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Theta Mom®

Redefining Motherhood

How I Got My Spark Back

I guess you could say I’ve been in a blogging funk lately. Maybe it’s the summer season or having the kids around more right now that’s making it more challenging to blog. Or maybe it’s the fact that my business continues to grow and keeps me busier than ever, which for the record, I am absolutely grateful for.

Or, maybe it’s the fact that attending a blog conference just hasn’t been on my radar recently. Not because I don’t want to go to a blogging conference, I often love seeing so many familiar faces. But, it was time I tried something new – something that would spark a new energy in me – something that would take my brand to the next level.

And this past Tuesday, I received just that – and so much more than I ever could imagine.

A few months ago I was chatting with a fabulous fellow colleague, Leah Jantzen, and she suggested I attend the Spark and Hustle conference lead by the uber successful Tory Johnson in New York City.

SparkandHustle_LOGO

I was on the fence because I never attended a non-blogging conference before. I also never attended a conference by myself. (I know, sounds crazy but it’s the truth). Well, I have nothing but sheer gratitude for Leah because she was the one to push me to go, even if that meant going alone. And the result?

As cheesy as this sounds, it has changed my life.

I have a renewed passion for my blog.

I have a thrilling new excitement for my business.

I have an improved sense of energy, ideas, and newfound vigor for my brand.

I have new dreams.

I have bigger dreams.

I have dreams I never even thought I had.

And I have that amazing drive again – the kind of drive that is required to take my business to the next level; the kind of hard work, perseverance, blood, sweat and tears that it’s going to take to get me to that next step.

Now, more than ever before, I am ready.

I am ready to make my dreams a reality.

I am ready for the shift that is needed.

I am ready for the long hours and hard work required to get me there.

Thank you Tory Johnson – you gave me something that I’ve been seeking recently, something that no other conference has ever given me, the ability to really see my big dreams and chase them with full abandon.

You provided me with the necessary SPARK that will make me HUSTLE – and I can’t wait for this new journey to begin.

K-2 Writing: Story Elements

This is the first of my new series that I will be sharing weekly throughout the summer. Please be sure to tell your friends and share!

ThetaMomK2Series

The following is a writing activity you can perform with your first or second grade child. {You can also easily adapt it for children that are older}. My son, who is entering second grade, has some great writing skills but he needs to work on expressing details. He can come up with a good idea for a story but he has trouble really expanding on his ideas. He needs to write more fluid sentences and his writing needs to be more descriptive. By reviewing the basic elements of a story with him, I am able to get him really thinking creatively and writing.

First, you need to supply your child with a writing pad or journal. I bought this writing tablet at Big Lots for $1. You can go to any dollar store or Five Below and pick up something similar – you want something that has thick lines and a large enough space for your child to also create a picture once they are finished writing.

WritingJournal

Then, take three paper bags and label them with the elements of a story: Character, Setting and Problem.

WritingBags

Next, take several pieces of paper and cut the paper into small squares. On each small piece of paper, write down at least 10 different characters, settings and problems and then throw the small papers into the corresponding bag.

Shake the bag and have your child pull one piece of paper from each of the three bags. This is where your child will be forced to be creative – the character, setting and problem will most likely have nothing to do with one another! For example, my son chose a King (character), in a Log Cabin (Setting), and cannot his surfboard (Problem). Now, my son must write a story using all three of these story elements!

A way to add in a simple Writing Workshop activity would be to first have your child brainstorm various ideas for the story. You can create a simple worksheet that has areas for your child to brainstorm each of the three story elements. Upon brainstorming, your child would begin writing the story from this brainstorming worksheet. When he/she is finished, sit with your child and underwrite him/her and go through the entire piece of writing line by line. There are so many small “mini-lessons” that can be derived from this kind of editing session. You can even encourage your child to go a step further and publish the writing either by typing the revisions on a computer or handwriting a final copy. Finally, your child can create a picture that correlates to the story.

Writing a fictional piece (based on random and unrelated story elements) is a wonderful way to give your child an opportunity to get creative and write about something other than the daily traditional journal reflections. Adding in some Writing Workshop time is also always useful and productive.

