I’ve Moved!

Guess what! I am very pleased to announce that I now have my own domain name and website! Check it out at www.mkbrander.com

This is something that I’ve been dreaming about for a long, long time. I know that hosting and domains are cheap people, but the problem wasn’t that, the problem was that I didn’t believe in myself. I thought, who am I to have my own domain? Little old me? Really? Do I even have any readers? Does anybody even listen to what I’m saying? Well, I took the plunge, thanks to a little bit of encouragement from my friend Marla Taviano and a lot of help from her husband Gabe Taviano.

What does this mean for this site? Well, I’ll still keep it up here for the old posts, but really, if you want to see any new stuff, you should head on over to my new site. So update your feeds, change your bookmarks, etc.

And pop over to the new site! And while you’re there, enter the giveaway for Nerve! It doesn’t have very many entries right now so you have a pretty good shot. 🙂

 

Feedback Needed: Vote on my New Name!

So as I’ve said before, I need a new name for this blog. I feel like the current name, while I really like it, doesn’t really fit the new direction of my blog. So I haven’t gotten any suggestions, but I’ve got some ideas of my own, so if you could vote in the poll which one you like best/which one you find the most fitting, that would be much appreciated. I’ll probably leave it open for a week (ish).

Oh and thank you, for yesterday, that was very scary for me to write that and put it out there, but I felt like it was well received and that you guys supported me. And that was super helpful.

I included an other, so if you have a different idea, check other and leave it in the comments! Also, I gave you the ability to check multiple ones, so check as many as you like! It will be helpful to me in seeing which ones are popular.

My Goals

I think sometimes it can be helpful to have goals. They can help focus you and give you a direction to go in. So I thought today I would blog about my goals, in part so you guys can help keep me accountable. But just in part, as well, because I think goals show what is important to you. So I hope it gives you an insight into my mind.

Get something published in the next five years. Last fall I had my first taste of what it felt like to be a published author.  And let me say that I loved it – I thought it was wonderful and it gave me such a sense of accomplishment because being published is one of the end goals for a writer. I would love to be published again. I know it will take work, but hopefully I will be able to cross this off my list.

Buy my own domain and be self hosted within the next five years. I really want to take this blog places and get serious about it and part of that is buying my own domain and being self hosted. I know it’s not expensive, but part of me is not ready to take that leap for a couple of reasons. First of all, I need to prove to myself that I’m going to be serious about it – I don’t want to pay for something I’m not going to use. Second of all, I really need to decide on a new name for my blog. Suggestions? I’m really open to them, so help me figure out a new name!

Attend at least one blog conference within the next five years. Of course, my first preference is BlogHer. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. And I just learned it is in Chicago next year, so maybe this one is more attainable than I think? What’s holding me back is finances – I have a hard time justifying spending so much on doing something like that. Well, I have a hard time justifying spending money on myself for any reason. Plus, I do not know what I would do with little guy being gone for so long. Either I would have to bring him to Chicago with me or leave him with Nick who works or possibly with his grandparents? Who knows – at any rate, it’s just a dream for right now, because I don’t feel like realistically it’s in reach because of finances.

Change someone’s life. Okay, granted, this one is the most ambiguous, but I think it’s something I want to do. I want to make a real difference in someone’s life. So many people have changed my life – I want to be able to give something back. And I want to do it for the better.

Continue to be open about my experience with marriage and motherhood. It is my personal opinion that we don’t talk enough about marriage and motherhood. Oh sure, we talk about it but what I mean is we don’t talk honestly enough about what it’s really like in the nitty gritty. We don’t often get past the surface level when we talk about it. Well I want to change that – I want to talk more openly and honestly about it to create a culture where people are unafraid to share their real struggles, their real questions, and their real joy.

Improve my cooking and find a way to cook for more people. I get such satisfaction out of cooking something well. It makes me feel so accomplished. Plus, it’s tasty. Also, I love to cook for people because I feel like it’s a way I can take care of people. Well fed people are happy people. I just feel such joy in serving other people in this way.

