msn - Stuff Parents Need

How many times in a typical day would you say that you turn to the internet to get the answer to a question you have? I actually wrote down every query I had in a single day. It was A LOT, and yet, I’d say this was a very normal day in terms of the number of times I sought information online! Want to hear what I was asking the world wide web to help me figure out?

freezer breakfast ideas
enzo’s chattanooga store hours
can you grill beet greens?
grilling tips for chicken
natural toddler allergy remedies
how much zyrtec to give a 12 month old?
Can you use All Free & Clear on cloth diapers?
gymboree coupon code
Setting up Google AdSense with DFP

So this tells you that yesterday, in addition to just hanging out with my family, I was doing a lot of cooking, a bit of worrying about my sick baby, some cloth diaper laundry, a little shopping and finally, some work on Stuff Parents Need advertising.

Now, the world would not have ended if I had not been able to get answers to my questions, but the fact that I was able to find out exactly what I needed within just a few short minutes every time I approached a search engine made it so that I accomplished much more than I probably otherwise would have! I learned how to earn more money thanks to my DFP search, I SAVED some money thanks to that coupon query, I cooked some YUMMY food for my family, and I found some tips to try to get my Layah Bug feeling better faster.

I often wonder what people did before the internet came to be. Of course I know, as I was already 13 years old when dial up service and AOL chat rooms made their debut. People certainly made do by calling family and friends, guessing the answer, or just putting the question on the back burner until they had time to do more research. But I have to say, it sure is nice to know now!

In honor of the new, lightning fast MSN, which is the perfect tool for helping you get the answers you are seeking when you need to know now, we’ve got a fun giveaway today!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win a $25 gift card to the Microsoft Store thanks to #MSNKnowNow.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my page.

This post was created in partnership with MSN. Find out more about the all new MSN experience at allnew.msn.com or see it in action on Windows 8, Android, or on iOS at msn.com

Most People Change Careers At Some Point

I remember being told in college that statistically speaking, I would probably change career paths at least once in my life, if not more. I thought that was a ludicrous idea. After all, I was committing 4 years of rigorous study to my degree, and then I went on to 2 years of graduate school, at Harvard of all places, so I was pretty darn committed to what I was doing.

If you would have told me the day I earned my master’s degree in theological studies that 9 years later I would be working from home as a blogger and brand ambassador, as well as staying at home with my 2 little girls, I would have been very confused, indeed.

You see, back when I was 23 and knew EVERYTHING, I thought staying at home with kids was not at all for me. And I’ll admit that at that time in my life, I even thought it was a backwards thing to do. It is painful to acknowledge that, because I’m so embarrassed that I ever felt that way, but it is the honest truth.

Re-Imagining My Career Path

MSN, in honor of their new site redesign, has asked me to talk about a time when I’ve re-imagined part of my own life. The timing for this post is perfect, as I’m smack-dab in the middle of such a personal and professional re-design. For a few years I have been “doing the blogging thing” to provide a little bit of supplemental income and to provide fun things to my family that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford on one salary. Until fairly recently, I didn’t even allow myself to imagine that blogging could become something more than a daily writing exercise and a source of community for me that could help us get by, financially, until I could return to the full-time work force. After all, this has absolutely NOTHING to do with what I earned my degrees in, and surely I want to keep working in a related field, right?

Receiving my diploma from Harvard, or if you look at it another way, receiving some REALLY expensive framed art.

But if I’m being honest with myself, I’m having a whole lot of fun learning entirely new things like social media, marketing, branding and the world of freelance work. It was recently time for me to return from maternity leave and go back to teaching world religions at University of Phoenix. I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it. Tim even actually said to me, “I want you to think REALLY hard before you go back to that job. You work REALLY hard for U of P for not very much pay, and honestly, you don’t seem to enjoy it at all.” He was absolutely right. But I was too afraid to admit it. I mean, after you have spent $30,000 on an advanced degree, you’d better put it to near-constant use, right? If I knew then, what I know now, I likely wouldn’t have pursued the degree at all. But that’s water under the bridge, as they say, and I can either let my decision be an anchor onto which I tie myself and sink, or I can remember fondly what I learned, feel proud of what I accomplished, and then cut the emotional cord to it and free myself to pursue what interests me. I’ve done hard things before. I can do them again.

My Current Career Didn’t Really Exist 9 Years Ago

And I can’t beat myself up for not knowing then what I know now, either. While blogs existed back in 2004, I didn’t yet even know what they were. There was no way for me to know that I would one day be interested in professionally pursuing blogging. And 10 years from now, blogs as we now know them won’t even exist anymore, either. It will be something else. Will I be stubbornly holding on to my old-school blog at that point, or will I be willing to take a leap once again and try something new and different? I hope I will be brave, and willing to follow my bliss, rather than simply following the path that my younger self chose for me.

I’d love to hear from you: what do you know now that you wish you’d know a long time ago? Have you ever made a big career change?

This post was created in partnership with MSN. Find out more about the all new MSN experience at allnew.msn.com or see it in action on Windows 8, Android, or on iOS at msn.com