I’m in Asheville, NC for Type-A Parent Conference. It’s a three-day affair that promises to enable and empower bloggers to take their sites to the next level. And it delivers!

This being my second TypeA, I’ve come prepared to maximize the gain by sharing coverage of the workshops with friends. Now, I’m not the Liveblogging Queen – that’s Christina at www.CutestKidEver.com, but I’m giving it a shot.

How many of us struggle with juggling Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and way too many other Social Media platforms?

Debba Haupert, of Girlfriendology, shared tips for staying sane and benefiting from these mediums in Power Networking Across Social Platforms:

1. Pick an objective – It’s essential to know what you’re trying to get out from social engagement.

2. Build a list - Know your community so that you tailor the frequency and content of your updates; don’t make it daily if that’s too much. Your list is valuable, one estimate puts it at $80/per person. Make sure that the email subscription opt-in is in a prominent place.

3. Survey your Community – You might think they’re just like you, but often they are not. Ask your community how and where they engage online, ex. might be on Facebook, not Twitter. Don’t be afraid to do ask, you can use SurveyMonkey.com.

4. Plan your updates to fit your community’s schedule & likes. For example, if your audience checks Facebook during lunch, you might want to plan updates to amuse the lunch crowd.  Keep in mind that 47% of population is on East Coast time. Debba’s workflow has Facebook and LinkedIn updates going to Twitter, but not visa versa. Be consistent so audience knows what to expect.

5. Schedule your updates. (Hootsuite, Tweedeck, Social Oomph) Since Debba has a backlog of evergreen blog posts, she pulls those out as "Classic, Favorites, MVP, etc." and puts them out on Facebook. Her other Facebook updates includes videos and quotes.

6. Make it easy to share content. Add Facebook LIKE buttons and other sharing buttons. Debba recommends the "Suggest This" WordPress Plugin.

7. Engage your community. Ask your community to share the content. Once a week, Debba asks her community to share her blog with others.

8.Share! Share every blog post, guest blog, etc. Make sure to remember to include a link back to your site.

9. Create a conversation. Don’t hog the conversation, listen.

Waving goodbye to my daughter at John F. Kennedy Airport was one of the more gut-wrenching experiences of my life. Not just any airport, I was dropping her off at one of the most-traveled intersections on the world.

If I could have stayed to see her off, to be certain that she made it on the flight, I would have. But, as luck would have it, my own flight was to take off from LaGuardia Airport a scant hour after hers. All I could do was to watch her check her bags curbside, give her one last precious hug, and watch her walk away through the glass doors.

There was little concrete reason to worry, but it was the idle, nameless fears that had my stomach in knots.

Would she make it on the flight? Would her flight make it to her destination? Would her grandmother meet her flight? And what will happen in a month on an island full of sun-kissed teenage boys?

And then there is the fear that I hesitate to name: would this experience signal a new independence, a severing of the apron strings?

It is inevitable, I know. With each necessary step toward independence, my daughter takes a step away from me and toward the wide-open vista of adulthood.

I would not halt this progress; instead choosing to encourage her toward becoming the fierce woman that she is meant to be.

No, I would not hold her back, but I will take a moment to acknowledge that I miss the closeness that we once shared when every waking moment, and many nights as well, my daughter was a fixture on my hip or breast.

That was a long time ago, practically another lifetime ago.

Today, I’m in transit, headed to a conference of my peers, taking a step toward my own independence, because, you know, there is no expiration date on becoming the woman that I was meant to be.

Hey Sis,

More than halfway into the Freihofer’s Training Challenge, I have yet to discover my inner runner. Every time the iPhone sounds the morning alarm, an epic battle ensues behind closed lids over who will win – the sneakers or the pillow.

On Nike’s side is the public nature of this endeavor. Not only have I signed up to blog about the Freihofer’s Training Challenge, I have even gone on record in a TV commercial for the the race to declare that “If I can do it, you can do it.”

Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be if I dropped out now?

In case you missed it, here is the running journey so far:

• Consider This the Before Photo (The Journey Mom)

• Getting Over Myself (Freihofer’s Run For Women Blog)

• Failure Is Not an Option (Freihofer’s Run For Women Blog)

• The Reluctant Runner (Freihofer’s Run For Women Blog)

Con Cariño,

Sandra

Hey Sis,

My days as the teen columnist at Kids Fun Plaza have come to an end. It was a good run while it lasted. The magazine gave me my first publishing credit, even as it gave me a chance to experiment with article formats.

But it wasn’t a good fit for me. I found it difficult to keep up with the demands of writing weekly blog posts on top of my own blogs, but even more challenging was the focus on writing about parenting teens.

As you know, I realized earlier this year that my children’s stories have ceased to be my story. I can’t freely write about my personal experience with teens, and in any case, I would prefer to stick to writing about family travel.

