Happy #AWBU week, ladies! We are so excited to have a SOLD-OUT event full of fantastic women bloggers converging on the Ozark Folk Center this Friday. If you can’t join us for the event, we hope that you are enjoying updates and picking up some interested tidbits (and making plans to join us next year)! Don’t fret – we also have other meetups planned throughout the state, so we hope to see all of you in person very soon.
Even in these final days leading up to the event, we still have LOTS of exciting updates for you daily! For example:
WE ARE THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE:
Ziploc® VersaGlass™ Containers
AND
Ziploc® Brand Containers
are our newest Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged Conference sponsors!
Why is this exciting for you, dear blogger? Well, it means that there are some incredible goodies in store for you at the event! Plus, we know you will be completely hooked on these fabulous Ziploc® products – lucky for you, they are available at your local Walmart ~ aligning perfectly with the charge: Save Money. Live Better!
We could tell you all about the reasons having Ziploc® involved will be so fun, but we wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. Here’s what’s particularly nifty about our two sponsoring Ziploc® brands:
Ziploc® VersaGlass™ Containers allow you to store, heat and to serve—all in one container. When it comes to preparing meals for you and your family, Ziploc® VersaGlass™ Containers make life easy. These dishwasher-safe containers are made from tempered glass, so you can use them to store food in the fridge or freezer, to heat food in the oven* or microwave, and serve food on the dining room table.
Ziploc® Brand Containers offer One Press Protection You Can HEAR!™ Ziploc® Brand Containers make it easy to store gifts, household items and food while locking in freshness! You can hear the lid securely close with just one press. When you have a secure seal you know you are keeping food fresh, which saves you money.
Yay! Please join us in welcoming Ziploc® VersaGlass™ Containers and Ziploc® Brand Containers aboard as sponsors for the Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged conference this weekend! Those of you participating in Foodie Friday will get to know these fantastic products extra well, but all our bloggers will leave a bit more knowledgeable about these great options available from Walmart. Be sure to hop over to our AWBU 2012 Sponsorspage to connect with Ziploc® and our other event sponsors online and via social media!
Or, What I Wish I’d Known About Parenting and Ancient Sea Monsters Circa 2003.
Details on an Arkansas Women Bloggers Twitter Party tonight (Tuesday 8/14 at 8p CST) AND a free conference registration giveaway in this post!
When I was pregnant for the first time nearly a decade ago, I went through what I’ve learned is a common ailment affecting many new mothers-to-be: behavior best defined as psychosis.
First, I grabbed copies of What to Expect When You’re Expecting and, naturally, What to Eat When You’re Expecting. In case you’re unfamiliar, these are massive volumes. I began reading and nearly had a mental breakdown. I bookmarked pages for my husband (which he dutifully ignored), informed him I was giving up sugar in all forms (which caused him to laugh out loud) and made copious notes on all my findings (which only increased my certainty that I was incapable of parenting).
At some point early in my pregnancy, I remember hearing that as a future Arkansas mom I could order my very own copy of the Happy Birthday Baby Book, and I pounced on the telephone (mounted to the wall) to dial what is known as a “toll-free number.” Foreign concept, I know. I waited for it to arrive in the mail, and found that it was pretty full of resources for parents in Arkansas as well as a quick, easy read.
Fast forward to today (that kid is entering the third grade on Monday, by the way): I’ve had another daughter who has cemented my belief that while I’m capable of parenting, I may barely survive the childhood of the Kraken. Yes, that’s what we call our second-born, in reference to Liam Neeson as Zeus in Clash of the Titans (2010) yelling “Release the Kraken!” in reference to a threatening monster from Hades.
A likely Kraken: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (1870). And yes, this is how I often feel with my little Kraken.
Here’s the point of that diatribe (sometimes I have one): just like my intelligent and helpful older daughter, the Happy Birthday Baby Book has grown up. And, I’m far more likely to somehow emerge unscathed from the Kraken’s childhood thanks to the assistance of that intelligent and helpful older daughter AND the intelligent and helpful new Happy Birthday Baby Books.
There are now TWO super useful editions: Book One (Pregnancy through Age 1) and Book Two (Newborn through Age 5), and they come in either ebook form (hallelujah!) or a very useful purse or diaper-bag size hard copy (click here to check them out and order copies!) We shared recently that we were exceptionally excited to have Healthy Families as the Presenting Sponsor for the Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged Conference (click here to read that post!) next week.
Click here to read online or order your free copies of the Happy Birthday Baby Books!
Thanks to these books, I’m receiving the counseling I need to raise a good little Kraken. For example: Plan play dates, but remember that your 1-year-old is too young to be expected to share (Book 2). Oh. Right.
Also: regarding the comments I’ve made to several of you about the Kraken being very OCD: Your 2-year-old may want to eat the same thing every day. WHAT? I’m telling you – the Happy Birthday Baby Books people know everything there is to know about parenting.
