CrAzY Working Mom: blogging

Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Spam - A Thorn In My Side

There was a time when I lived for comments, I would check my mail, stats, comments every few minutes. I wanted a high PR ranking, I wanted to be a top blogger. I wanted everyone to know my name. Then along came child number 2 and 3. So much for that idea! I no longer have time to sit down at the computer and visit other blogs so why should I expect them to visit me. Frankly, I don't. I have contemplated shutting down my blog on several occasions, and then I realized that the whole reason I began blogging in the first place was to document for my friends and family the goings on of my family...the good, the bad, and the extremely crazy! I had a realization that nothing else really mattered.

Sure, I am like a lot of other "mommy" bloggers. I like to do the occasional paid post, or product review but I am surely not making a living from it. There are those of you that are, and that is great! I have three kids who I have to haul around to and from school, a business to co-manage, church, family, and frankly blogging just doesn't fit into my schedule much anymore. I do facebook a lot simply because it is quick, mobile, and I can do it on my phone while I'm waiting in the parking lot at school, in the doctor's office waiting room, or even sitting on the toilet (oh, come on - you know you do it too!!!) I have connected with many bloggers there and still keep up with them.

This blog is loaded with comments these days, but not the kind of comments that one would hope for. They are SPAM comments. Thankfully my spam filter catches most of them. A big part of them are inappropriate content for this blog! But there are those that occasionally slip through. You know the kind - "Nice blog", or "Great post". You even get some that will actually leave a comment that might half way look like they read the post. But, the thing is...IT IS STILL SPAM!!! It chaps my hide and I can't stand it.

People are being PAID to leave spam on your blog!!! Did you know that??? It irks me that THEY are making money by leaving comments and back links on MY blog. It doesn't fly with me and spammers beware that your comments WILL be deleted from this blog so don't waste your time or mine!!! Don't think you are going to get a free ride from this blog. It ain't happening...not now, not ever!

*steps off soap box and puts it away*

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...already in progress.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Looking to Win?

Head over to 5 Minutes for Mom and check out their Christmas Giveaway! You can enter to win LOTS of awesome gifts that are probably already on your Christmas shopping list. They've extended the deadline until December 4, but head over now to secure your entries. Good luck!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Happy Blog-iversary to me, Happy Veterans Day to you!

My first post was written on Thursday, November 11, 2004. It was short and sweet. These days that seems to be the only way I operate. My poor blog gets neglected a lot with 3 kids, work, house hold chores and obligations, church, etc. I tend to twitter and Facebook a lot more than I blog because I can just keep it short and simple.

Today, in honor of our Veterans who have served this wonderful country, The United States of America I say Thank You for your service. My children and I enjoy our freedom because of those of you who dedicate your life to serving! I'm in agreement with Maxine:

Now, in honor of my 6 years of (mostly) dedicated service to the blog world, I invite you to share in some celebratory virtual cake. And here's to another year of blogging for the sake of future embarrassment of my children. ;)

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

I've gone from being quoted by my children to CNN!

Yours truly was quoted in an article in Parenting Magazine. As it turns out, said article has been featured on CNN's Top Stories in the Living Section! The article is When to have your 2nd or 3rd kid? Article highlights include: spacing kids include two-under-two, three years apart, and four years or more. Each split has its own benefits and drawbacks. Some moms want to replicate the tight bonds they have with their brothers or sisters. In the article, I shared a time when Tyler tried to give Emily goldfish snacks when she was only a few weeks old.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Not a Goodbye. Just a See Ya Later

Yes, we are all still very much alive at the house of CrAziness. It seems like more and more these days my time is consumed with homework, laundry, cooking, etc. There is less time for me to be online and to be quite honest, less inclination. Don't get me wrong, I love the relationships that I've built with my online friends, but it does take away from my family when I am online. Whether it be reciprocating visits to my blog, posting product reviews, hosting contests, Tweeting, or Facebooking the obligations are endless. All of this tethers me to a computer during the day in addition to my job. It is tiring just thinking about all it.

As a family, we are trying to become closer to one another and closer to God. We're going back to church. We had gotten out of the habit. It's so easy to do. You have little ones and you worry that they will be disruptive in church so you stay home and then a few weeks turn into a few months and then before you know it you are not going to church anymore. You enjoy the sleeping in time that may occur. My husband and I were both feeling a tremendous burden of guilt for not being in church with our children. Our marriage was suffering and we felt that our business was doing the same. We had gotten away from God and our lives were reflecting that. Now that we are back in church, our faith in one another is stronger, our commitment to our children is greater, and our love of God is once again a strong foundation for our family! Brien has quit smoking by the Grace of God and we are standing behind him on this. Please add him to your prayer list that he will stay on track. He's 9 days strong so far.

