I know Mommybloggers has been...well on life support lately. Well, the good news is: We are coming back. New editors, new contributors, new format. New.
We have made some big changes. Some you will notice and some are behind the scenes. We hope you like it.
As always, if you have any suggestions, mom bloggers you want to see highlighted or just general comments, feel free to leave a comment or email us at mommybloggers@gmail.com
...Well, one of the "we's" of the original triad of Mommybloggers.com founders had a baby.
One of our original Mommybloggers, Meghan, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. We couldn't be any happier for her than we are right now. (And not just because she is sleep deprived and we are not. We love our Meghan.) She is one of us. A part of our family. We are tickled pink blue to have an addition to that family.
Benjamin James arrived on September 21st, very very early in the morning. He's a big boy, weighing in at 9 pounds 7 ounces at birth, and is now past a whopping 10 pounds. No wonder I was so tired all the time. Lugging this kid around! Now if only we can get him to sleep for 3 consecutive hours with some regularity...
We are thrilled as we can be for Meghan and her family. Please go over there and wish this gorgeous and sleep deprived mama congrats on this adorable little man!
We love you, Meghan!
Wanna see a sneak peek? Picture after the jump!
As if we needed another reason to be proud of our association with BlogHer.org and the fabulous Cooper and Emily... we received this email this morning:
Dear Friends,With BlogHer.org (an amazing association of women bloggers with 11,000+ members), we just kicked off an exciting project and want to make sure you know all about it!
It's called BlogHers Act and it's a year-long campaign to harness the power of women online to do two things:
1. Make a difference on a global issue.
2. Identify the top four issues that women online want the U.S. Presidential candidates to address in order to win their votes in the '08 election.
Go to our blog, Been There and to BlogHer.org to learn more about the project, and to tell us what you'd like to see BlogHer.org's 11,000 bloggers and their extended communities get behind for the next year, and what topics the Presidential candidates should address in order to get your vote in '08.
Please jump right in and tell this community what matters most to you. We really look forward to hearing from you and hope you'll forward this to your friends!
Best regards and many thanks,
Cooper and Emily
our email: cooper-emily@themotherhood.com
our blog: www.beenthere.typepad.com
our website: www.themotherhood.com
BlogHer.org: www.blogher.orgP.S. Margaret Mead said "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Just imagine what great things are possible through this project. We hope you weigh in.
We encourage you to add your voice to the conversation. Where do you want to see change? What issues do you want to see at the forefront? Together we can make a difference. Be heard.
Just a friendly reminder that you only have a few days to enter our contest to win a free registration to BlogHer '07. The contest ends this Friday. I know you want more details, so re-read them here. And remember, if you don't let us know that you posted something, well, we won't know you posted something. So, speak up and let us know entered if you have not already done so. (GIve us the link, we'll give you the linky love!) We are very excited to send someone. It just may be you!
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Tomorrow we have a really fun and funny interview with one of our favorite bloggers and authors, so be sure to check back as we dish the dirt with...ooops, I almost spilled the beans on who it is. Bad me. Half the fun of the interview is the surprise at who we are talking to, right? Am I right? (Just say I am. It works so much better that way!) Just be sure to check back and enjoy a fun day with a fun lady--with a good secret. Or does she?
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As always, we here at Mommybloggers are always open to suggestions as to what bloggers you would like to see featured here. Never hesitate to email us or comment if you haven't seen one of you favorites represented or if you have found a blog that has not had a huge spotlight on it yet, but you believe it should. We love finding new mommybloggers and introducing them to all of you. All you have to do is let us know!
It is no secret that The Mommybloggers met at BlogHer '05. Put on a panel together as virtual strangers, we soon became close friends and business partners. This summer will be our third year attending the amazing BlogHer conference and we wanted to share the fun with you! Last year we thoroughly enjoyed sending another blogger and shared in her delight as she participated full force in the conference. (And we of course take full credit for all successes she has had since then. Kidding, Kathryn!)
