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Kellogg’s Bloggers’ Brunch

Written on August 31st, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Food, Good times

Hi guys, how are you doing? Things have been very busy here, still stuck in my bout of depression, and trying to worm my way out of it. I hope you are all well.

I thought I’d talk about my trip to Sydney to visit the Kellogg’s plant. It’s been a year and a half since I’d been to Sydney (we moved here from there). It’s funny, at the time I couldn’t wait to get out of the rat race, yet as time goes by I’ve of course come to miss it. To say I was excited to go back would be a glaring understatement.

Special thanks to the lovely British backpacker who helped me to get a gratuitous Sydney shot for old times’ sake.

The people who greeted us at Kellogg’s were absolutely lovely to us all. Us, being Veronica, Liss, Mrs Woog, Fiona, Lucy, Zoey and Louisa Claire from Brand Meets Blog, who organised the event. It was great to see Veronica and Zoey again, and everyone else whom I hadn’t met before.

A Current Affair was also filming on the day. I really didn’t know what to say at first when we all sat down together. The reason I was so taken aback? Because all Kellogg’s wanted to know was what we wanted as mothers. Hunh? You don’t want to just shove a press release at us, or make us tell our readers to buy Kellogg’s? I just could not get my head around the idea that they really just wanted to sit back and listen to our thoughts on their products, or the challenges we face when feeding our kids.

Which is hilarious, given that this blog is titled Hear Mum Roar and I like to bang on about how important it is that mothers be heard. It’s just that… well, sometimes as a blogger, you do tend to brace yourself for a company asking to use you.

They showed us a little bit of the plant, and we got to suit up in some dead sexy lab coats and shower caps.

I don’t know how they got such a feel-good shot of this, but I did have a chuckle at how wholesome and sweet we all looked in our new clobber.

We talked about a lot of things on the day. Sugar, nutrition, then sugar again. Then we agreed we all give our kids chocolate at some point. I mentioned Mr 5, who at the time was going through a vegemite sandwich obsession. He was refusing to eat anything else for every meal and snack. Two at a time, to be cut into rectangles. I was chuffed at the suggestion of offering the Sultana Bran Mini Buds as a dry snack. I bought some once I got home, and lo and behold, it worked! He ate something different.

We talked about sporting ‘heroes’ being used to advertise cereal, and a lot of us were quite annoyed by it. Before I go on, I’ll share the ACA footage in case anyone wants to see:

Mr 5 loved seeing Mum on the telly. We told him about half an hour before the show started that I might be on it. The little guy thought I was actually going to get on a train to Sydney before it started to go live on tv! I apologised to my children afterward for swearing..

One thing I did want to clarify, though. At the end, I know it sounds like I’m saying that big companies are too afraid not to listen to us mums (because obviously we’re such ball breakers. Eye roll..) What I was asked beforehand was do our husbands (or in my case, partner) listen to us when it comes to shopping decisions. To which I said, ‘oh yeah, I think they’d be too scared not to listen to us!’ Because let’s face it, if your man comes home with the wrong thing, of course you’re going to kick their arse. Figuratively speaking, of course. So yeah. That’s my, ‘I know I come across as a wanker, but not as much as it sounds’ spiel.

Now, I don’t know why I loved this next part so much, but we all got our own personalised cornflake boxes! Why is that so cool? I don’t know, but it just was.

Apart from being made to feel so welcome and having our opinions valued so much, there was no catch at the end of the whole thing. No pressure to write about this if we didn’t want to, nothing. But, of course, I’m happy to, after having had such a lovely day.

Oh! For those of you watching my Weight Watcher’s progress, yes, I have hit a slump. I’ve gained a kilo back, and have found myself in a rut. I still know the program works, the problem is that I lost the habit of using the program. I’m not giving up though! So, if anyone has a virtual cattle prod or a kick up the arse for me, I’ll be bending over here for a short time only.

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The Melbourne Bloggers’ Brunch

Written on August 8th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Good times

So, as I’ve mentioned recently, I was delighted to be invited to the Bloggers’ Brunch at Melbourne! This was my first time I’d ever been to Melbourne, so I was pretty excited.

I jumped on a train at 1:39am (yes, you read that correctly!) for a long trip, which saw me arrive at Melbourne at 7:55am. Whew! I was knackered before I even got there! But at least I caught a few hour’s sleep on the train. Once I got there and met some familiar faces, I was too excited to be tired!

