Butterfly Kisses…Or Something Like That

Posted on by Mandy


Whenever my son picks something just for me out of the treasure chest at school for his good behavior, my heart just does a total flip flop, for two reasons. The first reason is that, “*sniff* Mah Baby loves me so much he picked something for ME when he could have picked anything he wanted!!! *sniff*”, and secondly, the treasure chest means he was on his best behavior, and when you have a very lively and spirited little five year old boy, this is always good news to hear.

Monday was a great day for E.B. When I picked him up from school he couldn’t wait to show me the yellow plastic butterfly he picked from the treasure chest especially for me. According to his teacher, he had been working really hard the past few days to be able to get this butterfly, so naturally this made it even more special.

That night at bathtime he wanted to play with the butterfly in the bathtub, and sicne it was made of hard plastic I let him. Bathtime is when I sing corny songs to him, so naturally the butterfly inspired a song I remembered singing at church during my childhood. And naturally, I bursted into my “Broadway” rendition of said song….

“If I were a butterfly, I’d thank you Lord for giving me wings….and if I were a robin in a tree, I’d thank you Lord that I could sing….”

All at once the little plastic butterfly was snatched from my hand and dunked down into the water. Then E.B. added his own line to the song….

“…and if that butterfly fell in the water he might droooowwwwnnnnn…….”

At least it was a plastic butterfly.

Prilosec OTC – Everything You Do Without Heartburn

Posted on by Mandy

Have you ever asked yourself what you could be capable of doing if only you had the means to do it? What are you excited about? If you had the resources, what could you be doing in life to make a difference and fuel your passion?

Prilosec is the official sponsor of the Everything You Do Without Heartburn promotion and they are looking to sponsor people who want to take their passions in life to the next level but don’t have the means to do it on their own.

To participate, visit www.PrilosecOTC.com for official rules and to complete the online application. Your application will become a live profile at their online community where you will then campaign for yourself by asking for votes from friends and online members. If you are selected for sponsorship, you will be rewarded with a nice contribution to fuel your passion.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Prilosec OTC. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Social Media Overdose- Bloggers Rehab?

Posted on by Mandy

Does anyone remember the dinosaur days when blogging was so simple? You blogged, you read and commented at other blogs, and you *might* have gone to a blogging convention, but that was pretty much the extent of blogging. It was easy enough to keep up with your favorite blogs and people because you probably had them listed on your blog roll and, at least in the mommy blogging world, there weren’t quite so many blogs to to choose from. I miss those days sometimes.

THE PROBLEM:

And now? There is Twitter, Facebook, vlogging, blogging forums, feed readers, Google Follow, stressing over stats, SEO, PR opportunities, giveaways, and about twenty billion blogs to choose from.

I finally came to the realization that I would never, ever be able to keep up with all of this at once. I work. I have a child. I have a life beyond this computer screen. I love Facebook, I love blogging, I love reading blogs, and I love to work with PR and offer relevant giveaways on my blog, BUT… I also feel incredibly guilty if I don’t visit someone who has recently left a comment on my blog, I feel bad if my stats don’t hit a certain number each day, and I feel like if I’m not at my forums or checking out Twitter, then I miss what’s really going on in the blogosphere. I feel overwhelmed trying to keep up with 300 blogs in my feed reader. I also feel like if I am not doing all of this on a daily basis, then I am not “working my blog” to its fullest potential. I hate the competitiveness that goes along with blogging. I hate feeling like blogging is just not enough.

I want to do it all when it comes to blogging, but I just can’t keep up.

THE SOLUTION:

I’m implementing my own therapeutic blogging program called Do One Thing to help me reign myself in, put the focus back on my writing and to sincerely enjoy the other blogs I read. And what is Do One Thing, you might ask? If I only do ONE thing a day to connect with other bloggers, readers, or PR contacts, then I won’t hold it against myself. If I only answer ONE email, leave ONE comment, read ONE blog from my reader, make ONE Tweet, then I’ll have done one thing pertaining to blogging besides blogging itself and I’ll have managed my time more wisely. There will be days, of course, when I do MORE than one thing, but on those days when my computer time is very limited (which has been the case more often than not recently), I won’t allow myself to feel bad about what I don’t do. That’s it.

And? I must somehow whittle my feed reader down to 100 blogs. That’s going to be very painful. But necessary. And? Stop obsessing over traffic, SEO, networking, and stats. It’s a blog, for crying out loud, right? But it’s also so much more. *sigh* In regards to PR and giveaways, I am only accepting and posting the ones I want to, so I am proud that I have been more selective in that aspect. Baby steps.

I’ve promised myself in the past that I would do these very things to stop the blogging insanity, but I never do. But it MUST stop. It must.

I may lose readers, traffic may tank to new lows, and I’ll probably miss out on all of the blogging gossip, but that’s ok. It will have to be ok, because I’ll still be here blogging if anyone stumbles in and wants to read.

Is there a such thing as Blogger’s Rehab?