Five Years! #Blogiversary

Wow! It is so hard for me to believe, but today marks the fifth anniversary of when I started this blog and made my first post (which was just a "hi, I'm here" type of post). If you had asked me on that random day in 2008, how long I thought I would be blogging, I'm not sure that I would have ever guessed I would still be at it after five years; after all, I started the blog on a bit of a lark. I had been out surfing the web and seeing all of the other blogs that were sharing about deals and opportunities, recipes and life.

As I was reading the other blogs, one of the things that struck me more than anything was the idea that you could get deals at the drugstore. I could remember a time, a few years earlier, where I had headed to a CVS and bought something like a pair of hosiery for a wedding. I remember them being on 'sale' but that it wasn't actually a sale price, to take advantage of the actual deal, you had to come back. I can still remember my first CVS shopping trip, after I started reading about the drug store game on so many other blogs. I was so nervous, I was shaking and I kept thinking that the clerk is going to tell me that I can't do that...I can't actually buy product for nothing OOP. But, I did. With each visit, I gained confidence. I learned that half the battle was finding the right sequencing of the items, to maximize the savings and minimize the out of pocket. I thought, I considered myself a reasonably cost conscientious shopper, if I didn't know about the drug store game, there might be others that would benefit from reading about the scenarios that I saw for the coming week. I thought, why not set up a blog where I could share my plans and deals. Plus, an intern at work had asked one day that summer, do you have a blog...it seemed like a sign, that I should join in.

In order to start the blog, I faced one of the biggest challenges - choosing a name. I wanted something simple, yet memorable. There were a variety of blogs that I was reading at the time, with some that I read the most being The "Cent"sible Sawyer, Money Saving Mom, Rocks in my Dryer, and Mommin' It Up. I was worried that if I chose too specific of a name, that I would lock myself in. Although I have now seen a few of my favorites update their identity successfully. In the end, A Busy Mom of Two seemed to be a good fit. It didn't necessarily seem to say a lot about the content, but if nothing else, it was a description of my life and hopefully, something that others could relate to. Of course, sitting here 5 years later, I realize what an understatement busy really is. At the time I started my blog, my son was almost 5 and my daughter was 18 months. I felt busy then, but I am here to tell you that I am still busy, but it is a very different busy.

My strengths in life have always been in the area of science and math and never really considered myself to be creative. I have really enjoyed having the blog as a creative outlet. I have used it as a way to share with others the things that I love - cooking and baking, reading, music, movies and more. I enjoy trying new recipes to share on the blog (although, most of my recipes now I share on A Busy Mom of Two In the Kitchen). I really enjoy all of the books that I get to read and share. I have discovered new authors and grew in my enjoyment of familiar authors as I have read books and shared about them here on the blog. I have had the opportunity to check out so many new things in general.

In addition, as time has passed, I have found in my life that others come to me to talk through challenges and looking for ideas. A Busy Mom of Two has allowed me to share many ideas and tips, things that have worked for me to solve one thing or another - whether it be doing laundry each day or tackling cleaning one room at a time, the tips are nothing earth shattering or crazy creative, but honest, tried and true ways that I tackle things. In fact, as a regular participant in Works for Me Wednesday (at least I used to be), I even found links to my posts included in an eBook that was published, which I thought was pretty cool!

I am really enjoying my experience as a blogger and hope to continue for years to come. Thank you for being a reader - having readers and reading comments or posts on Facebook is part of what I love best! And, to help celebrate, I have a couple of upcoming giveaways that I will be posting in the coming week and a big giveaway coming in August.

Google Reader is going away & a solution

I am sure that there has been communication and I am sure that I missed it, but I was surprised to read this morning about Google Reader going away - TOMORROW! What?!? I have used Google Reader for several years to get the feeds from my favorite blogs. Each time I open up the computer, I use Google Reader to scan through the most recent articles for the blogs I follow, so that I can quickly catch up with what they have been sharing.

Thankfully, Mama to 5 Blessings, who is on my Google Reader list, shared about Bloglovin' today, as an alternative to Google Reader.

