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The TRUTH About Motherhood

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  • Fashion Haul Friday ~ Karen Kane

    Fashion Haul Friday ~ Karen Kane

    Karen Kane, Fashion Haul Friday, Fashion Friday

    Fashion Haul Friday ~ Karen Kane This week’s fashion find is a Reversible Faux Fur Vest by Karen Kane. If you’ve never heard of Karen Kane, you are missing out, mamas. Karen Kane is high quality, reasonably priced fashion. Forget the big stores we are used to frequenting, like Target and Kohls (not that I don’t love them but I want some place to shop for JUST me not the whole family), think boutique. Think being the hottest mom in the drop off, think Karen Kane!

    Karen Kane

    How Hot is this Karen Kane Faux Fur Vest?

    I received this in the mail and couldn’t wait to wear it  but where to? I was over thinking it. But it was so beautiful that I didn’t want to wear it just anywhere.Then I remembered to live for today. It’s like fine China, you spend an entire lifetime looking at your China through the glass door of your China cabinet but wouldn’t it be more fun to actually use it? I decided that I wanted to wear this beautiful gray faux fur vest today and I did. I put it on with a well-fitted, long sleeved t-shirt, a pair of jeans and my sweater boots. I reported for room mother duties in my daughter’s classroom feeling put together and cute, instead of hiding behind a ponytail, dark sunglasses and yoga pants. That in itself was an awesome feeling. The vest is generously cut and if you are on the smaller built size you may want to actually purchase a size smaller than you usually wear. I happen to be very well endowed upfront and the vest closed perfectly.  I also love the fact that it is reversible because you can change your entire demeanor with the switch of your vest. If you are feeling a little more rocker, switch it around so that the fur is on the outside’ pair it with the incredible turtle neck paired with the vest in the photo and a pair of well-fitting skinny jeans and of course a pair of hot 5 inch heels. This is definitely a piece to help rescue you from sweat pants purgatory.

    Karen Kane

    Karen Kane; Redefining the Mom Uniform

    Features:

    A fabulous faux fur vest that can top off any outfit. Turn it inside out to completely change the look of the vest. You’ll love how easy it is to create so many outfits using one simple piece!Details include: • Faux Fur • Raw edges and seams • 95% Polyester 5% Spandex • Available in gray and ivory • Imported • Dry clean

    I am currently in love with this vest. It is my new favorite piece. It’s warm, fuzzy and chic;perfect for the cold winter ahead. It’s also perfect for sipping wine by the fire with your favorite snuggle bunny. Not only has Karen Kane made my heart skip a beat with this collection, they will make you fall in love with them too because Karen Kane is generously offering a $100 gift certificate to one of my lucky subscribers to use on any piece you want on the Karen Kane website. What would you choose? Buy yourself something sexy to wear for Valentine’s Day. They are also extending a 25% discount for all of The TRUTH about Motherhood readers; good from January 13, 2012 to February 13,2012. Just use the promo code TRUTHFULMOMMY!

    There are a few mandatory rules that you must adhere to enter the giveaway: 

    Mandatory: Leave a comment for EACH mode of entry you choose to employ for the Karen Kane #giveaway in the comments below the post

    ( you do NOT have to enter the number of entries each one is worth because Rafflecopter will figure that out. I.e. You only have to write one entry comment for writing a blog post about the giveaway).

    *Important Mandatory entries

    ( if you don’t do these, you will NOT be entered)

    1) MUST RSS or Email SUBSCRIBE TO The TRUTH About Motherhood ( GFC doesn’t count) 2) Must Like the TRUTH about Motherhood FB page 3) Must Like Karen Kane FB page. Fill out the rafflecopter survey below and it will guide you through all the various ways to enter.  Good Luck!


    a Rafflecopter giveaway

     

    *Disclaimer: Karen Kane is providing the gorgeous prize for the giveaway and provided me with the product to review. The opinion expressed in this post about Karen Kane is my own honest review of the product.

     Karen Kane; New Year, New You

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  • Personal

  • The uDraw Game Tablet for the Nintendo Wii; Artistic Expression for the Next Generation

    The uDraw Game Tablet for the Nintendo Wii; Artistic Expression for the Next Generation

    The uDraw GAme Tablet for the Nintendo Wii, uDraw,game tablet, Nintendo, Wii

    The uDraw Game Tablet for the Nintendo Wii

    The uDraw Game Tablet for the Nintendo Wii is a spectacularly fun outlet for artistic expression for the entire family. It looks very much like a less intimidating version of the Graphic Drawing tablet that I use when working in Photoshop. The uDraw game tablet for the Nintendo Wii is basically a drawing tablet that works in conjunction with the user’s existing Nintendo Wii remote allowing the user the opportunity to draw images on the tablet that will simultaneously transfer to the television.