As part of our love and appreciation for BlogHer--both the conference, the organization and the people involved in it-- we at Mommybloggers will be covering the registration costs of one lucky blogger for the BlogHer '07 conference on July 27th and 28th as well as the unconference on Sunday the 29th, 2007 at the Navy Pier in Chicago, IL. (On Sunday, July 29, they will be hosting a free-form "unconference" at the Chicago City Centre that will begin at 9 a.m. and go until mid-afternoon.) Mommybloggers will be covering the entire cost of your registration for the complete event. (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and both cocktail parties!) However, we won’t be able to cover your travel expenses, unfortunately.
This is open to any blogger (or even wanna-be blogger) who wants to go to BlogHer '07. Not just mommybloggers. Anyone who really wants to be a part of BlogHer '07.
This year we are doing things a little differently than we did last year. Here is what you need to do to enter. Simply post an entry on your blog that has something to do with this year's theme (A World of Difference) OR an entry that tells everyone how much you learned (both personally or bloggishly) from a prior BlogHer OR just an entry that let's us all know what BlogHer and going to BlogHer means to you. (If you do not have a blog, don't sweat it! We will definitely work with you and make sure you have a place to post!)
Once you post your entry, link back to us in your post and let us know you wrote something. (You can also let us know here in the comments.) The point is, we need to know that you did this in order for you to be entered.
Now, last year was agonizing trying to narrow down the amazing entries and find the one we felt best represented the conference theme. We are a year wiser and have decided to do it a different way. This year, with one less Mommyblogger and a lot more of you, we are going to bring in a completely impartial guest to randomly choose one of our entrants as our winner. It will be the luck of the draw this year. Which means everyone has an equal chance. You don't have to be the one with the most hard luck story, the funniest story or the best kiss-up post. (Though we really do love the kissing up and the humor! It won't give you bonus points in the contest, but it will give you bonus points for tackle hugs or drink tickets at the conference. I'm just sayin'!)
Two days before the final name is drawn, we will be posting short experts *excerpts (and links back to your blogs (carnival style!) to share with our readers your wit, wisdom and fantastic writing. That way no one writes something that goes unseen or unappreciated.
The deadline to enter is Friday, May 18th, 2007 at midnight, PST. (That's midnight on the West Coast.)
If you have any questions, feel free to comment or to email us at mommybloggers@gmail.com
Good luck! We are eager to give one of you the chance to have your conference fees paid for.
Last week, Chris Jordan of Notes from the Trenches wrote an eloquent post, asking her readers to join with the fabulous BooMama to consider donating money to help Heather and her family meet expenses as they prepare to do battle. This post explains why.
Chris asked readers to donate, and then leave a comment on this post, to be entered into a drawing for prizes donated by other bloggers. The list is growing daily, but you can see some of the wonderful prizes in this entry, as well as this entry.
We're hoping that our readers will join us and so many others from around the internet to send a few dollars and lots of love to this mommyblogger in need.
Congratulations to our friends over at Silicon Valley Moms! Today is their first birthday - hard to believe, when you consider how much they've accomplished in 365 short days.
To all the contributors and editors - congratulations! Wishing you continued growth and success. You take mommyblogging to a whole new level.
Here at Mommybloggers headquarters, we've been having some fun behind the scenes with our server. Never fear - our problems have been solved (or, at least our site is back up. Heh.) and we're going to be bringing you a fresh interview with an amazing writer.
We can't wait to introduce you to our latest guest - check back tomorrow!
2007 snuck up on us here at Mommybloggers headquarters. We've been writing the wrong dates on our checks, starting blankly at our calendar page for December 2006, and wondering why the holidays don't match up.
Refreshed from our three-day weekend with our children (NOT) we are finally digging out the 2007 calendar. Mine is this one: Calendario Romano. Well, and this one: More Time Moms which I have been using for years now.