When you sign up for Bloglovin' (before July 1st, when Google Reader is gone), you can use them to import all of the blogs that you follow directly from Google Reader. It froze up on me, but I was able to find the Import from Google Reader in the drop down under the heart icon on their title bar. Sign up was easy and I have pinned Bloglovin' to my toolbar so that I can easily check on my favorite blogs.

You might want to check it out, if you are currently a Google Reader user.

You can even use this quick link to follow A Busy Mom of Two. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Pinterest

So, it's been a few months now that I have been hanging out around Pinterest. I was slow to adopt. Everyone that was telling me about it was finding themselves 'addicted' and spending hours on the site, so I was a little nervous. I don't have any free time as it is. If you aren't familiar, think of Pinterest as a visual bookmark list of things that you like (or would like to try).

I've been using it now for a few weeks and I find that there are a few ways in which I use Pinterest.

I check out what others are pinning and if I see something I like, I repin it to my boards. I have found a number of recipes and crafts that my friends have shared that I can't wait to try. I love that I can organize them so easily. This is probably where I spend the majority of my Pinterest time.

The second way that I use it is by searching on Pinterest for specific things - like a recipe or a craft. This allows you to explore beyond your circle for things that others have found interesting. The visual aspect is a great way to explore. Sometimes, it can be a "pain" to click from the search, to the board, to the pin, to the source.

It really was when I started to see the PinIt buttons added to some of the blogs that I read that I really started to pay attention. Suddenly, I had an easy way to capture those recipes/crafts/etc that I wanted to come back and make/do/etc. Plus, since it was saved with a picture, I had an easy visual clue about what the bookmark was. This clearly was a better option than my prior approach of simply book-marking every page (unsorted of course!) and winding up with a list of website addresses that I had to attempt to decipher as I looked for a specific post that I wanted to go back to.

Of course, not every website had the PinIt button, so I went on a quest to find out how to add the PinIt button to my toolbar. I headed over to Pinterest and found the directions (under About, Pin It Button, 1st item). It was super easy (open up your bookmark toolbar and drag the button from the site to your toolbar - can you get any easier?) and now I can bookmark any post or article that I want, whether that page uses the PinIt button or not.

While there, I also saw the directions on how to add the PinIt button to the posts on my blog. I put it at the bottom of each post - do you think I should move it to the top? Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work following the directions on PinIt. I was able to get the button added to my posts, but when I went to test the button, I would get a 'blank' image. I'm not sure what was wrong, but think it could be related to the 'old' Blogger template that was the basis for my blog. Not being a programmer, I had no idea how to solve the problem.

But, I did find this website that offered simple directions on adding the PinIt button and the code needed. I'm currently using her file for the button, but may try to customize my own and then I will just have to change the location for the file.

I love Pinterest so far. How about you? Do you use Pinterest? What do you like about it? How do you use it?

This post shared at Works for Me Wednesday.

Three Years!

It just occurred to me that July is my Blogiversary Month (yes, I'm sure that is a made up word, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is in some dictionary somewhere). To help celebrate my three years, I am going to be posting some giveaways over the next few days.

Be sure to check back each day to see the new giveaway!

Thanks everyone for reading and making blogging so much fun.

Questions About WordPress

It seems that I am doing it again! I'm sneaking in a reverse WFMW post, but I need input and the crowd on WFMW is a very knowledgeable bunch.

So, over the past three years that I have been blogging and reading blogs (I can't believe it has been that long), I have seen many blogs make the move to WordPress. I have heard that it is better, but never any real specifics.

So, here are my questions (feel free to answer any or all in the comment section):

What are the pros of moving? What are the cons?
What specifically is better on WordPress? What is better on Blogger?
Do I need to know more programming/HTML type stuff to operate on WordPress?
Can I customize the layouts/features like I have on Blogger?
What resource would you recommend for learning more and/or helping me compete a move if I go that route?'

This post shared at Works for Me Wednesday.

Favorite Blogs

Oh no! My favorite blog list has disappeared from my side bar. Has anyone else had this issue? Is there a fix?

Obviously, one option is rebuilding the list. That sounds easy, but I'm not sure that it is. I know I have a few bookmarked in my favorites, but some of them, I do not.

If anyone knows of a solution, let me know please. Otherwise, it is on my to do for tonight.

Blogger is Back!

