The thing about elevators

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I am not claustrophobic… Well, maybe a little. I love my personal space. Even sometimes with my kids I am like, back up child. I need a little space right now. I do love cuddling too but sometimes you just need space… In saying that, I dread getting into elevators with people.

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I would rather walk 20 flights up (both ways in the snow barefoot), then get in a elevator with strangers. Even if I sort of know you, making small talk while being in an enclosed space gives me anxiety. At work every day, I take the four flights up and the four flights down. The only time I take an elevator is if I am with my family or if I really don’t have any other option. I just don’t like being stuck in a box with random people. It’s not like I can’t go in a elevator, it’s just uncomfortable for me and I would rather not put myself in that position…

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What about you? Is there anything you try to avoid as much as possible?

Using a cleaning service

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Would you use a cleaning service?
I had a cleaning service till last November. Every other week someone would come in to my house. Change the bed sheets, scrub my kitchen, bathrooms and floors and just tidy up. I loved coming home to a scrubbed clean house every other week. Then my husband got a new job and we thought we were making around the same but the insurance was a little more expensive and we have a deductible now. Plus, we had our floors redone last year. We switched them from carpet to wood and that was a little pricey. Sometime around November I was crunching our budget numbers and realized we were breaking even or in the hole every month. I had to look for things that we could cut so we could maybe save some money every month. That’s when I decided that it was time for me to start the deep cleaning again.
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I don’t mind cleaning. I clean all the time throughout the week. I do all the laundry. I just thought it was nice to have someone come in and do a deep clean every other week. It frees up Saturday mornings for me. I never would have thought of this except when we moved into our house I was exhausted and my brother and sister in law suggested we hire someone to help me clean the apartment we moved out of. I said, that’s silly, it’s way to expensive. I was exhausted though so I figured why not get a couple quotes? I googled it and found a wonderful husband and wife who made the apartment look better than when we moved in for $80.00. Best $80.00 I ever spent.  That lead me to wonder how much they would charge to clean the new house? They said $100.00. Sold.
Every other week they came in and cleaned our house. After a year they said since we were such good customers they would take $10.00 off every clean. So it was $90.00 every other week to walk in to a freshly clean house. Totally worth it in my opinion.
After a year and a half or so they started using our house as a training house. They were constantly bringing in new people to train them how to clean. Some weeks our house would look great and some weeks our house was lacking. I would tell them when this happen and they would usually take money off the next cleaning. Because they were constantly bringing in new people our dog would bark at them. He would just sit there and bark. He wouldn’t go up to them. He’s a 12 year old pit bull, he’s not moving anywhere fast. But I do understand how it could be scary having a dog that big barking at you. I told the cleaning company it would be better if they gave us the same people. They said that they didn’t know if they had time for us anymore because their business was starting to pick up. So we parted ways.
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**** not my dog, looks like Nacho though****
I went out and interviewed a few new people and we settled on a woman who said she was good with dogs but she charged $120 every other week. Which was more expensive but if it was her every time and the dogs and everyone were happy, I could make it work.  Then I noticed some things just weren’t being cleaned so I would ask her to  focus on the cabinets or just clean around the vents and I would notice it wouldn’t be done when I got home. After we had the floors done I asked her is she could just wipe the walls if she saw finger prints and she was like “with a mop?” Um, no. I would do it myself I said. Anyway, we ended up having to redo our budget and I figured I could just do the deep cleaning myself again every other week and save us $240 a month. I honestly thought after the new year we would call and have the cleaning service return but I found out that I actually enjoy cleaning. I get to focus on what I want done and do it the way I want. And I love the way it feels in my house once it’s totally done.
In the future I think I would like to find someone again if we start to make more income just because it really is nice to just have it all done. I think I would come up with more of a schedule though of what is expected every time because then we would all be on the same page.
What are your thoughts? Have you used a cleaning service?

