The Mom Crowd

Change can be a good thing. In fact, I really love change and big events in life. I get excited about how life will be different after a big decision. The results of change are thrilling even if its an unexpected turn of events in life. There is change in my life and as a result The Mom Crowd is closing. This basically means that we will not be publishing any new content. The blog and archives will remain online. We may re-run some of our best posts in January.

A Little About Me (Amanda)

I am the Editor and one of the original founders of The Mom Crowd. There hasn’t been any drastic change in my life unless you count adding a second child into the mix this year. I feel that it is time for me and my co-writers to end this phase of our lives. The Mom Crowd has grown to be a wonderful, successful blog, but to take it to the next level of blogging would require more time than I am able to give the site. Blogging is so much more than writing blog posts, in fact that is the easy part! Blogging also includes marketing, networking, accounting, updating design, adding new features, search engine optimization, promotion emails and planning the blogs future. I don’t have time to keep all of it going.

As a result of The Mom Crowd ending in my life I am excited about devoting this new found time to new projects. I have a personal blog that got sorely ignored and I can’t wait to revive it. I want to blog more about my family and my random thoughts that aren’t necessarily related to motherhood. So you can find me over there. (You can also find Dawn at her personal blog and Amelia at her blog as well.)

This next year I have some new opportunities to serve at my church, River City Community Church. I also plan on helping my husband in a bigger role with his web development business, Grow Development. I am excited about the new opportunities that I have to serve others and help my family in 2010.

Finally, I helped create The Mom Crowd 3 months after quitting my full time Human Resources career. I needed a creative outlet that let me use my brain. This has been an amazing project and I have learned so much about leading a team, accounting, and networking! I think I am definitely more confident in my role as a Stay at Home Mom and I don’t need a successful project to define what I do now. I will be forever grateful for the bridge that The Mom Crowd created for me.

Thank You!

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting. Thank you to the sponsors of The Mom Crowd. Our goal has always been to encourage, inspire, and inform moms. My hope is that The Mom Crowd has helped you in some small way in your life. Thank you from the bottom of my Texas-sized heart for your comments and reading The Mom Crowd!

Our History

I co-founded The Mom Crowd 2.5 years ago with my friend McKenna. Together we brainstormed a name, design, blog posts topics, and the future of our site. We felt that we had information and encouragement for new moms to share with our friends. McKenna has expertise in Down syndrome and loves to research everything. I brought my own excitement of building a website and my knowledge of breastfeeding and natural child birth to the table. We felt like we could conquer the internet world and even host a conference one day! I registered a DBA and opened business bank account and got ready to launch August of 2007.

McKenna and I quickly realized that it takes a lot of time to write meaningful content 5 times a week. So we asked my friend Amelia to join us. Amelia has 3 boys, is a Bradley birth instructor, and shared our love of investigating motherhood. Amelia brought honesty and transparency through some of her mothering events and some interesting propositions to The Mom Crowd. Our site would not have been the same without her.

As the blog grew I needed more help with content so I could work on marketing and with advertisers on the site. Myself, McKenna, and Amelia all agreed to include our friend and frequent-commenter, Dawn. Dawn’s original title was “Pop Culture Correspondent.”  She wrote about movies and television shows portraying motherhood. She later wrote more about her own motherhood lessons with her children. These last few months she began writing our wonderful Abiding Monday series focusing on being a woman and a Christian. I am so thankful for the friendship that grew between Dawn as we worked together on The Mom Crowd and other projects.

This past Summer in 2009 McKenna stepped down from contributing on The Mom Crowd and we invited Christy to join our team. I hadn’t seen her in person in 14 years. She brought a fresh look at motherhood with her experience with Juvenile Diabetes and her amazing frugal sense. Christy is a wonderful mother and a great writer. I will always be thankful for her insight and time that she gave The Mom Crowd.

We have had some fun here on The Mom Crowd. Along the way McKenna and I thought we were going to be big internet stars and created a web show called, “The Mom Crowd Show!” We wanted to be the Diggnation or CommandN of motherhood. It was fun to film, but a heck of a lot of time to edit, render, and upload. We didn’t have the tools and equipment to make this happen full time, but we had a lot of laughs filming.

The focus of The Mom Crowd was always changing. In 562 blog posts we have focused a lot on Down syndrome, breastfeeding, natural child birth, being frugal, pop culture, and recently Christianity. I have loved every post and learned so much here.

Check Out These 10 Blogs

If you have enjoyed The Mom Crowd, here are 10 other blogs that I enjoy and I think you will too:

• Like a Warm Cup of Coffee- Sara Mae writes wonderful posts on Christianity, motherhood, and many other subjects. She is also fun to follow on Twitter.