Must stop looking at hot priests for a moment and focus. Aha! Okay. Back to the subject at hand...
We've got a full schedule of interviews, essays and weekly Q&As ready to roll. We're looking forward to introducing you to some incredibly talented writers, and finally bringing some of our long-planned features online.
And, we've got a favor to ask:
You people are hysterical! By far, this has been one of the funniest and most enlightening contests we have ever run. We love that you all are not afraid to put it all out there for us to read. Choosing just 3 winners was a torturous event for us. So we did what every diplomatic group would do. We chose our winners randomly. Seriously, how are we to compare peeing in public over dealing with public pooping or vomiting? We just cannot.
With the help of our faithful assistant (Gabriella, daughter or Jenn), we chose our winners. Please, oh please, readers keep playing even if you did not win. We have never laughed so much at what you have had to say. Thank you for that.
3rd place goes to: Molly at Confession of the AtHomeMom. Dance floor puking and making fun of politicians is always good for a laugh!
2nd place goes to: Janet of Dancing Through. We are big fans of sarcasm and spewing at high speeds.
And last but not least, 1st place goes to: Jack's Raging Mommy. The snorting and the gross things Moms talk about were classic!
You can read their winning entries below. Thanks to all of you who contributed. Did you know we already have our next contest running? We beg of you to play. Mainly because we have fallen a little bit more in love with each of you after reading your latest answers.
Continue reading "You made us gag and laugh all at the same time! Winners!" »
We've had a little scare over here at Mommybloggers... Jenn Satterwhite spent a night at the hospital for chest pain and shortness of breath. She's home now, and resting. Unfortunately, the doctors were unable to pinpoint the cause of her pain, but she'll be seeing a cardiologist soon for a stress test. Her husband has put her on computer restrictions, so she'll be offline for a while.
She is pretty scared, and could use your good wishes. If you leave a comment here, I'll make sure she gets it.
Our feature on Catherine of Her Bad Mother has been moved to Monday, October 9th.
We've been busy behind the scenes here at Mommybloggers.com, making plans for new features. We're not quite ready to shout about it from the roof yet, but stay tuned...
We have some amazing guests coming up. Tomorrow, we will be featuring Liz, of Badgermama. You won't want to miss our candid interview with this kick-ass mother. Thursday, we're turning our spotlight on Catherine, the whip-smart mama behind Her Bad Mother.
Buckle up, and hang on - this week is going to be an incredible ride!
We've got a fierce admiration for MomsRising.org, here at Mommybloggers.com. This fantastic grassroots organization is working hard for the benefit of all mothers. Cooper Munroe, one of our favorite writers and activists, got the chance to view MomsRising.org's film The Motherhood Manifesto at BlogHer this year. Through this important film, she learned that in Pennsylvania, it is legal to ask someone in a job interview if they are married or have children. As you can guess, this hurts mostly moms and single moms.
Cooper leaped into action, and since BlogHer she has been working with Joan Blades and others at MomsRising.org, as well as women in Pennsylvania to help get legislation passed (it has been stalled in the state house and senate -- for 6 years!) that would make this practice illegal.
Cooper wrote an article about it, which explains the problem.
Cooper explains:
If Pennsylvania can do this, it means so much to moms everywhere, and could create momentum for many critical issues involving moms and families. PA could start a chain reaction, and we need to drum up some noise. Momsrising has created a web page for this, and we have been blogging over there too. We have information, links to PA legislators phone/email info and a petition. You don't have to be from PA to send a message that this is important.
We encourage you to go sign the petition, send an email, make a call, and please, spread the word. This "mom-profiling" and dicrimination needs to be brought to an end.
After the passionate response to our panel on mommyblogging at BlogHer 2005, we left determined to change the negative perceptions of the label we simply cannot avoid.
Mommybloggers.com is the outgrowth of that motivation.