With Blogger having been down, not only was I unable to make my posts, but people were unable to enter the giveaways. As a result, I am going to extend the Silk Milk Giveaway to end on 5/15 at 6 pm. I had received a few e-mails from people that were trying to enter and unable to so I decided it would be best to allow people to enter for a few more days.

Be sure to check out the other giveaways that are also going on right now.

Is Everyone There?

I did some blog housekeeping this weekend and of course, I didn't think to send out something ahead of time in case I lost people in the moves.

Why the moves?
You see, three or so years ago when I set up the blog, I was just "playing" and set it up in one account. Then, I wanted to make things more cohesive, so I set up a new e-mail account to associate with my blog. When I tried to move my blog from the e-mail where I had set it up to the e-mail I was using for the blog shortly after creating it, the move failed miserably.

I'm not even really sure what went on but I couldn't seem to move it. I tried adding an author, but never got the "invite" which left me unable to move the blog. So, for nearly 3 years now, I have been having to sign in and sign out of accounts to be able to read my e-mails, edit my blogs, follow blogs, etc., because the functions were split amongst the two e-mails. It was a nightmare (really, more so just a frustration).

So, finally last night, with my husband's assistance, we moved the blog. The challenge was that we couldn't delete the other log-in that I had originally tried to move the blog to. So, we had to first transfer the ownership fully to him and delete both of my log-ins that were listed on the account (even the one that never worked!). Then, we were able to finally invite the "right" log-in to be an author and set it up as the administrator so that we could "delete" my husband.

Now, everything is under one account. No more having to toggle between my accounts to keep up with blogging, e-mailing, following and such. So far, I like it, but I have some concerns, like did my feed stay intact? I was able to move my feed (as far as I know) and can access the history through the new log-in, but I'm not yet sure if it is still publishing. That's where you come in...could you stop by and leave me a comment letting me know that you are still getting my feed? It would be great to hear from someone that has e-mail, someone that has it in a feed reader, etc. I just want to make sure that I haven't lost everyone!

Sunshine Award

I received a really nice award last weekend from Susan at Susan Heim on Parenting. Thank you so much for the Sunshine Award! It's my first blog award.



Here are the rules for the Sunshine Award:

* Nominate 12 other bloggers
* List the award in either a post or on your sidebar
* Link your nominees within your post
* Let the nominees know you have passed this on to them by commenting on their blog

So, here are 12 of the bloggers that I love to read (in no particular order):
Rocks In My Dryer
2 Wired 2 Tired
Moms Need to Know
Life As Mom
Mommin' It Up
Saving In Akron
Working Moms Against Guilt
Money Saving Mom
Deal Seeking Mom
Mommy Snacks
Thingamababy
Keeping the Kingdom First

I actually struggled to narrow my list to just 12, but these are some that I visit most regularly.

Where to begin...

I sit here feeling like I have so many things that I want to say and to share, and for some reason, I can't seem to find a starting point. I find myself jumbling all of my posts into one and that makes no sense.

Life has been very busy and very fun lately. This weekend, we had the opportunity to get away for a little mini-vacation with the kids. We headed to Canada to visit Niagara Falls. It was their first trip out of the country. I plan to share more about our trip as part of some this week's posts, so more to come.

It was a nice break from the ordinary, but as with all breaks I am home now and overwhelmed with the things that need to be done. We had planned a longer trip and so, I had today off, which was a great way to at least get partially caught up. I was able to take care of some things that I might not have gotten to otherwise. One thing that I did today, because the kids were playing outside and I didn't want to be inside was turn over my garden. I still have a few weeks before threat of frost is gone, but my garden is ready when the weather is.

I do have a lot of posts to get caught up on. I do intend to menu plan this week - it was such a struggle last week to figure out each day what we were eating that day. I have really grown to like menu planning. We sometimes shuffle dinner plans around, but at least I have a pretty good idea of the week ahead of time and know that I have the ingredients that I need to prepare the meals. I'm not sure I will get a chance to post the drugstore deals, but I do hope to get out and pick some stuff up and maybe even use a few of the rain checks I have been accumulating.