As soon as I stepped in the door, I was greeted by the lovely Nicole from Planning With Kids, which was great, as I’d wanted to meet her for a while. I stopped to chat with Jolene from Mum’s Lounge, and we both found our bearings for a few minutes. The next bit, I’ll admit was a blur, because all these familiar faces started pouring into the venue, and I’m afraid I can’t remember them all!

I was so excited to finally meet Veronica Foale, Norlin Mustapha and Tina Gray.

Then, we listened to some excellent guest speakers, starting with Melinda Gainsford Tayler, followed by Nicole Avery, and I can’t remember all the names of the other speakers, but I do remember one was called Bernadette Black. They all spoke about working towards goals as mothers in varying capacities, and it was an inspiration for me.

One thing I’m frustrated about, is that I was too tired to remember to whip out my camera! Argh. Being my first ever blogger get together, I hope you’ll forgive me for my noob mistake.

The brunch was sponsored by Weight Watchers, which by now you probably know that I’ve signed up for their program (psst! First weigh-in tomorrow!) Soon I’ll have a little something from Weight Watchers for one lovely reader, I’m just picking my moment. How about we say… when I lose my first kilo? Hehe.

I had some time to kill before my train rode out the same day (yes, I am starting to think I might have some sadistic tendencies), so whilst I waited, I met my good friend Violet Le Beaux for the first time ever. By now I was quite sweaty and exhausted, but again, excitement took over! Thankfully, Violet had the presence of mind to suggest we get a photo:

You can see the lack of sleep has taken its toll, huh? For me, that is, not Violet! Haha. She very patiently let me grab some sushi. Since I’ve moved from Sydney to the country, I get serious sushi withdrawals, and not many places out here make it very well. I’m trying to learn to make it myself, but hey. It’s always better when it’s already made by someone else, that’s my motto!

So we had a lovely chat and caught up a little, then I made my way off to the station. I think my train home was 7:55pm? My memory’s foggy… I got back home at I think 1:45am, and was utterly, utterly bushwacked.

I didn’t really fit in a lot of time to get to ‘know’ Melbourne very well, so I’m hoping to go back to check it out soon. My first impressions are that the buildings are a bloody eyesore, but the people are so much more lovely and relaxed than Sydney siders. I didn’t see one whacko the whole time I was there, and was very surprised to find that in a city… I also noticed, unlike Sydney, if you buy food, it tastes good! For example, the sushi, but later I got a doner kebab (haven’t had something like that in years!) and it was fresh and delicious. In Sydney, I found it took ages to figure out who made the half decent foods of all my favorite foods. Very hit and miss…

I’ve had a few giveaways on facebook already, of some of the goodies we were given on the day. There’s more coming, too, *wink*.

I’d like to thank Kids Business and Room to Grow TV for putting on such a great event for 50 of us mum bloggers. I had a ball! Also, thank you so much to the following companies for sponsoring the event, and for their generosity on the day:

Gosh, I hope I didn’t leave anyone out!

I’ll be writing about some of these companies in the future if I haven’t already, but felt it only fair to stagger it out for you guys, so it’s not overkill.

And next time I’m at a blogger type event, I’ll be sure to get some photos!

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Aussie Mummy Blogger With the X-Factor

Written on March 30th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Good times, March 2011

Well, if this isn’t enough to cheer a girl up! I’m talking about the Aussie Mummy Blogger With the X-Factor awards. I was pleasantly surprised to be included, albeit a little terrified on finding out that caricatures would be made of us. I’m sure if you’ve read all about See Mum Shine, I won’t need to explain why…

But, you know what? The illustrator did an awesome job! I had a giggle at the cartoons of mine and other great mum bloggers. I was bemused to read that I was described as: ‘the brain behind Hear Mum Roar chooses to remain anonymous’, but hey. We’re not going to have a diva moment when there’s an iPad at stake now, are we? Hehe.

I’m looking at this as not only a pleasant form of recognition and great fun (I mean really, this could be the first and only chance to be immortalized on the back of a dinosaur) but also a fantastic motivator to get in and fix this blog much faster. It’s like being at home, slobbing away in front of the telly. The house stinks of pooey nappies and my shirt stinks of baby spew. Next thing, visitors knock on the door.

So this will be the equivalent of me running around like a mad thing, plumping cushions, hiding the dirty laundry and repeating, ‘it’s not normally like this around here!’ Except I don’t actually plump cushions, but I’m sure you know what I mean.

Anyway, if anyone would like to vote for me, the link is here. You can read the interview, and voting is done by clicking the facebook ‘like’ button under the heading, or the ‘retweet’ button right next to it. The blogger with the most retweets and likes wins the iPad.

