Triangle Mamas

Did You Miss Me?

by Marty

It's easy to disappear in blogland. Just as quickly as you set up shop and start blogging, you can simply quit and evaporate into the ethernetsphere.

Here's where I started to say, "Recently, I had a baby," but that's not entirely true. I had a baby in January. Almost five months ago. Really, there's nothing recent about that. It was, however, when I stopped blogging.

Thankfully, Abby took up the gauntlet here at Triangle Mamas, keeping the posts up and running for me. I can't express enough gratitude to her for that.

What my accidental hiatus has taught me is significant. I think I've come back around to confidence in who I am as a blogger, and that's a good feeling.

So, partially inspired by Melissa's recent list of 100 things she's learned about blogging, I give you some of my recent enlightening brought on by my disappearing act.

• The internet goes on with or without you. It has to be your choice to join in or not.
• There is plenty of bandwidth for any and everyone.
• I like life a lot better when I'm never ever doing giveaways.
• I love Triangle Mamas because even when I need a break from writing, I still feel a part of a community.
• Blogging really is something I want to fit into my life. It's not a full-time priority for me, and I'm becoming okay with that. I've wanted the benefits without wanting to do the work. That came across much more lazy than I intended it to be.

I would like to sincerely thank all of the ladies here at Triangle Mamas for keeping up and forgiving me the time off that I needed to have. I am so happy to be connected with you here online and in real life. I'm a lucky woman.

Me, Melissa from Adventuroo, and Heather from Follow Linus (hey, want to join us over here?) at the More than a Picnic Picnic by Hebrew International and hosted by Ilina from Dirt and Noise and Molly from My Go Mom! It was a fabulous day in Moore Square with lots of local mom bloggers.

Marty can also be found blogging at Don't Take the Repeats. She has all but completely deserted Twitter, but occasionally pops on as canape. Here's hoping she'll meet you at the Type A Mom Conference in Asheville this September!

An Open Letter to Harris Teeter at North Hills East

By Cyndi

Dear Harris Teeter --

You had me at $20 off.

Every time I would start to wander, begin to think that your new North Hills East store was too crowded, imagine that I could save more at Kroger, get annoyed about not being able to find things as you shuffled the shelves around -- somehow you always knew. And every time, those magical $20-off-a-$50-purchase coupons would appear in my mailbox. They worked like a charm.

So given that you seem to have such a keen understanding of your shoppers' minds, how is it possible that you built a two-story store and put the cereal and juice upstairs? And then seemed surprised when people complained? And then spent goodness-knows-how-much money and time remodeling your brand new store to get those items downstairs again? Didn't you know that every mom forced to cram two (or more) children into one of those oversized-yet-still-too-small rocketship carts would have to buy cereal and juice on nearly every trip? And didn't you know that said moms would really hate having to wait in line for the elevator because it's impossible to fit more than three carts at a time?

Or maybe you didn't know there were thousands of local moms you could ask who would have told you that valuable bit of information BEFORE you built the store instead of AFTER?

Well then, allow me to make an introduction. Harris Teeter, meet the blogging moms. We're on Facebook and Twitter and lots and lots of blogs -- and we love to give advice (just ask our children). You don't even have to send us free samples or coupons (although I'm sure we wouldn't say no) -- but you do have to ask. We could have saved you a lot of pain and suffering, but (much like our kids) you had to learn the hard way. We hope you (and our children) will consider consulting us in the future.

Best of luck,

Convertible Girl

P.S. I've only got one $20 coupon left, so please send more. You know, just in case I start to wander again.

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Since taking over the grocery shopping at her house and giving up the online ordering service, Cyndi has developed strong opinions about grocery stores. When she's not shopping or cooking or complaining about both, she can be found at My Convertible Life, where she writes about her two children, one husband and a million other things.

Kid's Summer Stock at the NC Food Bank Update

By Sue

We all know how excited I was when I was asked by the North Carolina Food Bank to be a Media Sponsor for the Kids Summer Stock Social Media Mixer and I hope you have taken the time to read about it and get excited too.

I will be attending with my whole family and I hope to see you there with yours. It will be a fabulous time to mix, mingle and show your support for the people in our community who need our help. In addition to all the warm and fuzzy feelings you will in no doubt feel for just attending, I received an update about some fabulous raffle prizes that you could end up going home with.

