The Mom Crowd

There are no rules when it comes to blogging.  Some blogs exist to keep friends and family up to date on family happenings, some are to document weight loss, some blogs are specific to product reviews, some blogs document outfits worn each and every day, and some blogs are devoted to saving the world from “unnecessary” quotation marks.  Anyone can have a blog!  One very trendy way to keep your blog fresh is to participate in themes of the day.  Here’s some popular recurring blog entries you can participate in to keep your blog fun to read and also network with other people on the internet!  So, the next time you have writer’s block on your blog, try joining one of these hosted blog events!  You may even make a friend or two along the way!

SUNDAY

• Grains of Gratitude.  Brady’s Bunch hosts Grains of Gratitude every Sunday and invites participants to blog about what they are thankful for.   I think this is a great opportunity for people to focus on what they are grateful for and Sunday could not be a more perfect day for that reflection!

MONDAY

• Magic Marker Monday!   Hosted by 5 Minutes for Special Needs, every Monday participates post a picture of their child’s artwork for the week.  This includes pictures of artwork made at school, at home, on the walls of your living room, or anywhere else your child has expressed his or her artistic side.  They ask that you leave them a comment to let them know you participated in this event!

TUESDAY

• Tackle It Tuesday!  This event is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom and invites participants to pick a household project needing to be done.  They can be big or small.  The idea is to take a before and after picture of you project.  I have watched a friend of mine participate in this blog event and it’s been really good at keeping her motivated and productive!  I’m impressed with her Tuesday productivity!

WEDNESDAY

• Wordless Wednesday This has got to be the most popular blog theme event in the blogging community.  It’s everywhere!  On Wednesdays, bloggers are invited to post a picture without any words.  I have seen some creative blog entries on W.W.  You can be as creative or as simple as you like on W.W. and you can be confident that many a blogger is participating in this event, so you will not be alone!
• Other Wednesday events include, Weightloss Wednesday.  On Weightloss Wednesdays, bloggers blog about their weightloss journey and usually  include their weight and measurements.  Apparently, blogging your weight is the best kept weightloss secret around!!  There’s something about telling the world how much you weigh that motivates you to lose that weight!  A friend of mine lost 26.5 lbs while sharing her weightloss journey with all of her blog readers!  It was quite impressive to follow.

What fun blog themes have you enjoyed participating in? What are some Thursday, Friday, and Saturday blog themes you’ve seen? 

I am obsessed with the Olympics! I am having so much fun watching the best in the world compete against one another. I am also amazed at how many moms are competing in Beijing right now. I had the privilege to meet Olympian and Mom, Liza Hunter-Galvan from New Zealand last month. She is joined by many moms in Beijing right now. Jennie Finch, Melanie Roach, Lisa Leslie, Lindsay Davenport, Kate Markgraf, and Tina Thompson are some of the other moms competing in Beijing while their little ones cheer them on.My very favorite Olympic mom is Dara Torres. Not only do I love her name, she has overcome that battle all moms fight in “losing the baby weight!” I actually went for a swim at the gym this week and have decided to add swimming to my work-outs because I want a body like hers. With her two year old, Tessa Grace cheering her on, she has won three silver medals in Beijing, bringing her total Olympic medal count to 12! How many people can say they’ve competed in FIVE Olympics? She’s an amazing athlete!!

Here’s some sites I’ve found talking about the Olympian Moms:

Olympic Moms Head to Beijing Slideshow

NBC’s Olympic Mothers Slideshow

ESPN-Athletes Balancing Motherhood and Olympic Dreams

Plenty of Olympic Moms in Beijing

Who is your favorite Olympic Mom? What has been your favorite Olympic moment?

I recently fell in love with Seeqpod. Seeqpod is a Web 2.0 application that allows users to create playlists with music, videos, and rich media files.  Creating an account is completely easy and fast. Once you are in you search for the song you are looking for and Seeqpod finds it in a file that is already online and streams it. Then you click on the arrow of the song you want and add it to your list.  It is totally legal, this is from their about page:

Our technology is legal, and we diligently observe industry-standard DMCA regulations for search engines, otherwise known as .information location tools.. We do not support, nor facilitate, illegal downloading, and we do not host files. But, we do support artists and makers on and offline.

You can’t download a song, but you can listen to the entire song before you go buy the song on iTunes. You can listen to your mix while you are online or if you have a computer with an internet connection near by. I love bringing my laptop into the kitchen and playing my Seeqpod mixes while doing dishes.

Once you have created your playlist you can embed the player into your site. It doesn’t start playing automatically when your site loads. Your readers can chose to hit play themselves.

Not every song can be found in Seeqpod, but most of the popular songs can be found. Also, I added one song to my list only to find that it didn’t have the full ending, so I had to find another listing of my song. Remember you don’t have to be a great music aficionado to use it, just play what you like!

I first used the program to create my playlist for Myra’s Mix Tape Mondays.  If you haven’t checked it out yet - you must! Dawn and I were recently feautured. So you have to go to her blog to hear our mixes. I have listened to mine at least 20 times. I love my mix (if I don’t say so myself.)

Amanda’s Mix

Dawn’s Mix

If you create one and post it on your blog let us know!

If you are mom and a blogger then you should definitely take a peak into the clubhouse of the Mom Blogger’s Club (MBC) and go on in. I have been a member for over three months and it is a great place to ask questions and meet other bloggers. The Mom Blogger’s Club is the social network arm of The Mom Salon and is founded by Jennifer James. I have had a little bit of personal correspondence with Jennifer, read her blog posts and her participation in the club and found that she is one of the most encouraging and unpretentious bloggers I have ever met.

The Mom Blogger’s Club allows you to have your own profile page where other moms can leave you comments and you can share news and post pictures and add friends. In the “We’re Talkin’” section there are general questions that are open to anyone to answer. You can also join groups or start your own group based on your specific interests.

The members in this community are very active. If you ask a question, you will almost get an answer within a day. Also, you will get quality answers. Some questions are asked within a group and you have to be a member of that group to answer the question. All you need to do is click “join this group” unless the group is closed. The questions are about everything blogging like who designed your blog, what turns you off on a blog, and what your husband or significant other thinks about your blogging. There is also a section about Motherhood, Parenting, & Family.

The design of MBC is incredibly easy to navigate. Their front page has a lot of information without seeming to be cluttered. I found it simple to set up my account and to start meeting other people.

In some networks I have felt shy about sending friend requests and “adding friends,” but I don’t find that here. Most people are willing to help you and be your friend. It is up to each of us how much we want to network and connect with each other. Even if you don’t ask questions or add friends you will still learn a lot about blogging from the discussions.

Note: You must use the “www.” when typing in their url (www.mombloggersclub.com) or you won’t be able to get to the site.

Are you a member of Mom Blogger’s Club? How do you like it? Are you active? Are you sick of joining every social network under the sun?

“Yo Gabba Gabba!” is a hip live action children’s show with a techno beat that airs on Nickelodeon. Each episode is focused on a social topic like sharing, love, sleep, or eating. The premise of the show is that DJ Lance Rock carries five dolls in his boom box and when you say the words “Yo Gabba Gabba!” all five characters come to life in their own diorama world. According to a NY Time article, the show’s title is combination of MTV’s “Yo! MTV Raps” and the Ramone’s chant “Gabba gabba hey.”

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