Facebook ads and me

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I got a $15.00 credit on Facebook to run an ad for promotion. I figured, why not?  I am running it for 10 days and it’s free, it’s free promotion, right? So I started it yesterday, yesterday morning actually and it’s been approved. I picked to run it to a target audience of ages 18-65 with interests in motherhood, amazon kindle and parenting. I am running it for my newest book “Having Children and some things they don’t tell you.”  It’s a short book on some of the things I learned after I had kids. My expectations verse the realities that I encountered. This is the link if you all are interested and would like to help me out. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NKB848R
Having Children... and some things they don't tell you by [Acosta, J]
 We shall see if this can generate any income for me, or visibility. That’s what I need more of. I also am super active on twitter this weekend. I got a lot of new views and new followers. I am up to 150 now! That’s insane because my goal for February was 100.  Maybe I can hit 1000 by the end of the year. I talk about numbers and stuff but the truth is  I actually really love blogging and writing. It makes me happy and the fact that anyone is reading me is just super encouraging.  According to the promotions manager in Facebook the ad has reached 33 people and 7 people engaged with the post. It’s cost $1.33 and I haven’t sold a thing yet. Haha.
Anyone use Facebook ads before? Have you had any success with it? What has been your experience?
Also, if you are interested these are the links to the books I have written. They are all short and I would really appreciate it if anyone would read them and shoot me some feedback or leave a review on Amazon.
This was a tough book for me to write. It’s a lot of the traumas I went through and the things that forced me to grow up a little.
Growing by [Acosta, J.]
Kissing all the frogs: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L1HPVX5
A short book on all the stupid relationships I had that eventually lead me to my husband.
Kissing All The Frogs by [Acosta, J.]
Working my way through life: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K72DRZD
A short book on all the jobs I have had throughout my life and things that each job taught me.
Working my way through life by [Acosta, J.]

Social Media and My Blog

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February Goals have been Smashed!
Good Morning Everyone! I hit my February goal with a week left to go! I am so excited and happy. I love blogging and just putting my stuff out there and meeting new people. I love reading other blogs and supporting fellow bloggers as well.
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I started this blog to make myself write again. I write whatever is on my mind, or what I am going through with the kids or friends, or just me.  I post about things that I  love or things I want to do. I want to try to give my dream of being a writer a real shot. I wrote a couple books, they’re on Amazon. I am trying to find an audience that would actually care to read them. I choose self publishing because I have 2 kids and I was sending out inquiries and they all said we will get back to you in 4-6 months or not at all cause they are busy. Suddenly, a year would go by and I wouldn’t have heard anything and I would be right back at the beginning.
Also,I challenged myself to really put the work in this year and try to get this blog going.  I plan on posting one blog every day that I work and maybe more. Like today, I took off because my husband is home now so we took the day off to run errands and hang out. And here I am, writing for my blog because I love it.
Seriously, I love you guys. You are so encouraging and I truly appreciate it.
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So far I am trying to grow a following. I am using Twitter and the writing and blogging communities have been really amazing in helping me grow my followers. I am up to 2,693 followers right now and every time I post a blog it automatically posts to twitter. I figured out how to had add the hashtag in January and that has really helped in me getting traffic to my blog. Also, there are groups that you can follow and they retweet if you # them. Throughout the day there are follow trains that you can leave your latest blog. They have a Follow Friday where everyone posts people they like and you can follow new people easily and usually they follow back. Seriously, in January my goal was to get to 100 so if you are active on there, it’s pretty easy to grow a following. I also don’t always post only my blog, I post things here or there that I think and I interact with the people I follow by commenting and liking their posts. It does take time but it’s worth it. I’m @sambel08 if you would like to follow me. I will follow back!
I signed up for Facebook and joined a bunch of indie author groups and blogging groups. I friend requested a ton of people in those groups and I have like 600 friends. I created an business page and invited everyone to like it. All my blogs automatically post to that page. Sometimes I post them to my personal page. I get some traffic from Facebook. I haven’t really had time to sit and explore it yet, maybe this weekend I will get a chance.
My page there is: https://goo.gl/eZGsA9
I signed up for Instagram. I have no idea how this works. I have 79 followers right now. Yesterday I had 83 so I have no idea what I am doing. I barely post on there because I haven’t had a chance to really look into it. That might be another weekend. I feel like it’s a lot like twitter in that there are people that follow you so that you follow back and then they un follow you so their numbers go up. I might have to do a purge on who I follow this weekend. My name there is Sambel203. If you follow, I will follow back.
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I signed up for Pintrest. I just learned how to pin my blogs to my boards and I am trying to learn how to grow my followers on that and then how to pin on other people’s boards. This is one place I think will help give me significantly more traffic to my blog, I hope! So we’ll see.
This is me on pintrest: https://pin.it/dcruu2cpbnruoj  I will follow back here too!
My blog has grown so much in the last 2 months. I went from 1 follower to 126! That was my goal for 2019! Now my goal is 750 and I really think I can achieve this.
With my blog I have paid for the premium membership so I can try to monetize it. In 2 months I have made 13 cents. I don’t know if it’s worth upgrading to the next tier yet cause I am still just putting in the groundwork. It is a lot of ground work. I do really enjoy it though and I am really happy to meet so many cool new people from all over the world.
This year I hope to just keep growing and hopefully sell a few books along the way. I am going to keep writing everyday and I really looking forward to meeting new people and making new friends.
What’s your favorite social media to use to promote your blog? How do you use it?
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Happy weekend everyone!