I am reminded daily what a smart woman, Ms Bee once said in a comment...I am not about to go trying to look that one up 'cause she's left thousands of comments on this blog. But, she told me that when the kids are grown they will not remember whether or not the house was messy, only the moments in it. So, I try to reflect on that each day and not stress over the dirty floors, sink full of dirty sippy cups, and of course Mt St Laundry!

Life is all about prioritizing and so it seems that CrAzY Working Mom, Facebook, Twitter, and all of the responsibilities that come with it have taken a back burner to what matters most to me, my family and my God. What I am trying to say is that for now, I will probably still be posting sporadically here, I will do my best to at least get McLinky (or whatever he is calling it these days) up for you Looking @ The Sky on Friday participants. I won't promise a photo, but I'll do my best. I still have some product reviews/obligations to do, but they will be far and few between in the near future. The weather is beautiful, and my kids are only going to be young once. I am going to take the time to be nearer to them and enjoy their company instead of telling them, as they've heard so many times, "Just one more minute. I'm almost done, I HAVE to get this post finished." There are a few of you who still visit me when you have the chance even though I don't do the same. Thank you for that. Please know that I still love each and every one of you who I've built such strong bonds with and this is by NO means a good bye, just a pause. I must do what I feel in my heart and right not, my heart is telling me to concentrate on my family. I will still be online, just not with such conviction and commitment as before. Who knows, maybe some day I will be. But, for now there's just not enough time.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Dear God:

Every single evening

As I'm lying here in bed,

This tiny little Prayer

Keeps running through my head:

God bless all my family

Wherever they may be,

Keep them warm

And safe from harm

For they're so close to me.

And God, there is one more thing

I wish that you could do;

Hope you don't mind me asking,

Please bless my computer too.

Now I know that it's unusual

To Bless a motherboard,

But listen just a second

While I explain it to you, Lord.

You see, that little metal box

Holds more than odds and ends;

Inside those small compartments

Rest so many of my friends.

I know so much about them

By the kindness that they give,

And this little scrap of metal

Takes me in to where they live.

By faith is how I know them

Much the same as you.

We share in what life brings us

And from that our friendships grew.

Please take an extra minute

From your duties up above,

To bless those in my address book

That's filled with so much love.

Wherever else this prayer may reach

To each and every friend,

Bless each e-mail in box

And each person who hits 'send'.

When you update your Heavenly list

On your own Great CD-ROM,

Bless everyone who says this prayer

Sent up to GOD.Com

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Back on the Social Media Bandwagon

Good morning, friends! I am back at the office today after some sort of stomach bug kept me in bed most of the day yesterday. I managed to get up and help Brien get the kids dressed to go to Grandma's house. Shelby was not feeling well either, so she ended up staying home with me. She and I slept a big part of the day. I don't know what it was, but it wasn't fun. I felt dizzy and light headed every time I would stand up. I think that after the day I had yesterday, I probably need some under eye cream for dark circles because I know I don't look so hot. But, at least I am among the land of the living for today. I spent a whole day away from blogging, twitter, facebook, google buzz, e-mail, and any other social media that I actively participate in. It woke up this morning feeling completely disconnected and wondering what was going on in the world. It's great to be feeling well again and even better to be back online!

Thursday, February 04, 2010

CrAzY Working Mom's Blog Roll, Are You There?!

I am trying to update my blog roll. I have gotten bad about adding blogs to my feed reader but never putting them in the blog roll (which is important to getting you links for those of you concerned with Page Rank). You can see the list at any time over in the left hand side bar under "Daily Reads". But, I've added it to this post as well. If you'd like to be added to this blog roll, please leave me a comment on this post, or just e-mail me and let me know. I try to keep everyone that I read on a weekly basis included in this list. Those blogs who hadn't been updated or had been deleted have also been deleted from the blog roll. If your link was deleted in error (Hey, everyone makes mistakes!) please let me know!