Earth Day is later this week (I've been hearing this week called Earth Week). I hope to include discussions about Earth Week this week in my posts. Having just been to Niagara Falls it really makes you appreciate just how beautiful the Earth is and how important it is to protect it and preserve it for those that will come after us. There are a number of stores and brands that are doing special events as part of Earth Day. Saving in Akron has a great post of those offers here. In addition, with Earth Day’s 40th anniversary on April 22nd fast approaching, Cascadian Farm wants you to join the celebration by pledging to follow a few eco-friendly tips on Facebook. Choose from eight different pledges, ranging from reusing clothes to reducing your speed while driving on the highway, and find the one that fits your lifestyle. For each person that signs a pledge now through May 31, 2010, Cascadian Farm will donate $1, up to $40,000, to the Organic Farming Research Foundation, which fosters the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems. I've been making some changes to be a little more less wasteful and more eco-friendly at home and I will share some of those things with you later this week.

I have a few more giveaways that I need to post this week and I still need to share about the giveaway that I won through a Twitter contest. Soccer and Baseball practice start up for us this week. Between the kids' activities and school, work, blogging and the rest of life, it should be a pretty busy week around here.

So, how have you been?

Hi! It's Me!

I'm still here. I had the opportunity to enjoy a nice long weekend visiting with family. The kids and I took a roadtrip and now we are back. The challenge of course is that with us being gone, I didn't do the things I normally do (like meal planning) and now I am trying to catch up. That is the hardest thing about enjoying some time away, I always feel like I have twice as much to do when I get back - as I am doing what I need to do on those days, plus all of the stuff that I missed while I was away. The same thing happens at work. Makes the rest you enjoy that much more important, because you have to work twice as hard when your back.

I really need to sit down and review my ads and clip coupons. I know that there are a few deals out there that I would like to take advantage of. I saw a couple of CVS free after coupon and ECB deals when I glanced through the ad.

I definitely need to finish the week's meal plan and get to the grocery if need be (I stopped yesterday, but just for milk). Last night's dinner was chosen by my daughter on the way home from school - she wanted to have chicken nuggets and lucky for her, I just happened to have some that we had ordered from Schwann's a while back. Now, I'm stuck facing another day with no idea about what to have for dinner.

I have about 3000 things I want to post about and I hope to get back up in motion this week and get a number of them posted. I have some reviews and giveaways, some special offers, some new recipes to share (asparagus guacamole is one of them), some exciting news about a prize I won through Twitter and many of my regular posts that I want to write, if only I could find the time.

Plus, there are so many things I need to read, like the series that Crystal is doing on clutter and decluttering: Clear Out the Clutter Challenge. I think I could benefit from this series, as much as I try to declutter my life and my house, I think there is still plenty of room for improvement. In addition, there are of course a lot of new freebies out there that I need to track down and request.

Now, I'm off to do my morning exercise and get ready for the day. Hope yours is a great one.

Blogging about Blogging

Today, over at Works For Me Wednesday there is a theme and that theme is blogging. Since my post last week was poorly timed, I decided that this week, I would link back to it and other blogging posts that I have done, to share some of what I have learned along the way.

Google Docs - this is a great way to share files with readers or gather information from readers for a survey or entries for a giveaway.

Blogging for the Non-Programmer - when I first started to blog, I was a little intimidated by how to make my blog work. Over time and with a few handy resources I have found, I have become much better at making my blog mine.

Part of blogging is really all about learning. I did a series a while back about what I learned through blogging:

Done right, you can get name brand products for less than generic, and many really are better.

Menu planning really does make life easier and more economical.

Coupons, coupons, coupons - there are many sources, both on- and off-line and not all coupon inserts are equal.

Time and measurement. I am amazed at how much time I spend blogging and reading other blogs - clicking through comments to learn more about readers and hanging out on Twitter and getting to know others. I also have learned about a lot of tools like Feedburner and Google Analytics. I am amazed about the amount that can be learned through these two tools - where readers are from, what searches bring people to the blog most often, etc.

I shared some of the top search terms, top recipe search, top referring sites and more in this post on my first anniversary.

Want to learn more about blogging - check out this week's Works for Me Wednesday where others will be sharing their blogging tips and tricks.

Google Docs

Since I started hanging out in the blogosphere a few years ago, I noticed that a lot of people were using applications, like Google Docs, to do surveys, gather entries to giveaways, share files and more. I had always wondered how they did it, but had yet to take the time to look into it. So, last week I finally decided I would, after years of considering it, figure out how to put a survey on my site.

