Ingenue Mom

Amazing post . Amazing song. Cute new blog for children's books that I found! Thinking about going back to the gym soon & this Post-Baby Bootcamp series seems interesting - and really hard!! 116 things I need to throw away while I'm home on maternity leave. Sometimes Sweet reminds me that it's ok to be an adult now. Looking for more books to read & What She Saw has a great book list !

Today was a little rough. With newborns, I feel like your whole life revolves around eating, sleeping and pooping, and if one of those goes wrong one day, things feel a little out of control. But with my new decision to focus on the things I am loving at this point, I decided to sit down and focus.    First of all, I made a list of things I'm loving right now... I'm loving when Lux snuggles her face as close into my neck as it can get and then lets out this little sigh. I'm loving when Isis asks to hold her sister and then tells me, "mom, she's really special." I'm loving the me-time I get on good nap days! I'm loving the fact that Lux sleeps really well at night. (We've had 2 different 5+ hour stretches this week!) I'm loving the moments when Lew and I look at each other and just laugh or smile or shrug because we're sharing this experience and although we get tired and frustrated, we do it together.   Then, I spe...

Sometimes people share something & it just fits in whatever place you are in your life right now. My friend Queeny at The Planet Pink shared this post by Jen Hatmaker called After the Airport . On the surface, it's about adoption, but beneath the surface, it's about struggling or being broken. It's a long post, but it really is worth it. I've shared the last paragraph below, because it's the part that I haven't been able to get out of my head since I read it. I've reread the post at least 3 times now. If you're interested at all, read the whole post, not just this last paragraph. Jen Hatmaker: After the Airport "Oh let us be a community who loves each other well. Because someone is always struggling through the "after the airport" phase, when the chords of human kindness become a lifeline of salvation. Let us watch for the struggling members of our tribe, faking it through sarcasm or self-deprecation or a cheerfully f...

I'm going to be honest. I've been nervous about posting this because I know a lot of times people post something like this & just lose a bunch of followers because people aren't interested. But I'm at a place in my life right now where I'm just burnt out on blogging & I have been for a while. I think it all began when I started my student teaching last fall and basically went back to work. Then this summer I thought I'd get all back into blogging like I did last year when I was staying home with Isis, but the opposite has happened. I'm even less interested.  I think part of the problem is that I'm hugely intimidated by people like Melissa from Dear Baby , Kelle from Enjoying the Small Things and even Adriel from The Mommyhood Memos (although this will be the first she's heard of it). I just don't have the time to put into my blog to create wonderful posts with great pictures and thoughtful commentary on my life or things I notice in Is...

I read about Pinterest on Queenie's blog the other day and I was so intrigued! I've slowly been checking it out & getting more involved. I must say, I am all about it now!!!! It's such a fun and easy way to save all your favorite internet finds! If you're on Pinterest already, let me know!!! And come follow along ! If you're interested in getting started on Pinterest, let me know & I'll send you an invite!!

Picture Source: Avenue D Photography This Mother's Day I told Lewis I wanted to go on a date. We are going this weekend! But the other thing I asked for was that we would give some money to help Adriel at The Mommyhood Memos make some Birth Kits! Every minute a woman dies of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.  Ninety-nine percent of these deaths occur in developing nations.  For every woman who dies in childbirth, another 30 women incur injuries and infections, which are often preventable. (Source: World Health Organization .) Adriel lives in Australia and works with YWAM Medical Ships . They provide a variety of medical services to those in need in Papua New Guinea. This year, Adriel has started a campaign called Bloggers for Birth Kits. In rural Papua New Guinea, 1 in 7 women die in childbirth. Birth Kits can really help reduce these risks. Please go to Adriel's blog to read more about this.  As soon as Adriel emailed me about this, I knew...

Oh, so many thoughts, and I already know I'm going to fall short of articulating them the way I wish I could. I read blogs like Melissa 's, Adriel 's, Queeny 's & Kelle 's and I am blown away by the way they use words. It's like painting a picture. I don't have that, but I pretend sometimes that I do. I've been teaching about the American Revolution in the 5th grade class where I'm doing my long term sub. This is my first time teaching 5th grade content & it's been interesting to see where their foundations are & how they view some of the concepts we are covering. Before discussing the American Revolution, you have to cover slavery because the colonists and other explorers brought slaves from Africa before the Revolution. When we finally reached the discussion of the Declaration of Independence, it was such a beautiful, but bittersweet moment when several of the students kept asking questions about why the founding fathers would put ...