A Little Girl Talk
A Little Piece of Me
Adventures of Mommyhood
Altjiranga mitjina
An Ordinary Life
Are We There Yet
Autofocused
Bagwine Ruminations
Bubba's Sis
Cafe @ The End of the Universe
Cool Mom Guide
Comedy Plus
Crunchy Carpets
Dayngr Zone
Deep Fried Pickles and Ice Cream
Dixie's Heart & Soul
Doctor Anonymous
Echoes of Grace
Empress Bee
Everything and Nothing
Gay Dads in Munchkin Land
Heart of Rachel
I was Born to Cre8
Idaho Daily Photo
It's A Blog Eat Blog World
It is Nap Time
June Cleaver Nirvana
Laisy Daisy
Life w/Cheryl
Love in My Veins
Lowdown From Lois
Mags
Mississippi Songbird
Misty Dawn
Moments
Mom Knows Everything
Mom of 3 Girls
Mountain Momma
Mummy Diaries
Mom's Got a Dot Com
Odat's Mumblings
On The Bricks
My Life Through A Lens
Picture Clusters
Pollywog Creek
Post Secret
Purrchance to Dream
Rambling Mom
Ramblings of Maggie
Rebecca
Sanni's Photo Blog
Scrappin with Life
Single Parents Unite
Single White Diabetic
Soulful Thoughts
Scribbit
Super Mae
The Buzz Queen.com
The Ice Box
The Red Door
Thermal
Time W/Shelby
Titania Starlight
Transplanted Taste Buds
Trav's Thoughts
Wading through my Stream
Whee! All The Way Home
Work of the Poet
Write from Karen

I hope you'll return the favor if you see your name in the list and I'm not on your blog roll. :) Have a great day, everyone.

Added since publishing:

A Better Bag of Groceries

Everything Gwenny

Mom et al

Feefifoto

Coloring With Light
The Misplaced Midwesterner
Beth and Cory's Mom
Sacred Ruminations
Small Reflections
Happily Retired Gal
Live and Learn

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Generating Blogging Contacts

Have you been looking to connect with companies to do reviews, but don't know where to start? Well, connecting with companies like Business2Blogger is a great place to start. Business2Blogger is a service designed to help connect Businesses and Bloggers for free. Doing reviews, especially paired with give aways or contests is a great way to generate traffic to your blog which could in turn gain more return readers. To find out a little more about this company, you can click here or if you're ready to sign up, you can do that right now. It's easy, and it's free so what have you got to lose?!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

My Four Minutes of Fame on Good Morning Arkansas

They say that you are your own worst critic, right? Well, every time I watch this segment I find more and more things that I wish I'd done differently, from my make up to my hair, trying to hide a little bit of my country "twang", and I could go on and on. I have no other way to get this segment here other than using a Christmas present that we got for my daughter, a digital recorder to record my television screen and then upload it to my lap top. The quality is not that great because it's a cheap recorder. Maybe I can get a copy from the Good Morning Arkansas producers. But, I know that many of you who live out of the state have requested to be able to see the segment and some who did not get a chance to see it live. Here it is, my television debut on KARK, Channel 7 - Arkansas' ABC Affiliate on Good Morning Arkansas:

FYI: The contest is now closed. Winners were announced yesterday if you missed it! Thanks to all who participated.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Theft of Bloggery!!!!!!

I received an e-mail today from another blogger alerting me that another website is publishing my feed without my knowledge! This website has NO permission to do so and the kicker is that they are running advertisements so they are making money from MY words!! This has been happening since June. 176 posts total before today. This is NOT COOL. I’ve contacted the site and left comments, but I also contacted the company who does the advertisements on the site to let them know. I am not the only "working mom" on this website, there are others. Kaleigh gave me the idea to contact the ad site. Hopefully this will help. Any advice on what else we can do?!?

So, if you were wanting to steal my words, pictures, memes, and thoughts...DON'T!!! My advice to you would bew to find a job or learn how to write yourself. You do NOT have permission to be publishing my feeds. This feed originates at http://www.crazyworkingmom.com. If you are reading this content on another site, it has been illegally copied. Please contact me if you are viewing this content from an unauthorized website.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Update:

My feeds have been removed from the site. Unfortunately there are still 4 other "working mom" victims. If any of you read this, please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I think that this site needs to be removed! It's deception at it's finest and should not be allowed!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Well, here comes the scrap!

I have been given an award from one of my new favorite reads.

John from Gay Dads in Munchkin Land has given me the Honest Scrap Award.

"this award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blogs content or design is, in the giver's opinion, brilliant."

Thanks so much to you, John for thinking of me for this award. Brilliant, wow that is flattering! If you've not been over to visit this blog, I'd like to invite you to do so. He's an Entrecard member so you can head over, drop on him, and leave him a comment and let him know that CWM sent you over to say hello!

This award comes with a tag as well, so I will oblige my new friend with ten (10) honest things about myself.

