It’s amazing how easy it is to stop blogging. 1, 2, 3 days without writing anything new turns into a week, 10 days, 12 days… in what seems like the blink of an eye.

Today, as I stared blankly at my computer screen, I visualized my blog fading away into nothingness, neglected and eventually abandoned, as I’ve seen with so many others over the years. Would anyone even notice if I was gone? Would anyone care? That’s when I knew I had to get my act together. I’ve put far too much work into this and have made so many incredible relationships that are too-too valuable to just let slip away!

I’ve taken some time to focus on myself and am ready to get back on the blogging “horse,” so to speak. More like a wheelchair, actually, but that’s a story for another post.

What have you been up to? Please leave me a link to your most interesting post from this week, as I may have to ‘mark all read’ in my Google Reader. Not a blogger? I’d love to hear from you as well.

I’m participating in the Ultimate Blog Party!

Welcome, party-goers! I know you have lots of blogs left to visit, so I’ll make this short.

I’m Mariana, and I’m a stay-at-home mom to two girls, 6 and 3 years old. I’ve been married for 10 years and live in the suburbs of Washington, DC, though I’m originally from Texas. This is my 3rd year participating in the Ultimate Blog Party, hosted by  Janice and Susan of 5 Minutes for Mom.

A few months ago (okay, 6 months is more than a few) I decided to change my blog name. Rebrand. I got that 3-year itch, I guess. What used to be ‘Riding With No Hands’ is now THE DOMESTIC BUZZ. Hope you like it. In case you’ve never visited, let me tell you a little bit about what you’ll find here!

• Photos of my kids in almost every one of my posts… they’re the loves of my life.
• Recipes… I like to cook (usually).
• Personal anecdotes… sometimes funny, usually not. Or am I?
• Lots of product reviews… I love sharing my favorite finds.
• And I’m working on incorporating a little bit more of my Latina culture into my blog. I grew up in Texas and Mexico, and my native language is actually Spanish. Little known fact.

I know you have to go, but please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and subscribe to my feed!

If you don’t have a blog, you can still participate in the Ultimate Blog Party! You can post a link to your Facebook profile and/or Twitter link if you have one on one of the many linkies at 5M4M. There are tons of prizes to be won. Remember to follow @5minutesformom and watch hashtag #UBP11!

As I come upon my 3rd anniversary of blogging, I’ve been thinking a lot about all the wonderful opportunities I’ve been given over the past few years. I wouldn’t have attended last week’s incredible Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, for instance, if I didn’t blog or tweet. At the conference, I bumped into Audrey McLelland from Mom Generations and we chatted briefly about how I went from having a personal blog to working with brands, and how – coincidentally – I owe it all to her sister Jane (though I’m not sure if she knows it!). Back in 2008, Jane tweeted about an opportunity to review a box of Kellogg’s cereal. I followed up with her, she put me in touch with someone at Mom Central… and that one seemingly trivial project led to SO much more! Kind of amazing, since I only had maybe 10 posts under my belt at the time. Now Jane and I happen to be working together for the first time, as part of Team 4all!

Photo credit: Kevin Dooley on Flickr

So, anyway. The point I’m trying to make is that you shouldn’t let opportunities pass you by, no matter how small they may be. This doesn’t just apply to your career; you can adopt this mindset to other aspects of your life.

Take exercising, for example. I could say that carving out half an hour to an hour to workout is close to impossible in my busy day, but when I break that down into several 10 or 15 minute chunks, it’s much more doable. If I take advantage of the various opportunities that present themselves throughout my day, I am that much more active and don’t even realize it!

