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SOPA and PIPA and Why You Should Care

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

Source: thisisnthappiness.com via Ben on Pinterest

 

Today several large websites including Wikipedia, Wired.com and Craigslist thousands more have blacked out their websites in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills that are making their way through congress right now.

In a nutshell, SOPA and PIPA are two bills that are trying to stop the piracy of copyrighted material (images, music, movies) which in theory is a good thing. You know what else works in theory, Communism…

Pirating music and movies is bad. We all know that, but with these two bills simple pictures, silly animated gifs and user created videos could put an entire site at risk of being blacklisted.

Why should you care

If these two bills are allowed to pass, sites with user submitted content would be at risk of being flagged as piracy. The result would be the loss of PayPal and other payment processors for the site as well as no search engine activity at all. Basically, sites like YouTube and Facebook would be deemed illegal and could be shut down completely.

Additionally, if you have comments on your site or if you have a forum attached to your site you could very well be held responsible for anything that your users add. For smaller sites this could be doable with minimum effort but for larger sites with hundreds of users this could be a full time job.

How you can help

Contact your representatives and senators and let them know your concerns about the bills. These bills have already been controversial so anything you can do to help push back against them would be great! Wikipedia has a great site to help you find your representatives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup

If you still don’t understand the bills head on over to The Oatmeal. He’s blacked out his site and created an AWESOME animated GIF that explains the issues perfectly! : )

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Posted in Random Thoughts, Social Media | No Comments »

2012 Goal Binder

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

Happy 2012 everyone!

In case you haven’t heard, this is your year to shine and be awesome and create amazing awesomeness (at least that’s what my Facebook and Twitter feeds are telling me…)

This year I’m doing something a bit different from my previous years (check out my posts for 2010 and 2011 here and here) and focus more on organizing my goal follow through. I’ve done really well at following through with my goals for each year but I have a lot of specific things I want to get done by specific times this year so I thought a more organized approach might be helpful.

Goal Binder

This year instead of a shiny new planner or a fancy task list app, I created a Goal Binder from scratch with paper and markers!

 

 

What you’ll need:

Binder - I used a half sized binder but you could use a full sized one too
Paper - lined or blank, whichever you like writing on best
Colored paper or Colorful dividers – I used colorful cardstock that i had laying around but you could always just buy some pre-made dividers
Hole punch
Markers, colored pencils or crayons – Color and/or write with them to liven up your pages! (I have no idea why I have markers with my maiden name writen on them but they make me feel nostolgic everytime I use them.)

I started off by creating tabs for each month with the colored cardstock. For my half sized binder that meant cutting the cardstock in half and then punching holes.

 

 

Then I added some sheets of paper with each month that will track my Goal Focus for the month, Important Dates Blog Post ideas and Money/Mileage Tracking. You can chose to track whatever you want here or you could create a traditional daily planner type setup. Whatever will keep you motivated and keep you on track.

Then I created some additional cards for my main focus or Vision cards. I chose to just draw and write out my intentions/goals for the year but you could cut out magazine images or draw pictures of your goals too! Whatever gets you excited, do that!

I created 4 cards for my main focuses this year; Me Time, Spirit, Business and Family. You might end up with just one main focus card or you might create more than four! Again, just remember this is for YOU to follow so make something that YOU like and don’t think about the right way to do it, because there isn’t a right way to create you own goals!

 

 

I realized at the end of creating my cards that I had a distinct theme for each of my main focuses so I created one final card that listed my themes all together that I could glance at and remember what was really important for me this year. I ended up putting this card on the back sleeve of the binder!

 

That’s it! Nothing super extraordinary but I’m really hoping it will have the right combination of structure and creative freedom to keep me motivated to stick with it for 2012. I may end up changing things around but that’s the beauty of using a binder because you can always take pages out and add pages in!

  • What are you goal plans for this year?
  • How are you planning on tracking your progress on your resolutions/goals for 2012?

