#AskAwayFriday with Kelly Ninyette from Mum-bo-jumbo

What is #AskAwayFriday?

#AskAwayFriday was created by the amazing Penny from Real Housewife of Caroline County, as a way to connect with other bloggers with a great Q & A session of 10 questions and 10 answers, between two bloggers!

This is a wonderful opportunity to get to know others while allowing others to get to know you and of course there is also the added bonus of making great friends along the way. Participating in #AskAwayFriday each week is also a great way to build your blogging community.

Drop by and welcome our fabulous #AAF hosts:

Tamara from Tamara Like Camera,
Tiffany from Mrs. Tee Love Life Laughter,
Christy from Uplifting Families,
Stacey from This Momma’s Ramblings
and Echo from Domain of the Mad Mommy

This week my buddy is Kelly Ninyette from Mum-bo-jumbo.com. This is my first international swap! Kelly is from Australia and has a passion for writing, reading, eating and drinking. She is married, has a 16 year old step daughter and an almost two year old son. Along with her blog at mum-bo-jum-bo.com, she works from home as a freelance writer and has contributed many articles to the popular Australian website “Stay at Home Mum”. Visit her at mum-bo-jum-bo.com to read her answers to my questions! Below are the questions Kelly asked me.

Kelly Ninyette courtesy of mum-bo-jum-bo.com

International Women’s Day

1. What are the main issues you feel women of today face?

Personally, I feel that women are under appreciated. Especially stay at home moms. In the United States it is very difficult for a family to live comfortably on one income. However, with jobs being scarce more and more women (like myself) are choosing to stay home to raise their kids instead of getting a job. The cost of living is rising out here and after Obama Care passed health care is sky rocketing. This is making it even more difficult for one income families to afford to meet basic needs. For women in America the economy is a big issue. I don’t have a choice but to stay home with my children. My husband works 80 hours a week and travels from Tuesday through Thursday. My children have to get to school by 8:30 am and get picked up by 3:30. I also have a preschooler who stays home with me. Here in Chicago a lot of people are out of work and the job market is very competitive. An employer would probably choose a candidate with a more flexible schedule over someone like myself whose time is limited. I wish being a stay at home mom came with a paycheck, but it doesn’t. The taxes out here are rising and the current administration’s policies are not very friendly to middle class traditional families like mine.

2. Who is the main female influence in your life now?

My mother. Do I need to expand on this? She is loving, caring, compassionate, has a deep faith and love for the Lord Jesus, and the best role model I could ever ask for.

3. Who provided you with the inspiration to start blogging?

Nobody really. I started blogging in 2007 when the economy over here starting getting bad. I was out of work, we had started our family and were about to lose our home. (It foreclosed in 2008.) I did some research online on ways to earn extra money with the Internet. Blogging was still fairly new but I read several articles that said that bloggers can make a decent income. So I thought long and hard about what I would be interested in blogging about. All the experts said that you need to have a niche for your blog. The health and wellness industry out in the United States looked pretty promising then and knowing my husband’s experience with his health, I thought I should start a website about health and fitness for moms. The Healthy Moms (now the Healthy Moms Magazine) was launched in September of 2007.

Where you live

4. How long have lived in Chicago?

We moved here from Spokane, Washington on August 8, 2014.

5. What do you love about Chicago?

It’s home. I was born and raised in a small town just outside of Madison, Wisconsin, which is only an hour and a half north of here. We moved from Wisconsin to California in 2008 and then from California to Washington State in 2010. During those six years I was very home sick and depressed. Now I live closer to home and I’m a lot happier. I get to see my family more often and my kids can get to know their grandparents better.

6. Where is the first place you would take an international visitor?

This is a great question! Probably downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan. There is so much to see and do there.

About you

7. What is your key to balancing blogging and family?

God, and family comes before blogging. When I get up in the morning I make sure my kids are taken care of before I turn my computer on. They come first. I fit blogging in my free time. I do a little in the morning after the kids go to school, blog a bit when Little Bear is taking his nap in the afternoon, and if my husband is out of town then I blog a little after the kids are in bed. My family comes first. If my kids need my attention then the computer stays off. If my husband needs my attention, again my computer stays off. They come first before my business. I only work 2-3 hours a day Monday through Friday because my family keeps me busy. Every Saturday I go to the library to work on my book (I am writing my first book), and catch up on blogging tasks if I fell behind.

8. Have you visited Australia before?

Nope. I went to Mexico with my family when I was a kid and Niagara Falls (Canada) when I was in high school. But that is the furthest I’ve been from the United States.

9. What is something you’ve always wanted to do or experience but you haven’t had the opportunity to?

Attend a blogging conference. Money and time always got in the way of accomplishing this. Whenever I had the money I was either expecting a new baby during the conference or my husband was traveling for work so I couldn’t get away from the kids. Now we don’t have the money and my husband travels even more, so this is not going to happen anytime in the near future.

Blogging Favorites

10. Favorites

* Post you’ve written

The Truth About Popular Healthy Snacks for Kids (The Healthy Moms Magazine).

My Posts about our Arizona Vacation from last year (Talbert Zoo).

ARIZONA VACATION PART ONE

ARIZONA VACATION PART TWO

ARIZONA VACATION PART THREE

ARIZONA VACATION PART FOUR

ARIZONA VACATION PART FIVE

* Blog you read
I have too many favorites! Here are a few I like from my feed reader:

Feed Me Dearly
Tamara Like Camera
Planet of the Apels
Live By Surprise
Mail 4 Rosey
LizVentures
It’s Rhyme Time
Glimmer of Hope

* Time to write

It usually takes me an hour or two to write something in the Talbert Zoo unless it is a Wordless Wednesday post, those only take about 10 minutes to get up. I can whip up an original health, fitness or parenting post on The Healthy Moms Magazine in about 45 minutes. I spend most of my time writing in the morning after the kids are at school or on Saturdays at the library.

* Social media for your blogs

I’m everywhere!

Visit This Link to connect with the Healthy Moms Magazine on Social Media:

http://www.thehealthymoms.net/p/about.html

* Reader comment / feedback received

I don’t understand what you are asking here. Do you want my comment count or question that I have been asked via comments? I don’t have any favorite comments. I welcome comments and will respond to them as soon as I can and I also comment back. But, I am way behind in commenting this week! I am planning on getting caught up with my comments on Saturday when I am at the library. This week has been pretty crazy.