blogging

If Only My Resolutions Were This Simple

January 11, 2012 By Blonde Mom 13 Comments

My 6-year-old’s New Year’s resolution.

I rarely post New Year’s resolutions but it’s the perfect time to change my evil ways, right?

Last year I tried to focus on my personal fitness as well as time management at home and work (and in blogging) and most of my goals for this year fall under those two categories. I’ve been filling in for a co-worker on maternity leave for the past couple of months and because I also do social media for work I feel like I am constantly online. I love it BUT I know I fritter away time that could be better well spent. Hey, don’t we all?

Here are some things I’d like to work on in 2012 under a few categories with a few specific goals that, hopefully, won’t be too hard to attain:

Health (Physical & Mama’s Mental Health)

More playing, less posting. Get out with my girls and husband more on hikes, walk Jack the dog more, and just stay active. Discourage screen time for myself and the girls. Luckily they aren’t big gamers but my 9-year-old Miss C, especially, has gotten totally hooked on some of her new Wii and DS games she received for Christmas. Of course she also plays travel soccer so she’s very physically fit. But still, it’s all about balance.

Drink more water. This is pretty easy to attain since we have a filtered water machine at my office and I’m literally steps away from our kitchen. Basically I have no excuse to not get 8 glasses of water in my body every day.

Eat more whole foods. Starting this week I’m going to try green smoothies in the morning with hubby. I also want to try more vegetarian meals, especially this summer when we frequent the produce stand.

Temper, much? Work on my hot headedness and general mama bear grouchiness. Be more patient and less quick to blurt things out in frustration. I actually printed and taped this Bible verse from Psalm 19:14 in my planner last year, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” I love the Anne Voskamp quote Jennifer from Playgroups Are No Place For Children mentions in her New Year’s resolutions post: Life is not an emergency.

Date nights or, at the least, lunch dates. I know it would do my husband and I a world of good if we actually scheduled regular date nights but with his crazy workload, sometimes the last thing we want to do is actually go out at night so I’m hopeful we can get back to lunch dates. We used to do fairly frequent lunch dates but his schedule has been prohibiting that. Still, they’re easier to actually squeeze in the work week and it’s nice to just spend time together alone.

Time Management

Meal planning. It’s a plan. I suck at meal planning. There, I said it. I get off work at 2:30 Monday through Thursday and yet somehow manage to be a “dinner by the seat of my pants” kind of mom ALL THE DAMN TIME. For the entire month of January I have sworn off eating out for dinner for our family and this even includes ordering pizza. So far, so good. I find that we’re all a little less harried at the end of the work and school day if I’m not cranky and running to the grocery store at 5 p.m. or resorting to ordering a pizza, yet again.

Become a user…a crock pot user. On Wednesdays this spring Miss A has gymnastics and Miss C has indoor soccer. My goal is to use our slow cooker on Wednesdays in January and February.

Blogging. I’m limiting myself to 3 posts a week here as well as on my review blog. That’s still more than some bloggers, and less frequent than other. Oh, and quit comparing myself to other bloggers and what they’re doing.

Social media free Sundays. I’ve dabbled with this but I’ve never really stuck with it. I rarely blog on Sundays and I usually stay off Twitter but I am going all out hard core in 2012. No Facebook, posting blogs, hanging out on Pinterest and drooling over super fab outfits or DIY projects that look incredible but that I know well and good I’ll never do, or Tweeting on Sundays this year. I’m also seriously considering giving up reading or posting to Facebook (except for auto-posting of my blog) for Lent. Of course Twitter…you complete me. I’m not gonna lie ya’ll. If I ever give up Twitter you should really check in on me. I’m not going to give up checking email on Sundays, though, so hopefully I won’t have complete Internet withdrawal.

Money Management

Paying extra money toward my car loan. I rarely think of budgeting as a New Year’s goal and that is wrong, so wrong, as money and bills stress me out. We just paid off my horrible, bad, no good hospital bill from my food poisoning, pass out on the potty episode of fall 2011 right before Christmas. Ugh. We have just one car payment right now for my 2003 Explorer and I absolutely loathe having a car payment! I want to start paying it off early and will allocate some of the freelance money I earn this year toward that goal.

Shop around for car insurance rates. My employer offers a discount on auto insurance through MetLife that I have NEVER checked into. Checking into it this month.

Don’t spend to save. I swear I am subscribed to every flash sale site and deal site on the planet, from Groupon to Living Social. I’ve actually only bought a few Groupons and I want to make sure that when I do snag a deal that I’m not just buying it because it feels good to save.

What are some of your goals for 2012? Are mine insane? Doable? Should I print this, laminate it, and tape it to my bathroom mirror? Will my wine intake double in 2012? I guess I’ll find out! Does anyone want to join me in social media free Sundays?

