2009

Posted on by Mandy


Jo-Lynn at Musings of a Housewife (one of the best blogs around, in my opinion) is hosting a blog carnival where you sum up your blogging throughout the year of 2009 by posting only the first sentence of the first post of each month. Sounds easier than trying to do a detailed recap of my whole year, so I’m joining in! If you’d care to join too, just click here.

JANUARY

I’ve noticed that a number of the authors of some of the great blogs that I read have posted their New Year’s resolutions and big plans for revamping their blogs and blog designs.

That was from my little PSA about being authentic in your blog writing. I formly believe that nobody can “do” you better than you.

FEBRUARY

The winner of the Dove Self Esteem Fund Giveaway is Helena Batt-Vesey of Giveaways Galore!

A giveaway winner started off the February posts.

MARCH

Do you ever wonder how some blogs always seem to have great product reviews going and wonder how they get noticed?

This was a post about how to get your foot in the door with PR reps. Still good reading and a great link is there to sign up to get on a list that circulates to PR companies.

APRIL

What is the fastest, most effective way to get your child to clean up the twenty bazillion pieces of Thomas trains, Legos, and Lincoln Logs that have been scattered all over your living room floor for the better part of the week?

I had discovered a foolproof trick for getting my son to clean up his toys in record time. It STILL works! Want to know my secret? Click on the link and find out!

MAY

I’m tracking the Swine Flu here.

Apparently, Swine Flu pandemonium had reached epic proportions. I must have been very bored is my excuse.

JUNE

Have you ever decided to go through all of the junk you’ve accumulated over the years and hit a minor jackpot to help you keep your sanity intact while your child is out of school for the summer?

I cleaned out my teaching supplies and hit the motherlode!

JULY

Calling all seasoned mothers….parenting guru’s….professional nannies and child psychologists, know-it-all’s, and anyone else that can help.

I was having a battle of the wills with keeping my son in his carseat. I’m happy to report we are in a booster seat now! Parenting crisis solved.

AUGUST

Things I’ve Learned About Blogging

This was a link to a post written by Scribbit, and I still think it is one of the best, must-read pieces for any blogger.

SEPTEMBER

Has the Swine Flu outbreak reached your community yet? It has definitely become a serious concern of mine as more and more cases of it in my state are being reported daily.

More Swine Flu posts! I swear that wasn’t all I blogged about this past year!

OCTOBER

Do you love a great deal?

This was a review I did for Buxr.

NOVEMBER

As an affiliate of Warner Bros. Entertainment, my family and I periodically receive movies to review.

Yet another review.

DECEMBER

Tuesday night I sat with a packed house at our local performing arts center to watch my sweet baby in his school Christmas program.

This post chronicled how I sat in front of, quite possibly, the world’s rudest and most socially unacceptable person at my son’s school Christmas program.

And that’s it for 2009 here at Mommy Cracked. I am so grateful for all 8 of you who come here to read my blog. I enjoy your comments and enjoy learning so much from you all and your blogs. Looking forward to more fun adventures in blogging in 2010!

A Different Kind of Christmas

Posted on by Mandy


I hate to admit it, but I was really dreading Christmas this year. Not the reason for Christmas and all that it means, but just the fact that I knew things would be different this year.

From Thanksgiving on, things just didn’t go as planned this year. Normally, our Christmas tree is up the day after Thanksgiving, but we were so exhausted from E.B.’s surgery and all the Thanksgiving festivities that two more weeks passed by before it was up. A minor glitch.

About a week ago we learned my mother will have to have a heart valve replacement and possible bypass done in January. This really blew the wind right out of my sails, not to mention the rest of our family.

Christmas cards? Oops. Everyone will now be getting Happy New Year cards. Baking? Very little this year. Shopping? last minute, as always. (Some things never change!) Even my parent’s big annual Christmas Eve breakfast for both sides of the family, something they’ve done for at least 30 years, was cancelled. Understandably, of course.

In the days leading up to Christmas, I could barely muster up any holiday spirit. Everything just seemed too different. Strange. My mind was preoccupied.

As it turns out, even though everything was different, the things and the people that truly mattered were still the same. We were all together. Seeing the excitement in my child’s eyes will never get old. Despite all of the changes, our Christmas still went off without a hitch and we enjoyed ourselves and all of our many blessings.

Musselman’s Apple Sauce

Posted on by Mandy


Musselman’s, proud growers of the highest quality of apples (grown in the USA) for over 60 years, recently sent my family a jar of Original and Cinnamon Apple Sauce to use for making a declicious holiday treat. We looked through all of the fantstic recipes located here and decided to try the Apple Sauce Oatmeal Cookies. They were delicious and it was the first time I had baked with apple sauce. It seemed like an unlikely ingredient for oatmeal cookies, but they were chewy and amazing! We’re sold!

Want another great reason to purchase Musselman’s products? To start the year off with a giving spirit, Musselman’s is donating ten cents to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) for every package of Musselman’s Natural Apple Sauce purchased in the month of January. The NBCF is dedicated to raising awareness of breast cancer through education and by providing mammograms for those in need.

Thanks to Musselman’s for letting us try out their apple sauce. We’ve already bought some individual serving packages to pack for school lunches.

