Sorry this is going up so late! Link up your giveaways here every Tuesday! The list opens at midnight each Tuesday morning and closes the following Monday at midnight. Spam links will be deleted as fast as possible. In your listing, you have 50 characters in which to give the name of your giveaway and the date it ends. Thanks for leaving your links!

Bookmark This Post:

Link up your giveaways here every Tuesday! The list opens at midnight each Tuesday morning and closes the following Monday at midnight. Spam links will be deleted as fast as possible. In your listing, you have 50 characters in which to give the name of your giveaway and the date it ends. Thanks for leaving your links!

Bookmark This Post:

Ever since I started blogging a jillion years ago, I’ve noticed that there are times when it seems like everyone whose blog I read is writing about the same thing. I don’t mean like when we all get home from BlogHer and post our photos and tell our stories, I mean, times when we all seem to be thinking along the same lines regarding our blogging.  I’ll explain what I mean in a minute, first let me backtrack a bit.

Last month, I was chatting with Amy on Facebook and somehow we got on the topic of blog comments. I told her I missed the days when I had 13 readers, and how exciting it was every time any one of them left me a comment on a post.  We talked about Twitter, and Facebook updates, and how it’s so much easier to just post there than come up with a whole blog post. We talked about how there are so many blogs to read that it’s hard to stop and leave a comment when there are 100 more posts in the reader to get through.

Today, Mr. Lady posted about Community on her blog Whiskey in My Sippy Cup (don’t read it? you should).  This is the part that jumped off the page for me:

This month, I am reinventing my own wheel. I’m changing my outlook on blogging, on my blog, on my role as a blogger and my attitude towards it. There are changes a’coming in my little corner of the internet, starting today. Today, I re-instate the blogroll (that I don’t have to code myself anymore, thank you sweet, pink baby Jesus.) You read my blog? You’re on the blogroll. Leave your url in the comments and I’ll take it from there. (Please be patient) Today, I also start clicking through that blogroll. Fuck the reader, screw Twitter…it’s time to visit blogs. It’s time to delurk, for good. It’s time to help the people who take the time to read this blog earn that extra dollar with their ads. It’s time to remind myself why the hell I do this on the internet and not on a cocktail napkin in the first place, which is honestly way more tactile-y satisfying and significantly easier to roll my chewed gum up in.

Well said. I don’t know about the rest of you, but 2009 left me feeling wrung out to dry. I finished 2009 absolutely and completely exhausted. I realize that it’s mostly my fault, I said yes to way too many things, and didn’t schedule my time well, and that’s something I’ll probably have to continue to work on forever. But there was also this pressure that I felt, whether I was putting it on myself or not, to TWEET MORE and UPDATE FACEBOOK MORE and keep running more giveaways so I didn’t lose my feed subscribers and keep reviewing more products so companies would stay interested in me and GO GO GO GO GO GO GO.

And the fact is, I have stopped reading blogs for the most part.  There are a handful of blogs that I check every day, but there are so many more that I haven’t read in months. And then I wonder why those people never comment on my blog posts any more! Well, DUH.  The truth is that blogging is very much a reciprocal thing.  You read them, they read you. You leave comments, they leave comments. 

So, like Mr. Lady, I’m putting back the blogroll.  I used to have one that linked to everyone who linked to me, I deleted it when an “SEO Expert” told me I had “too many links” on my blog. Well, too bad. Too many for whom?  I’m going to try to recreate it, if you leave a comment on this post telling me you link to me, I’ll start making the list.  And then I am going to click through that list as often as I can, read, and comment.  I’m going to try to find my Community again, and I hope those of you who want to be part of it with me will let me know.

Let’s make 2010 the year we bring back the importance of using our blogs to make connections with each other. Let’s not let “Social Media” (ugh) ruin what made us all start blogging in the first place. We can do it. We can get our blogs back.  Who’s with me?