PS: Don’t forget to check out the new Chocolate Banana website and sign up to get on the VIP list for updates and discounts on all the planning goodness!

PPS:Don’t know what a Chocolate Banana is? Click HERE for all the delicious information!

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Posted in Business Planning, Chocolate Banana, Random Thoughts, Working with your Passions | 2 Comments »

You Are Awesome!

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

Today is the start of my holiday vacation (YES!!!) and I wanted to give you all some good cheer and happy thoughts as we all celebrate the season of joy and light.

You are all special and fantastic.
(yes, even you)

Remember that even if you don’t see yourself as such, someone else out there is thinking the world of you. Make them proud by being the best you that you can be each day.

Take some time to really think about what others see in you. What do they love about your personality? What is the one thing you always get praised about? Taking an honest look at ourselves though someone elses eyes can sometime help us see how wonderful we truly are.

Your ideas and thoughts are creations waiting to be unleashed.

Want to climb a mountain? Want to record an album? Want to write your memoirs for your grandchildren to read? Hold on to your crazy plans because you never know when you might actually be able to make them a reality.

That’s the core idea behind Your Chocolate Banana. We’ve been having a great time this month discussing the steps to making your big exciting plans come to life and in January I’ll be launching the companion workbook! If you’re ready to get your crazy awesome idea rolling be sure to get on the preview list to get access before anyone else and to receive discounts on the workbook and other products!

Stop saying you CAN’T and find ways that you CAN.

“I can’t start my own business, I don’t have a degree.”
“I can’t write my novel, I don’t have enough time in my day.”

Excuses are just ways for our lizard brains to tell us “Oh this sounds scary, better not try it.” I urge you to push through your apprehensions and TRY. Make your time to write a priority. Do the research to decide if you truly need a degree to start your business. Yes, you may fail but what is life but a series of failures and happy accidents? You’ll feel better for having tried rather than never even giving it a chance to succeed.

Remember what is truly important in your life

If you’re anything like me you tend to be a workaholic and tend to get your priorities out of wack on at least a few occasions. Take some time this holiday seaeson to really decide what is the priority for your life, your business and for your family.

My daughter is now, and will always be, my priority so rearranging my business and my life needs to happen to make sure she is happy and taken care of, even if it cuts into my Facebook and WOW time (and now I’m loving Skyrim and Assassin’s Creed too… so many awesome games, so little time…)

Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah to all of you and I hope you all see yourselves the way I do, as awesome sauce. : )

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Taking Time to Breathe

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

Source: modernhepburn.tumblr.com via mrs. french on Pinterest

 

The holiday’s are taking their toll on me this year.

I’m not really a scrooge but the past few years I’ve just not been into the whole holly jolly atmosphere but this year my daughter has kind of perked up my inner elf. She’s just at the age where she’s getting really excited for Santa and the other holiday festivities so it’s helped me get excited about the holidays as well. Holiday crafts, special outings to see Santa and special family baking fun times have all been weaved in with a new product launch over on Your Chocolate Banana and my regular client work! I may not be the best at taking time to breathe but I definitely know its one of the things I need to do in my life, especially at this holly jolly time of the year.

Along with the obvious reason of “you need to breathe to live” (yes thank you Captain obvious…) taking time to sit with yourself and just breathe and let the world around you go is one of the most important tricks you can have in your de-stressing tool bag. At some points of my day I am so stressed I have to just walk away and collect myself. Sometimes though I don’t have even the time to walk away so just being able to breathe and collect my thoughts is completely satisfying and completely necessary for me.

It doesn’t need to be done sitting lotus style on a Persian rug with incense smoking in the background while you’re listening to Celtic music on your computer(even though that actually sounds like a great idea…) It could just mean closing your eyes and breathing.

Try this:
Sit with good posture (head up and back straight) but be comfortable.
Breath in deeply through your nose and fill up your lungs to the count of 5.
Breathe out, completely depleting your air, through your mouth.
Repeat this as many times as you need to feel calm. I usually do it about 5 times.