Saving Money. It's an ongoing struggle that everyone faces to make the most of what they have. To even just have what you need can be a struggle. So we all find our own ways to save money and provide for our family. We have been a 1-income family for the last 13 months. I'm working now with my long-term sub position & I will be working full time in the fall, but we also now have student loans and childcare which can really put a dent in your budget. We've adjusted some things on our budget & we are trying to find some ways to save more money in ways that work for our family. The thing about budgeting & spending is that it's going to look so different for each family. Certain things take priority in some families that are easily expendable in other families. Here's where we are at this point & I'd love to hear your tips! 1. HomeBudget iPhone App We bought the HomeBudget iPhone app because it offered the family sync option. We entered our budget i...

Melissa at Dear Baby posted a link to this blog & the first post when I clicked was this one about " Dressing the Bump ." I have to say, this girl is absolutely beautiful & her style is so great!! I am all about some tunics & cardigans & she just got me so excited about getting pregnant again!! I've bookmarked this link so that when that day comes, I've got some inspiration! Also, preggo moms, there's a 30% off sale in the Old Navy Maternity clothes !! So go check it out!

2010 has brought so many wonderful new people into my life - other than Isis, who was obviously the most fabulous! Blogging has been really fun for me, mostly because of the wonderful new friends I have made! Adriel is one of them & I'm totally stealing this post idea from her. She has the BEST ideas for posts! If you haven't read her blog, please do! Here are the friends who just really made a difference to me over this past year! Adriel at The Mommyhood Memos Queenie at The Planet Pink Amy at Somebody's Parents Liz at A Belle, A Bean and a Chicago Dog Vanita at After Bedtime Blog Melissa at Another Lunch Melissa at Confessions of a Dr. Mom Gina at It's How She Rolls Lisa at Korean American Mommy Dawn at Life Unscripted Hanan at Lilac City Momma Mama Hen at Mama's Little Chick Jojo at One Sassy Vixen Lori at Mommyfriend Micheline at Flyrish Foibles Roz at A Little R & R Livy at Making Over Mum Lindsey at Peaceful Island Mother Melissa ...

Where has the time gone??? Seriously Isis is 11 months old today!! I can't believe it!! I'm so excited, but at the same time, I was over at Dear Baby today (as I am everyday) and Melissa totally reminded me that Isis' birthday is in 1 month and I have completely dropped the ball on planning her party!! I know when it is and where it is and who I'm going to invite, but I have yet to purchase invitations or decide on what we're going to do! It'll definitely be pretty low-key because it's really more for us than for her. I don't want her to get too over-stimulated, but I'm also just excited to spend some time with friends and family celebrating our sweet girl!! I love Melissa's idea of using Good Frau for invitations. I love that you can customize them exactly how you want so that your invitations look just like what you want and don't look like anyone else's. I think that's great! (Seriously, she's the master at finding great E...

Blogging pet peeves are obviously going to be different depending on the blogger or blog reader. I am not an expert, but I have been blogging for more than 3 years between this blog & my other one. So I've seen a lot of blogs & read a lot of tips. Here are 5 things from my perspective that will really help you as a blogger &  me as a reader. 1. Offer a full RSS feed Oh my goodness this gets on my nerves!! I don't know if people think that offering a partial feed will get people to click on their page more or something? But really all it does it gets most people from what I've seen to NOT subscribe or visit your blog at all. There are maybe 2 bloggers that I subscribe to their feed even if they don't offer a full feed & that's only because they email & converse with me regularly & in some way make up for the fact that I can't see their feed in my reader. So just offer a full feed.  There is some debate about the issue, but in every debate...

I don't post about other blogger's giveaways very often, but my very first blog friend , Jessica , who I've shared about before, is having a $500 JustMySize giveaway on her blog! She asked me to share this with my readers! Go check out her review & enter to win !!!

This week I wanted to share on two different topics. First, there have been a lot of wonderful breastfeeding posts recently. I think it's possibly due to August being National Breastfeeding Month. I wanted to share some of the great breastfeeding posts I've read lately!! Also, check out my breastfeeding update ! Melissa at Confessions of a Dr Mom wrote a beautiful post called Breastfeeding Broke My Heart . It is an absolute must-read for any mother. Amy at Somebody's Parent & Lori at Mommyfriend both weighed in on the recent breastfeeding comments made by a certain celebrity supermodel. Nikki at Mommy Oblongata shared her breastfeeding story . Becoming Sarah also shared her story as well as linking to this great post called The Dirty F-Word . Asashia at A Practical Mom asked you - to breastfeed or not to breastfeed ? Unexpectant shared some Secrets to Breastfeeding Success . Adriel at The Mommyhood Memos shared Tips for Breastfeeding in Public . Celebrity Bab...