I’ve got something fun for you guys tomorrow too, so I hope you’ll be here to check it out.

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My Mind is Soup

Written on March 29th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, March 2011

Argh, you guys, I’ve missed blogging on here so much. As promised, I’m going to tell you what’s been going on with the blog.

Ok. As you can see, there is a new theme in progress here. I was slowly working on that. Then, I posted a giveaway at night, and by morning, my blog was gone. With a lovely little ‘account suspended’ page. Bugger. After that, I got an email from Just Host, stating the bleedin’ obvious: ‘we suspended your account. You have gone over the 10% usage of the server, etc. You need to now go from paying $2.95 per month to $150 per month for a dedicated server. Because we’re so happy with you being such a loyal customer and all, that $150 per month is a ‘special’ price just for you!’ Laughably, there was a link at the bottom asking, ‘how did we do?’

Hmm.. doesn’t feel as special as the $2.95 did. Did I add that my account was pulled with no warning whatsoever? Well, it was. Just Host has pulled this stunt on many, many bloggers. I told them to send me my backup files. Of course, I planned to move to another web host. I received an email from Just Host saying ‘ok, we’ll just optimise your account now’. I asked them, ‘do you understand I’m moving to another host?’ To which they replied basically, with an ‘oops!’ Bloody idiots…

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it took much longer than expected to get Just Host to even release my domain over to the new host. They will not hand over the photos I had hosted with them, so rather than beat my head against a brick wall any longer, I’m just going through the tedious process of manually hunting down photos on my computer and elsewhere, and inserting them one by one into each post. The new theme installation is unrelated to this suspension, but of course, that still needs to be completed too.

So yeah, not thrilled to have so much to do. Screw you Just Host, screw you. Oh, and don’t worry, I’ll fill in your tossy little survey and tell you how you did, don’t worry!

The most mortifying part was that some readers tried to enter the giveaway, and it disappeared. Equally mortifying, was working with so many great PR reps, and sponsors and having to explain this situation over and over again. I had just set up an email account via the Hear Mum Roar domain and redirected it through gmail, so my emails became glitchy and impossible to communicate that way. To all who’ve been inconvenienced, I’m sincerely sorry.

I’m trying to catch up on the pile of emails that have built up, and am just about there. Ditto for comments on this blog. I always like to answer all comments, and have been frustratingly overwhelmed by everything.

In other news, my partner didn’t end up needing to go to hospital after all, which, to be honest, was a gigantic relief. He has a brilliant new worker who’s really stepped up to the plate and started demanding he actually get treated. So, basically, because his other worker did such a lousy job, that’s why my man ended up in such a bad place with his illness. It wasn’t really being treated, which led to total and utter deterioration of his mental well being. He should never have gotten so bad to have needed to be admitted, had the previous worker done his job. So, although I”m probably not making it sound like it, things are going well for him now. It has been a little hard because his medication has seen him asleep (or more accurately, comatose) all day everyday, but we’re assured he’ll be trying something new this week that won’t have that impact.

My son is so much happier now that he gets to keep his dad at home, and that has been marvelous. I’ll still write the rest of the anger series though, promise! For the most part, we’re all doing really well, just fighting off a flu.

Lastly, but definitely not least, is that my mother had a stroke last week in the afternoon, and another one in hospital later that night. It’s been pretty scary. A week on, she has a lot of work ahead of her, but the doctors are very pleased with her progress which has been well beyond their expectations of what she would be capable of. I’m going to try to visit her in a few weeks’ time, once she’s allowed visitors and my partner’s got his meds sorted.

So yes, my mind is soup right now. A variety of thoughts, jobs and demands all slushed together to make something else. Oddly though, I feel as though things are going to start getting better and I look forward to it.

I also have to thank the awesome Violet for offering to help me with finishing the layout, just for the sake of being a good friend. Thank you so much! I haven’t taken her up on it, but am so grateful to know that I have someone willing to help lighten the load.

In the meantime, please be patient, and accept my apology for this post sounding so much like a damn country song! I loathe country music…

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Blogs I’ve enjoyed in 2010

Written on December 31st, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in December 2010, Good times

As promised, here is my list of bloggy awesomeness from 2010! Of course, there are so many more great blogs out there I’ve enjoyed as well, but for one reason or another, these are the ones that stood out for me personally:

Good Golly Miss Holly

Ah, the Possibilities!

Thanks to all of you for some excellent reading throughout the year! Happy New Year and I hope you all have a wonderful night… Which blogs have been the standouts for you this year?