Best case scenario: You take some time to center and then plunge right back into your work with a renewed sense of vigor!

Worst case scenario: You do the deep breathing exercises and you turn into a hippy. (I’m not saying it’s a really good chance. I’m just throwing it out there…)

Most of the time when I take a step back to re-energize myself I come back to my work more excited to get stuff done. Plus I don’t get as flustered by computer OR people problems when I come at them from a calm place. It may take you away from working for 5 minutes but I can almost promise your work will not fall apart in those 5 minutes and it will totally be worth the time investment. (Unless you are a card/tooth pick house creator. In that case you may want to wait until the glue dries to center your thoughts…)

  • What are some other ways you’re been able to collect yourself and get back into your work?
  • If you’ve tried deep breathing techniques how have they worked for you?

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Posted in Quick Tip, Random Thoughts | No Comments »

Crazy is all in your Head

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

(at least that’s what the voices tell me…)

Source: xkcd.com via Sara on Pinterest

 

I hope you all had a fabulous Turkey Day and got to spend some much needed time with your families and your turkey eating pants. I had a good time with family and with the crazy people at the Sandusky Walmart who REALLY wanted those $1.99 DVDs and $9 griddles… My mom thought those people were INSANE and couldn’t get out of that store fast enough, while my brother and I just thought the whole thing was hilarious and a sign of American consumerism. (ok that last part was probably just me…)

It’s kind of the same thing with your online marketing (not a very good segue but stay with me…).

Just because you think someone else’s plan is ridiculous, don’t count it out because it probably will work. People like Zappos and Scott Stratton of Unmarketing have started to change the way we see marketing, both online and off, and they’ve done it by NOT following what others are doing.

Example #1: Zappos

Zappos sells shoes and bags and lots of other rather awesome stuff but the best part about Zappos is the customer service.

Let me say that one more time…

The best part of Zappos is the customer service.

When was the last time you heard anyone say that the customer service was the best part of anything? I’m betting it’s not all that often. They have free shipping both ways, a 365 day return policy and Zappos has one of the most responsive Twitter accounts around so if you have an issue they will respond right away to help you out.

PLUS Zappos has also built their brand around having fun and enjoying your job so every employee is allowed to decorate their work space anyway they want, casual Friday is everyday and they even get free soft drinks at work! I mean come on, they have a comic book as their employee handbook!! How cool is that?!

Example #2: Scott Stratton

Scott Stratton is an entrepreneur who has built his brand around Unmarketing or marketing as a way of communicating with your clients/customers instead of pitching to them constantly. He’s a giant in the twitter world so a lot of his work revolves around using Twitter “correctly” as well as how to use other social media sites like Facebook so that followers don’t want to block you every 5 minutes.

One of my favorite UnMarketing stories is how he had both the most awful AND the most amazing customer service at a hotel breakfast buffet in the span of a few moments. It’s amazing what can happen when you go above and beyond to take care of your customers which is common sense but is also unfortunately skewed from the way most people operate their businesses.

Think about your wild and crazy marketing ideas and take a step back and think about what might actually work for you, because odds are you’re not as crazy as you think. Here’s a little video to get you inspired to be the “crazy” one and make awesome happen:

Crazy Ones

 

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Posted in Be Creative!, Merry Marketing | No Comments »

Writing about Writing

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011


Happy Turkey Day from my daughter!

Hey there party people! Are you excited for the short work week, the turkey gravy and the low calorie/sugar free pumpkin “pie”? I know I am. * insert creepy winky face here* Oh and for all of you who don’t celebrate American holidays don’t worry, you’re not missing much. Just take a nap after you eat dinner/lunch and you’ll feel like a real Yankee Doodle Dandy.

To send you out to Thanksgiving family time I thought I would talk about a blog post a read recently called “Writing about writing so I can get back to writing because today I’m having a hard time writing” by Mr. Wil Wheaton*insert girlie swoon here*

The blog post touched on how he writes fiction and the ways he tries to cope with all of the ideas buzzing around in his head, and it got me thinking about how I write my newsletter articles.

