Sorry for the delay in this announcement, but the MamaBlogga RSS Contest winner is Jill Anderson! Jill received a one year subscription to Parenting magazine, which she was very excited about.
Jill also runs a business, Script-Yours that offers distinctive, personalized Christian gifts. Take a look—they’re pretty neat! (Be sure to look up close; I didn’t really “get it” until I saw the close up photos.)
Congratulations, Jill!
Hayden has been a bit of a pill lately. Last night he screamed for like 45 minutes after we put him down (at which point we gave up and let him play for 30-45 minutes. He went right down after that). He’ll spend entire nap times crying. This is very unusual for my son whom the nurses could barely get to whine when he was born. Yes, he whines plenty these days, but he’s been a good napper and good about bedtime for months now.
Some time in the last two weeks, I saw something white on Hayden’s gums in the back of his mouth. I tried to touch it and thought I brushed it away.
But then Ryan brought Hayden to me this morning, pointing out the same white thing in the back of his mouth—a molar. I felt his gums on the other side; there was another.
There you can see the first one. You can see almost all of his teeth here other than one on the bottom and the other molar. You can also see his top lateral incisor, which I think might also be chipped (and much worse than the other one).
No wonder he’s been so grumpy. This also explains how he’s been able to chew things better lately.
Why are we always the last to know? Guess it’s a little late to put these teething tips to use…
Another one of the most popular parent bloggers has been gracious enough to answer a few questions for me—Shannon of Rocks In My Dryer. Yep, the home of Works-for-Me Wednesday, a weekly compendium of tricks and tips from around the momblogosphere. As always, we talked about motherhood, blogging and fulfillment.
How do you define fulfillment?
Doing what you were created to do, and doing it well.
How do you find personal fulfillment in your life?
I’m a mom, a wife, a Christian, a crafter, a reader, a writer (not all in that order—actually, the order changes almost daily!)
How do you find personal fulfillment through motherhood?
I reject the idea that a woman “defining herself” through her service to her children and husband is somehow demeaning, and that she’s bound to lose herself in the process. It doesn’t have to be true. One of my favorite quotes (I believe it’s from Ralph Waldo Emerson) is “When you serve another’s dreams, you will find your own fulfilled.” That is so profoundly true. I take great personal joy in taking care of the people I love. It fulfills me, it defines me, it makes my own life richer.
Anything parting thoughts?
I do think it’s important for a woman to find something she’s good at, something she enjoys, and pursue it with excellence. Blogging and sewing are two amazing outlets for me. For me personally, creating something (something I’ve sewn or written or given birth to!) is the most fulfilling thing in life.
Thank you so much, Shannon. I love your straight-to-the-point answers and your faith. You’ve hit on many of the themes I find as I examine fulfillment in my life, especially the creative impulse. Thanks again!
To read more of Shannon’s thoughts, visit Rocks In My Dryer, one of the most popular parenting blogs around—and with good reason!
Warning: this picture is a little scary.
Ahh!! A huge giant mouth!! Ahh!!!
Okay, seriously, this is to show that Hayden has chipped a tooth. (The one on the upper right/his upper left: inside bottom corner.) 🙁 He’s only had that tooth for 5 months. At least it’s just a little chip. (It looks bigger when it’s in focus…)
Not sure how that happened. He likes to fall off stairs, chairs and couches… Don’t know.
[tags]wordless wednesday[/tags]
I was privileged to interview the #1 most popular parent blogger, Janice of 5 Minutes for Mom. 5 Minutes for Mom, maintained by Janice and her twin sister Susan, focuses on bringing moms the best stuff on the Internet—parenting, blogging, shopping, you name it. She was kind enough to answer a few questions about motherhood, blogging and (of course) fulfillment.
How do you define fulfillment?
I guess I will start here – but it is a tough question…
In essence, my fulfillment – any kind of true fulfillment for me – comes from living out what God has created me to do. So my greatest fulfillment comes first from my relationship with God and my salvation through Christ. That is the foundation for any other forms of fulfillment in my life.
Motherhood and work both bring me fulfillment as I live out particular callings and gifts that I believe God has purposely given me.
I am called to be a mother. I prayed for years to be a mom and now that God has blessed me with motherhood, I believe I must treasure and respect that calling. It brings me the greatest joy that I have felt here on earth. The intense love I have for my son allows me to understand more fully how powerfully God loves us, His children.
As for my work, I also believe that God has given me certain gifts and goals. While I need to be careful that I do not put these in front of my role as a mother and wife, I feel that they are integral to my personal fulfillment and the fulfillment of my callings.
How does the fulfillment you find through work differ from that which you find through motherhood?
I am sure every mother would agree that they wouldn’t trade anything for the incredible gift of being a mother. Nothing can touch the joy of loving and raising a child.
But as I am sure most mothers would admit, motherhood is the toughest job out there and some days it is enough to drive a woman crazy!