My final result was my Reader Survey. (if you haven't already done so, would you mind taking a few minutes and completing the survey here. Thanks!)

Putting together my survey was much easier than I expected. I simply headed over to Google Docs to begin. I selected the Create New button and chose Form from the drop down list. This brought up a blank form. I could start with a title. Then, for each question, I simply entered a question, could add help text for the question, and selected a question type (text, paragraph text, multiple choice, check boxes, choose from a list, scale or grid). Most of my questions were check boxes. This type of question allowed for multiple answers to questions. With check boxes, I got to enter each of my potential answers and could even check select other, which gave an other check box and an accompanying text box for the entry of other. Then, select Done and you got to see how the question would look. After entering all of the questions, I simply Saved. Then, I clicked the More Actions button, and selected embed. This gave me some html text to copy and place in my post.

Once my post was up, readers could enter their responses and they populated to a spreadsheet that only I have access to. I could see the responses by selecting that form from the Google Docs page. Of course, you can also make your document public, if you had something that you wanted to share with everyone.

I really was amazed at how easy it was to create and embed a Google Doc in my blog. Have you tried Google Docs or another on-line document program to do surveys or share documents? How did it work?

Reader Survey

From time to time, I am asked about my readers. I know a little about some of my readers. Some I know in real life, others I have met online and as I stop by their blogs and view their profiles, when they leave comments, I learn glimpses about those readers. But, to say that as a whole I could describe my readers, well, that is not the case.

Could you please take a few minutes and help me out by completing this brief survey for me?

Happy Anniversary - A Busy Mom of Two

It's been a year since I posted my first blog post. That really amazes me. It doesn't feel like a year. I have had a lot of fun this first year of blogging.


Being part of the blog world has been a great experience though. I have learned a lot about saving, and I thought I used to know a thing or two about it. Since I started into the blog world, I discovered out CVS. I had shopped there before and had a card forever but never understood ExtraBucks. Imagine my surprise when I did this post after spending $100 at CVS for just under $2000 in products, a 97% savings.


Being a rather analytical person, I am ever interested in how people find the blog. Thanks to Google Analytics, I have access to see what keywords or referring sites are bringing people to A Busy Mom of Two. Here are some of the top keywords (aside from Busy Mom of Two) that have brought people in and a link to the article:
Can (Canned) Goods Rack
Returnships
Shaving Cream Alternative
(Silicone) (Cupcake) Baking Cups


The top recipe found by keywords was:
Cheeseburger Pasta


Of course, there were numerous searches for CVS Deals, CVS Scenarios, Frugal Deals, and more that helped readers find A Busy Mom of Two.


The top referring sites, based on my participation in the assorted weekly roundups:
Money Saving Mom (almost 2x any other site - Thanks, Crystal!)
The "Cent"sible Sawyer
Keeping the Kingdom First


In celebration of one year of blogging, I have lined up a few giveaways that I will post this week.

Smooshies
Honey Kix
Tyson Skillet Creations Meal Kit


I hope to share a few recipes and all of my regular posts as well.


Thanks for reading and here's to a great year #2!

Blogging Help for the Non-Programmer

I will be the first to admit that I sort of stumbled into the world of blogging. I found my first blog through a couple of Google Alerts that I had set up. It was Money Saving Mom. I was intrigued. I started checking her blog occasionally and then through the assorted carnivals and links to the bloggers that supplied tips on deals, I found myself with a nice little collection of blogs that I was a loyal reader of.

Then, one day, I thought, I would like to join in on the fun. I would love to post my plans and successes for CVS and other shopping adventures. Almost by accident (all you have to do is select Create Blog from the upper right hand corner, so it wasn't that accidental), I managed to find myself in Blogger. I set up an account and chose a template. It really was that simple. Suddenly, now I was not only an avid reader, but I could be an active blogger myself. I started slow, but as I built momentum and visited ever increasing numbers of blogs, I wanted to change things, improve things, implement things that I liked on other sites and make my site my own.