• Take the trash out yourself, instead of asking your husband or kids to (plus, this guarantees that it’ll get done faster!)
• Walk the kids to school, or if that’s not possible, to the next farthest bus stop.
• When doing laundry, instead of piling the hamper with clothes and taking it upstairs in one trip, take smaller loads up one at a time.
• Set a timer when you’re cleaning. When you give yourself a time limit to get things done, you’ll find that you pick up the pace.
• Toss a ball and a jump rope into your trunk so you always have something to play with the kids, even at a crowded park.
• Don’t think that your backyard playset is just for the kids! You can use it as part of your workout. Checkout the Playground Pump app for ideas.
• On a rainy day, go the mall just to window shop.
• Park farther away from the store.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator. My kids don’t complain one bit!
• When making dinner, make a double batch and freeze it for later (and use the time you save to exercise!)
• While dinner is cooking on the stove, play the Wii with your kids. Our favorite game is Just Dance. It keeps the little ones out of the kitchen, and I can jump in and out anytime.
• Mow the lawn and rake the leaves yourself instead of paying a neighborhood kid to do it.
• Exercise while you’re watching TV. Get on a stationary bike, rowing machine, or treadmill. If you don’t have a machine, grab some dumbbells or a resistance band.
• If that’s not your thing, at least get up and move during TV commercials! I DVR everything these days, but don’t fast-forward. Instead, I run to the sink to wash some dishes, or to the living room to tidy up, etc. You can get a lot done in those 2 minutes!
• Sign up for those sites that offer a different deal everyday – LivingSocial, Groupon, etc. Most frequently feature discounted fitness classes and healthy meal options.
• While on vacation, pay a visit to the hotel’s fitness room. Even if only for 10 minutes.

Take a look at what you do in a typical day and see if you can improve upon it to make your everyday activity more, well, ACTIVE! Do you take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way?

Coming up later this week: a 4all fitness apparel giveaway! Stay tuned...

If you’re active on Twitter, then you know just what an annoyance automated DMs (direct messages) can be. You may get so many of them that you miss important DMs because they’re buried in between so much junk! Plus, these DMs will clutter your inbox if, like me, you get updates by email and on your cellphone. Going through and deleting them, or un-following those that sent them to you, is time-consuming and, personally, I don’t have that time to waste.

Well, I’m here to tell you that you’re suffering needlessly! Opting out of auto DMs is super easy. I can’t believe so many people out there don’t know about this little secret!

To opt out of auto DMs:

• Follow @OptMeOut. Wait for @OptMeOut to follow you back (usually within minutes). You’ll get a DM from them that confirms this.
• Reply to @OptMeOut’s DM. Say anything you want, it doesn’t matter.
• You’ll receive one last DM to confirm you’re opted out. Then unfollow @OptMeOut if you’d like.

That’s it! You should stop receiving auto DMs within hours. You can read more detailed instructions at Social Oomph. I don’t recall exactly, but I think I may have learned this from Darren Rowse (ProBlogger), as he has a blog all about Twitter… TwiTips.com. Happy tweeting! – @ohMariana

This is the look my daughters give me every time they see me reach for my laptop… I can’t resist their sad puppy dog eyes, so I push the computer away, again and again.

I’ve had such a hard time getting back into blogging since the holidays. There just isn’t enough time in the day for everything I want to accomplish! I used to stay up into the wee hours just to stay on top of my blog and email, but one of my resolutions for the new year was to get more sleep, and I’ve been doing just that. That means I’ve lost 3-4 hours a day of work time. Do the math… and that’s 21-28 hours a week. A part-time job, basically, that I now have to fit in to the rest of my day.

I used to average 5 hours of sleep a night, and now I get at least 8, usually more.

My problem now is I haven’t found a way to fit blogging into my day. Between getting the girls dressed, playing/reading with them, cooking three meals a day, cleaning up after said meals, exercising, doing a load (or two) of laundry, tackling other household chores, the girls’ nightly bedtime routine, and spending time with my husband (a few nights a week), there is little time left to do anything else. Plus, I’m trying to be more active in my local community. So, how can I have it all?? I need a plan…

Over half of my blog’s traffic comes from search engines. Google, mostly. Once in a while I’ll look and see what keywords bring people to my site. For example, in 2010, “Paper Jamz review” and “what to say to someone who is dying” were the single two most popular queries, but there were lots of searches regarding backyard playsets and the iPad, too.