Sara’s Four Step Process to Writing Awesomeness

Step One: Drink coffee.
Today we are serving it up with Peppermint Mocha creamer! Yum!

Step Two: Surf social media sites and read favorite blogs.
This step actually serves two purposes. First, I get to surf around the Internet and “work” while I check on people’s statuses and such. Second, it opens my brain up to some new ideas or topics to get the creative juices flowing. Sometimes I already have an idea of what I want to write about because of something I did that past week or that weekend but if not, the “surf and read” method is pretty good at coming up with awesome ideas.

Note: Just because you think an idea for a blog post is ridiculous doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write about it. Sometimes the posts that I really like but think are down right weird are the ones that people really appreciate the most. Oftentimes they’re tired of hearing the same old same old over and over from every other social media/marketing blog out there so if I can make similar points by bringing in ST:TNG episodes, I make it so.

Step Three: Skip over the subject line.
When I first started up the newsletter I would spendforever trying to figure out a witty, funny, high open rate subject line for my newsletters. Now I skip over that and dive right into the meat of the article. This way I can get some broad strokes down and some general ideas moving and most of the time I come up with the subject line as I’m writing the body of the article.

Step Four: Don’t OVER edit. 
I am the kind of person who tends to edit things to death and then the result is something that sounds nothing like me and is so boring I wouldn’t even want to read it! Write like you speak and put your personality into your writing. People will connect to you on a different level than they would if you edited yourself down to a social studies textbook.

Note: Editing does not mean proofreading. I try to read through my article at least twice to try and catch all the proofreading mistakes and even though I don’t always catch them all, I normally catch a few each time I read through it. Nothing has to be perfectly perfect and a few spelling errors never hurt anyone but you don’t want you’re readers tring to decifer your riting because ewe didnt see that you spelled “shure” incorrectley…

Thant’s it!
Super simple. 

Some days this is much easier to do than other.

Some days I just stare at the computer and ask/scream,“Why do you mock me so?!” On those days I step away from the computer, maybe dance a bit to my YouTube or Spotify dance mixes, and then regroup. There’s only been a few times when I just couldn’t write anything and on those days I tend to beat myself up… but then I just regroup for the next time.

One thing that helps (which I need to do a better job at) is writing more than one article at a time and scheduling them out ahead of time. This is the one thing I have had little to no luck with so far so if anyone has suggestions let me know!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving/Evacuation Day and know that I am truly thankful for each and everyone of you! *muah*

Have a fabulous week!
— Sara Carbaugh

PS: Don’t forget to check out the new Chocolate Banana website! Be sure to sign up for the updates and discounts for when the products and the awesomeness starts a-rollin’! (Don’t know what a Chocolate Banana is? Click HERE for all the delicious planning information!)

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Posted in Merry Marketing, Promoting Your Book Online | No Comments »

Set It and Forget It

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

 

 

I’m in the process of putting together some amazing things over at Your Chocolate Banana but I wanted to take a minute to share a cool tip I’ve picked up over the past few years that really makes marketing online SO much easier; a timer!

Once you start getting those big plans underway you don’t want to spend oodles of time marketing but you still want it to work. Here are a few ways that I’m able to keep up on my online marketing and still have time to eat each day!

Step one:
Set a timer. I know that most of you have a timer somewhere in your house, on your phone or implanted in your head… Go get it and set the timer for 10-15 minutes.

Step two:
Dedicate that time to the one type of online marketing you would like to focus on today.

Here are some idea on what you could use your 10-15 minutes on.
Choose one or more of the ideas listed below depending on how much time each takes you!

Twitter ideas:

  • RT or reply to at least 5 people
  • Schedule out tweets for the day using a site like Hootsuite
  • Use an app like Buffer to help share fun or interesting content you find online.