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The Year in Review For Hear Mum Roar

Written on December 29th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in December 2010, Good times

As we lead up to New Year’s Eve, I thought it’d be nice to look back on 2010, with all its highs and lows. So much has happened, so much has changed… From humble beginnings renting a two bedroom fibro cottage in Sydney (with five people!), to a tree change in the country, and home ownership! I look back, and all I can say is, WOW.

Missy now 2, then 1, trying to pack herself up into boxes at the old place

January

We spent a large part of the school holidays, waiting around for the sale of our house. We were meant to be moved in before xmas, but the people selling it slowed this process down to the point where we couldn’t move in until the very end of January. It also makes me feel a little sad, as during our time of good fortune, I remember the tragedy of Haiti.

February

By now, we’d just moved house, and I managed to finally get back online. We welcomed a new family member, Sookie, and discovered the beautiful, local fresh cherries at nearby Young.

March

We were still settling in by now, but were enjoying the country life. They loved exploring this old train carriage.. thing.

April

I have fond memories of this month in blogging terms. This was the month of the popular tantrum discussions, and I was so proud of the mum blogging world for getting behind Team Ivy. I was overjoyed when Nuffnang got on board with a large donation, and for drawing my attention to it too!

On a more personal note, my youngest child, my daughter, turned two years old. I’m still so amazed by that, as I’m sure any parent would be.

May

It was fun to be a blogger this month! We had Bloggers Without Makeup, which was both terrifying and liberating all at the same time. My son and I celebrated the cold weather by making pea and ham soup together. Mmm, my favourite!

June

This was a special month, too. I nearly had heart failure once I realised my son was now four years old! I wrote about the introduction of an ethics program that we’ve been lobbying for in NSW, and am proud to state that now, at the end of the year, our wish has been granted us! My daughter probably won’t benefit as our school is too small, but I’m so pleased to know that the rights of children in NSW to have freedom from religion in public schools if that’s what they or their parents wish, is now a reality!

And who could forget the introduction of sweet little Daisy into our lives?

Left: Daisy then. Right: Her and Sookie now. Aww..

I also reached the milestone this month, of my 100th post! Yippee!

July

I was so excited this month, to finally get our fruit trees planted. We now have apples growing on the tree that the house came with. The trees we planted are still too young. It turns out that the tree we thought was a Granny Smith tree, wasn’t. Nevermind.

I also enjoyed my daughter’s outrage at gender stereotypes. I know she’ll fight the good fight if and when she ever has children of her own.

August

I won a cute, tiny, pink computer! We also managed to pick and eat some of our first attempt of home-grown mushrooms. So fresh and yummy…

September

We enjoyed learning more about the origins of food, as one only can when they live in the country.

Pretty canola.

My eldest daughter had the best week ever and got her very own puppy, Daffodil.

Then she turned ten. Everyone’s just growing up too fast!

October

I was excited to start writing for Kleenex Mums. I also began the See Mum Shine Challenge.

November

This blog celebrated its first birthday. With sadness, we discovered my partner has OCD. In that regard, things are still very difficult for us, but we plod on…

December

We packed our bags in preparation for a big flood, then we unpacked them all over again. We were very lucky that the local army had put levies in place to protect our town from disaster! We also discussed sibling rivalry, which is always en vogue in this house!

We’ve really had to take things rather slow this year, but it’s been great to get away from all the hustle and bustle anyway. I look towards 2011 with gigantic feelings of hope, and can’t wait! Soon, I’ll be writing up my New Year’s Resolutions for next year. I’m also planning to write about the blogs I’ve enjoyed the most in 2010. You can share which blogs you’ve gotten a kick out of this year, as well! I’m always looking for more fantastic blogs to read.

I have some exciting plans for the blog next year. Violet has already helped me so much with the kick-arse new graphics you see here, and that’s just the beginning. I truly love my readers, and in 2011, I plan to spoil you rotten.

Best blog posts of 2010 – add yours

Written on December 28th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in December 2010, Good times

Well, it’s a couple of days until New Year’s Eve, so I thought what better way to see out 2010 than for bloggers to highlight their favourite post for the year?

If you have a post you’re particularly proud of, leave the link to it in the widget below, then leave a comment telling everyone what you love about it. One link only per blog, pretty please:)

Also, there is a contest for the greatest blog posts over at Kleenex Mums for anyone who’d like to win some cool prizes in recognition for their great writing!

I’m looking forward to seeing in 2011, are you?

Plagiarism sucks

Written on December 18th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in December 2010, Soap box

Google alert is a marvelous thing. It lets you thank people who’ve linked to you. It’s 1:45am here, and I’ve just discovered it’s also a fabulous tool to accidentally pick up on plagiarised content.