    At https://www.boostingboss.com/ you can buy to your kids League of Legends accounts ready for ranked play and also help them boosting their existing account.

    The uDraw Game tablet fro the Nintendo Wii used in conjunction with the uDraw Studio game that it is bundled with is fantastic for my household because both of my daughters are very artistic and love to draw. The uDraw Game tablet for the Nintendo Wii allows them to develop hand eye coordination while using their imaginations in a very creative way. The uDraw is very easy to use and comes complete with tutorials. It’s easy enough that with minimal help my 3 year old and 6 year old can navigate the system on their own.

    The uDraw Studio game is very versatile with easy-to-use tools. It allows the user to draw and color anything their mind might create from a coloring page or simple doodle to the next Mona Lisa.

    Aside from allowing the user to create original pieces of art from scratch, the uDraw Studio game offers a myriad of tools that allows the user, even at the most basic skill level, to create a masterpiece by way of utilizing the stamps or coloring page features. My girls absolutely love it because they can assert their independence, while having a very hands on creatively artistic experience. I love it because I’m not tripping over crayons and markers or having to use the last of my Mr. Clean magic erasers to get paint off my walls. I think it is a brilliant concept.

    My daughter only received the uDraw Game Tablet and uDraw Studio game for the Nintendo Wii on her 6th birthday a couple weeks ago, but both girls have already used it several times and spent many hours exploring the features. The uDraw Studio has a save and share feature that we adore because we can save it to the SD card and share it via email. The user can upload the art to their computer and print it off, or email it to Grandma.

    It’s not just for children. My husband and I have both taken our turns at creating masterpieces at the urging of our girls. It was very easy to use and the results were impressive.

    The uDraw Game tablet was released in November of 2010 and there are four games available Dood’s Big Adventure, uDraw Studio, SpongeBob Squiggle pants and Pictionary. Pictionary is next on our list for family game night. The uDraw game tablet for the Nintendo Wii really is artistic expression for the next generation.

    Image credit flickr BirdNerd25 via creative commons

    The Udraw Game Tablet for the Nintendo Wii; Fun for everyone

  • How to Celebrate El Dia Del Nino

    How to Celebrate El Dia Del Nino

    This is a compensated campaign in collaboration with Nabisco and Latina Bloggers Connect in celebration of El Dia Del Nino .

    In the Mexican culture, family is everything. We are taught this from very early on, as children. We are taught to respect our elders as part of our history and to adore our children because they are our future. In life’s fickleness, we know that there is only one thing that we can truly count on and that is family.

    We’ve all heard of Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and even Grandparent’s day. They are big deals in our house. We earned it. I mean, 10 and 13 hours of labor, one open-wide Pitocin inducement and an unmedicated labor, definitely earned me one-day off a year. I look forward to it every single year. The Big Guy handles all the “mom” duties and nary an argument between children do I have to endure. I simply walk away and let daddy handle it. It is glorious.

    On Father’s Day, the same goes for him. He gets to sleep in and I field all bickering children. We’ve got a good system and it truly is the one thing we want more than anything; peace and quiet.

    April 30th is a Mexican holiday called El Día Del Niño (children’s day). Children are a very important part of our culture and society so the day focuses on the importance of loving, accepting and appreciating children.

    To celebrate, there are many things you can do. Basically, we make it a day about our girls so that they know they are loved (so pretty much like every other day but we do all the things they like to do). It’s more about celebrating having them in our lives. Letting them know they are blessings to our family and us. It’s a day of crafts, play and treats of their choice.

    In Mexico, special events with clowns, magicians, music, shows and balloons take place. Amusement parks as well as zoos and children’s museums usually offer discounts or special deals for children on this day. It’s the perfect day to take the kids to see one of their favorite movies in the theater, go on a family picnic in the park or just unplug for the day and give your little ones your full-undivided attention.

    This unique celebration is full of laughter and play, when adults are reminded of the importance of childhood and children teach us how joyful and simple life can be.