Facebook ideas:

  • Comment on at least 5 other pages to start a conversation
  • Share some tips with your fans and ask them to join in
  • Upload fun or educational images or graphics to your page to start a comment thread

LinkedIn ideas:

  • Connect with 5 new people by sending them a personal message
  • Write a recommendation for a connection
  • Answer a question in the Q&A section

Email ideas:

  • Respond to all those emails in your “Follow Up” section to get your email as close to Zero as possible
  • Check in with past clients to see what you could help them with now
  • Set up auto-responders to go out to your list with info on upcoming products or services

Blog ideas:

  • Use a plugin like the WordPress Editorial Calendar to set up some posts in advance. You don’t need to finish writing them, just get some basic ideas out there for you to come back to later.
  • Write a new blog post. Short and sweet posts are sometimes the best ones out there.
  • Go out and comment on at least 5 other blogger’s sites. Build that community!

So there you go! Online marketing in as little as 10 minutes per day. You can choose to take these steps just once per day or opt for two sessions, 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at the end of the day. Try some ideas out and see what works best for you. Any little bit help!

  • How did you do?
  • Which activity did you get the most out of?
  • Do you remember the Set It and Forget It commercials? It still makes me laugh when I think about it…

PS: Don’t forget to sign up for the Chocolate Banana updates to be sure you’re on the list to get special event invites and promotional pricing just for you!

(Don’t know what a Chocolate Banana is? Click HERE for all of my current Banana posts!)

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Posted in Merry Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Following Your Passions is REALLY Hard… But REALLY Worth It

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Sooooo, hey there! I’ve been super busy the past few weeks (plus I had the plague for about a week… joy of joys…) but this week I am back to a normal schedule and wanted to fill you in on some big things that have happened / are happening for me!

You know those dreams that you have in the back of your head just waiting to become real but you think to yourself “Naw, not something I can ever do.”? Well I had some of those and now I’m on the look out for new ones because I’ve been moving through my list pretty fast this year!

Source: voguebespoke.tumblr.com via Sara on Pinterest

 


Become an Actress

This past weekend I starred in a community theater production of Almost, Maine. I tried out for the play on a whim because I realized earlier this year that my passions really lived in performing (acting, dancing, singing) and was over the moon when I got not one role but TWO!

It was so much fun and the other actors were so inviting and really made me feel welcomed. Normally I am extremely shy when I meet new people but in that setting with those people I was my fun quirky self the whole time and it was fantastic. Feeling like I belonged there was the greatest feeling in the world and I can’t wait to do another one soon!


Raise the next Audrey Hepburn

Another big success of mine was my daughter’s 3rd birthday! I know, not really MY accomplishment that she is the cutest most wonderful little girl in the world but I like to think I’ve been a pretty big influence on how awesome she is turning out to be.

I tease people and say that I’m a horrible parent, and sometimes I really believe it, but this past year I have basically turned my business upside down and rearranged a lot of my time just to be sure she has as much of my attention as she needs. I think that at least deserves a vacation to Vegas… but I’ll settle with a big squeezy hug and an “I love you Mommy”.


Become a Speaker

(but preferably not one that lives in a van down by the river…)

This past year I’ve been putting together Power Points and worksheets to create presentations on branding, social media and business planning. Not all of them have worked out the way I had planned but the point is that I have pushed forward because this is something I really want to do in my business.

I love helping people and I love helping them figure out how to do something they didn’t think they could ever do before. Sometime there is a lot of hand holding but sometime they just need that push in the right direction to make things click for them.  I had a great workshop on how to start using social media at the Women Writing for a Change center here in Cincinnati which I was really excited to do! I really think there were some light bulb moments for some of the attendees even though we covered A LOT of content! I’m also working on my first ebook/ecourse on how to create a plan for your one big goal which will hopefully be done by the end of the year! I’m really excited about that and I’m hoping that will open a lot of new doors for me as well!


