“Making a Difference through Music and Song”

“Someday I will live again”

“someday I will love again”

Words to the song “Someday” by May Ling. Not easy words for women who have dealt with domestic violence to follow. I have several friends who have dealt with abuse, some in their childhood, some as adults, some both. Their self-esteem takes a major hit, and trusting others after being abused by one you love is no small thing.

One friend told her ex’s family for years “He needs help” “He has anger issues” “Get him help!” Her pleas fell on deaf ears. His family couldn’t understand why the women in his live made up such horrible tales, and would bail him out of jail, spend much on attorney fees, etc. They refused to believe there was a problem. One day he kidnapped a woman he’d dated once or twice. She’d moved on with her life, married someone else. He had her by gunpoint, driving out of town. Police barricade stopped him. After negotiation with police by cell phone, he turned the gun on himself committing suicide.

Most cases don’t go to this extreme, although some do. It is very hard on the families. Even harder on the victims. Another friend has blank memories of much of her childhood. News of a rape on campus triggered memories of abuse she suffered from a step-brother. Her parents didn’t believe the things she was telling them. Abuse continued for some time and thus the blank memories.

Time heals. I watched one friend who at one point was lucky is she could get herself dressed and feed herself in a day. She is doing great things now. Sometimes she’ll have a relapse, depression sets in. But she is a survivor. “Someday she will love again.” It takes time.

Through song, May Ling and Songs with a Voice are helping others deal with domestic violence, find the help and resources needed.

“Music has the special ability to communicate issues that people normally do not want to discuss,” said singer/songwriter May Ling. “In the 70’s, many popular songs were about changing the world for the better. In the last three decades, popular musicians seem to be increasingly sticking to lighter topics. My hope is that ‘Someday’ will inspire social dialogue and positive change. ”

Thanks May Ling!

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Working from Home with Kids

My office is in my home. My youngest child is 12, during school days I have the place to myself.

I had a call yesterday, referred from a friend, someone with her own reasons why working from home just makes sense.

Today I’m honored to be a guest of Beverly Mahone’s BlogTalk Radio Show Passions. Join with us, listen in, ask questions today, November 17 at 12 eastern.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/passions

If you miss the live show, you can come back and listen to the recorded show, at the above link.

Thanks ya’ll. 🙂

Connecting through Radio Shows

So many ways to get the word out, have others know you. Technology has brought us live radio shows, live internet shows, recorded shows, teleconferences, podcasts, webinars, etc.

Each of us have only 24 hours in a day and if she can share our message to many at once, it is a good thing. Better yet, have it recorded and listen whenever and as often as you wish.

Radio Shows
One Oct 23 I was honored to be a guest on Pat Mongomery’s Parents Rule radio show. Pat does a great job and I much appreciate it. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but after talking to Pat ahead of time I knew it would be fun, as each of us shared our experiences and spoke from the heart.

Parent’s Rule is part of SandySprings Radio. I love how they have a live radio broadcast, same time as live internet broadcast, and recorded as a downloadable audio file. So people is Georgia heard me on Pat’s show, my daughter listened live from Utah, and I’ve passed on the recording to those who weren’t able to make the show.

You will find some great information there about working from home. Here it is:

http://www.radiosandysprings.com/podcasts/ParentsRuleOct23.2008.mp3

Webinars
These are cool, You can share a powerpoint presentation or anything else on your computer screen with attendees around the world. Great when you need to show how to do something. If you’d like to watch a live webinar in action, I can invite you to one that uses GoToMeeting’s webinar system. You will learn how to use my favorite greeting card system with a live demonstration, and how to make money with it. Send an email at Heidi @ connectsimply.com (without the spaces) or send me a dm on twitter, you can find me http://twitter.com/Heidi_Caswell and I’ll send you and invite.

Teleconferences
As simple as picking up the phone. With the unlimited long distance plans many have, and the free conference call centers, this is easy to do. Most companies allow you to record your session for future reference.
Friday November 7, 11 Eastern, I will be doing a call with Heidi Richards, the founder of WECAI. We’ll be discussing the importance of effectively staying in touch with your clients without spending a lot of money. We’ll talk about a variety of stay in touch mechanisms such as email, telephone and greeting/postcard and other direct marketing ideas. You will learn new strategies for following up with leads that can save you time and money and create loyal customers and clients for life. To attend, contact Heidi Richards: heidi at successandthensome.com


Internet Radio

Back to back shows, after doing the teleconference call with my dear friend Heidi Richards Friday, I will be on Sally Witt’s (another sweet friend) Blog Talk Radio show on Saturday, November 8. around 2:30 Eastern. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drsallywitt/2008/11/08/tbd

So many tools to connect with many people at the same time. Of course there is always television. Pricey to sponsor your own show, but if you can get the news talking about you and your business, it is a good thing.

Do You Work from Home?

Radio Show
Photo by aloshbennett

  • Do you work from home?
  • Have you ever considered working from home?
  • Got kids?
  • Balancing work and family?
  • Need ideas for a home business?

I’m honored to be a guest on Parents Rule Radio Talk Show with host Pat Montgomery this Thursday 2-3 pm EST on Radio Sandy Springs 1620 AM in Sandy Springs, GA. e for your own business. Things to consider when choosing whether to work from home or not. Join us as we discuss the good and bad of parents working from home. Pick up tips, ideas to help your home business.

See ya’ll there!