Filed Under: Love & Marriage, My Girls, Parenting, Working Mom 13 Comments

Digital Mom Handbook Giveaway

September 30, 2011 By Blonde Mom 27 Comments

Giveaway is closed! Congratulations to Laurie Brown! She left comment #24, which was the number generated by Random.org

Back in 2008 blogger/brand relations were in their 8 pound 6 ounce baby Jesus phase (to quote Talladega Nights, one of my favorite movies.) I’d been blogging since late 2005 and was just starting to see the potential for moms to influence brands, politics, and more, via the written word online. I honestly started blogging simply for a creative outlet, a little virtual Xanax, if you will. I never knew it would become a professional hobby that has opened many doors for myself and for my family.

It was spring 2008 when I received an invitation to join about 50 other mom bloggers at Johnson & Johnson’s Camp Baby event which was, as far as I know, one of the first big brand conferences bringing a national company together with active bloggers from across the United States to discuss the issues most important to moms. This was before I was using Twitter or even Facebook. I was a just a babe in the social media woods at that time but you could really feel the excitement generated by all these social media savvy women under one roof.

One of the dynamic women I met at Camp Baby was Colleen Padilla from Classy Mommy. Colleen is a smart cookie mama with an MBA from Cornell whose blog and brand has led her to work with brands such as T.J. Maxx/Marshall’s and Tide, and she’s even been featured in the New York Times. She founded a very successful blog based primarily around product reviews. At Camp Baby I also met Jane Couto, sister of Audrey McClellend, founders (along with their mom) of MomGenerations.com It’s fun to see that now just three years later their careers have absolutely skyrocketed and they’ve carved their own niche, Audrey’s being relevant, achievable, and fun fashion advice for moms. AND? She’s mingled with the likes of Tim Gunn on the red carpet.

Both Colleen and Audrey are sharing their insight, tips, and personal anecdotes about successful careers as digital moms in their new book, The Digital Mom Handbook.

Even though I’ve been blogging for nearly six years now (thud) and I have also enjoyed some success working with brands, The Digital Mom Handbook was a helpful refresher on tips for successfully leveraging social media. Although I haven’t quit my day job, the perqs I have received, not to mention all the amazing people I have met and friends I’ve made thanks to blogging and social media, have been incredible. I’ve stalked Keifer Sutherland at a Hollywood event co-sponsored by Honda, I’ve put on my test drive course driving helmet at Ford, I’ve gotten my gamer girl mojo on at Nintendo’s world headquarters, I’ve started writing about family travel, and I’ve test driven a Nissan Quest on summer family vacation.

If you want to learn how to find your passion and your tribe, read real life success stories from bloggers you may already follow (like me!), and also learn basic nuts and bolts about such things as different types of revenue streams, suggestions on blog networks to join, and insight from a PR professional on how to get you and your social media brand noticed, this is a great book for all levels of social media experience. And hey, you can read what I have to say (pages 191-192…ahem.)

Blogging successfully takes considerable time and effort. It’s not a get successful overnight scheme. It’s something I truly love doing. And that, to me, is success.

Want to win your own copy of The Digital Mom Handbook, written by my friends Colleen Padilla and Audrey McClelland?

Simply leave a comment on this post about why you want to win this book by midnight Wednesday, October 5, and I’ll select a winner at random.

Good luck ya’ll!

Filed Under: Bloggy Things, Reviews & Giveaways 27 Comments

When Mom Blogs Grow Up

September 9, 2011 By Blonde Mom 10 Comments

This is what my girls looked like when I started blogging, nearly six years ago:

Miss C

Miss A

They were 3 and barely 1 at the time. Today they are 9 and 6. Some days my 9-year-old seems like she is going on 19, while other days she is full throttle little girl and I kiss the top of her blonde head and the smell and feel of her soft head transports me to days of sippy cups and silliness and nights of board books and baths. Some days my 6-year-old is a wise old soul with knowledge beyond her years and other days she is a whirling dervish of quirkiness and silly. Every day I marvel at who they are becoming and all that the future will hold.

I could tell you about the cute story Miss A shared about recess yesterday, but that is her story.

I could tell you about the conversation that Miss C and I had at bedtime, but that is her story.

I won’t stop blogging. I love writing way too much. I love the community in the blogosphere and the networking and all things social media.

But I will likely start telling a little more of my story, because at some point the stories I share about my children are not really mine to share any more and it is something I consider more and more. I will continue to write more about travel, because it is something I love, and wine, because well. WINE. I will likely write about our girl Bailey because she would have been 14 this fall.

I know I’m not the only blogger out there who feels this way as their kids get older.

One day you are blogging between deadlines and diaper changes (my first blog tag line years ago) and the next day you are forgetting to blog because you were driving your kids around all afternoon to soccer practice and Googling Venn Diagram because you are the clueless in math parent.

Their life is unwritten. It’s not my place to write about it for them.

p.s. Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield is one of my favorite songs…if you’ve never really listened to the lyrics, please do!

Filed Under: Bloggy Things, My Girls, Parenting 10 Comments