So that’s it, I resigned from the Kids Fun Plaza publications, but here, in case you missed them, are my posts on the Kids Fun Plaza blog:

• Tech Valley Colleges Put Out the Welcome Mat

• Summer Jobs for Students

• Have You Had The Talk?

• The Care and Keeping of Friends

• Knitting for Charity

• The High School Parent Teacher Conference

• My Daughter, The Wide Receiver
• Should we ban teens at Halloween?
• Who’s Getting the Vacation Break?
• Is Your Child a Gracious Loser?
• Spring Into Celebration!
• Spring Fling Silliness
• A Moment in the Limelight
• Kidz Expo
• Art for Kids
• Video Game Ban
• Super Bowl Sunday Family Tradition
• A Quiet Cheering Squad
• Tech Valley Blog Celebration Giveaway
• Engineering a Love of Science
• Mommy and Me Moment: Peace Offering Pie
• Mommy and Me Moment: Dreams
• Mommy and Me Moment: Make a Dream Come True
• Mommy and Me Moment–New Beginnings
• Mommy and Me Moment–Nor’easter
• Mommy and Me Moment of Giving
• Mommy and Me Monday at the Plaza

 

Con Cariño,

Sandra

Siempre ha sido mi sueño de compartir una vacación de voluntariado con mi familia.

Así que cuando me enteré de que LATISM, la organización de los latinos en los medios de comunicación social, estaba planeando proyectos de desarrollo sostenible en la República Dominicana este verano, me parecio que este programa va ser perfecto para nuestra primera vacación de voluntariado

Me enteré de LATISM de Ana Roca-Castro, editor de Kids Fun Plaza y fundador de LATISM, . Un líder de la comunidad, Ana es el que me llevó a pensar en los emprendimientos sociales. Ella me ayudó a definir una idea que habíaestado lanzando en mi cabeza que es para crear un cambio social con los principiosempresariales (más sobre esto otra vez!)

Proyectos de desarrollo sostenible LATISM son tres: un campamento de verano, la construcción de una sala de informática, y la conexión a través de Libros Mamá Mamá. Ese es el que realmente me emociona porque creo que las herramientas de medios sociales ofrecen oportunidades sin precedentes para contratar y para permitir a las organizaciones de base a través de un modelo ecológico hiper-conectado de comunicación.

Si bien tengo muchas ganas a la tutoría una bloggera, a mis hijos ya están planificando varios talleres que esperan al plomo. Hasta el momento, se habla de los talleres se centró en los cómics, hacer videos, y skimboard.

No estoy exactamente seguro de lo que nos estamos metiendo, pero sé que será una aventura!

Interesados ​​en aprender más sobre Sostenible LATISM de Proyectos de Desarrollo? Haga clic aquí para obtener más información.

Participe:
Incluso si usted no puede asistir a la República Dominicana este verano, hay un númerode maneras de participar en este proyecto. Aquí están algunas ideas en el blog LATISM:

• Organizar una colección de útiles escolares, juguetes y ordenadores portátiles usados​​,cámaras flip y cámaras digitales en su Tweetup LATISM siguiente, en la iglesia, sutrabajo, familia de la escuela, o en cualquier lugar donde usted tiene influencia.
• Alquiler de las mamás y los adolescentes campamento entrenará prestación de servicios cibernéticos.
• Comprar los productos de la LATISM Sostenible de comercio electrónico cuando esté listo a finales del verano

Family Travel for Social Good

It has always been my dream to share a volunteer vacation with my family.

So when I heard that LATISM, the nonprofit organization of Latinos in Social Media, was launching sustainable development projects in the Dominican Republic this summer, I jumped right on it.

I first heard about LATISM from Kids Fun Plaza publisher and LATISM founder, Ana Roca-Castro. An inspiring community leader, Ana is the one who got me to thinking about social entrepreneurship. She helped me define an idea that I had been tossing around in my head which is to create social change using entrepreneurial principles (more on that another time!)

LATISM’s sustainable development projects are threefold: a summer camp, building a cyber room, and connecting through Mama por Mama. That’s the one that really excites me as I believe that social media tools offer unprecedented opportunities to engage and enable grassroots organizations through a hyper-connected ecological model of communication.

While I’m looking forward to mentoring a bloggera, my kids are already planning several workshops that they hope to lead. So far, there is talk of workshops focused on comic books, making videos, and skimboarding.

I’m not exactly sure what we’re getting ourselves into, but I know that it will be an adventure!

Interested in learning more about LATISM’s Sustainable Development Projects? Click here for more information.