    For our snack this year, I’m making this fun and delicious Latino-Inspired treat Chips Ahoy! Plantain Quesadillas. It’s a sweet new twist on a family standby.

    Chips Ahoy! Sweet Plantain Quesadillas.

     

    Dia del Nino, Nabisco, Recipe for plantain quesadillas, Chips Ahoy, Latino recipes, dessert recipes

    • 10 min prep
    • 20 min total
    • Makes 8 servings, 1 wedge each.

     

    Ingredients

    • 4 oz. brick cream cheese, softened
    • 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
    • 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
    • 4 flour tortillas (8 inch)
    • 7 CHIPS AHOY! Cookies, coarsely chopped
    • 1/4 lb. frozen ripe plantains, cooked, cut into 16 slices
    • 1/3 cup thawed frozen whipped topping
    • 6 strawberries, each cut into 6 slices

    Dia del Nino, Nabisco, Recipe for plantain quesadillas, Chips Ahoy, Latino recipes, dessert recipes

    Instructions

    • Mix first 3 ingredients until blended; spread onto tortillas to within 1/2 inch of edges.
    • Reserve 2 Tbsp. cookies. Top half of each tortilla with remaining cookies and plantains; fold in half.
    • Spray nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat on medium heat. Cook each quesadilla 1-1/2 min. on each side or until heated through and lightly browned on both sides.
    • Cut each quesadilla into 3 wedges. Serve topped with whipped topping, strawberries and reserved chopped cookies.

    I’ve made this for my family before and they loved it. It’s a very decadent and rich dessert so we only have it on special occasions and only one serving. I know your family will love it as much as my family did.

    You can find other great recipe spins on traditional favorites on the Nabisco Pinterest page. If you’d like to try this recipe, here’s a coupon for $1.00 off your favorite Nabisco products.

    What’s your favorite treat to make for your children on special occasions like Dia Del Nino?

    This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Nabisco. The opinions and text about El Dia Del Nino are all mine.

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  • Modern Appliances help Busy Parents Win at Parenting

    Modern Appliances help Busy Parents Win at Parenting

    Disclosure: This is a compensated post written by me on behalf of LG Appliances but all opinions on parenting are my own.

    Life is hectic when you have children who are involved in everything and parents who are equally as involved. My husband works as a global business analyst; his work comes home with him, but it also takes him away from home.

    I work from home full-time as a writer which also takes me on lots of travels (which I love!) but I’m also a member of the school board, room mom for both of our daughter’s classes (party days are a workout for me), a member of the junior league and a volunteer for every activity and field trip there ever was, is or will be at school. Yet, this is the life we chose. This is our version of happiness. What’s the saying? Busyness is close to Godliness? Oh wait, no, that’s cleanliness. Oops!

    LG appliances, laundry, family, travel,tech, parenting, make life easy

    However, now the girls are following suit and they’re involved in cheer, gymnastics, ballet, tap, robotics, choir and violin plus they both secured parts in the city’s Nutcracker ballet this year. Of course, I volunteer for that too. We’ve always said that we’d encourage them to go for whatever they wanted to try but it leaves us really busy with no time for the everyday chores like dusting and laundry.

    Don’t get me wrong, we still wash clothes… so many clothes (all of those uniforms and never ending unpacked luggage. We have tutus and leotards coming out of our noses) but it doesn’t necessarily always get put away.

    To add insult, in a crazy turn of events (and a terrible twist of my ankle) I took a tumble on my sister’s wedding day (in which I was the maid of honor) while we were taking wedding party photos (no cocktails were involved) and I broke my leg (while spraining the other one). It’s left us in a terrible debacle because now all of the chaos has fallen onto the shoulders of my dear husband, who at this point can barely see straight he is so exhausted.

    The other Saturday, amongst all the chaos that is our lives these days, as we were rushing to get the family out the door for a football game at 8 a.m. in the morning before heading off to pointe class and then on to Nutcracker fittings and before celebrating a particularly peculiar distant relative’s toddler son’s birthday, grape jam dribbled from my daughter’s toast down to the bib of her cheerleading uniform! The humanity!

    I heard the screech of my daughter, the moan of my husband and I knew surely something terrible had befallen the house of Cruz. I wheeled myself into the kitchen as quickly as possible to find our not so cheery cheerleader. I immediately insisted that she shed her uniform as I went into full-on manic spot cleaning and continuous praying.