Bookmark This Post:

I can’t believe I forgot to tell you guys this-last month, I was invited to join a fantastic group of bloggers in a 6 month campaign to spread the word about Bumble Bee products! They sent me a huge box full of cans, pouches, and packages of tuna products, pasta and seasonings, and a great insulated lunch tote that my husband has been using to take his lunch to work for the last month. I participated in a great phone conference with a P.R. rep and a Bumble Bee rep, and we learned about Bumble Bee products, the company’s commitment to sustainability, and talked about ways that busy Moms can use tuna and other Bumble Bee products to make meal time easier!

I’ll be bringing you recipes, news, and product info about Bumble Bee along with these bloggers:

Samantha at www.astheygrowup.com
Karen at www.blisstree.com/thriftymommy
Emily at www.busy-mommy.com
Nicole at www.nicolesnickels.com
Kasey at www.ahookalineandagirl.com
Amanda at www.mommymandy.com
Caryn at www.rockinmama.net

I looooove tuna sandwiches, which I make very simply by just mixing tuna with mayo and a little bit of minced onion (fresh or dried, whatever I have). Then I spread some of the tuna salad on one piece of wheat bread and then here’s my secret-spread a bit of Dijon mustard on the other piece of bread. It is SOOOOO good. A piece of green leaf lettuce, a slice of tomato if they are in season, and it’s the best sandwich in the world!

If you normally buy tuna in the can, give the tuna in a pouch a try sometime. It’s specially packaged so no extra liquid is needed, so you just tear open the pouch and you are ready to eat!  I like my tuna cold, so I keep pouches and cans in the fridge so they are ready when the mood strikes.

Bumble Bee also sent me their new Sensations, which are tuna flavored with lemon & cracked pepper, spicy thai chili, or sundried tomato and basil. Those are available in Easy Peel Bowls, and in packages with crackers and a plastic spreader.  My oldest son loved the spicy thai flavor, I like the lemon mixed with some mayo.

I recently received a package from Bumble Bee with their canned crabmeat, which I’m planning to use to make Crab Dip and that spread where you put a block of cream cheese on a plate, put the crabmeat on top, and pour cocktail sauce on top. So good!  I’ll post updates as I get them, and more recipes as I make them! Thanks goes to Bumble Bee for inviting me to join the Bee Squad!

Bookmark This Post:

On December 8, Bill Me Later is hosting “Toy Tuesday”. Visit www.toytuesday.com on that day to find great deals on the holiday’s most wanted toys and gifts from leading retailers such as Toys “R” Us, Walmart.com, Step 2, Little Tikes, eToys, Drugstore.com, FAO Schwarz, HP, Overstock.com, MacMall, Mercantila and more. To help promote Toy Tuesday, Bill Me Later chose 12 bloggers to each host a one-day giveaway of a $250 gift card to one of the participating retailers, and one of those bloggers is me, Table for Five!

AND, not only do we each get to give away a $250 gift card, but the winner of each giveaway also gets $500 donated to the charity of their choice! Holy cow! Each giveaway will only last 24 hours so please don’t wait!  I apologize to the first three bloggers for not getting this posted sooner, please visit their blogs anyway

November 27th – Ellen Seidman – Love That Max – giveaway closed.

November 28th – Cassidy Engle – First Time Around Blogger – giveaway closed.

November 29th – Elizabeth – A Nut in a Nutshell – giveaway closed.

November 30th – Linsey B. Knerl – Lille Punkin Reviews

December 1st – Carissa Rogers – Good N Crazy

December 2nd – Linda Sellars – Short Pump Preppy

December 3rd – Kim Becker – Mommy Knows

December 4th – Jodi Grundig – Moms Favorite Stuff

December 5th – Laurie Turk – Tip Junkie

December 6th – Briana – Bargain Briana

December 7th – Lana Barhum – Loving It, Loving It

December 8th – Elizabeth Edwards – Table 4 Five – that’s right, I’m the official blogger for Toy Tuesday itself! What an honor!

I’ll be reminding you every day here and on my other blogs that December 8th is the day I’m giving away a $250 gift card – and you’ll have to come back on that day to find out which retailer’s card I’m giving away!! I suggest subscribing to my feed if you don’t already, the link is in the top right corner of the header, so you can come by every day and get the link for the next day’s giveaway! Now, go visit www.lillepunkin.com and enter her giveaway today!

Bookmark This Post: