Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

My Top Summer Read Recommendation

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In need of a good read this summer? Allow me to make a suggestion, if I might.

PUH-LEEEZE get your hands on a copy of, When Did I Get Like This? by Amy Wilson, author of the off-Broadway hit, Mother Load. I have laughed and cried and shouted, “Amen, sister!” countless times while devouring this book. I even stayed up late and woke up extra early to get my fix, and finished it in just a few days. I haven’t read a book that quickly since BEFORE Darah was born.

One of the major things that I appreciate about this book is how Amy breaks down why so many of us find ourselves to be guilt-ridden chronic worriers as young mothers. I’m not saying that none of us possessed any of those tendencies before we got pregnant, but if you are able to NOT possess them by the time you pass your first trimester, then you are a rare breed, indeed. And it’s no wonder, because everywhere we turn, we face an onslaught of CRITICAL information, much of it contradictory, and we had better pick a path to follow, because it will impact our children FOREVER. Oh yeah, and whatever path you pick, there’s another path (or 12), filled with folks pointing at you and telling you that YOU CHOSE WRONG!!!!

Here’s an example. When you find out you are pregnant for the first time, you will probably pretty quickly read up on the “best practices” for your pregnancy. For those of us who need a cup of coffee in the morning, Amy points out this tid bit that we learn, “Caffeine causes miscarriages! (Wait, no it doesn’t! (Hold on, yes it does! (Sometimes!))) When we can’t be sure that anything is safe, what are we supposed to do but worry?” (p. 5). Oh man, when I read that passage memories just flooded back to me of staring down teeny tiny cups of coffee that I poured for my pregnant self in moments of reckless abandon, and then berated myself heavily about for even THINKING about taking a wee little sip. I tortured myself over this issue. And countless others. Did I mention the coffee was decaf? But see, I read somewhere that even decaf coffee has a little bit of caffeine in it….

One other section that really resonated with me in this chapter was when Amy talks openly about the trouble she and her spouse had conceiving. While I never had to take infertility drugs, my first pregnancy was actually a chemical pregnancy, and so I miscarried. When I found out I was pregnant again a few months later, I was VERY guarded with my feelings on it. I was downright suspicious until I got further along than I had with the first pregnancy, and I remained skeptical at best until I heard a heartbeat at 8 weeks. Amy hits the nail on the head about having trouble conceiving when she writes, “Infertility robs you of many things along the way, but the last thing it steals from you is the ability to celebrate being pregnant, if and when it actually happens. You are told not to believe too fully, to want too much. You cannot jubilate. You only, slowly, exhale” (p. 25).

There’s SO much good stuff in here, people! I only highlighted things from the beginning, but I think they give you a taste of the insight that Amy has to share about why it is so extremely difficult to not be a giant sack of worry as a new mom, and she also shares, through her own story, ways to get to the other side, to the “good enough” place that will set you free.

Read it.  Seriously.

Edit: This giveaway is closed

Win it!: No excuses, here’s your chance to win an autographed copy of When Did I Get Like This? The contest will run until June 4th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

REMEMBER, YOU MUST BE A PUBLIC FOLLOWER VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR A GIVEAWAY. YOU CAN SIGN UP ON MY SIDEBAR IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE SO ALREADY.

Mandatory entry: Tell me something you thought you’d never do as a parent that you definitely do, at least on occasion:

My answer: I had every intention of being VIGILANT about keeping Darah away from television until she was 2, and then letting her watch 15 minutes a day, at most. I still secretly wish I had stuck to this ideal, but uh, yeah. Totally didn’t. Some days she doesn’t watch any tv at all, and other days, she watches an hour. There, I said it.

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Subscribe to Amy’s blog. It’s refreshing. You’ll love it!
2. Blogger love: Like Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary book for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Every Kid is a Superhero (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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Recess Monkey is a super awesome band that plays music that both kids and adults will love (promise!). The Final Funktier is an album I reviewed earlier, and all the tracks pay homage to space in one way or another. Their latest album is called Flying!, and it is all about how every one of us has a superhero inside.

