Musings of an Average Mom

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Bloggers Helping Bloggers #13

Welcome to the thirteenth week of Bloggers Helping Bloggers - a link party of sorts where you review the blog of the week and get your blog reviewed in return.

If you have been here before you know how it works. If not everyone who links up spends10 minutes of your time to review the blog of the week and in return gets numerous reviews back by a collection of your peers instead of spending money to get your blog reviewed with only one opinion.

I was trying to think of a fair way to choose which site gets reviewed each week and decided to choose the blog based on a points system:

1. You will be given 5 points for linking up each week.

2. You will be rewarded 15 points for reviewing the blog of the week. (People who don't put in any effort will receive less points)

3. And a bonus 3 points for sharing on each different social media platforms every week. Please tag me so I can reward the points. Tag me @101thingstodo1, and +1 or share and comment on G+, share and comment on facebook or leave a comment on Pinterest. A tie will be given to the first one in the link up.

So for example if someone links up, reviews the weeks blog and shares on Google+ and Pinterest they will receive - 5 + 15 + 3 + 3 =26 points for the week which will be added to last weeks points.

Let me know if you have any questions???

Also I am currently looking for someone co-host with me as I am currently looking to gain full time employment. Hmmm... If only blogging had medical benefits... If you are interested in hosting please contact me at KristenStevens [at] live.ca

And even if you had your blog reviewed don't forget to come back every week and link up: to be featured for social media boosts: where everyone who links up is required to follow you, getting specific blogging questions answered, or get another blog review after you implemented all the suggested changes.

One site will be chosen each week, and the review will be posted on my site Monday's beginning at 7:30 am EST. Because the review is so long I will be switching the link-up to Tuesdays at 7:30 am and the review will be posted Mondays at 7:30 am.

You can read last week`s review: Moms Morning Coffee or reviews from the previous weeks on my Pinterest board. You might gain some helpful tips that you can apply to your own blog.

Follow Kristen @ Musings of An Average Mom's board Free Blog Reviews: From Bloggers Helping Bloggers on Pinterest.

Please review sites on:

- header
- sidebar (appearance and arrangement)
- how easy it is to follow on social media
- content
- how easy it is to read (fonts, etc.)
- how easy it is to navigate, and find what you are looking for.
- overall appearance
- other comments or suggestions

And the winner week is... Brita from Belle Brita

Please e-mail your review to kristenstevens@live.ca and I will review and organize/summarize them and post them next week. Along with the next blog to review.

And although it's not necessary I would love it if you followed me (I always follow back):

You can follow me on Pinterest, Google+, Facebook or Twitter

And I would really appreciate it, if you could share this party on your sidebar or link party page. It will be better to get more reviews and opinions on your own blogs.

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Please link up your main blog url-
And I will try to get to everyone in a fair and timely manner.

And please don't forget to review the blog of the week (this week is Belle Brita and bonus points are rewarded for promoting on social media. tag me on twitter @101thingstodo1,

An InLinkz Link-up

Disclaimer: Musings of an Average Mom will use screenshots of your blog if you are chosen as the blog to be reviewed. And your comments will be copied and posted anonymously in the blog review.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Review of Moms Morning Coffee

This weeks FREE blog review from Bloggers Helping Bloggers is Mom's Morning Coffee.

Header

It is nice and clean, except the logo is blurry. It was probably stretched a little larger than the original size.

I love the header! I'm even impressed at the ad placement. It's unobtrusive and still on-topic. The SumoMe floating social media icons overlap with the navigation bar, though. Can they be smaller?

I like the simple and clean lines of the header. There is a large ad in the upper right corner that I find a bit bothersome. It seems like the ad is more important than the blog header itself.

I liked the logo. However, in mobile there is no divider to set it off and I thought that caused it to look a little lonely up there. In Desktop I noticed that there was a divider/menu bar...I would suggest a new color for the menu bar because it didn't quite match the color scheme and it also was not an appealing color either.

I love the picture, font and color in the header. However, I think the ad is distracting and might be better placed elsewhere. The header is great so I would put it front and center.

Sidebar (appearance and arrangement)

The pictures look large and uncluttered. I didn't see how to follow them on social media sites though. There was a small broadcast icon as part of their menu in the upper right and you can get updates via e-mail but to me it seems buried. I don't like pop-up follow ads.
clean and easy to read. I like that the popular posts are large images. However, your pop-up does cover the sidebar.

I found the sidebar easy to navigate in mobile and desktop. I like the popular posts feature with the unified theme.