    After a rigorous hand washing with vinegar and cold water, I was able to throw it in the washer on delicate and maintain my reputation of super (ordinary, extremely exhausted) mom. Thank goodness for quick thinking and short timed wash cycles. She may have been a little damp but thankfully, it was a beautiful, sunny autumn day!

    I’m not sure what would have happened had I not had a good washer and dryer to remedy the situation. I shudder to think of the drama that might have befallen our home that morning!

    Thankfully, LG Electronics is devoted to creating home appliances that help simplify household chores while focusing on creating feature-rich appliances, with stylish designs that push technological boundaries to improve the home appliance experience as well as save them time and energy.

    LG’s Mega-Capacity Top-Load laundry pair (Models WT7700 and DLEX7700VE) offers enhanced convenience and performance, helping save both time and energy. Users can wash a king size comforter and full set of bedding in a single load; saving time.  With the washer at 5.7 cubic feet of mega-capacity and dryer at 9.0 cubic feet of space, consumers have access to the largest capacity top load washer in its class* possible for loads of laundry.

    Top-Load Washer incorporates LG’s time-saving TurboWash®, which provides 30-minutes of time savings on every wash cycle, while the dryer features TurboSteam™, which works gently but powerfully to refresh fabrics and reduce wrinkles in half the time of other steam settings. Both settings deliver greater efficiency and world-class cleaning performance. Perfect for school morning cheerleading uniform emergencies.

    LG’s EasyLoad™ Dryer is the first to open two ways, from the top (hamper style) to easily toss in wet clothes from the washer and sideways to quickly unload dry clothes into the laundry basket. This unique setup allows users to easily transfer clothes through the top to minimize bending and dropping clothes on the floor, makes it easier than ever to drop in and unload laundry. If only the dryer could fold and put the clothes away, the world would be a perfect place.

    What would you do with the 30 extra minutes in your day thanks to LG’s TurboWash® technology? Tell us in the comments for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card!

    *Based on manufacturers published specs of top load washers with a width of 29 inches or less.

     

    Entry Instructions:

    No duplicate comments.

    You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

    1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

    2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

    3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

    4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

    This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older (or nineteen (19) years of age or older in Alabama and Nebraska). Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 2 business days to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.

    The Official Rules are available here.

    This sweepstakes runs from 11/24/2015 – 12/31/2015

    Be sure to visit LG’s brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!

  • Plagiarism ~ Back the Fuck Off my Intellectual Property

    Plagiarism ~ Back the Fuck Off my Intellectual Property

     Plagiarism is NOT what I had intended to post about today. Of course, I also didn’t plan on having my posts, blog title (written exactly as I write mine) and philosophy/mission stolen and passed off as someone else’s.  This is the third time in two weeks. I am irate.

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    Plagiarism,internet plagiarism,plagiarizing
    Photo Charlie S/Buzzle.com

    Let me preface by telling you that I don’t subscribe to the “Imitation is the sincerest form of  flattery” mentality. I believe that if you steal my intellectual property (written verbatim or closely resembling), you are a thief and, as such, you should have to be held accountable. Personally, I feel like you should be strung up and beaten like a pinata but perhaps that’s just because I am the victim of this despicable crime. Have you not read my About page? Oh yeah, of course you have, I can tell because you have copied my philosophy ( and my posts) but perhaps you didn’t read all the way to the bottom. If you had, you would already know that I do not tolerate…

    plagiarism.

    So, I am going to drop a little knowledge on you, according to PlagiarismdotOrg (see how I just did that? I just gave credit to the site whose information I am about to share with you because it is their intellectual property, their hard work and their talent. Try it, I might like you! )

    What is Plagiarism?

    Many people think of plagiarism as copying another’s work, or borrowing someone else’s original ideas. But terms like “copying” and “borrowing” can disguise the seriousness of the offense:

    According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to “plagiarize” means

    • to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own
    • to use (another’s production) without crediting the source
    • to commit literary theft
    • to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

    In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else’s work and lying about it afterward. ( * I think if you put your name on it and not mine, if I wrote it…you lied!)

    But can words and ideas really be stolen?

    According to U.S. law, the answer is yes. The expression of original ideas is considered intellectual property, and is protected by copyright laws, just like original inventions. Almost all forms of expression fall under copyright protection as long as they are recorded in some way (such as a book or a computer file).