This is a cd to play when you (or more likely, your kids) have energy that they need to burn. We’ve enjoyed listening to it in the late afternoon, after nap time but before dinner. The last time we listened to it, we were inspired to build an indoor fort while we sang and danced. Darah was positively giddy from all the fun!
Flying! will be available for sale on June 21 for $14.99, and is ideal for kids ages 3-8 (and their parents…promise that this cd will have you tapping your toes). It runs 47 minutes. This is definitely the soundtrack for all our little superheroes in training.
Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to win a copy of this cd before they are available to the public! The contest will run until June 3rd at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.
REMEMBER, YOU MUST BE A PUBLIC FOLLOWER OF THIS BLOG VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR A GIVEAWAY. YOU CAN SIGN UP THROUGH MY SIDEBAR IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO, ALREADY.
Mandatory entry: Tell me your favorite super hero (one with or without a cape!).
My answer: She-Ra!
Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Like Recess Monkey on Facebook
2. Blogger love: Like Stuff Parents Need on Facebook
Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Snikiddy Snacks: So Good You’ll Swear It’s Junk Food (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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Did your parents ever call snacks Snikiddy snacks? Mine did. They also called them Scooby snacks. Because of those memories, I’m particularly endeared to the product I’m featuring today.

When we were without power for 6 full days, I quickly realized that it is really important to have a good supplies of shelf-stable snacks on hand, not only for Tim and me, but also for Darah. Fortunately, Snikkidy products showed up on our doorstep on day one of the outage.

I’m going to be honest with you; Snikiddy products taste like honest to goodness junk food. You know, those savory and salty snacks that you love so much but that are SO bad for you. And yet, they deceive! These products are BAKED (you will NOT believe that when you taste them, I swear). They also have the following attributes:

  • no preservatives (woo hoo!)
  • gluten & wheat free
  • no corn syrup
  • 50% less fat than regular potato chips!
  • No trans fats
  • cholesterol free

Wanna hear the great flavors?

  • Barbecue
  • Southwest Cheddar
  • Sea Salt
  • Bold Buffalo
  • Cheddar Cheese
  • Classic Ketchup
  • Original Seasoning

I promise you, you aren’t going to believe your taste buds when you try Snikiddy products. If you or someone you know just can’t seem to shake the potato chip (or Cheetos) habit, give Snikiddy a try. You’ll be so glad you did!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win a 3 pack of Snikiddy products, a Snikiddy chip clip and an art kit! Awesome! The contest will run until June 2nd at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

REMEMBER, YOU MUST BE A PUBLIC FOLLOWER OF THIS BLOG VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE PRIZE. YOU CAN SIGN UP THROUGH MY SIDEBAR IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO, ALREADY.

Mandatory entry: Tell me one snack you enjoy that feels like a guilty pleasure, but really isn’t!

My answer: I do enjoy having a scoop of peanut butter from time to time, and I stick to the more natural stuff so that all I’m getting is good stuff!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Like Snikiddy on Facebook
2. Blogger love: Like Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

A New Recipe Resouce: Cooking with Coke (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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In most societies all over the world, food is a key element in bringing people together and sharing memories. What’s a family gathering without joining together around the table, or hanging out in the backyard with a plate of food in hand? We mark holidays, milestones and even seasons of the year with food. But the food, as good as it might be, isn’t the end goal. It is a means to an end of bringing people together with one another. Food is often a reason to gather, but the memories that are formed when people get together are the reasons that we keep planning events, and menus to go along with them!

There’s a very cool new web resource for finding yummy recipes that will draw a crowd of various sizes, be it enough to fill your dining room table or enough to fill your house. It’s called Cooking with Coke. You will, of course, find an excellent selection of recipes that feature Coca-Cola as an ingredients (who knew you could do so much with it?!), but beyond that, it features recipes that readers have submitted, along with stories of memories that they have related to the food. I find this to be one of the most enjoyable features of the website, as it it fun to read about why a particular dish is so special to someone. I’ve actually found that the dishes that have those great stories are the ones I’m most interested in trying for myself. The dishes on their own sound good, but its the memories they have created for someone else that makes them irresistible!