I really like that your picture/about me is right at the top of the header. You might want to add a little blurb like "click here to learn more about me" (or worded how you like) because it's not immediately obvious that you can click the picture to get to the "about" page. I also like seeing your popular posts.

Love the branded photos linking to popular posts. Can you add a short bio or blog description under the photo? I like to know who a blogger is or what a blog is about on the home page, without needing to go to the about page.

How easy it is to follow on Social Media

Easy once I found the bar to the left. I instinctively usually look for those are the top of the page or in the right sidebar.

This is probably my biggest suggestion for this site. They have a very large floating social share bar that obscures the left side of the screen in both mobile and desktop. They also picked a rather large one at that, so the colors of it are very jarring compared to the subdued color scheme of the site.

I also could not find their social share icons anywhere. People usually aren't willing to spend that much time searching for how to follow.

I could not find any icon to follow you. I did see the share icons but if I want to just follow you on FB (but not share the article), there's no way to do so. If you do have the follow icons, I couldn't find them so you might need to put them in a more prominent place (but I really looked).

The SumoMe buttons are share buttons, not follow buttons. I don't see a way to follow you on the home page.

As I mentioned above, I couldn't easily find it. You can easily share the post on social media but not easily follow them.

Content

the content is good, though I wish there was a little more "teaser text" on the homepage for each post.

I thought it was great!

I enjoyed your content. I related to many of your posts and found them easy to read. I also thought it was smart that you always added some kind of interactive statement at the end of your posts.

SumoMe bar overlaps with the content, making it difficult to read.

I like the Questionable Movie Night suggestion. It definitely differs from some conservative Christian perspectives that think shielding your teens from everything will somehow keep them safe in the real world. I think the idea and the guidelines would appeal to all families, religious or otherwise.

I don't have kids yet, but my husband and I have discussed the potential of homeschooling depending on what schools will be available when we do have kids. I appreciate the post on electives for HS students. I've seen tons of homeschooling resources for kids, but not really the same for HS students. I know families with kids in private school or homeschool often transition to a public school because of greater options. I think homeschooling families will find your resources helpful to realize their kids can still have greater options with homeschooling.

I like the contents. I generally love food posts and they have other interesting subjects too.

How easy it is to read (fonts, etc.)

the general fonts are easy to read, though the popular posts images are a little harder to read.

Again, the floating social bar was annoying. Also, the large social share icons that appear over the images as you scroll down are not appealing.

I found the fonts easy to read and love that you used the same fonts in all of your edited images. It gives you a unique and recognizable look.

Very easy to read!

Fonts are large and easy to read.

How easy it is to navigate, and find what you are looking for.

very simple. I would suggest adding in a search bar.

I thought the navigation worked fine...maybe a little more specific than I would want, but then I guess a person can go directly to what they are interested in. The About tab almost seems hidden at the very bottom of the site. Since it explains their heart and the reasoning behind their site I think it could have a more prominent position.

The tab was set up well and made your site easy to navigate. I also loved how you had a search button as well as a category list.

Love how organized the navigation bar is

The search box is easy to find in the upper portion of the side bar and they have lots of menus with different subject material.

Overall Appearance

overall I like it. The one other suggestion I have is to shorten how much is in your right side bar (or lengthen the teaser text) on the homepage. Right now it goes way past the content of the page.

I really liked the content of the site. I think the color scheme works, but could benefit from one more secondary color. The ad space at the top really takes away from the scheme in mobile mode because the green color clashes so much with the site colors (not quite as bad in desktop because it is set apart).

I like the overall look of your blog. The only change I might make would be to move the ad from the very top to right under your navigation bar.

Color scheme is warm and inviting. Graphics are beautiful and Pinterest-friendly.

I like the overall appearance of the site. It doesn't take long to load like some other sites do.

Other Comments or Suggestions

Mom's Morning Coffee looks like a nice blog with a good future.

If you want your own FREE blog review don't forget to link up at Bloggers Helping Bloggers - beginning Tuesdays at 7:30 am and running until Sunday evening.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Car Games

Vacations often mean long car rides, and long car rides often mean irritable children.

So here are a few car games which will hopefully delay the "are we there yet?" Or "how much longer?" Questions for at least 20 minutes.

I Spy

I Spy is a classic with young kids. Choose a colour and say "I spy something that is green. "Try to obviously choose something that you won't pass by. My daughter likes choosing the sky, or trees, I like choosing small items in the car.