• Kristi Stephens – Kristi loves researching the Bible and sharing deep insights in scripture. I love that she is real and isn’t afraid to share who she is online. Kristi is one to watch in up and coming blogs.

• Big Mama – Seriously funny. I had the privilege to have lunch with her one day and pick her brain about blogging. Sometimes I happen to sit on the same row with her at church. She is as funny in person as she is on her blog.

• Sarah Markley – I found Sarah’s site, because MommyZabs often posts links to Sarah’s posts on Facebook and Twitter. Sarah posts sometimes say what I am thinking. She wrote her post about temptation and marriage around the same time I wrote my post on the same subject.

• San Diego Momma – I got to meet Deb the writer behind San Diego Momma a few months after starting The Mom Crowd. She blogs unabashedly about her weaknesses and experiences with her own brand of wit and creativity.

• Firemom at Stop, Drop, and Blog – I somehow became a follower of Firemom on Twitter. I then read her profound story of her daughter and life with her boys. The blog is great and fun, be sure to check it out!

• Happy Mom Amy at Makes Mom Happy – For product reviews, be sure to check out Makes Mom Happy and follow Amy on Twitter. She is a great follow and nice person. She really is happy and you never hear her crabbing much.

• Women Living Well – I found Courtney’s site through Kristi. Courtney has been on Rachael Ray showcasing traditional marriage and motherhood. Her site is helpful and encouraging to all women.

• Run Faster Mommy – If you are a runner, you must read Heather’s running blog. She is encouraging and helped me out a lot when I was confused about breastfeeding and marathon-training.

• Mom Bloggers Club – Technically this is not a blog, but I have to plug The Mom Bloggers Club. This is a great site to discuss blogging, meet friends online, and join groups. The founder, Jennifer James, is very nice and sincere. I really enjoy hanging out over there.

Phew! There are so many GREAT blogs out there. I could keep listing more. A lot of Mommy Blogs have started and have become successful since The Mom Crowd started 2.5 years ago. I am proud to have been a part of the mommy blog movement and I can’t wait to see the power of this blogging movement grow.

Thank you again for being a part of The Mom Crowd!

- Thank you photo courtesy of Vernhart

After 2 years of blogging, today is McKenna’s last official post on The Mom Crowd. We have 5 writers for this blog and McKenna is my first co-writer. She is also a co-founder of The Mom Crowd. I remember having an “official” meeting in her kitchen back in the summer of 2007 to discuss post ideas, logo themes, and vision casting for this site.  We also created the short-lived “The Mom Crowd Show!” together.  Like official reporters we ran around the San Antonio Baby Expo together with a camera and microphone interviewing the representatives at each booth. It was so much fun!

I am certainly going to miss McKenna’s insight into the world of special needs and her positive outlook on life. I am grateful that we got to walk through her journey to adopt Baby Reese from the Ukraine together. McKenna will be spending this semester caring for her 3 little ones, taking a full schedule of college courses, and helping with ReecesRainbow.org. We will still see her around here as a faithful reader and possibly with a guest post from time to time. Best wishes to you and your family.

In honor of McKenna’s last post, I asked to pick her favorite 5 posts.

McKenna here.    I am really going to miss writing for The Mom Crowd.  I have loved posting on this blog and have enjoyed the companionship, support, insight from all the other moms who participate in the discussions at The Mom Crowd.  Reading through my old posts over the last two years brought up so many memories!  It’s been amazing to watch a blog develop from discussions with Amanda at my kitchen table and at her neighborhood park to such an active, insightful, encouraging blog for moms. 

Alrighty, my most favorite posts:

1. The Mom Crowd Shows - Shooting these episodes was so much fun!  I would do this again in a heart beat!  I loved our one-man camera crew, making my living room and later Amanda’s living room into a studio, and the funny out-takes.  Oh, and remember not having a charged battery downtown and running and trolleying all over downtown San Antonio, Amanda?  Good t imes!  Man, my hair is longer!!  Oh, on the third episode, there’s a great discussion about using a mirror to watch your child’s delivery…too many puns to count!    These shows were way too fun!
2. When You Find Out Your Baby Has Down Syndrome - One of my favorite things about writing for The Mom Crowd was documenting some of my life experiences as a mommy.  I have also been so happy that my life experience parenting children with health issues and special needs has encouraged other mommies in similar situations with their children.  I love the comments that pop up on this post years after I’ve written from people doing google searches.  And I love that I have these emotions docuemented for myself. 
3. Ready Set Sign - As a speech pathology student, I have a passion for helping children learn to communicate.  I am a strong believer that every parent should use the valuable resource of signing with their children when they are young!  Signing with my girls has been one of the most valuable resources for us as parents. 
4. Teaching Your Children and Yourselves How to Live Within Your Means - I have many posts that I’ve written for The Mom Crowd with advice and suggestions I struggle to take.  Writing posts like this one have been helpful for myself as I try to become a better mom, wife, and child of God.   
5. Censoring Disney? – Sometimes, writing for The Mom Crowd was difficult because I did not feel as though I knew the right answer to issues I struggled with as a mom.  This post was one of those posts where I learned so much from the discussion following the post. So many readers of The Mom Crowd have more good ideas than anything I could find online as I researched some of my posts.   

