two blogs and used affiliate marketing and created 2 online courses to monetize them. I also wrote 3 books, used YouTube videos and Pinterest to teach myself to build my own website, learned social media marketing and Instagram for business the same way.
I used my Jane Of All Trades skills to make ends meet for 7 whole years. I worked harder in this time than I ever did working outside my home.
Flash Forward To Now
Both of our kids are in school, and I am officially off full time mommy duty! I can now go back to work, or school and write freely!! I am more excited than I've been in a while.
Here's My NEW Plan
1. I'm going to really start taking my blogs seriously. I heard recently that a blogger I have been following for the past three years is now making about thirty thousand dollars per month with her blog. We started around the same time and she now has over one hundred thousand followers and the life of her dreams. The only difference between the two of us is that she took her blog seriously and I did not. So now I will! I plan to post more consistently, and create posts and products that entertain and empower my readers.
Mommy blogs got me through some really tough moments as a new parent and wife. I would like to do the same for others.
Take a quick peek at what I've done so far... PhilenaAtHome.com
2. Next I'm going to make my journal company PhilMo- Bujo a real thing. Over this past holiday break my daughter and I made 2020 bullet journals to help us set some goals for the new year and to track our progress. They turned out really nice, and my daughter suggested I
"make more and sell them on the blog so we can be rich!"
Her words but definitely my thoughts!
I spent the whole month of January designing my first line of printable journals!!! I have a Self Love journal with daily self love prompts, a Self Care Journal with daily questions /writing prompts, and a Self Care Bullet Journal with mood trackers and other fun activities and trackers.
PhilMo Bujo's are creative journal experiences! They aren't your typical blank page journals!
Take a look your yourself...
Get Yours here!
I'm in the process of making a family life handbooks with a meal planners and budget templates like the ones I use at home in my real life, and a few other fun journals. I'm so excited to see if people love them as much as I do! Take a look at some of the designs I've come up with and let me know what you think.
PhilMo-Bujo will be the thing to take my family to the next level. This time next year we'll be like LOL.... and all of the little girls and their moms will have our journals... (don't mind me I'm just manifesting abundance for my little family!!)
3. When I originally wrote this piece this section was allotted for me to Get a Job. I have found after putting in over 90 applications that no one in my area is looking to hire a woman who has been out of the workforce for 7 years with no college degree. I thought for sure times had changed, and employers, especially at places that people don't necessarily want to work, would be a bit more open, but I'm a dreamer!
I was taught at a very young age if you can't find a job... make one. I was looking for a steady paycheck to take some of the pressure off of myself and my husband but I was reminded that diamonds are formed under pressure. It's go time.
PhilMo Bujo and Phil's Real Life open for business!
All of these new things have me excited to see what my future holds. Follow me on my new journey @PhilenaAtHome on Instagram
Cheers to a fresh start at 38!
Philena M.
Comments
Post a Comment