Now, don’t check out on me if you are a) not likely to have kids anytime soon, if ever b) SO DONE with pregnancy and childbirth, and wondering why we don’t sponsor a nanny giveaway already or c) enjoying feeding sweets to your grandchildren on a regular basis as revenge for the wrinkles their parents caused you.
Here’s the thing, bloggers: Healthy Communities Are Every Blogger’s Business. That’s why I am making note to start ordering copies of these books for every mom-to-be I know. I may even keep some extra copies in my car – I’ve been known to accost people who talk about politics with voter registration forms, reminding them they are welcome to share their opinion with me by visiting the polls. I’m thinking I may start giving copies of these gems to random pregnant women. That should help me win friends and influence people – right?
All kidding aside – we want you to join us in our enthusiasm at working with Healthy Families. Put very simply, they get it, ladies. We all want more healthy moms, healthy pregnancies, healthy babies and healthy communities – it’s good for all of us. So join the fun: place the badge above on your own blog, tell everyone you know about this phenomenal program, click the links to check out the website and the books, and… (drum roll please):
Join us tonight (Tuesday, August 14) for our FINAL pre-#AWBU Twitter Party! It’s a short one, and it kicks off at 8:00 p.m. CST. You may want to click over before then to http://www.HealthyFamiliesNow.Net/ebooks to do some checking it out, because we will have some questions for you to answer tonight that just may win you goodies or a FREE conference registration! Join us even if you are already registered (we’ll let you give the last spot away!) or even if you can’t come to the conference, we promise it will still be worth your time! Just set up a Twitter column to follow #AWBU and #HFNow, and be sure to use those hashtags in every tweet so we can keep up with you!
Following is a guest post by Amy Webb, Communications Director for the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Healthy Families is an initiative of DHS.
About two weeks into my maternity leave with my daughter, I remember thinking, “My friends lied to me.” I wasn’t filled with adoring, loving thoughts of motherhood; and my baby wasn’t quietly cooing in my lap as we “enjoyed” our time together. All she did was cry for HOURS, and no amount of swaddling or attempts at bonding seemed to make a difference.
Depressed and worried I was doing something wrong, I turned to people like you – moms who had blogs filled with real stories about their own parenting struggles, depression, colic and concerns of not bonding immediately with their
children. The relief was immediate. I wasn’t a horrible mother, and my baby girl wasn’t malfunctioning. (And in fairness to my wonderful friends who supported me during that time, I just don’t think they wanted to scare me before the baby
was born!)
Eventually, my family settled into a routine, and I took a job as the Communications Director for the Department of Human Services. One of my first assignments was to help revamp the Healthy Families program, which included the Happy Birthday Baby Book. The first line to moms in the book read, “Congratulations! Having a baby is a special and exciting time.” I thought, “The author forgot, ‘hard’ and ‘exhausting!’” Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE being a mom, and my now toddler is an amazingly sweet and funny child. But as rewarding as parenting is, it is hard work and people don’t always tell you that before you have children. So I wanted to make sure the new Happy Birthday Baby Book gave moms all the information they needed to be a successful parent and have a healthy child.
The women working with me on the book – and its sibling Happy Birthday Baby Book: Book Two – agreed, and we added all kinds of new information. There are sections for dads and grandparents. There’s information about how to cope with
crying and how to create a crying plan. We also added information on domestic violence and created an entire new book dealing children from birth to age 5. Oh, did I mention that I also changed the opening line. “Congratulations! Having a
baby is one of the most exciting yet difficult journeys you’ll ever take.”
I hope you enjoy the books as much as we enjoyed working on them and the new Healthy Families website. There is tons more information in the books and online than I could ever mention here. The books are free and easy to order online. And you don’t have to be a parent or a mommy blogger to get one. Order them for your pregnant friends, neighbors and co-workers. Or just tell them, to read them online.
Amy Webb, is a former journalist, who has been working for the Department ofHuman Services and the Healthy Families campaign for just over a year.
Want to learn more? Follow @ARWomenBloggers and #AWBU on Twitter and register for our Twitter Party on Tuesday, July 24 at 8p CST to interact with other attendees and get the details!
Lyndi Fultz is the cultivator of nwaFoodie.com. She will be hosting a special Foodie Friday add-on option during the Arkansas Women Bloggers conference, jam-packed with food styling, photography, content and tips for food bloggers and those who just happen to like food… and blogs. Visit www.nwaFoodie.com to check out her awesomeness, or read her posts as Miss January 2012 – the featured blogger on the Arkansas Women Bloggers site!
10. Learn new blogging strategies, tech tips, and writing tricks. Discuss at some length and with great earnestness how much correct punctuation and grammar matter on your personal blog.
9. Put a real live person with a Twitter handle! Ever wonder who @DyingForCheesecake or @MysteriousTwitter52 is? You could meet her at #AWBU!