Here are 20 more that I found browsing through over 25K keywords:

• unhappy housewife - The third most popular search. Sad, eh?
• didn’t want kids and my patience is waning - Can’t help you there. My patience waned long, long ago.
• do all strawberry shortcakes smell? - Hopefully, if you make it right. Oh wait… maybe you mean the DOLL. In that case, yes, all Strawberry Shortcake dolls are scented, as are her friends Lemon Meringue, Blueberry Muffin, Raspberry Torte, Plum Pudding, Orange Blossom, Pumpkin Pie, Creme Brulee, etc.
• do it with no hands – I barely get around to doing it with hands, so you won’t find any advice on that ’round here.
• how to enjoy doing laundry – If someone ever stumbles upon this secret, please let me know. Better yet, you can come enjoy doing laundry at my house. I have a mountain of it.
• how to please an unhappy housewife - I was actually happy to see this! Not all husbands are a lost cause like mine, some are actually looking to make things better.
• how to say hello in Chile – This seems so obvious to me.
• my husband never buys me gifts – Mine either. Well, not never. Just hardly ever. When he does, it’s usually something big, like a new computer. For no reason. Which then makes me suspicious…
• my mother is a little bit taller than me - Don’t be jealous of your mother! Luckily I don’t have this problem. Mine is significantly shorter, actually. But, no… really, this is a line from a song by Ralph’s World. A  sweet children’s song.
• snowtorious big - The huge snowstorm that hit the DC area last year. One that was given all kinds of ridiculous witty names. It was a nightmare. One I’d like to forget. So… why are people still searching for articles about it almost a year later?
• unhappy socks – Stinky feet?
• waiting for my iPad – Man, you must have been waiting a long time to be bored enough to Google that you’re waiting for it.
• what does it mean when you like a red washer/dryer? – This sounds like a question from one of those quizzes you find in Redbook. I’d like to give you a deep, spiritual answer, but I’m just not that creative. Red symbolizes love, right? Maybe you secretly love doing laundry.
• what time does Build-a-Bear close? – BAB is just an example. I get this question all the time. What time does the grocery store close. What time does TJ Maxx close. What time does Target close. GAH! How about you go to the STORE website, type in your location, and figure it out yourself. Or… do it the old-fashioned way. Just give them a call.
• what to eat sprinkles with – This makes it seem like sprinkles are the main ingredient, no? Really, you could eat sprinkles with anything. Will it be good? Probably not. But for starters, try sprinkling some on cupcakes.
• what’s a niece? – Again, there’s an obvious answer to this. I guess if you aren’t a niece, and don’t happen to have one, then maybe you wouldn’t know.
• where is my iPad? – If I had a $1 for every time someone asked this, I… could buy myself a new iPad or two. How about you TRACK the package using the shipping info that you were given shortly after you ordered it. I happen to like using iship.com.
• why am i so totally unhappy in the evening? - Because your husband is home from work? Or is that just me?
• why does my iPad sound like chipmunks? – Ooh, sounds cute! I wonder where I can buy one like that. My daughters would love it! For now, they’re happy with the “Talk with Chippy” app. Totally worth the 99 cents.
• yummy mother – Umm… no comment.

I don’t care how you found my blog, my dear readers, I’m just happy you’re here! Happy New Year!

Image above created at blogoscoped.com/letters.

A few months ago I kicked Maura out of her beautiful pink nursery.
She’s been sharing a room with her big sister ever since, and that cozy space is now my new office.
It’s still a work in progress, but I finally have a desk and a chair! Yay!

I also wrote about this over at a new site I’m writing for, Blogs de Mamás, in Spanish.

For more Wordless (or Wordful) Wednesday, visit:
5 Minutes for Mom ~ Latina on a Mission ~ Mom of 3 Girls
New York Chica ~ Parenting by Dummies ~ Run DMT

I took that photo of Maura late last night. Donald always sits at the foot of her bed, but she felt the need to hug him because, like me, she had Disney on her mind.

Yesterday I found out that we’ll be going to the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration at Walt Disney World next year. We went to the last conference, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been granted a spot at the next one.

Luck. That’s what I’m attributing it to.

While last year I received a personal invitation, this time around, registration was open to everyone. Hundreds (maybe thousands?) of social media savvy moms applied this past Thursday for a very limited amount of spots at the next conference coming up in March. It wasn’t clear whether registration meant that we were ‘in’ since we had to include our blog and Twitter stats. “All registrants will be verified prior to registration confirmation…” Verified for what exactly? While I was optimistic, my expectations weren’t high. I thought that maybe they’d pick a whole new crop of moms for this next conference and since I went to the last one, I’d be out of the running.

This wasn’t the case. I received my confirmation email yesterday. “Dear Mariana: Let the social media memories begin!” I didn’t read much further before jumping on to Twitter to see who else got in… and was sad to see that many, many of my friends did not. I got lucky.