Get Involved:

Even if you can’t make it to the Dominican Republic this summer, there are a number of ways to be involved in this project. Here are a few ideas from the LATISM blog:

• Organize a collection of school supplies, toys and used laptops, flip cameras and digital cameras in your next LATISM Tweetup, at church,  your job, family, school or anywhere where you have influence.
• Hire the moms and camp teens we will train to provide cyber services.
• Buy the products from the LATISM Sustainable e-commerce when it’s ready at the end of the summer

More Spanish Friday:

• Es el Dia de Spanish Friday

• Pensaba hacer mas.

Hey Sis,

The last time we had rats in the house, they weren’t pets.

Norwegian rats are a common sight on the back streets of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, and from my vantage point in class at St. Peter & Paul High School, I have seen more than my fair share of hideously mammoth rodents foraging in the trash bins.

It was less common to find them in our home, but I remember a particularly gruesome few weeks where my family battled these rodent intruders in a fierce contest to determine survival of the fittest. Every night, while we slumbered, these vicious predators stormed our kitchen, leaving only crumbs behind. The exterminator was powerless against these canny pillagers, and left us to our own devices.

We had no choice but to fight back. My father armed himself with my brother’s BB gun, and spent several nights guarding the kitchen stock. One after another, he eliminated the rats that tested his resolve, until the invading army decided to move on to easier pickings.

Given this vile history, I never thought that I would willingly allow rats to live in my house.

But in a weak moment, the house literally in tatters, so filled with dust and dog hair that I was beyond rational thought; I agreed to let the kids bring home pet rats if they not only cleaned the house to my exacting standards, but also kept it clean for not less than two weeks.

To my amazement, my daughter even gave up skiing for a day to polish the house. They cleaned it so well that all I could do was to hope and pray that it would return to its natural state in short order.

Over the next few weeks, there were a few backsliding moments. My daughter decided that she didn’t want a rat after all now that her brother wanted one too, and my husband, well, it’s especially hard for him to see the trail of destruction that follows his every step. It was my son who followed through, who kept picking up after his father and sister, and who recorded my assent on video so that I couldn’t rescind my agreement.

Today, whether I was willing or not, not one, not two, but THREE RATS came to live at my house.

All I say is that there better not be any rat babies or I’m inviting my father for a visit.

Con Cariño,

Sandra

(Today is Spanish Friday in which I butcher my mother’s language.)

Esta semana pensaba empezar la historia de mi familia de locas. Pero con todo que he hecho esta semana, y que todavia tengo que hacer, no tengo las ganas para un pito mas.

En vez de empezar mis cuentos, les voy a pasar a un cuento muy chistoso de parte de Latinaish.com. Vaya leer “El Papel.”

Y para una sonrisa aqui, vamos a ver que hace el Google Translator con mis esfuerzas con el idioma de mi mama.

In Translation

In which I discover that a phrase that my grandmother taught me is perhaps not so polite after all.

This week I thought to start the story of my crazy family. But with all I’ve done this week and still I have to do, I have no desire for more dick.

Instead of starting my stories, I will move to a very funny story from Latinaish.com. Go read "The Paper."

And for a smile here, let’s see what the Google Translator to my efforts with the language of my mother.

Wanna play along? Go to Spanish Friday HQ.

Hey Sis,

They laughed when I said I was going to run at 6 a.m. Monday morning. Partly, they laughed because I’m not in the greatest shape, but mostly it was because it would be an understatement to say that I’m not a morning person.

I like to write in the quiet of the night while the rest of the family slumbers, but it doesn’t make for family harmony. My schedule is completely out of sync with my husband and firstborn, and now that I have to drive the teen to school several days a week, I’m paying for this dearly.

To help me get back into the morning groove, I joined Team Gish in a 10-week Couch to 5K training program that meets weekly at 6 a.m. at The Crossings in Colonie to get us ready for the Freihofer’s Run for Women Training Challenge.

Today was the day that I met the team for our first training session.

It was dark, cold, and raining icy pellets when I approached the group warming up under the gazebo. I wanted to turn back; actually, I wanted to bail the night before. But the kids made me feel like a total heel, reminding me that they “had faith in me.” I knew it was because they were betting on me against their Dad, but I couldn’t let them down.

The warm-up was unnerving. My asthma started kicking up and I worried that if I was wheezing then, how would I manage the actual run?

By chance, honestly, I had no idea what I was doing, but I ended up running next to Tracy Ormsbee, one of the journalists who blogs at Parent to Parent. She got me through that first run by chatting with me, keeping me talking and distracting me from the ordeal.

And then it wasn’t so bad. We followed the run with a series of cool down exercises under the guidance of a trainer, and headed out before 7 a.m.  I was home in in time to say goodbye to husband and teen (for the first time in a very long time.)

I think I CAN do this.

Con Cariño,

Sandra

Mi tía se va a enloquecer cuando ve a este post.