Over the last year, we've seen an explosion of fantastic mother writers, and we've talked candidly with many of them. We've introduced our readers to writers from a variety of backgrounds. As we approach our first anniversary, we are committed to introducing more writers, and exposing more diversity in the mommyblogging community.
One thing that hasn't changed: there is still a great deal of hatred for the term, both inside and outside of the genre. This year's wonderful panel - featuring Mir of Woulda Coulda Shoulda, Tracey of Sweetney.com, Alice of Finslippy and Marrit of Baldo took on the term, the identity and fielded questions about mommyblogging and money.
We heard several times that 2006 was the Year of the Mommybloggers. As a community, we were certainly recognized and talked about. Last year, we were regarded as fluff writers. This year, we became a force to be reckoned with, although we did overhear conversations wondering how a bunch of fluff writers could have become so marketable. Is increased visibility benefiting us, or merely driving an us-vs.-them wedge into the community of women bloggers?
Some of us party like rock stars and swear like sailors. This is always mentioned with a slightly awed tone - mothers don't act like that. Or do they? We've read how mommybloggers stand in happy, chattering cliques and make ourselves difficult to approach. We've read about the reputation mommybloggers have for running in a pack, and for vigorously defending our own, should they come under attack. We're hard-pressed to see this as a negative. This is far from unusual in the blogosphere. Yet we also know that our community is prone to attacking each other over everything from body image to breastfeeding. We are far from united, and while we would love to end all personal attacks, we support respectful discourse and debate on blogs.
We are lucky to be one of the charter members of BlogHer's ad network. BlogHer's vision for a targeted ad network - featuring amazing blogs written by women - needed guinea pigs. We were excited to open our templates and participate as BlogHer put the final touches on the network. The power of women bloggers, and the diversity of the audience we reach is astounding and infinitely exciting to advertisers. We are excited to see the growth of the entire network as additional categories and targeted ads come on line.
After WoolfCamp Spring 2006, Grace Davis was determined to bring professional, affordable childcare to BlogHer 2006. The childcare committee did a fantastic job, and Grace’s vision of a warm, accommodating, safe and professional childcare was a tremendous success. We know that other conferences will look to BlogHer as an example of how to better accommodate attendees with children. Thank you, Grace.
While we understand the backlash from some attendees towards receiving a bib, condom, or a tee-shirt in the wrong size - we're sad that those unwanted items were thrown away instead of collected to be donated to a women's shelter or other organization that could have benefited. Next year, we hope to have a collection system in place to help facilitate that option, for women who don't welcome those types of handouts.
So, where do we go from here? We are still working to change the one-size-fits-all nature of the mommyblogging label. While babies and poop and diapers are an occasional topic, there are hundreds of self-identifying mommybloggers who are eloquent and forthright on subjects both political and personal. We look forward to expanding the dialog and finding ways to increase the cooperation and respect between all women, writing in all genres, whether they are mothers or not.
Check out the lovely and photogenic stylings of some of the many BlogHer attendees who we convinced to sport one of our specially made tattos:
We'll be back with a recap tomorrow!
A while back, we announced that we would be sponsoring one full-admission ticket to BlogHer this year. We asked applicants to write a short essay, telling us how your blog is changing your world.
We were flooded with wonderful entries. After more than a week of inspirational reading, we had to make a decision. Believe us when we say that we truly enjoyed every entry, and were incredibly disappointed that we can only afford a single scholarship this year. We are determined to make this opportunity available to even more readers next year.
In the end, we selected Kathryn, of Daring Young Mom as our first scholarship recipient. Congratulations, Kathryn!
Minti.com - a wonderful parenting site, is also sponsoring two full admissions to BlogHer this year. They will be accepting applications (details here) through May 25th.
Finally, BlogHer will have some scholarships available - we'll post details as we get them. Our heartfelt thanks to each of our applicants - we wish we could send you all. Hopefully, we'll see you at BlogHer this year!