• An official NHL Hurricanes hockey puck signed by Cam Ward
• An "I Love Hockey" kids t-shirt signed by the entire Hurricanes team
• A 3-Night stay at Alderhorst; a beautiful mountain cabin near Boone, NC
• A whimsical wooden marble chaser by Whimsy Two
• A beautiful set of jewelry from the Treasure Trove 

Get involved! 

Share the event and experience with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, or your Blog!
 
On Twitter, use the hashtag #SummerStockSocial and on Facebook, share the Social Media Mixer Event Listing

Register Now - Space is limited!

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This is a cross post from Sue Robinson over at Motherhood and Me. You can also find her at Deep South Moms Blog and on Twitter.

Kid's Summer Stock at the NC Food Bank

*This is a cross-post from Sue's personal blog Motherhood and Me

As my son grows, I find myself looking deeper, wondering how I can change to be a better person in order to teach my son that there is good in the world.

How do you do that?

People can go their whole lives bitter, angry and full of hate. How to you even begin to teach your little wide eyed 3 year old boy about how his place in the world can be a peaceful and kind place?

You start small.

You teach him to share his toys with his friends, you teach him to say please and thank you, you teach him patience, respect and hold your breath when you see him interact with the world around him. Holding your breath in hopes that what you worked so hard to teach him is somewhere deep down inside him.

I was so excited when I decided to take this lesson of kindness and the greater good one step further. I had planned to have a food collection on behalf of the North Carolina Food Bank for his 3^rd and my daughter’s 1^st birthday in lieu of gifts. I told him all about how and why we were doing this and tried to get him excited about going to the food bank to make our donation.

He was excited and everything was set until the dark cloud hit our family and I had to cancel their birthday party. I was so sad that our excitement came to a screeching halt, but glad that I had started to plant the seed of awareness in my little man.

Then the email came.

The North Carolina Food Bank contacted me asking me if I would like to be a Media Sponsor for an event they were having to raise awareness about their facility and hunger in North Carolina. I immediately said yes and was so excited to be a part of something bigger than myself again.

II am proud to announce that Motherhood and Me is a media sponsor for the North Carolina Food Bank’s Kids Summer Stock!

The kid’s Summer Stock is an event to raise awareness about hungry kids who fall short during the school summer breaks. Kids that normally rely on two hot meals per day provided by their school’s lunch program are left on their own. Once the school year ends these kids fall through the cracks and don’t get remembered until the school session resumes in the fall.

Please take the time to come and celebrate the gift of giving at the North Carolina Food Bank Warehouse in Raleigh. Show your support by engaging with your local community and donating what you can personally, monetarily and via canned goods.

I will be there with my kids and my husband, so feel free to tap me on the shoulder and say hello!

 

Thursday, June 3, 2010

6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Food Bank Warehouse in Raleigh

3808 Tarheel Drive
Raleigh, NC (map)

Register now for your free tickets!

Click Here

I hope to see you there!

When Sue isn't trying to change the world with kindness, she can be found at home with her two kids at Motherhood and Me.

Welcome to Triangle Mamas

Community.

We hear that word over and over again. Bloggers, Mommybloggers in particular, create community.

It's true. There are friends to be made, stories to be shared, issues to be debated, people to be supported, all right at your fingertips. The click of a mouse can bring you close to someone you've physically never met.

There is something about connecting locally too, though, that I have missed. I want to be able to read what other mamas in the Triangle are doing. While there are some great websites already that connect women through forums and are sponsored by larger companies, there isn't anywhere I've found that we can come together and share our stories.

I want to hear about the little girl at the butterfly house who wouldn't stop staring at your 2 year old until he finally kicked her in the shins.

I want to hear about the Durham Bulls game and if your kids loved Wool E. Bull or were terrified of him.

I want to hear about the pediatrician at White Oak Pediatrics who is older than dirt and could care less if you breastfeed. Oh wait, that's my story.

So I share this space with you. If you live in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area and want to write here, please contact me. If you live here and just want to read, please leave us a comment every now and then. If you don't live anywhere near here, you are welcome to stay and be a part of our community virtually.

The Triangle is a lovely place to live and raise a family.

Let's talk about it.