Ingenue Mom

I've been sharing about my CSA share experience & today we added to the experience by actually visiting the farm for a family day they were having! We got to go on a little tour & Isis got to meet some animals! We also got a delicious dinner, although we had to take ours to-go because Isis was ready to take a little nap. Here are some pics from the farm!! She was excited to be going to the farm!! First she met some chickens, roosters & guinea! They live in the Hen House. Then we saw the corn... ...and the tomatoes (along with a lot of other yummy vegetables that we will get to eat from our share boxes!) My favorite was probably the peacock named Peanut. Isis loved looking at the cows in the barn! Isis got a little warm in the barn - look at those rosy cheeks! The pigs were stinky, but kinda cute - there was a little one named Spot. Isis loved them! Overall I think Isis would recommend the CSA shares & the farm! Read more about our CSA experience !!

I used to do an editorial calendar each week on my other blog , but I never started doing it with this one. After reading today's task for the 31DBBB challenge , I realized that it was going to be a good idea to set it up ASAP. That way I know what's coming & I can prepare in advance. This will help SO much when I start my student teaching in the fall & I try to get everything done. I used some of the topics from yesterday's task & some of the things I just know I'm doing on a regular basis right now, including Mommy's Piggy Tales , A Little Weekend Reading , my CSA share info & the 31DBBB posts ! Since next week is my birth stories guest posts week, I did an editorial calendar for the following week. Next week all you can expect are the guest posts, which are scheduled & my 31DBBB posts, which I'm finishing this weekend & will also be scheduled. August 1-7 : Birth Stories guest posts & 31DBBB challenge posts August 8 : What is a

This was probably my favorite task so far for the 31DBBB ! We used 5 of our most recent posts & came up with ideas for new topics! I had never thought to use a method like this & I found it actually worked really well! You can use questions that were asked in the comments, you can take an opposing viewpoint, you can extend to other topics in the same category, you can do a link post on the topic, you can conduct an interview with an expert on the topic & the list goes on & on! I didn't choose my last 5 posts because I do the Mommy's Piggy Tales meme & I've posted several times on the 31DBBB challenge, but I used 5 recent posts. I also really liked the idea of using 5 general categories that your blog could cover & coming up with post ideas under those. Here is what I came up with: A Dad's Perspective on Cloth Diapers -a dad's perspective on breastfeeding -Lew's review of Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters interview with Lewis about being

Age 11 or 6th Grade The summer before 6th grade, my family went on a trip to Hawaii. The trip was fairly normal - luaus, sight-seeing, Pearl Harbor, beautiful beaches, etc. The plane ride there was a different story. It was set to begin with one huge plane ride from Atlanta straight to Hawaii, but instead it began with a fuel leak, 2 hours of dumping fuel in the air as we circle the Atlanta airport & then landing again on a runway lined with ambulances & fire trucks. They had stopped all flights into or out of the Atlanta airport & lined the runway with emergency vehicles because they thought our plane was going to literally blow up when we touched down. Apparently planes are made to take off with lots of fuel, but they touch down empty or they blow up. Who knew?? In 6th grade, my parents moved me from a public school to a private Christian high school. I start having a lot more memories from this point on. I remember I had a huge crush on a boy with a major bowl hairc

This post was written by my husband, Lewis. I wanted to share his view of the cloth diapers as I know many times it's the dads who are thinking, "no way I'm doing that." At first, I was worried that Lewis may not be on board, but the more we talked about it, the more it felt like something that was right for both of us. Here's a little view of cloth diapers through his eyes: Honestly I didn’t know much about diapers in general when we first began discussing cloth diapers. Just like most people, when I thought about cloth diapers, I saw essentially big white napkins with safety pins. After Cameron showed me a few of our options I realized that we had much more modern tools to work with than I thought. I had never changed any type of diaper before, so to me, I was up for anything. Now after I have changed many months worth, I have to admit that I no longer can see us using anything else other than cloth diapers for our children. What do I love about them? The

(I'm not posting a "before" picture of my arms right now because I'm embarrassed, so here's a recent pic of me & Isis - you can see my arm.) I'm a wimp. I'll be the first to admit it. I also hate working out. Livy at Making Over Mum posted on the Oh Baby! forum yesterday about how she's going to do a push-ups fitness challenge . It seemed pretty easy & not really time consuming. Plus I'm all for things that connect me with other bloggers & give me some motivation to actually do something!  So I'm in. Today...I can do a big whopping 0 push-ups. I'm going to have to start with the girly ones. I'm starting today with the first column of the Week 1 guide . We'll see how this goes. Want to join in too? Check out Livy's blog!

I'm just about to switch all my comments to Disqus . I really really hope this doesn't mess up all the comments I already have! I've been told by Disqus that it won't, but Queenie at The Planet Pink lost all her old comments. If it does delete all my old comments, you'll probably be able to hear me cry from wherever you are. We'll see... The reason I'm interested in switching is because I can reply to specific comments & it will email my response & just so you know - if you get an email with a response to your comment, you can just reply back to your email & it will post in my comments section! You don't have to go back to my post to reply! How cool is that?? Anybody else use Disqus? Do you like it??