    All of the following are considered plagiarism:

    • turning in someone else’s work as your own
    • copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
    • failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
    • giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
    • changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
    • copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on “fair use” rules)

    Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources. Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed, and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source, is usually enough to prevent plagiarism. See our section on citation for more information on how to cite sources properly. (*all you had to do was give me credit for my work.Link to me.Mention me. Something!)

    But instead, these people think that my idea, philosophy, blog title, brand and posts are free for them to steal. They are not. If you want to cite @TruthfulMommy or The TRUTH about Motherhood then do so appropriately, if not, I am respectfully asking that YOU BACK THE FUCK OFF MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY or I will be forced to take legal action.

    • If you ask me to write for you and I don’t and you “borrow” a post without permission, you are a plagiarist!
    • If I submit an article for consideration and you decline it but that very article shows up on your site credited to another author, you are a plagiarist.
    • If my post VERBATIM is on your site without MY permission, you are a plagiarist.
    • If you are a plagiarist, I hate you!

    Plagiarism

    *Here is one of the plagiarist post  https://t.co/YaD9qpQ compare it to my my post https://t.co/EgXgz9C . Verbatim!!! Feel free to leave comments to let them know how bloggers feel about plagiarist. I have sent them a legal notice to remove my post. We shall see. I will see what happens with the others before I reveal who they are.Plagiarism is NOT a victimless crime.

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  • Mommy Moment Monday ~The Rear-view Mirror

    Mommy Moment Monday ~The Rear-view Mirror

    Mommy Moment MondayI am starting a new meme on my blog & on my Facebook fan page, starting today and, hopefully, every Monday from here on out. We’ll call it Mommy Moment Mondays.

    We all have crap Mommy moments & Mondays usually suck, so to turn it around, I want us all to post about or leave our mommy moments on my wall. There is only one caveat…it has to be a good moment.

    Share a moment when you have done something right or something you feel good about. This is the one occasion that I am cheering you all on to bring on the sunshine and unicorns.

    I am anti-blowing smoke up your ass. So I want real life stories (photos, thoughts) about adorable kids, unadulterated gushing is allowed and stories infused with unconditional love for your children, even if it is the most trivial thing. A smile, the way they say a word or something you did that made you feel like a good mom. It could have happened today, yesterday, last year or 10 years ago. We just need to remind ourselves that we don’t always do everything wrong and there are moments of the bliss of motherhood that we would not exchange for a lifetime of sleep and peace and quiet.

    We need to stop the mommy wars and enjoy the little things, the little ones. (more…)

  • How to Get Yourself a Life after Motherhood

    How to Get Yourself a Life after Motherhood

    Yesterday’s Be A Better Me (You) Challenge- Day 7 ~ Make yourself a Priority went pretty well. Well, it went as well as a Tuesday could possibly go in my house. Today we’re going to figure out how to get yourself a life after motherhood.

    The girls didn’t actually go to sleep until almost 7 pm, so that threw my whole plan off. I never actually got to work out BUT I did get my hot shower in peace and in lieu of working out, I enjoyed a slowly eaten ice cream cone..all by myself. Counterproductive; yes, not a great choice; probably not, all for me; definitely.

    But I did make myself a priority and this morning instead of running like a maniac when I returned from dropping Bella off, I’m catching up on emails and leisurely reading some really great blogs! This is a priority to me,something I don’t always get to do but today I did! And it was really nice to feel like what I wanted to do was important.

    Today’s Be A Better me (You) Challenge -Day 8~Get a Life

    This is simple, well, in theory it is. Find something you like to do, just you, for the sheer pleasure or passion of it and do it. It’s not impossible to get a life after motherhood, you just have to work at it. For me, my passion is writing so this blog is mine; for me and by me. It may chronical my family at times but mostly it is for me to be able to write and to keep me sane. As an added bonus, I have met some wonderful women through my blog and the community that I have built. Before my blog,  my whole life; every minute of every day was revolving around someone else. Granted it still does about 99% of the day, but for that 1 % of the day; of my life I can be inside my own head. I can be Debi. It’s a baby step in the grand scheme of things, I know that but it eases me into pursuing my passions and keeping touch with myself.

    It’s not impossible to get a life after motherhood, you just have to work at it.

    When my kids are grown and I don’t have them to focus on every second of every day what will I be left with? What will you be left with? I want to be left with something for me. An accomplishment that I’ve done on my own. This blog gives me something outside of being a Mother that I can identify with and be proud of on my own. I am fully aware that this sounds ironic since I am a Mommy blogger and the whole basis of my blog is Mommying but the part that is my own is that I write it. When I write it, it may very well focus on my children and being a Mother but it allows me to have an opinion, a perspective, a say in it all. It allows me to make it a part of my life instead of the other way around.