And after 10ish minutes when I get the "what is there to do now?" I like to switch it up by asking my four year old to find shapes. I spy something that is a circle, or a triangle and anything they find that is the correct shape counts.

I also used her Toddler find it books - and we looked for different shapes too. Like stars, hearts, Xs and more.

You can also play Alphabet I Spy - and try to find a different word for every letter of the alphabet. And you can print out this adorable free printable from iheartorganizing to keep track.

Can you find a...

I started asking her to find certain items. Like a yellow sign, a green sign, a transport, any animal (cows, horses, dogs, etc), a red car, a blue house, a barn, etc. which she thought was good for a few rounds through out our trip. Although Lily thought it necessary to shout out yellow sign quite loudly over 30 times throughout the trip. Lol.

Then I remembered when I was younger, we used to have car bingo games where you slid the red door over the pictures as you found them and the first one to get a line (or a blackout) wins.

I found these Bingo cards on Amazon - and they look just like the ones I remembered having as a kid.

Or you can grab this free Travel bingo printable from Must Have Mom

Older kids can cross them off with a crayon or marker as they find them but I don't feel confident giving my bored two year old anything to draw with in the car, so you could also use small post it notes, then you can use the printables over again.

Starting with the Letter...

This game is great for older children, Tweens or even teenagers. You simply name a place whether it be a country, city, state, province, etc. beginning with the letter the last place ended with.

So for instance: Toronto - (ends with O) Ottawa -A - Antarctica - Aruba - and so on, and the first person who can't come up with a place loses.

You can also make variations in this game by using animals, candy, food, or what ever other category has several other words in it.

Can You Name a...

The rules of this game are fairly simple. Just choose a category such as chocolate bars and have everyone take turns naming a different candy bar, and the first one who can't think of another one loses.

You can choose different categories for this game as well. Animals might be easier for younger children to name.

License Plate Games

American States

Find license plates for each of the states. Grab a free printable from iheart Organizing. And check them off as you find them.

Canadian Provinces

the same concept applies except you need to find license plates from each of the provinces.

the numbers game

Choose a number from 1 to 9 and try to find it the more times before your opponent does. License plates with number equalling your number count as well.

the whole alphabet

Write down all the letters of the alphabet you see within different license plates and the first one who finishes the whole alphabet A to Z wins.

When all Else Fails...

I don't like my kids to have a lot of screen time but the cars an exception so once you have exhausted all those games pull out the portable DVD player, Leap Pad, I Pad or whatever other electronic device will keep them occupied for any length of time.

And you might also like Tips for packing for Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers where I give tips on how I pack my kids bags for the cars to keep them pre-occupied.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop #137

We are so excited.

About what? Excited about YOU!

Can you get any more creative, artistic, authentic and just plain FUN?

Sometimes we get so tickled to see what you've been up to that even get in touch with one another and say "did you see THIS one?"

Just last week we discovered a newbie blogger who was in her very first week of her own blog hop so we sent out the news "Go party with her!" And that's what we did. We wanted to help her to have a great start.

All that to say that Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop is more than a way to get and give traffic. We absolutely love to applaud your amazing work!

So... let's see what you all liked the best last week ... Black heart (cards)

Most Viewed

Biscuit Topped Beef and Carrot Casserole

Very Popular

One Pot Chicken Broccoli Rice Dish by Simply Stacie

Carmel Apple Poke Cake from The Cincy Shopper

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes from Adventures of Country Divas

How To Break Your Kids Bad Habits from Wading Through Motherhood
Sour Cream Lemon Pie from Bunny's Warm Oven

Oreo Poke Cake from Meatloaf and Melodrama

Editor's Pick

I loved this post 5 Steps Towards Creating a Meal Plan You Can Actually Use by Merissa from www.LittleHouseLiving.com

Love this party?

Tweet It and It Will GROW!

Simple guidelines...

Please follow our host and co-hosts in as many ways possible (social media links below) Black heart (cards)
PLEASE TWEET THIS PARTY !!!! We want everyone to know about it!
Add as many of your family-friendly posts as you would like, no giveaways, Etsy shops or blog parties please. You are welcome to share them in the comments, though.
Visit three or more others. Let them know you've been there!
Visit our FEATURES and comment, pin, share -- do what you can to bless them!
When you are PINNING, please remember to do it from the original post. Black heart (cards)
Follow our Wonderful Wednesday PINTEREST board, if you'd like (below) Black heart (cards)
If you are new, let us know in the comments so that we can follow you back. Black heart (cards)
And, thanks for joining us!