Hello Ike

Galveston Sea Wall
Galveston Sea Wall

Quite windy, rain off and on, son, his wife and my grandson visiting, enjoying their company. via Twitter – 3:37pm

Stepping outside, enjoying the wind via Twitter – 4:32pm

Saying hello to ike wondering how far the trees can bend before they snap. . . via Twitter – 6:39pm

Crack, There went a tree across the street, missed the houses and cars thankfully #ike texarkana. via Twitter – 7:06pm

Getting dark outside quickly. via Twitter – 7:23pm

And then I lost my internet, silence for over 2 hours, apology to friends who were worried, hoping I’d only lost power. (Actually it was both our universal backup battery and router on the blink). Another crack and more broken trees.

Ike packed quite a punch, seemed to go on and on. Considering the size of the thing, I guess it would take a while to move on through the area. And I don’t doubt it strengthened heading on into Arkansas because the last little bit was a whammy. You’d think it’d be weakening on the tail end, but not so.

My son, his wife and their little boy were visiting, made a wise decision to to travel back to Dallas that evening. Ike took up the whole interstate between here and there.

Friday, Texarkana went crazy, Walmart parking lot looked like Christmas season. Everyone inside stocking up. Long lines at the gas station and prices had jumped. Some stations were empty. Soon they all were empty. One of my friends was stranded in Hope, Arkansas, she couldn’t get gas there either.

Now I love storms, just not the damage they cause. I love the way it feels when a storm comes in. You can smell the rain, the wind blowing in your face, everything feels so alive, the clouds, the lightshow in the sky. Don’t mind a few sprinkles. But times like this I’m very happy that I don’t live on the coast (although I wouldn’t mind it rest of the time.)

I called friends in close by, to check on how they were doing. Many were without power, but had their cell phones turned on or their old corded phones plugged in. Inside the kids played games while my grandson slept through the first half of Ike. But Ike went on and on, naps don’t last forever.

Envied Angela her blackberry she was twittering from, checking her home from her cell. Yes, if I’d have set up text messages and twitter on my phone, I could have continued to give updates even if my power and internet went down. Learned that if you checked #ike on twitter’s search engine, you’d get constant storm updates http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ike

We made it through, so nice to see sunshine the next morning. Fences down all over the neighborhood. Chain saws cleaning up the felled trees and branches. We had a pickup load of downed branches from Gustav to which we added Ike’s. When it dries up we’ll take them all over to the recycling center to get chopped up into compost.

Thankful that things were not worse, and as much as I was tempted, I did not run around the block during the storm, dodging falling tree branches, but stayed close to the porch or safely inside.

Feel free to add your storm story to the comments or add the link to yours.

Great to Be Eight 08 08 08

Celebrating Rain
Celebrating Rain

August 8, 2008 Also known as 08/08/08.

This Great to be Eight Day is a busy one for me. Packing, making sure bills paid in advance, instructions written down for son who is house sitting, making sure our church’s children organization is covered in my absence, food for the house, food packed for road trip, several phone calls to make, endless little things which not all will get done.

But it is a great day. I’m heading out to attend SendOutCards convention in Salt Lake City. My oldest daughter lives out that way with her family, my parents, 2 brothers, 2 sisters and their families. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law families along the way. First traveling to my son’s place and they will head out with us the next morning. Start of a great trip visiting family, friends along the way.

Another great thing about today is rain! Real rain! My trees were melting and my grass goes crunch, tired of needing oven gloves to drive my car.

Next couple weeks, you won’t be seeing me online much. Now I’ve not kicked the bucket, been held hostage by aliens, or sucked into a black hole. I’m enjoying time visiting family, and attending the Send Out Cards convention.

Meanwhile, feel free to comment, browse around, send a greeting card, and download Laura Wheeler’s Essential Strategies for Earning with Affiliate Links book.

Updating Blog

You will see a few strange things going on over here, sidebar not quite as pretty as I like while working on a new theme for my site.

Keeping in mind I’m and airhead and accidently posted to a page, when I meant to post to a post. Wanting the rss feed, I’m moving my tribute to Randy Pausch back to a post if I can keep the url intact.

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day Commitments

Earth Day! We should show respect for our planet every day, not just on Earth Day. But, this is a good time to consider our planet and the footprint we leave behind. Each small act makes a difference, we can each do something. Ways you can honor our planet:

  • Educate yourself. Sometimes what seems a simple solution, is not so simple. We have to look at the full impact of the steps we take.
    • WE Magazine for Women has a special issue out you don’t want to miss, and you’ll find plenty of green articles there.
    • Care2’s Healthy and Green Living Blog is full of tips and information of things you can do. And on their website I see over 40 videos with tips,, how to conserve water, and other helpful bits of information
    • Google, search blogs, read a book for more information. Keep in mind that some businesses, seeking to profit from our increased interest in healthy living, have provided us with much stuff we can buy, some are good and others not misleading.
  • Discuss with others, learn from each other. Each of us in unique, with our own view points, experiences. Share and brainstorm things we can do to help the environment.
  • Make commitments yourself. I posted my commitments on this Earth Day Card. You can see them above. Visit and post your own message to the Earth.
  • Teach others to have a respect for the Earth. My kids and I were discussing other ways to fuel a car. Yes, plant oils can be used to fuel a car, but if it takes more energy to produce that fuel, than what you get in return, it isn’t worth it.
  • Use recycled items wherever possible. I did find recycled trash bags the other day. I love that SendOutCards uses recycled paper for their cool greeting cards. I love that our local area has a composting center where I can drop off tree trimmings and pick up aged compost.

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