Excerpt from Growing

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I was thinking about taking this book down today. I am not sure still. The first chapter is pretty rough and I should probably listen to the one non friend review I had and consider taking it out of the book. Anyway, here’s a portion of Chapter 8.

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Chapter 8 dad, dreams and motivation…

 

My father was a good man. He had his things just like everyone else, but he took care of his family. When we were little my parents bought some property in Cooperstown, NY. This was were we spent many vacations. A lot of my friends went to like islands and warm places with clear oceans and sand. We went camping in Cooperstown, NY and pooped in the woods. It didn’t bother me to much. We always had fun. Unless my dad was showing us the local school and asking us what we thought about our new schools, that wasn’t a fun part.
Usually we had camp fires and cooked and played cards, and read books. I remember my brother John (the one I like) making shadow puppets at night and we would all crack up. There was a barn and my parents rented it out to a man who always kept his rescued animals in there. There were always random animals there. Horses, pigs, goats, cows, a German Shepard that bit my hand once cause I tried to move his food bowl. . Sometimes there would be kittens and we would chase them around. We always went for a long weekend and that was always enough.
My dad’s dream though was to build up that farm and turn it into a working farm. When he retired and sold the house in Greenwich him and my mom built a house up there. Right where we used to camp. They lived there for 15  years  and my dad had lots of cows, pigs and his dogs.
Growing by [Acosta, J.]

Let’s be honest

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I’m not sure if I have a drinking problem. Recently I have been reading a lot on drinking and what’s considered okay. I don’t usually drink at all Monday thru Thursday. Come Friday I get wine and I indulge. A box of wine lasts me the weekend. Sometimes I drink bourbon on the rocks. I get all my stuff done during the day and then change into my pj’s at night and drink some and watch some movies or read a book. Growing up my parents drank a lot. My dad could crush a 18 pack everyday but he was working and drinking and functioning. My mom sometimes gets a little loopy… as do I, sometimes. I have a job. I get my chores done. I function. I don’t need to drink, it’s just something that I do when I get to relax on the weekends.
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Last year, I was like I am not going to drink for a while. And I didn’t. When my dad died in July from a farm accident, I started drinking every day for a while to help me sleep even though nothing really helped me sleep. From July till October I was drinking basically daily. In October, I woke up and I thought I was dying. I felt the worst pain right under my ribs. I went to the doctor like I think I broke my liver. She said it was acid reflux and heartburn. I never had that before. I quit drinking for a month for the most part and then holiday’s. Now I have fallen back into the habit of drinking on the weekends. My younger sister said that she only remembers my parents drinking all the time. That’s part of why she doesn’t drink at all. I don’t have those memories. I have good memories when they weren’t drinking at all and then some good memories of having a few beers with my parents. The thing is I don’t know if it’s really effecting my kids, or if they even notice. I mean they see me drink but I’m not drunk.  I guess I am just not sure what is a problem and what’s not. What’s the tipping point? What is not okay?
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I have been seeing a lot about liver transplants and how it’s more common and related to drinking now. I have a friend who I saw a few months ago. She said her mom died from drinking and she never even knew her mom drank that much. I watch my kids go to sleep and I think, am I messing up and they will have to bury me one day because of these choices? Then of course I googled it and now every ad I see is about drinking and liver damage.
Anyway, I think I am going to lay off the weekend drinking for a while. It’s just that I really enjoy it sometimes. No one has said that I drink to much, I have just been thinking about it lately. So what are you’re thoughts? Do you drink? If so how much and how often?

Bath note

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My husband is away for the first time ever. 6 days. 5 nights. 3000 miles away. My daughter is not taking it well…Actually, none of us are. My husband and I have our chores divided. We balance each other. It’s really hard to not have my husband here to help. I think I am over compensating right now. I am like doing everything immediately. I have way more patience than I normally do. You want a snack, you got it! You want this thing that I know you can do for yourself, sure thing! There is almost a load of laundry, I must do it right now and fold it and immediately put it away. Like things that I normally would leave till later have more of a urgency because I know if I leave it till later, it’ll still be there.  It will just add to the list of things that need to be done for the house to run as always. I’ve also been walking the dogs. Something that was husbands chore always. I wonder what my neighbors are thinking. Do they think he left me? We had a huge argument last weekend. I am sure it was heard outside if someone was there. Then I laugh at myself. I am such a drama queen.
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On the other hand I found myself coming down on the girl today a little bit and my husband would have checked me at that point, or tagged me out so I could calm down… But without him I just kept pressing until she finally was like “I am trying to just calm down mommy!” and then I had to check myself. And all this was over me changing the plans cause we had seen a movie and went out to lunch and I was like maybe we should do ice cream tomorrow when we all actually want it. She was upset because we deviated from the plan. And my son was happy cause he just wanted to get home to his video games. But on top of it she’s 7 and dealing with her father being away for the first time ever… So I really should have backed off. I just was tired and thought like I had taken them out all day already to a trampoline park, and a movie, and then lunch, why is she giving me a hard time about ice cream?? … But I am the adult and I should have stepped back. I apologized to her and we talked about it later. I put them to bed and took a long hot bath and relaxed. 3 1/2 more days…
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I was talking to a friend today and I was telling her how weird I felt with my husband being away and she said it’s weird for her when her husband is home. He works so much that they are use to him just not being there. And I thought, wow. Everyone’s family functions so differently. How does yours function?