I'm so far from a computer programmer, but I found that there were sites out there that offered help on "How To" for Blogger. Two that I continue to reference back to are Tips For New Bloggers and Quite Random. Using these two sites, I have managed to find the help I needed to change my standard Blogger template from two columns to three. I have found out how to put numbers in my comments - a huge help when you run a giveaway, I learned the hard way.

On top of that though, they have given me the confidence to explore HTML. When I wanted to add the menu bar to the top of my site, I checked out the source code on a couple of blogs, theirs included, to see how the menu bar was set up. Then I headed back to my site and implemented what I had observed. When I wanted to do a header and a button, I sought the assistance of my husband and together we worked through the HTML (popping over to the two sites I use regularly, as well as a couple of others for pointers) to make it all happen.

I'm still no programmer, but with a little help from the free online resources I have found, I have been able to modify my site to be a little more of me and a little less standard.

For more tips and tricks, check out Works For Me Wednesday on We Are THAT Family. Ironically, she has a post on Blogging Tools today. I know I plan to check out some of the sites she references.

Ring Around the Blog

I'm participating in an event over at Sisterly Savings called Ring Around the Blog.

Welcome to those visiting from Sisterly Savings.

Updates

If you stopped receiving updates by e-mail or to your reader, please sign up again. I moved from Feedburner to Google and I'm concerned that I may have lost a few of you in the transition.

New Look

Back around the holidays, I started tinkering with my site. I added a third column so that my list of favorite blogs and labels for my posts wouldn't be miles away from the top of my blog. At that time, I asked my husband for help in making a button and a header for my site. Well, it took a while, but with the help of my 5 year old and my husband, I now have a new header and button.

My kids and I might look a little yellow, but that is to be expected. Soft colors like peach don't scan so well, so my son was advised to not use peach or other soft colors when he drew the picture of me and the kids.

Blogging...the first six months, part 4

As I wrap up this series on some discoveries I have made over the past six months of blogging, I thought I would address a couple of things - time and measurement.

First, since I started blogging six months ago, I am amazed to discover how much time it all takes.

There is the obvious time commitment of posting regularly. There is time involved with finding things to post about and then time to actually put the words together into an article.

There is also the time spent reading other blogs. Before I started blogging, there were a couple of blogs that I would stop by at every few days. Now, I stop by closer to twenty blogs and I seem to do it multiple times a day. Some of this is through Google Reader, but others I just have in my Favorites and go directly to (some I get in Google Reader, but still go directly to). Reading other blogs has helped me find additional deals and freebies that I sign up for and share, that I might not have otherwise known about.

There is also the time it takes to plan a shopping trip. It takes time to plan my menu and grocery trip. Figuring out if I should just go to one store or more. It also takes me a while to plan my CVS trips. I review the ad. I find the deals that are of most interest to me. I write them down. I organize them to match the coupons and ECBs I have, in hopes of minimizing my OOP. This frequently involves me checking out the coupon matches that others have listed on their sites - this helps me know what coupon I am looking for in my organizer and helps me find Internet printable coupons. Then, because I like the challenge, I generally will put together a $5 set of scenarios to participate in the $5 CVS Challenge at Keeping the Kingdom First. This doesn't take as much time since I have already found the coupons that I will use for each of the deals.

Then there is Twitter. I don't always say a lot, but I spend a good amount of time following others on Twitter. It is a little addicting and since I don't have any sort of IM (and never have), it is a lot like what I would imagine IM-ing to be, only more so, since the conversations are more open (like a chat room, maybe).

The other thing that I spend some time on is measuring how I am doing. I love FeedBurner and Google Analytics. It amazes me the amount of information that is available through these two services. I like seeing what brings people to my blog - whether it be another blog or a search. It is fun to look at the statistics on the number of visitors and page views. I can remember how exciting it was to have my first day where I had 100 hits, and then 500. I enjoy looking at the trends and seeing the patterns of visits to my blog - Thursdays seem to be a slow day of the week, every week. I enjoy reading the comments that readers leave - it provides that validation that someone is reading what I write and is taking something from it. I also tend to click through and check out the blog, if there is one, of the commenter. I have found a few sites I read regularly in this way.

If you had asked me a year ago if I would be a blogger, I might have laughed and said, I don't know a thing about blogging. But, here I am, having a great time.

Thanks!