Regulars here would know that I’ve done a few sponsored posts via Nuffnang for Mattel. The one I’ll focus on for now, is my post about the Flip Phone. Yes, I received payment for writing it. Yes, I received free product in order to test the product. Yes, I loved the toy. Still do.

However, one google alert brought this to my attention: a review by someone named ‘Jessica’. This is the Mattel website in New Zealand. You will note, that about 80% of my writing has been copied and pasted word for word. Stupidly, it has my link added to the bottom of it. For the record, my name is Sharon, not Jessica. Yet, the title of the review clearly states, ‘review by Jessica’.

Sooo, I wrote to Mattel in New Zealand. Considering that they encourage their customers to write reviews there, I assured them I was not upset with them, as they could not possibly always know when their members are stealing content, right?

So anyway, I got curious. I looked at the Aussie Mattel site. Oh look, it’s Jessica again. She really gets around, doesn’t she?

Now, either Mattel has one member going to both sites, trying to rip them off for whatever benefits she can get her hands on, or Mattel is taking my work and using it to create ‘reviews’ under a false name. To be honest, neither idea sits well with me. I do look forward to hearing their explanation for why my work was stolen and used without my permission.

If this was Mattel’s doing, I think it would highlight the need for some clarification to the client when taking on sponsored posts. Not that I think we should have to, but if this is what’s happening, then we would need to. A sponsored post is where a blogger is paid and provided product to write a review at their blog. It does not give the client rights to publish that work elsewhere.

Now, I know some may think I’m just a stupid ‘mummyblogger’, and I’m fine with that. I have no degree in journalism, but I do know that if my writing was wanted on the toylab site, they should have asked me for permission. Better yet, make up a contract, I will sign a release for it. This did not happen. Heck, no one even asked me or told me this was going on!

I suggest if you’ve done any sponsored posts for Mattel, that you go check to make sure your work hasn’t been stolen also.

The outcome of this will determine whether or not I buy their toys in future, which I’ve always loved.

It makes me angry for another reason: the trend in advertising is that honest reviews by product users are what sells, or has the best influence. How are consumers supposed to trust which reviews are real and which are faked? You can’t fudge this stuff. If you do, it will come back to bite you on the bum. So my message to any companies reading this would be: if you intend on going down the product review on the internet path, do it honestly and properly, or you will get burned. If this was an actual customer trying to cheat her way around it; then bloggers and anyone else wanting to enjoy a slice of the review pie needs to learn the same thing.

If we start getting cheats in this area of advertising, and the net, then it’s not going to work out for anyone.

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I’m joining the nuddy bloggers!!!

Written on May 14th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in Uncategorized

Not nude, as in no clothes. Nude as in, no makeup, how bloggers look when no one’s looking.

Jodie is the brains behind ‘Bloggers without makeup day‘

All day I’ve been coming across ‘nude bloggers’ all day, and couldn’t resist joining in the fun.

So here is my picture without makeup, in front of a warm fire in my jarmies and a lovely big sore on my lip. Mmmm mmm…

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I am Woman

Written on November 4th, 2009 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, Good times, November 2009, Parenting, Soap box

On starting this blog with a brand new name, my nine year old daughter questioned me on why I named it, ‘Hear Mum Roar’. So, I told her about Helen Reddy’s song, ‘I am woman’ and explained how it is a play on words. It became clear to me that she’d never heard the song, and I decided I would be failing in my duty as a mum if she got to adulthood without seeing/hearing it on video. So, I found the above video on youtube and played it to her. Then I decided, what an excellent way to celebrate my new blog, and really drive home the message of my vision for this blog.

My daughter watched and listened. The reaction? ‘Meh.. it’s alright. A bit boring,’ and wandered off to play. Which pretty much sums up motherhood, doesn’t it? We do all the boring bits, we bite off more than we can chew, and we do it with a strength we never would have imagined we possessed until life threw all the challenges of motherhood at us. We worry and stress. We work tirelessly at giving our kids the best, and we all have a different idea of what is the best, but we all still strive to give it.

Our kids can be forgiven for thinking it’s all a bit boring, because we move heaven and earth to give our kids a wonderful childhood. Better they think what we do is boring than to have a boring childhood, right? Most of all, we do it all willingly. We do it with a bottomless love. So, for mothers everywhere, this blog is for you. If you like, let it be your sanctuary. When you think you have nothing left to give, but life won’t let you sit down and catch your breath, think of this song. Know that you are far from alone, but one of millions of inspiring human beings.