No Fat Mommy

My other big success has been my weight loss journey. I started my journey last year, almost to the date, and so far I’ve lost over 100lbs which is a lot more than the planned 50lbs that I figured I would lose! It’s amazing to be thinner and to feel better about the way I look but my favorite things about this journey has been the way it has changed my self confidence and the way I feel about myself. I spoke with a friend last week that put it very simply for me. She said that the weight was just an outward manifestation of the way I really felt about myself and I totally agree. Once I made the decision to change my life and lose the weight everything fell into place. 

All of the other items above could not have happened if I hadn’t lost the weight and gained back my feeling of ME. I feel like Sara now instead of Old Sara, as I lovingly call her now, because I was holding back so much of myself before, but now I feel free to be myself and be happy. I can put myself out on a stage and not care if people think I’m rediculous. I can act silly and chase my 3 year old daughter around the house while she squeals with delight. I still get super nervous when I do trainings and speak in front people but I’m still pushing myself out there even though it is scary.


Keep Following Your Dreams

Wow, this ended up being a sap-tastic post huh?! Well, now that you know where my passions are and how I’m moving towards them let me know where you are on your journey!

  • What successes have you had in following your passions?
  • What passions are you working towards right now that will change your life in awesome ways?
  • How have you fallen in your journey to accomplish your dreams? How did/will you pick yourself back up and keep moving forward?

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Dewey Read-a-Thon MidPoint Awesomeness

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

1. What are you reading right now?

Just finished up Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea and I’m on page 65 of Promise Not to Tell

2. How many books have you read so far?

Three; two children’s books and one audio-book

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

I’m really hoping to finish up Promise Not to Tell before I eventually pass out

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

Well I tried to make it a family fun day but my daughter was not as into it today as she was yesterday… Mostly I just tried to fit in as much reading time as possible with my free time I had.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

I had to go grocery shopping so I took my iPod and listened to the Are You There, Vodka? audio-book while I shopped. It worked awesome even though I did laugh out loud a few times and probably looked like a crazy woman laughing to herself in the cereal aisle…

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

I am actually really enjoying trying to read on a schedule! I didn’t think i would enjoy it but it’s kind of nice to have an end point in mind for a book.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Well the Read-a-Thon in general is pretty awesome; I am loving the hilarious blog posts!

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

I need to plan it out better next year so that I don’t have a client project, a craft show and a Read-a-Thon all on the same weekend!

9. Are you getting tired yet?

Kind of but I’m going to try to work through it. Maybe another cup of coffee wouldn’t kill me…

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

Having the mix of an audio-book and a physical book and going back and forth between them has been great. Plus the audio-book allowed me to get up, move around and get some other stuff done while “reading” the book!

Phew, it’s be a really fun day so far and I hope to have at least one more book to add to my finished list by tomorrow morning!

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Posted in Be Creative!, Read-a-Thon | 1 Comment »

Dewey’s Read-a-Thon Kickoff

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Today I am participating in the Dewey’s Read=a-Thon which is a 24hour reading marathon with mini challenges and prizes that are given away throughout the day on blogs and social media!

Here are my kickoff question/answers for this fun day of reading!

1)Where are you reading from today?

Mostly from the house (Ohio) but we’re planning a trip to the local library so maybe some reading there too!

2)Three random facts about me…

My favorite color is purple.
My favorite job was working at Johnny Rockets in Cedar Point one summer.
I really love Peach Jolly Ranchers but I can’t have them in the house because my husband had a bad night with Peach Schnapps back in the day… hehe

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?

Well I have a few but I’m afraid I am not the awesome reader that most of the other participants are so I’ll be lucky to get through two! hehe
- Are You There, Vodka? It’s me, Chelsea (audio book)
- The Phantom Toolbooth
- Promise Not to Tell

Plus I have a stack of children’s books that I’m planning on reading with my almost three year old so that will be a fun way to involve her as well!

4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?

I want to read at least one book for myself but my main goal is to spend a day reading with my daughter! She’s really excited about reading all day with me so we’ll see how long this lasts. hehe

I’ll be checking in on my progress and doing mini challenges throughout the day so look for some awesome updates all day long today!

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Posted in Read-a-Thon | 8 Comments »

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