    READ ALSO: Love Letter to My Tween

    I think we all need that one thing that is our own. It keeps us tethered to the women we are inside. There is more to all of us than just being someone else’s wife or Mother. I feel better about myself when I feel like I have a contribution to make to the world besides just breeding. I’m not saying that Mommying isn’t my main role and it is one of the most important things that I will ever do. I know that! I embrace that. But I also know, as Mommies, we have it burned into our brain that if we do anything for ourselves we are shortchanging our family. That is simply not true.

    Show your little girls that life after motherhood is not empty or sad. It’s enriched and robust with possibilities.

    By having a life, we are showing them that it is possible to have their cake and eat it too. This is especially an important lesson for our girls to learn early on. By enriching ourselves, we are enriching the kind of life we can provide to them; the kind of mother we are. It’s a ripple effect. Now, go get a life!

    What do you do just for you? What is a hidden talent that you have that you’ve almost forgotten was there? Go use your God-given talent, don’t waste your gift.

     

  • This Blogger’s Life… Amanda Magee

    This Blogger’s Life… Amanda Magee

    Today, I am honored to welcome one of my favorite people and writers on the Internet, Amanda Magee to This Blogger’s Life. I had the pleasure of meeting Amanda last year at BlogHer and she has been one of my favorite people ever since. Not only was she dressed completely adorable, my first impression was what a beautiful smile and legs for days but she had a great personality so the first thing I did when I got home was start reading her blog. She’s a directly to my inbox kinda writer.

    I am not blowing smoke up your derriere when I tell you that she is one of the best wordsmiths I’ve ever read and being the bibliophile that I am, that is saying a lot. She is not only a wonderful storyteller, she is an artist. She paints a story with her words and her “book” of words is better than any movie could ever be. Amanda is a writer’s writer and I am thrilled to get to feature her here.
    When I met Amanda, we were introduced by a mutual friend at a function and I am pretty sure that I charmed the pants off of her with my gruff vocabulary and loud, overly blunt attitude ( just think naval officer on leave but louder and more obnoxious and you have me). Amanda on the other hand was very Grace Kelly, her personality is as ethereal as her words. Still, she laughed at my jokes and I enjoy anyone who I can amuse without offending.
    Long story short, if I had been a regular reader of her site before we met, I may have approached her with a little more reverence and a lot more awe but as it stands, we met exposed in all our human vulnerabilities and became fast friends. I am not joking when I tell you that I look forward to reading every word she writes because it always makes me feel something, think something, consider or take action. Her words have weight and we all need to read them and if you are a writer, mother, sister, woman, human; Amanda Magee should be on your daily read list…just like she’s on mine.
    I’m honored to call Amanda my friend and it’s my privilege to have her on This Blogger’s Life today.

    Amanda Magee, This Blogger's Life, the people behind the blogs, blogging  This Blogger’s Life….Miss Amanda Magee ( Jones in my head as I now cannot get that song out of my head)

    Why did you start blogging?

    I initially started blogging because my grandmother once told me, “Write things down. Just a little detail or two each day to help you remember times in your life.” I knew that I would not go the scrapbooking or journaling route with recording our daughter’s first year. The blog was a way to chronicle that sweet time, while also making it possible for my family on the West Coast to keep up with the milestones.

     
    What’s one piece of advice that you would give to a new blogger?

    Write for you. It’s really that simple, because anything less is unsustainable. Now, writing for you means a lot of different things, for one person it might mean writing reviews to earn bits of money, for another it might mean writing to cope with emotions. Whatever your motivation, so long as you stay true to it, you’ll find a path.

     
    What are the three words that describe you best?
    Hmm, why is that so hard to answer. Me as a writer? Open, hopeful, intimate. Me as a working woman? Driven, passionate, frank. Me as just me in the quiet of my thoughts? Worried, sentimental,
     
    What is your favorite website?

    A site that I kind of forget and am then reminded of and every single time find something grounding or inspiring is https://thatkindofwoman.tumblr.com/

     

     

    What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not blogging?

    Well it isn’t folding laundry, I can tell you that. Ok, sorry, focus. My favorite thing is probably doing something outdoors with my family. A hike, a trip to the lake, or just goofing off in our backyard. It makes bedtime so much easier when everybody has had their itches for time together scratched. That moment when the girls are down and we have the sensation of job done right or a life well lived, it’s priceless.

