Week Eight’s Sponsor: The Humor-Blogs Network

Week Eight’s Prizes:

• Crummy Church Signs: Volume One by Joel Bezaire of Crummy Church Signs
  • From the only website currently in the Top 10 of both a Humor Blog ranking and a Religion Blog ranking comes Crummy Church Signs Volume 1 (2004-2007). See what happens when a snarky Christian gets fed up with bad grammar and spelling, poor theology, inane attempts at humor, and outdated pop culture references. With submissions from 36 states and 10 different countries, see why this hilarious blog has become an internet hit with this “best of” collection.

• Antisocial Commentary: From the Secret Files of the Mattress Police by Rob (Diesel) Kroese of The Mattress Police

• • This book is a hilarious excursion through the mind of Rob Kroese, aka “Diesel,” the twisted mastermind behind the humor website MattressPolice.com. From topics as varied as James Blunt and The Incredible Hulk to global politics and perpetual motion machines, Antisocial Commentary is a tour de force of satire, sarcasm and just plain silliness.

The reader who wins this week will have their choice of book, and the blogger who wins this week will get the other one.

How can you enter? Simple – just leave a comment on the sponsor’s post at BCS Frenzy telling Allison which book you would pick if you win the prize! That’s it! If you want to learn a bit more about the books, head over to the Humor-Blogs Store, where you can purchase both books!

Post from: Babylune

Post from: Babylune

On this blog and elsewhere, there have been a lot of helpful hints about how to make a healthy meal quickly, and even suggestions for vitamin rich recipes that are especially important for new mothers to eat to rebuild their tissues (but not the new fatty ones), restore their energy and help prevent postpartum depression.

The sad truth is, new mothers seldom get to sit down and eat their health meals while they’re still hot. And that is too bad because a warm, cooked meal is so soothing that it can help to control stress.

I recommend serving your own meals on a microwaveable dish so that you can pop it in for a warm up if you’re interrupted at meal times by a crying baby. Keeping a little extra sauce or pan juices on the side can be used to stop your meal from drying out.

The best meal to eat warm may just be breakfast. In particular: oatmeal. Oatmeal contains vitamin K, which helps with blood clotting and healing tissue injuries…which all birthing mothers have probably experienced regardless of how their babies were delivered.

I like mine served with slices of fresh apple, a sprinkling of cinnemon and fruit yogurt is one of my favorites. Studies have shown that cooked oats are healthy for every part of your body (see this Eating Fabulous post if you want some study details).

There is another benefit to oatmeal. While I am no Thrifty Mommy, I appreciate how hard I work for my money. Three minute oats are cheap. To tell you the truth, I cook them in a little under three minutes. First, I pour some boiling water over the raw oats and apple slices. I cover the bowl with a plate and let it steam while I get the yogurt and cinnamon out. Then, I stir in the yogurt, add a bit of cinnamon and microwave it for about 30 seconds. Sometimes, I add a little milk to think the mixture out.

I especially enjoy this breakfast when I wake up before everyone else and the house is completely quiet. It’s a nice way to start the day.

Post from: Babylune

Babylune is thrilled to help welcome the first edition of The Mommy Blog Carnival at The So-Called Me! Lots of old friends got together for the big play date. It’s great to see Therapy Doc and Hueina Su and all the others in one place.

But, that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten all of the other places there are to hang out. We had juice and cookies with the Carnival of Family Life this week too. Plus, my Five Minutes for Mom Interview has been updated. I love getting out and socializing!

Post from: Babylune

My blog is worth $136,618.68.
How much is your blog worth?

Post from: Babylune

I just had a seriously sobering thought. The Internet is all about real estate and risk. Just like Monopoly only with real money. Babylune, really, is not the content I write but a URL I don’t own. The address could be sold at any moment and, while I own the content, no one would know where to find it should it have to be moved. That’s a pretty insecure place to live, especially since, in order for me to recover the money I’ve invested in this blog over the past six weeks, I need to convince you (and the other people who read this blog) to read almost a quarter of a million extra pages…that might take some time.

I don’t regret anything I’ve recently done on this blog. I didn’t do it to build traffic or to earn money, but recent conversations have me worried that I have created a false impression about how much bloggers, even moderately successful bloggers, can afford to invest in promotion and traffic-building.

I think I’m a good writer and often a good blogger. I think I am often a smart person, even with money. But, I haven’t managed the financial risk of investing on this blog properly. If you’re one of the many, many mothers who hopes blogging will help her earn enough money to stay home with her children (I am not a WAHM), please do not follow my example.

Post from: Babylune

In moon represents woman at her fullest: pregnant. After that, though, comes the blue moon, the postpartum period and the first phase of new motherhood. With this comes the new role of mother (or multiple times a mother) recovery, adjustment and an entirely new life. Babylune started out as a blog about this first phase of new motherhood, as an information resource for the recovery from childbirth.

And, it has become a lot more. While I still seek to fulfill my mission, this blog is just as much about the woman who writes it as it is about reproductive health. After all, motherhood is about more than just giving birth or sharing your life with children.

It’s about you. It’s about who you are, what you choose to do with your life and what you need. I think, those are all important things to write about and discuss. What about you?

moon image souce

Post from: Babylune

I collected my most informative posts to write Labor and Birth from A to Z so that all the essential information can be found in one place.

I also wrote this essay about taking my daughter on the commuter train.

We celebrated Babylune’s Second Birthday with a party game. In the contest, entrants had to identify the image on the left. I revealed everything in the results post. While the contest was only one day long, it served as my entry in this week’s Project Blog challenge. I’ve written an update about what is happening in that multi-week blogging competition and asked for you to vote for me in the reader poll portion of the contest.

Post from: Babylune

‘Hmm?’

‘I’m pregnant.’

Pause.

Pause.

‘I said I’m-’

‘I heard.’

Pause.

Pause.

‘Annie, will you…?’

Long pause.

‘Yes?’

‘…tell me who the father is?’

from Persuading Annie by Melissa Nathan.

Post from: Babylune

Post from: Babylune