Additionally, Cooking with Coke features two celebrity chefs, G. Garvin and Ingrid Hoffmann, and some of their favorite recipes to share (along with video demonstrations of how to make them! Awesome!).

I want to encourage you to spend a bit of time on the Cooking with Coke website. You can create your own recipe book right on the website and print it for yourself or to share with others. There’s nothing to lose and only great memories to make!

Win it!: In celebration of the launch of Cooking with Coke, Coca-Cola has offered one Stuff Parents Need reader an Ingrid Hoffman T-fal Tamale Pot and Steamer (it is BEAUTIFUL!), with a retail value of $49.95! The winner will also receive a Coca-Cola oven mitt! The contest will run until June 1st at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

REMEMBER, YOU MUST BE A PUBLIC FOLLOWER OF MY BLOG VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR A GIVEAWAY. YOU CAN SIGN UP THROUGH MY SIDEBAR IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE SO, ALREADY.

Mandatory entry: Tell me one recipe that catches your eye on the website, or share a food that brings back great memories for you!

My answer: I am going to be trying these, “Fastest Ever” Chicken Enchiladas. Sign me up for anything that looks that delicious and comes together that fast!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: “Like” Coca-Cola on Facebook
2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter

Rare bonus entry: Submit a recipe to the website (doesn’t have to have Coke in it!) along with a memory. Come back here and submit a link to your post, and you will earn 3 extra entries (be sure to submit your link 3 separate times in the comments).

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: The prize was provided by The Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Company is not a sponsor, administrator or connected in any other way with this giveaway. T-fal® had zero involvement with this contest.

The Latest and Greatest from Earth Mama Angel Baby (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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We are big Earth Mama Angel Baby fans in our house. What’s not to love? This company offers organic personal care products that are safe for every member in the house, young and old! The performance of their products is excellent, and I think the smells are simply DIVINE!

Speaking of smells, Earth Mama Angel Baby has some products that are designed with the expecting mama in mind. Many pregnant women experience a sensitivity to smells, often lasting throughout the entire pregnancy. The Happy Mama Hand to Toe Wash is ideal for a woman in this position. You don’t have to eliminate every product with a scent from your bathroom, after all. This product contains ginger, organic lime and organic pink grapefruit essential oils, all of which will smell wonderful to a sensitive nose, helping to ease that queasy feeling and lift your spirits! Hooray!

Even if you aren’t expecting, you will love the smell. I know I do! And I love the way it dispenses, as a rich foam. This is especially handy at bath time for Darah, as she is a wiggle worm and we’ve got to move fast to get soap on her!

There are some really great ingredients in this product, but what is even more important to know is what is NOT in EMAB products:
• No petrochemicals, petroleum or petroleum byproducts
• No 1,4-Dioxane, formaldehyde, or phthalates
• No sodium lauryl sulfate, cocomidopropyl betaine or other synthetic foaming agents or surfactants
• No artificial preservatives, parabens, phenoxyethanol, Quaternium-15 etc.
• No artificial emulsifiers

You can always feel confident about any purchase you make with this company. The only offer what is best for you, for baby and for the planet. Yay Earth Mama Angel Baby!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win Happy Mama Hand to Toe Wash! The contest will run until May 30th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

REMEMBER, YOU MUST FOLLOW THIS BLOG VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT TO BE ELIGIBLE TO WIN. YOU CAN SIGN UP ON MY SIDEBAR IF YOU DON’T ALREADY FOLLOW.

Mandatory entry: Tell me one other product in the EMAB line that piques your interest.

Additional entries:

1.Sponsor love: Like Earth Mama Angel Baby on Facebook

2.Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter

Be sure to enter my other currentgiveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Tropical Traditions Organic Hair Oils: Fear Not!