     
    What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about yourself  from blogging?

    That I dream in words. My love and my heartache, it all lives inside of words and the release of those words, sometimes as a declaration, other times an admission, and others still a kind of song, makes me feel whole.

     
    How do you balance life and blogging?
    The simple answer is that I don’t. I think balance, in any sense, is more a loose concept than a real thing. I certainly pursue a sense of balance, but honestly most of the time in order to get the uninterrupted writing time that I crave, I cannibalize my sleep, staying up late or waking early. The saving grace is that my family all know how much writing means to me and, as a result, it has come to mean a great deal to them. The girls ask me to write about them, offering suggestions and delighting in the times that I take them up on it. Sometimes on a Sunday morning Sean will clap his hands and declare that it’s “writing time for mom.” Everyone scatters and lets me have space.
     
    How has blogging changed you or your life?
     

    I have made dear friends, like share my darkest secrets people who have held me up from thousands of miles away. It’s also taught me so much about myself. I have often said that I wish I created something—music, art, buildings, whatever. Blogging helped me see that I do create something; I make Narnia like doors for people to slip away from the harsh intensity of life and just be inside a moment.

    What do you think makes a successful blog? A great blog? Are they one in the same?

    I think we all define a successful blog in our own way. For me it is having a clear voice and a steady direction, which really means not writing things that don’t add value to my life and never betraying the people who “use their time on me” as my daughter would say. Every time someone visits my blog, that’s a choice, when they comment it’s a gift, I hope that in some way my writing honors that.

     
    If you were to stop blogging today, what would you do with the rest of your life?

    Miss it. And find a new way to write.

     
    How do you balance telling your story, without telling the story of others in your life? 
    We have a saying in our house, “If you have to ask, then you probably already know the answer.” I feel like I have a pretty good internal gauge. If I am in doubt I’ll ask Sean or the girls.
     
    Blogging has changed a lot, just since I started 5 years ago, what do you miss about blogging in the early days? What do you love that has changed?
    I started over ten years ago. I don’t really miss anything because I really cherish each couple of years as a chapter in my blogging tale. I suppose I do sometimes yearn for a slightly less caustic environment. Even as I say that I don’t really know who is to blame, is it the media loving to stir the pot or is it in-fighting within the blogging realm? Maybe I’m just older and less inclined to try and elbow people out of the way. It’s why I am grateful that I love writing, the rest just doesn’t really matter to me.
     
    How do you consistently come up with relevant and shareable content?

    Oh, I don’t. I’ve have stretches when I cannot bring myself to publish because it doesn’t feel up to snuff. Eventually the freeze passes. I think Instagram has helped a lot. I find myself getting so inspired by moments I snap and the conversations that they spark. “Oooh, I can write about this. This is more than a photo!”

     
    If you could have a dinner party for 6 people, living or dead, who would you invite?
    My grandfather six times over…
    My dear friend Estefania from my year in Spain (1991), I lost track of her and I’d love to hear her say “Ai, Amanda” and then laugh. Sean’s friend Andy and his wife Ali, who live just outside of Boston. Andy and Sean were on the crew team together at RIT. Andy can make Sean laugh like no one else in the world. It is one of my favorite sounds. Jenny Ingram because when you are with her she makes you feel like the most important and wonderful person in the room.
     
    What’s the one thing that people would be surprised to learn about you?

    I used to be a smoker. I quit in 2001.

     
    What’s the one post that you are most proud of?
    I feel pretty deep shame when I run out of patience with the girls. I wrote a post once about a bedtime that tore me open. I was scared to reveal the experience. The night it ran Kristen Chase tweeted a link to the post.  Before I went to bed I got an email from an editor at the Huffington Post asking if I would allow them to republish the post. Reading the post I can still remember what it felt like to have her let go of my hand, it reminds me that nothing lasts forever.
    Amanda thank you so much for being my guest on This Blogger’s Life and allowing me to interview you! I am so glad that we got to meet last year at BlogHer and I can’t wait til the next time I get to hug your neck! Keep on telling your stories. I cannot wait to read the book that I KNOW has to be written. Nobody puts baby in a corner:) XOXO

    If you want to get to know more of the amazing Amanda Magee go read her blog, check her out on Facebook and Twitter!

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