1. I am excited about weight loss, but not about dieting.

2. I weight more now than I have ever weighed in my life in a non-pregnant state.

3. I crave chocolate. Not just your normal craving, but I ache for it. I have not had chocolate in over three weeks.

4. I am glad Spring Break is over. I love my kids, but I'm ready for some time away from them.

5. I cry like a baby when I watch movies. Just about any movie I watch makes me cry. I'm such a sap.

6. I love to sing really loud in my vehicle when I drive. I also dance, and I don't care who's watching!

7. I wish I could hire someone to clean my house for me. The trouble is that I am just too picky and I know that it'd never be like I wanted, so I've never even tried.

8. We go to see our accountant on Thursday and I'm as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs!

9. Last week my mom reconnected with her half-sister. They had a falling out when my grandma died and haven't spoken since. My aunt's father died and mom went to the funeral. It did my heart good to see them embracing. It was a great feeling and I am so glad that they have put their differences behind them.

10. I'm super excited about seeing the movie 17 Again. Please don't tell my husband or my 6 year old that I have a secret crush on Zac Efron. They won't let me watch HSM ever again. My secret's safe with you all, right, RIGHT?

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Oh where, oh where...

Do you have Facebook? If so, all of the fishing pictures can be found on my profile there. You can click the badge above to get there. I haven't been online much this week. In fact, I'm probably going to be on a little blogging hiatus for a bit. I will still be posting sporadically, but there are things in my life that I need to be concentrating on and to do that, I will be spending less time online.

I started eating low-carb this week. So, I am really trying to lose this extra "baby weight" that seems to be hanging around and making friends!

Monday I worked out on the Wii Fit. It had been 14 days since my previous work out. It didn't even know me. It jokingly asked me if I was my daughter. So, my goal is to work out every day this week, and hopefully the next.

The time change is kicking my butt. I am exhausted. The weather is crazy, to say the least. Yesterday was 80 something. Today it's not going to get out of the 40s. We might have some snow tomorrow!

Sometimes people are jerks. No matter how many hoops you jump through or how much you bend over backward to please them, in the end they are still jerks! Stick to your guns, I say!

Tyler is sick...bad cough, runny nose. He and Emily are at the office with me today. So far he's: gotten water all over the place washing his hands in the bathroom, sprayed a half a can of air freshener, eaten a full a bag of pinata candy he got at daycare yesterday from a birthday party, and turned his baby sister upside down in her car seat. *sigh*

I am getting prepared for our annual visit with the accountant scheduled for next Thursday. Time is ticking and I've got lots to do. Please keep your fingers crossed for a good result for the taxes this year.

My sister is moving (back) to town. The school that her daughter is supposed to go to is full, so they will be having to send her to Shelby's school!!! I'm thrilled. I think the girls will enjoy so much playing with one another and hopfully I'll be spending more time with both of them!

Monday, February 16, 2009

I'm a dot com mom

My address has changed. No, I didn't move, but my blog is no longer a blogspot blog. I'm a dot com! I'm officially a crazyworking dot com mom! That has a nice ring to it doesn't it?! For those of you linking to me, could you kindly change my address in your sidebar. For those of you not linking to me, it's a good time to do so! I'm new and improved and if you want to be added here, just leave me a comment. My links are do follow.

http://www.crazyworkingmom.com

Here's my feed URL if you want to add my new domain to your feed reader: http://www.crazyworkingmom.com/feeds/posts/default

Thanks in advance!!!

Support

I need some tech support. As you can tell from the post above I purchased a domain name through blogger (from Go Daddy dot com). To my understanding, it was supposed to be an easy transition that would automatically update my settings and my blog traffic would be re-directed to my new domain name. It could take up to two days for a re-direct to take place, meaning that when you type in my blogger address: tishblack.blogspot.com it will re-direct you automatically to my new domain name: www.crazyworkingmom.com. Well, apparently it isn't that easy. I purchased this domain on Friday night and my site still isn't being re-directed! Here is a screen shot of my publishing settings:

(click to view larger)

When I check the box under Your Domain where is says : Redirect crazyworkingmom.com to www.crazyworkingmom.com I am getting an error: Blogs may not be hosted at naked domains.

(click to view larger)
It does say underneath - Congratulations, your blog is ready! So, this makes me believe that somewhere in all of this that there is box that has been left unchecked or some minor detail that hasn't been completed.

What do I need to do to get this to re-direct?! If anyone has any knowledge on this or has completed this task previously, please leave me a comment or shoot me an e-mail tishblack @ gmail dot com. Thanks!