New Years Resolutions

Posted on by Mandy


I’m completely aware that it’s not even New Years yet, but it’s getting close and for some reason my mind is transfixed on making New Years resolutions. I honestly can’t tell you why I am so gung ho about this because if history is any indication whatsoever, the only resolutions I am actually any good at keeping are the ones I don’t make, and the ones I do make are completely ridiculous. Getting up every morning rain or shine at Dark o’Thirty to work out? Stop my serious procrastination habit?

Ha. And HA!

I’m usually the first one to declare loudly that I don’t bother making New Years resoltutions because that’s just silly, but the truth is that I have a hard time with setting attainable goals. I’m the type of person that if no immediate results are seen, I quit trying. I’m impatient. I’m hard on myself. I’m indecisive. I’ve become a bit disorganized in many different areas, blogging included. So this time, I’m really trying to break these resolutions down into manageable bites. I’m also praying for heaping doses of patience and will power to see me through even the smallest of changes for the better that I attempt to make.

What about you? Have you thought this far ahead yet? what do you want your 2010 to be like?

Hey You….Slow Down!

Posted on by Mandy


As I sit here stressed beyond stressed over Christmas and struggling to slow myself down to remember what really matters this season, I wanted to take a moment and share the following with all of you who may be reading and feeling the same way.

A Christmas Version of 1 Corinthians 13

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing goourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not share the true meaning of Christmas, I’m just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not demonstrate kindness to strangers, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband. Love is kind, though harried and tired. Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordianted Christmas china and table linens. Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way. Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. Love never fails.

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure. “And now these three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

-Author Uknown

Munchkin Math DVD

Posted on by Mandy


My son is becoming obsessed with numbers lately. He can recognize numbers and tries his best to tell me how much things cost when we are grocery shopping. He’s eager to learn math, something I was never very excited about, and that makes me happy!

We recently had the opportunity to review a Munchkin Math DVD called Telling Time. Let’s face it, when learning is made fun, children will retain that information quicker and easier. My son really enjoyed the cute songs on the DVD that help viewers remember math facts and I’ve even caught him singing them around the house. It obviously held his attention, and that can be very hard to do sometimes.

If your child is trying to master telling time, this DVD may be helpful and is certainly worth a look. This DVD is $19.99 and can be purchased in the Munchkin Math Store online. It is also available at Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Bj’s Wholesale Clubs, and Amazon.com

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Munchkin Math and received a sample DVD to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Here Comes The Judge!

Posted on by Mandy


I spent the better part of my morning sitting in our county court house for jury duty. Thankfully, I was excused. I would never try to weasel out of my civic duty, but we are having some health issues with my mom and a few other things all at once. However, while waiting almost 2 1/2 hours to be excused, I had plenty to observe.

Official Looking Lady #1 Behind The Table- You look great in that business outfit. You are so put together. However, your Barbie pink laptop with sparkly stickers all. over. it. just made me lose all 10 minutes of the respect I had for you. Seriously? Seriously?

Official Looking Lady #2 Behind The Table- Those blingin’, long flashy earrings do nothing for your business suit. Unless, you know, you moonlight somewhere else after work. Ahem.

Sherrif’s Deputy Dude- Dude! Chill! Just because a potential juror walked to the wrong side of the room does not warrant an “attempt at looking offical spaz attack”. It really is O.K.

Potential Juror Sitting Behind Me- We get it. Really. You take the best vacations ever and enjoy the best of everything. I got the best workout ever rolling my eyes everytime you opened your mouth. I swear I lost 10 pounds in my face alone this morning!

And finally, to one of the potential jurors sitting beside me, a Tic Tac wouldn’t kill you. Just sayin’.

Gamer Girl

Posted on by Mandy


Once upon a time, I used to belong to a parenting forum and some of the women on there actually admitted to playing online games like World of Warcraft and The Sims and things like that. I honestly never understood the appeal. I likened playing online video games to something teenaged computer geek boys did. And for crying out loud, where did they find the time to play games? Most all of them had more children than I did and it was all I could do to get a shower most days, nevermind play in a fantasy world.

Then a few months ago on Facebook I got an application request from a friend to start my very own virtual fish tank called Happy Aquarium. It looked easy and fun, and besides…it’s just a fish tank, not a real game or anything. And the fact that I am on Level 29 does not mean I have a problem. Not at all!

I even laughed two weeks ago at my aunt and cousin. They play a game on Facebook called Cafe World where you cook food and serve it to your friends. They were constantly checking their food they were cooking throughout the day on the computer so it wouldn’t burn on their virtual oven tops and I cackled at the sheer absurdity of WHY on God’s green earth that anyone would find anything remotely entertaining about a cooking game.

And then I went home and checked out Cafe World, built a cafe, and proceeded to waste two solid hours of my life that I will never get back building up my restaurant and cooking virtual food. Oops.

All of my Facebook friends swear I need to play Farmville and join Mafia Wars, but the thought of having to feed my fish, run a restaurant, AND tend to a whole freakin’ farm while knocking off people at The Don’s request just stresses me out.

In any case, I apologize for my stereotypical thoughts about online gamers because, Surprise!, they’re normal people, too…just like me. What games are you hooked on?