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The first time I got my hair cut in Chattanooga, the lady who did my hair told me that my hair needed DEEP moisturization ASAP. She said that I had very thick and coarse hair that felt very dry. Fortunately, she had the perfect solution for me with some product in her salon that cost well over $30. Uh…no thanks. I didn’t return to this hair dresser for 2 reasons:

1. She also told me that my hair was, “weird” due to it having different lengths in it (I lost a pretty decent amount of hair after Darah was born, and most of it has grown back in….yes, it looked awkward. I didn’t need her to tell me!).
2. She put such a hard sell on for me to buy these hair care products and it was my very first time ever coming to the shop. That really rubbed me the wrong way, as I felt like all she cared about was making my final bill larger, not actually helping me improve the condition of my hair in the best possible way. It made me very weary of her claim that I even needed extra moisturization, actually.

But like most women, I never did fully let go of that criticism I got that day at the salon, and I began to wonder a bit about different deep conditioning treatments. At one point, I came super close to purchasing some Moroccan Oil online, although the price tag (also around $30) made me chicken out at the last minute.

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to try out Tropical Traditions answer to the needs of my parched hair. They offer Organic Hair Oils, made with Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil and a few other fabulous oils. They are priced a bit below the other products that have been recommended to me, and are on sale now starting at $18.99. There are testimonials on their website from satisfied customers, and if you just do a Google search for coconut oil as a deep conditioner, you will read countless stories of people swearing by it.

coconut oil hair treatment Knowing that every other product I have tried from Tropical Traditions has impressed me, I decided to give this a try. But I’ll be honest with you, I was pretty nervous about putting oil in my hair. What if I couldn’t get it to rinse out? What if it made my hair just look gross and oily? What if it smelled weird? What if it ruined my pillowcases? These were all thoughts I had, but I decided to trust in the reviews of so many other people.

I first washed my hair, and then I applied the product. This is an area where you sort of have to just use your best judgment. I started with an amount about the size of a quarter. I think I ended up doubling that amount for my hair, which is thick and past my shoulders. Once I worked it through my damp hair, I piled it on top of my head, grabbed a magazine, and soaked in a hot bath for about 45 minutes (which was SO nice, by the way). The directions on the bottle state that you can leave it in for anywhere between 15 minutes and overnight. After 45 minutes, I used a small amount of shampoo (probably about 2/3 of what I would normally use to wash my hair) and then rinsed it out. Then I dried my hair as usual.

I thought my hair looked shinier, and it most definitely felt softer, but I wanted to get Tim’s opinion. He will always be honest with me, and he reported that he thought my hair looked significantly shinier than before using the oil. Hooray! I apologize that I totally forgot to take pictures, but I promise you that the difference in shine was quite noticeable! And it did NOT feel weighed down of greasy.

I found my hair to be noticeably easier to manage for the next 2 weeks, which was just terrific. Now I have penciled into my calendar a once a month date with Tropical Traditions Organic Hair Oils. I’m a firm believer that it can add shine and smoothness to many different types of hair. If you’ve been thinking about trying out a deep conditioning treatment of some sort, this is a great way to go, and it is made with awesome organic ingredients! Also, depending on the length of your hair and how often you use the product, it could last you a really long time. I’m estimating that my bottle will last me at least 2 years!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win Tropical Traditions Organic Hair Oils in your choice of scent (or you can choose unscented). The contest will run until May 29th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

REMEMBER, YOU MUST BE A PUBLIC FOLLOWER OF THIS BLOG VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR A GIVEAWAY. YOU CAN SIGN UP ON MY SIDEBAR IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE SO, ALREADY.

Mandatory entry: Tell me anything about your hair. Any magic potions for keeping it beautiful? Any difficulties you haven’t yet figured out? Do you dye it? Ever tried a deep conditioner? Anything related to the topic works for me!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Like Tropical Traditions on Facebook
2. Blogger love: Subscribe to Stuff Parents Needvia RSS or email

Rare bonus entry: Subscriber to the Tropical Traditions newsletter (and hear about their sales!)