Today's share box is my favorite so far!! It has tomatoes, lemon cucumber, pickling cucumber, slicing cucumber, sweet corn, roma green beans, yellow wax beans, green peppers, banana peppers, eggplant, tarragon & sweet basil!! Here are the meals I have in mind: Pizza with black olives, green peppers & banana peppers Eggplant parmesan with green beans Quick Pickles (this is more of a snack) BBQ ribs with green beans & corn Tomato & basil pasta Chicken & peppers teriyaki stir fry Eggs!! And here are a couple of highlights from last week's share box meals: Lemon basil & red pepper chicken w/ broccoli, cucumbers & garlic bread Steak (from the farm) w/ grilled parsley potatoes & garlic bread (We love garlic bread.) We also discovered this week that Isis loves cucumber!! I held a piece & let her chew on it for a little while when we were cooking one night & she loved it so much that we stuck it in the Beaba Babycook & made her some c

I can't believe I'm 1/3 of the way through the 31DBBB challenge ! I'm having a blast & really learning a lot as I go! Today's task involved setting up Alerts to monitor what's happening in your niche online! I already had Google Alerts set up for several things like babywise, sleep training, sleeping through the night & natural labor. I set up new ones for Ingenue Mom, ingenuemom, baby recalls, cloth diapers, GroVia & mom blogs. I have all my alerts going to my Google Reader as a feed! That's the easiest way for me to keep up with them. As for Twitter, I used Twitter Search to set up RSS feeds for several words or phrases including mom blog, cloth diapers & GroVia. I already use HootSuite & I've set up a keyword search on my dashboard so that I always get the 31DBBB tweets. I find that really helpful!  My experience so far with the Google Alerts hasn't been that great, mainly because I set it up as email alerts & I got annoye

I have heard several of the issues with cloth diapers & I think people have valid concerns. It is definitely either something you're interested in or something you know just isn't for you. For those of you who think you may be interested, but are trying to figure out exactly how it works, I've decided to share our set-up! I've found them to be easier than I expected & even more user-friendly than I had originally thought! I thought about splitting this post into separate posts so it'd be shorter, but I've just left it all as one thing. Pick your brand First of all, we use GroBaby , although they are now re-launched as GroVia . I will refer to them from now on as GroVia since that is their new official name. We just don't have any of the new kind yet, but after this video I shared the other day, we are absolutely going to buy a couple! One of the things I really liked about GroVia is that they can be used when the babies are really small. We start

(This is her "oh wow mom you have so much to do" face!) I have had people asking me lately how I get all this blogging stuff done in my life. I'm staying home with Isis, but "staying home" is a whole lot different than just sitting on my butt all day playing with my baby. Oh my goodness! I'm doing laundry, cleaning up, feeding her, playing with her, going to the grocery, running errands, finding time to blog, finding time to feed myself, meeting up with friends for lunch sometimes, working sporadically at the company where I used to work - not to mention the fact that I'm watching my best friend's 2 girls every Tuesday & Thursday (along with Isis)!!! That's a lot for me!! Oh and of course I have to somehow find time to fit in time with my husband when he gets home from work!! Yes I'm doing the 31DBBB challenge & yes I'm keeping up with my posts & tasks , but I am not yet able to spend as much time as I'd like checking o

The task for today in the 31DBBB challenge is to join a forum & start participating. Well, I already do this!! I love forums. I really love discussing & connecting with others as well as having a great place to get some advice! As a new mom, I find myself with lots of questions! Here are my favorite forums right now: Of course, the SITS community on BlogFrog I am loving Adriel's new Oh Baby! community on BlogFrog I participate in my own Ingenue Mom community on BlogFrog I also enjoy A Belle, A Bean & A Chicago Dog community on BlogFrog I've found the Teaching Your Baby to Sleep forum on Babycenter is really helpful! The Babywise forum on Babycenter has also been a great resource for me! The forums provide great resources for community, but also for finding ideas for blog topics! You can see what others in your niche are talking about. I actually never link to my own blog in forums unless I'm asked to or I feel it's really relevant. I really am tryi

I have posted several times about cloth diapers & I've particularly shared about how much I love our GroBaby diapers ! I have had almost no complaints with them at all. I didn't even really think about the ways they could be improved upon. They've rarely been leaky, they fit her from 7 lbs, they're cute, they are absorbent, they aren't super messy, easy to clean, etc. Just all in all, we have been incredibly happy. Well, Cloth Diaper Whisperer posted this video today comparing GroBaby with their new & improved version after their company re-launch as GroVia & I must say they are absolute geniuses over there!! The new things they added are so amazing & in my opinion they are all things that I haven't seen any other cloth diaper offer. The main things that I think set GroVia apart from other diapers are: The top part of the soaker pad is made of fleece which is what is used as a stay-dry material in cloth diapers. They added extra PUL materia

Partly because I have no other ideas for what to post right this second & partly because I need to make a list of these things anyway, here are all the ways you can find me online: Facebook Twitter BlogFrog Google Reader - Shared Items YouTube StumbleUpon Delicious Bloggy Moms Mom Bloggers Club And you can vote for me on Top Baby Blogs , Top Mommy Blogs & Picket Fence Blogs by just clicking any of those 3 links! No registration required, just a click! Also, since there isn't much to say about this, I also wanted to share that I did interlink some old posts for Day 8 of the 31DBBB challenge !