Anybody interested in some of my thoughts on marriage? I guest posted over at Single Mom in the South today!! Here's a sneak peek: Marriage is hard. I’ll be the first to say it. It is also one of the most rewarding & wonderful things in the world, but it takes work . The truth is that loving someone is an active thing that involves choice every day. Those mushy in-love newlywed feelings fade & if there is nothing there to sustain the marriage beyond that, then trouble is waiting. I made the incredibly risky decision to marry very young. I was 20 years old. My husband was 24. I am now almost 26 and we will celebrate our 6th anniversary in October. While this in no way makes me an expert on marriage, it does mean that due to the decision to marry young, I believe we encountered a lot of difficulty very early in our marriage. It has taken a lot of prayer, discussion & humility to come out on the other end at a point where we now are parents & homeowners...

I believe I already have a few sneeze pages. The 31DBBB task today emphasized the importance of sneeze pages to highlight posts on your blog that users may not see on the front page when they visit. I knew of sneeze pages, but I had never thought of some of the specific kinds.  I love the idea of themed sneeze pages & I plan on doing one on blogging tips, pregnancy posts, cloth diaper posts, etc. I believe having a sneeze page for all my different main themes would be a great thing! I also love the idea of doing a weekly or monthly sneeze page highlighting your best posts from the past time period. I would also like to do a yearly one every year.  Things like this give new readers a chance to catch up & learn a little more about me & also allows regular readers to just remember some of your great posts - especially on days when what I may be posting is not so great. Some days you're on top of your game & some days you're just not. Here are links to 2 sne...

I don't usually spend a lot of time thinking about the key pages on my blog. After reading today's task for the 31DBBB , I definitely think this is something I need to keep in mind. Problogger suggests the front page of your blog, the About Me page, Contact page, high traffic pages, recommended reading page & Subscribe page. Home Page I'm pretty happy with my home page. I don't think it's really cluttered & it's got everything on it that I want there.  About Me Page I added my tag line to this page. I think the rest of it is okay, but I'd be happy to hear your feedback! Contact Page This just has my email address. What else do you have on your contact page?? High Traffic Pages Let's Do This, Ladies Dear Baby Analyzed Welcome to the Blog Bash A True, Authentic Mom I added some recommended reading & a link to my Subscribe page at the end of each of these pages. Best of Me Page I updated this with my best recent posts & added a link to ...

Today's task for the 31DBBB challenge is to write a link post. The idea is to share useful information with your readers & also to build relationship with other bloggers. I've decided to chose a few of my friend's blogs & share with you one of my favorites of their recent posts. These are all bloggers in my niche, so they're all related to being a mom! Even if you aren't a mom, though, I've tried to find things that would be interesting to anyone! Please check out these lovely ladies!! I Gots Me Some Mama Badges - The Mommyhood Memos Adriel always shares great insights & things she's learning in her journey as a new mom! Her son, Levi, is just about a month younger than Isis & I love following their story because I feel like we are in very similar places in life - even though we aren't in very similar places geographically - she lives in Australia!! I have also really loved talking to Adriel through email about blogging ideas & ti...

I scanned through all of the links on the 31DBBB task for today. I found something useful in every one of them! These are the ones I found most helpful: How to Get Traffic for Your Blog First, Ten 21 Tips to Earn Links and Tweets to Your Blog Post A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images 25 Paths to an Insanely Popular Blog How to Write Great Content - The Pillar Article Why Don't Bloggers Understand Email Marketing 6 Fool-Proof Steps to Make More Money With Your Website Rethinking Blog Comments 10 Reasons Readers Don't Leave Comments The Secret to Massive Digg/StumbleUpon Traffic Without Spamming 7 Great Ways to Connect With Other Bloggers While You're Out Reading Blogs 43 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level 40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content 27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community The important thing after reading tips like these is to apply it to you . How am I going to use these tips to better...

Today's task had to do with promoting a blog post. We are supposed to promote our list post from yesterday . There are several examples of how to promote a post, but you don't necessarily want to use every single one for each post you want to promote. I chose to do just a few. Here are the ones I did: I Stumbled my post. I have my RSS feed set up to post on my Facebook & Twitter pages. I also tweeted it again last night with the #31DBBB hashtag. I added a link to my post on past posts - this one & this one . I also plan on writing another post about the first few weeks after pregnancy when I have my New Mom Tips week at the end of August. I'll link to this then as well. What did you do to promote your post?? One thing I wanted to say is that the top suggestion for promoting your post is to ask other bloggers to link to it. I am such a nerd, but I'm scared to do that!!! Hilarious. I have no idea why. I'm not afraid to do most things when it comes to...