I’m sad to not be a regular contributing author of The Mom Crowd, but excited about all the things I have going on in my busy life!  I’ll be around…it’s not that easy to get rid of me! 

Please welcome our newest contributing author, Christy, to The Mom Crowd! I am super excited to hear her stories and insights into parenting. I have not seen Christy in person in 11 years. We became friends on Facebook and quickly became Facebook BFFs while commiserating about our kiddos. She did a guest post in March titled, “7 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Type 1 (Juvenile) Diabetes.”

Here is Christy’s story:

I am a mom to two “medical marvels”, Andrew (4) and Catherine (18 months).  Told as a teenager that I would probably never have children, I never gave up the desire to be a mom.  Even after miscarriages and infertility issues, I was blessed with my beautiful babies!  My pregnancy with Andrew was incredibly difficult due to hyperemesis (excessive… and I do mean excessive vomiting) during my entire pregnancy and he was born by emergency c-section.  Crazy thing, I loved every minute of that pregnancy!  I was blessed to breastfed Andrew for 15 months and fell in love with that part of motherhood.  My pregnancy with Catherine was relatively normal compared to Andrew’s and she too was born by c-section and I breastfed her for 18 blissful months.  My favorite thing about being a mom has to be the reward of hugs and kisses!  I live for them!
In my free time, I enjoy reading, writing, going on play dates and most recently getting involved in my new church.   My days are full of refereeing, playing and managing Andrew’s diabetes.  I am truly blessed to have the life I have and love to share my experiences with others.

A big wide-open-arms welcome to you Christy! You can read her articles here on TMC every Wednesday.

In Other News…

Did you know that Dawn and I have started a fan blog for the show, So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD)? If you watch SYTYCD, please come share your thoughts over at SYTYCD The Blog. If you are a fan of the show, then there was a surprise this week and we’d love to hear what you thought of this week’s eliminations.

Finally…

Have a wonderful Father’s Day weekend honoring all the dads in our lives!

I have a confession – I am addicted to the internet. My new iPhone isn’t helping my addiction either. I can tweet, update my Facebook status, and find a recipe on my All Recipes iPhone App all while breastfeeding my new son. I secretly think that my husband sabotaged my old phone so it would break and we would have a real reason to upgrade. If he did sabotage my phone, then I am glad because The Mom Crowd is all over the web now!

You can follow my updates on Twitter at @TheMomCrowd. I love it, because I feel like I can tweet about being a mom and other moms are listening with a sympathetic ear. Also, I can keep up with the latest mom news a lot more quickly by reading everyone else’s tweets. If you have a Twitter account feel free to put it in the comments so I can follow you!

Become a fan of The Mom Crowd on Facebook! You can keep up with our latest updates and support our blog. I would really appreciate it!

Have you noticed in our new design how some people have photos next to their comments in the comment section? If you have a wordpress.com or Gravatar account then your avatar associated with your email address will appear. It is easy to get a Gravatar account. All you need to need to do is go to Gravatar.com, tell them your email address, and upload any photo that you want. It’s that easy! Then your avatar will follow you to any other site that uses Gravatar.

If you haven’t joined The Mom Bloggers Club (MBC) yet, then you need to go by and see what is happening over there. All the cool kids are doing it. I have been a member for a year and have watched it grow into a popular place where moms ask questions and get to know each other. It has never felt like a clique and other moms are happy to help. It is really easy to make friends. (You can see my previous review of the Mom Bloggers Club here.) Tomorrow Founder Jennifer James is announcing that I will be one of the new Ambassadors for the MBC over the next 3 months. I am excited about it and hope to see you there!

As you can see The Mom Crowd has a new design! We are still in the process of tweaking it a bit.

I am super thankful for Cicily at August Afternoon Designs! She did a FANTASTIC job incorporating everything I wanted in the design. My husband and I put together the old blue design ourselves and it is great to have a professional to clean up our amateur work and make something gorgeous.

I would also like to thank, Daniel, my wonderful husband who is the genius behind Grow Development. He took Cicily’s design and made it reality. Not to mention he also upgraded my prehistoric version of WordPress.

Thank you Cicily and Daniel!!

I hope you all like our new layout!