Did you like this activity? Please share using any of the social buttons below and follow the hashtag #ThetaMom on Twitter.

Summer Necessity: The Shark Sonic Duo

We are full swing into summer mode around here. As much as I love this season, my floors take a beating. My kids always track in sand from the beach and dirt from the outside every day. This is the time of year I feel as though I am constantly cleaning my floors. And of course, we all want our floors to sparkle and get truly clean. So, I teamed up with Shark to test out their latest product.

Shark

Meet the Shark Sonic Duo.  This product is going to revolutionize the way we clean because “it uses first-of-its-kind technology to remove four times more stuck-on dirt in carpets than vacuuming alone and deep cleans hard floors better than any mop on the market.” This is what the product promises so I needed to test it out for myself to see if The Shark Sonic Duo lived up to these expectations.

I started in my foyer. I have dark marble floors and for the longest time, I couldn’t find any product on the market that would really clean these floors and give me that non-streak look. Other products I’ve used before may have gotten the floors clean, but I always ended up cleaning them again with another product because they would streak and feel sticky afterwards. I also have a lot of windows in this area that shine natural light onto these floors, making my floors truly unforgiving because they show everything. It’s always been a challenge to keep these floors looking spotless without that sticky feeling afterwards – until now.

Foyer

I tested the Shark Sonic Duo on my black marble floors and also my hardwood floors throughout my home and The SharkSonic Duo worked fantastic on both surfaces. The specially formulated Wood & Hard Floor Cleaner (that comes with the Sonic Duo) easily removed stubborn dirt while still being gentle on my floors. It really gets the job done! The non-streak solution left my floors looking and feeling clean with no sticky residue left behind. You can trust this product on your sealed hardwood floors as well as other surfaces such as tile, stone and vinyl.**

The other thing I loved most about this product is how easy it is to use. First, I attached the Cleaning Pad to the bottom of the Sonic Duo and prepared the solution. {I took the Reusable Bottle the Sonic Duo came with and filled it with water to the water line and added the Wood and Hard Floor Cleaning Solution}. Then, I inserted the Reusable Bottle into the Sonic Duo until I heard the “click.” I turned it to the “low” setting mode to clean my hard floors and that’s it! The Shark Sonic Duo literally glided along my floors. Finally, there is no more need to remain in the Stone Age ringing out a mop or changing out dirty water or using another product to take away the streaks. The Shark Sonic Duo will get the job done every single time.

Additional Shark Sonic Duo ($249 MSRP) features include:

Shark Sonic Duo Image

*180-degree swivel steering and enhanced air glide maneuverability

*Safe for all floor surfaces including carpets, area rugs, hardwood, tile, marble, stone, laminate and linoleum

*Non-toxic, biodegradable formulas that are safe for children and pets

*Activating Pre-treated Carpet Stain and Odor Remover, two reusable bottles for carpet and hard floor cleaning solutions

*Low Moisture and No-Rinse-Carpet Cleaner, Wood and Hard Floor Cleaner,  Wood and Hard Floor Polish, Carpet/Rug Cleaning Pad, Hard Floor Cleaning Pad, Hard Floor Polishing Pad, Carpet Scrub ‘n Stain Pad and Storage Tray

You can purchase the Shark Sonic Duo here and follow Shark on Facebook  to stay up to date with the latest product information.

Disclosure: Theta Mom® abides by word of mouth marketing standards and believes in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. I received the Shark Sonic Duo from Euro-Pro to facilitate this review. However, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. **When used as directed. Consult floor manufacturer before use. Before you clean your carpets or area rugs test a small, hidden area for colorfastness. If color is affected do not use. This solution is not for use on silk.

K-2 Summer Learning Blog Series

This is the very first summer that I did not put my kids into any kind of summer camp or activity based program. Yes, I know, I am either Mother of the Year or totally insane.

 The reality is, since we live at the shore I thought it would be a waste of time having my kids attend a camp considering my plan is to spend most of our glorious summer days together at the beach. But, having the kids home all summer long does come with some academic responsibility – I just can’t have their brains go to mush for nearly three months.