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Helpful for Many Reasons: Batiste Dry Shampoo (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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I’m excited to be highlighting a product today that you might not yet realize you need, but keep reading, and you will! It’s called Batiste Dry Shampoo, and it comes in two scents: original and blush (which smells a bit more floral). It’s the #1 dry shampoo in the U.K. and now it is coming to the U.S.! This product is designed to revitalize greasy, dull and lifeless hair between washes. It is quick and very convenient. It basically works like aerosol hairspray, in terms of how you apply it. Give it a good shake, maintain a sensible distance from your hair, and get to work. I found that for me, just applying it to the crown of my head made the most sense.

In my experience, I don’t think it made my hair look as clean as it does when it is freshly washed, but I also know that it made it look clean enough to go out and about with no worries that I might look “dirty.”

There are several reasons why this product is so useful. First, I can tell you that it DEFINITELY came in handy when we were without hot water for 6 days. I didn’t have to suffer through nearly as many cold showers thanks to having this on hand! So first and foremost, it’s an excellent product to keep in an emergency kit!

Second, we have all been told that you should not wash your hair every day. I’m in the habit of washing mine every other day, although I’d love to be able to stretch it to 3 days. If you are in a similar boat, but just can’t stand how “dirty” your hair looks in between washes, this product will help you get through that tough time until the oils in your scalp recalibrate (not a scientific term, by the way…I just made that up) and your hair doesn’t look as bad in between washes. So for me, I’ve been using this to help me make the move to washing my hair once every 3 days, and it has been working great! The end result is healthier hair!

Third, we all know that as parents, or heck, even just busy adults, there are times when a shower is a luxury that you just can’t afford in your super packed schedule. It’s true! I remember in college actually scheduling my showers in my planner during the last few weeks of school, when I was at my most stressed of the semester, or else I knew that I’d never ever get one! So when those days happen, and you know they do, you can turn to this product so that you don’t have to wear a ball cap all day or just feel moritified and like you are wearing a big sign that says, “I didn’t shower today…or the day before…”

Based on my experience with Batiste Dry Shampoo, I highly recommend this product to find a place in every busy parent’s bathroom. It is a lifesaver in so many ways!It is available for $7.99 through Ulta.com or Drugstore.com!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win a can of Batiste Dry Shampoo! Hooray! The contest will run until May 28th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR A GIVEAWAY ON MY SITE, YOU MUST BE A PUBLIC FOLLOWER VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT. YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE VIA THE LINK ON MY SIDEBAR IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY.

Mandatory entry: Tell me why you want to try dry shampoo! Have you ever tried it before? Anything relevant to the topic works for me.

Additional entries:

1. Sponsor love: Follow Batiste Dry Shampoo on Twitter

2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

New DVD Series from Scholastic (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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Did you know that Scholastic has launched the My First Collection, which has videos that are specifically designed for younger children, ages 2-6? They are designed to help encourage a love of reading (and not for tv to replace reading!). The debut release is My First Collection Featuring Splat the Cat, which is a 3 DVD series that has 14 great stories and runs over 1 hour and 40 minutes. While you wouldn’t want your kid to barrel through them all in one sitting, I can tell you from experience that it is difficult to not watch at least 2 stories at a time, as they are so captivating.

The day that this DVD series arrived in the mail, Darah was right by my side, excited to see what was in the package. She squealed, “Hattie!” when she saw the cover (Hattie is our cat). And immediately put in to, “See Hattie? See Hattie?” on the tv. So we watched it immediately!

One of my favorite stories in the group is The Napping House, a book that a few of my readers have recommended to me, but that I’ve never even seen. What a fun story that is, and Scholastic really brought it to life in such a fun way. Now I’m definitely on the hunt for the story in book format so that we can read it at bedtime.

This is a delightful series that Darah is really enjoying and that really does seem geared toward a younger crowd. She delights in watching it! You can purchase the entire set for $24.95 or you can purchase the DVDs individually for $12.95 each.
Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to snag the My First Collection Featuring Splat the Cat! The contest will run until May 27th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

REMEMBER, TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR A GIVEAWAY ON MY SITE, YOU MUST BE A PUBLIC FOLLOWER VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT. YOU CAN SIGN UP ON MY SIDEBAR IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY A MEMBER.

Mandatory entry: Tell me which story in this set sounds really fun to you!