Take more pictures. I feel like unless I’m in an extraordinary situation, I tend not to take pictures. Yes of course, I want to have pictures of the special times, but I realized I also want to have pictures of the ordinary times. I want to remember the every day little smiles my son gives me and the little things he does. I want to remember the special but ordinary times with Nick. I don’t have a lot of pictures of little guy when he’s super little and I am a little sad about this. It just wasn’t a priority at the time, but it is a priority now. It helps that I have a new phone that takes pictures much easier, otherwise this might not happen, because honestly I’m a minimal girl. It was a hassle for me to carry around my camera everywhere, so most of the time it just didn’t come with me. But my phone comes everywhere with me, which means much more pictures (and videos) are getting taken. And it’s great.

So there you have it, those are my goals? What do you think? Do you have any advice or help to offer on these? What are your goals?

I just have two other things to add. Yesterday in WI, there was a shooting at a Sikh temple. My heart is deeply saddened by it, especially since it happened in my home state. I’ve been watching the news all morning and it’s just so sad. Even though I disagree with other people’s religions, I still can’t help but hold to the thinking that places of worship should be special places, where people are allowed to feel safe. The shooter violated that when he opened fire in the temple yesterday. And it is so heartbreaking. But it is encouraging to me to see the outpouring of support towards this group by the community. Because people could choose to say they don’t look like me and so I don’t care that this happened to them. But it hasn’t been like that at all. I will continue to pray that they can experience healing.

Second of all, my little guy is three months old today! I can’t believe it’s been three months already because it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. I love him and he is such a joy. It’s true, sometimes I get frustrated, especially about being spit up on. That I don’t like very much and sometimes I am like, “How can you possibly have anything more left to spit up in your stomach?” But overall, he is just wonderful. He rolled over 4 times this weekend (and hasn’t done it since haha). Anyways, happy 3 months to you little guy. I’ll leave you with a picture of him sleeping on daddy’s shoulder at a wedding we went to last week.

Sleeping Little Guy

Changes Around Here

I’ve been thinking really hard about what I want to do with this blog. I’ve felt a little stuck lately, caught kind of between two things. I still want to blog about women’s issues, but I also want to blog about other things – like my experience being a mother and parenting resources and my cooking and also possibly combining my book review blog into here. So after a long consideration, I thought why can’t I do all of that? So expect to see new things around here. Starting with a new background. It is my goal to blog more consistently about new things. But I need a new name for my blog (again, I know). Here’s the thing though, I’m completely at a loss of what to call it now. So suggestions? Let me know in the comments or tweet me @misslissy.

Anyways, I’m looking forward to this new endeavor and I hope you are too. I even spruced up the theme for you 😉

Melissa

Guest Post Call

Hello everyone 🙂

I am being swamped with school and I’m thinking about 2 series and I would love some guest posts for them 🙂

First one is Dear Mom – basically, it’s writing a letter to your mom. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but I can tell you more of my ideas about it if you need them.

Second is “I am a strong woman because . . . ” this is one where you post about what makes you a strong woman or an experience that you overcame.

I’m open to anyone writing on my blog, but dudes, if you want to write, you could only write letters to your mom as you’re not women 😉 Anyways, if either (or both! I’m up for that) sound interesting to you, shoot me an e-mail at mkbrander@yahoo.com or tweet me @misslissy

Additionally, if there’s something else you want to write about, pitch it to me! I’m totally open.

Melissa

Changing My Blog Name?

I know this might not be a real post, but I’ve been thinking a bit lately about whether or not I should change the name of my blog. Right now it’s Women, Women Everywhere, but I’ve been wondering maybe if I should drop one of the womens and make it just Women Everywhere. Or, alternatively, I could make Every Woman Everywhere. Or Writing on Women? Or possibly there’s some other suggestions that I haven’t even thought of?

I hope someday to move to my own domain, so in sort of anticipation of that, I want to have a name done and settled on. So I guess this is the part where I look for your feedback. Do you like my name currently? Do you like any of the other suggestions? Do you have blog name suggestions?

I know this is just me asking and not really giving you any content, but I promise I will be back to give you some content tomorrow.

Melissa