Jewelry and me

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I am not big on Jewelry. I have always liked small pieces and vintage or antique styles. I use to look at Erica Weiner all the time. Some of her pieces are really pretty. It’s worth taking a look!  https://ericaweiner.com/  My sister in law brought me to a place in the city called Cat Bird and I recommend taking a look at their pieces too. They are really pretty. I currently have my eye on this ID bracelet: https://www.catbirdnyc.com/short-id-bracelet.html
Short ID Bracelet image
For my jewelry I keep it light. I have a necklace. It says mama. It was my gift on mothers day after I had my second child. I have an engagement ring and a wedding band. We put 10 diamonds in my band when we hit our 10 year wedding anniversary. I have two earring holes in each ear.  In one ear I have an Iolite stone for Isabel (my daughter) and the other ear has a Sapphire stone for Samuel (my son). Then a small diamond in the other hole.
Acrostic Alphabet Studs
I have a ID bracelet that reads SIRJ. Sam, Isabel, Ray (husband) and Jess (me). Also, that’s the name of our company that we are working on building! I have an anklet that I just like, it’s just really thin and I love it. That is my jewelry. What does yours mean?

Jamaican cooking and Me

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I have a friend I worked with for over 10 years when I worked at a Pizza Hut. They ended up closing our location because the 20 year lease was up and they wanted to triple the rent or something and it made no sense to keep us open because we were a restaurant that wasn’t in the red, but made little to no money. Everyone was there for so long that we were all at the top of the pay rates for our positions so we would often work a skeleton crew so we could stay in budget for the employee costs.  I learned a lot from this place and from the people I met there. I will forever miss it.
I developed some pretty great relationships while working there and one was with a Jamaican woman named Odette. Her nickname is Vivi and that’s actually where my daughters middle name came from. When I had my son I was out of work and Odette had just opened her very own Jamaican place about 40 minutes away from where I lived. Right past the palisades mall in New York. https://www.yelp.com/biz/tropical-delicacy-spring-valley  I highly recommend this place if you are in the area. The food is amazing! The people are amazing! Just go and eat!
Photo of Tropical Delicacy - Spring Valley, NY, United States. A classic oxtail and beer
 I use to bring my son with me and we would hang out all morning while she cooked. I would feed my son, put him down to nap and dive right in to whatever she needed. Wash dishes? Sure! Cut cabbage? Absolutely. She taught me a lot about how to cook Jamaican. When my son was 10 months old I ended up getting a job as an office manager so our time was cut down.
Then life happen and we just weren’t able to make it over there for a while. I needed Jamaican food though and even though I had helped in the kitchen I didn’t actually write down any recipes. Then I found this website https://cooklikeajamaican.com/new-recipe-brown-stew-chicken/. I have found lots of delicious recipes on this website and I really recommend trying a couple!
Now, since it’s the weekend, I think I need to make a trip to visit and old friend.
Photo of Tropical Delicacy - Spring Valley, NY, United States. Steamed fish wow!!!!

Valentines Day

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Happy Valentines Day! I hope you have a very nice day!
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What do you usually do to celebrate? Honestly, Valentines day was never a real big holiday to me. I mean, I love spending time with my family all the time. My husband and I go on lunch dates a lot now that we work in the same town. I never really looked forward to this one day to be super romantic or anything.  I tell everyone I love them all the time. I did pick up a couple cards though from Trader Joe’s. They have the best cards and they are only 99 cents! I ran over to CVS next door to my job and got a few cutesy things for the kids. I don’t like giving a lot of candy. I guess my mom never made a big deal about it so it just doesn’t seem like an actual big Holiday to me.
How do you and your family celebrate? Do you love valentines day? Do you have big plans?