{And needless to say, those of you who know me in real life know I am SUPER passionate about education. Ahem.}

I am a former elementary school teacher and Adjunct Professor, so in addition to being a Theta Mom® I am about to put on my education hat and share some fabulous tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way.

ThetaMomK2Series

Are you as excited as I am? This totally deserves a WOOHOO!

I am starting a blog series that will run weekly throughout the summer and all of the ideas and activities I will be sharing in this series I have been (or will be) incorporating into my own summer routine with my kids.  

The ideas and activities will be general in nature – I will not be sharing full lesson plans because the idea is to get moms to help their kids bridge the gap over the summer. I don’t want to bore you with all of the state codes and details because that probably wouldn’t mean much to you anyway. Each activity will not be traditionally aligned with a specific standard since state standards vary from state to state.  The main goal of this series is to share some basic core fundamentals that can be applied and integrated at any time to provide your child with an ongoing learning experience regardless of the current curriculum your child follows. I’m also hoping to help you help your child foster a love of learning over the summer!  

Don’t have a child at the K-2 level? Maybe you have a friend that could benefit from my blog series so I would love for you to spread the word. Will your child be starting Kindergarten next year or shortly thereafter? Then you can bookmark all of this education goodness for the future.

And for those moms who fall into the K-2 category – welcome!! We’re going to rock this thing and I can’t wait to kick off this series with you!

Mom Blogging and Our Digital Footprint

I recently read a guest post on Elizabeth’s blog that completely resonated with me written by Jeannett from Life Rearranged. She writes so eloquently about the state of the blogosphere in this piece and it’s so damn good, I wish I wrote it myself.

Upon reading her words, I reflected back on a post I wrote not too long ago called Creating Blog Content that I Can Live With. However, the issues Jeannett raised in her post move far beyond the “over-sharing” piece of blogging. She touches on the idea that perhaps bloggers have lost their step, that the pendulum in the big bloggy spectrum has gone too far in the other direction and I couldn’t agree with her more. Jeannett writes,

“It’s the blog posts that decree the importance of painting the “real” picture. It’s the victorious attitude that not only are there failures, but now they are badges of honor…it’s cool to be a crappy mom. It’s funny to say you don’t really like your kids.”

When I started blogging, before I even wrote my first post I created and published a Mission statement. I wanted readers to know when they landed on my blog exactly who I was and what I was about – what this blog was about. And never once in my four years of blogging have I ever swayed from that promise; the promise of keeping this blog an authentic space made up of a supportive community of women who understand each other. But, in the midst of being “real” I have also always remained passionate and professional because I would never publish anything at the expense of another…especially my children.

What saddens me over the last couple of years is the “trend” of blogging I’ve also noticed that is happening for the sake of a popular post or a popular status update. Once day, our children will be old enough to read our blogs and peek through our timelines so the question really becomes, “If your kid read through the years of your digital footprint, would he or she be ok with it all?”

Am I perfect? No, I never claimed to be. Have I created some updates that I wish I didn’t write or share? Absolutely.  But have I succumbed to this social media wildfire that seems to put “failed moms” on a pedestal? Absolutely not.

This is where my line is drawn.

Whether you like it or not, if you share on the internet you’re creating a digital footprint and as bloggers, our words do have weight. So before you go blogging every little detail of your “failed life at motherhood” or create those “lame mom” updates, you better think long and hard how this will affect you down the line – especially your children.

Parenting isn’t perfect.

Motherhood isn’t perfect and I started this blog to start that conversation. I, too, want to share the reality of motherhood.

But I am a mom with a moral compass, and for me, no matter how gritty and tough motherhood may get or seem, I will not succumb to the proud “failed mom” status update because that’s just not me.

To the bloggers who are just embarking on this wild crazy journey, before you post that latest blog or embarrassing status update about your kids, or how much motherhood sucks, think of this:

“As we tell the stories of our lives, as we choose the pieces of the journey to tell, let us not forget the little faces we are portraying.”

Amen.

Lastly, I leave you with this: On mom blogging and our digital footprint – what is the blog legacy you’re creating and how do you want to be remembered?