**This issue has been resolved. I just didn't give it enough time to re-direct...patience is a virtue, right?!**

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentine's Day Link Love

Since today is a day of love, I'm showing some link love for those of you in my link list (located on the left hand sidebar). If you are NOT in my link love list and you want to be, just leave me a comment and let me know. If I am in YOUR link list could you kindly redirect my link to http://www.crazyworkingmom.com? Thank you so very much! I spent much of the day adding these links to my domain. I was using Blogrolling.com. Their site was hacked at the end of last year and it's still not back up and running. I couldn't add or delete links, so I am no longer using a linking service. I'm doing it the old fashioned way. Better for YOU and me.

A Little Piece of Me
Adventures of Mommyhood
All Things Work For Good
Altjiranga mitjina
An Ordinary Life
Are We There Yet
Asara
Autofocused
Bagwine Ruminations
Blog That Mommy
Blogging By Sandee
Bubba's Sis
Cafe @ the end of the Universe
Crunchy Carpets
Dayngr Zone
Deep Fried Pickles and Ice Cream
Dixie's Heart & Soul
Doctor Anonymous
Echoes of Grace
Empress Bee
Everything and Nothing
Heart of Rachel
I was Born to Cre8
Idaho Daily Photo
It's A Blog Eat Blog World
It is Nap Time
Laisy Daisy
Life w/Cheryl
Love in My Veins
Lowdown From Lois
Mags
Mississippi Songbird
Misty Dawn
Mom Knows Everything
Mom of 3 Girls
Mountain Momma
Mummy Diaries
Mom's Got a Dot Com
Odat's Mumblings
On The Bricks
My Life Through A Lens
Picture Clusters
Pointless Babbling
Pollywog Creek
Post Secret
Purrchance to Dream
Rambling Mom
Ramblings of Maggie
Rebecca
Sanni-licious
Sanni's Photo Blog
Scrappin with Life
Single Parents Unite
Sosuna-o-Lata
Soulful Thoughts
Super Mae
The Buzz Queen
The Buzz Queen.com
The Ice Box
The Red Door
Thermal
Time W/Shelby
Titania Starlight
Transplanted Taste Buds
Trav's Thoughts
Turning The Pages
Wading through my stream...
Work of the Poet
Write from Karen

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday was my beautiful Kindergartener's Valentine's Day party. We had a fun time celebrating the occasion with her class. There were enough cookies, chips, and treats to make your teeth fall out right before you crashed from your sugar high!!! You can see Shelby going through her Valentines in the photo to the left.

Before the party, Shelby and her class participated in the 30th anniversary Jump Rope For Heart. I'll tell you one thing, there is nothing quite as comical as watching a gymnasium full of Kindergarteners trying to jump rope! Their method is as follows: quickly slam the rope over your head smashing it on the ground, once it hits the ground, hop over it, repeat with no rhythm. I did not take my video camera, but I wished that I would have because it was quite a interesting.

How are you spending your Valentine's Day? We've made no plans. It's just a typical Saturday around here. I'm watching a movie, blogging, and trying to get caught up on laundry...mostly at the same time. Whatever your plans, I hope that you have a wonderful day.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Error!

Okay, folks I don't know what is going on around here, but I don't like it one bit!!! Apparently Mommybloggerdirectory.com is having some problems of some sort causing this 401 Authorization message to pop up on my blog! I have tried going to their site to delete my account and get an error message there. I have e-mailed them to report the problem. I have checked my template and I don't find any of their code there. I do not remember putting anything on my site, so why in the world would this error message pop up on my site? If anyone (SANNI???) has any suggestions, please let me know.

UPDATE:
I've been contacted by the website and they have corrected the error. Whew!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Happy Bloggy Birthday 2 Me

November 11, 2008 @ 4:49pm, CrAzY Working Mom, the blog was born.

To celebrate, let's all go on one of those Disney vacations. You can't get away, you say. Well, I understand. It is right in the middle of the school year, Christmas is just right around the corner. We have to slave over a hot stove to make the Thanksgiving dinner in just a couple of weeks. Yeah, there's always something...I know!

Surely, though you can celebrate with me.
Let's have some cake!

We can also toast the occasion with some wine:

Thank you so much for celebrating with me!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Election Tuesday

Thanks to Mo for this virtual sticker. They didn't hand out "I Voted" stickers at my polling place today. I did make it to the polls and fortunately I had no line and quickly placed my vote as I knew where I stood on all of the issues on the ballot and the candidates. One sure thing is that no matter what the outcome this year, history will be made in the presidential election and hopefully our country will see some changes and they will be for the better. I hope that you got out and voted today. I am going to add Mr Linky for those of you who did. Yup, that's it...free links in honor of Election Tuesday and Miss Bee's birthday!!!

Happy Birthday, Miss Bee!!!

Much love from Arkansas.

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