It took forever for the registration page to load for me, so I know I wasn’t one of the first ones. I don’t have jaw-dropping traffic on my blog, and many of the “big” bloggers weren’t accepted, so stats aren’t it either. I just got lucky.

That’s something I was missing at the last conference. If you were following my saga, you might remember that I almost didn’t get there. Snowmaggedon, Snowpocalypse, Snowverkill – whatever the weathermen called it – hit the DC area that week, bringing the entire city to a standstill. We had multiple flights cancelled, trains were shutdown… but I wasn’t giving up. I had promised my daughters a trip to Disney World and I was going to get them there. The 30+ inches of snow in my driveway didn’t scare me. A nightmarish 30-hour bus ride followed… and well, I don’t even want to look back on it at this point. Our brains seem to be wired to rid themselves of painful memories, don’t you think? We got there, and it was worth all the trouble it took.

Yesterday, after finding out the good news, I didn’t run and tell my kids. They still don’t know. I did ask them both if they’d like to go to Walt Disney World again, though.

Maura: “Yes! I promise I’ll be a good girl! I want to see Donald, and Minnie, and Daisy, and Mickey, and Goofy!!! Oh, and Pluto, too! Please mommy??”

Maya: “Yessss! I’d love to go back sometime.” She said, in a reserved, I-don’t-want-to-seem-overly-excited-because-that’s-not-cool sort of way.

Me: “Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”

I realize it’s been almost exactly 2 months since my blog name change/re-design… but I finally took the time to create a new button! I did it myself using Picnik, if you’re wondering.

If you link to me on your blog, please replace the one in your sidebar with the new one. The code:

<a href=”http://thedomesticbuzz.com/” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/1205/thedomesticbuzzbutton.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”The Domestic Buzz” Title=”The Domestic Buzz”></a>

Thanks SO much!

Something came over me this past weekend. I felt the sudden urge to change my blog name. CRAZY!

I know. Usually people do this when there’s some kind of trademark infringement or when they “grow out” of their blog. Me? I just wasn’t feeling Riding With No Hands anymore. The metaphor behind the title looks good on paper, but it’s hard to translate into a face-to-face conversation.

“What’s your blog?”

“Riding With No Hands,” I say.

The puzzled look on the person’s face tells me that they don’t quite understand. “Writing…?”

“No. RIDING. Like riding a bike. With no hands…” as I foolishly hold my hands up to get the point across.

And that’s just the title. This conversation replayed over and over at various events. Exhausting.

The problem… I was scared to make such a huge change. Would it be hard? What name would I pick?

Friday night, I brainstormed some possible names, and stayed up late searching for available URLs. I chatted with a few friends about it on Saturday morning, and mulled it over some more on Sunday. I’m not usually one that needs validation, but I wanted to make sure that what I was doing made sense.

Monday morning, I went for it. Transferring my WordPress blog to a new domain wasn’t so hard. Honestly, it only took a few minutes. But I’m not afraid to experiment with code and all that.

• I registered a new domain on GoDaddy.
• Added a new cPanel account to MomWebs.
• Changed the nameservers on GoDaddy to point to MomWebs.
• Installed WordPress on the new site using Fantastico Deluxe.
• Backed up my ridingwithnohands.com home directory and databases onto my computer.
• Replaced the new blog’s wp-content folder with my old wp-content. This copied over my theme, plug-ins, and media uploads.
• Reinstalled the old MySQL database.
• The database pointed to the old URL, so I had to run a couple of commands to fix this.
• I updated all the links in my posts using the Update URLs plugin.
• Did a quick once-over to make sure things look good, and haven’t seen any problems.
• Updated Feedburner with the new source and title, but left the feed address the same so I won’t lose any subscribers. Subscribers shouldn’t even notice a difference other than a new title and URL at the top of your screen!
• Redirected ridingwithnohands.com to the new URL by adding an htaccess file with a 301 redirect.
• Set up new email address on cPanel and mac Mail. I believe my email was down for a bit, but no other issues to speak of.

Now I just have to work on my header and create a favicon. If you have a moment, I’d appreciate it if you could update your bookmarks and links in your sidebars! I’ll make a new button as soon as I can. If you have any questions about the steps I took or want further clarification, I’m happy to share. Welcome to…

The Domestic Buzz!

thedomesticbuzz.com

mariana at thedomesticbuzz dot com