My answer: We also love Duck on a Bike!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Sign up for the Scholastic newsletter (found on the bottom right side of the page)
2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

You Know You Want To: Moving from Blogger to WordPress (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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I always get a particular sort of joy out of writing reviews of products that feel oh-so-very timely. Today I’m showcasing an e-book that is designed to help those of us who use Blogger as a blogging platform move ourselves over to WordPress.

If you use Blogger, then you know why this is so timely. We had a MAJOR outage this week, and found ourselves unable to write, edit or publish ANYTHING on our sites, and our readers were unable to comment. Bloggers live and breathe on the comments they receive, and in my particular niche of product reviews and giveaways, when my readers can’t leave comments, they can’t win, and my sponsors are left feeling as though nobody was interested in their product. Everyone loses, basically.

I’ve known for at least a year now that I’ve needed to make the switch. I’ve read countless posts about how great it is to have so much control over your blog, and to not be at the mercy of Google, facing the potential of losing your blog at a moment’s notice, as so many of us experienced a few days ago. Additionally, WordPress is perceived on the internet as a professional platform, for those who see their blogs as more than simply a hobby.

So, I’ve known that I SHOULD move for a really long time. But I haven’t done so, for two primary reason.

  1. I can’t really afford to pay someone to move me. The prices I have found have just been beyond my budget, and to be honest with you, the people who don’t charge very much make me uncomfortable….what if they screw it up and then can’t really help me fix it?! Sometimes you get what you pay for, and I’ve just been really nervous about “going cheap” when it comes to my blog.
  2. Option 2 is to do it yourself. The reason I signed up for Blogger in the first place is because it is designed for people who know absolutely NOTHING about web design. While I’ve learned a few HTML tricks in my time as a blogger, I still know almost nothing about web design. The amount of time I would have to spend in chat rooms and various forums, painstakingly making my way through the process and screwing up an infinite number of times is just too much to bear.

So here I am, still with a “.blogspot” address and still with Blogger. Sigh…

And then I heard about an ebook written by a self-taught web designer who has moved over 100 blogs over to WordPress from Blogger. The book is appropriately titled, How to Move from Blogger to WordPress by Sharon Hujik. It is a GEM, people. This is a step-by-step guide, with plenty of pictures, and in plain English (all tech-speak is clearly explained!).

When I first got the book to review, my plan was to hand it over to my husband to read and handle for me. But as I kept reading, I realized that Sharon wrote this book for me, and people just like me…the ones who are scared out of their minds to do this on their own. She holds your hand the whole way through, and breaks every step down for you, from getting your blog self-hosted all the way to the coolest bells and whistles that you’ll want to add to WordPress once you are rolling.

The book is 94 pages long. I’m telling you that so that you can understand how detailed Sharon is in this book. She’s not trying to fool anyone into thinking that making the switch takes just 2 minutes. It can be more complicated than that, for sure. But she does show you exactly how to do everything you need to do, with no missed steps or assumptions made along the way.

The book is $35, and if I had not received a copy for review, I’d definitely be ready to spend the money on this, now. Additionally, there’s a coupon out right now to take 20% off the price (use code time4wp at checkout). This is far less than the quotes I’ve had to get it moved for me, and will save me hours and hours of time piecing it together on my own (which in all honesty, would just never happen). So really this book is saving my blog from being taken hostage by Google again in the future. I’ll be taking the leap in the next month, and I feel SO equipped with the knowledge and tools I will need to do this. Plus, when things mess up with my blog in the future (as they do, from time to time), I’m going to be so much more savvy about diagnosing the problem and finding the solution! And yeah, I’m going to feel sort of like a rock star when I MOVE MYSELF from Blogger to WordPress. Thank you, Sharon!

Win it!: Want to join me in leaving the dark side? Here’s your chance to win a copy of How to Move from Blogger to WordPress! The contest will run until May 25th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me why you want to make the switch from Blogger to WordPress!

Additional entries:

  1. Sponsor love: Follow Sharon on Twitter
  2. Blogger love: Like Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.