Mi tía Nelly siempre ha estado a cargo de mi educación bilingüe. Cuando era pequeña, viviamos con ella y su familia en Buenos Aires. Ahí es cuando yo sólo hablaba español, pero cuando me mudé a los Estados Unidos se hizo más difícil y más difícil de recordar el español como aprendí a hablar Inglés.

Ella me llevó a la escuela argentina en Washington, DC cada fin de semana, hasta que mi familia se trasladó al Caribe. Y siempre, ella es la única persona que siempre me corrige en mi español. Hoy en día, las únicas personas con quien converso en español son mi tía Nelly, mi abuela, y los familiares de argentinos que me han encontrado en Facebook.

En este momento de mi vida, sería muy amable de decir que no converso en español, porque es más de un spanglish que otra cosa.

Eso va a cambiar. Acabo de descubrir Spanish Friday en el blog Latinaish.com, y yo voy a tratar de hacerlo.  No quiero olvidar el lenguaje que me conecta con por lo menos la mitad de mi familia.

La idea es escribir sobre lo que usualmente después de ese día, pero hacerlo en español. Como te habrás dado cuenta, no he estado posteando mucho últimamente en The Journey Mom, y yo no estaba seguro sobre que tema quería para cubrir los Spanish Fridays, pero cuando lo pensé un poco, me di cuenta de que esto sería una buena manera de compartir nuestras historias familiares.

Como es, mis hijos saben más sobre su herencia Checa de un lado de su padre de la familia, y casi nada de la mía. Se están perdiendo una gran cantidad de historias jugosas.

La verdad es más extraña que la ficción y nunca más que con mi familia. Vuelve el próximo viernes, y yo voy a decir todo.

In Translation

My aunt is going to freak when she sees this post.

My Tia Nelly has always been in charge of my bilingual education. From age three to seven, I mostly lived with her and her family in Buenos Aires. That’s when I only spoke Spanish, but when I moved to the States it became harder and harder to remember the Spanish as I learned to speak English.

She took me to Argentinean school in Washington, D.C. every weekend, until my family moved to the Caribbean. And ever after, she is the one person who always corrects me on my Spanish. These days, the only people with whom I converse in Spanish are my my Tia Nelly, my grandmother, and the Argentine relatives who have found me on Facebook.

At this point in my life, it would be too kind to say that I converse in Spanish with anyone. It’s more of a Spanglish than anything.

That’s going to change. I just discovered Spanish Friday on the Latinaish.com blog, and I’m going to give this a shot. I don’t want to forget the language that connects me with at least half of my family.

The idea is to post about what you would usually post on that day, but to do it in Spanish. As you may have noticed, I haven’t been posting too much lately on The Journey Mom, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to cover on Spanish Fridays, but when I thought about it a bit, I realized that this would be a good way to share our family stories.

As it is, my children know more about their Czech heritage from their father’s side of the family, and hardly anything from mine. They’re missing a whole slew of juicy stories.

Truth is stranger than fiction and never more so than with my family. Come back next Friday, and I’ll tell you all about it. En español.

Mi Telenovela:

• Golden Highlights: Sharing My Hidden Depths

• Mi Abuela, My Grandmother

• Mi Abuela Is Doing Good!

My son has been asking to attend the same school as his big sister since last spring, but now it’s clear that the end is near. This week, he spent a day visiting the school of his dreams, and now all he talks about are his plans for when he attends (if he gets in.)

When Alex heard that he might have a shot at leading the Computer Club, he jumped on this suggestion, and is now drawing up lesson plans for weekly meetings. Detailed, thoughtful lesson plans. I believe he intends to start off with a Lego Mindstorm presentation to include a robotic mission and the programming behind it before proceeding on the next class to working with Pinnacle videos. He is passionate about learning, and he wants to share that with friends.

I don’t know if he would have been at exactly this same spot regardless of where he attended school. Maybe. But I doubt it.

Given our many experiences with our public schools, I’m confident that that was never a healthy option for him for too many reasons to list without getting on my soapbox. Let’s just say that he never fit in that box.

Could he have reached this point by joining my daughter at the private school instead of homeschooling? Probably.

There are opportunities and costs to any choice, but with educational options it’s impossible to say with any certainty what determines outcomes.  It’s only in looking back that we notice specific experiences that inspire our choices, and even as the experts on our own lives, it’s difficult to pinpoint all the intermediate steps along the way.

All I can say with certainty, is that we have both enjoyed the homeschooling ride. We have met many passionate learners in our community, and discovered enrichment opportunities that we might have missed otherwise. We’ve made new friends, expanding the village that impacts our children and the circle of caring that nurtures and sustains.  Alex has developed skills while deepening his knowledge base in many subjects. And I have too.

Hindsight is cloudy and the future is a blank canvas, but all that really matters is that right now, my son is now an enthusiastic, passionate learner.

Homeschooling has been good to us.