blogging
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New Name, New Design…Older Me
It’s been a LONG time since I have posted. Partly because 2022 was a shit-show. And 2021. And 2020, if we’re gonna be honest. The other reason is because Momma On The Rocks has been held together by bubble gum, pipe cleaners, and a whole lot of hope for far too long now. Unfortunately, I’d been quoted big money to fix it, and while I really, really intended to get it updated – I just couldn’t find the bandwidth to do it. Time got…lets just say it REALLY got away from me. I am not technically minded and trying to fix the website broke a friend who has skills. We…
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One Word for 2019: Re-Engage
Resolutions? Pffft. Not this girl. Give me One Word to focus on. I am not the girl for resolutions. Like most, I burst out of the gate with enthusiasm and energy…and then by March, those resolutions are cast aside like the photos from 2013 I printed in 2015 that still wait to be placed lovingly in photo albums. A few years ago I came across the idea of choosing just one word that I can focus on all year long, one that can guide my goals, big and small. My word was “thrive” in 2015, “cultivate” in 2016, and in 2017 it was “conquer“. I confess while I chose “moxie”…
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What Is Worse than Bad Spam? This Spam.
Like any blog, mine receives a lot of spam, and for this reason I’m eternally grateful for an excellent spam filter. It’s probably safe to say that 3% comes from companies trying to get me to use their services to improve my Google ranking, 1% asking to post content on my site, and the remaining 96% of it is straight-up spam. The former are instantly recognizable by the use of proper English usage and sentence structure. The latter is almost always foreign – easily identifiable as they are either written entirely in Russian or by a random Chinese character in the middle of the comment. What I find so funny…
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Changes, They Are A’Comin’ (To This Blog)
It’s time to shake things up here and I have big plans for the blog. After 9 years of blogging as Momma on the Rocks, I’m going to be getting a new name and a new look, and refining my focus just a skosh. This will remain a lifestyle blog, but with a stronger focus on the things that keep me sane – namely, essays, travel, and books. And of course, coffee. Because normal around here really is a setting on the dryer, and anything that makes my life (and hopefully yours) better or easier is a plus. And…everything is better with coffee. (And it goes so well with reading,…
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Today is My 8th Blogiversary
When I picked up my phone this morning, a calendar notice popped up. It simply said “Blogiversary (2008)”. That’s right, today is my blogiversary: the blog is officially 8 years old. I think that makes it about 64 in blog years, because in the blogging world, that’s pretty ancient, and reasonably accurate, because in general, it is plodding along and can be heard muttering such things as “blasted SEO. When I was younger, we just wrote. Didn’t need all this confounded analytics.” Or maybe that’s me, not keeping up with the times and the current drive to monetize, monetize, monetize. And I confess, it hasn’t been a huge focus for me; if…
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My One Word: Thrive
Hello, friends, and Happy New Year! We rang in the new year in our new home here in Texas – a new home, new school, new start. I’m happy for fresh starts, you know, despite how I usually drag my feet at the idea of change. Think of that pristine spiral bound notebook at the start of the new school year, writing your name across the clean cover, envisioning all the potential that it invites – there is something about the idea of getting a clean start that fills me with hope. Because I’m ready for a clean start. As much as I had planned on blogging my way through our recent move, the…
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Funny or Not, Dayton, Here I Come
One of the first hardcover books I remember truly loving (that wasn’t a children’s classic) was an Erma Bombeck lifted from my mother’s bookshelf. I was about 10 years old when I read the book – yes, I was a very mature child – but there was something about the dry wit in Erma Bombeck’s writing that I just “got”. I was ten, so it wasn’t that I was necessarily relating to the content, particularly when her mentality towards housework was such was a direct opposite of my mother’s own style; I mean, for a child whose early morning directive was “you can be late for school before you leave…
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I’m Sailing….Sailing Away
Today is the day. The day that has got me through this dreadful winter. Through 70+ inches of snow and who knows how days of many sub-zero weather. (Ok, Tom Skilling from WGN probably knows, but whatever.) Through the down coat, the pale, dry winter skin and hair electrified by static. I’m in Florida. Port Canaveral to be exact. And I’m boarding the Disney Fantasy. For seven days, I won’t be cooking, washing dishes, scrubbing toilets or folding clothes. I won’t be making beds. I will be kicking back, reading my book, splashing in the pool, trying not to eat too much fattening stuff, and generally turning off my brain.…
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Conquering Fears
I am not a very strong public speaker. Let me rephrase that. The thought of standing in front of a group of people and speaking makes my gut churn. I fear saying something stupid and embarrassing myself. So when my son’s teacher asked me to talk to his class about blogging, I died just a little inside and then agreed. You can imagine how my anxiety level rose when, a few days later, he pushed back the talk time by 30 minutes – so I’d be talking right after they spent 45 minutes in the gym on bouncy castles (as a reading reward). He assured me that he would calm…
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Happy Blogiversary to Me!
Today is my four year blogiversary!!!!!! *throws confetti* *cuts the cake* That’s right – four years ago today, I started this blog. It was just a wee little blog over on Blogger, started simply as a way to keep a visual record of my growing family (because I’m crap at keeping up with the baby books). Yes, it’s still a near invisible little blog, sitting quietly in its little corner of the interwebz. That’s ok – I know that there is a lot more competition for your attention out there in the blogisphere, and I still believe I have a solid little blog. I appreciate the followers that I have,…