After a miscarriage, I found I needed to get back to my creative side and start writing again. I love my son desperately, but I needed a distraction from “waiting” to get pregnant again. The daily routines of mothering were not doing it for me! Spiritually and emotionally I needed to write and work. I needed to use my creative gifts. I needed an outlet.
From that place, came our blog. It “saved” me in so many ways from the grief of losing my baby and the months and months of wondering if I was ever going to have another child. That tangible effort – the creation of something – brought me a new form of fulfillment. No it isn’t as powerful as motherhood or as important as my relationship to God, but it is a part of my life for which I am so grateful.
Thanks, Janice. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions, and I really appreciate your thoughts and your testimony of fulfillment in motherhood.
To read more of Janice’s (and her sister Susan’s equally good) thoughts, head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom. Oh, and did I mention that they were ranked #1 on the Popular Parent Bloggers. Yeah, they’re good.
Last week, I gave some advice on RSS to mom bloggers. In that post, I advocated full RSS feeds as opposed to partial or summary feeds. I wasn’t trying to be less than candid nor was I trying to assume the attitude of “I’ve thought about it with my superior Internet marketing intellect, so don’t you worry your pretty little heads.” I was just trying to be brief, and in doing so I gave that topic short shrift (go figure).
So, let’s take a look at the myths about partial and full feeds. Yes, there are advantages to both—but I truly do feel, as I said before, that the advantages of full feeds outweigh the disadvantages.
The scarier myths about partial feeds
Partial feeds keep my content from getting stolen
If people really want to steal your content, they will. Scrapers don’t just attack RSS feeds. It may be slightly easier for them to get your content to come to them with RSS, but it’s also not hard to visit your site and cut and paste. Scrapers attack feeds, sites and even search engine results pages. When Lorelle on WordPress addressed the issue of stolen content, she said:
I didn’t say “if” someone steals your content. That was on purpose. With the glut of information on the Internet, it’s now a matter of “when” not “if”.
The first step in learning about what you can do when someone steals your content is to know that it will happen, so the more prepared and informed you are, the better your chances of prevention and having a plan in place when they steal. (read more from Lorelle)
Yes, it’s scary and dark, but the truth is that anything that is published—online or offline—can be stolen. Scrapers can use partial feeds just as easily—only then, it might be considered “fair use”—and, therefore, much harder to stop with the force of law.
There’s nothing you can do if your blog’s content gets stolen
There are always recourses; stealing blog content is against the law. First, put copyright notices on your blog and your feed. Next, look at Lorelle on WordPress’s post on what to do when someone steals your content. You can invoke the power of the law without a lawyer.
Also, for both of these issues, there are a few things that you can do to try to prevent and catch content theft (via). You do have to be vigilant, but I’d recommend checking up on this issue whether you publish full feeds or none at all.
Less scary myths, but things that bloggers must take into consideration
Partial feeds make people click through to see my site
We all want people to see our beauteous sites. We work hard on their design. FeedBurner CEO Rick Klau said a few weeks ago, “We’ve seen no evidence that excerpts on their own drive higher clickthroughs.” Speaking for myself, I’m far more likely to click on a well-written full post (whether to see or make comments, or to blog about it myself) than the first 40 words. For most bloggers, the first 40-100 words aren’t a hook; they’re a warm up.
It’s not asking that much for people to click through to read my post.
In marketing, we have to treasure every opportunity someone gives us to contact them. It’s illegal for us to “cold e-mail” people who haven’t given us their permission to contact them. People are very reluctant to hand over their private information—even just an e-mail address. Every subscription—RSS, e-mail or otherwise—must be regarded as hard-won. Somehow, you’ve instilled enough trust in that person that they’re willing to see more of what you have to say. You have to be careful how and when you ask them to do more.
Asking one of your precious subscribers to click through every time you post may seem like a small thing to you, but to me, a blog reader, it is not. I read more than 100 blogs every day; Google Reader tells me I’ve read nearly 4000 posts in the last 30 days. What if everyone expected me to click through to read their stories?
In the same post I just referenced, Rick Klau put it this way:
As people subscribe to feeds, they subscribe to more feeds. And that means they’re consuming more content, which means that each click out of the feed reader is taking the reader away from more content. In other words, feed reading is consumption oriented, not transactionally focused.
When someone subscribes to your blog, they are saying, “I like what you talk about; I’d like to read it at my convenience.” My convenience, personally, is reading it at the same time and the same place that I read all my other blogs. I’m not reading only what you have to say; I wouldn’t bother with a feed reader if I only wanted to know when you’ve posted something new.
It’s not “just one click” to a reader. To me as a reader, “one click” is the button I clicked when I subscribed to your blog. To ask me to click dozens, hundreds or thousands of times a month really is asking too much.
If you’re still not comfortable with full feeds, I might suggest writing an engaging post summary and posting that on your feed instead of whatever excerpt might come up. I’m really getting tired of reading excerpts that don’t even have enough words in them to make sense.