8. Add more blogs to your Google reader or feed burner that you won’t have time to read and will feel guilty about not getting to until the day you read 400 in one sitting and realize all the great stuff you’ve been missing. You also may find out that a close friend or fellow blogger has started a new business/had a baby/gotten married/gotten divorced/got a job/lost a job/published a book/discovered the secret to no-fail merengue. That’s never happened to me; I’m just saying it could happen.
7. Find the peace and quiet you always say you are wanting! Except for the times when you have a bunch of women bloggers together and then all the laughing, giggling, and sipping could get pretty noisy.
6. But seriously. Peace and quiet. Unplugged. Step away from your phone. Unplug those Interwebs. Exhale. Breathe in mountain air. Get a good night’s sleep.
5. See the always humorous, always engaging Lela Davidson as the keynote speaker. This woman has a few things figured out and she is happy to share her secrets. The things she doesn’t have figured out she is happy to ‘fess up to and make you feel better about just being you.
4. Hear women say some of the most inappropriate and ridiculously truthful things you’ve ever heard. And then reply with something equally inappropriate that you can’t believe is coming out of your own mouth. Again, that didn’t happen to me last year at all; I’m just saying it couldhappen.
3. Awaken the giant blogger within! Just being in the presence of other creators, writers, content generators, mothers, and women in a gorgeous environment will rev your blogger engine and send you home ready to write. You’re sure to get at least one new blog post out of the weekend!
2. Make new friends. Make friendships that already exist even stronger. Establish business and networking relationships that reap benefits throughout the coming years. This did happen last year (well, it’s just the thing I’m willing to cop to) and the relationships over the last year have been fruitful and significant. At the very least, you’ll go home with new people with whom to play Words With Friends.
1. Take your blog to a new level! Seek and you shall find—revamp or redefine your blog’s mission, update the look and feel of your blog, gain new writing and personal.
Want to learn more? Follow @ARWomenBloggers and #AWBU on Twitter and register for our Twitter Party on Tuesday, July 24 at 8p CST to interact with other attendees and get the details!
As for the Arkansas Women Bloggers leadership team… we are getting REALLY excited to see you all in just a few short weeks for the Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged (fondly known as #AWBU) conference and retreat!
We’ve told you before that we’re NOT a big, typical blogger conference… we’re better! We’re more affordable, closer to home and the connections are deeper. Every single one of the nearly fifty women who attended last year’s conference found that it was more than they expected, and very different! Think of it as going away to “grown-up camp” for the weekend, but with the added benefit of expert bloggers, workshops, speakers and all kind of fun activities.
Without further ado, HERE’S THE SCHEDULE! We’ve included very basic descriptions of the workshops and only a few of the speakers and panelists because, frankly, we are still chasing down the most fantastic people we can find to make the weekend perfect. We listened carefully to your feedback from last year and we’ve made a number of tweaks to our sessions. A few little updates and reminders for you:
1. HURRY! The early bird registration fee for the conference is $135 until the end of this month, and then it goes to $150!
2. Lodging? The Ozark Folk Center cabins have offered us a special#AWBU rate that is very affordable. The cabins are walking distance to all activities and an excellent value. They aren’t rustic and they have indoor plumbing, so don’t fret. The nightly rate is $77.70 ($7o for cabin plus taxes), which you can split with a roommate, yes, $38.85 a night, not bad, not bad at all. There are two queen beds so you can cram as many as four people in to economize if you’d like! For more than 2 people, add $10 per person. Since they gave us this super cool blogger chic rate, you must call to register and tell them you are with #AWBU conference. 1-800-264-3655
3. Need a roomie? Don’t know anyone? Don’t worry! This is a super friendly group of people. They’ll welcome you and you’ll feel like part of the gang right away. If you need a roommate for your cabin, Julie Kohl can set you right up! Just send her a note at julie@arkansaswomenbloggers.com.
4. Extras: We have some FUN additional options! Our Foodie Friday is a special conference add-on beginning at noon and lasting until 5pm on Friday prior to the full conference. Here is the working #FF agenda. We’ll have panelists, food photography & styling and… of course… a chance for you to do some food prep. You can also elect to do a special craft or Loco Ropes course excursion on Sunday. Each add-on is $25 and requires pre-registration.
5. Support: One of the best parts about the #AWBU conference is growing yourself and your blog. We will have several options for you to be matched with a Blog Mentor or to sign up for a Blog Review with a group of panelists – both of these options are intended to give you some constructive (and friendly, non-intimidating) feedback on your blog. Interested? Email beth@arkansaswomenbloggers.com to learn more.
Ziploc® VersaGlass™ Containers 
Ziploc® VersaGlass™ Containers allow you to store, heat and to serve—all in one container. When it comes to preparing meals for you and your family, Ziploc® VersaGlass™ Containers make life easy. These dishwasher-safe containers are made from tempered glass, so you can use them to store food in the fridge or freezer, to heat food in the oven* or microwave, and serve food on the dining room table.
